WhY bE nOrMaL....

....When you can party like a BELNAP?


Like I said in my last post we traveled to Southern Utah last weekend for a family party. It was a long drive but we had a lot of fun. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

Our dogs slept the whole way home

What the Hail? 
This year has been a super cool and damp spring which has made it really hard to find time to do any yard work. The weather has really discouraged me from doing much planting this year. I decided not to do a garden this year and I wasn't even going to buy any annual flowers to plant. Something changed my mind and I decided I would plant a few flower pots to spice things up. I went and purchased a bunch of soil, flowers and even some new pots. I spent an entire afternoon planting and I was really happy once I was done. Everything looked really great and I finally felt like summer was here!
While we were on our trip in Utah, there was a HUGE HAIL storm that came through and trashed our yard, including my freshly planted flowers and beautiful tulips. When we got home our yard was COVERED with white specks of hail. GRRRR....welcome home!

Southern Utah Trip

This last e went to Southern Utah for a family campout. We weren't too excited about the 12-13 hour drive but we were so glad to be there once we were there.
It felt so good to be back in the desert with the red rock and red sand.
We also had a great time seeing everyone and relaxing together.
More pics to come....

Bird Watching

This little bird flew into our window and the dogs just sat and looked at him. He was a pretty little bird.

Birthday #28

Yes, indeed I just celebrated my 28th Birthday....what? Craziness, I cannot believe that I am that old already. I still feel the same as I did as I was fifteen, minus all the crushes and plus some bills. I'm grateful to be here experiencing life with my hubby and family.
Brock planned a "Birthday Extravaganza" (as he puts it) for me and it was and absolute riot. Brock started the morning off by making me a delish breakfast and gave me my first gift to open. Later, he suprised me with some cash for a shopping spree at the mall and I was stoked to get some new clothes for summer. We then headed south to West Yellowstone and he took me to a show at the Playmill. After the Playmill we went our overnight camp at Henry's Lake and enjoyed some good camp food.
It was a pretty awesome Birthday! Thanks for all the cards, calls and gifts, I was truly spoiled this year:)

 

Henry's Lake

I totally scored a MICHE bag. (if you don't have one you need one)

Damion's Mission Farewell

Our nephew is serving and LDS mission at the Salt Lake Family History Center.
He just had his farewell and is leaving for his mission on Friday!
We are so proud of him and know that he's going to be an awesome missionary.
Good Luck D, we love you and are going to miss you!

I'm a little slow...

I've been slacking on the bloggin life lately. So here are some things that have been going on in our lives over the last few months.

A). I went home to go to a concert with my big sissy and I got to spend time with my little boo bear.

Grandma made little miss this cute headband.



We had a "slaweeep over" together at Grandma's.

My sister and I went and saw the Queen of Country and The King of Country. I has been our tradition to go see Reba together since we were kids. It was absolutely amazing!







B). It's been a slooooow spring but it's here now.

The Pond by our house a couple months ago after a rainstorm.

C). My Brother Mike, his wife Nicole and my cute little nephew came for a brief weekend visit.





D). We did our annual trip to Yellowstone to look for animals.

Cyote



Bear





Moosey

Epic

Seriously? Seriously? I honestly cannot believe Harry Potter is coming to an end. I started my EPIC journey with the first book, "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" when I was 16 and I finished the last book "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" when I was 24. It has SERIOUSLY been a huge part of my life as nerdy as that may sound. I have always had a couple year gap in between books and the films to satisfy my adventure needs (there has always been either a new book or a new film). I've finished the books and now....I will finish the movies...Tear:( I will have to find something new to live for....hahaha....
I couldn't resist posting this trailer on my blog, it honestly gave me chills and I can't believe I have to wait until JULY 15 to see the rest!!! Even though I know how it all shakes out I feel anxious to watch the madness go down.
You can either embrace my love for Harry Potter or you can judge me, the choice is yours:)
(Too bad this Harry Potter thing wasn't my idea....dang)

HAPPY MAY!

I had a sneaky friend plant these cute flowers in our yard on May 1st! It was such a fun surprise to come out of my house and find happy bright flowers in my yard. It has been a pretty gloomy spring so far and I've been itching for my flowers to be up and my grass to turn green. This suprise definately put a burst of hope in my day! (thanks Kiley)

HAPPY EASTER!

We wanted to thank everyone for their love and support with our Adoption journey. It is so nice to know that we have great friends and family all over the country who are willing to help us out. Thank you so much for your kind words and efforts to spread the word for us! Thanks:)

HAPPY EASTER

I love this time of year! I love all of the new life around us from the green grass, blooming flowers and trees, to new baby lambs & baby calves. It makes me happy to see the sunshine and blue skies again as well as the longer warmer days. This time of year always makes me excited to be out planting and working in my yard and garden. I also start counting down to our first hike and camp trip.  

