easter eve

i don't know who decided the date of easter this year, but i don't think that they live in idaho. if they did, they would realize that by the last week in march idaho is just beginning to think about maybe thawing sometime in the next six weeks. they would also realize that snow is not a fun accessory to an easter egg hunt. anyway, what's done is done, and, snow and frozen appendages and all, my family and i had a wonderful easter eve. this afternoon, mandy and her gang came down to idaho falls to have an easter egg hunt with us in a park near my apartment. the temperature was in the mid 30's but most of the snow melted this week with the downpour of rain we've had (rain, not snow! yay!). afterward we all came over to my apartment where we had an amazing easter dinner (ham, buttermilk biscuits, potatoes, salad and cake!) and chatted for a while. i love those guys! but (i've been saving the best for last... the suspense is killing you, isn't it?) the best part of today is that avery started crawling! for real crawling. belly off of the floor and everything. granted she can only go 2 feet until she stops to rest, but it's still very exciting stuff. and she had so much fun playing in the park this afternoon and then crawling this evening that she pooped out at 7pm! haha. i would be very excited if i didn't know that this means she'll be up tomorrow at 5am. :) i'm sure i'll have more photos to share tomorrow morning - avery is getting some pretty good loot from the easter bunny! i can't wait until she's older - then klayton and i will be able to plant easter bunny "poops" (raisins) on the floor for her to find in the morning (i always ate the "poops" as a kid and my parents have the pictures to prove it. thanks mom and dad!). happy easter!!!

better than a rubber duck

i don't know if mother nature has gotten the hint yet, but my family and i are boycotting winter. so in the spirit of spring, we decided to go on a riverside walk this afternoon. the tempurature was a sunny and beautiful 34 degrees (i.e. shorts weather in idaho) and we had a blast... for 10 minutes.

then we ran back into the car and shook our collective fist at the snow. avery had an awesome time, though. she not only got to do her rudolph impression, but she had her first encounter with some webbed friends. she turns ten months old today and i can hardly believe it.

klayton and i are so lucky to be this little girl's parents. here's a.v. and daddy checking out the ducks and geese from afar. apparently they are protesting winter as well. comrades!

when we put avery back in her stroller she wouldn't stop leaning forward to get a better look. then klayton grabbed a granola bar out of my purse and started feeding the geese.

and, the pièce de résistance, avery back in her carseat with some massive hat hair. this picture was daddy's idea. this one is definitely coming out when her prom date comes to pick her up in 17 years...

snow day!

wow. it snowed hard core today. i didn't think much of it, though, until avery was very interested in army-crawling over to our patio door to look outside. so... i did what any loving mother would do... i bundled her up and took her outside for some pictures! i hadn't done this with her since the first snow in idaho back in october or november, and hopefully this will be the LAST snow of the winter, so i thought it only right. she looks sort of angry in all of the pictures, but she was just squinting because it was so bright outside, i think. she had fun until i tried to get her to touch the snow. she didn't like that.

s'wonderful, s'marvelous

i have had such a fun week! it was the kind of week where you just sit back and think about all of the love in your life. i officially love:

-my wonderful husband! klayton planned and orchestrated the most relaxing and pampering night i've had in forever this weekend. he is so sweet and thoughtful and perfect.

-die cuts with a view scrapbook paper. they have the cutest stuff. my favorite is the "all dressed up" paper stack. it's glittery and glamorous and i've been making great cards with it as well as scrapbooking my fam photos! check them out at diecutswithaview.com.

-sending mail. i love getting mail more, but i have been obsessed with sending cards lately. it's just so fun to let people know that you are thinking about them and that you love them.

-penelope, for the second time in as many weeks! this love affair may have something to do with another of my loves, james macavoy. deelish. go see it if you haven't yet!

-my hysterical and adorable kid. she is doing this thing lately where (no joke) she growls. she'll start out making some cute baby noise, and then end in this breathy growl. it is so funny. i totally don't get it.

