I'm about all blogged out

Well, I think that I have you all pretty up to speed. Nick is still serving in the Young Men's Presidency and is over the Varsity Scouts. He really enjoys working with the boys. Work is about to start picking up so we are enjoying him being home as long as we can. I started my second semester of nursing school (only two more semesters after this). I am really enjoying it, but like I said before I am such a nerd about it. Every little thing we learn I have to call my mom and tell her how giddy I am about it. I thought I was going to burst when we learned how to start IVs and draw blood. It's the coolest feeling to actually be doing something that I've dreamed of since I was 5 years old. I'm going to be a nurse!! Nick has been so awesome to support me every step of the way. I will forever be grateful for his patience and for my family's help watching Allie and saving me tons of money and worry. Nick's sister Kristi takes her twice a week (even though she has a 7 month old and a 2 year old of her own), my aunt Emily takes her once a week (and is always willing to take her more if needed even though she has 4 kids of her own), and my grandma takes her once a week (and also is willing to take her whenever she can). My mom, aunt Wendy, and Nick's mom are also super helpful. I could not do what I'm doing if it weren't for an awesome husband and family, and of course a good baby to be happy wherever she is that day. Thank you all! It also helps that I have a really awesome group of girls that I go to school with. They keep me motivated to study and do well! My Primary Presidency calling is keeping me running but I am learning a lot about the boy scouts. My boss at work has been really awesome about letting me pick up shifts when I want or say no when I want so that has been helpful. Well, hours upon hours later I think I am all blogged out. Poor Allie has been so good this whole time, but it's time to play with her! Maybe I can post a little every now and then instead of waiting forever. If you've got a while you can sit and read the past 7 posts or so and be all caught up...thanks for reading!

Talking on the phone and sucking on her

paci all while riding on Thunder.

Just chillin' in her fridge.

She loves to walk around the house

holding my bags. She usually has her

arms straight up in the air and then gets

really mad when they get too tired and she

has to set them down. What a goofball!

Catch up #6 Davis Rodeo

My uncle started a new tradition a couple years ago. He takes all of his horses and we go to one of his friend's house that has an arena. The adults have barrell races and the kids like to have the adults lead their horse all around. Allie absolutely loved it! She was not afraid at all and everytime her turn was over she would smile and say "More, more" while signing it. Well, of course that melted Daddy's heart so he would take her around again, and again, and again. We finally got her off and she slept on Aunt Emily's lap. Nick and I raced and had a blast. I had never been on a horse when it was at an all out sprint. Let's just say that the first time my horse sprinted to the finish line everyone said they had never seen anyone's eyes so big. I was so afaid to get off the horse and see that I had wet myself. No worries, I was dry! After that I made sure to sprint to the end just to get that adrenaline rush again.


Daddy was so proud that Allie could
stay on by herself.


Uncle Kent was pretty proud, too.


I think Allie might want a horse
as bad as her dad.


My grandpa impressed all of us with his
barrell racing skills. My mom calls him
"the last of the tough guys". He always jumped
off his horse right before it was about to stop instead
of waiting for it to stop completely like the rest of us.
It made me laugh to see this 71 year old jumping
on and off the horse like it was no big deal. He probably
got on and off faster than anyone else. He really is the
last of the tough guys.


My mom and I would always joke that
I would marry a cowboy. Nick grew up
around horses and absolutely loves them.
I guess we weren't too far off afterall.

Catch up #5 Hackberry Hike

My family used to always hike Hackberry Springs at least once a year, but for one reason or another we hadn't been in over 2 years. Brittany rounded up some of us and we went for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. About 10 minutes before we were to walk out the door I noticed Allie was being quiet on my bed...anyone with a child knows that that is usually when you worry. I looked over at her and she had lip stick all over her and all over our sheets. I never understood why moms would leave their lipstick where their children could reach it. No wonder they played with it. When will I learn to quit saying, "My child will never..."?? I didn't even know I had that tube of lipstick. I don't wear lipstick! It took a while to get it cleaned up and her clothes changed. Anyways, it was Allie and I, my cousin Brittany and her husband Eric, my cousin Erin and her husband Steven, my cousin Lynsey, my uncle Kent, and my grandma and grandpa. My great-grandpa usually goes, but he decided his 94 year old body was too tired to go this time, maybe next time. I brought one of those things to hook the baby up to your back. Allie was almost too heavy for it, and actually the side buckles wouldn't go around her little diaper bum, but it worked. She fell asleep on my back like 10 minutes into the hike and slept for about an hour. Her head kept flopping back, so my uncle tied a sweatshirt around me to hold her head against my back. We had a blast!

Oops!

She was out cold. I kept having

people check to make sure she was

breathing.

Cute little Grandpa and Grandma

My uncle said, "Aww, Mindy, I guess you aren't

going to be able to climb up the cliff this year"

(Since Allie was on my back). Wanna bet? Thanks

for the motivation uncle Kent! If you look closely you

can see Allie's little head between us. Half way up I heard

my grandma yell, "Mindy Michele, what do you think you are doing?!"

Oops, I was hoping she wouldn't see until we reached the top.

Allie didn't wake up until I was all the way up. She was a little

confused to say the least.

