Happy Birthday Jade!!

Well, our baby girl is 2! She is such a great girl, really funny, and goofy.

She loves to wrestle with both Dan and I. She can't get enough of ring around the rosies, or playing on the playground.

She loves reading books, some of her favorites are Goodnight moon, The Tooth Book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Counting Kisses, and the list goes on and on.

She can say a few words really clearly, like hi, bye, back, go, book, mall, daddy, momma, bath, meow, outside, snack, shoe, sock, toes, Jadey, more, hammock, and then there are a bunch more words that I think only Dan and I understand. :)

We had a party for her at our apartment playground. Unfortunately, we didn't charge the battery for the camera beforehand so we only got two pictures.

We did some coloring with sidewalk chalk, Jade seemed to have fun with it, but also wanted to eat it.

The day of her birthday we went to the Mall of America where they opened a new butterfly exhibit. It was smaller than I thought it would be but still neat. You can tell from my pictures that you could get pretty close.



We got to meet Spongebob!
We're so happy to have a cutie pie like Jade as our daughter. Love you Jadey Jade!!

Summer's End

Sadly folks, summer is coming to an end here in Minnesota. The leaves have already started changing this week. Our last week of summer has been a lot of fun. Here's a picture of Jade "cheesing" it up for the camera. Here we are at Dan's cousins' baseball game. His team lost but he played hard and was a good sport.
The Minnesota State Fair is a big deal here so we thought we'd see what all the hub-bub was about. We took the bus from a stop near our house. Jade seemed to think it was pretty cool to be riding on a bus, although she kept wanting to stand up.
This is the only picture we have of us actually AT the fair. This is the only ride Jade went on, she's still sort of small for even wimpy rides. This one seemed like it would be fairly boring, however, maybe we should have watched it before we got on. It went up and down and around, by the end Jade was crying. :(
We love having a pool at our apartment complex, it's the best rainy day activity. Jade always tries to get into the hot tub though, so we usually just spend half of our time over at the hot tub with our feet dangling in.

Well summer, we'll miss you. Don't leave us......we're scared of winter.

I'm singing in the rain!

Today, as I was getting Jade ready to head outside for the playground, it started raining. So we grabbed our raincoats and headed out! Jade loved it! We were singing "I'm singing in the rain", kicking our feet up (Jade tried to, it was really cute).

Back to Zion! :)

I'm talking of course about Utah! Call it what you will, Zion, Happy Valley.....I just call it home. When my sister called me to tell me she was getting married, the first thing that popped into my head was, Yay, I can go home. We've only been in Minnesota for 4 and a half months, but I was ready for a visit back.

I was really excited that Jade and I got to visit our friends, the Fromms! We had a yummy lunch at Chadders and then hung out for a while at their house. Jade was really glad to see Coleson.

Jade loved this little slide at my mom's house, and even though she could do it all by herself, my younger brother Christopher wanted to help her out.
Jade loved the flowers at the temple. My sister was married in the Manti temple. We grew up there and I think everyone in my family holds a special place in their heart for Manti.
My brother Matthew is so cute in this picture, I couldn't help but add it. His job was showing guests to the sign in table. And as you can see, he took it very seriously.
It was so awesome to see my sister Katrina and hang out with her like old times. Here she is with her boyfriend Mike. She totally surprised me by losing 40 pounds!!!! I was so surprised, she looked fab! Mike also lost about the same amount. They are so cute together.
And here are the newlyweds! We had such a fun time at their reception which was really low key at a local park. I wish them the best.
Here's the first dance. Cassandra was dancing with my dad and bawling like a baby. What's new though, huh Sanny?
Having a pinata at your wedding had kind of become a tradition in my family now. And it is an awesome one!

Here is a picture of their car. We didn't add the saran wrap or toilet paper, Kyle's family wanted to add to our work. Quick story here: We wrote the usual "Just Married" on the back of the car and "Groom" on Kyle's side and "Bride" on Cassandra's side. Then we decided to add a little more.....we wrote "go get her" under "groom" and "non-virgin" under "bride". Apparently, these were appalling things to write because my grandma (whose bed and breakfast the newlyweds had stayed at) asked who'd written those skanky things on her car.

