Snow Day

We are having quite the snow storm in St. George today!  This will be our 4th winter here and this is by far the most snow I have ever seen.  It usually snows once or twice a winter about an inch and melts by noon.  I think we have about 6 inches outside.  They even cancelled church tomorrow because St. George doesn't own any snow plows to plow the road so they are telling everyone to stay inside and not drive anywhere.

Luckily I bought Claire boots and gloves this past week!  We decided to take her out for her very first snow experience this afternoon.  She was all smiles (except when I took pictures, haha)!

We walked up the street and saw our neighbors making a huge snowman.

They needed Dan's help getting it all put together!

Cute snow baby and snow dad!

Swimming

Claire went swimming for her very first time yesterday at our neighborhood pool.  I wasn't sure how she would react but the minute I put her in her float she laid back and was all smiles!  It was so cute.  She loved relaxing in the pool.  I love the float we got for her.  It's so nice because she can sit in it and it has a shade cover.  We were only in the water for about 20 minutes and then she was done, but I think we will be making a lot more trips to the pool this summer.  On the walk home she fell asleep, guess all that swimming wore her out.

Here she is in the pool... she is so stinkin cute!

Loving the pool!

Baby and me :)

Friends

A couple of weeks ago our good friends, Miquette & Jon, & their baby, Elijah, came to visit.  Elijah is about 6 weeks older than Claire, so it was lots of fun having another little friend in the house.  We already decided one day they will probably get married :).  It was so nice having friends who also had a little baby here because they completely understood feeding schedules and nap time schedules.  Somehow we were able to work around both babies' schedules and have some fun!

The first night we went to eat the best pancakes in the world at the Black Bear Diner.  They agreed, they were the best pancakes they had ever eaten.  The next day we went walking (they were so excited to be in our warm weather) and while the men were working, Miquette and I (and the babies) went shopping and to Yogurtland.  The babies were angels and slept the whole time!  My favorite part while we were shopping was when Miquette was trying on clothes so I was standing with both babies, and a boy around 10 years old said to me... "are they triplets?"  hahaha what?  I showed him there were just 2 babies and only one of them was mine.  I told him I did not want that many babies!  haha :)  On Saturday before they left we did a little more shopping at the outlets and then had lunch at Chick-fil-a.

It was so great seeing them, we hope they come back soon!

Tummy time together!  Claire is working on it, even though she hates it.  One day she'll lift her head as good as Elijah!

Claire & Me, Miquette & Elijah.  So fun having babies about the same age!

On our walk.  Such great Dad's pushing the babies!

Snow

When we woke up this morning there was snow outside!  It's our third winter here and only the 2nd time we have seen snow in St. George.  It was a fun little Christmas surprise.  It melted off of my grass by noon, but it's still in the hills next to my house.  I was glad it didn't stick to the roads though.  It just looked pretty :).

Snow on the hills next to my house.

Solar Eclipse

Just a few weeks ago there was a solar eclipse (when the moon passes in front of the sun) and St. George just happened to be a great place to view it.  My sister Noelle, her husband, Jared, & his parents all drove down just to see it.  Along with them we also invited some neighbors over and had a little solar eclipse party in our front yard.  It ended up being one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

You have to wear these special glasses so the sun doesn't burn your eyes!

Noelle and me!

The neighbors!  More and more people showed up once they heard we had the best setup and treats!

I took this picture with my phone of the eclipse!  Even the camera lens had to be covered with the dark glasses.

My high tec brother in law was able to hook up his computer to their telescope, so everything you could see through the telescope also appeared on his computer screen.  It was so cool!  A great way for lots of people to see the eclipse close up.  Plus it was nice being able to come inside the air conditioned house for a break.

Once the sun went down we stayed out and used the telescope to look at the night sky.  We found Saturn!  This is the view through the telescope.  It was SO cool.  You could see it's rings, which was awesome!  It was a lot clearer in person, a little blurry on the camera.

It was such a fun evening!  We liked being astronomers for a day.

Yogurtland

I believe I have blogged about this lovely yogurt shop before... Yogurtland!  Yes, see my Las Vegas post and my Spring Break post (ok you really don't have to look back).  Both mention my most favorite yogurt shop ever.  I know there are a million frozen yogurt shops out there, but for some reason Yogurtland is my favorite.  They have awesome flavors and lots of toppings (fresh fruit is my favorite).  Any time we visit a city with a Yogurtland I make sure we stop there.  So anyway... why am I bringing this up again?  Because, great news... I just found out we are getting one in St. George!  I can't tell you how excited I am.  When I saw the signs in the store window I was literally jumping up and down in the parking lot (seriously, ask my brother and sister in law).  There was a time when I wanted a Yogurtland in St. George so much that I actually looked up how much it would cost to franchise one. Luckily someone else is footing that bill and I can just enjoy it in SG :).  I have a feeling I will be making weekly trips this summer.  Anyone wanna join me?

