Catch up and Random other things

BWe have been working on our house a bit the last few months. We took out the last of our giant willow tree out front by grinding out the stump. It took a few hours.

 

We later pulled out some cement and re-poured it differently. Then added a garden area to the front. We will at some point add some more grass to cover the rest of the area.

In the back yard we added some more grass that was kindly donated to us by my dad and we added some garden areas and covered them in the shavings that were left from the willow tree grinding.

On another occasion we were visiting family and Nakita got a wrapper off a sucker as well as for one of her cousins. She then stole the other sucker from him, so he had none and she had two.
Nakita: 1 Jared: 0

We also did an Easter egg hunt at my parents house. Once Nakita figured out what to do she had lots of fun finding the eggs.

Oregon

In April we took a trip up to Portland, Oregon area. It was just for a couple of days and lots of driving, but we had a good time.

We drove the scenic highway along the Columbia River on our way in and saw a bunch of bridges and waterfalls. We also took a hike up and around a couple of them. Nakita liked to be out on the hike but was scared when we got really close to the waterfalls. I think the noise scared her.

1st bridge we saw

 

 

Curvy road that we drove on that was kinda scary sometimes

 

Us at a good view

 

Bridge of the Gods (I think?)

 

 

Out for a hike

 

 

this waterfall scared Nakita the most

 

Awesome bridges and stone walkways

 

Tunnel

 

Multnomah Falls

We also got to stop by and have dinner with my good friend Sara and her husband Stephen. Nakita took to them really well and we had a nice evening.

The next day we drove along the west coast drive and saw lots of random towns, the ocean, beaches, sand dunes, and some lighthouses. We also stopped at an aquarium, which turned out to be kinda a dud. However, it is truly a beautiful state.

 

There is a lighthouse on that Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

at the Aquarium

 

On our way back we managed to see one covered bridge, even though we looked for a couple others. It was a good trip, but next time we won't do so much driving in such a short time span so that we can see more.

Out for a walk to the beach

running around the hotel room

covered Bridge

Car ride and her new book

1st Birthday

March 8th we celebrated Nakita's 1st Birthday. We spent the morning at the zoo, which was also a first for her. She loved it even though it made her very tired. We got home, had a quick lunch and put Nakita down for a nap before her party at 1pm.

She wasn't sure how to open her presents at first, but figured it out by the end. We had to hide a couple of her presents from her so that she would continue to open them and so the other little ones didn't play with them and make her jealous. It appeared that her favorite was her own stroller that she could push around.

We had a mini cake just for Nakita, which she happily ate most of the cake and all of the frosting off of. She was quite the mess and had to have a quick bath after she was done. She had a good rest of the day just playing with her new toys.

So far she is a happy and loving little girl and we look forward to having many more years to spend with her. We love her so much.

Valentine's Day

This year is Nakita's first Valentine's Day. We decided to get her a balloon. This is her enjoying it :)

 

Cabin Fever

On January 3rd-4th my family all went up to spend some time together at the Heber Valley Campground where we go every year. This was our first time bringing Nakita, which was quite the adventure.
We went sledding and just hung out and played games in the cabin as well. It was a fun weekend and we enjoyed the time with family.

End of 2013

Just a quick update on the end of last year and all that happened.

We had Nakita learn to stand and walk next to furniture and start to get into everything.

 

She found some pots

 

Just happy standing on the heater and being able to look outside at the kitty.

We put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year and then visited for Thanksgiving and spent time with family.

Nakita was exploring one day as I was cleaning and managed to fall down the stairs, which gave her a nice bruise, the following day she pulled a computer down on her face and ended up with this beautiful shiner.

Just after the damage was done

After she calmed down a bit

Nakita was a wonderful helper with wrapping the gifts by unrolling the paper and throwing the tape and sitting on the paper and even opening the gift up once it was wrapped. We also had someone do the twelve days of Christmas to us this year and Nakita enjoyed opening those gifts and playing in the box that it was sent in.





 

 

 

 

Christmas was busy and fun. It was exciting to watch Nakita and see how happy she was to be able to open her presents.

We also did one final remodel for the year. We redid the upstairs bathroom floor, which was good as we found some mold and a partially rotted sub-floor which we got to replace.

Ripped up all the vinyl flooring

Cut out the rotting portion

Replaced the rotted portion

Painted over floor and mold after throughly bleaching it

Laying the new floor

Almost done

Finished!