Raspberry boxes.

Brian, his dad, and his brother, Daren spent hours Saturday building raspberry planter boxes and filling them with dirt.  We are SO grateful for their help—with Brian’s time being so limited because of busy season, we did not have the hours to do it alone.  They all worked so hard and were pretty sore afterward.  Thank you guys!

Brian, Daren, & DeWin discussing their plan.

Elna wanted in on the action.

You can’t see the raspberry plants very well because they just look like little twigs sticking out the dirt, but there are 20 of them all together.  We can’t wait for them to grow!

Birthday celebrating.

I had a birthday- yay!  It was a happy day filled with very generous people-- I felt very loved.  My in-laws took the family to Wicked.  I was nervous about leaving Elna with a babysitter (who wasn’t family) for the first time.  I wasn’t as nervous for Elna, but for the babysitter who would have to deal with Elna if she woke up.  Elna is pretty attached to us these days, which is flattering I guess, but not easy for babysitters.  Our friend Dianne was so generous to come and spend a long evening at our house while Elna slept.  Luckily Elna never really woke up!

I had no real expectations for Wicked.  I’d heard raving reviews, but knew so little about it that I wasn’t sure how I would like it.  Needless to say, I now understand the hype.  It was great!  Thank you, DeWin and Barbara!

Saturday, when Brian got home from work, he, Daren and Dad spent the afternoon and evening building our raspberry planter boxes.  Then we a little family party with pizza at our house and some fun pastries from a vegan bakery.

Thank you everyone for making my birthday special!

The many faces of Elna.

We are head over heels!  In love!

Fairfield & Sisters 2012.

Brian sent me and Elna to Fairfield for the last two weeks of March because he was working like a crazy man (tax season).  The first few days I was in Fairfield we also had our Sisters weekend.  Ofelia came from Hawaii, Rebecca from Virginia, and Annie from Utah.  We had a great time together.  We visited our Grandpa Clark at his home with lunch one day.  We (and I don’t mean me because I mostly was chasing my little girl around) did a lot of heart crocheting.  We ate yummy food and talked a lot.  I love my sisters and mom!

On our way to Grandpa’s.

With her Aunt Annie.

With her Aunt Ofelia (left) and Grandpa Clark (right)

The sisters and Elna with Grandpa Clark.

Playing with her baby doll—a friend of ours in my home ward (Marian Peterson) gave this doll to Elna.  Elna loves it!

Lots of crocheting.

I think this picture is funny—Annie and I are trying to get Elna to be happy (Elna is having a full on tantrum!)

After church and with our Sisters gifts—Me (coconut oil), Mom (Keep Calm and Carry On necklace (x2—she made one and bought one), Nauvoo temple star charm for our charm bracelets, and a little temple envelope to carry things like chapstick and mints), Ofelia (beach cover-up/wrap & a Jelly Belly charm), Rebecca (a bag of fun things that she had used coupons to get and a personal lesson for me on how to coupon!), and Annie (a tea set from England)

After the girls all went home, Elna and I stayed another week and a half.  Mom and I had a great time trying and creating fun recipes.  We cleaned out and reorganized Mom’s kitchen cabinets, I organized and labeled all of her spices while she did some mending for me, and we made a cookbook of all of the recipes we use all of the time with room to add to.  It was a very productive time.

Elna spent as much time as possible doing this:

“How big is Elna?” This is her putting her arms up in response—“so big!”

Elna’s first haircut—and my first time giving a girl a haircut.  Her Grandy entertained and distracted her long enough for me to get a pretty good cut.

I realized when we got to the airport to fly home that Elna had no pictures with her Grandy, so we took a quick picture.  We were excited to go home to Brian, but we really miss having wonderful company all day while Brian is away at work.