CLAY!

Well it has been forever since I have posted and I thought I would post about Clay and his birthday! My little boy is now 2 years old! I can't believe it!

He is obsessed with choo choo's and can't get enough of them. He loves looking at pictures of them, playing with them, watching show with them, and reading books with them as well! He also loves Toy Story, so Toy Story 3 is perfect woody, buzz, and a choo choo!!! What more could a little boy ask for.

So for his birthday we decided to redo his bedroom. We ordered him a log bed that some people in providence made. It is awesome and he loves it. It came with a little side table, frame and bench that they engraved Clay on. I painted a choo choo on the wall, a must. We also got him a down comforter with a duvet cover that has cars all over it. We got some picture printed off and framed of the three of us and put them close to his bed. Last we got a night light that he loves to turn on and off.


Saturday we had family and friends over to celebrate. I made a choo choo rice crispy treat cake.


Grandma and Grandpa Hulse got him Buzz Lightyear. At first he was super confused as to how we got Buzz out of the tv. He loves it now and gets excited to see him on tv and in his living room. Porter, Kami and Avi got him some cars always good to have. The Kohler family got him tons of new tools and a car with a tool box on it! Also they got him some new choo choos that he carries with him everywhere and must sleep with them in his bed. More cars as well. Jen and Cody got him a play rug with a road on it to play with all of his new cars and choo choos! Jen made a super cute choo choo shirt that he also is in love with. You can never have to many trains or cars for this little boy. His birthday turned out perfect, he had a great time and crashed when everybody left.


For other updates, Mike is loving his new job at Logan River Academy. He has to take the boys skiing once a week, I know so sad for him. This new job has been great for me because he his home a lot more. I have been working at Prince Gallery once a week for a few hours, it has been a lot of fun. Other than that we are just getting ready for Christmas. We are going to St. Louis and leave Christmas Eve and come back New Years eve. I am really excited to see family even though not everybody with be there. Well that is all for now I am getting tired so my brain isn't working.

Arizona/Zion Trip!

Last week we went on a road trip to Arizona to go see Kerry and the fam. We had so much fun despite the fact that our car broke down on our way out of Logan, and I don't want to talk about it! We ended up leaving Sunday morning and drove all the way through to Arizona that night. We stopped about every 2 hours to let Clay get out and run around. We now have all of our kids movies memorized after this trip.

We had so much fun with Kerry and her family! It was so good to see them all. Monday we went to Sedona and had some yummy ice cream and walked around looking at fun shops. We went to go to slide rock, that we hear is really awesome, but it was CLOSED! Bummer. We just played around at a camp site and the older boys went and swam in the river.

We went on a hike Tuesday, to some caves that were really cool. The weather was super nice, lots of pine trees and we got to see a bunch of lava rock.


Wednesday we went to the Grand Canyon, the south rim. It was super pretty and kind of trippy, it made me a little dizzy to look at it. Now we really want to hike down into the canyon and stay in a lodge they have down there! It is like a two day hike though.

The whole gang

Me and Kerry

Thursday Kerry and her kids watched Clay for us and we got to check out Flagstaff! It was really fun, we went and looked at a bunch of different bike shops and drove by the college campus there. Then we went to this awesome shop that I would buy all my clothes from if I lived there. I got a rad owl necklace, a shirt for Clay that says B is for Bob (it has a pic of Bob Marley on it), Mike got a button that I can't remember what it says right now. Then we went and had sushi, fried alligator to be exact! It was super good! We also had seaweed salad, which I love, and some veggie rolls. Also that night we had some super yummy ribs that Kerry made, and then we headed off to Zion. We got there around midnight and set up camp.

Friday we got up and had to move our camp because the one we were at was reserved. We found another camp spot and headed out to Hike up Angels Landing. We were at the visitors center wandering around and this guy camp up to us and said "I know it is none of my business but I just have to ask, (points at Mike) you have a hat, (points at me) you have a hat, (points at Clay) and where is his hat?" He had just thrown it off his head so Scotty had it. Scotty held it up and said "it is right here!" The guys just thew his hands up and walked away. None of us said anything we were all like. . what just happened there. Then Mike yelled "you are right it is none of your business" Then we got on the bus to go on our hike! It was so much fun! I think every single person that passed us commented on Clay being in the backpack. He had a good time and learned to say tree on our hike. The view was beautiful! There was a part of the hike that was a bunch of switchbacks called walter's wiggles. I was cursing Walter as we were going up them, that was the hardest part. It was worth it though. We didn't stay on the top for very long because Clay wanted to run around and well that wasn't happening on top of a mountain! That night Travis and Megan got there. We made some yummy dinner, Scotty was making fun of my pasta and mashed potatoes combo. Then we roasted some marshmallows and had some smores. Travis and Megan slept in our tent with us and we sent up both of our air mattresses so the tent was one giant air mattress, it was super comfortable!

