holla

its been so long since i posted that i have:

ran a 10K with my sisters and mom....(minus tammie)














met with the gibbs (friends from DC) who were visiting....SO GOOD TO SEE THEM!!...which i don't have a pic of them and us, but here is nova's face of sheer delight on the slide at the park where we had our bbq with them.














ran to the grocery store a million times among other places.....which i need to vent. i hate it when people use the exit to enter and the enter to exit. read the signs people. keep the flow moving. its enough that i have a jinx that i will inevitably pick THE LONGEST grocery line to get through. i don't want to wait to go out of the store because people are NOT reading the door signs and there is serious congestion. honestly. BIGGEST PET PEEVE.

and done a jillion things that i don't take a picture of....for some reason i feel as though i have done a million things that are blog worthy....but apparently not....man, i am a loser.

so i guess that leads us to fathers day and a rockin 80's party.

first i have the best father. he has taught me so much about hard work and integrity and by living by the rules. meaning, he never accepted anything but my best in school, sports, or standards. he is always wonderful to give advice and give a good joke. i love that i have many of his characteristics. i also have an awesome father in law who has a strong testimony and is also a hard worker who has been so accepting to me as another daughter. and of course dan, who is super dad to our super nova. i couldn't do the parenting thing without him. nor would i want to. nova's favorite time of the day is when her dad comes home from work.

and lastly, we went to a neighborhood 80's party, which was, totally, like, cool. me and dan were convinced to do a lip sync performance to an 80's song, and pretty much we were like, groovy. i am so glad the 80's are gone, because the combo of big hair, leg warmers, layers and spandex leggings are not helpful in keeping your body temperature at the desired level......the off the shoulder sweatshirt wasn't enough to ventilate my overheating body. but other than that, it was fun. here is a video and pics of the performance......and dan made the guitars........and i am glad dan DOES NOT and WILL NOT EVER have a mullet. seriously....gag me with a spoon.

zoo, idaho trip and tea party

it seems that i blog to sum up the week. lame......but here goes.

last saturday we went to hogle zoo. it was so fun. i haven't been to the zoo in years. we went with IPAD. (Intermountain PKU and Allied Disorders Assosiation) basically it is an organization that allows dan and i and nova to get together with other families who have children with PKU. it was nice to visit with other mothers who have the same concerns and worries that i do and to get ideas from them. this is one of the first functions they have hosted, so we thought it would be fun to go to the zoo and go to the meeting. BUT, it started late and so nova was pretty beat before it even started, but she still had a good time, but we definitely want to go back when we can be on more of our own schedule. (and i always TAKE my camera....i just don't take very many pics, and half of the ones i take....are crappy.....so not many pics at the zoo.)

nova on the golden tiger.....and nova also experienced a tigers blood sno cone......she loved it and it was hilarious to watch her eat it.


















also, nova is now CRAWLING! and she has hair long enough for a very small ponytail! YA!


















dan has been in LA this last week and so i decided to go home and help my mom redo her bathroom. BUT, to be brief, (if that is possible for me) we only got the wallpaper off and the walls scrubbed that needed to be painted. but, it was fun to be with my family and i was able to go to lunch with almost all my sisters, run with my sisters, visit, help my mom, and have a tea party! i have been wanting to have a tea party for a long time (.....i know i need to grow up.....) with all the girls in the family. i just want to start traditions for nova so she can have a close bond with her cousins since we don't live very close. so i got some ideas off the internet and we threw a little 'pink partea' we all wore pink, and we had sandwiches with pink rolls, pink jello jigglers, cheese and crackers, pink gold fish, watermelon, pink cupcakes, and pink lemonade. i also found a cute idea to make little bonnets out of paper plates, bowls and ribbon. we all wore feather boas and had lunch. it was fun for the adults, but the most fun for my two nieces. hopefully we can keep the tradition alive so nova will be able to have some fun memories with her and her cousins.

my mom and all the granddaughters




















all the lovely ladies with our sweet hats and feather boas


















the food table---and i made a cupcake bouquet from a tutorial i saw on ksl's program called studio 5 and it worked better than i thought it would.....which most projects i do are complicated and cause me to want to curse.....but please note, i don't....i just want to.


















the partea table
























nova and i in our fabulous getup.....that of course stayed on for the picture...barely.

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: