Fun Photos

I love talking photos. I really do. Especially when kids are this happy! And he is teething folks and is still such a nice child. These are just a couple that I liked. It is amazing what you can capture in just a few minutes!

Jackson and his dad Justin

Jackson and his mom Julia

He really is all boy. We couldn't keep him away from the truck.

Justin is a guy I work with and he was selected to go on a special nationwide leadership tour and needed a family photo. Plus, Jackson's first birthday is next week so it was a perfect time to get some photos done. There were a lot more photos I liked but I had to stop somewhere. 

Sew Much Fun!!!

All of my grandmas are amazingly talented and crafty and my mom's mother has been an extraordinary seamstress for years. My mom is no slouch either. So, naturally, I never needed to learn to sew. I was always surrounded by women to do the work for me.

I tend to pick up hobbies - like knitting, crocheting and gardening - for short time stints before I get bored out of my wits. So, I have knitting needles, crochet hooks, fabric and yarn filling my storage closets. Hopefully this hobby be different, but only time will tell. I guess watching my mom and grandmas for years may have paid off, because despite not running a sewing machine since 7th grade, it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined.

I take little to no convincing when it comes to most purchases. My cousin Susie and aunt Diane suggested a Brother sewing machine. It fit my budget so that is what I bought. I LOVE it. No bobbin trouble, or anything. It just powered right up and got through my projects like a champ. I didn't even break a needle! For some of you, this may not be that impressive, but I was quite intimidated by the new machine.

It has a lot of adorable stitches too, so I am enthused about finding more home projects.

Isn't she cute?

For those of you in my family who are expecting little ones, try to be surprised when you get something like this in the mail. I couldn't resist showing them off. I kind of want one for myself! Maybe not in baby colors.

These were this weekend's projects. Only about 4 hours each, from start to finish! 

I can't wait to start the next one! 

We are expecting several new baby boys in our family. Hopefully someone will bring a new girl on board in the Ipsen, Stewart or Nelson families soon. I would like to do lavendar and yellow next!

Rollercoaster

I had the opportunity to fly home this weekend to see my family. It was an interesting couple of days filled with emotions - happiness, humor, heartache and hate. My family is great and I am lucky to have supportive people in my life. But the drama and highs and lows of it all sometimes don't seem worth it.

 It is easy to say I will try to stay uninvolved in someone's decisions (or lack thereof) but it is awfully hard to function normally while worrying about other people - especially when their decisions string you and everyone else along for the ride. I sometimes wish I could just get off the ride for a while.

Where We've Been Lately

These are some of Logan's photos that I liked from Big Sky country.

The ones below are a few that I snapped while I was working out of the office this week. These are from in the foothills near Marysville, California.

The difference between Utah's state flower, the sego lily and the California state flower, the orange poppy, is that I can count on one hand the sego lilies I've seen in Utah, but poppies grow EVERYWHERE in California, even in rock beds!

Same Old Same Old

So, while I do not have any anything very interesting to talk about, I figure I better blog about something or I will just procrastinate and never blog about anything.

After having Logan home for a couple of weeks, and getting to spend some quality time together and get somethings done around the house, he has been gone again for the last week. He had to do some work in Utah and Montana and pick up a new company car from a co-worker who drove it out from the office in Missouri. His co-worker then drove his old car back to Missouri while Logan drove the new one back out to California. Unfortunately, I spent my long Easter weekend ALONE while Logan was on the road. So I watched General Conference Saturday and Sunday and cleaned some house. I guess it was a nice enough weekend. It was peaceful at any rate.

Last Friday, I got to play hookie from work but it was anything but pleasant. I took a sick day so I could have a broken molar ripped out of my mouth. It has been traumatic. Luckily Logan was home to nurse me back to health and to make fun of me for being a toothless hillbilly. Don't worry, I will be replacing the tooth with a bridge in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!

We did some things to the yard a while ago. I planted a flowerbed in our front yard and we also planted some trees in our backyard this weekend. They call the trees "fruit salad" trees. One of them will grow nectarines and apricots, while the other is going to give us peaches and plums. We already have mini fruit growing on them, but I am sure it won't be an impressive production year since they are still small. But, next June through August we should get a variety of good fruit!

This is my new flower bed. Not that impressive, I know.

This is Reno before he got yelled at for running through the new flower bed.

This is Reno before he got yelled at for getting into the garbage can. He really would be one of those, "my dog ate my homework" kind of dogs.

This is Reno trying to keep Logan from leaving.

Work has been hectic for both of us, to say the least. I a have a never-ending pile of projects at work and Logan has been taking on some new responsibilities at work that have kept him on the go, as if he needed more of that!

That is about all I have to say about our lives today! I will try to come back again soon!

Spring is in the Air!

Sacramento is beautiful this time of year. Blossoming trees are everywhere! I love it. In three months it will be miserably hot, but for now, we are pretty content. These are not great photos. I just quickly snapped them on my way home from work yesterday. This is the street outside our subdivision, the trees on both sides of the street are solid white for a good mile, which makes me really happy:)

This past weekend I did some engagement photos for a girl I work with and her fiance, I have not had time to do much editing on them before they are finished, but these are a couple that I liked. There is a lot I can do with them, so I look forward to spending sometime in Photoshop. It is fun to take pictures of people you have something in common with. Plus it is a good chance to get outside. I don't do much of that these days.

On The Road Again, Just Can't Wait To Get On The Road Again.

Well, for me, it is a boring Saturday evening. Not even Reno wants to cuddle. He is upstairs sleeping under the bed and Logan is out of town, so I guess I have nothing better to do than update my blog. Since my last post, we have been traveling agin. More Logan than me. Last week, I got off work on Tuesday, and we hopped in the truck to go to Utah. I hung out with my family for a couple of days and Logan got to drive onto St. George, Utah to work a bull sale last Saturday and then we drove back to California. Pretty lame week. I got to see a lot of asphalt. Not my favorite scenery, but I got a hair cut and some color thanks to my sister and I got to see all of my parents and grandparents, which is a feat in itself.

This is me and Logan on a freezing morning looking at bulls in Levan, Utah.  9 degrees above freezing is something I haven't felt for quite some time.

After we got home from our quick trip home, I played a long game of catch up at work. Logan had a couple of days to get some office stuff done before he had to get back on the road. He left Friday (yesterday) morning and drove to Smithfield, UT for a bull sale today. As soon as the sale was over, he headed back west to get to a Sunday 9 a.m. bull sale in Winnemucca, NV and as soon as it is over, he has to be at a 1 p.m. sale in Gardnerville, NV. All of the sale crew in Winnemucca and Gardnerville is the same, so it remains to be seen whether that sale starts on time or not. It will be a close call.

Here are a few other pictures from this week. 

Since he was a baby, Reno has been notorious for giving hugs. If you get near him, he will drop whatever he is doing to hug you. Logan laid on the floor for me to pop his back and as soon as he rolled over. Reno dropped his rawhide toy on Logan's chest and gave him a hug. What a goober.

Reno got a hold of an ice cream container and it got stuck on his face. Too funny not to get a picture. I don't think he will ever learn. Cylinders are not his friend.

For those of you who haven't witnessed the dog dish incident, I have provided a picture below. After we realized it would keep happening when he ran out of food, we started buying him a regular dog dish that won't kill him one day.

What an idiot. I love him.