Before they left yesterday morning....

this little sweetie pie:



got out maria's bouncy chair and buckled herself into it:



then she pulled maria down on top of her:



and decided to take a {fake} nap:



I'm going to miss them all so much.

playing catch-up

besides still having to blog about the rest of our vacation (from yellowstone to vegas).... I have a full weekend to blog about with these lovely people here:

... the time sure does fly...

Maria's 1st Birthday is quickly approaching. It's amazing how one year went by so quickly. She has been so fun to have around. She is the sweetest little girl ever. I've really enjoyed watching her grow and learn about her body and the world around her.

Most recently she has started shaking her head "no" and saying "no" while she does it. She knows the sign for "more", and really enjoys clapping.
She just discovered lids to pots and tries to put the two together.
She has also started walking. At first it was just a couple of steps (about 2 weeks ago) but today she has really taken off and has walked more than she's crawled!!
At night when she goes to bed, we just have to lay her down with her dolly and she pretty much goes right to sleep (which is SO liberating)!!
She still doesn't like the car seat (it's more of a strong hate after all the driving we've been doing lately).
She LOVES puppies, books, and dolls.
She loves going in the pool. She still doesn't blow bubbles, she prefers drinking the water instead.
She waves goodbye & goodnight .... hello is still difficult.
She gives great hugs.
She's my little angel.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her over the past year:

Rexburg: Take 2

So, for our second go-around in Rexburg....

We didn't even make it into town before we stopped...

Marco being the animal enthusiast that he is wanted to stop at Yellowstone Bear World!

We let Maria out of her car seat and gave her the opportunity to drive:

We saw a whole bunch of animals.... buffalo, deer, elk, moose, geese, and most importantly the bears:















I totally thought that this was the coolest bear of them all:



We stopped in at the gift shop and looked around... there was a little pond and we went and fed the fish and the ducks:



There was a petting zoo, and this goat totally plowed imto a little boy... it was actually pretty funny:



The also had these little baby bears:



And Marco got to feed them... which was pretty cool!!



Once we finally got to Rexburg we stopped by the water park at Porter Park, which is pretty darn neat.... we ate at WINGERS!... got our windows tinted (which was great for when we were in Arizona... totally kept a bunch of the heat out).... and went to Yellowstone (which I'll post about later)

letter

Dear Home:

I've missed you so. I've had fun while I've been away, but it's so good to see you again.

All the familiar rooms. My bed. Maria's crib. The garden. The spices in the kitchen cabinet.

I won't go away again for a while.

Love,
Me

Molten Butterscotch Cakes

6 tsp gram cracker crumbs
1 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup butter
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 425. Grease and flour bottoms and sides of 6-6oz. custard cups. Sprinkle 1 tsp cracker crumbs onto bottom and sides of each cup. In a medium sauce pan melt butterscotch chips and butter over medium heat stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
In a large bowl beat all eggs until well blended. Beat in brown sugar. Beat in butterscotch mixture, and flour until well blended. Divide evenly among custard cups place on a cookie sheet with sides.
Bake 12-14 minutes or until sides are set and centers are still soft. Let stand 3 minutes, run a small knife or metal spatula along sides of cake to loosen. Serve warm.

*550 calories per cake!!
*can substitute other flavor of chips... chocolate, peanut butter, mint chocolate chip!
*once cooked the tops will be puffed and cracked, but centers will still be gooey!

Logan (Downy: Take Three)

one day when we were in downy we decided to take the afternoon and go to logan and do a temple session at the logan temple.

so marco, maria, my mom & i took off and headed that way.

on our way we stopped to check out one of the landmarks.



it was pretty cool. it said that lake bonneville, if you stretched it out the shoreline would stretch from there to New Orleans!



well, we made it to logan, my first time, and got to the temple no problem. but there was a problem.... it was closed. dagnabit!!



so instead we went shopping. did you guys know that down east outfitters has a home store. i loved it. there was this wardrobe that was beautiful, and this red leather chair that was so comfy... it was extra long in the seat, which is great for me.

maria fell asleep during our shopping adventures, thank goodness, she was getting a little cranky!! oh, ps, i don't think i've mentioned, but at night now, we're doing our little routine to get her ready for bed then putting her in her crib with dolly and she's going to sleep.... it's so liberating!!!

anyway, she fell asleep:



i love this baby carrier. it's so comfortable, and it holds her. she's getting heavy, and big, and most baby carriers can't accommodate her.

after all the shopping and a baby nap we headed here for dinner:



it was my first experience. i had the pork barbecoa salad.... tasty!!

then we headed back to downy.... bellies full, and wallets a little emptier.

Downy: Take Two

While we were in Downy, we saw 3 out of the 5 kids of our friends. Emily, Jennie, & Andrea and their families. Maria just loved having all of the little kids around. There was so much adventure for her.

This is Jennie's little boy Liam.

He is about a month and a half older than Maria. They enjoyed playing together...

He would pull her hair, and then she would hit him.




While we were there we went to Downata Hot Springs and Maria had swimming lessons.



She did so good and was such a champ. It prepared both of us for all the swimming that we've been doing in Arizona!!

Our teacher got out her under water camera and we took some pictures of Maria on her last day.

Here is one of her face:



And here is one of all of her under water.



She only sucked in water a couple of times.

We had such a great time with our little water bug. She has really taken to it.

I'm not sure what we're going to do when we get back to Washington and there's no pool, and not even a bath tub. I guess we'll have to get Grandpa Toyk to fill up the hot tub again!!

Downy: Take One

After we got done at the temple, we packed up and headed down to Downy, Idaho. It's a small podunk town a few miles from the Idaho/Utah border.



There isn't a lot there, but we do have some friends that relocated there a while ago. Their daughter was getting married and my dad and hubby went down a week earlier than we girls to help them put a water feature in the back yard. I think that this got bigger and bigger as it went. Here it is about halfway thru:



There is a waterfall, which is not in the picture, and then it goes down one level (which is what you see at the bottom of the picture) where the bog/swamp thingy will be, and then down into the pond where there will be a bunch of fish. I didn't take any pictures as it went further along, but I think that once we leave Arizona we'll head back up that way, pick up Maria's swim suit, and snap a few pictures.

It was really hot when we were there... in the 100's most days. One day it did cool off though and there was this cool dark cloud:



One day they took us up the hill to where they keep the cows.



It was beautiful there. You can see the whole valley. We drove thru all these bushes and I was amazed at the smell... I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but it was a strong herby smell.... then it dawned on us. Sagebrush:



It's amazing how potent the smell was.

While we were up there we looked for arrowheads, picked flowers, & took in the view. Marco even caught a little dragonfly:



I love this picture I got of my dad and Maria:



When we were getting ready to leave Marco pulled his bike off the back of the Hummer and took off down the hill.... He beat us home by a good 10 minutes!!



Once we got back from the ranch there was a little downtime. These guys are such hard workers.... they just go and go and go, and once they sit down this is what happens:



There was a lot that happened in Downy... I saw friends that I hadn't seen in a while, visited the local grocery store and took Maria for swimming lessons.... more on that & pictures later!