the weekend

weekend in pictures:

spent time with dan's family and ate at red robin.....YUM! (no pics....)

celebrated jana's birthday early--she is going to north carolina for the summer (she is going to be a camp counselor for little 5 year old girls so i made her a cake that was supposed to be her and then the cupcakes are her little camp girls.)


















we went to the living planet aquarium-this is nova trying to pet the stingrays.
























also here are some pics of the weekend and some more family pics we got back
















































seriously....i made her?????

summer agenda

the following 3 months i will be:

with this kid:























doing this:


















and a little of this:


















and a lot of this:



plus i'll throw in a few popsicles and buckets of sunscreen.....sigh......ya gotta love the summertime!

side note: we have owned the pool and swimming suit for 3 days, and have been swimming twice and she already freaks out whenever she sees either one of them.

randomness

IN CASE YOU CARE: (and since you clicked on the blog.....you must! :) HA!)

we finished planting our garden....already things have died.....this is not a good beginning....



































we got back our family pictures that we took while in jerome.....i am super happy with how it turned out. (its the pic above)

i have committed to running a 10K.....i am super Xcited. (i don't know why i spelled that, that way....probably because i'm cool.)

nova is 10 months. KA-RAZY (this is the only pic i took yesterday on her 10 month birthday....i had such good intentions.


















i was more thankful for my mother this past mothers day than last (which i didn't know could be possible.) but now being a mother myself i am eternally grateful for the time, patience and love that my mother put into raising me. if i can become half the woman she is, it will be a miracle. she is so loving and caring and has the capacity to love so much. she is sincere and hard working and is a wonderful support. i also am blessed with an awesome mother in law. she is a great example to me of optimism, and living the gospel. i love them both and i love being a mom to my little nova. i never knew how awesome/hard/fun/rewarding/perfect it would be......and from the looks of this pic, nova didn't know what she was getting into either.























and lastly, i am mad that helen won the biggest loser.....seriously tara? mike? why didn't you pull through for me? grrr....oh, well, they all look great and i cried through the whole thing, while fighting the urge to eat a cookie.

cinco de mayo: part dos

here are the pics from this years celebration. and if you are feeling bad about forgetting about cinco de mayo or didn't celebrate it in true fashion, there is always sies de mayo. (may 6th) (dan woke up this morning and asked what we were doing for the sies de mayo.....uh....nothing.....my back is out from the pinata....j/k!)

p.s. the reason i look like total bum in these pictures is because i made mango salsa.....(yum-o! i know.....suzanne and mango salsa shouldn't go in the same sentence, but its true.) i digress.... i, first off, cannot cut an onion without totally crying and suffering from SEVERE burnage of the eyes SECONDLY, i think i may have gotten mango juice in my eye and my eyes were completely swollen, and i did not feel too great for the celebration. next year, i suppose i will add to my book/list of things i wish i would have known before cinco de mayo: wear goggles when making mango salsa, or eyes may implode and then explode and you will look a mess for your documentary pictures for posterity and all of blog-dom to see.

before: the hope clan with little penelope the parrot pinata.


















after: penelope is dead, and dan is wearing a turban?


















nova trying to break the pinata with her bare hands.























the delicious culprit.........mango salsa of eye burning delight!

cinco de mayo!

happy cinco de mayo!

last year our cinco de mayo celebration was one of the funnest (i know....not a word...whatev...) holidays we celebrated in our small apartment. but after the celebration ended, i decided i should write a book entitled "what i wish i would have known on cinco de mayo day" but it wasn't really long enough for a book....so i decided to hold it in memory to share with someone someday....and you are that someone. and that someday is today. ah...hem....let me begin.

what i wished i would have known on cinco de mayo day.

1. don't put smarties inside the pinata....they explode on impact.....and then you have tiny smartie pieces and dust particles everywhere....and it is not fun to clean up.
2. you can buy pinata's in the basement of taco time......what? yes, its true. for cheap. i know: CA...RAZY
3. taking pictures and holding the stick/broom for the pinata at the same time is dangerous.....especially if you are pregnant.....
4. and thats about it......you can see how the whole book idea didn't fly.....aNyWAy.....here are some pics of last year.

here is dan and i....completely excited to eat our enchilada's, play uno, watch the 3 amigos, and break open our pinatas....in true hope fashion....complete with crazy faces.


















here i am with my pinata.....pregnant hormonal woman with a stick....watch out little fish.....


















here is dan, who apparently thinks he is playing baseball ....watch out everyone within 20 yards


















here is the destruction afterwards....sorry little fishy's......please note the smartie explosion below.



































also, in other news, our garden is clear. it is a miracle and we had tons of help and I AM SO GRATEFUL. after bagging another 20 bags yesterday, my cousin kelsi and her husband kevin and kids came over with a trailer and we loaded up the million bags.....or something, and threw the rest over the fence onto the trailer. then they helped drive it over and unload it at the weber county compost facility. yay! its done! and we COULD NOT have done it without help. it was a good lesson for me to learn that you don't always have to do things by yourself and that allowing others to serve you is a good thing. anyway, it looks SO good and now we can plant a garden!!!! whoo-hoo!!!.....(just for a little FYI: we bought a box of 40 black bags and used an ADDITIONAL 20 from another box........whew!) i am so grateful for the opportunity our landlords have given us to grow a garden. i am really excited!

BEFORE: (i know this was on my previous post....but its a big deal to me!)


















AFTER: