Photo Wall!

I blogged about this project in early March and now it is finally come together! I got a pack of 6 large frames at Target and bought a few more little ones and then I was ready!

My mom helped me figure out the layout for the wall.

It was so exciting to see the wall fill up with pictures!

There was a small problem with the light switch being in the way (yeah, that was my fault), but luckily my mom helped me figure out a different lay out.

Disaster averted!

I added a few more little pictures of our nieces and nephews.

Almost done!

All of the frames are now up and it looks so good!

The quote on the wall says "The most important things in life are not things." That quote was really the inspiration for this project. I wanted to have a visual reminder of what life is all about. I have a picture of Jesus Christ in the center because when life is centered on him, everything else falls into place. I am grateful for that knowledge and hope that this will help me remember that.

A Cause For Celebration!

Jonathan and I are done with another semester! To celebrate we decided to get prime spots for the solar eclipse in Durham, just outside of Chico. The last solar eclipse that we saw happened in 1992 and I didn't really care that it was happening. Thankfully, this time I was so much older and knew what was happening!

On our way to see the eclipse!

Our first look at what was happening.

I figured that we had some time before the eclipse totally happened, so I did some exploring around where we parked. It was just some fields with overgrown oak trees and clusters of California poppies. I ended up taking a ton of pictures. Here are just a few.

 With the picture on the right, I used our binoculars as a zoom lens.

Once it started getting closer to 6, we started checking the eclipse a lot more frequently.

This was right before the full eclipse!!!

I took a couple of videos of the moon completely blocking the sun, but I'm not entirely sure how to post them. Oh, well! Before we left, we noticed that the light coming through the trees was also crescent shaped.

This was such a neat experience to see an eclipse! We already are making plans for the next one that passes over the United States in 2017. (Yeah, we're nerds and we know it!) I'm so grateful to have a husband that likes the same things that I do!

On our way back home, we found Fred from the movie Cars. Apparently he's been in Northern California this whole time!

Fred's the rusty car on the right.

This was the first of our many adventures this summer!

Mother's Day Weekend!

We had a wonderful, family filled Mother's Day weekend. It started on Saturday with a Patterson family barbecue. Most of the family was there and it was great! There was tons of noise with the cousins playing and even more cuddling with baby Lyla.

My mom always has music playing at her house and she made a special playlist for the kids with music from some of their favorite movies. One of the songs is Boogie Fever (from Despicable Me) and Ryan was sure that they were singing Booty Fever instead! He and Tyler started shacking their booties all around the kitchen. They are a silly pair of boys!

This is all that was left of our dinner.

Ryan was dying to play baseball, but it was way too hot to play during the afternoon so he made flyers so no one could forget to play after the sun was off of the street. I still want to know what the "other stuf" is...

After dinner, these three goofballs were going crazy! Tyler was riding on the tricycle while Kyle and Garrett chased him. Yes, there was lots of happy screaming by all three boys. And yes, I think we all lost some of our hearing from their shrill screams. (They may be boys, but they scream like girls!)

Lyla just hanging out during the game.

For my mom's gift, we all chipped in and bought her a brand new, iPad! Before she opened it, Andy and I set it up and got her some apps and put some family pictures on it. She was so surprised! 

Here are some of the pictures from the iPad.

Ryan sang us a song he learned at school. It should sound familiar...

After going to church on Sunday, we went to my parent's house and had a quiet lunch before visiting Grandma Machen. While we were there, we ran into my mom's sister, Andrea! Our quick visit turned into an hour long chat with her. It was so fun catching up with her and seeing Grandma. (Of course, I don't have any pictures of our visit.)

We then headed over to the Nelson's with flowers for Mom. We Skyped with Hannah for a little bit and then had a wonderful lesson given by Mom. The Nelson men made chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries for all of the girls. They were delicious!

It was such a fun weekend with our family! I love both of our wonderful mothers and our amazing sisters that are mothers. One day, I'll join their club!

Two Years Ago...

Two years ago, there was this guy that I knew who really liked me and wanted to date me. I liked him just fine, but I wasn't sure if I wanted anything more than just a friend. Luckily for that guy, I was researching for a lesson and I read that girls need to go out with a guy once before they should decline any more dates. I knew that sooner or later I would get a phone call from him and sure enough, it came on May 18th. I was never around my phone at that time and so this guy left a message saying he had a question for me (his mom taught him to never ever ask a girl out on a message). Now that really puzzled me and so I called him back. No answer. I didn't really care and went on with my evening. He called back around 8:30pm. He just wanted to see if I wanted some ice cream. I agreed to go with him and quickly got ready to go. He picked me up and we went to Big Spoon. It was a rather chilly evening so we sat near the fire pit. We ended up talking for 2 or 3 hours. He then took me home and gave me an awkward one-armed hug and left. I didn't realize at the time that I was going to marry that man in less than one year.

I love the story of how we ended up together. I think it's really funny. Anyways, I decided that we needed to do something special for the anniversary of our first date. So, we planned on going out on our first date all over again! (I completely forgot that we did this exact same thing last year. Sorry honey!)

It started out with an awkward message on my phone and then we planned on going out a 9.

We had way too much fun pretending that it was really our first date. We did the usual chitchat and had a hard time not holding hands. We sat around the fire pit and did a little more pretending, but then it was just too much.

Lounging as we enjoyed our frozen yogurt.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that takes such good care of me. I love all of our silliness and the time that we get to spend together.

Instagram

I have quickly become one of the biggest fans of Instagram. Thank you for finally developing the app for Android! It's yet another way for me to take and share pictures of my favorite people. Jonathan's not the biggest fan especially since it basically looks like you've taken pictures with an old camera. I, however, enjoy the look and feel that it gives the pictures.

My brother took a couple of these pictures. He uses Instagram too!

Be prepared for more Instagram pictures...

Wipe Out!

I got some pictures from the Nelson family cabin trip we took in March. I thought I would share my awesome wipe out.

It started out so well, thanks to Thomas's push.

Then I turned around, and well....

I ended up on my head.

I also had to share a few (when I say a few, I mean a lot) other pictures from that fun day.

Mercedes was so cute wandering in the snow!

We did some wandering, some snow ball fights, and some swinging.

We can't forget our snowman and Mercedes eating snow.

Thomas made some of the best faces while sledding!

 Hannah is so well balanced!

Even Dad went down the hill a few times.

Crazy Thomas going head first!

It was so beautiful being in the snow!

It was so much fun playing in the snow! I can't wait until the next time we get to go!