Where is his hat!!!! See how is hair sticks up. . . that is sunscreen.

Almost there!

View from the top

Back at camp relaxing in his new chair

Clay throwing rocks, his favorite activity

Saturday we got up and went on a short hike up to the. . I can't remember the name right now. Something pools. They were really pretty though! There were some big water falls that went over the trail. After that we got back to camp and it started to rain so we decided to go for a drive through the park. Then we went to some little shops and had dinner at this pizza place Mike always went to when he was there with the UCC.

The bus ride up to hike to the Emerald Pools (I just remembered what they were called!)

Sunday we woke up packed our stuff and headed home. The weather was supposed to be rainy the entire time, and Scotty was on his motorcycle! He survived it though, but did get hailed on for a minute. He did stop and get some dry clothes at a walmart along the way.

It was a great trip!!

Easter!! (little late I know)

So it has taken me a while to post about Easter, but I wanted to do it still even though it was a little while ago.

Saturday after work we drove to Travis and Megan's house. We met them to eat some dinner and then we were going to go home and color eggs. Mike went to their house to play with Clay, and we went to a few stores on a hunt for plastic eggs and a cute Easter basket for Clay. We ended up being gone for quite a while, but we got everything that we needed. By the time we got home Clay and Mike were both sound asleep. So we decided we would do the eggs the next day. We did however put candy in plastic eggs and hid them for Clay to find in the morning. After we did that we started working on some super cute onesies for Travis and Megan's baby. You can see them on Megan's blog, they all turned out really good, Travis even stitched one on!




So that morning Clay started finding the eggs before everybody was even up. He loved finding all the eggs and was putting them all in his basket and carrying his little basket around with him. It was so cute to watch him find them all. After that he was shaking them and one popped open and he discovered all the candy! WOO HOO! That is the best part.

After that happened we dyed eggs, and had a delicious lunch with ham, deviled eggs, potato salad and rolls. Then we drove back home to Logan and had a delicious dinner over at Jen and Cody's house. They did ham, yummy cheese potatoes, asparagus and rolls. It was a very good Easter weekend.

I already have another post I need to do about this weekend, because it was AWESOME, but that will have to wait until later because it is now my bedtime.

My visit to St. Louis

The last part of January I went to visit my mom and dad in St. Louis. Angie just recently got a new job there and had just moved there a couple weeks before so I got to see her too!! Also Racheal and her family now live about 3 hours away, so they came up for the weekend! I had a lot of fun spending time with my family.

I was a little .. okay a lot worried about the flights out there and back, but they actually went extremely well! I am not sure how soon we will be flying again, but it went well. I took lots of little snacks, books, toys, and borrowed a dvd player from Mike's mom.

We didn't get as much done as we had hoped but watching Clay is about all we could handle. He loves to run around and climb and fall off everything. So I am constantly trying to keep him from getting more bruises.

My mom did get a new puppy while we were there and she is so cute! She loved playing with Clay, he was just her size. She would run after him and try and play with him. He wasn't so sure at first, and he didn't really like it. He got used to her though and would start to chase her around. They had fun together. She is a cute little puppy, her name is Carly. Bonita (Angie's dog) was not too sure about her either, and I think still is not to fond of the new puppy.

One night we got to go out to dinner to a fancy Italian place! Clay stayed home with Racheal's kids and played with them all night. It was so fun to go out to dinner with my sisters and my mom and dad. The food was delicious and we had a lot of fun together. I got to learn about all the times my mom had to take babies to the hospital!!

Mike was in Denver looking and drooling over all the new snowboards for next year. He drove with a couple of guys he works with at Al's. They drove there Wednesday and drove home Friday night. It was a quick trip but I think he had fun.

