Mumford Family

House Skating

2011-12-04T19:28:00.004-07:00

This is what the girls have come up with to pass time while we're stuck in the house all day.

Face Paint

2011-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Brad took the girls to a Family Fun Night while I went out with some friends.

It looks like the face painter sure had fun!

Alexa was soooo sad to have to wash her face.

A Pirate's Life

2011-07-04T16:28:00.005-07:00

I've laughed every time I've looked at these pictures. I just wanted to share the joy. Alexa came home from church yesterday with a sack full of pirate stuff: a compass, a spyglass, and this beautiful patch. I'm not sure what type of object lesson these would be a part of. Any ideas?

The pirate's apprentice below is all sorts of terrible. Captain Jack, Blackbeard, or even the Somali pirates would shudder in fear. Avast ye lubbers!!

Teach your kids to read

2011-06-04T21:31:00.004-07:00

Brad here. I just got the urge to blog. I was getting my Daily Fix (by my SIL, Michelle) and catching up on some friends’ blogs and I had this thought that I should blog about the books I’ve read recently. Besides, I said to myself, our blog could use a break from all the awesome things our kids are doing.

About a year ago, my cousin Dave conducted a survey for a statistics project he did for his masters. He asked only two questions: how many books I read/yr and my level of education. I answered 5 books, but I could only really remember reading 3 (I counted reading the scriptures as one, and figured I must have read one other book). It made me realize that since law school and the bar exam I hadn’t done much reading for pleasure. It wasn’t that I was burned out of reading, it’s just that I kind of forgot what reading for pleasure was like. So, I set a loose goal to read more.

I discovered how cool the public library is here on base. They’ve got all kinds of books there! I started with a couple selections from the CSAF’s reading list, mostly geared toward leadership and military history (here’s CSAF’s current reading list if you care). Good stuff.

Then Uncle Aaron (Cassi’s brother) gave me The Rainmaker (later, for Christmas, he gave me a Volcom hoodie along with a book on coaching little league football (?), How to be Christian Without Being Religious (??) and a pretty cool book/cd set on the 100 greatest sports moments). Uncle Aaron was working part time for an online bookseller sorting books and filling orders. He turned into a pretty sweet hookup because before we knew it, Uncle Aaron filled our bookcase (see for yourself in the photo below). I asked him if he knew what embezzlement was (aka “cookin’ the books”) and if he knew it was illegal, and he assured me, just like Nixon, that he’s not a crook. So we owe Uncle Aaron a big thanks for supplying our year’s supply of reading material. (P.S. Uncle Aaron got married last month, and not to the girl who wrote this song about him).

Here are the many books we've got from Uncle Aaron. He gave us
the stack of books on the floor and most of the children's books on the shelf.

So, so far this calendar year, I’ve completed seven books and I'm working on two others, not counting the scriptures. 2 by Grisham, 2 from CSAF’s reading list, Let’s Roll and 2 philosophical works. The Grisham novels are great. I feel a little sheepish to admit that I loved these books. I am, after all, a lawyer; should I love novels about lawyers? (Do wizards like Harry Potter? Do vampires dig the Twilight Series?) How do I get past the gratuitous ex parte communications and over-simplification of the legal process? I don’t, really. I roll my eyes at those things, but the stories are just fun to read. I also learn things, like how to solicit clients from The Rainmaker (that was the first of the Grisham novels I read), how much money I could make running a newspaper from The Last Juror, and how cool it would be to be the illegitimate daughter of a multi-billionaire from The Testament (I also learned from that book: money ≠ happiness, antivenom is actually spelled antivenin).

My brother Victor aka Kyle got me back into philosophy recently. He took a philosophy course in his last semester at BYU-I and he realized how cool philosophy is. Actually, I think the course made him really glad he majored in Biology. But, his questions about the material he was covering in his class prompted me to acquire the textbook he was studying and follow along in his reading. I got to read passages of Kant, Hume, Locke, Ghandi, Dr. King (among others) that I hadn’t touched since I earned my undergrad. Working with Kyle made me realize that Philosophy is not something you should ever study by yourself. (I highly recommend “the buddy system” with philosophy.) Far more interesting to read a little and discuss a little. That’s why I haven’t touched the stuff since undergrad, because there’s no one with whom I can share my witty philosophical insights. Cassi’d rather eat mushrooms or turkey (these are a few of her (least) favorite things) than listen to me talk about the merits of the categorical imperative.

So, my philosophical revival led me to pick up The Four Loves by Clive Staples Lewis. I got this book from my friend Brooke about 6 yrs ago. Many people are surprised to learn that Lewis was a philosopher long before he created Narnia (by “many people” I mean “one person that I know of”). But it’s true, he's a philosopher (you heard it here first). This book explores the nature of love and what it means to love. He explores the four loves: affection, friendship, eros, and charity. It’s interesting, but mostly in an academic sense. I don’t refer to it in my daily experience.

Let’s Roll is a book by Lisa Beamer, the widow of one of the individuals who died trying to wrest control of United Flight 93 from terrorists. I bought this book about 3 years ago at the Mesa Library (Dobson Road Branch) for like $5. It caught my eye because my Grandma liked it so much she did a book report on it for our family. It was a good book. I thought it would be more about kicking hijacking terrorists in the teeth, but it focused on dealing with adversity and cultivating in yourself the kind of character that stands up to hijacking terrorists. I was in Chile when 9/11 happened, so it was cool to read about how the terrorists didn’t completely win that day.

Reading’s fun. I highly encourage you to take it up if you haven’t. Or if you’ve recently finished law school, don’t forget about reading for pleasure.

White Water in the Morning

2011-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

The end of April, Brad and I (and our friend Alissa) got to go white water rafting with a guide-training group from here on base. They provided all the gear, including the wetsuits.

I was a little nervous at first

but it was so so fun! The water was really cold, but we didn't fall out of the raft (we came close a couple times).

I would recommend it to anyone.

Ink Eater

2011-04-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is what your kid looks like after she eats her sister's stamp.

Don't ask me how she got a hold of it in the car.

It didn't kill her, even though it was made in China, so that's a good thing.

Cereal Thief

2011-03-13T19:14:00.003-07:00

We noticed recently that our cereal has been going missing, so we set up a spy camera to discover what was going on. Turns out that it was an inside job.

We had to move the cereal to higher ground in order to keep Cailin from getting into it all of the time. It's cut down on messy floors by at least 75%.

Maybe this cupboard will have to become our earthquake hide-out or something.

Painting Projects

2011-02-21T20:40:00.004-07:00

We had a few painting projects we'd been working on for a while so we decided to buckle down and get them done. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day we had a family paint day and finished most of them.

It was way too cold outside, so the garage became our workshop.

Alexa even got to join in on the fun.

Cailin isn't part of this because....well, can you imagine?

We had to do it all while she slept.

Anyway, we were pretty happy with the results. Here are two of the finished projects.

We painted another night stand and an armoire as well.

If you don't look too closely they actually look ok. At least we have some matching furniture. :)

Silly Boys

2011-02-16T10:41:00.003-07:00

The other night we went and had dinner with some of Brad's coworkers. We went to a burger place in Boise called Big Jud's.
They have this challenge where if you eat a 1 lb hamburger and 1 lb of fries within an hour, you get your picture on the wall.
Well, if you know my husband you know he won't pass up a challenge. And since his friend Will was doing it, he was even more determined. To give you an idea of what he had to eat, here's his burger compared to mine. And then the fries too!

