The Berry Patch

Our Little Addiction

2012-01-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

Barrett Jackson's Scottsdale car auction was held this past week and although I wouldn't call ourselves car enthusiasts we couldn't help but get sucked into watching it for the entire week. Maybe it's Truman's addiction of cars that has rubbed off on us OR maybe it was a combination of the really cool cars along with the absolutely ridiculous amounts of money the people were bidding to purchase them.

For example, the first picture you see is of a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge that sold for $64,900. My dad used to have one of these cars when he was younger...sure wish you hadn't sold that one dad. The next picture is of a 1958 Chevy Corvette (Julie's favorite car is a 1957 Chevy Corvette Stingray) that went for $82,500...chump change! The next is of one of my favorite cars, a 1971 Dodge Challenger. It went for $85,800. Lastly, the 1954 Mercedes Benz 300SL, went for a cool $2.2 mill. Throughout the week the auction made over $80 million, a nice little sum in a week I'd say.

So although they're dream cars, that's probably the only place we'll ever own or get to drive one...in our dreams.

Christmas 2012

2012-01-22T16:50:00.001-07:00

We headed down to Scottsdale when Rick was done with finals and spent his break there warming up. We did Christmas Eve with my Dad's side and Christmas day with my Mom's side as usual. We did Christmas Eve at Bill's house and he had some awesome Mexican food for everyone and we did our usual gift exchange, which I love. And then Christmas Day we had our traditional Christmas ham and buffett over at the old folks place and did a lot of visiting out on the porch.

We had Christmas morning to ourselves (my parents were volunteering at Randolph) before we headed to Church. Truman knew who Santa was this year, but he didn't really understand what Santa does, which was fine by me. But he did like opening up presents. We let him open his stocking and his little presents before Church and left his big present for after Church.

Christmas Eve

Bran wearing Amanda's gift from the gift exchange while she was on the crapper.

Uncle Chuck made Truman this awesome little table and Grandma Barbara helped paint it.

Christmas Day

We snagged this life jacket for bear and coco at a second hand store and couldn't pass it up.

For my immediate family, this year we did a "Craigslist" Christmas. For us this meant that whatever you gave as a gift had to be second hand or handmade. I really thought it was a fun idea and thought that all of the gifts were very unique and thoughtful. I think someone mentioned that we should do it again next year and I am all for it. I had a lot of fun trying to think of what I could make or find second hand. One of my favorite moments was when Amanda was opening the gift I had made her (it was a bag) and when she pulled it out Truman was standing right there in front of her and he said, "Wow!" Here is something Stef made for Truman and what my mom got from Amanda.

And finally, Truman got spoiled by his Uncle Brannon and Aunt Amanda...

All in all it was a great Christmas. I enjoyed going to Church on Christmas Day to remind me of what we are really celebrating and as always the best part of the season is spending time with family and reflecting on the things that are most important. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and for all of the many blessings that I have been given through their grace and mercy.

Harry Potter ?

2012-01-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Heavenly Father or Harry Potter? You be the judge...

Nap Time???

2012-01-15T20:41:00.001-07:00

We put Truman down for a nap at my parents one day, but he had fallen asleep in the car for a little bit before hand. Thus, he wasn't super tired and we could hear him playing in there, which was fine, then he was quiet for 20 minutes or so and we figured he had gone to sleep...but here is what I found when I went to wake him up.

My response, "Ummm, Rick, we have a situation in here!" Then, I wanted to laugh, but didn't want T to think it was a good thing, so went into the explanation of how we only color on paper, not walls, doors, toys, beds, shoes, carpet or our bodies....always an awesome parenting moment when you are trying to hold in the laughter. Of course I was slightly panicked at first because it's not my house. Luckily it was dry erase marker so it came off of all of the toys and books really easily, it also came off of the door and wall with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It came up pretty easily from the carpet as well. The only permanently damaged item was the sheet. My parents thought it was hilarious and mostly wanted to know if I had taken pictures.

Santa Claus 2011

2012-01-15T20:20:00.001-07:00

Truman went to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa Claus this year. To be honest with you, I don't really know which he liked more, Santa Claus or all of the boats, quads, fish, stuffed animals and carousel that were on display. There was a long wait to see old Saint Nick, so in the mean time we perused the store enjoying what the store had to offer.

or...

hmmm...

Train Park 2011

2012-01-09T06:36:00.003-07:00

Scottsdale has a park where there is a little train that is capable of giving rides to kids and their families. Every year around Christmas they deck the park out with Christmas decorations and invite Disney characters and other kid favorites such as Tigger, Elmo, Cookie Monster and some Polar Bear to help entertain the kiddos. There is a carousel, a playground, a couple of train cars that are open to the public to walk through and a large open space in a building for model trains to run around in. Although we didn't get to ride on the train that night (the line went out the park), we had a great time with the family (Cross' and Gunnell's).

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

It was time again for Amanda & Brannon's annual Halloween Bash! I decided to head down a few days early to help Amanda with prep and I ended up carpooling with an old friend who has recently moved into our ward. So we packed up the highlander on Wednesday, had 3 car seats in the back, and experienced snow, hail and excessive rain on our trip down, but it actually went well. I dropped Britney and her girls off at her parents' and then headed to the Halloween house.

Most of Amanda's decorations were already up, so I just helped with a little bit of the cooking. Here is the treat line-up Amanda had all planned out for the party: chocolate covered Oreos, red velvet cupcakes, cake pops, rice crispy treats, worms and dirt, chocolate covered strawberries, macaroons (the only item purchased), punch, and a candy bar (all sorts of candies in glass containers for people to make their own little trick-or-treat take home box). Mind you all of these treats were Halloween themed, for example the strawberries were white and had faces that looked like ghosts and the rice crispy treats were orange, shaped like pumpkins and had a tootsie roll for a stem. And of course Brannon had the cotton candy machine going outside. We also ended up making some stew in a pumpkin for dinner that night. I think that stew saved me from a complete sugar overload.

Our family ended up being some of the characters from the Curious George cartoon on PBS. Truman was George, Rick, The Man in the Yellow Hat, and I was Dr. Wiseman (their lady professor friend). The costumes were easy and turned out pretty well. Truman didn't really keep his mask on, but that was expected.

Here are some more costumes:

Mary Poppins and Burt, the chimney sweep

I think Max won the award for cutest costume of the night as Flynn Rider from Tangled. He looks like such a little man!

We took Truman trick-or-treating and he did surprisingly well. He would walk up with his bag and say, "tee teet", then he would get his candy and try to go into their house. We would then discourage him from going into strangers' homes (after encouraging him to ask for and then take candy from them...hmmm). Then, he would sign thank you and say, "bye-bye". He wasn't super into it though, so we only went to about 5 houses and then headed back to the party.

It was a really fun weekend and a big thanks to Amanda and Brando for letting us stay with them/hosting a fantastic party. Truman had so much fun at "Manna's" house! He would look for Uncle Brando, aka "Mano" every morning and he loved running around their house, playing at their near by park and of course getting every one to play ring-around-the-rosie. Now to start thinking of costumes for next year...

Tricks

2011-05-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some of T's latest tricks....I forgot to ask him to do his elephant noise, but these are pretty good.

Lloyd Christmas

2011-04-17T21:11:00.004-07:00

So we decided to trim Truman's bangs because they were getting down into his eyes....needless to say they are a little short. Our bad, sorry for making you look like a Lloyd Christmas/Audrey Hepburn wannabe.

Give 'em a couple weeks and you'll be good. I'm sure this is just bad hair cut #1 of many more to come.

Family Home Evening

2011-04-11T22:00:00.001-07:00

Our family home evenings are pretty laid back. Our activity turned out to be making footprints in the snow. We were all wearing our Vans so we couldn't resist taking a "Daddy", "Mamma" and "Baby" footprint picture.

Truman had lots of fun stomping in what was left of the snow on our deck.

Daddy showed him how to make footprints and he thought that was quite entertaining.

Rick and I also had some fun playing in the snow too. What we have been doing lately for our family home evening lessons is using a picture from the Gospel Picture Library and just reading the summary off of the back and pointing out things in the picture to Truman. It's not much, but we are trying to do something and I feel good about that because I feel that the Lord will never ask us to do something that is useless or unnecessary.

Springtime???

2011-04-09T21:31:00.002-07:00

I think being stuck inside helps to encourage creativity. Here is a fun new ride Rick and Truman came up with.

