Raegan's Photo Shoot

In February my good friend Brianne (who I played volleyball with) was in town for a photography convention. She stayed with us for one night and I just couldn't let a professional photographer stop by without getting her to take some photos of Raegan. We didn't have a place picked out and the weather was windy and cold, but because Raegan is so cute (and Bri is really patient) we got some good pics. Raegan wasn't very cooperative and almost all the photos were "action" photos. Eventually my mom and I had to leave Raegan alone with Bri because we were too distracting. I highly recommend Brianne as a photographer. He company is Brianne Hall Imagery and she lives in Pocatello, ID. Here is a link to her website: http://www.briannehallimagery.com/

Here are our favorite pictures. The following facebook link shows more photos from the shoot. http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=300156&id=31740234559 Also, Brianne is offering us a FREE PHOTO if we can get at least 25 people to comment on Raegan's page on her blog by Saturday. Please click on this link and leave a comment if you can. We would really appreciate it. http://www.briannehallimagery.com/blog/?p=751

A Love Hate Relationship

I currently have a love hate relationship with these people.

Yesterday I HATED them. Today, they're OK.

Raegan on the other hand LOVES them more than anything, especially Minnie.

I've come to the conclusion that our life quite literally revolves around Minnie Mouse. To say Raegan has an obsession is an understatement. She carries her Minnie Mouse with her everywhere (can you say dirty) and constantly wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Minnie" is the word she says most often. Every time we change her diaper she gets excited because they have a picture of Minnie and Mickey on them. Sometimes this is a great thing. She'll sit and watch the show and allow me to get things done. While Derek and I watched General Conference Raegan sat on our bed and watch MMC for hours. Last week we went to Applebees for dessert. Raegan spotted a picture of Minnie and Mickey on the wall and stared at them the entire time we were there, pointing and yelling (loudly) "Minnie" for everyone to hear. At the time it was very cute. However, her ability to spot Mickey and Minnie has led to my change of heart.

Lately Minnie has resulted in meltdown after meltdown. These are only of few of many. Example #1: Yesterday we went to the grocery store to pick out a card for Grandma Adams' birthday. Note to self: never take her there again. Do you have any idea how many cards have Mickey or Minnie on them. She proceeded to scream (no joke) and point at every card. I let her out hoping she would be content looking at them, but no. She started grabbing all the cards she could find and she ended up sitting in the cart with 20 of them while I make a quick getaway to a different aisle.

Now we literally have a meltdown every time we go to the store, be it Target, Walmart, Smith's, or Costco. She spots them everywhere. On books, or balloons, or clothing. At Costco she spotted the Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets so once it was time to buy new ones we caved. Yesterday while I was making lunch I took the nuggets out of the freezer. Well Raegan saw them and refused to stop crying until she could hold them. So this is how she ate lunch.

Well I feel better now after having vented my frustrations. But I'm sure there are worse problems to have.

Trip to San Diego

Last weekend we went to San Diego to support Derek's sister Corinne and her two girls Caylee and Coral. This is the reason we went: To welcome home Kyle from his 6 month deployment on the USS Abraham Lincoln (aircraft carrier). It was a short trip, but totally worth it. See the ship come in at Coronado was soooo cool. Here's the ship. It is three football fields long.

Here's Kyle "manning the rails" as they call it. He's in this picture, but I can't remember which one. Derek's Dad Lyle caught up with the ship in Hawaii and is also in this picture somewhere.

The whole process took about 4 hours, but we didn't mind waiting. Raegan even enjoyed herself, but was very tired by the time we left.

Coral and Raegan

After we picked up Kyle we made a little stop on Coronado to eat and so Aunt Ali could touch the ocean.

Before we left were also able to celebrate Grandma Lori's birthday. Here she is with all her grandkids!

Baby Bump

I have had several requests to see the baby bump. Well, here it is in all its glory at 23 weeks. I did't take many pictures with Raegan (and my memory isn't so good) so I really can't compare it to last time. Next time I'll have Derek take the picture.

Raegan's newest obsession is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She's always loved Minnie, but in the last week she has decided she can sit still long enough to actually watch an entire show. She now watches too much TV, but I do find myself able to get things done for once.

For Christmas I got Derek a deep fryer. Well, yesterday we finally used it for the very first time and we made Chimichangas. They tasted just as good as they look. Almost like La Fiesta.

"Board" out of my mind

What a horrible attempt at a play on words, but if you can't tell by the title yesterday I had my national clinical boards to qualify for my dental license. Things went really well, but I don't get my official results until next Friday. I've been super-stressed for about. . .oh. . .the last six month thinking about this day. 10 LONG hours to apply everything I've learned in the last 3 1/2 years, and which will basically determines whether or not I can graduate. YIKES! To make things even harder on myself, I woke up yesterday morning at about 2:30am and could not go back to sleep, but like I said, luckily everything ran like a well oiled machine and all my patients showed up. I'm glad it is all over and now I can get back to being a little less stressed. I know Tristin will be happy about that. There is no possible way I could have gotten through this without her and Raegan's patience and help.