The day after the wedding we decided to run the 5k in Salem. Here is a picture of all the participants from my fam. Katrina and I stuck together. Michael and Jess came in first, then my dad!!, then Katrina and I. I ran it in 39 minutes 45 seconds. I felt pretty proud of myself even though the time was not that great, I can honestly say I gave it my all. My mom kept an eye on Jade for me while I ran and I waved to them at the finish line. Apparently, as soon as I ran past, Jade started crying.
After the race!
Here's a little cutie pie, waiting for our flight home. We had so much fun in Utah. We already miss being there, but that doesn't mean we don't like Minnesota, it's been really nice here.

Apple Jack Orchards

Dan snapped this adorable picture of Jade while we were at a ward BBQ. She was just walking around the tree, feeling the bark. It was a really cold day, and windy, but we had fun. They had fun bubble toys there. Jade was really getting the hang of it.

Our friends, the Faleschini's took us to the cool farm where we picked raspberries. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. It took me at least an hour to pick one pint of raspberries. We had fun though and Dan was walking Jade down the rows of raspberries, helping her find some so she could pick them.

As soon as she put one in her mouth she would look at Dan and say "more". She loved them.
This picture is funny, I look like I'm upset at the raspberry. I think I'm just inspecting it though. The bushes were already pretty bare, so you had to kind of pull back the branches to find the hidden ones.

They had a hollowed out log that Jade kept trying to stand up in. It was a fun outing and if anything I just appreciate farmers all the more now.

Independence Day Fun!

Those of you who know us know we LOVE to eat! We had a little shindig at our place a while back. We've made some really nice friends in our ward. We had sushi, potstickers, enchiladas, and yakisoba!

Here is a picture of Jade with her new buddies.
Here is a picture of us on the 4th of July, in our matching family t-shirts. After finding the idea for the shirts in a magazine, I decided I'd try to make them and they turned out awesome! A friend of mine made the same shirt and she said it only took her 10 minutes. Let's just say, I'm not quite that crafty. They took me at least three hours. But they really are so cool!
Jade loves corn on the cob. This picture just makes me smile. Nothing like having corn on the cob in the summer.
The night of the 4th we went to The Taste of Minnesota. It's sort of a mini carnival/fair. They have fair food and bands and a few booths with crafts and such. They have a few "rides" too. Here we are crossing the bridge over the Mississippi River.
Elvis Costello was playing that night. He was good, but I only recognized one song. Still, it was entertaining for sure. Dan could hardly stand being there because of all the smokers. It was really bad, although we are just used to Utah, so pretty much any smoking seems really bad.

Jade was a little bit freaked out by the fireworks, she cried for just a moment. Then I laid her in her stroller and she settled down. She would sit up every once in a while to sneak a peek at the fireworks.

Here are some more pictures of the splash park, we went today and it was great. Even though it was a Saturday it wasn't really busy.

Summer Fun

Well, another week has gone by, and we're another week closer to being done with school. (I say we, but you know, Dan.)

Jade's new favorite thing to do is play outside on the deck with some water. We just bring out a bowl of water and a few little cups and she goes to town. Eventually it ends up all over her and dripping down onto our neighbor's balconies.

But it's a great activity for when I don't feel like getting her in her swimsuit and out to the pool.

Here's Dan making siu mai dumplings. He even made some without shrimp, just for me.
Our friend Amanda showed us this really cool splash park in St. Louis Park. It was really crowded this day otherwise I might have a few more pictures. Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll go again.
Here is Jade doing her impression of The Great Cornholio. (From Beavis and Butthead)
Today we meet up with Ruth and Jasmine and Ashton and went to Mall of America. We met Blue, from Blues Clues. Jade, surprisingly, really likes these characters. She tried to reach in Blue's mouth.
This is a moose from the mini-golf course that they have in the mall. He liked Jade's piggie-tails.

He is giving her hand a kiss here.
We also met Dora today!! Jade was pretty excited, she kept touching Dora's face. She also reached inside her mouth. It was pretty hilarious.
Ashton and Jade were playing with Legos before lunch. Jade still doesn't quite know how to work the legos, she has more fun pulling them apart.