Truman thought it was so fun and so Rick and I took turns dragging him around in the upside down bar stool. This reminded me of what it was like being a kid and coming up with your own games and things to do. I can't wait until Truman and his future siblings are old enough to come up with their own creative things and I will get to watch and hear about them.

We were stuck inside because it had been snowing ALL day! I think that we got at least a foot of snow. Really, it's mid-April in Arizona?

We did take advantage of the last snow of the season (fingers crossed) and went out and did a little sledding behind our house.

Better gloves and snow boots are a must for Truman next year!

Conference Weekend

2011-04-04T20:49:00.001-07:00

My parents came up to visit for conference weekend and my birthday. It was really nice to have them here and I am grateful to have family that is close enough that they can visit. Truman had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and I loved having adults to talk with, especially since Rick had 2 tests the following week, so he spent a lot of the weekend studying.

During the break on Saturday between the afternoon session and Priesthood we headed down to the park.

Who doesn't want to ride a frog?

Truman's first slide experience.

The most popular baby at the park.

Truman and I went to the park earlier this week and he stayed on the swing until his little hands and face were freezing. When I took him out he started crying...what a rough life.

Truman and Grandpa were watching some kids play basketball and he actually clapped when some one made a shot! Such a smart boy! (He did watch tons on basketball this last month...both men's and women's March Madness.)

I love General Conference. I love the process of preparing to hear the messages and I always feel uplifted and renewed spiritually after hearing from the Prophet and Apostles. Not to mention, getting to hang out in comfy clothes and make waffles. And to top off a fantastic weekend, my parents and grandparents went in together and got me a sewing machine for my birthday!! I am so excited to learn how to sew and make unique things! WooHoo!

Birthweek

2011-03-29T22:07:00.003-07:00

Yep, that's right, I've gotten Rick into celebrating a birthweek instead of just a birthday for me. I didn't come up with this myself...I'm not that self-absorbed. It was actually an old coach in high school who introduced me to the birthweek idea. His rules were simple, you get both weekends, the one previous and the one following your actual birthday, and you have to do something nice for yourself each one of those days. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just be good to yourself. I had usually done this for myself and then my mom would do little things sometimes as well, and now Rick has jumped on the bandwagon. He starts exactly one week before my birthday and gives me a little something everyday. This year I was spoiled with Diet Dr. Pepper, a new bath puff, some new socks, a massage from a super hot male model, a toilet lock (amazing! considering our bathroom doors don't close), new floor mats for my car and a photo book. See, nothing too outrageous (besides the male model), but nice and thoughtful. I have pretty much the best husband ever!

On my actual birthday Truman and I did our usual thing and he took a really long nap. I consider that his gift to me and I thought it was fantastic. Then, we got some Jack in the box for dinner, Rick made me a jell-o no-bake cheesecake and we watched some women's games. All in all a pretty great day to turn 27.

My sweet little boy. Thank you for the nap Truman.

This is the photo book Rick made me. It is titled, "Julie's Best, According to Rick"...he made a book of his favorite photos that I have taken. Very thoughtful and it includes a sweet birthday message inside. I love it.

At the end of the day...me and the male model, looking a little wasted, must be the cheesecake, or having a "very active" 13 month old. Not sure which.

My day was also filled with phone calls from friends and family, texts and facebook messages from lots of old friends. I think I have come to appreciate birthdays a little more this year. Not living in the same city as any family or friends made all of the facebook messages, texts and calls just a little more special. I felt very loved and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Cheers! And here is to another fun filled year!

Super Truman

2011-03-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

Truman's favorite blankie turned into a magical, super cape this week and here are some of the feats it helped him to accomplish....

He figured out how to open the impossible, super secured bedside drawers in order to add to his weaponry the magic markers.

Da da da DA! Super Tru!

He became super strong! Look at those massive abs!

And he was able to scale the entire couch in order to look out over the city and keep watch for any evil disturbances.

Spring Break

2011-03-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Rick had spring break this week, so we headed down to Scottsdale for most of the week to warm up. Rick and I got to go on a date on Saturday night and then had a nice family dinner with all of the siblings on Sunday. And Monday the fun began...we went to the Phoenix Zoo with my Aunt Lynne and Maya.

We took the train almost all the way around the Zoo, so we got a glimpse of just about everything. Then we went and did the Arizona trail and the kids sections of the zoo by foot. We saw lots of great animals and had a really good time. Truman liked riding on the train and when we let him push his own stroller a bit.

He got an up close view of the Prairie Dogs and also some domestic animals in the kids section, like goats, sheep, horses and cows. He even got to pet a goat in the petting zoo.

The CSI Golden Eagle!

The boys checking out the elephants. It was so fun to watch Truman point at all of the animals, at least the ones that were obvious...some of those creatures are HARD to find in their little habitats!

A BIG thanks to Aunt Lynne for inviting us out to the zoo! I hadn't been in years and now I'm pumped to go back. We all had a great time and great memories from Truman's first zoo trip.

Rick and Truman got to hang out a lot more than usual this week. Truman liked to have his Daddy give him rides in the office chairs.

Truman LOVES my parents' dogs! Coco is a little afraid of him, but she is actually really good about playing with him if she is in the mood. Truman always sticks his finger out like this so that she'll lick it. He also loves to throw things too them from his high chair and just chase them around.

How appropriate that Truman's first official word is "dog". He loves them so much that he will even kiss them....gross.

Here we are back in Flag. We had a great week and it made me even more excited for the summer when we may get some more "Rick time", Truman wanted to try out a head band (ok, maybe I just put it on him because he was intrigued by mine), I think he looks like a very young John McEnroe. Anyway, a great week spent relaxing and spending time with family and friends in the warm sunshine, life doesn't get much better.

Dancing

2011-03-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Truman is a dancing fool!! This is a really mellow and super short dance session for him. This kid is constantly rocking out and it is so fun to watch. He got rhythm, yo!

Sucker

2011-03-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Laughing

2011-03-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

I love it!! I love making this kid laugh and try to do it everyday; it is so fun and funny!!

New Glasses

2011-03-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to get my eyes checked since I couldn't remember the last time I had done so. I've never had glasses or contacts, so I guess this means I am officially getting old! The Dr. said that my prescription is very minimal and that I probably wouldn't be able to notice any improvement by wearing glasses except for maybe driving at night. So far, I don't think they really help, but they are fun to wear sometimes.

They make me look like I would be able to help you find a book at the library or something and that's pretty cool. I have to put a plug in for www.zennioptical.com These sweet mamma's only cost me about $15 including shipping. It's the only place we buy glasses and we try to tell everyone about it.

It's like I am a new person when I put them on. Amazing.

Playing

2011-03-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

The weather has warmed up recently, so we have been able to go outside and have a little fun. Truman and I have taken a couple of walks on the golf course during the afternoon. Sometimes he doesn't want to be pushed, he would rather walk by himself. I like to find a good flat spot and then let him out of his stroller and we play. He played with his ball for about 5 minutes and then figured out it was much more fun to push the stroller, which is now one of his favorite things to do on a walk.

We actually saw a TON of deer poo, a coyote, and a blue herron on this walk. Such exciting wildlife on the golf course!

T is also fascinated with the diswasher, so Daddy let him climb on in (after bracing it) and go wild. He threw all of the silverware out while saying, "Uh-oh!".

The Friday before Spring Break, Rick didn't have any class, but he needed to go to campus to work on an assignment with a classmate. Truman and I decided to stop by and Rick hooked it up! Truman got to play with all of the fun equipment that the physical therapy students get to use. I think Rick should take him to school more often.

Trouble

2011-03-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

Figuring out that he can push things around to where he wants and then climb on them, in his desired location.

"Yeah, so what, I climb on stuff all of the time when you aren't looking."

Elden's Crack....

2011-03-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

We actually got out and did something this weekend!! This is pretty big time for us. The weather has been pretty nice (in the 50's) so Rick's classmate, Beau, set up a group hike. We headed to Mt. Elden on Saturday afternoon for about a 2 mile jaunt up Elden's Crack...ironically Rick's Grandpa's name was Elden, so Rick felt slightly awkward at the beginning.

Drink break...don't worry, Truman thew that sippy cup in the dirt, that's how he likes things.

Starting to see some water! Truman got switched to Rick's back at this point so that Rick could use his hands while doing some minor rock climbing...probably not our safest move as parents.

