1,000 kisses...

That's what I want to give this little face!

The North Shore

On Saturday we went up to the North Shore to pick up a car topper, and decided to make a day of it. We went to Plum Island and walked on the beach, and then stopped by one of our favorite coastal towns, Rockport. It was a much needed break!

Happy Easter!

This is my favorite painting of Christ, by LDS artist Del Parson. When I was at Ricks College Parson came to the bookstore to sign prints. My mom was visiting me and told me she wanted to buy me one. I love so many of Parson's paintings, but finally decided that this was my favorite. When Del Parson signed this print for me, he looked at me and said, "this one's my favorite, too." Then he winked at me. I'll never forget it!
This picture is hanging in my kitchen and I love it because you can see the tenderness and love Christ has for this little lamb, and how helpless the little lamb is. Having a child of my own has helped me to understand even more the love that God has for each of us, and to see that we owe Him everything, down to our very lives. I'm so grateful for Him! Happy Easter!

Happy one month, Aspen!

Where did the time go?

I sat on my fanny all day

Aspen wanted to be held all day so I spent several hours on the couch. I decided to download a photo enhancing program one of my friends told me about and had so much fun playing with photos. Here are some of my favorites:
I love how this photo looks so old!

I took this in Moab. Is that Eric, you ask? No, that's his dad in the foreground. Amazing, I know!
Ahh, sweet....
This is Lucas, my adorable nephew. This face he makes is so cute!
This is my lil' sis, Sasha, who never takes a bad picture!
Eric's family's cabin in Idaho.

I wish I could sleep like this!

Like the fohawk? Yes? No?
Stick 'em up!
Can you spot the 3 spit rags in this picture?

Two-fers tag

My friend Marlies tagged me, so here goes:
1. Two Names You Go By: Chelsi and mapachita (this is Spanish for raccoon. Eric started calling me this after we'd gone hiking and I had been wearing sunglasses, which is ridiculous because you should have seen his past raccoon tans! ski bum.....)
2. Things You Are Wearing Right Now: A nursing bra and teva sandals. Hey, I'm wearing other things too, those are just the two I'm mentioning.
3. Two Things You Want (or have) in a Relationship: Eric and Eric again.
4. Two of Your Favorite Things to Do: Eat chocolate and talk about how I want to lose a couple pounds. At the same time.
5. Two Things You Did Last Night: Watched Rockford Files on Netflix instant viewing and changed lots of poopy diapers. (note on the Rockford Files thing: one of Eric's professors showed his class a clip of an episode, so we decided to watch one at home. Okay, we watched two. What can I say? I like James Garner. He's funny.)
6. Two People You Talked to Last Night: Demri and Aspen, although as of yet Aspen isn't replying.
7. Two Things You're Doing Tomorrow: Trimming my toenails (I've been meaning to do this for a week now) and I'm sure I'll grab a Popsicle out of the freezer.
8. Two Longest Car Rides: Distance or perception? Distance ride: From Boise to Boston, 2661 miles, or two days in a moving van. That's right: 2661 miles in two days. Perception ride: Over the summer we drove with Eric's family 700+ miles in a Chrysler Pacifica in two days. There were 6 of us and a week's worth of camping gear packed into the car that had basically no trunk, so everything was piled around us, and I had morning sickness, and when we started out we were only planning to drive 200 miles.
9. Two Favorite Holidays: Christmas and Halloween.
10. Two Favorite Drinks: Orange juice. Basically any 100% fruit juice. Pineapple juice. Definitely pineapple juice.
11. Two Things About Me You May Not Have Known: I think one of the coolest things I could have done in another lifetime (if I'd been born 10 years earlier) is be in a Michael Jackson music video. Preferably Smooth Criminal. Another thing is that I won't shower before eating or fixing bacon or french toast because the smell gets in my hair and it drives me nuts.
12. Two Jobs I Have Had in My Life: I took tickets at BYU football games. With this same job I also stood on the field the last 7 minutes of each game with a rope and all the other ushers to ensure that no one ran onto the field. I was also an auto parts delivery driver.
13. Two Movies I Would Watch Over and Over: Napoleon Dynamite and Back to the Future, numbers 1 or 3. I'm not a big fan of the second movie.
14. Two of My Favorite Foods: Cheese, and I've just discovered how much I love 2% milk, now that I've been told by the nurses to drink it. Mmmmm!
15. Two Places I'd Rather Be Right Now: Moab, Utah, or Olive Garden.

Dogs are scary, even chihuahuas

These are my new running shoes that I bought with my birthday money. My old ones fell apart about the time I became pregnant, so I threw them out and bought these the other day. I still have a week or two before I can start running, but I'm hoping they'll give me some extra motivation, as if my hanging belly wasn't enough, right?
I was reading my friend Nicole's blog about scary dog attacks, and it reminded me of one I had a couple years ago. First of all, I love to run, but one of the downsides is being attacked by wild and crazy dogs who somehow see you as a giant rabbit and go in for the kill. Well, one of the scariest incidents I had like this was when I was running in Provo, Utah. Eric was with me and we passed this one house and a dog came out and headed straight for my calves (Eric remembers the dog as a chihuahua, but I remember it as a much larger dog). I of course screamed (I'm not a big dog fan) and the dog's owner heard this and came running out. "Kill her! Kill her!" he screamed. I was shocked and picked up speed. Was this guy crazy? "Kill her!" he kept screaming. The dog heard the owner and eventually turned around and went to him. At this point I slowed down, realizing the dog's name was Killer. I kind of laughed but was shaking so it came out as a "hu-hu...." Eric, however, thought the whole thing was hilarious. Why didn't the dog head for his calves, though? I think it's because my calves are more meaty and defined.....

Even more photos of Aspen

Well the last week and a half has been a whirlwind! It's crazy that all I'm doing right now is resting and feeding Aspen and yet the days fly by! I'm savoring every minute because as they say, babies grow up so fast!
Last night our friend Ellen came over and took more photos of Aspen. She was much more cooperative this time so Ellen got some great shots of her. Ellen is so creative and we had a lot of fun seeing her work her magic. I know I've posted a ton of photos of our newborn already, but I promised the grandparents these would be up today, and they're just so cute I had to. Here are some of our favorites: