A telling Tag.

A- Attached or single: Attached

B- Best Friend:My Cute Brad

C-Cake or Pie:A good dense cake with yummy frosting.

D- Day of Choice: Saturday or Sunday.

E- Essential Item: water, mascara, natural ice chapstick

F-Favorite Color:To look at-shades of blue, to wear-anything bright, to color with-red

G- Gummi Bears or Worms: I don't like gummy candy, it's really the only candy I don't like.

H- Hometown: Holladay, Utah

I- Indulgence(s): onion rings, sunchips, homemade cookie dough, bublicious gum, Nachos bellgrande.

J- January or July: I'm probably rare in admitting January. I don't like it the HOT, HOT days of summer.

K-Kids: Chloe Blue and Starsky

L-Life is incomplete without: My Brad, My Chloe, and yes...the dog.

M- Marriage Date: January 2nd, 2004

N- Number of Siblings: 3 brothers, 2 sisters, and lots of brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws

O-Oranges or Apples: I'm more of a strawberry or grapes type girl. Apple juice, though.

P- Phobias or Fears:the dentist (Don't worry, I still go twice a year), highdives or cliff diving (seriously, I stand there forever before I will jump) Ants, and spiders.

Q- Quote(s): "No one can make you feel inferior but yourself." -Eleanor Roosevelt

R- Reason To Smile: tickling Chloe and hearing her giggle, any baby animal, sunshine on your cheeks, the wind, warm rain, flying kites, standing at the end of a race cheering someone one, or being the one cheered on, one of those hallmark cards that plays music.

S-Season: I love living in a place where you get to experience all 4 seasons.

T- Tag Six: Sunny, Kalleen, Marianne, Jed/Mandy, Devri, Tiffany

U- Unknown Fact About Me: I love the number 22. I look forward to, and celebrate, everything 22nd of the month (It's my lucky day!)

V- Veggies or Fruit: I'm drawn toward Fruit, but know I need to eat veggies.

W- Worst Habit: I used to click my finger nails. I slouch.

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds...loved seeing Chloe waving back at me from my tummy.

Y- Your Favorite Food: I love a really good salad, warm bread, homemade strawberry smoothie, Brad's cocoa, french dip sandwiches, and any soup or breakfast food.

Z-The fish one.

Spring tulips from our yard.

A little BIG project

I built this shelf (whisper: with a little help from Brad). It all started because Chloe discovered the Surf and I thought that wouldn't be good for her to eat that so we needed to get it off the floor. Also, I was tired of seeing all the laundry stuff scattered about and everytime we have to take the dog's bowl away from chloe it ends up on the washer and gets in the way of laundry...so here you have it-our new shelf. I went to Ace Hardware and I bought all the stuff and I even bought a drill. I was really quite proud of myself. So, I got home and was putting it all together when, darn it, I had to ask Brad a question. There are some things boys just know and girls never can know. They are secets that disguise themselves in the body of drills, bits, measuring, etc. Our little shelf wouldn't have been accomplished without each other.

Really, it was a FUN RUN.

Saturday morning was the 30th annual Osteopathic Fun Run, and we signed ourselves up. The original plan was to run the race as a family. Brad pushing Chloe and me right behind. But...as Missouri weather has proven time and time again, it rains or is cold on days that it should normally be warm (Examples: Easter, anytime we go to Nauvoo, a planned bike ride:))
So this was us on a chilly Saturday morning before the race. We left Chloe at the provided baby sitter. Right before we started, I told Brad to not hang with me and just "take off". And he did! All I could see was his little blue-hatted head bobbing up and down way in front and then I couldn't see him anymore. During many races, Brad usually comes back to "run me in". Look at him letting me be in front...Ahhh,cute! I always have a gleeful expression. I remember in the Salt Lake marathon, just smiling and waving and thanking people on the roadsides. Brad told me I didn't have to thank them, but it was all I could do from breaking down and crying, so I smiled. This picture, I truly am "gleeful" because the finish was about 100 yards ahead.
Who is this guy? The winner ofthe 5k race. The OVERALL winner, as in, he was in the front of the race, he was the one who had to turn over his shoulder and see if anyone was behind him. he was the one to break the tape (to bad there was no tape) He finished in 20 minutes. This is a picture of him receiving his prize. (Chloe appears to be the prize, but he did get a nice plaque and a free pizza and 2 bowling tickets. The real prize was bragging rights for the wife. Not bad for a med student who runs about once a week, if that. Do you like my gold medal? Turns out I was the 3 gal to finish and first in my age group. So, as Brad says, it truly was a FUN RUN!

Chloe Blue just turned 1

The day before Chloe's 1st birthday Brad wrote me this text message: " I remember a year ago going to the Artist's palate for lunch and watching Wild Hogs, but I don't remember much else without our little Chloe Blue". It is so true. Hard to imagine our life without her smile. As we look back on this first year, it's amazing how she's changed and how we've changed. She truly is our joy. I heart Chloe!
The proud dad made this collage for Chloe's birthday. Starting in the upper right corner, there is one picture for each month of her life.

Chloe's star cake.

Let's just say, she loved her cake.


Thanks to our wonderful families for making Chloe's day special. Here's to the next years full of wonder and always "looking up"

Spring Break part 1

First of all, it was wonderful to have Brad home for the entire week of spring break. He road over 60 miles on his bike (luckily he chose the only nice days to ride), Chloe waited for her dad to start his break to really walk and cruise around, we went to Des Moines, went for walks as a little family, and had 2 sets of visitors come see us.
These next few pictures should be reversed to go in chronological order. We had a great spring with 2 sets of visitors. What did we do to get so lucky? When I drove Jeff and Holli to the airport, I basically drove 20 minutes to Kansas City and met up with my sister Emily and her family. It couldn't have worked out better. With Em's family, we toured the church sites together, they went to Nauvoo and then they came back to Kirksville and we had a wonderful Easter Sunday. Oh yeah, and in between there, Chloe and Emily celebrated their birthday's.

My cute sister, Emily. I am blessed with 2 wonderful sisters who are very talented and giving and wonderful mom's to their kids. I learn a lot from them and how grateful I am they both can come visit.

Easter Sunday.

The Easter dress tradition begins.

Happy Easter. We found out that Easter hadn't been this early in March since 1916.

Spring Break part 2

We had so much fun with Jeff and Holli Chambers. They spent from Friday-Wednesday with us. We toured church sites, played games, watched the entire 3 season of The Office, and went out to eat. And of course, Chloe loved all the attention.

I loved being back at the Liberty Jail. I have so many pictures of me in this spot as a missionary and as I stood there, now, as a mom, it was just awesome. Can't believe its been over 5 years!