So this week we are going to start the Whole body action plan! It is through the body + soul magazine. The first week is a detox, well the last four days of the week is. So we are getting ready to start. My mom and sister, Racheal, are going to do it as well, so it will be nice to have some encouragement. There are a lot of new foods that we will be trying and I can't wait! I think it will be fun! I will let you all know how it works out!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My sister in law Megan did this on her blog and I thought it was a cute idea so I thought I would copy her!

This is what we have done this past year. . . . . (also I never sent Christmas cards, so this counts!)

January

We went to Hardware Ranch with Travis and Megan to see all of the Elk. Clay was only one month old, so I was still trying to figure out how to be a mom. Which I am still trying to figure out! That was still when he slept all the time though. . aw the good ole days.

February

This was when we deceided to take a weekend trip to Moab. It was a great time to go becuase we were pretty much the only people there. Except for the road to Delicate arch was CLOSED! It was a fun trip though, and good to get away for a couple of days. That is also when I dyed my hair. . I don't want to talk about it.


Also Mike did quite a bit of split boarding last winter with the dogs. He has lots of plans to continue that this winter.

March

March was Mike's birthday!! I was proud of the cake I made him, the bike I attempted to draw with frosting is supposed to be his bike.

April

We road tripped it to Washington. It was a beautiful drive, long but beautiful. We had a lot of fun, and Clay did really well in the car surprisingly. It was fun to see that part of the country, I had never been there before. I loved seeing Mike's grandpa as well. We took the ferry a couple of times, went to pike's place market, the tulip festival, all sorts of fun stuff.

May

This was one of my mothers day presents. It was my very fist mothers day and it was a great one. I got pretty flowers, and an awesome bag it was a good day.



This was also the month Travis and I went to Texas to see my mom and dad. I surprised my mom, it was a great surprise and we had so much fun!

June

Our friends Pat and Lynn got married in Flaming Gorge. We went down there and camped for a couple of days, it was so pretty there, I want to go again when it gets warm!

July

We went with Jen and Cody to a Fourth of July shin dig. Mike and Clay slept through all the fireworks!! They had a cool little train there pulled by a four wheeler that was fun, Cody took Clay on it, what a great uncle.

We also went to the Cache Valley cruise in with Jen and Cody. We went and ate a bluebird before hand, then after we ate we just went outside the front door, ate our yummy bluebird chocolates and watch the cars drive by.

August

We bought our house!!! I love this house so much and I am so happy to be living here! We love Hyrum! It makes it easier to bug Jen and Cody all the time.

September

My mom and dad came to Hyrum to help us get settled in our new house. I think my dad met more people working out in the yard that day than I have in a long time. Maybe that is why I didn't meet many people at our other house!


We also went to the children's museum in Salt Lake. It was probably more fun for Mike and I than Clay but he still had a good time! He was just crawling at this point so he wasn't getting into too much yet.

Mike had a bike show for Al's in Las Vegas that we drove down to with 4 other guys from the shop, crazy boys. It was a fun trip, I just got to hang out with my Aunt and cousin for a couple of days! This is apparently the only picture I have from the trip.

October

This was my birthday! I know that we did something but I can't remember what, and neither can Mike. He is asleep now "trying to remember" what we did. I am sure it was great though!



We took another road trip, to Nebraska! My friend JJ got married so we took a long weekend and went. It was super fun to see everybody. We stayed with my brother Brad and his cute family. Travis drove there with us and then Megan flew there another day and drove home with us. It was a short trip but it was tons of fun.


We also went on a little drive to go find the snow of course!

We can't forget Halloween! Mike's costume was awesome and everybody loved it! He was syndrome from Incredibles, Clay was smokey the bear, and I was mother nature.

November

We had Thanksgiving at our house!! I loved having it at our house! We got new dishes, cups and I made lots of new things for decorating the house. I didn't take any pictures though. . . bummer.

We did cut down our very own Christmas tree this month, I love it! I am sad to take it down.

December

My Clay is now 1 YEAR OLD!

December was a great month, and I am sad it is over. I got to go to St. Louis and see my ENTIRE family!! We stayed up late every night, watching movies and playing band hero. I started a few crafts and left them there for when I go back the end of this month. I got tons of good stuff I am not even going to list it! It would take too long and I am ready for bed. I hope you enjoyed all my pictures from this year! It was an awesome year, and I probably could have put what different things Clay did each month, he is constantly changing. I don't have any pictures from December yet, I didn't take that many! I am not sure why.