He ate the first half no problem. Then started to slow down. I tried to convince him that he didn't have to finish, but he wouldn't be deterred. He said the burger wasn't the hard part, but the fries about did him in. He made himself totally sick, but he finished in about 45 minutes. And he got his picture taken.

The next day he didn't want breakfast or lunch.

Why do boys do silly things like this?

1st Birthday

2011-01-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Cailin's birthday on Thursday. Grammy and Aunt Moff even came up to join the party...so fun!
I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It seems like just last week that "I lived" at St Alphonsus hospital.

Now I have a 1-yr-old!

And she LOVES cupcakes!

Oh, and Brad finally got his birthday present 3 weeks late. We're always wondering where places are and then forget or are too lazy to look them up. Now we just have to look on the wall.

We love having the whole world right in front of our eyes!

Hayride with Santa

2010-12-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

We took a little hayride with Santa around base. Alexa was soooo happy! She got to sit on Santa's lap for like 20 minutes. They're pretty much BFFs by now.

Cailin, on the other hand, didn't think Santa was so awesome.

First Snow

2010-11-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

By far the best snowman on the block.

2 Little Girls

2010-11-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

This morning I came downstairs to find this. Don't worry...it's blood from her nose. She smeared it all over her face. Poor girl, she didn't have a clue why I was freaking out.

And I just have to post this picture. I put piggies in Cailin's hair and she took them out before I could get a picture. But this might be even better with her devil horns.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-05T11:09:00.001-07:00

Here is our little lion...

...and our Flamenco Dancer

We went to the trunk-or-treat at the church, but I think I prefer going door to door, especially when our neighbors are so close.

Creativity

2010-10-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Alexa has become very creative lately. She now has imaginary friends (Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc). And she does stuff like this:

Her mom loves it.

Oh What Do You Do In the Summertime?

2010-10-02T21:56:00.001-07:00

View Full Album

Here are some random pics that I wanted to get up. And since I only blog once a month or less, here are too many pictures.

I hate spiders!

2010-08-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

Not something you want to see right outside your back door (well...not me anyway)

I made Brad take care of it. He felt bad because he says it's supposed to be a good spider. I told him he had to choose between better and best. "Does he want a good spider or daughters that stay alive?" (I know... probably a little over the top)

Family Pictures

2010-08-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

My cousin came and took pictures of us while we were at my mom's a few weeks ago.

Here are some of my favorites:

I thought they turned out great.

Thanks KaeDawn!

2010-06-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

This is what happened 5 minutes before we left for church on Sunday. Alexa must have wanted to give Brad her own Father's Day surprise.

Luckily, lotion rubs right in, but it still made for a very slippery girl.

Then, this is what she did the same day after church while helping Brad make tortillas.

Not sure why everything has to go all over her face

Brad was excited to help make his Father's Day dinner so he could use his new apron and tortilla warmer.

Good thing he gets awesome presents :)

Random

2010-06-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

One week we're wearing our coats...

and the next week we're in our summer clothes.

Alexa loves her "black cookies"...

and I love rainbows that appear outside my front door.

The end.

Going Green

2010-05-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

I got some books in Spanish from the library to see what Alexa would think of them. She kept asking to read "Huevos verdes con jamon" by good old Dr. Seuss. Or "Coco-mone" as she calls it.

So, yesterday for lunch we decided to have some.

Alexa was so excited to help me make Coco-mone

Que ricos son, que ricos son los huevos verdes con jamon!

Cailin's Special Day

2010-05-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

We finally got to bless Cailin. We decided to do it in our stop in Utah so our families could be there. It was the first time in 4 1/2 years that everyone on my side of the family was together!

Here's our happy little family.

It was a good day.

Our trip home

2010-05-08T21:22:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of our memories from the trip home last month.

Sometimes when you promise your two-year-old that if she's good in the car she can go swimming in a pool and when you get to the hotel and find out they only have an outdoor pool, you have to improvise.

This is the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. They have a chair for each person who died. The little chairs represent the children. So sad.

If you're ever in that area, you need to stop and see it. You won't regret it.

We got to stop and see some friends in Mississippi and Colorado. I'm not so good at remembering my camera, but I did get a picture with my cousin Staci this time. It was fun to have people to see, and get some breaks from driving.

At a rest stop,

Alexa met this dog and followed him everywhere. He's a show dog named Drake (we got his card).

It was a pretty good trip, but I don't want to do it again anytime soon.

Ending of JAG School

2010-04-24T17:06:00.004-07:00

For Brad's graduation, they had what's called a "dining-out" where we had to get all dressed up. I was excited because we got to have a few hours without kids. It was pretty fun. The Air Force, surprising to me, knows how to relax and have a good time.

The next morning before graduation, there was a promotion ceremony for some of the graduates. We were supposed to be there at 7 am which meant leaving our apt at 6:30. But, sometimes when your phone is on vibrate you don't hear the alarm and you wake up at 6:16 in a panic. We somehow made it though.

This picture didn't work too well, but Brad got promoted to captain and when you get promoted, you have a pinning on (you change the pins on your jacket). Here is Alexa trying to put the pin on. She kept trying to put it on upside down. Needless to say, after everyone else left the stage I was still trying to put the pin on.

This is them taking the oath.

Here we are with Dan and Holly. Life in Alabama wouldn't have been as enjoyable without them.

2010-04-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally got someone to come enjoy Alabama with me. Aunt Moff came to stay while Brad was in Washington DC. We finally got to do the fun things we had been wanting to do.

On Saturday we went to the zoo.

The rhino was cool.

The elephants were cool.

But ... the spider monkeys were the BEST!

Alexa thinks she's a spider monkey, but I want a real one! They are so cute and entertaining.

Apparently they weren't entertaining enough for Cailin.

We had a great weekend. Thanks Aunt Moff!

Easter Fun

2010-04-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

We've never been to a better easter egg hunt before. There were lots of activities.

Painting eggs

Finding eggs

Smiling at eggs

Jumping on eggs - or maybe just a blowup castle

But either way, it was fun.

Air Show

2010-04-04T19:52:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday they had and air show at Maxwell. We had never been to one before. It was pretty cool.

They had jets doing all sorts of tricks throughout the day.

And, of course, you've got to love the Thunderbirds.

It's amazing how they stay so close together!

Alexa was just excited to see the zebra.

If you ever get the chance to go to an air show, you should definitely try to get there.

Sisters

2010-03-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

I just liked this picture...that's all.

Bellybuttons work too

2010-03-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

The things kids pick up

Trip Pictures

2010-03-18T08:06:00.003-07:00

Thanks to our good friends Dan and Holly who have things we didn't even know existed, we got an adaptable camera cord.

Here are some highlights of our trip across the country last month.

We spent the first night in Denver with my cousin Staci and her family. They were great hosts and it was so good to spend a little time with them (thanks Staci and Chris!). Not sure why I didn't get pictures of them - maybe on the way back.

We had to make sure each hotel we stayed at had a swimming pool. Alexa LOVED swimming with Brad each night. The Ramada Inn in Salina, Kansas has the best indoor swimming pool. It has a twisty slide. So, if you ever find yourself in the middle of Kansas needing a fun place to stay you should go there.

We got to stop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis

It's so tall!

Here we are at the base of the arch. Our first family photo. Too bad our baby is covered up.

We went into the museum they have underneath it.

These are peace tokens that each president of the US had to give to the Indians.

Lexi really liked this horse. She wanted to pet it and just after I got done telling her we couldn't touch it (that's what the sign said) a family came up and started petting it. I then had a two-year-old that wasn't happy with me.

