Live List: Go to Oregon to visit friends and family

I'll blog in more detail about our trip later (as there is A LOT to cover), but I figure I'll at least get it crossed off my Live List!

I cannot even begin to explain how absolutely THRILLED I was to take this trip. Not only was I excited to go show my family my old stomping grounds, but I was also excited to go see my friends and family in Oregon.

The first part of our trip took us to Salem, my hometown. Currently, my Uncle Vance and Aunt Cheryl live in Salem (Oregon just can't go without at least one Stockham clan residing there!), as well as my cousins. Also, my Oregon besties, the Sullivans, are still in that neck of the woods too! We've known them now going on 23 years! Love them to death!


We went with Vance and Cheryl up to the Portland Saturday Market, which was a blast!


My cousin Jack-Lynn's girls, Alyssa and Hayley, with Katelyn.


Jen Sullivan and I with our kiddos

I wish I would have gotten some pics when we had dinner with the whole Sullivan clan, but we were all just having a ball catching up with each other, I never busted the camera out! Bad me!

On the last leg of our trip, we went down to Grants Pass for a few days to visit Nate's grandma (aka Memere). Katelyn LOVED spending time there. In fact, one day we were going to have an outing and she didn't want to go because she wanted to stay home with Memere. What a sweetheart! Also while we were there, Memere wanted to make Katelyn a birthday cake, since Katelyn's birthday was only a week away while we were there. :)



I love all my family and friends so much, it eats me up inside every time I have to leave them after having such a good time with them!

Live List: Find a new "Hole in the wall"

I've been sitting in bed sick for the past two days and bored out of my mind. It just now dawns on me that I should catch up a bit on my blogging. Wish I would have thought of that, oh, 10 hours ago!

Right before Jonny (Nate's brother) left on his mission a few weeks ago, Nate wanted to take his grandfather, grandmother, Jonny, and our little family to a diner for breakfast called Ramblin' Roads. Sweet! I love little diners/cafes that are family owned. They have the best food! So, we all head out to have breakfast at this fun little diner out in the industrial park part of NSL. As we pull up, we see that it is Ramblin' Roads no more! We see that new ownership has moved in and it's now called Christine's Kitchen. We almost didn't go inside because we weren't sure what the deal was. I'm sure glad we went in! That was some FANTASTIC food! I had the most delicious omlette with swiss cheese, bacon, and avocado. MMMMM! It was also good to spend some time with Jonny before he left to the MTC. Good food, good company...what more could you ask for?

Live List: Go to a Jazz game

(The Jazz warming up before game time)

I've actually got a few on my list to update, but we'll start with this one! ;)

I was getting a little nervous I wouldn't be able to check this one off my list. The season ends here next week, so I snuck this one in just under the wire!

I FINALLY got to go to a Jazz game, all thanks to my dad and his boss. His boss bought season tickets to use as gifts for clients. Lucky me he didn't give them all away! This was my first game...in 11 years! Last time I went, Karl Malone and John Stockton were still playing. Yeah.....it's about dang time!

I seriously was so excited, I couldn't stand it. Go Jazz!

Nate and I went together (awwwww...a date haha). We went a couple weeks ago when the Jazz played the Hornets. It was fantastic going to a game with my hubby, since we're both big sports fans. The game was pretty much a blowout since the Hornets were short handed AND then one of their players was ejected from the game for committing a flagrant foul. Nonetheless, it was a GREAT night and I happily checked that one off my list.

Too bad I'm poor. I'd love to score some playoff tickets ;)

I've had quite the epiphany about my little live list. It's not so much about the quantity of things I'm trying to do, but the quality of what I'm doing and whom I am spending my time with when doing my list. It's helping me to appreciate my talents, and also appreciate and cherish the time I spend with the ones I care for. :)

Live List: Go Bowling

I realized that I had forgotten about an item on my list! Nate and I went bowling as a part of our V-day date (after searing every inch of our sinuses at the Mandarin with hot mustard haha).

I first realized how much I love bowling when I took a class while down at Snow. Yes, it was an easy-A blah blah blah, but I really did learn a lot! Not only did I learn correct technique and I actually got really good at bowling, I also learned how to score the game. We really had no choice on whether to learn or not, because the alley our class attended was so old that all we had was a projector to write our scores and shine up on the wall! I just wish I could go bowling more often than I do. I'd be able to keep my game up much better than I illustrated on our date. ;)

Before our date, we hadn't been bowling since I was pregnant with Aiden. Funny thing about it, now that I'm NOT pregnant with Aiden, it's almost like I've had to learn how to bowl all over again! I have a new center of gravity now that I don't have my own bowling ball sticking out of my stomach! Needless to say, two games weren't enough for me to get back into my groove. Fortunately, Katelyn has a field trip here in a couple weeks to the bowling alley. Maybe I'll be able to toss a few balls and re-master my mad skills a little more!

