Sunshine

Tory's cheeseburger smile---what a goof ball Dinner at the Happy Hound, we were thinking that Kaid wouldn't get that huge hamburger in her mouth but..... we were wrong.
Once again Tory and I were spoiled and got to go the California with my mom and sister for spring break. I have to admit that this is such a treat because usually there isn't very much sun here but there it is so warm and sunny. We met Jimbob there, he had to work most of the week, so that left the days open to shopping and the evening to having family time, expect for Thursday Jimbob didn't have to work so we had the whole day together. Tory was such a good traveler, and the trip was just wonderful.



Mom and I were out walking one day and went down this street, I feel in the with the houses there and continued to walk it quite a few more times that week. It was really close to the hardware store, so it was easy to put Tory in the wagon and go for a quick stroll. These houses were like something you would see in a painting, they were perfect in every way. With flowering trees lining there walk and perfectly manicured lawns with a white picket fence.

While we were there the store got an order of baby chicks in, Tory loved to see them. She even got to sit in their little box with them for a bit. She was so excited to be able to hold them.

This was the most amazing chocolate truffle I have every eaten, it is from an organic farm along the coast that we stopped at. They were selling strawberries, jam, artichokes and all kinds of treats this was one of them. This truffle was made from 4 different types of chocolate and had pieces of Logan berries in it. It was to die for, and I wish that my fridge was full of them. So yummy.

Hair Do or Maybe a hair DON'T

Auntie Jordan gave Tory all her old barrettes while we were home one day. Tory some how got Jimbob to help her accessorize her hair. This was the out come. So nice wouldn't you say!

Welcome to the Family, Mali

On April 14th our family expanded by one more, one more four legged member that is. This is our new puppy Mali. She was 12 weeks old when we got her and she is a lab/retriever mix. She is the most sweet and easy going puppy I have ever been around and we love her. So here is her story of how she became a Baisden.... We were at a dinner/auction for my sisters senior class graduation night. We had gone to the one for my brother a couple of years ago and it was crazy, Carl ended up buying one of my brothers friends hair. It was long, gorgeous curly hair and if he would shave his head Carl would buy it for 100 dollars. Needless to we ended up with a bag of hair. So this time Carl and I talked and decided that we would have a budget and not go over it with expensive bags of hair that's of no use to Carl:). We agreed on an amount and went to the dinner/auction. But then there was Mali. We had heard word that there was going to be a puppy auctioned and my heart kind of sank, I don't know what I was thinking puppies are alot of work. I don't know why I even toyed with the idea but I did and then we saw her laying on her blanket. We took Tory over to see her and she feel in love. She was so excited with her. She gave her loves and the puppy was totally laid back about everything that Tory would do to her. I can remember looking at Carl and him looking at me, with those eyes of ... oh she needs to be part of our family. Jordan had told us though that there was someone else interested in her. I got Jordan to find out how much they were willing to bid on her.... there max was 300.00. I thought Oh No! that's over our agreed budget. Carl and I continued to talk about her and play with her. The longer we were around this sweet puppy the more we loved her. I kind of got a little anxiety about the situation and went for a quick breather. (this will sound silly to some) I had a strong feeling like I needed to pray about the situation. So I did and I felt totally retarded praying about such a silly matter. I ask Heavenly Father to help me know if this puppy was meant to be apart of our family and if she was to help me be alright with it and not worry about it, that it would all be OK. I said Amen and went back to Carl and Tory along with the rest of my family. Then it became time to auction off the puppy we and the other group started bidding and Carl ended up giving Tory our bidding number she thought that is was great fun waving it around. The amount just kept going up until it got to 300.00 and the other couple said that would be as high as they would go, so we bid 310 and then and older gentleman put in a bid. All I could think was oh no it's going to go even higher. Just as Carl was saying 315 the auctioneer said that the puppy was Tory's and the gentleman wanted to buy it for her. I couldn't believe it, this sweet old man was going to by this puppy for us, well for Tory. Right then I knew that Heavenly Father had heard my silly prayer and answered it. The puppy was suppose to be with us and it was going to be alright, we were going to be able to stick to our agreed budget. I am so grateful for sweet people like this man. He will probably never know how much his generosity really meant to us that night. Once again my testimony was strengthened by one of Gods great creatures. I'm happy to add that Mali has made a great addition to our family her big brother Chance adores her and her sweet personality is so wonderful. Her and Tory will get to grow up together. In the past six weeks we have been reminded of what having a puppy is like all over again, from eating my rose bushes and chewing up our swing. I have to remember though that she was sent to us for a reason and I am grateful for her. So that's our Mali.