Here's the Mississippi River. I can't believe how big the rivers are in the Midwest! They just don't get that big where I come from.

Few and Far Between

2010-03-01T15:02:00.004-07:00

When all your blogging comes from the pictures you take and then you forget your camera cord to put the pictures on the computer, blogging becomes scarce. That's why we haven't posted anything for a while.
We made the drive cross country and got to Alabama on Valentine's Day. I was surprised to see how many people actually live in AL since I had never met one before. We're enjoying our time here so far. It's fun to be in a big city again.

Hello World, This is Me

2010-01-23T10:50:00.004-07:00

Introducing Cailin (pronounced KAY-lin) Celine Mumford, born Jan. 20, 2010, at around 1 pm. She's not a huge fan of paparazzi. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz, measured 20 in. We were very impressed by her size considering she was born ~4 wks early. Alexa Jo. was 6 lbs 13 oz at full term plus one day. But, we keep telling her it's not a contest.

Because our baby was a little early, she had trouble eating by herself. She was taken right away to the NICU (I prefer En-eye-see-u, to Nikyu) because she was having difficulty breathing, but after about 3 hours her breathing got better. She's still in NICU until she can eat a sufficient amount by herself in one feeding.

This is Scotti, Cassi's nurse from Labor and Delivery, who helped us out a lot over the week+ that Cassi was in the hospital. Cassi was hospitalized 1/12 with pain from kidney stones. While in the hospital she developed a blood infection and pneumonia. She spent 5 nights in ICU where she had two nurses assigned to her. One to take care of her and one to monitor Cailin. Cailin was doing fine during the stay in ICU, but then inexplicably started "acting up" the minute they said we could get out of ICU.

They made the decision to induce Cassi on Tuesday (the 19th) because Cailin's heart rate was fluctuating so much. The ultrasound confirmed that blood flow in the placenta was a little restricted. But so far the doctors haven't found any lasting complications from that.

We've grown very tired of living in a hospital, but we are so thankful for the marvels of modern medicine. We received great care during our stay in St. Alphonsus in Boise.

As you can see, we've got another redhead on our hands. In addition to copying Alexa's red hair (even tho' Cailin's is a little darker than Lexa's) she also has big feet and long fingers just like Alexa. I always said that I wanted another Alexa, (Cassi was hoping for a little calmer baby) and for now it looks like I got my wish.

Celebrate Good Times

2010-01-08T19:32:00.004-07:00

I know the holidays are long gone, but I feel the need to document.

We started off the holidays with a pre-Christmas at home, just the 3 of us. Santa comes early sometimes.

Like father, like daughter - they are both concentrating very hard on something.

Then we headed to Grandma's house to join the family.

And Alexa decided to become a Raider's fan. Poor girl - she doesn't understand.

We spent Christmas Day with both families and enjoyed every minute of it.

Alexa's birthday was the 27th. Two years old!

She sure loved her cupcake and ice cream.

We were happy to be close to Logan for our anniversary on the 28th so we could go to The Bluebird for lunch. Nothing is better than that...

...except for maybe New Year's bowling with the Mumfords at Pop N' Pins in Preston. It's kind of a big deal,

even for the little ones

To top off the new year celebration we decided not to travel for 28 hours like last year, but went on a sleigh ride instead. It was definitely the better way to go.

The next day Grandpa and Alexa had a good time sledding in the back yard.

Before we headed back to Mountain Home, we got to celebrate Brad's birthday. He probably got the best present in the world.

Now we're back to real life with little snow and lots of wind.

So Big

2010-01-07T19:27:00.002-07:00

Alexa has a nice perch to sit on these days.

These next 5 weeks aren't going to go fast enough.

You're not Santa....

2009-12-19T19:30:00.001-07:00

...You smell like beef and cheese.

You Better Not Pout...

2009-12-17T11:07:00.005-07:00

Having our tv in the middle of the floor has been found useful for something.

This is Alexa's new way of pouting.

She'll have to find a new place when we finally get our tv put away.

New Loves

2009-12-14T16:02:00.005-07:00

Alexa found 2 new loves this past weekend:

#1 - Shoveling snow with Papi

She loved pushing the shovel and making bootprints in the snow

#2 - Spending time with her uncles

Some of you know, she took to Aaron pretty quickly when he got home 1 1/2 months ago.

Brandon, on the other hand, has been trying to win her affection since she was born. She has usually just cried and run away from him.

But, it all changed when they came to visit last week (our first visitors!). I don't know what happened, but she finally likes him now.

A Christmas miracle!

And she has realized it's a win-win situation

Oh, and we found a little diner in Mountain Home that has pretty much whatever you want to eat. It was surprisingly good too! If you come visit, we'll take you there... :)

Family Fun

2009-12-13T17:16:00.003-07:00

For FHE on Monday we decided to try some new activities. First, we wrote our names with glitter glue on our stockings. It worked pretty well, but we forgot to take an after picture...oops.

Then, we attempted to make sugar cookies. We didn't realize how much time it took to make them. I guess we should have realized that when you have an almost 2 yr old helping, it's going to take a while.

And you shouldn't get mad when she cuts a shape out right on top of another.

Luckily, she has a very patient dad.

Powdered sugar is the best!!

We had lots of fun. We love that Brad gets to hang out with us every night. Life is good!

New House

2009-12-06T22:59:00.003-07:00

We're finally getting settled into our house. We decided to go with a duplex on base. It may not sound like much, but it's bigger than anything we've ever had before, so we're pretty excited.

Alexa had some fun in the moving process. She was entertained by the plastic-wrapped furniture.

Here's our kitchen. There was even space after we put our table in!

This is part of the front room. The bedrooms are upstairs.

Our backyard area has lots of room to play. And there's a playground just behind the neighbor's house.

We can't go out and play cuz it's so darn cold here with all the wind, but Lexi is just happy to have it there.

Visitors are welcome. We finally have a spare bedroom - well, until February. But we're willing to kick our kids out of their rooms if it means having visitors.

Fun Holiday

2009-12-03T17:57:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving is the best when:

Your mom gets you all dressed up in the morning to go swing

You get to watch Papi play football with Grandpa and your uncles

You spend the day having lots of fun with your family

And you finish it up by taking a bath with your cousin Mitchell

And then, a couple days later you get to cuddle with your new buddy Uncle Aaron while watching Peter Pan and the Grinch over and over and over again

Nothing could be better than that.

1st Day on the Job

2009-11-23T13:22:00.003-07:00

We made it to Mountain Home AFB last night. They put us in temporary housing - which is like a nice 2 bedroom hotel. It's been fun to drive around the base - everything is so close. And they have just about everything you need right on base.

Here's Brad just before he went to work this morning:

The best part is is that he'll be done at 4:30!!! And he won't have to do homework!

Now we just need to find a place to live within the next 2 days so we can go home for Thanksgiving. No problem, right?

"Happy Ween"

2009-11-14T07:23:00.004-07:00

It's a little late, but I'm putting this picture up anyway.

This was the little witch who got excited at every single house we went to on Halloween because they were giving her a "teat." And the next day she forgot all about it, so her little sister got all the sugar from it. It was awesome.

Update on Brad

2009-10-25T20:49:00.002-07:00

So Brad flew to Alabama on Monday to start his training with the Air Force. He took the camera and has no computer with a usb port around, so we'll have to wait to see pictures when he gets home next month.

I wonder what he looks like in his uniform?