We had great views of Flagstaff pretty much the whole way.

Our final destination. There was a little waterfall and pool. We were hoping to see some ice waterfalls, but we think we were a couple of days late.

Truman absolutely loves being outside, even in the Bjorn. He pointed at things and jabbered the whole way. He had a great time. Thanks for packing me Daddy!!

Mr. T hangin' out at the top, throwing rocks, sticks, dirt, and lovin' every minute of it.

We also had Holly and her BFF Lorena come up on Friday. Lorena is going to apply to the NAU PT program this coming fall, so she came to check things out. Hopefully we were able to answer most of her questions and give her some helpful information. It was fun to have family up to visit. We ate a lot of fruit and sugar and had a fire in the fireplace on Friday night. It was good to catch up and hear about Holly's cookoo school stories. Good times all around. Come back and visit again ladies!!

All, in all it was a really good weekend. Rick had 3 tests this last week, so having them all done, he was able to relax and spend a lot of time with Truman and I. I loved it :)

Family Party

2011-02-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

We were able to go down to my parents and have a family party for Truman. He is a pretty big deal...the 2nd great-grand baby on my dad's side (the other one is 13), and of course my parent's only grandchild as of now, so he's pretty spoiled at this point. He also received gifts in the mail from Rick's side of the family and some phone calls wishing him happy birthday. Truman, you have got a pretty great family!

More presents.

Kissing his new baby. The last few times we have been to the store, Truman had been wanting to hold the baby dolls, luckily my parents found him sort of a boy/turtle Cabbage Patch Kid. Rick was more accepting of his son having this type of "doll".

His sweet camp chiar from Great Grandma Barbara.

Truman's Aunt Stefanie made him this AMAZING owl cake! Oh, and Truman got the whole top layer to himself!!

Aunt Amanda made the cupcakes along with a matching cupcake stand and Truman's initials!

Thank you Aunties!

Cake in the curls.

Gotta love the Alfalfa hair sticking up. What a cute kid!

Birthday Videos

2011-02-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

We were trying to teach T how to blow, so he could blow out the candle, but he came up with his own method.

What a great way to end the day!

Happy, Happy Birthday Truman, dear!

2011-02-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our little baby boy is 1! He is getting so big and so fun. We spent his actual birthday in Flagstaff with just us, and then we headed down the hill the next day to have a little family party at Grandma and Grandpa Cross's. Here are some pictures and video from his actual first birthday.

He woke up happy and ready to have a fun filled day!

Then we went to the Church and played with some friends.

Rick came home early and Truman was tired, but not wanting to nap, so...

...we went for a walk.

Then, Truman opened his presents before dinner. He got a sweet cell phone from Dad, since he is always wanting to play with ours....

...and a photo book of his family from Mom.

And then, time for CAKE!!!

MMmmm...chocolatey kiss for Daddy! So nice.

"Three!" We taught T to put both of his arms up over his head like a ref does to signal a 3-pointer. So, I assume this is his way of telling me that the cake was worth "3"...thanks buddy!

Finally, bath time and playing with some new ducks, and off to bed after dropping off of the sugar high.

We are so grateful to have Truman in our family. He brings us so much love and joy. We love watching him play and grow, it really is our favorite form of entertainment. He is a good example to us of how to be friendly (he will walk up to anyone and motion to have them pick him up or sit on their lap). He makes us laugh everyday and we can't wait to see what the next year will bring. He is such a happy, smart and good little boy. We love you so much Truman!

Valentines Day

2011-02-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

This year we had a mellow Valentine's Day. We made a "fancy" dinner of Halibut with tomatoes and artichokes and then for desert we baked a chocolate souffle. Thank you to the Food Network for the recipes.

Everything turned out pretty good. Truman was the most popular this year because he got the most Valentine's cards, but I scored the best gift from Rick, one of the Glee CDs. Awesome! I think I've always been a fan of Valentine's Day, but having a family of my own makes it a little more fun to celebrate.

Visitors

2011-01-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend Aunt Amanda and Uncle Brannon came to visit. It's always fun to have family come and spend some time.

Twinners! Gotta love the feetsie pajamas for all ages.

Then, Truman and I had some fun with Amanda's new camera while she and Brannon went snowboarding and Rick was at school studying. Love this one!

She has some really fun settings on that thing. Recently I have pulled out my 35mm slr camera and been shooting a little. It's been fun to start getting back into photography. I'm waiting for a roll to get developed and hopefully some of the shots turn out so I can post 'em!

Some of the highlights from the weekend included:

- Pita Jungle

- A trip to the new Joann's store that just opened up here.

- Gel nails (Thanks sister!)

- Amanda's face after getting a kiss from Truman.

- Helping Brannon with his Scrabble games on his Ipad

- Laughing

- Mango sticky rice & brownies with ice cream

- Watching Truman draw on the Ipad, dance, walk, yell, eat, fart...he's pure entertainment

- Hearing about Amanda's snowboarding experience

We already miss you! Come back soon!

Walking Walking

2011-01-30T15:32:00.002-07:00

Here's the little guy taking some of his first steps. We had been practicing with him for about a week or so at this point, but this is by far his best performance to date. We usually have to stabilize him for a bit, let him gain his balance, and then off he goes. He's doing great.

Crawling down the stairs

2011-01-30T15:02:00.003-07:00

Ever since Truman began crawling we have been worried that he would have a little "run in" with the stairs that are in the house. We decided it was finally time to teach him how to go down them so that we felt a little more safe about the situation. This is a cute little video of him on one of his first attempts (it didn't take very long at all for him to catch on).

Caught "Box Handed"

2011-01-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

How did this happen while I was working????

So busted...I think he learns things like this from Bear and Coco. He loves to shred things lately, mostly tissues and toilet paper.

Bed Head

2011-01-23T20:55:00.001-07:00

T woke up with some serious bead head after his nap.

The whole left side was pretty gnarly! If only I could not care like he does.

Check out those unsymmetrical teeth...they complement the hair style perfectly.

Sedona

2011-01-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

My parents and the Scotts were in Sedona for the weekend, so we headed down on Saturday to meet up and do a little mountain biking. For starters, the drive from Flag to Sedona is beautiful. It goes along Oak Creek and it actually made us want to go camping. What?! Like in a tent...well we'll see if the amazing scenery really motivates us to go sleep outdoors when the weather warms up. Neither of us had done that drive and we are glad that we did.

These are a couple of pictures from our bike ride...if you want to call it that. I'm pretty sure we did more hiking than riding. The map said it was a bike trail and not too difficult...who ever wrote that must be some kind of expert rock hopper! Needless to say we didn't spend too much time before heading back.

However, there was an upside to the bike ride/hike, we met some people that were trying to find the vortex. Sedona is known to be an area with all kinds of magical vortexes...I really hope they found it, although we were not much help. We went back after the ride and had dinner and then headed home. The next morning, Rick got a news alert on his phone saying that there had been an earthquake in Sedona! We were like "what the...?" I text my mom to find out if they had felt it. She told me yes and that it made my dad fall out of bed....I was laughing so hard!! And then she confessed that they made that up, and they had really slept through it. However, they do believe that they were the cause of the earthquake.They feel that their presence in Sedona had upset the vortex.

Mid Century Mod

2011-01-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Some people like to be outside to be a part of nature and look at wildlife....we like to be outside and look at houses and neighborhoods. Ok, and we like nature sometimes too. We were out and decided to go for a walk in a neighborhood we had never been in. It must have been our lucky day because we found our new favorite house in Flagstaff.

We LOVE mid century modern houses!! We were so excited to come across a neighborhood that had some great mid century homes in it.

Check out that sweet entry way with the swingin' light fixture.

Here is how Truman enjoyed the walk, all snuggled up in his stroller.

We probably spent about an hour and a half wandering this neighborhood. It was a great way to end Rick's winter break by spending some quality time together being voyeurs and dreaming of our future home.

Turkey Lurkey

2011-01-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

We cooked our first turkey. Behold!

This 23 pounder is going to feed us for the next month. I stuffed butter under the skin and such, but it still turned out a little dryer than I wanted, but not bad. I didn't have a meat thermometer and was scared of under cooking this bad boy, I think that's why it turned out kinda dry. So I guess that means there is an excuse for more gravy and cranberry sauce! Mmmm.