Here's to continuing to live life to the fullest!

Live List: Play a Board Game

If you didn't read my post on my "Live List" a few weeks ago, scroll down, read, and then this will make a bit more sense! ;)

So, continuing on my quest to complete my "Live List" before the end of the year, I checked another one off my list last night: Play a board game. Even better, I played with my husband! Sounds lame, but it was fun! It's something we've never done just the two of us, just like we'd never done the oh so traditional "dinner and a movie" date up until a few weeks ago after all the time we've been together haha! Anyway, last night we were sitting together on the couch with nothing to watch, even off the DVR. Pickings have been slim with the Olympics on and we were even caught up with those. I'm bored, so I look at Nate and said "Let's play a game!" He kind of gave me this funny look like "What on earth has gotten into you?", but being the good sport that he is agreed to play. As I'm looking at the games we have, I start to realize we don't have a ton that can be played with just two players. We were left with either playing Sorry or Life, and we decided on Life. As we got down to playing, we found ourselves having quite a good ol' time! We were laughing and having a ball, something that sure wouldn't be happening with watching something we didn't care to watch on TV. After we were done playing, Nate said that it was really fun playing a game together and it's something we should do more often. I agree! These are the moments we live for! Simple, sweet, and etched in our brains to remember forever! Although, I better get a better selection of 2-player games so we're not stuck each time deciding on whether to push our little plastic car through going to college or starting a career! ;)

Two Little Princess' Update

So many things have been going on with the girls lately, I felt they deserved their own post for their own updates!

Katelyn


Now this kid is getting so BIG! She's getting so tall! I'm proud to say she is no longer the shortest one in the bunch when she is around kids her age. She's still a skinny butt, but maybe someday she'll crack the 30-pound mark! She'll be turning 5 in 2 months, crazy! I'm still trying to get a hold of the fact that I have multiple kids, let alone having kids of grade school age! We've applied for Katelyn to go to a charter school a couple miles away. It's an academically rigorous school and I'm quite impressed with their methods. We find out in 2 weeks whether or not she gets in (it's a lottery based admit). If she doesn't make it in, she'll be going to the elementary school close by in the fall. Wow, it's not that far away at all! Katelyn loves being a big sister. In fact, this morning she climbed into Aiden's crib to keep her company until Mommy and Daddy decided to wake up, goofy girl!

Aiden

She's hit so many milestones! At her last well child check, she was 14 pounds, which is exactly what she was at the last appointment, but with her being on the move now, the doctor figured she's not gaining any because she's so active. He also discovered another ear infection (second since being born). Poor kid. We've had to go to a second round of antibiotics because the first one turned out not to be broad enough for whatever strand of bacteria she has. Fortunately this one seems to be working, so hopefully she'll start to sleep through the night again! Aiden is now eating solid food, crawling, sitting up without any help, and has 2 teeth! She's also starting talk. She started making the "da da da" noises a few weeks ago, so we started to teach her "Dada" as we pointed to Nate. She now knows and very purposefully calls out "Dada" to him! She didn't say it at all yesterday, but then Nate walked in the door from work and she says "Dada!" She's going to turn 1 here in June, which of course, as a mother, blows my mind that time has flown by so quickly!

The Promise Land Series

As a part of my "Live List", I wanted to be able to read more. So far, I've been doing pretty good with it! I'm still not able to sit for a long block of time and just read, but hey, I'm a mom! When do I get to do ANYTHING for a solid block of time without leaving the house? ;)

I just finished reading the last book in the Promise Land series. Most people haven't heard of this when I tell them I've been reading them, so I decided to share! This series of books is a fictitious back story to the Book of Mormon, leading up to the taking of the plates from Jerusalem. Although it is fictional, there is a lot of historical facts that help create the story. All the historical notes are listed at the end of each book, and they aren't few in number! So, I suppose you would call them historical novels. I HIGHLY recommend these books to anyone who loves to read or has a love for the BoM, or both! Even though I've finished the last book, the author has eluded to more books being published in this series. I hope so! I can't wait to see how the subplots to the story play out!