Tory was playing in the kitchen towels and thought that Mali needed to be tucked in for her nap

Back to February

In February my monthly goal was to tie up all the loose ends that I had undone for Young Women's since New Beginnings was fast approaching. Thankfully I did get everything finished. The picture is off all my projects done. Also Tory is constantly finding new places to hang out and get into trouble. Her favorite now is the fridge, she can hear you open the door a mile away. Once she hears it she tries to get to the fridge as quickly as possible before you have the door closed. On this particular day I indulged her fetish and let her take her time checking everything out while I got the camera. She is so silly and constantly keeps me smiling.

Here is another example of our little explorer

A Saturday together

Last weekend we had plans to attend Jordan's Senior class dinner and auction night. Since we had to come to town I convinced Carl to make a day of it. We started the day out by running to the flower wholesale house, I needed to get some flowers for Relief Society's Birthday dinner. Then we went to explore Cabelas, since Tory and I had never been there and well Carl just loves to go there. Tory had a great time exploring and seeing all the animals. I think her favorite was the fish and the moose. We ended our day out with feeding the ducks and geese over at the dike road. I remember doing this when I was little with my dad. It was so much fun to take Tory, the geese come right up to you. Tory was a little afraid at first, and after a bit she realized that they wouldn't get her and she got more excited about it all. I feel like when we moved my heart stayed in CDA, it just feels like home to me. So it always feels so good to be back there.

Canada here we come!

Tory and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a girls weekend to Canada at the beginning of the month. We went with a group of women from church. We stayed at Fairmont Hot Springs. It was so nice to go swimming when here was still so much snow on the ground and not freeze. We left on a Thursday afternoon and came back Friday. Tory was such a good traveler, I was very impressed with her good behavior. While we were there we swam, ate great Canadian chocolate, swam some more, watched a chick flick (which I hadn't done in a really long time, what a treat), ate some food and swam some more. The hot springs where very relaxing and so much fun for Tory, she's quite the water baby. It was so lovely to get away for a girls trip, we are for grateful that we got to go.

These are all the lovely ladies that we got to go with....left to right...Kamas, Tory and I, Penny,Carol, Valerie, and Lea... Darlene was taking our picture in this one. Here is Kamas, Tory, Penny, Darlene, Carol, Valeris and Lea With it being so cold out and the water so warm there was alot of steam as you can see. These are the mountains that surrounded the Hot Springs, they were so beautiful and huge.

What a difference a year makes

Ah, love is in the air. For Valentine's Day we did the same thing as we did last year. Dockside does this amazing Chocolate Dessert Buffet every year at this time and I love it. So last year we went and had a great dinner and dessert but, silly me I wasn't thinking about the fact that I was breast feeding Tory and chocolate didn't agree with her so well so we settled on Creme Burlee which is still my favorite dessert but when it comes to the Chocolate Buffet it doesn't compare. We did have a tasty appetizer of steamed clams though that were delish. So this year now that Tory is a big girl and I can have chocolate, I begged Carl to go there again. Which being the good husband that he is, he thought that it would be a good idea also. I was so excited I could hardly handle it, I know I'm a retard but hey it's a whole buffet of CHOCOLATE. We had a great dinner, Carl had surf and turf, Tory had pancakes and fruit and I had the steamed clams and CHOCOLATE. It was so yummy. When we came home I remembered that we had a picture from last year and I couldn't believe the difference in Tory, she has grown up so fast. It's so crazy how fast time goes by. She is such a big girl now.

It Fits!

She's so stinking cute!

This is an outfit that Tory received as a gift when she was still cooking in my belly. It is hand made by my sister-in-laws amazing mom, Sherry Cornett. Tory got to wear this to church a couple of Sundays ago. I just love it and Tory was so excited to wear the hat, she kept taking it off and on, so that every time she got it on she could hear "oh, you're so pretty!" Sherry is such a talented person I'm very great for all of the lovely things that she has made us. Our Christmas dresses were her creations too.