Most of all though, I love this time of year to reflect on the blessings that we have through the life of the Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that because of his Atonement and Resurrection I can be with my loved ones. I'm grateful for this Easter Sunday to think about him and to remember the things that he wants me to be an do. I love the hope that the Savior brings into our lives, that there is always a way through him. Our life and happiness is built around the life of our Savior and his gospel and I know that through him is where we find our greatest joys.

Happy Easter

I remember Elder Holland giving this talk in Conference and it touched me so much. It made me think about the Atonement in such a different way and it still brings tears to my eyes when I hear him talk about the Saviors last days.

Read the whole article HERE.

OUR EASTER CELEBRATIONS

We ate all our meals today with some of our best pals. We started our day with a delish Brunch at John & Halsey's house with all the fixings you can imagine. Later for dinner we headed over to the Lennon's for a huge Easter dinner. I basically ate until my eyes popped out of my head, it was wonderful! I'm so grateful that we have good friends who take care of us even though the favor is RARELY returned.

 The Easter Bunny popped by our house and dropped off some of our favorite Easter treats! 

I love candy in all it's many forms and flavors but I especially love it when it is sold in pastel colors:)

'TILL NEXT EASTER

Our Adoption Blog

Many of you know (if you didn't know...now you do) that Brock and I were approved for adoption through LDS Family Services last spring. We are super excited to adopt and pray that we can piece our family together through adoption.

We are ready to take on a baby anytime, unfortunately it is not up to us. The Birth parents are the ones who study adoptive couples and then ultimately pick the placement of their infant. We have a profile on LDS Family services which is a great place for birth parents to browse couples but unfortunately it is somewhat limiting on what you can post about yourself.

Okay, so here's my point...we created an Adoption Blog! We felt it would create a better environment for people to learn more about us. It has been a lot of work and really time consuming, but it's finally done. I'm not 100% in love with it but it will do for now. Please take a peek and feel free to add our button (link) to your blog, facebook page or wherever  else you think that it would get some traffic. Adoption placement usually comes from "word of mouth" and through acquaintances, so we could use everyone's help. Also, the birth parents do not have to be LDS to work with us. Please keep us in mind if you ever know of a couple looking into adoption.
Here are our links:
http://kimandbrockadoption.blogspot.com/
https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24348390/ourMessage.jsf

If you want.....

.....Grab this picture and add it to your blog with our link to our Adoption blog.
(you should be able to resize it, I don't know why mine in my side bar on this blog is so big. The one on my other blog isn't so huge).

Thanks again for all your help!

HOLY COW...8?

We just celebrated our 8th (holy cow) Wedding Anniversary! I seriously cannot believe it's been 8 YEARS already...craziness!

                                         
Wedding Day Highlights:
-Snow on our SPRING wedding.
-Starving and talking about food on the way to the Temple.
-Stoping at McDonald's to get some food so we could survive the day.
-Getting to the Temple late.
-Both our Mom's frantic faces when we finally arrived.
-Spending time talking in the elevator in the Temple and then realizing we had no idea where they told us to go.
-Getting lost in the Temple together.
-Freezing outside for pictures.
-Being late for pictures at the reception.
-Having that "awkward talk" with my mom & sister.
-Brock having his "awkward talk" with his mom.
-My cake getting knocked over.
-Casey driving us to our hidden car.
-Everyone being upset that we hid our car.

Okay so here are some of the top highlights over the last 8 years:

-Kim learning how to cook full meals for two people.
-Going to college together.
-Taking a Chemistry Class together (not recomended).
-Living in CHICAGO for a summer.
-Learning that you have to mix hot water in with Jell-o for it to set up right.
-Brock teaching Kim how to drive a clutch.
-Buying our first car Jeep together.
-Finding out that liquid dish soap doesn't work like dishwasher liquid soap does in a dishwasher.
-Vacationing like "grown ups".
-Brock Graduating from school & starting his career.
-Buying our first home and then buying our second home 9 months later.
-Learning how to build/manage a yard together: assembling a sprinkling system, building a fence, planting & re-planting trees and planting a garden.
-Living off of $500 a month while going to school. (I still don't know how that worked).
-Making lasting frienships.
-Moving to Montana
-Kai, Boog & Brutus
-Christmas together
-Brock buying a "grown up truck".
-Breakfast at 3:00 am at some random diner "just cuz".
-Sleeping in the back of our Jeep.
-Staying up late and eating junk food because we can.

There are many more hightlights but those are just of the few things that come to mind! We look forward to many more crazy and fun years to come:)

* We didn't do much on our Anniversary because it was a Sunday and I was out of town but Brock surprised me with some pretty flowers. He also finished up some projects around the yard and house for us!