A Sushi Experiment...

Who would have guessed that 4 cups of rice could turn into this much sushi?

Rolling this much sushi also turns me a little crazy. We are all lucky that Sam made it out of this night alive. What a trooper he is.

We had to bring a few friends in to help us eat this all.
Sarah and Dave we wish you could have come. We missed you guys.
The two pluses!
Sam is slowly learning to love seaweed (right Sam!!!) and he has learned to deep fry tempura like a chef. Yum Yum.

Sippy Cup

Our little Boopers is now obsessed with drinking water from her sippy...

almost as much as she loves sticking out her tongue.
It doesn't even matter that 90% of her water ends up on the front of her shirt.
Her fat little hands and cheeks are the best.

Paid Holiday

On Martin Luther King Jr day weekend we were frequented by some of our favorite guests...Curtis and Hailey!

It was nice to catch up since we don't get to see each other as often as we would like. The weekend was busy with new nephews to visit, but we did find time for some Magleby's breakfast with the Nasmans and some Belgian waffles with the Allers. When the old crew gets together its seems like high school was just yesterday...well maybe not yesterday.

Everyone was pretty excited when the camera came out that early in the morning.

I'm sure they will be equally excited when they see their pictures on the blog!

You are probably looking at this gourmet feast and thinking how amazing our wives are.

And you are right...they are amazing, but on this particular MLK day the husbands were the ones who braved the early hours of the morning to make the food.

Yeah, maybe reheating pre-cooked sausages and putting batter on a waffle iron that beeps to tell you when to flip it isn't rocket science...

...but keeping the wives happy by letting them sit an relax sure is.

We are just glad that our children can now grow up in a country of complete racial and social equality.

The Cartwheel...

Bailey decided to try and do a cartwheel the other day.

It wasn't her form that was the problem.

Nor was it a matter of flexibility.

In the end I believe it was her head-to-bicep ratio that did her in.

Gymnast dreams were crushed...

...and she will undoubtedly be crying herself to sleep on her huge pillow tonight.

Cinnamon Rolls and a Wade

On Saturday Terri had a cinnamon roll order to fill and she got some help from a couple of our favorite people.

There to lead the cheering squad was Bailey, no one had the heart to tell her that pastries have not yet made it on her menu.

Comic relief and quality control via frequent taste testing was provided by Wade.

After the hard work in the kitchen it was time to relax a little.

Wade, who also loves a good book, was more than happy to help Baily peruse her options and make a selection.

Thanks to Grandma Pam Bailey, though still very young, has already accumulated a sizable collection of Berenstain Bear and Little Critter books.

Thanks for your help guys!

Lunch and a Photo Shoot

Bailey and I went up to Salt Lake to eat lunch with these ladies at Makell's house. We had a great time. Sumo did one thing right...it made us all friends.

We were missing a few girls, but it was a great start to hopefully a monthly tradition so we can keep in touch now that we have all moved on from the restaurant business.

While we were all hanging out Makell started snapping a few pictures of little Boopers...
and I am pretty much in love with all of them.
She is so talented.
And Bails was having a good ole time striking pose after pose.
Everything from Makell's house, her artistic eye, drawings, photography, design ideas....you name it and it is amazing.
Check out more of her stuff at plumecreative.blogspot.com
Love this big smile!
Thank you so much for the pictures Makell. You are the best. Love ya.

A New Crib

When we returned from California we decided it was time to kick Bailey out of our room. It was too hard to let her cry it out when she was at the foot of our bed in her pack n play and she was just heavy enough where that little board they call a mattress was not very comfortable anymore. So poor Sam relented and finally let me buy a crib.

We waited until we returned from our Boise trip to officially switch her over. It took her awhile to get used to. The first few nights involved a few hours of letting her cry it out, but by the third or fourth night she was sleeping all the way through the night and barely crying at all.
It was so easy that we both decided we were dumb for not doing it sooner.
Always trying to get in all of the pictures. She is her father's child.

Two Front Teeth...

This little lady has been teething for months. Those pesky bottom gums have been swollen since October and there is still no sign of them. And then one day I got a quick glance at her top gums and surprisingly I found her two top teeth had come out of nowhere.

What the heck? Poor girl. No wonder we thought baby orajel was a scam.
Now if we can only find the pause button because I feel like my little baby is starting to not be my baby anymore.

Another Boise Trip!

We got to Boise late Wednesday night for a fun filled weekend. Sam got up early on Thursday and got all dressed and ready to take care of some business. Bailey, however, was feeling rather lazy and decided to stay in her pajamas for the better part of the morning.

Not sure who is copying who here...
but my money is on Bails.

After a long afternoon where some of us worked much harder than others (I sat around lazily the whole day) we headed over to Grandma Pam's for some dinner and games.

We played trivial pursuit. Sam and I always win (usually because we find some way to cheat without anyone knowing), but this time we split up girls vs boys. And of course the ladies won.
Here is my Boopers saying "What Now" to her Daddy who was most definitely on the losing team!
Of course with a head in the 90th percentile and all the books she gets from Grandma Pam it was only a matter of time that she would turn into Ms. Smarty Pants.
And then the sleepy eyes hit so we headed back to Nampa and got ready for bed.
and we quickly got grumpy until we entered dream land.
The next morning we woke up nice and refreshed.
And while Aunt Jana went out to run a few miles in the death cold morning Bails decided to do some leg exercise too.
And it was all fun and games until we stopped paying attention and Boopers toppled over...
Ooops. Sorry baby.

That evening we went over to see Grandpa Braden and his new house!
We got the grand tour and loved the house. We all had a fun time visiting and hanging out...
...while Sam tried to hang the chandelier without killing himself. It was a little touch and go at times and it took an extremely long time, but he finally did it and that is all that matters.
We stopped and ate breakfast dinner with Grandpa Braden and then headed back to Nampa to open Christmas presents.
Bails was so excited...
to eat the wrapping paper.
And then she realized there was a toy inside the paper and after giving it a good check out...
She decided she was extremely happy with it. Thanks so much Aunt Jana, Uncle Chuck, Clyde and Will!

The next morning we all got up and ate delicious breakfast that Chuck made. Pancakes and bacon! Yum Yum.
Bails being a little helpful, but mostly...not.

And of course before we hit the road to head back to Utah Bails had to get in a little bit of extra Grandma Pam hang out time...
Protecting herself in the Star Wars battle against her cousins and Daddy. I'm not sure who won, but if I had to guess my money would be on one of these cute boys...
Sorry Sam.

Thanks so much for letting us come visit Izatts and Grandma Pam. You were great hosts and we had so much fun. We love you guys!