Washington, DC - Cherry Blossoms, Friends & a Wedding

We had SUCH a great time in Washington, DC last weekend. This is a picture of Heather (Fortuna) and Michael Bush at one of my favorite restaurants, The Carlyle Grand Cafe. Heather and Michael just got married a few months ago and Heather is one of my best friends in the whole world!! So great to see you guys!
The purpose of our trip was to attend another dear friend's (Kristina Khona) wedding. Kristina and Aaron met and live in NYC, but Kristina and I used to live in DC at the same time and also worked in the DC temple together for years. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. Congratulations Kristina and Aaron - we love you so much!
We had fondue at Amber's house on Friday night - you'll see a couple shots like this. How cute is Matt... I always want to kiss him, but you add chocolate to the mix and he's even more tempting! (My kids will think that's so gross...) Sweet Matt was thinking of Kayla the entire weekend with all of the flowers in bloom in DC at this time of year. Every time we passed by some (whether it be a park or a gas station) he wanted to take a picture to show Kayla. He's such a good dad.

I love how much my friends adore Matt and Matt adores them, and I always hoped that whoever I married would really get how important to me my friends are. This is Amber, Jill Chappel (aka Chappy) and Matt piled on Amber's couch.
Choco-Chappy
Another dear friend is Richelle Hobbs - oh how I love this girl (she's the one in the red sweater). She joined our fondue party and we all ended up telling stories until 2am. Talk about being sleepy and still laughing at the same time...
Kristina and Aaron were sealed in the Washington, DC Temple, and it was so much fun to take Matt there with me. I worked there for 7 years and have talked about it so much to him. It was a beautiful day outside, too, and I loved being back there with Matt.
So at 3:15am on Sunday morning, March 30, there was a crazy car accident outside the window. This truck was (obviously) upside down and there were other cars involved, too. Soon there were 5 fire trucks and 5 ambulances, police cars, etc... pretty dramatic RIGHT outide your window!

Me, Matt and Amber at the Rio on Friday night.

Easter Weekend with the Stockwells

Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008
Lot's of Stockwell kids (and this is only a fraction of 'em).
The "moms" took off to get mani/pedi's while the kids stayed with Grandma Sue.
Each Easter Sunday, Grandma Sue (Stockwell) has this wonderful tradition of going through the Easter story from the scriptures by placing little symbols in individual plastic eggs, along with the scriptural reference that applies. The kids can each take a turn reading through the whole story and sharing it with us.
After the easter egg hunt!

Deanna & James in Town March 6th-8th!

We have been so spoiled with visitors this last week! Deanna and James are the kids' aunt and uncle in town from Wisconsin (Deanna is Kara's sister) whose wedding the kids were actually in last August! We had so much fun with them in town - snowboarding, snowmobiling and a special dinner to honor Kara's birthday on last Saturday night. Please come again soon!

Sarah Shelden in Town March 7th!

Sarah may kill me for posting this but how could I not??? Aren't they a beautiful couple...

Chappy in Town March 4th!

We love it when Jill comes to town! So much fun. I was stuck at work a little late so she hung out with Matt and Kayla for a few until I pulled in, and I've been hearing about her High School Musical songs that she entertained Kayla with ever since. Miss you, Jill!

Holly's Baby Shower - March 1st!

So excited to meet Holly's baby very soon! We had a very fun shower for her earlier this month and are so happy for the Jacobsen's!!!

Matt's Perfect Day... Ugh...

This is a "perfect day" for Matt and Nate. Kayla and me? Not so much... This was Martin Luther King Day in January and I'm still recovering. And, yes, this is Nate snowmobiling in our FRONT YARD. AnyWHERE, anytime...

Sushi Night!

Scott and Erika came over last night and treated us all to hand-rolled/home made sushi! Scott and Glen (Goodsell... who is in town with his son, Noah) met years ago when Scott was Glen's fly-fishing guide. Matt was then introduced, and we've had fun double-dating with them and getting to know them better. Scott is an amazing sushi chef! Take a look at what he did (he even tempura-fried some for me! I love anything tempura fried...!).
This is Scott and Erika Shubin with Scott's impressive display! Thank you, Scott and Erika!

If Geese is Plural for Goose, is Meese Plural for Moose?

Kenny and Pam Moser go up to an area near Jackson Hole each year (called Moose, Wyoming), and they've invited us for a couple of years in a row, now. Obviously we were honeymooning last year, but this year we were totally in and had a blast! There are these individual little cabins that each couple stays in (there were 7-8 couples) and then a center lodge where a chef prepared the most amazing meals throughout the day for us. At night we watch movies and play cards (or in our case, backgammon) and then get up in the morning to breakfast and the most intense snowmobiling. Guides take you back into these mountains, as there aren't groomed trails! The cool thing about having multiple guides, and staying at an all-inclusive dude ranch, is that every time your sled gets buried (often in my case!), the guide digs you out! Matt LOVED this!

There were so many moose wandering around each day - we saw hundreds of them. Thanks for inviting us Kenny and Pam!

First Anniversary, February 3, 2008!

Happy First Anniversary! We had SUCH a fun anniversary weekend. We started off with Friday night taking the kids out for a "family anniversary" - we went to Thanksgiving Point to a restaurant called Harvest. Then we went to see the movie August Rush.

This was the nice display that the Grand America Hotel left for us in our room. When Matt made the hotel reservation they had it in their system that we had our wedding there a year ago, and they were very attentive to us on our anniversary... very fun.

We took this picture while waiting for our train!


Family photo for the one-year anniversary!

I'm spoiled by these two...

So here's a shot from inside the train (not really a train... it's "trax" in Salt Lake City). Matt and I had this great idea to take trax downtown for our anniversary get-away so that we could feel like we were really traveling somewhere. Corny as it is, it was actually really fun and it started off and ended the trip in a different way. Matt is so much fun to hang out with - I knew this before I married him but I love to constantly rediscover this about him.

Cute Matt outside our train stop.

Our room was so nice! There was a separate sitting area from where the bed/TV was; like a little apartment.

Cancun!

What a great way to kick off the new year - and get away from the cold Utah winter! Matt and I, (and 14 other friends/coworkers) squeezed in a quick (4-day) trip to Cancun last week. It was so nice! Weather in the mid-80's, beautiful beaches and Mayan ruins. This was a work trip so it wasn't just for fun, but it's a good thing that I adore my coworkers, and it's not too difficult to work in such a setting.

Sadie, Sadie Rae, Schweebo, s-m-waheeebboooo, the Perkifier, to be continued...

Meet our pup... the member of our family who gets more love, attention, screams and kisses than the rest of us combined. Sadie was born on November 24, 2006 and joined our family on February 2, 2007. She is a mini-poodle-shih-tzu-mix, weighing 7.5 lbs. Favorite trait: crazy paws when you return home.

Snow Fun

Matt insisted that we get a holiday wreath for our front door that read, "Let It Snow." Festive as it was, that is so HIM (and Nate) to beg for the snow all season long. I think snow is pretty, sure, but I am constandly freezing (ask anybody), so I'm not as on-board as they are. I must admit that Matt has out-fitted me warmly, as promised, and I have taken on both snowboarding and snowmobiling along with the fam. Matt went snowmobiling twice in 3 days. I go about 2 Saturday's a month (Kayla's a bit more on my schedule). I'm getting pretty good! Anytime any of you want to visit we will take you out - you'll love it.

Cute niece, Mira. A California little girl who LOVED the snow.

Welcome to my new life... these are my boys.

Out with the old, in with the new...year!

Festive family room...
Christmas morning kids (and pup)...
This Christmas was FABULOUS and the kids were perfect. We have such grateful kids!! Being our first Christmas as a family, I was all about traditions (trying, anyway...), starting with Christmas breakfast, which meant waking up even earlier than was already necessary to get that going (so that we could eat as soon as presents were opened). I made a yummy breakfast strata and then a (fattening to say the least) coffee cake. They loved it, and that tradition begins. I kind of got that idea from my mom who, growing up, would make these great quiches for General Conference weekends. Same idea. Anyway, the day was really wonderful - and I loved how the kids were sooo excited to GIVE their gifts. Seriously, they were distracted from getting them when it came to whose turn it was to give one. So cute. That evening we had a large family dinner (26!) at our house. My mom has begun a new tradition where every individual family participates somehow during Christmas dinner. We all took a letter of the word CHRISTMAS and did something Christmas/holiday/seasonal related with that letter. The Stockwell's had "S" - Nate and Kayla proceeded to come up with 44 s-words (from snow to sleigh bells to spirit to Santa) and found this clever website that makes a crossword puzzle for you out of any words you type in. We also read a story ("You Are Special" - get it, "s"pecial), and then Kayla led the family in a Christmas carol on the piano. Others read a poem, sang a song, gave a thought, etc. We all were laughing and loving all of it. I will say, however, that next year we'll let someone ELSE host dinner at their home. Between hosting both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners this year, we're tired... :)

For New Year's Eve we started out at (brother) John and Tre's house with the Seron's, Martindale's, my parents, and us, for dinner and games, etc. (eye-clopse anyone?). Then we (Stockwells) left to go join our neighborhood party. We sang karaoke (Matt dominated that microphone... latent rock-band desires), and, yes, I sang. It was mortifying and fun and we LOVE our neighbors/neighborhood. Happy New Year!