bon anniversaire!

[squishy noses]

all i really wanted for my birthday was to spend time with my family and friends. that's exactly what i did from july 2nd-july 7th. i was even lucky enough to have one of my best friends come back to bend with us and spend a few days here. that's all i really wanted. but of course my wonderful husband had to make sure that i had presents to open, food to eat and an incredibly awesome day.

we started the night with dinner at boston's with some friends. then we got dessert at the local dairy queen. a cherry dipped cone in place of a birthday cake? i'll take it!

[creamy, cold cherry goodness]

we then made our way to sun mountain fun center...which was super fun. and high tech. since when do you put your tickets on a credit-like card with a magnetic strip? mike had fun shooting innocent cartoon animals...

[he was hunting deer in the cartoon version of riggins, id]

...while lyndsay and i tried our feet at dance, dance revolution.

[the quality isn't the greatest, and mike isn't exactly martin scorsese but it was a must to get a video of my first time ever on ddr.]

[old-time wagon = super cute picture]

[fun center fun.]

we had such a blast and i was so ready to relax...but there were still presents to open! mike took a lot of great pictures and i did get a lot of great gifts.

[drumroll please...]

[let's travel back in time, yes?]

thank you to mike and lyndsay for making yet another one of my birthdays unforgettable. and thank you to my family and friends in boise for making my birthday trip absolutely amazing. and thank you again to everyone for the birthday wishes, texts, phone calls and letters. the best brithday present of all is knowing that i have amazing people in my life who care about me! merci.

keeping up.

i would really love for life to slow down just for a few minutes (wouldn't we all?). mike and i have been so busy. i think both of us have officially become workaholics. which isn't a terrible thing, we both absolutely love our jobs. i think we're just super excited for a week long vacation in boise, idaho! woo hoo! we are so lucky my dad is such an amazing and understanding person...we now have no dog sitters and can't afford to board them for 6 days so...PIPPIN & WINSTON ARE COMING TO BOISE, TOO! they both miss gimli and dobby so much...they need their friends! we thank you SO much dad! without your dog-lover attitude we wouldn't be able to make it next month. besides...look at pippin's face. you just can't say no. nothing else has been going on, really. i recently chopped off a good 3 or so inches of my hair and am starting to work my way back blonde...again. as silly as it sounds, i feel like me again. we love you all and hope your days and weeks are spent with the ones you love, enjoying their company. in closing, i would like to share with you all a letter i recently wrote to someone of great importance.

Dear Mother Nature,
Thank you for your beautiful aromatic rain and your gentle humming winds. Your giant fluffy clouds have effectively reduced any dream of me bronzing up for the summer. As much as I enjoy your use of hail, snow and 45 degree weather...just stop it. I mean really? Today is June 3rd, Mama N, and we Central Oregonians have yet to see 80 degrees! We haven't even had a full day of sunshine! Give me a break! My dogs are driving me crazy because they have so much energy from sitting inside all day. I would take them to the park but IT'S ALWAYS RAINING! My poor husband and I have been forced to spend our date nights indoors cuddled under a blanket watching old episodes of Chuck and Bones because its only 40 degrees outside! I want to have a picnic! I want to take a walk through Drake Park with our dogs! I never ever thought that in June I would be wishing for 70 or even 65 degree temperatures. But I am! We have had 16+ days in a row of seriously below average temps. In three days we have already exceeded our average rainfall for the June. Mother Nature I beg you, PLEASE, bring back the sunshine! This has been a very funny joke but it's time to knock it off! Please?

A day at the dog park!

its been a month, i know. but we have been super busy! we don't get as much time together as we would like and it's been so cold recently that being couped up indoors is the only thing to do. but all that changed on thursday evening. luckily i was able to take a night off work so mike and i could spend some time together. and it was a beautiful day outside. so what did we do? packed pippin and winston in the car and went to the dog park! we have so many great dog parks, one of which is located along the deschutes river. theres a nice little area for the dogs to play and swim in. now, our dogs have never liked the water. there was one time in cannon beach that pippin let loose, but that was it. however we recently found out that pippin will jump into the water if you throw his beloved tennis ball out into the river. and he brings it back! winston, on the other hand, still just soaks up the sunlight...away from the water. we had a wonderful time with the boys and got to take a video to share!

Mike's Birthday!

yesterday was mike's birthday! yay! big 23! now for those of you who don't know mike very well, he is not a big fan of birthdays. so when i called some of our friends and asked them to come out to dinner with us it had to be a secret. he had a wonderful night and was so happy to eat at his favorite diner in town, jakes, and to spend his night with friends.



after dinner we all came back to our house and ate homemade chocolate cake and opened presents.

(i had a hard time trying to smile because of my current dental issue and i wasn't exactly aware of everything going on around me due to the pain meds but i assure you i was very happy!)

A Beautiful Evening!

as most of you know mike was baptized and confirmed on saturday the 27th. it was such an amazing day for us. we had family, friends, ward members and missionaries fill the room. i am so greatful for all the support that was shown last week. unfortunatly some of you couldn't be there but i know your thoughts and prayers were with us because we felt them! the spirit was so overwhelming as talks and musical numbers were shared. it truely was a beautiful evening.

the men looked very clean in their jumpsuits...although i couldnt stop picturing dustin in a remake of saturday night fever.

elder huber, mike, myself and elder g. they are super awesome missionaries.

we were so lucky to have my parents, dustin, nichelle and kirsten drive over from boise to be there with us. especially since mom and dad had to leave at 8PM on saturday night to head back home!

it was another treat that we had ex-elder craig drive over from emmett, idaho to be there as well. he was a huge influence on mike and was elder g's companion when he started the discussions.

i just love this picture of me and kirsten. look at our eyes!

mike's baptism was such a memorable day for everyone. we had so much love and support. we simply can't thank everyone enough! we love you all<3

hello family and friends and happy spring! it has been beautiful over here in central oregon. 60 degrees today! it has been a while since our last post, i apologize, but it has been an eventful past two weeks. i have been calling them the weeks of mike. i have been super busy with work (i get my keys soon! :) and baby showers/church functions but my husband has been three times as occupied. mike has now lost almost 50 pounds since our wedding in fall 2008 where he was at his heaviest. he has been waking up an hour earlier to do pull ups, push ups and lunges. then, amazingly, after work he still has the energy to go for a run or bike ride. he has also been very busy educating me on what i should and should not be eating (should eat-friut, chicken, whole wheat, fiber...should NOT eat-chocolate, all that cheese, the entire bottle of simply orange+mango, the frosting off of my cupcakes...). i think i have done pretty good. i've only bought one candy bar this month, only made 2 batches of cupcakes, and the orange juice i just finished lasted a whole 5 days!

mike has also been spending his time helping me clean and do laundry. but some days that proves to be too much. on this specific day i was told the laundry would be hung by the time i got home from work. well, this is what i came home to. :) i call it his grandpa jenkins nap position because that is exactly who i thought of while taking this picture! we love you, grandpa!

as a reward for all of his hard work, i took mike to our favorite asain restaurant. we don't go very often...you understand why...

everyone who has ever opened the scriptures knows the launguage can be awfully challenging. especially when reading out loud to your wife, who luckily enough was brought up hearing that strange dialect all the time. we know that reading the scriptures is not just all fun and games but it is so funny listening to mike try to pronounce peoples names! :) also, i made the mistake of telling him that as a little girl i thought every verse began with "and it came to pass..." so when it was my turn to read during family scripture night, that was the very first thing to pop out of my mouth. now when its his turn to read and the verse actually does start with "and it came to pass..." it takes him a second to stop laughing and focus! he really is doing an awesome job and we are so excited for the 27th to come around! we love you all and hope your winter blues are gone. because ours sure are! <3

it got up to 55 degrees this last week so mike and i were finally able to take the dogs to the park. its one of our favorite things to do here in bend. if you have ever met pippin you know how excited and, well, happy he ALWAYS is. after just one hour at the dog park he is calm like this for the rest of the day and night. he really does make the perfect lap dog.



these photos are to showcase two things...1) our pretty new computer and 2) our amazing thrift store find, the desk. before we did our taxes we promised ourselves we wouldn't be as wreckless as we were last year (last year all of our refund was gone in less than a week). So this year we gave ourselves a budget. and we actually spent less. goodbye tiny screened netbook hello comfortable spacious desk with a generously sized screen! yay!
a lot of our remaining tax refund is funding our trip to boise next month. we are so excited to spend time with every one march 19-22nd. mark your calendars! <3