Bachelorette for a weekend...

First off- can I just say how much I LOVE getting compliments about how Danelle looks like me! One of my favorite things about having a daughter is seeing her act and (start to) look like me...
Now with that said- I have a wonderful husband who offered to take Danelle with him on his work trip to Missouri (2 hrs from where his parents live). They spent 4 days out there and that meant lots of time for me to.......

shop like crazy... (outlets, IKEA, the container store, make-up, plus getting my hair done by a friend for free!)House projects such as painting Danelle's room...Painting the play room...AND my biggest project which involved playing with Lane's tools...

After:
Before:I LOVE moldings the way most girls love shoes and handbags.
I'd much rather spend $40 on some molding than a pair of shoes- call me crazy I know!

(and don't worry- there was a lot of sitting around, reading, and no dishes or cleaning going on too! ;)

Still Laughing...

I put this up on my facebook last week, but had to put it up here too...

Check out her sweet dance move:

4th of July

Events of the day... short and sweet:

Played @ our neighborhood pool
Tested some sparklers and blackcats


BBQ'd with friends
Waiting for fireworks
Our group at the parkGod Bless America! We love our country!

Before and After

My ever-so-skillful husband has done it again!

Everyone (especially me) loves a before and after so here is our latest:

BEFORE

AFTER*if you didn't notice... he added a row of tile between the kitchen table and the tv room, as well as the tile leading to the back door & around the fire place!

BEFORE
AFTER(this is the door on the other side)I still need to finish painting...


On my end of the house projects... on a much smaller scale... I decided to paint the inside of our pantry door with chalkboard paint so that I could make a menu list/ shopping list. Helpful for my husband when he constantly occasionally asks whats for dinner
For Danelle's before and after, she decided to lay beside her 4 week old buddy Ty to show us all how big she has gotten! (she really did just walk over and lay beside him like this :)
I love this kid- & her belly!!!

Hello Summer!

She's pretty darn cool in her sunglasses.


Her gang of buddies at the pool (Kim M. hung out with us for a day!)

Enjoying our evenings in the hammock- getting some love from Cole.

Eatin' at Hula Hut, down by the lake.The Children's Museum- ya, she's still number one in our book!

Utah Trip

On our way up to Jackson Hole we stayed in Salt Lake & Logan for a little while. Even though we make it back about twice a year, it seems there are so many friends we want to visit with- and not always the time to do so!

Here are a few of the highlights:

Erin (who now has 3 very cute boys- one of which took our pic!)
Danelle *Sr. where we got our daughters name from if you ever wondered! and her family at their cabin in Star Valley.A group of Calif. High School friends: Erin, Emily, Jamie, Becky (& Zach- not pictured) and we all have girls-7 total!!!

Four Generations - of blue eyes! Nice cheesy grin Danelle...
And the awesome Hunsaker's are always fun to see- Blake is one of the few that survived as Lane's rommate at college.
Zack and Lane golfing. Feel free to ask Lane how many times he golfed or fished on this trip ;)

5 Year Anniversay Trip

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to us today!!!Eating at Bordeaux's for our Anniversary dinner- amazing food!

We celebrated by going on a trip up to Jackson Hole, Wy... just Lane and I ;)
(and now Lane can't stop thinking about how we can somehow live there...)
Lance (one of Lane's college roommates) and Corrina Anderson came up for one of the nights we were there and we had a lot of fun walking around town shopping, eating out, & relaxing in the hot tub. Can you believe these mountains!
This is the same spot that Ansel Adams took his Teton/Snake River shot below... Lane has it hanging in his office he likes it so much.
We also headed up to Yellowstone and got to see Old Faithful! Cool- but smaller than I thought.

The view from the top of our hike. We had a day of some rain and cooler weather but it was still so nice to be in the mountains again.
Home on the range... lots of buffalo.

I honestly couldn't ask for a better 5 years of marriage! We have been so blessed and I only hope that we can continue on the next few years and be just as lucky!

Happenings of the Week

This week we:

• Went to a kids carnival at the parkFound out Danelle is a domestic goddess and loves to do dishes just like her mom in dressy outfits. *she is all things water these days!
  
• 
• Played at Goin' Bananas, a place with inflatables for lil' kids.
  

• Introduced Danelle to (toddler) story time at the library. That's her up front with the teacher. Maybe going into nursery next week for the first time will help a little... She eats crayons too.
  

And had play dates at the park and the pool (forgot to take pool pictures- but come on I photographed everything else!)


* this really is for Lane in case he ever asks what we do all day.... :)

It's signing time!

(she does get a little distracted but I FINALLY got her on video- as Aunt Jensa requested!)

We started out teaching her a few basic signs (food, milk, all done and more) so that eating time wouldn't have to be so messy. She loved doing signs so much that we kept teaching her more... Believe me we never intended her signing to be "Hey look at how smart my kid can be!" It was just simply because we didn't want to deal with whining or tantrums! (and what parent does!)

Here are some of the things she can tell us now:
food
milk
all done
more
cracker
cheese
bananna
help
cat
dog
flower
bird
sleep
outside
shoes
ball
hi (bye)
eyes
nose
mouth
daddy

Any requests for the next sign we teach her?

WANTED: 1 boat (and willing to sell soul for it)

Oh how we would love to own a boat! We almost had one given to us, but after it not working out we have had to turn to some new friends to hold us over with theirs until we save enough $ (or win the lottery....) not sure which will happen first...
I'm mean for real- how many places can you go boating before Memorial Day? In the beautiful land of Texas it can be done! Granted it was a little on the cooler side (70's), it was still a nice day to be out on a lake- AND we learned to wake surf! Both Lane and I love to wakeboard but had never tried wake surfing- it was awesome!

Danelle loved the boat too! We had tested her on a short boat ride before but this was about 5 hours and she loved it! She even swam in the water with us!Snuggl'n with her daddy. (I think this was his favorite part of the day)Don't mind the paleness... it is only May...
Here's a clip of Lane channeling his inner child- using the rope swing... and at the end of the clip you can even hear Danelle giving her approval! :)