Turkeys, Turkeys everywhere

Tory and I went on a little drive one day when the ice was really thick on every thing, it was so beautiful. We drove up on the south hill where there is an amazing white house with huge pillars, its just gorgeous. Chance started to go crazy in the back of the car so I started to look around and I couldn't see any other dogs around but I did see a heard of turkeys. It's so funny right in the middle of town a heard of turkeys. They were in a big tree and walking all around this house. Tory thought that it was great to see the giant birds and Chance was a little excited too. I love unexpected surprises like this.

A girl with STYLE

This picture pretty much says it all... wouldn't you say? One day Tory and I were being bums but she decided that just wearing your pajamas wasn't enough. She kept bringing me different items to put on. First the tutu from Grandpa David, then one boot followed by the other, Mikey Mouse ears which unfortunately didn't make it to nap time, she also had a hair tie on her wrist. Then came nap time and we had to have two blankets. By the time she was asleep I got a good look at her and laughed... she is such a little ham.

Life's Little Lessons

The day before Carl's Birthday we got to go to the spa in Coeur d' Alene for a little pampering. My Mom was kind enough to take Tory so we could go as a couple. It was a wonderful experience that was very relaxing. The Spa at the Resort is amazing and luxurious. I highly recommend it. Anyway the reason for this picture is .... we were leaving my Mom's after picking Tory up, driving down the road when Mom called to tell us that we had forgotten something so I turned around and headed back to her house. I saw something in the road on the way back and a small voice told me to make sure that I don't run it over, so I made sure I didn't and as we passed it I looked in the rear view mirror to see is what ever it was had moved, but it hadn't and so we carried on. We grabbed what it was that we forgot and off we were again. This time when we came upon this something in the road there was a dog sniffing it, I thought that's weird why would a dog be sniffing a big rock(which is what I though it was at the time) so as we got closer I looked harder at it and realized it wasn't a rock at all. I then backed the car up and got out to find that it was this beautiful owl. Right then I was so thankful that I had listened and made sure that I didn't hit it. I would have be horrified if once again I had ran another animal over, we all know that I don't have a tract record when it comes to this. But this once, there was an angel watching over this sweet bird and I listened to the prompting. We ended up taking him to the Clinic that I use to work at where he stayed over night and the next day the bird lady came to pick him up. She will rehabilitate him and hopefully release him back into the wild. I know that this is such a small weird thing to write about but to me this is huge. It seems that Heavenly Father teaches me and gives me opportunities to grow though animals a lot of the time. If I wouldn't have listened to that small voice things would have been a lot different for this little guy and for me to. This little lesson has taught me so much and has made me think about a lot of things. Life is to short to not enjoy the simple things, we need to take time to realize all of the amazing blessing that we are given and not get caught up in the rubbish and to be still and listen. I am so grateful for this little bird and I am a different person because of him.

Beautiful Pictures

On Tory's birthday we got to go have 1 year pictures taken along with some of her and I. By chance I came across this amazing photographer(Amy Waddington) when I was pregnant. She did my belly pictures, Tory's new born pictures and now these. Amy is so cute and bubbly. She has a sense of warmth about her, when you are around her she make you feel like family not to mention she ogles Tory and gets her to smile. I think that she does an amazing job. We can't wait until the next pictures are done.

A gift from Heaven

Yesterday at 6:18pm I got the amazing opportunity to experience a miracle, Chrysta gave birth to her and Bryan's beautiful baby boy, Braeden. It's was so amazing to finally meet him. He is perfect in every way. In the beginning he didn't seem to excited to come out, Chrysta was admitted to the hospital Wednesday night and after a long wait he came out with out any complications. Chrysta is doing well, tired but good. It was the sweetest thing to see both her and Bryan all choked up when baby Braeden entered the world. Alright so there wasn't a dry eye all the way around. They are going to be such amazing parents, they have so much love for each other and now for their baby boy. I'm so excited for them and all the wonderful memories that are ahead of them and their new little family. I'm going back today to visit I'll be sure to get more pictures as I sure he is changing already.