Kind of exciting . . .

Eric and I took a quick trip to Nauvoo this weekend to see the pageant and go to the temple. While we were there he proposed so we are now officially engaged. We plan to get married this fall, barring any issues it will be in Boise in October. When we get everything set I will be sure to let folks know. Anyway, we are just excited :)

On the road again . . . please no!!

So I realize that it has been just about forever since I have updated this and I have done a lot of things and been a lot of places so I will try to give you a quick run down of what I have been up to.

First, had a crazy Spring season with work . . . this year seemed much harder than pervious years and I was all over traveling and not sleeping and just working way too much! But all seems to have turned out well and time for me to start getting ready for the fall and winter seasons.

I went on an AWESOME road trip with my girls Molly and Tia to Gulf Shores, Alamaba. We had a condo accross the street from the beach and spent a week in the sun relaxing, not thinking about work, catching up on sleep, and just enjoying hanging out as friends cause we don't seem to get a lot of time for that anymore. We made a stop by Graceland on the way home so I can officially cross that one off my bucket list! It was fun!

Got home from Alabama just in time to head to Idaho the next weekend. Eric came with me, he was brave to agree to this trip. It was quite the trip. I went to the temple for myself and it was wonderful to have my parents, and four of my siblings, three brothers in law and Eric there with me. An hour later my six little brothers and sisters were sealed to my parents which was a very special experience for our family to all be in the temple together. We then packed up and headed up to Donnelly where we had a cabin on the lake for the long weekend. The weather didn't cooperate but I think we all still enjoyed just hanging out together for a few day. I miss my family so it is always fun to go see them. And it was really special to bring Eric with me and have him be a part of all that.

This past weekend we headed out to Nebraska to visit Eric's parent for the 4th of July. They live in Nebraska's official "4th of July City" so it just seemed appropriate for us to visit :) We had a good time and got home late last night.

Now I am back to work for my first full work week in almost a month and just looking forward to staying home this weekend and enjoying time with Cletus and Eric.

My first niece!!

My twin sister Jennifer and her husband Tyson had their first baby girl last night. Her name is Lily Ann Hansen and she is beautiful and in my opinion she looks just like her mother. I am so excited to go home to visit my family in six weeks and get to actually meet her! Baby girls are so much fun!

Plus it is exciting to add another girl to the family. The boys were four up on us and now that lead is cut down to three :) We'll see how long that lasts ;)

Finally some Spring photos

Ok, sorry it has been forever, life is really crazy these days between work, Eric, and you know . . . just life for me in the Spring. Anyway, this past Sunday Eric reminded me that I needed to take photos of my Spring tulips to share with my sister Jennifer, so we took a few pictures and I thought that I would share. Cletus kind of likes them too :)

This is Cletus and I with my flower pots.



A new mix that Diane and I came up with of Blue Muscari, a funky mini daffodil and a faint little pink tulip. We both decided we loved it!



Just the house in bloom. Thanks to Eric for getting the lawn mowed so that it could stop looking abandoned. We had so much rain and I was just so busy it was starting to look a little scary.

It is official!!

As some of you, but maybe not all of you know my family has grown significantly over the past year or so and not just due to three weddings. My parents decided a little over a year ago to take in 6 little brothers and sisters that needed a good home (well there were 5 at the time and the 6th was on his way). Well exactly 13 months to the day that they arrived in our home (yesterday) the adoptions were all finalized, so I officially have 4 more little brothers and 2 more little sisters. They are great kids and I am so excited that they are officially a part of our family.

I finally decided what to do with it . . .

Just in case you don't know me or don't know much about me, I kinda like the outdoors, plants, nice weather, that kind of stuff. So I am just a little bit excited about the coming spring. I am excited to see my yard come to life and to be able to start spending more time outdoors.

Anyway, so there is this spot in my backyard that I have been struggling with what to do with. It is a long narrow bed area that is up against my fence, just an odd spot so I killed the grass there last year and created a bed, but never got it planted with anything. But, I think that I have finally come up with a pallet that I like.

It starts with Solidago 'Fireworks' which is this kind of crazy yellow flowering perennial. Then mixed in the back with that will be the Stachys 'Humello' which I think was the subject of a previous blog post. I really like it if you can't tell. Them mixed in front of those will be these fun Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'. I really just love the form and the color. And planted with those to add that little touch of pink that I seem to really need these days will be Coreopsis 'Heavens Gate' which has dainty bi-color pink flowers.

All of these should combine to create a nice bed for me. I am going for a nice mixed/naturalized look. I am excited about the variety in color and texture. Once I get them planted and they start flowering this summer I will post a few pictures so that ya'll can see how it turns out.