-my new gym, anytime fitness. i've done the big athletic club thing recently, and i have to admit that i love my small, cozy gym so much more. it's intimate, it's cute, AND it's 24/7. i have my own key and everything. muahaha. but the best part is that there is a mini tv on every cardio machine, and there is nothing better than running and watching scrubs reruns simultaneously.

soo... i have been thinking about all of the great people and things in my life a lot lately. i have too much to be grateful for to ever sweat the small stuff. this is all kind of random i guess, but i feel so blessed lately and i just wanted to share. hope everyone out there is counting their blessings as well. xo

you're it

i have been tagged a couple of times in the last month (this is new to me but somehow reminds me of those chain emails i loved filling out in junior high... haha) and i have been slow to respond. sorry about that. so i am going to get them out of the way in one fell swoop. thanks britt and brooke! so... here it goes. first i need to write 5 things people don't know about me or my family. then it's husband tag. enjoy!

1. my best friend my senior year of high school was my teacher and soccer coach, mr. draa (i know i'm a loser, but, trust me, draa is the coolest). he came to dinner at my house the night of my graduation, and we still hang out whenever i go home. TACO NIGHT!!
2. klayton loves to flex in the mirror. he will so kill me for posting that, but there you have it.
3. i had a notebook that i kept with some girlfriends freshman year of high school that contained illicit cosmo articles and basically anything we could find out about... well... stuff that we shouldn't have been interested in. now i'm the prude amongst my siblings because i won't watch R rated movies and i rent everything (even PG movies) through CleanFlix. go figure!
4. a few days before klayton proposed to me i went into his room while he was at work, found the ring he bought me, looked at it, tried it on, and put it back. when he proposed i acted all shocked like i had never seen it before and wasn't expecting him to propose. i don't even think he knows about that. :) whoops.
5. klayton dyes his hair blond bi-weekly. ...JUST KIDDING! if one more person asks me what his NATURAL hair color is i'll vomit. what is this, the early 90's? no dudes bleach their hair anymore. i think his facial hair confuses people - it's totally dark. anyway, he's a blond. make a joke about how dumb he is. call him an airhead. use a valley-girl voice when you talk to him. get over it. :)

tag #2 (let's call it TV tag. wasn't that game the coolest?)
What is his name? klayton amos tietjen (yes, amos... as in famous...)
How long have you been married? about 3 and a half years
How long did you date? less than three months (i turned red as i typed that)
How old is he? 25
Who eats more? klayton... unless there is chocolate or peanut butter involved. a combination of the two of those is deadly in my hands.
Who said "I love you" first? klayton... in his oldsmobile... *sigh* the romance. haha
Who is taller? klayton
Who sings better? klayton by a long shot. he is a great singer and a faithful church choir attendee
Who is smarter? hmmm... in business, language, history, zoology, guitarology, etc it's klayton. i think i take him in english, literature, home ec, math and celebrity knowledge.
Whose temper is worse? yipes... mine i guess.
Who does the laundry? i do! yay!
Who does the dishes? klayton did them once upon a time when we both worked full time and didn't have a dish washer. now i do them gladly. i love taking care of our home!
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? klayton. i used to. then i got pregnant. all of that left-side-sleeping i was supposed to be doing, combined with the vomiting at the drop of a hat, made lying on my left side to face klayton while he breathed on me in the middle of the night not smart.
Who pays the bills? klayton, though i am slowly usurping that power so i can work more shoe-buying into the budget.
Who mows the lawn? what lawn?
Who cooks dinner? me! just try to stop me. cooking is my passion!
Who drives when you are together? klayton, but i do a lot of backseat driving... my poor hubby
Who is more stubborn? hmmm... depends. we both can be... but klayton is a saint and can't resist me or avery. he gives in if i press enough. muahahahaha
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? both. klayton is better at patching up arguments, though i'm working on it.
Whose parents do you see the most? klayton's, though not by much even though his live 20 minutes away and mine live 12 hours away!
Who proposed? klayton
Who has more friends? well... klayton has a few friends that he's had since kindergarten, so he's great with long-term friends. we both make friends really easily, but i'm a crappy keep-in-touch-er. i suck on the phone. but i'm working on it!
Who has more siblings? klayton by 1! he has 2 brothers and 3 sisters. i have three brothers and one beautiful sister.
Who wears the pants in the family? umm i'm sorry, are we on the donna reed show? geez. i'm wearing pajama pants. klayton's wearing slacks. does that say something about our couple dynamics?