Rick's Birthday

2011-01-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

We invited some of Rick's classmates over for his 31st birthday. There is a girl named Julie in his class that shares Rick's exact same birthday, so we made it a double party!

Sara made these sweet mint brownies and a killer sign to go with. (I did have a couple of people wish me happy birthday...2 Julie's got a little confusing I guess.)

Three of Rick's classmates also have kids, so we decided that after we ate some goodies we would go out to the golf course and do a little sledding...there may have been some blood and tears shed. Our bad! We didn't do a pre-run to try out the hill. That little hill was a lot quicker than we expected, but Julie's boys loved it! Those 3 little guys were fearless!

Here is Tyler racing Julie's husband, Jeremy, and 2 of his boys.

Dustin and Hollis. I can't believe Hollis agreed to get back on the sled, he had already wiped out pretty badly twice before. What a tuff guy!

Rick and Truman getting ready to go.

Julie and one of her boys.

Dustin's little girl opted to make a snow angel instead (try to find it, it's to her right). She actually went down on a different hill and biffed it pretty good with her little brother, so I can't blame her for choosing to be the cheerleader for the rest of the sledders.

T's first time out on the slopes.

It was really fun for me to get to know some of Rick's classmates and their families and I think they enjoyed doing something social with their classmates as well. I did go down on a sled with Rick and somehow snow managed to go down the front of my shirt even though I had a ski coat on zipped up...impressive.
Rick said that he had a good birthday and that is what really mattered (I think it partially had to do with the amount of cake we had left over). Cheers to the best husband in the universe!!

Idaho

2011-01-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

We headed up to Idaho after Christmas to spend a week with our Berry family. I didn't take enough pictures, but we had a great time. All of Rick's sisters and their families came up to Twin for a couple of days. Some of the highlights included, meeting Tyler, the newest addition to the family, having a big family dinner, watching all of the kids play together, going to the church to play games in the gym, spending time with Rick's friends, and having a quiet New Year's Eve with just Rick & I. (Low lights included the 24 hour flu hitting just about everyone except Truman and I...ewww.)

Truman loved crawling after the ball in the gym. Baller!!

Everybody watching Legrand fly Liam's new helicopter that he got for Christmas.

Truman loves his Grandpa Berry! He would always smile or giggle when he would see his Grandpa.

You can kind of see his "fangs" in this one. He got his side teeth in before his front teeth. Vampire baby. Truman did really well on the airplane both ways. On the way there he slept almost the entire way and on the way back he snoozed a little and played like a good little boy.

We miss Rick's family and wish we were closer, but we are lucky we aren't too far and that we still get to see them a few times a year.

Truman's First Christmas!!

2010-12-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

We spent Christmas Eve and morning in Flagstaff. We had a fire and Christmas Eve sandwiches on Christmas Eve, then we woke up and opened presents! Truman opened a handmade wooden firetruck made by my Uncle Chuck, a ukulele, and Scout, a stuffed dog that talks.

After we opened our presents at home, we headed down to Scottsdale to spend the rest of the day with my family. And look who we saw on the freeway!!

This was our favorite present! Amanda painted this picture of Truman using a photo of him as her guide. We absolutely love it!!

Snowman

2010-12-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Rick had finished finals and there was snow everywhere, so it was time for Truman to meet a real, live, Snowman. We galloped down to the golf course and Rick went to work while I took pictures and "supervised" both he and Truman. This was the first time T crawled around in the snow. He was intrigued with the snow sticking to his mittens and of course enjoyed trying to throw the snow. He also ate a little bit too (don't worry, I warned him about yellow snow).

These first 4 pictures were taken with my old 35mm film slr camera. I'm pretty excited to start playing with it again. (I need some practice!)

"I can't put my arms down!"

Not a big fan of the restriction of movement while wearing a snowsuit.

A fun family outing :)

Family Pictures

2010-12-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

I kind of decided at the last minute that I was going to do a Christmas card. It was Sunday, so I text Kristina and asked if she could do us a favor and take some family pictures for us. She kindly agreed and her and her friend Amy hoped in the car with us and we drove out to this museum that we had passed once before. (Maybe we ditched out on part of Church, don't judge us.) I thought the trains could be fun for some Flagstaff pictures, since you can hear the trains from just about anywhere in this town.

Here are the ones that actually turned out descent. It's always an adventure taking pictures with little ones!

A big thanks to Kristina and Amy for using everything in their arsenal to capture Truman's attention and for being patient with me while I changed camera settings and poses. We owe our fun Christmas card to you ladies!!

Swim Lessons

2010-12-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

Truman has taken 2 sessions of swim lessons. Rick and I get to swim with him in the parent/tot class. Truman absolutely loves being in the water, splashing, kicking, swimming after toys and observing everything that is going on in the Aquaplex.He has learned to move his arms and kick at the same time, put his face in the water and "blow bubbles" (kind of), and most recently he has gone all the way under water. Truman is so fun to watch and we are so proud of him!

Teeth

2010-12-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

I was trying to get a couple of good pictures of T's teeth and curls. Got one of his first couple teeth, curls in the back of his hair, not so much. But I did get some other fun ones in the process.

Fake Thanksgiving

2010-11-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

We have developed the tradition of having a "Fake Thanksgiving" with my Mom's side of the family every year before regular Thanksgiving. We usually do Mexican food, so it is also called "Mexican Thanksgiving"....Here are a few pictures from the shin dig at
Charles and Debbie's casa.

Truman and Taylor

We ate, visited and then the boys watched some football and the ladies did a craft. We made Christmas advent calendars out of mini muffin pans. Sweet idea Hollister!

Good Times

2010-11-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of Truman's most favorite things to do. He loves to run around Grandma and Grandpa Cross's house in his walker. He gets going pretty fast on the tile and he does continuous laps around the island. He loves the puppies and always is looking for them or chasing them.

Recently, he has played with Coco! Coco will bring Truman a toy and wait for him to pick it up and then she will play tug-o-war with him. It is so cute!!

Halloween

2010-11-16T21:25:00.001-07:00

We spent Truman's first Halloween down in the Valley. Friday evening we went to my parents' ward's trunk-or-treat...Truman had a bit of a melt down then fell asleep in his stroller. He didn't even make it into his costume that night. Haha!
Saturday night was the "main event". We went to Brannon and Amanda's for their annual Halloween bash.

Yay for costumes!

That's the cutest hot dog I've ever seen.

The costume didn't last too long, seeing as Truman wanted to crawl all over the place and as a hot dog, he couldn't move his legs.

Our lovely hosts.

My delicious parents.

Amanda made party favors. They were decorated witches shoes filled with really good classic kinds of candy, like pop rocks!

The amazing Halloween treat table!! Great job sister!

Hello Kitty Cousin

Truman making Great Grandpa feed him like a baby goat...Great Grandpa also took advantage of the cotton candy machine that night and let Truman enjoy some too! That's what Grandpa's are for.

Thanks to everyone for a great Halloween!

Some Darn Cute Pictures

2010-11-01T21:27:00.005-07:00

These were just some pictures we took after church on Sunday. We think Truman looks a lot like Liam in the third picture.

Spooky....

2010-10-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

We carved our pumpkin on Monday...Happy Halloween.

Then, we decided to play a trick (ok, it was mostly my idea, Rick was hesitant)...Kristina came over on Monday and then was going to spend the night. I guess I was in the Halloween mood because I wanted to scare her when she got back from the volleyball game she went to. So, Rick and I hid behind the wall by our driveway and when she walked by Rick started recording, then I popped up and made a turkey noise...we got her good!! I asked her a couple of days later how her hat flew off and she said, " I have no idea". I haven't done anything like that in a long time it was really funny mostly because Kristina was such a good sport, but I know I should be on the look out because she'll probably get me back!

(Sorry it's pretty dark.)

Crawling

2010-10-26T22:48:00.002-07:00

Road Trip Part 10: California Finale

2010-10-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

The last days of our trip took us to California. The first stop on our list was Redwoods National Park.

Always good to know how to escape from wild animals...

These trees made you feel so small and walking though them made us marvel at nature.

We thought the ferns were beautiful as well.

There are a couple of different parks with the giant redwoods in them and a road that goes in between called the Avenue of the Giants...parts like this made all of the driving enjoyable.

We even drove through a tree!

Here is a picture of the vineyards we drove though in Northern California.

Next stop, San Francisco...we stopped in San Fran for a day and hit some of the highlights.

Below is Alcatraz.

Random giant noodle at Pier 39...

This is a Cathedral we passed driving though town.

We accidentally ended up at Golden Gate Park and ended up spending the end of the day walking around there to give Truman some time out of the car and stretch our legs before getting back on the road.

The cutest boys I know.

Our final stop was El Segundo to visit Ted and Stef. It was nice to see some family again!

We relaxed and went to the beach a couple of times.

Ted surfed and Rick had fun boogie boarding for his first time.

Truman loved laying on the beach in his travel bed!

Thanks for having us! We had so much fun and can't wait to come back!

All in all, we loved our first family road trip. Of course, there was some crying (only from Truman) which could make things a little stressful, but overall everything went smoothly. We didn't know if we would ever have this much free time to do something like this again, so we took advantage of the situation and are really glad that we did. It was fun to see all of the beautiful sights and marvel at Heavenly Father's creations, but even more fun was visiting family and friends in their hometowns. We are truly blessed.

Road Trip Part 9: Portland & The Oregon Coast

2010-10-22T16:07:00.001-07:00

Once we got off of the ferry in Washington we headed straight for Portland. We left pretty late, so we ended up getting to the Schaffer's house around 2am. Needless to say, we opted not to go to their 8am sacrament meeting, but headed for an 11am one instead. When the Schaffer's got home from Church and before we headed out to catch sacrament, Bridger was the first to greet us he said, "You were sleeping!"...so observant. He has the biggest smile and is every one's friend, but he was a little disappointed when he found out that we didn't have any "other kids" for him to play with. After Church we also got to visit with one of Rick's old roommates, Tyler Stoddard, and his family. It was nice to finally meet the guy behind some of the stories I had heard.

We went to a u-pick blueberry patch. They have a lot of these u-pick type of little farms around Portland. The blueberries were delicious and super cheap! Here is Bridger using Rick's leg to take a break.

Mel & Kacy

Mt. Hood is in the background of this one.

Mel took us to a rose garden that overlooked the city. Here is Bridger helping me to show just how big the roses actually were.

Time for a little nap in the afternoon sunshine.

After blueberries and the rose garden we did our own little walking tour of downtown Portland.

Our stops included Niketown and Powell's City of Books. Man, that is one huge bookstore!

Here is a random fountain we came across...Bridger quickly figured out how to make it squirt all over

...with maybe just a little help from Rick.

Some of the cool things we saw in downtown, random sculptures, windmills on top of buildings and interesting architecture.

Before we left we gave the Schaffers some Canadian licorice. Bridger was waving his around and making it wiggle and decided to call it wiggle-rish!

Truman blowing a kiss to say thanks for letting him use this fantastic toy during our stay.

The Kiddos

Mel, Jim and kids, thanks for letting us stay! We had so much fun!!

We left Portland and headed down the Oregon Coast. We got a few suggestions of stops to make from Mel and Jim . This first was this place called Devil's Punchbowl.

Just chillin' in the Highlander...getting ready to go see some more sights.

These blackberry bushes were right by the parking lot. Apparently blackberry bushes are considered a weed in Oregon...seriously Jim told us all about it.

Probably not going to swim here...plus it was freezing.

We stopped to take a few photos of this lighthouse. Very scenic.

Then, we saw these big sand dunes with pine trees growing out of them.

That's a pretty rare sight if you ask me.

We stopped at the most western point in the continental US. Lighthouse and all.

It was absolutely freezing!!!

A few pictures from the scenic coastline and dense greenery.

What a good little traveling boy.

Oregon was phenomenal and we are really glad that we decided to make the trip down the coast.

Family Photo

2010-10-17T20:15:00.001-07:00

We all ended up wearing argyle to church today,

so we figured it was a good time to take a family photo.

Grandma & Grandpa Hadfield

2010-10-17T19:37:00.003-07:00

Most people grow up knowing both sets of grandparents. They have fun listening to their stories about how they grew up in the old days and had to walk a mile to school in the snow, uphill both ways. They partake of their wisdom and enjoy being spoiled by them. I, on the other hand, had only one set of grandparents. My father's parents passed away long before I was ever born so I never knew them. My mom's parents, Elden and Sarah Hadfield, were the only grandparents I ever had. They lived in Salt Lake City, UT, a four hour drive from my home town of Twin Falls, ID. We would go there for nearly every family vacation I can remember. I didn't really mind because their house was a blast to visit. It was huge, with a flat roof overlooking the city. There was a city park literally right next door with rocks to climb and lizards to be found. It was "the big city" to me and I loved visiting my grandma and grandpa there.

As do all grandparents, mine decided to get old on me although it seemed they never would. My grandpa owned his own drapery business until he was 86 years old. He ran it like a well oiled machine. My grandma was just as spry. She would do yard work and clean the house with ease.

After my grandpa retired I remember him looking for employment elsewhere. He got his CDL (commercial drivers license) because he was going to "drive truck". That didn't really work out, so he applied for a security guard position. Mmm...that didn't really pan out either so another thought he had was to break horses (apparently he did that a lot when he was young, so he thought he could do it again). Needless to say, the man was a stallion. He refused to allow himself to grow old. Unfortunately he couldn't stop father time from doing his thing. Dementia finally got hold of him and he started going downhill from there.

My grandma took care of him. She was very independent and able to take on the load for both of them. She had her ups and downs where her health was concerned, but it was obvious to us grandkids that grandpa was going to pass away before grandma.

But life is a mystery sometimes. On May 3, 2010 my grandma passed away. It was very unexpected and a little difficult to swallow at first. Julie, Truman and I went up to Utah for the funeral. This is a picture taken just after the funeral ceremony.

Shortly thereafter my cousin Liz Johnson Hall had a daughter and named her Sarah (my grandma's maiden name was Hall too). So Liz's parents, my aunt Susan and uncle Gary, invited grandpa to come to their house to spend some time with them and see the new baby. One of Liz's other daughters approached grandpa and said: "Did you know mommy is bringing Sarah over today?"

My grandpa misunderstood, because later that night when he went to bed and aunt Susan and uncle Gary were helping him into bed he looked up at them and asked: "Sarah's not coming is she?" After my aunt and uncle told them that she wasn't and that she was gone, they said he let out a groan, rolled over and went to sleep. They said the next day he refused to get out of bed and noticed over the next week that he was quickly approaching his final days.

Grandpa died on August 11, 2010, just a little over three months after grandma. They were my grandparents. They were all I had in that category of family. I loved them dearly. They were amazing people, wonderful examples of how to love and put family first. I will miss them dearly.
Posted by Rick at 7:37 PM

Race Weekend & Some More

2010-10-16T14:50:00.024-07:00

Truman's Grandpa & Grandma Berry were in town for the weekend. We hung out on Thursday evening and then on Friday we took a little walking tour of NAU.

There was a big event for us on Saturday. The Go Big for Parkinson's Run/Walk is an event that the 2nd year NAU PT students put on in Flagstaff. It raises money for Parkinson's patients who cannot afford their treatments. This was especially fun and meaningful for us because Rick's dad has Parkinson's disease. We invited some of our family members to join us for the walk and Rick and I walked with everyone for the first part and then jogged the 5k course.

Looking the part with our race numbers on!

Grandpa Jack & Truman with Louie the Lumberjack along the 2k walk course.

Our family of racers. Thanks for coming!!

Brannon getting stretched out after a very strenuous 2k walk.

Rick and Joe found this guy in our front courtyard and then Rick saw him again later and relocated him to the golf course. Truman and I had seen one earlier in the week on a jog. I guess it's time to get out the Halloween decorations!

Joe, Cindy, Rick and I headed out to see some local sights after the race. Here is Sunset Crater.

Those are cinder hills behind Joe and Cindy. I guess almost all of the mountains in Flagstaff are of volcanic origin. There were some black dunes that were pretty cool too.

Our final destination was the Wupatki National Monument.

It was a pretty impressive Indian ruin.

The stone work reminded me of the stacked stone facades that are popular on the exterior of people's homes right now. It is very organized and geometrical.

The Berry's looking like Indians.

Truman in his new high chair. He started to get all kitchen rodeo on me in his Bumbo seat the week before we got this. He was basically trying to buck himself out of the seat and off of the little table it was on. So now he is much more secure at meal time.

Grandpa Berry and Truman.