Anyway, he survived his first week with no more than 5 hrs of sleep a night and classes all day long. He thinks all the yelling should die down a little by the end of this week, but he'll still have to get up at 4:40 every morning.

He's getting fed pretty well and his roommate is from Texas.

That's all.

Good times in Vernal

2009-10-14T09:57:00.004-07:00

We went to Vernal last weekend to see Hannah and Jake, our friends from way back. They've been living in Houston, but then they got real and moved to Vernal. Vernal is a little closer than Texas, so we decided we should go see them while we were at least kind of close. This is Jake.

I asked him how to best describe himself, and he just sent me this picture. It really does speak volumes. (I copied that pic from their blog without permission, which might be illegal, but probably not in Vernal.)

We mostly spent the weekend hanging out, playing games, and eating. It was great. On Saturday we took a trip to Split Mountain, so named because the Green River split the mountain instead of going around it, which apparently baffles the scientists who study this kind of thing.

This is inside the Dinasour National Monument. (Oh, and don't be fooled by the name "Monument," because it's basically a Park.) The Monument boasts of some nice hiking, and cool petroglyphs. We went on a hike and found this tree bent clear over the path.
We named this the Arch of Friendship. The petroglyphs were left by the Fremont people ages ago.

To me it looks like an ancient playbook.

This rock goes by two different names. Would you say it looks more like a "Turtle Rock" or a "Skull Rock"? Feel free to make your voice heard in the comment section.

Can you believe we were there for 2 days and this is the only picture we got of Alexa with Annie (age 2) and Molly (age 4)? We are ashamed of ourselves.

But Alexa provided other photo ops. She found a primitive version of her pack-n-play, probably crafted by the Fremonts. Those clever Fremonts . . .

And let this be a lesson to you: When you look like a movie star, the papparazzi will find you.

Thanks Jake and Hannah for hosting us in Vernal. It was great to see you again!

2 Girls

2009-10-07T07:55:00.002-07:00

When Alexa and her sister are young they'll be cute like this:

But then for 13 years after that they'll probably just fight....and fight....and FIGHT....AND FIGHT!

That's my biggest fear about having 2 girls.

Little Vacay

2009-09-25T22:29:00.003-07:00

A couple days ago we had to go to Boise so Brad could officially become a lawyer. It was my first time ever going to Boise. The drive up there is NOT pretty, but it's nice once you get to the city.

They have a beautiful, different colored temple.

You know those people who you see at the front desk trying to get in somehow without their recommend because they left it home or lost it?....We'll that was me on this day. Luckily, the nice people called my stake pres. who told them I could go in. I think they take more pitty on you when you're pregnant because they know the baby is taking all your brain cells away.

We had a very enjoyable day. We went to Ross, Chili's, and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - how could it be any better?

We stayed the night in Twin Falls in order to break up the drive a little.

We got to see the temple there on the way out. Another first for me.

Then, we went to Shoshone Falls.

I guess the water was really low that day. On a good high water day, the cliffs in the above photo are supposed to be covered with water. That would have been cool.

But the area was pretty.

Anyway, we got to see some pretty things. While we were at Shoshone Falls Brad got a call from the Air Force giving us our choice of our first assignment - (for those who don't check facebook regularly) Clovis, New Mexico or Mountain Home, Idaho (which we stopped at on our way to Boise - the McDonald's there charges you for water! But the Wendy's doesn't so go there.).

Since Clovis is out in the middle of nowhere and we don't know anyone remotely close to that area, we went against the whole being mad at McDonald's thing and chose Mountain Home. We'll be moving to the AFB around the end of November and will probably be there for a couple of years.

We're excited to start our new adventure with the AF - ok, but really, we're excited to finally be making some money instead of just going deeper and deeper into debt.

Oh, and my apologies go out to Linc and Hollie again for Alexa waking up to sing for 1 1/2 hours at 4:00 in the morning. Thanks for taking her!!!

Way to go Idaho!

2009-09-17T13:35:00.003-07:00

Brad passed the Bar!!

Now, hopefully he can start training with the AF in October (if they have spots available).

He'll be able to look like Harmon Rabb from "JAG":

I think I can handle that.

Thanks to everyone who helped us make it through these past 3 years! We couldn't have done it without you.

RIP

2009-09-15T22:41:00.010-07:00

We finally got to have a funeral for Brad's fingertip. Our sister-in-law put the whole thing together.

Brad showed up like this:

Apparently he felt the need to get dressed up for his own funeral.

Then we drove out to the field where the smashing had taken place and had a nice ceremony.

We had a good crowd come to say their goodbyes.

We buried the finger and then huried back to the house when it started raining.

There we had....

Finger Food!

And then we played a game where you had to guess which picture of a hand belonged to which person. If you ever need a REALLY HARD game, that's a good one to play.

It was a great funeral! It made me think about chopping off my finger so I could have one. Thanks KJ for all your work!

Oh, for the obituary, see "The Preston Citizen" under the Clifton news section. It comes out today.

Here is what Brad's hand looks like now:

Not too bad. The surgeon did a great job. Oh, and Brad wanted to make sure you all know that these are his farm pants and the red stuff is just a stain.

Surgery is Fun!

2009-09-02T22:40:00.006-07:00

I wanted to thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, and obituaries on my (and my finger's) behalf. As Cassi mentioned the surgery went well. I didn't get to talk to my doctor after the surgery was over (I guess he had more important things to do than to watch the anesthesia wear off (more on this in a bit)), but the nurses told me that everything went according to plan.

I decided that surgery is kind of fun, mostly (actually, only) because of anesthesia. It didn't even feel like I had surgery, just felt like I got to go take a nap at the hospital. Seriously, they're over there grinding back my pinkie bone, and I'm in la-la land. You only get this kind of fun during surgery.

I was talking to my brother tonight, and I started to remember some of the funny things that I did (or that the nurses told me I did) while under the anesthesia. As Cassi mentioned in a previous post, I really wanted to get my fingertip back because my sister-in-law is putting plans together for a fingertip funeral. My doctor, Dr. Miller, told me that they wouldn't let me take it home because, by law, they have to test everything that is removed during a surgery. But Dr. Miller also told me that if I reminded him, he would put in a request for me to be able to pick up the pinkie tip after the testing was done. So, the first thing I hear as I'm coming out of the anesthesia is the voice of my doctor in the next recovery room, talking to another patient. All that I can remember is that I really wanted to talk to him about putting in my request; I don't remember anything else. Well, one of the nurses told me later that I really must have wanted to talk to Dr. Miller, because I was yelling "Dr. Miller! Dr. Miller!" over and over for a minute or so. Apparently I wasn't loud enough, because I didn't get to talk to him (at least I don't remember talking to him). But, I found out he did put the request in for me.

Another thing that I remember from when I was "coming to" is that that I could hear the radio was playing somewhere nearby, and the song was Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? by Bryan Adams. Great song, right? Really makes you think. So great, in fact, that it made me blurt out "Bryan Adams!" This is the first thing I actually remember saying, but then I was confused about why I would say this out loud. Maybe it's cuz Bryan Adams is such a great artist, or maybe it's cuz I have a friend named Bryan Adams and he still hasn't sent me my fajita mix. Who knows.

Either way, here's proof that Bryan Adams is a great artist.

Success

2009-09-01T21:57:00.002-07:00

Surgery completed. Finger shortened. No skin graft needed. Things are looking ok. They wouldn't give us the finger tip because they need it for testing - I don't know - it's pretty much dead. But the Dr. requested it back after testing and then he'll give it to us. Maybe we can have a funeral after all.