Catch up #4 Friend Luncheon

My friends and I finally were able to get together over the break. I hadn't seen some of them for quite a while! It was so fun to see everyone and how adorable their babies are. Natalie was in from Arkansas and Stacey from Utah. We missed Nicole though! She's in Idaho and we can't wait for her to visit!! I'm hoping that once all the husbands are done with school we can all be in Arizona again!!

(Back row): Natalie, Melanie, Allie, Me, Claire (due in 5 weeks!), and Joy

(Front row): Natalie and baby Blake, Melissa and baby Tate, Lindsay and baby Rebekah,

Stacey and baby Emily

Catch up #3 Rappelling

Ok so this one is from way back to Thanksgiving, but I had to post these pictures. We went rappelling Thanksgiving day with Nick's brother and sister, Greg and Kim. Nick loves rappelling and we hadn't been in forever, so we decided why not go on Thanksgiving since we both had the time off. Nick made a harness for Allie and we debated on having him go down with her, but decided we'd feel like the worst parents ever, instead of the coolest, if anything happened. Greg took some pictures that look like they are pretty high, but Nick wasn't even a foot above the ground. Someday she'll go down!

Allie hanging out by the Salt River

while Daddy gets everything ready.

Doesn't she look thrilled

Daddy was so proud!

It's probably a good thing Nick
didn't really take her down because
Allie kept arching back to see the ground.
It made for a fun picture though!

Catch up #2 Temple Lights

I guess I could have put this with the last one, but it was already so dang long. Nick, Allie, and I went to temple lights with Tyler, Kristi, Emma, and Hailey. We love seeing the lights every year. Nick and his scouts got to help put some up some of the lights. Allie loved pointing at all the different lights and running around with her cousin Emma. Just as we were leaving my brother-in-law and I heard a loud smack. One of those sounds that makes you instantly sick. We turned around to see an elderly woman lying face down on the rocky steps near the reflecting pond. She was going DOWN the steps and fell forward face first. I just stood there thinking that someone around her would pick her up but everyone just kinda walked by slowly staring. My brother-in-law quickly rushed over to help her up. I didn't want to be one of those, "Out of the way everyone... I am a Block 2 nursing student!! But nobody else was doing anything! We ran over and helped sit her up. The poor thing had busted her head pretty bad and had a really bad broken wrist. The man with her kept trying to get her stand up! I kept thinking about all the assessment things I had learned in school and started asking her her name, where she was from, how long she had been here...and the man she was with kept answering for her. Poor guy was just trying to help, but I needed her to answer these questions to see how bad her head injury was! Anyways, an ambulance came a couple of minutes later and whisked her away. My poor brother-in-law had her propped up against his leg the whole time and it took him a while to walk normally after they took her away. Needless to say, we had quite the experience. I am such a nerd when it comes to anything in nursing, so I got the biggest adrenaline rush out of the whole thing.


Allie and her cousin Hailey


Allie and her cousin Emma
(In case you couldn't tell, she
loves that darn pacifier)

Catch up #1 Christmas Time!

I started our blog after Christmas so I never got to post any Christmas pictures. We were able to do all of our usual Christmas traditions with the family (gingerbread houses, cookies and carroling, and hide-and-seek at the Tumbleweed Christmas Tree). Allie got to sit on Santa's lap 3 times this year! My nursing school girls, Allie, and I made goodie plates for the nursing home where we did clinicals. We went to zoo lights with the nursing girls, too! We had a great Christmas. It was our first Christmas in our house! Allie made out like a bandit (again), but we figure why not spoil her while we can...she won't be an only child forever (and no, that is not an annoucement). We spent Christmas Eve at the Powell's and Christmas day at the Davis'. We felt very blessed to spend so much time with family.


Allie concentrating very hard
on frosting her cookie.


The rules are simple: you break
a cookie, you eat it. Allie just
decided to lick the knife mid-frosting
the cookie instead of waiting for
it to break.


Tumbleweed Christmas Tree


Almost all of us in the picture!


Allie and Daddy's turn to count!


Zoo lights with my nursing girls
Jess, Sharla, and Shaela. We
missed you Jaime!


Nursing Home goodie plates:
sugar cookies, buck eyes, and
chocolate covered pretzels...
just what those diabetic patients
need


Jess, Jaime, and Shaela rolling
out buck eyes


Frosting cookies for the goodie
plate with Auntie Sharla


Apparently Allie thought
the you-break-it-you-
eat-it rule applied here too


Allie loved playing with the
ornaments.


Papa (Nick's Dad) made each family
a kitchenette for the kids to take home.
The knobs turn, doors open, the curtains
move to have a puppet show, and there
is a chalk board on the back. What a
crafty Papa Allie has!


Grammy Jean gave Allie
Thunder for Christmas


Just a few of the Davis cousins
Allie gets to play with all the time.

Up to date...

I'm finally posting! Sorry for taking so long, but life has been busy, busy, busy! There is so much to catch up on. I was looking through pictures on our computer and remembered the reason we have a post is to keep family and friends up to date on what we are doing...and I am really slacking. So on that note, I am going to go crazy today and post a ton of pictures. I'll label the new posts "Catch up..."