Grandma Berry and Truman on their last night with us.

T and I took Joe and Cindy down to the airport on Monday and stayed the night in Scottsdale. We were able to stop by and see Great Grandma and Grandpa Singleton.

Wild boys!

On Tuesday I took Truman for one last outside swim. It was a little chilly, but we survived and splashed a little. Then, Maya came over and we were ready to head back to Flagstaff.

Truman slept almost the whole way home and Maya helped out when he was awake. Maya came up for part of her fall break. We got to go to a high school volleyball game Tuesday night. Wednesday we went to the Flagstaff Aquaplex and played volleyball for a couple of hours and then headed back there later that night to swim.

Thursday we just hung out around the house. Here's Maya and Truman reading.

T was also lucky enough to get his hair styled on Thursday. We decided his hair was too long in front for the mo-hawk...

... so he got a more professional look.

All in all, a great weekend/week. Very busy and lots of wonderful visitors. Truman was spoiled with lots of attention as well as Rick and I, so now we have to adjust back to everyday life! Also, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that participated and donated to the Go Big for Parkinson's event we really really appreciate it!

Road Trip Part 8 Ferries and Victoria

2010-10-02T21:16:00.038-07:00

We drove onto a ferryboat and headed to Victoria from Vancouver. It was the first time either of us had taken a car onto a ferry, so that was pretty exciting.

The captain of our lives.

Out on deck. We ended up napping on the boat and listening to our ipods. This was nice, however, we think we missed an announcement about being able to see whales off to one side. We couldn't hear what they said because we had our ipods in and then most of the passengers went to one side. We were too lazy and comfortable to get up, but Karen told us they saw killer whales on their ferry ride later that day. I wish we would have followed the crowd on that one!

We hit the Butchart Gardens when we got into Victoria while we waited for Karen and the others to get to Victoria. We took a lot of pictures and below are some of our favorites.

Even the trash cans had flowers on them!

This is the Sunken Garden, I think it may have been my favorite.

This was in the Rose Garden.

This is at the entry of the Japanese Garden.

There was a "window" in this bush that looked out to the ocean.

I really liked these stepping stones in the pond of the Japanese Garden.

I think this was the Italian Garden. Rick loved the back wall made completely out of a hedge.

Truman's first horse ride.

This was by our parking spot.

Truman spent a lot of the trip in this position.

After the gardens we met up with Karen and a few of her friends and wandered around Victoria. Here is a baby seal sleeping under a bridge in the harbor. So cute and fuzzy! I hope it was ok.

In front of the Parliament building.

The boys were much more subdued and sophisticated.

Wandering in the tourist shops.

Our last Canadian meal was had at Tim Horton's, a Canadian fast food joint.

Victoria Harbor

On our 2nd ferryboat that day, headed back to the good ole US, and A.

What a cute kid.

No, the sun isn't in our eyes, that's just how we smile sometimes.

Random floating houses on our way out of Victoria.

No whales on this ride, but we did get to see the sunset.

Land that I love.

Road Trip Part 7 Vancouver

2010-10-02T11:33:00.067-07:00

Vancouver, aka, The City of Glass

We got to Vancouver at night and were supposed to go to an international fireworks show, but Truman had a major melt down, so we didn't make it. However, we could see the fireworks from our hotel window, so it worked out just fine!

Here we are on the sea wall. We got to check out the ocean while our personal tour guide, Karen, had a dental appointment.

We were able to take some fun photos along the sea wall while we were just hanging out. The plants and flowers are amazing in Vancouver, so beautiful.

The boys just relaxing.

Next, we headed over to White Cliffs park where we could see some of the islands off of Vancouver. Rick took this picture in a "secret spot"...not sure what that means, all I know is that Karen and I couldn't find them after we went to the bathroom.

The beach was beautiful at White Cliffs.

The next stop was Lynn Canyon. An amazing outdoor park just outside of Vancouver.

Below are a bunch of pictures of us on the suspension bridge. Karen had never been to this park so it was first-time-fun for everyone!

Great choice M'lady!

Don't look down!

Truman had a good time at Lynn Canyon. He loves being outside.

Once across the bridge we hiked along some paths to different parts of the river. The trees were large and beautiful and everything was so green.

There was a really deep pool at one point. The water was amazingly clear.

The blur in this photo is a girl cliff jumping. She actually just showed up all of the guys standing up on the rocks that were cliff jumping too.

At the deep pool, facing the other direction.

We would never mock teenage Asian tourists...

Cool stump.

Then, we headed to Twin Falls...at Lynn Canyon.

At the Twin Falls.

Beautiful.

That is one crazy looking tree.

Karen volunteered to backpack Truman up the incredibly long stair case on our way back to the car. She said it was training for the 6 day backpacking trip she was leaving on in a couple of days...it was also the only training she did for that hike. Haha!

They both made it to the top happy, and the next week Karen completed her hike thanks to her diligent training.

That evening we saw some totem poles being made on our way to Granville Market.
We picked out some produce, bread, meat, cheese and desert from the market and all of it was absolutely AMAZING!!

The market was one of our favorite stops in Vancouver. They had such a variety and everything was incredibly fresh and delicious and there were so many new things there we wanted to try, that we could have gone back everyday for every meal and been very happy!

The pier outside of the market.

We headed out to the beach with our market food to watch the sun set.

Thanks for taking this one Karen. I love it.

Rick and Karen's roommate Emma, enjoying the scenery and the delicious food.

Some little kid came by and was kicking sand all over Rick's jacket. He had no idea he was being watched and Rick thought it was hilarious.

The view of downtown Vancouver from the beach. I also love that they put these giant logs on their beaches. It is so convenient to have something to sit against or on. Way to go Vancouver!

Good times.

T just having a cozy rest at the beach.

M'lady entertaining the little guy.

We stopped at this place for lunch the next day. Rick abosolutely loved it. Terrific gyros.

Vancouver is called the City of Glass because most of the big buildings are mostly glass. It is a very clean and beautiful city and there are tons of rooftop gardens. We thought this tree was pretty amazing.

After lunch, Karen agreed to hang out with Truman while Rick and I biked around Stanley Park. It's basically Vancouver's version of Central Park. We were a little bummed because we wanted to take Truman for his first bike ride, but the rental people told us he was too young for the seat. Next time buddy.

But, he had fun hanging out with Auntie Karen instead.
Below are the pictures we took on our ride along the park.

Check out the grass on the roof of that building!

There was a cool water playground for kids...

...complete, with a "kids dryer"! Kids would walk through it and get all of the water blown off of them. It looked like so much fun!

After the park and hanging out a bit we went for bubble tea. One of my new favorites, bubble tea is an Asian fruit drink with tapioca balls in the bottom. You can also get cream in it and get it slushy....mmmm bubble tea.

Then, we stopped off at another beach for fun.

Such a model face.

Truman and his buddy.

City sky line.

Last, but not least we requested to get some authentic Canadian food...and the suggestion was Poutine, a mixture of French fries, cheese curds, gravy and meat. It was actully pretty good and low calorie.... ;)

Vancouver was amazing! The city was beautiful and it has everything outdoorsy you could ever want with beautiful beaches surrounding the city and 3 ski hills within about 20 minutes. We loved it and will definitely keep it on the list of places to go back to.

Flagstaff House

2010-09-24T21:47:00.017-07:00

Here are some photos from our place in Flag. We got really lucky and found a great place through a friend of a friend. This is his summer place and he had never rented it until he found out about us :)

Here is the master.

This is the closet and bathroom in the master. It is a townhouse with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Perfect for having guests!

T-man in his room.

Truman hanging out on his owl couch in his room. (Owl blanket complements of the crafty-est Cousin, Holly.) The place came furnished, so we have just added some of our own touches.

Major selling point for me; washer and dryer in the house! After not having one for 8 months, this is like heaven.

Here is the living and dining room.

The breakfast bar and kitchen.

A little shelving unit that we Berry-ized.

Looking from the dining area to the front door. It is kind of a long hallway with some modern art on the walls. We rearranged some of the artwork around the house and we actually kind of like it.

Our guestroom/office. This is the only bedroom on the 1st floor and it is a perfect guest suite. We have already had 6 visitors and we are just waiting for more!

We have a little front patio as well.

We have a detached one car garage. It comes in very handy for storing our bikes, stroller and a few other things.

