Finishing Touch

I went to Utah for 11 days last month and while I was gone Brock did a lot of hard work in our yard to get it ready for grass. I was so excited to come home to a lawn and bloomed tulips, it was such a nice surprise!!! Before I left, the yard looked like this.
This is what I cam home to, pretty huh!
My favorite tulip.

There are all sorts of different colors but this one is the prettiest to me. Our flower bed was a little slower to bloom because it had snow on it longer, so these were just blooming when I got home.
I love my flowers!!!!

Birthday Bash!

Kim turns 25!

Brock's Masterpiece

I celebrated my 25th Birthday on Tuesday! WOW, 25 feels really old to me and people laugh at me when I say that but that's how I feel. I had a really great birthday filled with a lot fun and some really great birthday prizes.

Brock really pampered me the whole day and even let me get away with saying "no, I can't because it's my birthday" all day long. He took me the movies, made me dinner (homemade friend chicken, mashed potatoes and he even made gravy from scratch), and baked me a stacked red Velvet cake. Pretty impressive I think. (even though he ran out of frosting....hehehe!)

He also invited a couple of our friends over to have cake and ice cream and hang out for the evening. Then he surprised me with a super nice jewelry box for all of my jewelry! What a good hubby...huh!

Kent & Tiffany

(they're moving to Missoula, so I was really glad to see them before they leave. Good luck you two, we'll miss you)!

Kirsten and baby Claire

My new toy!

Although all of this was super fun, my favorite part of my birthday was getting a new niece! I can't wait to meet her and give her hugs and kisses!!! What a doll huh! Sorry people, I have the cutest nephews and nieces out there!

Hadlee

Deja Vu

Here I am in Salt Lake Again! I was just here about a month ago to hang out with my family and now I'm back for a second trip.

My brother Mike and his wife Nicole flew me out (which is very sweet) to come spend some time with their kids while they go to Cancun. I came out a couple days early for my sister-in-law's baby shower and my brother Jon's 30th Birthday Bash. Fun, Fun!

While I've been here I've been able to spend a lot of time with lots of family. My mom, aunt and grandma took me out to lunch for my birthday, which is at the end of the month. It's been a long time since I've been around family to celebrate my birthday with.

The bad thing that's happened is my Grandma Williams has been in the hospital with a blood clot in her lung...very bad. I am so glad I've been here to spend time with her during her drama. Also, we got news that Grandpa Belnap is not doing well and was also in the hospital. It's really sad thing to see your grandparents lose their health.

Right now I am at my brothers chilin' with his family and enjoying the warm weather!!!

I will add pictures when I get home next week!

Computer Upset

Last week our Laptop crashed unexpectedly. You would be surprised how much our daily functioning depends on silly computers. I had 3 Jewelry parties that I needed to enter and bills to pay, so not having our computer was quite frustrating . I ended up having to make trips to the public library to enter my shows and pay bills, which was aggravating. (they only give you 1 hour, so I was really rushed)

Luckily we got the silly thing fixed and up and running today. I am a bit bugged by the cost of fixing a computer that is barely a year old. I guess it's a good thing that Brock and I have the "money coming out of our ears" disorder, lucky us.

Top 20 Highlights From My Salt Lake Trip

I just returned from a week and a half vacation in Utah visiting family and friends. Brock wasn't able to join me but he had a great time hanging out in Bozeman fishing and finishing household projects.

So here's a recap of my trip and some of my favorite HIGHLIGHTS from my trip. ( in no particular order)

* Enjoying all the beautiful scenery on the drive, especially the green popping up everywhere!

* Hanging out with my friend Allyson and baking cookies together.

* Going to a family baby blessing where 3 of my cousins babies were blessed. It was so good to see family and catch up on life.

* Radio options. I spent the entire time flipping through all of my favorite stations, I couldn't get enough.

* Buying 6 loaves of Granny Sycamore bread to bring home. I sure miss that bread here in Montana, nothing even compares.

*Spending the day with Shilo and my niece Kindred in Ogden. She is the sweetest little baby you'll ever meet! She was pulling funny faces for her Aunt Kimmie and I caught some good shots.

*This may sound weird to some of you but it felt really nice to drive in the city. It was a real novelty to have more than two lanes to drive in, it was nice to spread out. ( the extra stop lights were not cool though).

*SCRAPBOOK EXPO!!! Pretty much the main reason why I decided to make a trip down was so that I could go to the this expo. I live and breath for this every spring and fall. I got a ton done and scored a Cricut Cutter for only $88! SCORE!

* Staying with my mom & dad and visiting all 4 of my brothers & their wives. I also got to spend quality time with my sister.

*Shopping with My mother-in-law and 3 of my sister-in-laws. I was really good to see everyone and catch up on life.

* Seeing both of my Grandmas. This picture is of me and Grandma Bennett, she was pretty funny while we visited. ( she told me I had a cheap cell phone....silly Grandma)

* Going to dinner and bowling with my cousin Jason.

* Getting pedicures with my sister-in-law Nicole and my niece Ambree

* Shopping at all of my favorite places and spending too much money.

* Eating at all of my favorite restaurants including, Costa Vida, Panda Express, Chili's and Sizzler. (I gained some weight while I was away...oooops!)

* Spending an afternoon with my really good friend Mikelle. We had a lot of fun hanging out, I loved it.

* Being at mom & dad's. I love being home and spending time with them, we had some good laughs and some yummy food.

* Going with mom to the Family History Library

* I got to see my really good friend Candice. We were roommates at Snow for 2 years and then lived in Cedar City at the same time while our husbands finished school. So we've stayed really close but I haven't seen her for almost 2 years, so it was indeed time to see each other.