No luck

2009-08-28T12:28:00.002-07:00

Brad's finger died. Surgery is hopefully Tuesday. His Dad is excited to be able to give him 4 1/2's (he's missing part of a finger too).

I would show pictures, but Brad won't allow it at the moment - "too gross" he says.

Fingers Shmingers

2009-08-23T16:55:00.003-07:00

Sometimes when you brand calves they don't like to get burned and they go nuts. Then, you get the tip of your finger smashed off between the cow and the bar. Then, it takes 10 minutes to find your finger in the dirt and you go to the ER and tell the Dr to sew it back on. He puts a bandage like this on your finger...

and you have to walk around with your arm up like this to help with the pain...

and take lots of pain killers that make you really tired.

And then you have to wait 10 days to see if the tip of your finger reattaches itself or dies. If it dies, then you're left with a short finger that doesn't have a fingernail on it.

Much Needed Date

2009-08-14T15:58:00.004-07:00

When we moved home, I was so excited to be around family who could babysit so Brad and I could have lots of dates....but then Brad spent 3 months studying which pretty much sucked all the fun out of life.

So, I had been planning an awesome date that included sleeping somewhere since we had never been together over night without our baby since she was born - 19 1/2 months.

We went to Logan, where we met my brother Brandon and his wife Lauren. Since they're both jobless, we invited them to come along. We started off with a much-needed temple session, then we went and ate lunch at the park where Brad and I got engaged 5 yrs ago.

We played an intense game of frisbee golf.

I didn't catch the frisbee. Not good.

Here's my teammate.

I don't think he was too pleased with my performance.

Next, our enemies - they look really mean.

But, looking mean must work, because they beat us. I blame it on my pregnant state.

After running some errands and going to a sad movie, it was time to go to our hotel....

It was the Campers' Suite located in the heart of Logan Canyon. At least it fit our blow-up bed in it (barely).

We ended our fun date with a morning hike.

We enjoyed having our date buddies with us.

Too bad it ended so fast!

Farm Days

2009-08-11T15:09:00.005-07:00

Last week the Mumfords celebrated 30 years of Clifton farming, I think. I just go along for the party. Anyway, we call it Farm Days.

We went swimming at Downata Hot Springs - very kid AND adult friendly - impressive.

Remember when we wore lifejackets like this?

It lasted about 1 1/2 minutes.

After a full day of swimming and going down slides not recommended for pregnant women, you get pretty worn out.

Alexa couldn't even make it through 5 minutes of me getting dressed.

We stayed the night at a lodge close to Clifton. We ate homemade ice cream...

and had a cow judging contest. You look at cows in a magazine and rank them from 1st to last. I guess I missed out in high school when I didn't join the FFA because I totally lost. Alexa even beat me. Brad got 1st place, which makes sense since he went to nationals in cow judging in high school. But don't worry, he shared his prize with me - some Papa Jay's jerky.

That Famous Preston Night Rodeo

2009-08-03T07:14:00.002-07:00

One of the fun things we look forward to when we're home for the summer is the rodeo. I thought they were always so boring when I was younger, but now I love watching rodeos.

We had to start off the evening sitting directly in the hot sun while watching the parade. Here's Alexa with Grammy Mumford.

Alexa had her backpack all ready to go to get lots of candy....ok, she really didn't quite grasp the concept. As long as her hands were full, she was happy. So, I had to help a little. But man, it's hard fighting off all those kids for a piece of candy!

Then we went to the carnival where Grammy took her on the merry-go-round

Brad showed up in time for the rodeo to start. LOOK EVERYBODY - he's actually part of our family again!

It was too dark to get pictures of the riders, but they did pretty good. The bull riding winner got a score of 88, which is the highest I've ever seen in real life. It was cool.

We had to have one last ride before we went home at 11:30 pm. Nice.

The Bar

2009-07-28T09:22:00.003-07:00

This is what Brad is doing this week:

The Idaho Bar exam, a 2 1/2-day exam, consists of

the six-hour Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), weighted 33%;
six 30-minute Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) questions, weighted 25%;
two 90-minute Multistate Performance Test (MPT) problems, weighted 17%;
four 45-minute Idaho Essay questions, weighted 25%.

The successful applicant must score 70% of all possible points on the examination as a whole.

It sure doesn't sound much fun. He thinks he did ok on yesterday's essays, so that's a good sign. He finishes tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited to have a husband again.

My YW

2009-07-24T20:04:00.003-07:00

So, I was a little nervous about being called into the YW again because last time it didn't seem to work so well.

But, this time, I'm loving it! I got to go to camp with 4 of the 6 girls last week and here we all are having a good time. Silvia, on the end, is the YW president in the Branch and she's very organized, which means no stress for me!

If you didn't notice the pooch in my belly (which is hard to do because it's like the focal point of the whole picture) then look again because that's 10 weeks worth of pregnancy sticking out.
That's right...baby #2 is on the way (arriving around Feb 18th).
I think I've made it to the "ok, I can deal with this" stage. Just a little nervous about not knowing where we'll even be in 7 months. But I guess that will add on to our adventures.

The End

1st Hair Cut

2009-07-19T18:56:00.002-07:00

My sister finally chopped off Alexa's mullet.

The chicken wanted to watch too.

I was a little nervous, but it looks soooo much better!

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-07-13T08:58:00.003-07:00

Alexa developed an interest in changing diapers.

Not too bad

Maybe she can start changing her own soon.

Dayton Parade

2009-07-06T08:53:00.004-07:00

If you've never been in a parade throwing candy and frisbees at people, you should try it. I didn't know it would be so fun!

We got to ride in the back of the Lewiston State Bank truck. Here's everyone waiting to get started. Ok, they're all eating the candy that we're supposed to be throwing. (Sorry I cut you off, Lissa)

I learned that when you have candy, instantly everyone becomes your friend. It makes a person feel good to have so many people wave at them.

If anyone needs help with the next parade, give us a call!

Family Reunion

2009-06-26T08:36:00.003-07:00

Last weekend we had the Mumford family reunion here in Clifton. We all took turns getting sick and I didn't get many pictures.

One highlight was the slip n slide. Alexa had fun going on it with her dad.

We had lots of fun playing with cousins.

It was fun to have all 29 of us home.

Change of Subject:
Alexa has started getting lots of bruises. She got a black eye last week from face planting into the cement.

We came up with a solution to fix the problem

See...you can't even tell.

2009-06-15T07:18:00.003-07:00

Here's Alexa after her Dr's appointment last week. It took her about 1/2 hour to stop crying after the shots, but then she was ok. She thought it was cool to have bandaids on her legs.

They gave her the necklace as a prize for letting them stab her 4 times.

Snake Mistake

2009-06-08T09:42:00.005-07:00

Sometimes when someone tells you they've found a dead diamond back rattlesnake and then asks if you want to go see it, you get really excited because you've never seen one before and when you lived in AZ you would cheer for the Diamondbacks.

So, you walk all the way up a big hill...

And when you get to the top and you see it....only it's not really a diamondback

but a flattened blow snake....this is your reaction

It was an honest mistake. And I guess it was cool seeing my very first real, live (but actually dead) snake.

2009-05-31T21:25:00.003-07:00

This is what happens when you play basketball with your brother:

You get a fat lip with a huge canker and you can't kiss your wife.

And then you have to look like you're mad at everyone all the time.