The incredible view off of the deck/out our living room window. There is a fairway down below; not too shabby for "starving students".

We go on a walk every evening on the golf course. We see lots of people with their dogs, occasionally hit some balls, and Truman loves every second of being outside. We are really liking Flagstaff and our place, and we also love having visitors.

Cupcakes

2010-09-23T21:55:00.005-07:00

Before we left for Flagstaff, I got together with Amanda and Wendy Scott. Wendy taught us how to decorate cupcakes with fondant.

My lovely flower cupcakes.

Everyone's creations: Wendy made the witches hat in preparation for her annual Halloween party and Amanda made the 2 beautiful flowers on the left.

I told Rick I would make him a special "boy" cupcake, so he got a referee's shirt. Thanks Wendy! It was really fun and as always a blast to hang out.

Do You Smell That...

2010-09-23T21:21:00.006-07:00

Here is a photo taken from our neighborhood of a nearby plant. Do you recognize that symbol?

Yep, that's right, a good ole Purina puppy chow plant right down the road. We noticed that it smelled, or should I say reeked, like dog food one night on our walk and then we noticed the building with the Purina symbol on it. It continues to smell like dog food every few days when we are out on our walk in the evening. Just one of the interesting things you find out when you move to a new place. And we have been trying to teach Truman that if you smell food like that you don't want to eat it! ha ha!

Road Trip Part 6 The Rockies/Whistler

2010-09-18T12:21:00.020-07:00

We continued on after Banff and Lake Louise with no real major stops until Whistler, but the drive was amazing. Below are some pictures from the trip across the Canadian Rockies and Whistler.

This was a random stop we made one day to feed Truman and get some lunch.

These were a couple of our favorite pictures from the trip.

This is the hotel at 3 Valley Gap.

They had a camel, llama, chickens, cows, donkey and goats at this dairy.

This was a recommended stop by the Campbell's. We are glad we took their advice the ice cream was really good!

Scenes like this made the drive more than bearable.

We stopped in Whistler for the day before heading to Vancouver.

Our future Olympian.

We did the peak to peak gondola in Whistler. The gondola was huge and we were lucky enough to get one to ourselves.

Truman and Daddy, just hangin' out.

Views from the gondola.

Truman's first time seeing snow!

Random cougar carving at the village atop one of the peaks.

This looked like a little man made pond or lake. It was just down from the resort on one of the peaks. The color was absolutely stunning. I imagine it is more glacier water.

We took the Sea to Sky Highway from Whistler down to Vancouver. Our camera ran out of batteries after Whistler, so we don't have any pictures, but it was beautiful. We highly recommend it if you are ever in Vancouver. We stopped along the way at this waterfall and thought to take a couple of photos with my phone and they actually turned out pretty well. Way to go Blackberry!

Road Trip Part 5 Banff/Lake Louise

2010-09-18T10:48:00.020-07:00

We left Okotoks and the Campbell's and headed

across the Canadian Rockies to Vancouver.

The first 2 stops we made along the way were Banff and Lake Louise.

We had to get some chocolate when we got to Banff.

We got a Bear Claw...amazing! Like a turtle, but giant and with cashews.

Then, we jumped on the gondola at Lake Louise. We saw this mama bear and her 2 cubs! We were so excited.

Here is a closer picture of the Grizzlies.

Rick and I at the top of the gondola.

You can see Lake Louise right above Rick's head.

It was pretty chilly. So one of the first things we did in Banff was get Truman this hat. It came in handy for a lot of the trip.

He liked the gondola ride.

Happy boy!

I think we counted 22 of these gophers on the lawn at the lodge when we were getting off of the Gondola.

Giant black bird that was in the parking lot.

Water at Lake Louise.

Lake Louise

I had never seen such a beautiful lake.

Truman got zipped up a lot when he was carried in his Bjorn, but he doesn't like his arms zipped up apparently. haha!

Road Trip Part 4 Stampede/Okotoks

2010-09-15T21:59:00.019-07:00

Our next stop was Karen's home town of Okotoks and the Calgary Stampede. Basically the Stampede is the reason this whole trip got planned. Karen has had a standing invitation for me to come up and go to the Stampede for many years and we figured we could actually swing it this summer. Then, the planning began and it mushroomed into a 25 day road trip with a 5 month old. Here are days 9-12.

Here we are at the entrance to the Stampede. It is like a really big AZ State Fair with more live entertainment and a giant rodeo. We were randomly selected to have our bags checked and Rick was almost thrown in Canadian jail for having an illegal weapon in his backpack. It was a can of mace that my grandpa gave me for Christmas one year (he gave one to all of the girls), but Rick agreed to let them keep it and so we were allowed to enter.

Karen and I in the Indian Village with a creepy crow.

I had never seen a "teepee closed" sign... I wonder what was in it.

Trying on Cowboy hats at the Lammle's Western Wear Tent. Karen worked here one summer.

It's an over sized hat. It's funny.

Riding some buckin' broncos and supporting Alberta Beef.

We couldn't leave Canada without a photo with the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, aka the Mounties.

We couldn't pass this up!

Yep, deep fried pickles. Delicious! We also had bison burgers, which were pretty good. The meat was a lot more tender than ground beef...I love fair food, too bad I don't have the metabolism to eat it on a more regular basis.

This was a little show we stopped to watch. They were French Canadian Comedian/acrobat type performers. We also went to a basketball dunking show...they jumped off of trampolines, so I wasn't super impressed. Also, we went to a high dive act, and we went to an ice skating show that was pretty good. It had Olympic skaters and sweet classic rock music. Good times.

The chucks! (or chuck wagon races) The Campbell's hooked us up with some sweet tickets to the Grand Stand show which includes the famous chuck wagon races that I had heard so much about from Karen over the years. We had great seats and they were really fun to watch.

A better view of the stadium and of course the Budweiser team.

Rick and I at the Grand Stand show. (Karen was with us too.) After the chuck wagon races the shows started. There was a comedian, kids show choir type performance, acrobats, motocross guys doing some crazy stuff and a singing and dancing type of performance. Quite the show.

Enjoying our last day at the Campbell's.

Photo op at "Campbell Corner" with our wonderful hosts. We had so much fun and the Campbell's were so generous to us and they even baby sat. Thanks for everything!!

Road Trip Part 3 Cardsten/Waterton

2010-09-12T10:33:00.017-07:00

After spending the day at Writing on the Stone, we headed across the prairies of Southern Alberta to spend the night in Cardsten.

We thought the prairie was beautiful. There were yellow, purple and pink flowers along the way.

We spent the night at this bed and breakfast, which was slightly interesting due to the awkward girl that served us at dinner that night.

Mark and Louise had to leave unexpectedly in the morning because they found out that a long lost relative from Denmark would be in Calgary the day.

Rick and I were able to do some sealings at the Cardsten, Alberta temple in the morning before we headed for Waterton with Karen.

Waterton is the Canadian side of Glacier National Park in Montana.

This is the historic hotel in Waterton, I think it is called the Price of Whales.

It was SUPER windy, but the scenery was amazing.

There were deer all over the town and they would let you get pretty close. This is one of 2 little bambi's we saw crossing the street with their mom.

This was our lunch stop. It was run by a couple of young LDS brothers, we could tell because the kid taking orders looked like he was about 12, but he was wearing a wedding ring and then he told someone he and his brother were the owners. Good weiners!

We hung out by the river for Truman's lunch break. The glacier water is amazing and so clear and blue. It looks like Caribbean water.

I loved Waterton! It was absolutely beautiful and the town feels sort of like a miniature more homey Park City.

Here is a glacier lake. Pretty amazing how beautiful and clear everything is.

Finally, we saw some buffalo on our way out.

Road Trip Part 2

2010-09-11T16:30:00.012-07:00

Next, we were off to Southern Alberta. We made a quick overnight stop in Helena, Montana before meeting up with the Campbell clan at Writing on the Stone Provincial Park.

There appeared to be a random Christus statue along the highway in Montana. This was the best picture I could get out the window and I haven't found anything on the Internet....

Here are some photos from Writing on the Stone.

Hiking with the Campbell Clan.

Pretty cool rock formations and the Milk River.

Some ancient petroglyphs, thus the name, Writing on the Stone.

Then, we went and floated down the Milk River.

It was really fun and shallow, so it wasn't too cold.

