Baby Caitlin's Blessing

This little darling, my favorite (and only) baby niece was blessed yesterday. Caitlin is the cutest and sweetest little baby, I just couldn't get enough of her.

Caitlin belongs to my sister Allison and her husband Dave, who gave her a beautiful blessing. She didn't even cry and was such a great baby the whole day. Her older brother Jordan is also an incredibly good kid and extremely handsome in his sweet Sunday suit. I love this family!


I also love the fact that I live close to most of my family and that all my sisters, even if they don't live in Utah, are close in friendship. We missed you Emily and we can't wait until you'll be here! Because most of us were at church together, Melanie, Allison, Mandy and I played a musical number in sacrament meeting. Oh how fun it is to create beautiful music with my family. Thank you Mom for the hours driving us to lessons, making us practice and putting up with a whole lot of complaining when we were younger to keep us all playing. It is now one of my greatest joys.

Thank you Alli and Dave for having us all over!

I just had to stick these pictures in. The other morning Brian happily climbed into the bath while wearing his jammies. Obviously he enjoys his baths.

The Latest

Brian is learning how to climb up on things around the house. I've learned to NEVER leave the dishwasher open and to watch him pretty much every second of the day.
He's proud of getting himself up onto the fireplace.

Mark gave Brian a new haircut and we got him a new church outfit. What a little stud.

We celebrated Mark's Dad's 60th Birthday and had a great time with the Hsiao family. Happy Birthday Daniel!

Mark's family LOVES crab. I didn't think that I liked it until I met Mark. Then with all the exposure, I too have become fond of some seafood. My crab is the one looking at the camera from the plate in front. I love family dinners.

Mark and I have an ongoing debate as to when we'll get a dog. We've decided to wait of course until our yard and house are completely dog ready, but Brian wants one right now. He loves dogs and adores Mark's childhood dog named Asil.

Brian is such a boy.

Box House and Cousins

Mark built Brian a little house out of a box we had. Brian loves it so much and plays in it every day. Who needs expensive toys when you have boxes and a dad willing to fix them up?



Brian is to a point in his life now where he LOVES to be around his cousins. We've been to several Birthday parties lately where Brian just had to get involved with everything. He loves the older kids. These pictures were the only ones I got at Clara's Birthday, but you can see that Brian is always there with the older kids trying to be a part of everything.



We are so lucky to have Brian's cousin Xander living just down the stairs. Brian loves to follow him around and Xander is so good to Brian. Thanks Vivian for taking these pictures, I need to get the camera out more often to capture those funny moments with these two cute boys.

Brian Games

There is no music on this long video because I didn't want to take the time to add it, but if you want to spend the time watching it you'll really get to know our Bri Bri.

What a January

During the month of January we started and completed a thorough remodel of our basement. With the help of one of Mark's contractor friends and through some really late nights, we got it finished by the deadline, Jan. 30th. We remodeled the basement to create a basement apartment, and Mark's brother Jake and his wife and son are renting from us now, but they needed to move out of their previous apartment by the end of January, hence the deadline.

All in all we demolished four walls, a shower, two ceilings, a closet; ripped up carpet and padding and tore down the stair banister. Then we built six walls, two closets, a kitchen, a bedroom, extended the bathroom, put in a bathtub, installed cabinets, fridge, dishwasher, stove, counter etc. After painting, caulking, tiling, mudding, spackling, priming, trimming, cutting carpet and pads, putting down kitchen floor, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. we finally finished just in time. Oh how glad we are to have it all done. Of course we couldn't have done it without the help of family. Thanks to the Hsiao family for your late nights painting, demolishing, cleaning, and helping us carry in thousands of pounds of sheetrock, the fridge, and everything else.

Sadly I didn't get ANY pictures of the basement before we got to it, but here are a few pictures of construction and finished product. The finished pictures are first so they're a little out of order, but it gives you an idea of what was completed.