Memorial Day Visit

2009-05-26T08:50:00.005-07:00

On Sunday we walked up to the Clifton cemetery to visit Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Jeff.

Alexa Jo. is named after Grandma Betty Jo. so we wanted to get a picture of her by her namesake. It's too bad she never got to meet Grandma. We're hoping she'll grow up to be just like her.

Here's a view of Clifton with the lakes in the background.

I'm not sure whose headstone this is, but Alexa thought it was great and spent most of the time right there watching everyone at the cemetery.

Clifton

2009-05-23T18:29:00.003-07:00

According to Wikipedia...

Clifton is a city in Franklin County, Idaho, United States. The population was 213 at the 2000 census.

It lies in the northern end of Cache Valley, at the base of the Bannock Mountain Range.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.2 square miles (5.8 km²), all of it land.

Harold B. Lee, eleventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was born in Clifton on March 28, 1899.

This is where we will be living for the next few months:

Back in with the parents

And here is a picture of our neighbors:

I can't tell a lie...I'd much rather be here during the summer than in Mesa. Clifton is home to Twin Lakes, clean air, and the best beef jerky around.

If anyone should feel the need to come visit, we welcome you.

Just a Shade Under a Decade

2009-05-19T22:10:00.006-07:00

Tommy: Did you hear I graduated?
Richard: Yeah and just a shade under a decade. All right.
Tommy: You know a lot of people go to college for seven years.
Richard: I know, they're called doctors.

Well, he did it (in only 7 years)......... Brad graduated!!!!

We drove down to Phoenix last week for the commencement.

Here's the big college grad

Brad and his parents got to go here President Obama speak at the 1st commencement. I opted out of sitting in the 100 degree weather for 5 hours. I hear that I missed a good speech though.

This is us looking toward the future and smiling at the fact that we won't have to take out more student loans. But it only lasted a minute when we realized that we have to start paying them all back soon.

Moff, Mom, and Dad got to come and be with us for the big event.

Here are some of Brad's best friends from ASU: Seth, Dan, & Thomas

Here is my support group: Rachel, Holly, & Allison (the wives)

And finally.....Brad's #1 fan. As you can see, she's thrilled.

Now, he gets to study for the bar.... so fun.

Travel Tips

2009-05-01T08:41:00.003-07:00

After traveling a lot the past few months, we feel the need to share some things we learned about airlines/airports:

#1) If you're ever in Europe and you hear that flying Ryanair is the best option, DON'T BELIEVE whoever tells you that!! We flew with them twice and the second time we got charged a lot of money for their mistake. No one would even help us out. They have no customer service!

#2) Try to avoid flying through Chicago. They seem to have quite a few weather related problems. We were stuck in Philly for 15 hours because of weather in Chicago. Then, we were delayed another hour in Chicago because of lightning...in Chicago.

#3) If flying with US Airways be prepared for mix-ups. We booked with them, but some of our flights were through United and apparently they don't hand the baton off very well. We spent some time going back and forth between check-in counters - not ideal when you get to the airport late.

#4) Watch out for Rome Fiumicino Airport. If you're a fan of standing in a billion lines that are unnecessary, this airport is for you. You've got a line for the shuttle to take you to the right terminal, a line for prescreening, a line for check-in, a line for security, a line for passports, a line to get on the shuttle to take you to your gate, and finally a line to get onto the plane. Just make sure you get there 3 hours early so you can stand in all those lines. Or better yet, find another airport.

Hopefully one day these tips will be useful to you.

not really a post

2009-04-27T14:48:00.001-07:00

Brad's computer died. Hopefully we'll get a post up soon.

Blast from the Past

2009-04-13T13:55:00.003-07:00

A long, long time ago, I was in Venezuela in a town called Acarigua. One day my companion and I met twin brothers, Rafael and Valentin, at a bus stop. We asked if they would be interested in listening to the missionary discussions. They said “yes,” so we started teaching them. They quickly took hold of the gospel and wanted to be baptized. So, we helped them get ready, and 3 days before they got baptized we were transferred without warning!! We were all very sad, but at least we got each other’s contact info.

After the mission, we kept in contact for the first couple years by phone (they would always call me at 6:00 a.m.) and email. When Brad and I went back to Venezuela in ’06, we couldn’t go visit them because they had moved to Madrid, Spain. I think you are starting to see where this story is going…

Last week, we went to Madrid to go to the temple and lo and behold…

The twins! It was great to see them after 7 years, especially when I never thought I would see them again.

I was able to do a session with Valentin. There’s nothing like being in the temple with someone you taught on your mission!

And sometimes I wear my coat when it's not even cold outside.

Needless to say, it was a great trip!

Oh, and Madrid was cool too. Trees lined every street I saw.

And lots of parks. We had our own personal tour guide for 3 days.

The End.

church + rides = everybody wins

2009-04-10T23:46:00.004-07:00

On Monday we went to a place called Tibidabo. It's the one of the highest points in Barcelona.

It has a great view of the city

There's a church up there called the Church of the Sacred Heart. It's really quite pretty. It has a big bronze statue of Christ at the top. Brad heard that Franco had it constructed so as to wash away the sins of Barcelona (apparently for not being loyal to him).

The best part though is that it has an amusement park right in front of it. And why shouldn't it? I think it's a great way to get people to visit church...or get them to leave church to ride the rides...hmmm, I don't know. Either way, it attracts the people and that's what we want, right?

Alexa was making horse noises the whole time we were there, so she got to ride on the "caballo" with her daddy.

We're going to miss all these fun things when we leave next week. :(

Yay for Slides!

2009-04-10T09:22:00.003-07:00

We found this park last week that had these big metal slides.

We learned that by sitting on your coat you could go really fast!

...unless you put your feet down.

I don't know who had more fun, Alexa or her parents.

Why I Love Facebook

2009-04-01T09:41:00.003-07:00

Once upon a time (but in real life) I was a senior at Bear River High. There was a foreign-exchange student from Germany named Florian. We had some classes together and became friends. He taught me how to say "My, you're looking good today" in German. And I taught him that it's a good thing when someone calls you a babe. After graduation, he went home and somehow we lost contact.

Well....on January 22nd of this year he found me on facebook. I told him I was living in Barcelona and he said that he was a pilot and flew to Barcelona quite often.

He had a flight coming here last night.

So....we met up (Brad and Alexa too) and had dinner. And it was awesome!!!!

After 10 yrs you have quite a bit to catch up on.

And that is why I love facebook.

The End.

Open Wide

2009-03-29T10:29:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I like eating carrots by the handfuls too...

Let's just say we don't have problems trying to get this one to eat.

Exercise

2009-03-21T04:47:00.003-07:00

Alexa learned how to do push-ups from watching Scott and now she loves to do them.

Sometimes we'll be walking down the sidewalk and she'll just sprawl out on her belly to do a push-up.

What is a labyrinth anyway?

2009-03-19T14:17:00.003-07:00

We went to this cool park after church on Sunday. It's called Labyrinth Park because it has a labyrinth (fancy word for maze - I didn't know). It was fun to try to make our way to the middle. We finally did it.

This is what you find when you get to the middle - us in front of a statue. You remember Scott and Kirby, our roommates, right?

This next picture is what you get when you pull your elastic out of your hair and rub chip grease in it. But don't worry, it makes you really happy.

Paris - Day 2

2009-03-07T13:16:00.004-07:00

Highlights of the day:

Notre Dame - the girl taking the picture must have thought we didn't want the whole church in the picture.

So here it is in its entirety. It's huge!