oh holy crap. this is the longest post ever. sorry. i now tag livi, jane, brooke and bethany for the 5 interesting facts thing. i tag katelyn, britt hartley, and melissa for the husband questionnare thing. have fun!

the office

what a day! after one of the worst nights i've spent with avery ever (she has an infection in both ears, poor thing, and her root-canaled mama was cranky!) my sweet hubby let me sleep in until he had to run off to work. a couple of hours later he picked up his two gals and we went to check out his brand new office! we spent the rest of the afternoon picking up stuff for his diggs and grabbing a bite to eat (i love free and delicious leatherby's food!!)! then my sexy sister came over to hang for a bit and now i'm watching american idol (i can't help myself) and waiting for the season finale of PROJECT RUNWAY (holler!!!). hope everyone is having a day as nice and chill as mine! xo

pics: it's all about my better half! there's klayton walking up the stairs to his office. then it's klayton's trump face as he sits on his desk before we unpacked. then it's his adorable stuffed face with my favorite leatherby's menu item - the turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce! deeelish.

root canal day

ugh.

if anyone sees the semi that hit me in the face this morning let me know.

family home evening bust

well, we had these great plans for family home evening to go to the IF temple visitor's center and watch the joseph smith movie. it was going to be all of klayton's family, and klayton was even going to get off of work! then, since we're the only one's who live in IF, everyone was going to come over to our place for dessert. well... as anyone who has ever made plans they were excited about knows, things can fall through in a heartbeat.

and they did.

let's just say that my delicious dessert was the only thing that didn't get messed up. first klayton's parent's realized that kenny has dance on monday nights, so they were out. then carson bailed for his single's ward FHE. then, 15 minutes before the movie was supposed to start, klayton's brother, spencer, called to say they couldn't make it. well, mandy and her family were already down from rexburg, so we decided to bag the movie (we are going to try to reschedule) and just head to my place for dessert. luckily

mandy's family is a blast, so the evening was still great! elle and ava ran around the house taking pictures of random things (their favorite was our wet wipes case that had a pe

ter pan picture on front). milo gave avery crawling lessons, and we ate enough dessert for 15 people between the 6 of us who have [enough] teeth. yay for botched plans!!!

more monkey monday

this weekend went by in a flash, but it was pretty great. leatherby's is demanding a little less of klayton's time, so it's been nice to see him again. saturday mallory and i went to penelope and watched old movies at my apartment until midnight. moonstruck (cher and nicholas cage) and the philidelphia story (jimmy stewart, katherine hepburn and cary grant) were on the menu, both of which are super classics. if you haven't seen them, rent them now. yesterday klayton, avery and i went to the whipple's house for dinner and it was deelish. tomorrow is going to be awful because it's my root canal day and avery has to go to the doctor because she has fluid building up in her left ear. yay! so i'm enjoying today while it lasts. we have a fun FHE with klayton's siblings planned tonight. more on that soon. here are some pics from the last couple of days!


i took this picture yesterday. avery got the rocking caterpillar for christmas from her grandma. she loves to ride on it with her daddy. this isn't the cutest picture, but i love that klayton and avery are making identical faces. derrr...








gorgeous baby girl.

this is from this morning. avery and i were playing on the floor and i got some pictures. she is such a doll.

and this is her trying to grab the camera. everything that she can get her hands on goes in her mouth.

penelope

i saw Penelope last night and i loved it! so cute. it is a fairytale romance, it's rated PG and it's adorable. doesn't get much better. plus james mcavoy is in it and i just love him. i had a very hot date for the movie, my little sister, mallory, and i had a blast watching her mortified face every time avery would squeak and squirm. :) ahh the things that you put up with just to get out when you have a very wiggly and curious 9 month old. :) anyway, go and see it. you'll love it.