St. George now just needs a Zupas and I will probably live here forever.

the Backyard

I have been wanting to post pictures of our finished yard for a long time!  I think it's been done for a good month or so and we have been enjoying spending time in it.  Just last night we had neighbors over for some s'mores in our firepit and we'll be doing more s'mores this weekend with family.

Now for some pictures!  First, the before and after.  I forgot to take a photo before we started, so the before shot was actually taken while trenches were being dug for our sprinklers.  As you can see it was pretty much just dirt and a rock wall.  Now there's lots of grass, rocks, plants & trees!

I wish I could say our grass is always this green,
unfortunately it's not quite this beautiful now.

Now a few photos to give you a closer look...

Our patio.  We love playing games and eating dinner out here.

I mostly took this photo to show our orange tree!  It's growing in the brown pot.
I sure hope we get some oranges!

Our garden boxes!  Dan is a great gardener (he must have learned from his Dad).
He diligently waters our garden daily and our plants are much bigger now.
We have planted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe and honey dew.

Our fire pit!  One of my most favorite spots in the yard.
We look forward to many family and friend gatherings in this spot.

Our stairs made of stone.  Eventually we are going to put a gate at the bottom.

Lastly, my lilies!  These are my favorite flowers that grow here.  They love the heat!

And that concludes our backyard tour :).

The Johansens

Oh hello, yes we are still alive!  I know, it's been a while.  In fact, i've been meaning to write this post for weeks.  Back in the middle of April our friends, Alyse & Zach, came to visit!  They actually stayed at his parent's 2nd home in Hurricane, but we got to see them lots.  We had so much fun!  I told them they should just move down here and live in his parent's 2nd home, cuz why not?!  Alyse has been one of my best friends for a long time.  We've known each other probably since we were 3 and we've always been friends because we have the exact same birthday.  She is my twin!

While they were here we went to this fun restaurant and ate outside, went zip lining, went mini golfing twice, played games on our back patio, grilled delicious food, made s'mores in our firepit, and got huge shakes at Iceburg.  It felt like we were on vacation too!

Here are some pics of the fun times we had with the Johansens!

Zip Lining: 
Not sure what that is?  Basically you climb a tall tower, they hook your harness to these cables that are connected to another tower, then you jump off the first tower and ride down to the next tower.  Once I got to the top I freaked out a little, but we jumped and had a blast!  I am now ready to try another zip line (i'm thinking Park City this summer)!

In our harnesses and ready to go (the men decided not to do it though).

Mini Golf Game #1: 

See?  We are clearly twins :)

We love mini golf!

Alyse demonstrating her golf pose.  Zach was the mini golf champ.

Game Night:

I think we played our new game, the Logo game, three times while they were here.  And thanks to Dan's grandma, we had this awesome new patio set to play on.  That combined with warm evenings made it a perfect setting for games.  

Gamers and new patio set!

Check out the new outdoor lights we hung up.  I love them.  Thank you Target!

Mini Golf Game #2:

In case you were wondering, we went mini golfing on two different days.  All in the same day would have been a little much.  

Glow in the dark mini golf!  Couples pic on the zebra bench.

Glow in the dark golden gate bridge.

Always fun with Alyse & Zach!

And here's our creepy chicken.  Dan can't resist a good claw game.

Those are all of the pictures I took of our fun times.  Sorry if they are not the best quality, I have just gotten in the habit of taking pictures on my phone.  Thanks again for the visit, Alyse & Zach!