*Coming home to see Brock! While I was gone he surprised me and made some really nice shelves in our bedroom, what a hunk!

3 Secret Shames

I thought I would take Tiffany's challenge and write about my 3 "Secret Shames". So here they are!


1. I don't flush the toilet at night. I know that's disturbing but if I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I don't flush. I guess the noise of the flushing toilet is too much for me to handle in my sleep. I haven't always been that way, it's something that I've started doing since I've been married. I think I started doing it because I was afraid to wake Brock up in the night because he can be grumpy when he's startled. (don't worry I always flush when I am a guest overnight)



2. I don't eat "ends". I know it's weird but I bite grapes in the middle and throw away the part that came off the vine. I cut off the ends of pickles, cucumbers, bananas and don't eat whole french fries. It just really sicks me out to eat the ends of things, Brock makes fun of me all of the time for it.

3. I watch America's Next Top Model. I am so ashamed of this habit/addiction and am sorely made fun of by Brock. I've watched seasons 2 or 3 times and never get sick of it. If I turn it on to watch, then it's on for hours until the winner is announced. I know what a waste of human time and brain cells, but hey that's me in a nutshell.


So those are some of my "shames" and I am sure there are plenty more but those are the ones that popped up into my head first.

I want to know what your "shames" are : Mikelle, Kirsten, Lacey and Shilo

HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY!!!

For our Anniversary we went on a little trip to Gardiner Montana, which is basically the north entrance to Yellowstone.





We had a lot of fun exploring new parts of of Yellowstone we've never seen. While we were there we saw tons of animals inside and outside of the park. I have never seen so many wild animals roaming around before, I felt like I was taking crazy pills.

Hundreds of animals had migrated out of the park and were hanging out with their posies in Gardiner. It was so funny to see Elk walking down the sidewalk and buffalo chillin' at the public park. We also saw many other animals in the park including: Antelope, Bison, Elk, Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Bald Eagles and Wolves. I felt like I was on a safari!





We also enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the park and a natural hot spring by mammoth. (There is a hot spring that runs into the Gardiner river and creates hot little pools.) We also went out fishing, cross country skiing, shopping and ate really great meals. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air!

Mammoth Hot Springs

Bison Hanging Out At The Public Park In Gardiner

Brock Chillin' In The Boiling River

This Elk Was Just Hanging Out In Someones Yard

Cross Country Skiing In The Park

5 Years Together!

Snowboarding

I've been slow to post these pictures because we took them with a Fun Saver instead of our digital camera. The quality is pretty poor but I still wanted to put these pictures on.

Brock and I have really enjoyed snowboarding this year up at Bridger Bowl, it's about 16 miles away from Bozeman. It's been really nice to get out and enjoy our winter here in Montana!

In February, my best friend Ally and her man, Lance came for a visit. While they were here we went up the mountain to play in the snow. We had a lot of fun with them while they were here.

We went up this Easter Weekend to get our last run in before the season ends. It was a beautiful sunny day on the mountain, I loved it!

Ally & Lance

FAMILY FUN

We had visitors this weekend from Utah!!! Dan and Tanesha brought their cute little family to visit for a few days. Dan had to come for work and the family decided to come along.



It was so much fun to have company around for a few days. Their kids have really grown up a lot. I couldn't get over how big Dylan has gotten. He is such a cute and funny little guy, it was so fun to watch him do his thing.



We took the kids to the Children's Museum here in Bozeman, the kids really enjoyed it. We were there for hours and they didn't want to leave because they were having too much fun. We also ate at Buffalo Bump Pizza, saw Horton Hears A Who and went to the park. The weekend went way too fast and we were really sad to see them leave.

Alexis and Taylor said I don't have enough toys in the house and that I need to buy some for the next time kids come to my house. Silly girls!Dylan was so funny, he thought he found such a great place to play!

The girls pretty much got to rule the T.V for the weekend. I haven't watched so many cartoons for a long, long time.

Sushi Night

Brock decided it was time to have Sushi Night at our house. He invited our friends Conor and Etosha over to grub on some homemade Sushi Rolls.

Brock bought the raw Yellow Tail and Tuna and Conor and Tosh brought all the fixings, including Spam.

They rolled their own rolls and and ate just about all of them. My house seriously reeked for 2 days from the Seaweed Wraps and the fish odor. YUCK!

I of course was "sicked out" and would not participate in their barbaric behavior. I made myself some cooked meat and a potato. They all mocked me but who will be laughing when they get some random disease from eating raw fish???? Oh.... that would be me!

Tosh showing the boys how to roll a "good" wrap.

Here's all the fixin's, I don't know how Doritos play a part.

Brock was trying to sick me out by just eating the raw meat by my face, what a sicko.

Here's my meat, potatoes and of course my beloved Ketchup!

Last Minute trip to the Salmon River

Friday night Brock decided he wanted to make a last minute trip to the Salmon River in Idaho for some Steelhead fishing. We packed up the Jeep and left for the weekend. The river is only about 3 1/2 hours away from Bozeman so we didn't get there too late.

We fished all day Saturday and Sunday and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I am sad to report that we didn' t catch any fish but we still enjoyed the break.

This is Brock's paradise vacationMy Happy Fisherman Us with the "Middle Fork" of the Salmon behind us

Brock would be sad if I didn't add this picture of his Big Horn SheepThere were big chunks of ice floating down the river while we were there, this one seemed pretty crazy to us
This is part of the "dead" river-crazy!

Okay...Yes, we slept and lived out of the Jeep for the weekend. I'm afraid Brock's never going to pay for a hotel again because it went better that we both anticipated. I guess we're "Jeep Hippies" now!