Some things we are loving about living here...

There are so many things that I am really enjoying about living here!!! One of the things is playgroup!!! The moms and babies/kids get together every day and play at the pool or playground. It's been so much fun for me and my kids! Here's a picture of some of the babies!

Playgroup

Even Olivia has her own social circle!!! (and these aren't even all of the babies here!) L-R: Olivia, Jace, Maylie, Carter, Finn and Bryce (not pictured: McKay, Grace, Olivia G.)

KIDS L-R: Annie, Brady, Zach, Joshua, Addison
(Kids not pictured: Colin, Cooper, Sam, Erik and Chase)
My friends (MOMS)
L-R: Me, Jenna, Nicole, Tiffany, Valerie, Megan, Candice
(Moms not pictured: Aubrey, Hayley, Jenny, McKenzie, Giselle, and Charlotte)

Brady with Colin and Joshua

The Clubhouse

The clubhouse is AWESOME and boasts an indoor mail area complete with a postal drop-box, soda machine and "black box" DVD rental! There's also an industrial laundry mat (but we have our own washer/dryer in our apartment, a fully-equipped fitness center, a large lobby area with a fireplace and couches, a pool table, bathrooms, and an outdoor BBQ and picnic area!!!

The Pool Table:

Fitness Center:




There's also a really nice pool and spa along with covered areas with fans and chaise lounges and even a small putting green!!! Chris brought Brady to D.I. and bought him his very own putter so they can golf together! It's so cute!

They finally opened the pool and we've been having a blast swimming almost every day!!!

The hot tub is open year round so we've been enjoying that often as well!!

I thought these pictures of Brady were hilarious!!!

SHARK ATTACK!!!!

Even Olivia kicks back and relaxes!!!

Daddy loves coming home from work on hot evenings and taking Brady swimming after dinner!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our apartment complex!!!

Grocery Shopping

On Father's Day we got a kick out of watching Brady and Olivia "grocery shop" at Grammie and Grandpa Graf's house! Brady said that he had 11 kids and he proceeded to clean out the cupboards!!!

When Olivia saw Brady's full cart she wanted to push that one!!! It was so cute watching them play together and seeing Olivia pushing the cart all over the place (she's walking now!!!!)

What a good Daddy he will be some day!!!

Some Random Pictures

I never did a post about our Memorial Day Weekend Camping "Adventure" but basically what happened was we went camping with my cousin Abe and his family at Thousand Springs resort and there was a "college crew" there that had their music blaring the whole weekend and they were basically having a glorified weekend keg party. Rough language and music, rudeness, fighting, drunken disorderlyness and drunk driving of their boats at 2 a.m. etc. made it so we had to leave the campground and drive 45 mins. home at about 2:30 in the morning. Needless to say we went and got our money back and we're not going camping there ever again!!!



Here's a few pictures from the good moments of the weekend:

Grandpa and Grammie Graf took Brady fishing on the Snake River and then dropped him off at our camp-site. Our site was beautiful and overlooked the Thousand Springs (you can see one of them in the background). Livy was fascinated with the grass and all of the sticks, twigs and leaves!

We went and saw the "Idaho Alligators" which are raised at a local fish farm here. This big guy was obviously dead as he was bloated and covered in flies- pretty nasty!!!

Cafe Rio Opened!!!!

This post is for you Nickie!!! We LOVE Cafe Rio (especially their Pork Barbacoa Salad and their Fire-grilled steak or chicken). I can make a pretty great meal using some mock recipes I got off of the internet but there's nothing like the real thing!!! And what's better than that? Chris often has to do corporate lunches so he gets his frequent diner card punched A LOT which gets me a FREE MEAL!!!! Yay!

Livy thought the tortilla was THE BEST!!!

Another cute pic of Miss Livy eating! No picky eating for her!

My funny loaf of bread (I accidentally doubled the water and flour but not the rest of the ingredients....it still tasted great but it was huge and very very dense!!! It made for some crazy BLT sandwiches for dinner one night that we ended up having to eat with a fork!)

* * *

And last of all...Olivia was sick for about a week and so Big Brother snuggeled with her on the chair while they watched cartoons to make her feel better...can't get cuter than that!

To some GREAT Dads!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chris and I are both so lucky to have wonderful Father's who have truly blessed our lives in many ways!!!

I missed my dad a lot yesterday as we are far apart so I posted this picture of him and Brady from 1 year ago!!!

We went in with Uncle Andrew on a new step-ladder for Grandpa Morgan and Brady helped me make these cards and colored a picture to send to Grandpa in the mail

TO OUR DADDY:

"You're the best in the world!"

(That's what Brady always tells Chris!)

I am also so blessed to have a wonderful husband who is also a good father to his two beautiful children! He is loving and funny and always makes the kids laugh! They love you so much Daddy!

We kicked off our Father's Day weekend with a special Salmon dinner that I made for Chris on Saturday night:

Then on Sunday morning I suprised Chris with breakfast:


(a hot breakfast wouldn't be complete in our house without some
Frank's hot sauce and ketchup!!!)

* * *



After breakfast and cleaning up I gave Chris and Brady haircuts and then we did some quiet activities before getting ready for church. Brady and I made cards while Daddy and Livy rested and Chris went over his lesson (he teaches Elder's Quorum and we both teach Sunbeams!!!)

After church we headed on down to Burley to have dinner and an evening with Chris' family. Chris' Dad, Dan had a wonderful and sentimental time opening his cards and gifts from his kids! It's always touching to see a Dad when he's emotional! It's been really nice being close to Chris' family again even though it's been hard for me to now be apart from my family.

* * *

Dad Graf opening his gifts:


He recieved a special package in the mail from little niece Lexi in Philadelphia (Chris' sister Nickie's daughter) Grandpa got lots of handprint art between the three grandkids!!!







From Mom Graf and Shawnae and Chels he got a grill basket, some cologne and these "sauve" swim shorts!!! He'll be the coolest Grandpa around!




Then Brady gave Grandpa a great big kiss and a picture he colored and his card that he helped make:

I did a combined "Father/Son" gift for Dad and Dan:

the Ultimate Movie-goers Kit including tickets to go see the new Terminator movie (although I accidentally wrote Transformers! LOL!)

So this Tuesday night they are all going to come up to our place and us girl's are going to have a "Girl's Night In" while the guys have a "Guy's Night Out!"

* * *

I also gave Chris some new shirts and a belt for work as he was DESPERATELY in need of these!!! All of his white shirts had small rips in either the elbows or armpits!!! He was down to only three white shirts and they also all had some pen stains in the pockets (no more twisty pens!) He wears his shirts out fast since he wears them everyday and often helps out his car preps with prepping the cars before rental.

4 new white shirts, a reversable belt and 2 new blue shirts

(a new color he can wear at work!!! YAY!!!)

We love our Dads everywhere!!! (and our Grandpas and Papas too!!!)

Thanks for being such wonderful men that we can look up to and love!!!