Celebrities

A lot of you have probably seen me post about this on facebook, but Dan started something in St. George called the STG Cash Mob.  It was quite a success and he was even on KSL news!  You can see me too :).  Click on this link to watch the news segment about it.  I am really proud of Dan for getting this idea and making it happen.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=19732402&title=cash-mob-surprises-local-business-with-show-of-support&s_cid=featured-3

Parade of Homes

In my last post I said I would blog about the Parade of Homes.  The Parade is my most favorite event in St. George!  I have been looking forward to it ever since last year's Parade.  This year I was even lucky enough to work at the Parade!  I worked as a host for Ivory Homes (same people who built our house), meaning I stood at the door and marked off people's tickets.  I had fun and enjoyed talking to lots of people and answering their questions (which most of the time I didn't even know the answer).  I was surprised to meet people from across the country who had come just to see the Parade.  I wish I took more pictures of the Ivory Home, because their decor was one of my favorites.  Unfortunately the only picture I snapped was of the bathroom because I liked the wallpaper and I'm considering a rectangle sink for our basement bathroom...

Loved the wallpaper!  What do you think... rectangle sink?

I took a few more pictures but they are mostly for Dan and I to get some ideas on what to do in our basement and backyard.  Here are a couple of fun things we saw though (neither of which we will be doing in our home)....

A 50s diner in a house?!  Odd, but picture worthy.  I personally wouldn't want it.

My dream fire pit!

Dan and I are planning on putting a fire pit in our backyard but I'm afraid it won't be nearly this awesome.  If we had the space though, this is what I'd want.  We are excited to have a fire pit though, s'more party at our house! :)

We loved the Parade this year.  We saw 25 of the 28 homes and got lots of great ideas for our home!  Can't wait til next year.

opening day

So happy I got my Kneaders french toast this morning.  Of course we were there for opening day!  I thought it would be crazy busy, but it wasn't.  I guess the people of St. George just have no idea of the goodness yet... that or they all just get up really early for breakfast?  We got there at 8:30.

The french toast slices were even thicker than the Provo store.  Maybe they're just getting the hang of it, but hopefully they will always be that thick.  Dan took the healthy route and ordered an omelet... i was shocked... he ended up finishing my french toast for me anyway though.  

Hooray for Kneaders!  Oh and did i mention this morning when we went out it was only 71 degrees?  I'm thinking I need to start running my errands in the morning before it reaches 100....

Best Splash Pad

This past weekend my brother and his wife came to visit us with their cute boys.  They have 4 boys, but only 3 were here.  The oldest was in AZ visiting his grandparents.  We had such a fun time with them and always love when they come to visit!

Friday night we got pizza and ate it at the park by our new house.  We then showed them how our house is coming along.  We also went swimming.  My sister in law, JanaRae, loves swimming!

On Saturday we visited the splash pad in downtown St. George.  It is so much fun!  I think the boys really loved it.  It is by far the best splash pad in St. George.  It has a big fountain area (like Gateway in SLC), but it also has a shallow river and small waterfalls for the kids to play in.  It is great for all ages too.  When we have kids we will definitely take them there all the time.  The other great thing is they just put a carousel in near the splash pad. After the kids were done playing they rode the carousel.  We got home and rested a bit then headed over to the pool for more swimming!

Ryan @ the splash pad

Andrew (don't worry, he is wearing some kind of swim diaper)

JanaRae & Andrew

My brother, Mark.  He took this photo and I had to post it!

Favorite aunt and uncle right here :) haha

Jake on the carousel

They chose me to be the adult rider to go with the kids.

Once it started moving Andrew cried and wanted to get off!

I felt bad, but there wasn't much I could do!

On Sunday they attended church with us.  It was fun because Ryan came to Sunbeams with me.  JanaRae also visited my class with Andrew for a bit because he hates nursery!

Thanks for visiting, guys!  Hopefully next time you come we have a new house to show you :)

Making progress

We just got back to St. George tonight.  I was in Northern Utah for about 10 days.  When we got back the first thing I wanted to do was see the progress of our house!  Last I saw it, it was a bunch of dirt.  They had dug out parts of it, but not much was there.  Today I was surprised to see this:

Front corner

Back view

I feel like they are really moving fast!  It is so exciting!  These pictures are of what will be the basement.  I have a feeling the next few months you may get sick of seeing all of the house pictures I post.  But I really want to document the process.  Looks like we are on schedule to finish in August :).  Can't wait!

Noelle & Jared

My sister Noelle & her husband Jared came to visit us last weekend!  Here are a few pics i snapped while they were here:

We took them to our favorite view spot, only this time it was windy & cold up there!

In the red rocks

We played bocce at the park!

I think we convinced Noelle & Jared to move here too :).  I hope!  haha... anyway it was lots of fun to see them.  They were super happy they chose to come down this past weekend too b/c it was still snowing in Provo.  In May!  Ridiculous.  I can't even remember the last time i didn't wear flip flops & shorts/capris down here....