And so detailed. This is the arch for one of the doors. Each saint is different and one at the bottom was beheaded.

Amazing.

Inside the cathedral.

Pont Neuf. It's the oldest bridge in Paris. Maybe you're like us and the only thing you know about Paris comes from the Borne Identity, that's why we thought this bridge was cool.

Crepes for lunch. Yum! This was our dessert - chocolate and roasted almond crepe.

Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Bonaparte in 1806 after he won a battle. Again, the kid taking the picture didn't think we wanted the actual arc in the background. Sheesh...we must be too picky.

So we had someone else take a picture.

My personal favorite. Mr. Eiffle's tower. We got a better photographer this time.

This is just one leg of it. It's all that would fit in my camera window.

The guy with the orange pants. Brad found it odd that "these guys were trying to look all gangster, and one of them is wearing bright orange 'swishy' pants" (you know, the pants that make the "swish" sound with every step).

Paris - Day 1

2009-03-06T13:36:00.009-07:00

Brad has a long weekend that started yesterday, so we decided to take a trip to Paris. We didn't want to make it easy, so we took the most difficult way possible (we thought it would be cheaper this way, but now we're not so sure - learn from your mistakes, right?). First, we took the bus, then the metro, then the train, then another bus, then the plane, then another bus, then the metro again. It took us about 8 1/2 hours to get to the hotel, but we made it!

Here's our little room:

Even though we were SO tired we couldn't just waste the night in our hotel room, so we ventured to the Louvre to take advantage of the Friday night discount.

Here are the highlights:

Brad got lost in the crowd trying to see the Mona Lisa.

But he finally got close enough to take a picture.

This is the Venus de Milo, which is supposed to be a sculpture of either Aphrodite or another Greek goddess, but they're not sure which one since the arms are missing. It was created sometime between 130 and 100 b.c.

Here are some of Michelangelo's sculptures, the rebel slave (seen here) and the dying slave (in the background - it's not appropriate).

This is the inside of the pyramid. Way cooler in real life.

Outside the pyramid. Too dark to see how pretty it is.

The Eiffle tower in the background. It's the real thing! (I've only seen the one in Vegas) Hopefully we'll get a close-up today.

Picture Tag

2009-03-02T13:18:00.003-07:00

I got tagged by my sister, Melissa

...so, for this tag, I was supposed to go to the documents on my computer, go to pictures, pick the 6th file, then the 6th folder, and the 6th picture. I was to then post the picture on my blog, tell about it, and tag 6 people to do the same. This is what I found:

Oh, just Alexa and me overlooking the Balearic Sea. It's the body of water that's closest to our apt. That's all.

I tag those that are feeling a little devilish today, because all those 6's will be right up your alley... (even though there are 4 of them)

The Greatest Yahtzee Player in the Wor-rld

2009-02-22T10:26:00.003-07:00

Yahtzee has been by far the most played game since we've been here. When our English TV channel all of a sudden gets switched to Spanish, we resort to the time-wasting electronic game. For those of you who don't know Yahtzee too well, the average score is around 250. This is what Brad got:

The last high score was about 590. So Brad, hats off...you win!

Magic Fountain

2009-02-15T10:52:00.003-07:00

Brad took me on a happy V. Day date last night. We went to the magic fountain water show. It's the same idea as the Bellagio in Vegas, but in a smaller space and with colors. Here's a short video:

It was really quite enjoyable. It even looks like we were on a real date - you know - just the two of us.

Don't worry though, because Alexa was there too. She was entertaining some Asian girls.

Side Note: After 4 months of having Alexa every minute of every day, we're going to need some babysitters when we get home! So, let us know which weeks work for you.

The Big Game

2009-02-10T02:52:00.002-07:00

Brad got us tickets to go see FC Barcelona play last week. The game didn't start until 9:30 p.m. so it was a little challenging getting Alexa there with us, but we all made it eventually. Ande we got great seats right at the very top.

The field is HUGE! I was surprised because they don't seem that big on TV. The stadium is enormous too. Who knew there were so many people in the world that actually like soccer?

FC Barcelona scored their 5000th goal during the game and won 2 - 0. It was fun to cheer even though I had no idea what was going on most of the time.

Don't we look like a happy, soccer-loving family?

Our Roommates

2009-02-08T08:39:00.003-07:00

We’ve mentioned our roommates, Scott and Kirby, in a couple of other posts, but we never formally introduced them.

This is Scott and Kirby Fish. Scott and I became friends on our mission in Chile, and we ended up together again at law school at ASU. Scott is from Oregon (Salem, I think) but you can never get a straight answer from Kirby when you ask her where she’s from, because her dad was in the army and her family moved around a lot.

No one is really sure how we ended up living together here in Barcelona. We all kind of lost our minds after 7 days in the hostel (we shared a room there, too), and so we threw privacy and personal space to the wind when we were scoping out places to live. This apartment looked like a good deal to us, so we sprang for it and never looked back except for a couple of times.

A few of Scott and Kirby’s favorite things: Scott likes taking mate (pronounced mah-tay) and playing electronic yahtzee (don’t we all?), and, on a good day, you can catch him wearing a pink shirt. Kirby loves hot chocolate (Stephen’s is her brand) and is an avid blogger. You can find her version of our Barcelona Adventure at scottandkirby.blogspot.com.

Some of the positive aspects of sharing an apartment with another couple is that you’ve always got enough people to play a game. Only a few nights have gotten by without atleast a quick game. We play Phase-10, Skip-bo, and Ticket to Ride. Living together is working out pretty well. Alexa keeps the situation interesting, but Scott and Kirby are very patient with her, even tho’ sometimes she wanders into their room and other times she doesn’t want anyone to sleep.

So now when their names appear in our posts, you'll know who we're talking about.

Photos of Barcelona

2009-01-28T04:16:00.003-07:00

We had a chance to go sight seeing this weekend.

We went to the Sagrada Familia, a church that was designed by Gaudi. It began construction in 1882, and is still under construction. This is an amazing building.

to the Olympic Stadium (the Olympics were held here in 1992),

and to the nearby botanical gardens,

and to the Museum of Art of Catalunya. This gigantic building houses all the Catalunyan art you could ever want to see. Catalunya is the state or province that Barcelona is in. People here almost consider it their country, and are very proud of that heritage and, apparently, their art.

From the front of the museum, you get a pretty good look at Barcelona and a great shot of what has become Alexa´s signature jacket.

Apartment

2009-01-23T04:22:00.006-07:00

For those who are interested, here are some pictures of the apartment we share with Scott and Kirby.

Here are the stairs we get to walk up to get to the apartment - no elevator. There are 81. I guess it's good for us - forced exercise.

Small living room

Kitchen. No oven. Can't bake. We only eat rice, noodles, or potatoes. Feel free to send us your favorite stove-top recipes.

Bathroom. Yes, a bidet. Alexa likes to play in it.

The toilet is seperate. It's hard to fit in there, epecially for Scott. He's 6'4".

The apartment isn't very big, but we're getting along ok. It's fun to try to get all 4 of us on the couch to watch a movie.

Fun Park

2009-01-18T11:05:00.005-07:00

We found this huge park by our apartment. It's called Parque Ciutadella.

We went and had a picnic yesterday since Brad hasn't gotten any homework assigned yet. (I love Spanish Law School!)

We really were having fun ... I promise.

They have this awesome playground that we've taken Alexa to a couple of times. They have a shed with lots of toys in it that anyone can play with. Mostly she just plays by herself, but she did make a friend ...

ok, maybe she was just stealing his toy.

