4 Years!

It's been 4 years since I married this man. I will be honest, they've been the best 4 years of my life! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, caring, honest, funny, smart, handsome, strong, devoted husband. I can't wait to see what the next 4, 40, 400 years have in store for us.

Happy Anniversary, Jonathan!

Sunday Barbecue

Anyone who knows us, knows that we love to barbecue. And by barbecue, we don't mean slapping something on the grill. It's taken Jonathan a while to perfect his smoking skills, but he's a pretty darn good smoker. I'm of course talking about smoking meats, not cigarettes. A typical Sunday for us (when the weather is nice) means that some kind of meat will be placed on this smoker.





Today it happens to be chicken. You can see the woodchips waiting to be thrown over the hot coals.


Jonathan loves his barbecue. His favorite food. He could eat barbecue everyday.



Don't look too closely at this picture, I'm pretty hideous and fat, but since Jonathan insisted on taking it I better include it in this post.
Of course we can't be outside without getting attacked by the dogs. They always want to hang out with us when we're outside. Here's chubby Kimo.

And sweet, slobbery, Tito.

And the ring leader, Kookie.

People ask us why Kimo is so fat, well we didn't know if we should tell them the real reason...

Don't worry, J's just joking :)

Day at the Park

We are so lucky to live by so many parks and schools. One of our favorite places to go is the nearby Ameila Earhart Elementary school because it's not usually as crowded as some of the other parks. And they have a baseball field. On this day we took Cornel & Bekki's kids to the park to play baseball.




Kage batted first. He's such a sports fanatic.



Jaida played in the "sand" while the boys batted.


Then Junior had his chance at bat.


When Jaida finished her "castle" she decided she wanted a chance to bat.


Then I decided to try it. No comments necessary.


See, you can't even see the ball because I hit is SO far (not because it's on the ground behind me).


After playing baseball Spencer, Savannah & Suzie came and we played on the playground.


Don't ask me why she decided to go down the slide on her stomach when she knew I was going to take a picture of her. I don't know if she was being camera shy, or just showing off for her little cousin.

I thought we needed a picture of the two of us together.

Me and my sweet (dorky) husband :)

Las Vegas

For Jonathan's birthday this year we decided to get out of the cold and go to Las Vegas. We hit our usual spots: Memphis Championship Barbecue, our favorite barbecue restaurant; the indoor swap meet where we always buy the best teriyaki chicken jerky there is; and, of course, the Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

The other thing we did this trip was go to the Temple. I had never seen the Las Vegas temple before and it was so beautiful. These are pretty much the only pictures we took of our trip, but it was probably the best part of the trip anyway.

Hidden Treasures

Last weekend I let the dogs in the house to sit with me while I was waiting for Jonathan to get off work. I snuggled up on my couch with a good book and only Tito and Kimo came to sit with me. I had been reading for over an hour and when I got up to take a break I wondered where Kookie was. I went into the bedroom just to check if she was in there, and this is what I found:

I'm sorry to say that the couch in our bedroom wasn't exactly clean. But she was so cute tucked in Jonathan's sweater, I had to take a picture.

Then I looked closer...

I noticed that she wasn't just using the sweater like a blanket, but more like a sleeping bag. She was actually stuck in the sleeve of the sweater!

And while I was laughing and taking photos she was wagging her tail and trying, unsuccesfully, to get out. I had to help her back out of the sleeve because she wasn't about to let me pull her through it. Dogs are so entertaining sometimes.

We're Still Alive!

February was a tough month, but March has been better. I still haven't had time to post any pictures, but they are coming soon.

Also, I am getting rid of my other blog (http://www.kcsaluone.blogspot.com/) and will be posting on this one exclusively. That means there may be a whole lot more posts about "Karen's Thoughts" on this blog. But it will be easier for me and that's all that really matters, right?

Loves!
Karen

What We've Been Doing

Between Christmas and New Years I had Jonathan help me rearrange our spare room so that I could have more space for crafting. It took a little doing - taking doors off their hinges, etc. - and Jonathan wasn't as excited about it as I was, but he was really great to help me. I love my new space!

Now that I have a craft room and table I've been working on the quilt I started last year. It's been fun and rewarding to spend my time making something worthwhile instead of watching tv.

Here are some pictures of my craft room and the quilt I've been working on.

We've also been working on our kitchen remodel. We've passed our electrical inspection which made it okay for us to finish up the sheetrock. We spent a whole day putting up sheetrock and starting the mud & tape process.

This is proof that I helped with the sheetrock. I love those power tools!

After J finished the mud and tape we tented the room so he could sand and texture. I can't wait until it's finished. It will be done in 2009, that's a promise!