Don't worry, I got beached at about this point because either it was too shallow, my tube was leaking air (it really was we heard it hissing when we got in, which made me nervous until I realized the water was about 2.5 feet deep), or I just hadn't lost enough baby weight yet! haha!

Road Trip Part 1

2010-09-11T16:00:00.010-07:00

We planned and accomplished a 3 week road trip in July. We left at about 8pm on July 8th and drove through the night to Provo.

We stopped in P-town at Patrice and Dave's to take a nap after the all night drive. And we were able to catch up with Kelsey for a couple of hours too. It was the first time I'd seen her since she left for her mission. It was really good to catch up and Truman liked her too!

Then, we headed to Salt Lake for a short visit with Rick's grandpa on our way to Twin Falls. We had a really good visit he sat and talked with us for a while and Rick was able to express his love to his Grandpa and Grandpa did like wise. He told us he loved us and kissed our hands and we returned the gesture. This would turn out to be our last visit with him and it was a good one.

On to Twin for the Berry family reunion! We had a good time with the family and we were able to stay a few extra days to help Joe and Cindy do some work in their kitchen. Patrice and her girls were able to stay and help too. We stripped wallpaper, painted the cabinets and painted the walls. They were waiting to have new counter tops and a back splash put in after we left.I can't wait to see the finished product.

We were also able to get together with Rick's friends a couple of times when we were there. Her is Truman and Sofia, Greg and Tasha's little girl. She is 8 months and totally looks like the Gerber baby, so cute! Truman is about 4 1/2 months in this picture.

4th of July

2010-07-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

This year's 4th of July was a little different, instead of telling everyone that we were going to have a baby, we actually spent it with our little person.

Here he is wearing the onesie we used last 4th of July to inform my parents & siblings that we were expecting.

Our festive sneakers.

All in all a good Sunday 4th and always a great day to remember how blessed we truly are to live in this country eventhough at times we may not agree with our political leaders or some of the other things that legally go on around us. When I take a step back and look at the freedoms I enjoy and safety that I feel both physically and economically compared to others in this world, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Mr. Bob Davis

2010-06-26T16:11:00.002-07:00

Truman and Bob just happened to be matching one day last week. Bob is so nice! He carries Truman around when we come in to work out and Truman absolutely loves him.

Thanks for the Nebraska shirt Coach Bob!

Cutest Picture EVER!

2010-06-20T09:47:00.002-07:00

I don't know, maybe I'm bias, but I think this is the cutest picture ever taken.

Months 3 & 4

2010-06-20T09:19:00.008-07:00

Truman just went in for his 4 month check up. He now measures 26.5 inches (90 - 95th percentile), weighs 16.1 lbs (75th percentile) and his head circumference measures 16.5 inches (25 - 50th percentile).

We're hoping he keeps growing tall and that he inherits Julie's basketball skills...maybe we could retire early.

He's doing much much better now. He's sleeping through the night and his medication is helping a lot. We love him more and more each day. Here's some updated pictures.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-19T16:18:00.003-07:00

Rick celebrated his first Father's Day this year. He had no meetings before Church, which was nice, so we got to hang out a little as a family. After Church we headed over to my parents for dinner.

Rick is an amazing Dad! We have been blessed in that Rick gets to stay home with Truman a few days a week while I go to work. They will get to do this until we move to Flagstaff and Rick starts PT school at the end of August. They have become the best buddies! I love to watch them together. It makes me love Rick even more :) They are the cutest boys in the whole wide world!!

BLOW OUT!!

2010-06-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of one of Truman's most recent and best blowouts!

I think the Baby Bjorn aided greatly in all of the poo coming out the leg-holes

and leaving nothing in the bottom of the diaper.

Nothing like a good poop shower to start your day, huh Rick... Enjoy!

Organ Stop Pizza

2010-06-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

I ended up taking the CFA exam this past Saturday (I didn't really study this time because we had Truman during the months I should have been studying). Needless to say I wasn't too nervous or anxious for the test because I knew it was basically a wash this year, but I'm interested to see how I do compared to last year.

Anyway, sitting in a test for hours on a Saturday always calls for some type of celebration after. We headed to Organ Stop Pizza for the first time with my friends from high school, Faith and Jessica. Man is that organ HUGE! It was fun to catch up with the girls, see Jess's kids and listen to some crazy organ music while chowing down on some pizza. The guy playing the organ was amazing! Everything he played was from memory, pretty impressive.

Truman's First Dip

2010-06-06T21:45:00.002-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Cross had a swimming party on Memorial Day this past week so we went and got Truman some sunscreen, swim diapers, a Froggie friend and some sweet shades. He absolutely loved the water and just had the best time hangin' out.

New Desk

2010-06-01T13:24:00.004-07:00

Julie has an uncle named Chuck. Uncle Chuck is a master carpenter. Anyone who has seen his work can't help but be amazed at how good it really is. I am no exception. So, I decided that while I have the opportunity I would love to make a piece of furniture with him.

With the upcoming responsibility of school fast approaching, I knew that I would be studying a lot, so with Julie's approval we decided that if he was willing, we'd like it if I could help him build us a desk (which could also function as a console table for future use). He, being the nice uncle he is, agreed.

The following are some pictures of the final product. It's made of a combination of ash and mahogany wood:

Mother's Day

2010-05-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

I officially celebrated Mother's Day this year as a Mom. I still can't believe that I am a Mom sometimes. I look at Truman and just think, "You are going to be around for the rest of my life...that's crazy!" But I really like being a Mom, my little boy is so cute and I love everything about him (even the screaming at times because he mixes it up and comes up with some rather entertaining cries). I am so thankful to have a healthy baby and for the blessing he is in my life, his little smile and coos make every minute of lost sleep worth it.

We were in Utah for the weekend for Rick's Grandma's funeral, and stayed with Alicia's family and she had a card on my bed that said to open on Mother's Day. When I opened it there was a cute pair of earrings with strawberries on them along with the card and a thoughtful note. I love the earrings and the message that came with them! Thanks Alicia, that was really thoughtful.

We went to church with Dave and Patrice and Rick took care of Truman for most of church which was great. Then, they gave us cinnamon rolls in Relief Society! Best Relief Society ever! Rick gave me a massage that night, which is one of my favorite things. I have a great husband. I also, got to talk with my Mom and wish her a happy Mother's Day. All in all, a great 1st Mother's Day.

When we got home, my parents gave me this card that sums up the last few months and a charm that I have been wearing on a necklace. I love them both!
My Mom is awesome! I am so grateful for her example and all that she does for our family. She is one strong lady and I look up to her in so many ways.

I'm glad we celebrate Mother's Day, and I can't wait until my kids are old enough to make me funny things like macaroni necklaces and letters telling me their favorite things about me...you know, the kind that their primary teachers have to write because they are too little to write it themselves, and then you wish that maybe they wouldn't have told their primary teachers some of their

"favorite things" about you! Those are going to be fantastic!

Mr. T. In Action

2010-04-26T20:05:00.002-07:00

Truman's Second Month

2010-04-25T14:21:00.007-07:00

This week we had Truman's two month check up. He weighed in at 13 lb's and grew 2 inches to a height of 24 in, which put him in the 75th percentile in both categories.

Over this month his reflux has seemed to get a little better. At the beginning of the month he was really struggling between feedings because it was so bad. If we weren't holding/swaddling him he seemed to just want to cry. But we went in to see Dr. Garrett and she prescribed some medication for him (Zantac I believe it was). He did a little better when we gave him two dosages a day, but still wasn't showing significant signs of improvement, so we took him in again, she upped the dosage to three times a day and he has been doing a little better each day since.

After his feedings he is really starting to be fun. He laughs and smiles at you...it's enough to make your heart melt. It makes all the frustrating times worth it.

Here's some pictures of the little guy's growth progress from week to week over the second month.

Weeks 5 & 6

Week 7

Week 8

Truman's Baby Blessing

2010-04-03T22:39:00.006-07:00

We had the opportunity to give Truman his first blessing this past Sunday. My parents and sisters were able to come down from Idaho and Utah to spend some time with us and meet baby Truman.

While they were here we decided to show them a real good time, so we went to the Arizona Botanical Garden and go to the butterfly exhibit. It was awesome; they imported all these different varieties of butterfly's and a couple different types of moths from Florida. It was pretty fun to have them land on you and to be able to get up close and personal with them.

It was a really enjoyable weekend and we were so happy to have been able to spend it with family.