Then, Daddy gave her a chocolate cookie.

We're having lots of fun.

Our New Apartment

2009-01-12T05:18:00.004-07:00

We found an apartment on Thursday (1/8) and got all moved in on Friday. We're happy to be out of that hostel. It was small, loud, and very cramped. I would recommend staying in a hostel if you come here, but not if you have a 1-yr-old. Here we have some pictures of barcelona.

This is our hostel room. It's about 7 or 8 feet wide, and probably 10 feet long. That's me on the top bunk, where i regularly got less than 4 hours of sleep per night.

View from our hostel room. Is that a barcelona sunrise I see? Or the flash from the camera reflected on the window? You be the judge.

This is a street near our apartment that has an ancient wall running down the side of it. One of our tourist books states that this wall was left by the Romans.

If you look really closely, at the very top of this you can see the small balcony of our apartment.

This was alexa's reaction when we told her we were moving out of the hostel. I don't care who you are, that's happiness, right there.

Cassi took this picture, and I don't remember what it's of. Stay tuned for more pictures of old buildings like this that we see in our travels.

Starting Our New Adventure

2009-01-04T06:18:00.003-07:00

We finally made it to our hostel in Barcelona after about 29 hours of traveling on Thursday/Friday. Traveling overseas with a one-year-old isn´t the easiest thing to do, but Alexa did great considering she had to be on our laps the whole time.

Yesterday we ventured out to see the school where Brad will be studying. We spent some time looking for an apartment, but didn´t have much luck. We went to the beach for a while, but it was so cold that we couldn´t stay too long.

Today, we tried to find the church, but the directions were wrong on the website, so we walked around for an hour or so trying to find anyone who knew where it was. We ended up not going.

So, hopefully things will start falling into place. The hostel is kind of cool, but Alexa hasn´t been sleeping well at all. And I´m ready to stop living out of suitcases.

To be continued...

Happy Birthday/Weddings!

2008-12-28T21:38:00.005-07:00

We had a big day yesterday. For Alexa's 1st birthday, we spent about 5 hours at the Salt Lake temple.

In the morning, Kyle (Brad's brother) and Sachi got married. It was a very nice ceremony, and they seemed very happy.

In the afternoon, Brandon (Cassi's brother) and Lauren got married. It was also a very nice ceremony, because it was the same as the first (same sealer). They looked happy too.

It was sooooo cold though! I thought I would die while we took pictures. I think Alexa cried nonstop through the second round of pictures.

We were happy to be at our brothers' weddings. They both found great girls.

Since we didn't get to celebrate Alexa's birthday yesterday, we had a little party in Idaho on Wednesday with Aunt Moff and the Mumford cousins.

Alexa got her very first cupcake. This is how it went:

She was the happiest girl ever! She ate the whole cupcake. She even wanted to eat the wrapper and got mad when I took it away.

Home For the Holidays

2008-12-20T17:34:00.002-07:00

We packed everything up in the apartment, put it in storage, and headed home for the holidays. We headed out on Tuesday and got to Pleasant Grove, UT that night so we could be there on Wednesday when my sister Stephanie went through the temple. Congratulations Steph!! It was a nice day. All the siblings got to be there, except for Aaron, but he's having too much fun in Camaroon.

We've been in Garland for the past couple days and it's been freezing cold! We finally took Alexa outside to play in the snow (she's never experienced it before). Grandpa and Grandma Anderson helped get her all bundled up.

And no, we didn't have boots, so we used plastic bags with socks over them. It worked nicely.

We took a couple of laps around the backyard on the sled. I think Alexa liked the ride. She's fine with snow as long as she doesn't have to touch it (so, I guess she's not really fine with it).

With snow on the ground, it actually feels like Christmas is coming this year!

Proof

2008-12-07T10:25:00.002-07:00

Here's proof that we have a monkey for a daughter. Who knows maybe she'll grow up to look like her dad (see post below). People always say she looks more like him anyway.

Evolution-Science

2008-12-01T09:33:00.002-07:00

Well, I’ve been busy. Busy proving Darwin right.

About 2 weeks ago, I got a pix from my friend Bryan. Bryan and his wife, Coree, have 2 kids, a 2 ½ yr old named Dane, and a 1 ½ yr old named Ashlee. We used to hang out with them all the time when they lived in Mesa (they recently moved to or near Apache Junction), so Dane knew us pretty well.

Here’s where Darwin comes in. Take a look at the message and picture he sent me:

"LOL! Dane said.... 'hey, its brad.' .....LOL!"

Little Helper

2008-11-23T20:07:00.006-07:00

I have a pretty good little helper these days. Alexa has been helping me with all the chores. I don't know what I ever did without her.

She helps me...

...do the laundry

...unpack the suitcase

...make dinner

...clean the bathroom

And she's even started feeding herself!

I know... I'm the luckiest.

2008-11-15T11:26:00.004-07:00

Alexa and I took a little trip to the DI a couple days ago. I got her her own cell phone so she can talk to her people while I talk to mine. I know, what is the world coming to?! (Just for the record, she won't be getting a real one until she can pay for it herself.)

She didn't put it down all day. She was so happy!

Oh, and I tried putting her hair into pigtails for the first time. She looks like she has antennas.

Little Fairy

2008-11-08T10:30:00.010-07:00

Here are some Halloween pictures. Thanks to my good friend Melissa who let us borrow the costume, Alexa got to be a cute little fairy.

The headband lasted about 1 1/2 seconds, but at least I got one shot with it on.

This is What Happens When You Go to Law School

2008-11-08T10:25:00.002-07:00

You're able to sleep anywhere! (Notice that the bed is only 2 feet away.)

My first tag!

2008-10-17T21:27:00.003-07:00

Sorry Staci, sometimes I don't check my blog for long periods of time because I'm internetless at home still.

QUIRKY
I have been tagged to see how quirky I am:

1) I have to have the bathroom towels hung up just right with the folded edges facing inward or I go crazy. That was one of the first things I taught Brad after we got married.

2) Whenever I walk up steps (if there are more than 5) I always count them. I don't know...I just love to count! I would have rocked that "Detour" on the Amazing Race.

I'm pretty sure I have more than just these two things, but that's all I can think of right now. I'll have to ask Brad and then add to the list.

I tag: Kim W. and Hannah O.

And....it's finished!!!!

2008-09-24T14:17:00.007-07:00

After 5 long months of training, Brad's crazy goal of running a marathon (26.2 miles) was finally accomplished! He and his brother Kyle ran the Top of Utah marathon on Saturday and finished in just over 4 hours. I'm so glad I got to be there to see them finish. It was a big party at the finish line. Here are a couple videos:

The first one is of Kyle and the second of Brad. I have to appologize for the bad video job. I don't have any skills.

Here are the two of them after finishing. I took it as a good sign that they were still standing.

When I asked how the race went Brad said, "I don't think I'll ever run another marathon."

I think I'm ok with that.

2008-09-24T14:08:00.003-07:00

While we were in St. George a couple weeks ago, we got to stop and say hi to my mission buddy Tanner and his wife Stacy. They have a little boy named Alex who is 2 months older than Alexa. Look how cute!

2008-09-24T13:55:00.003-07:00

On 9-11 they set up 2,996 flags at a park in Tempe. Attached to each flag was a picture and a little bio of each person that had died. Brad and I went and took a look at it. It was an awesome sight and sure made things more real. The pictures don't do it justice.