Aloha Kristin and Taylor!!

So, as you may or may not know, my best friend Kristin left for Hawaii yesterday for Grad School. I am devastated for myself because I feel like I lost my partner in crime, but I am ecstatic for her because she is embarking on such a remarkable exciting journey; she's going to school in Hawaii...

So, me and some of her closest friends threw her a surprise going away party a couple weekends ago. We started the night off at my house and made our way to the Overland bar, then Hannah's and eventually The Balcony. Here are just a few pics of the hundred and something we took to commemorate the evening.



Here we are starting off the night at my house...can you tell Kristin's been drinking??




Here's Kristin posing as usual...lol



Here's Kristin and Taylor yuking it up...



Here's me and Kristin at Hannah's



Here's Barton and Rachel...look how far Barton can stick that long neck in his mouth...do you think he practices often???



Here's Kristin with two of her favorite guys - Barton and Chad...



Here's the photo of the gang at the end of the night...don't we look great??



The night ended with a bang as usual...there was a fire at the Balcony or the fire alarm went off at least...so if course we couldn't let those fireman studs go without a picture with them! They were so cute and nice...

It's nights like these I'm going to miss...it will never be the same with Kristin gone. I guess I'm gonna have to make a few visits to Hawaii to continue making memories like these!

I love you Kristin! I will miss you and Taylor so much!

Merry Christmas!!

Once again, Christmas came and went leaving a path of destruction behind (my messy house)....but as usual, it was great! Christmas eve was a blast - we made cookies on Christmas Eve and looked at lights that night after delivering the cookies. We had quite the full car - it was me, Aunt Joyce, Grandma, Nana, and Riley...It was fun, except for Riley being kinda cranky. She was anxious to get home to see if Santa had left presents while we were gone. Of course to her disappointment he didn't. Nonetheless, she went to bed later that night after leaving Santa French Fries, Ranch, cookies and a glass of egg nogg.

We started off Christmas morning with me and Riley opening presents from Santa. She was so excited he had been at the house the night before because some of the cookies and fries we had left him were gone... did I ever mention fries and ranch were one of my favorite snacks??!!

All in all Christmas was great. Everyone got lots of great presents this year, check out the pics below!!!




The Tree pre-destruction



Here's Riley opening up presents from Santa



Here's Riley and Grandma with her Grinch ornament



Here's Riley and Nana...Nana got one of Riley's Christmas pics from her...



Here's Riley and Aunt Joyce...doesn't she look content?? A nice thank you hug...



Here I am giving Riley a big kiss for my new necklace (see it around my neck)...I've been wanting this necklace for so long! How did she know??



Here's Riley with a present from her dad. It really is a riot, this toy. If you have kids you may have seen it before. You feed the dog the bottle and when he is done, you set him on his puppy pad and with a little squeeze of his tail, he lifts his leg to pee on the puppy pad!! It was such a riot to watch the two of them try to feed this toy and getting it to pee!



Last but certainly not least, Riley's dad, Shane, and Uncle Andy's Dog, Indra, spent the day with us.

Christmas really was a blast this year. We had so much fun playing Riley's new board game - Operation as well as flying Shane's toy helicopter (from Uncle Andy) around the house! I hope everyone had as great of a time as we did!

Love you all!!

Schools out for winter!!

So, my second semester of Grad school is finally over! I turned in my final papers today at 4:30 which means I have the following 5 weeks off from school!!! Yeah!! I couldn't need it more! Ever since mid terms in October, school has been crazy busy! We just did our portfolios last week which were really fun. However, the day we presented them was the day we got dumped with snow, so unfortunately we didn't have that great of a turn out. Oh, well! At least we were there to support each other, and by that I mean the whole up coming graduating MSW class. Even my mom showed up which was pretty cool!



Here's my portfolio...I did it on Family Advocacy...my theme was magic...it was all smoke and mirrors! LOL



Here is one of my bestest friends Amanda at the portfolio...I can't tell if she's workin' hard or hardly workin'

Riley has been really busy as well. Her daycare put on a Christmas Program which was really fun. Plus we saw the annual downtown Christmas tree lighting as well as putting up our own Christmas tree - boy that was a treat! It couldn't have been a more perfect night. We got a light dusting of snow the whole night while we decorated.We really lucked out. It turned out really cute, although only 2 days later it fell over. Luckily some really great friends of mine live really close so they came over to help put it back up. So far it hasn't fallen over again (knock on wood).



Here's Riley adding the tree topper...reeaaccchhh!



Here she is hanging some ornaments...she was so into this!



Here's the daycare's Christmas program...it was so stinkin' cute!!! Who doesn't love kids singing Christmas songs?? Riley is the one on the far left in the blue and black dress on the end...



Here's Riley and one of her self proclaimed best friends from daycare - Vicotria...can't you see these two getting into trouble?? I'm surprised they haven't been seperated yet!


Although I am done with school for the next 5 weeks and Riley will be done on Friday things will still be busy...especially this up coming week before Christmas. I have to admit though, I am so anxious to graduate! In fact, I included my undergrad photos from May 2007 in this post. I can't wait to plan my graduation party for May and I can't wait to see everyone there! I hope many of you can make it. It's not every day you graduate from Grad school!



Here I am right after the School of Social Work Graduation Ceremony



Here I am out at lunch at Joe's Crab Shack...yummmmmy....


I hope everyone is doing well and I promise I will get Christmas cards sent out, although I can't guarantee when!

Happy Thanksgiving

As another holiday comes to a steadfast closure, I want hope each and everyone of you had as good of a Thanksgiving as I did. Grandma spent the night with me and Riley - which Riley just loved!! Having Grandma over for a sleepover is the best thing since sliced bread as far as Riley is concerned.



Riley and Great Grandma (and her favorite snack - pickles!)

Today got off to a rocky start with Riley in a bad mood, so I had to pull rank...things calmed down for the most part after that. Grandma was here, Aunt Joyce as well, and Nana of course. It was nice to have the family together. it has been a long time since Joyce spent Thanksgiving with us, so it was definitely nice having her around.



Riley and Great Aunt Joyce...hard to believe this is the first Thanksgiving we've had together in almost 10 years!!! Gosh, time sure does fly by!



Riley and Nana (unbeknown to me, these two took about 20 pics of themselves together - such camera hogs!!)

The turkey turned out great (but not quite as good as last years) along with all the rest of the food, including the homemade apple pie me and Riley made last night.


putting the finishing touches on the pie




the final product...don't touch - it's hot!!!



that's right - I made that beauty!!

As the day comes to a close we find ourselves completing the Thanksgiving tradition of putting up the Christmas decorations - by far my favorite part of Thanksgiving. There's something about Christmas decorations that feels so warm and cozy - I love it! Tomorrow night is the Christmas tree lighting in downtown Boise. I can't wait to take Riley to see it! Another holiday favorite!



No...she is not hurt...she was laughing!

Love,
Mandy and Riley

My very first blog!!!

So, here it goes...I'm not sure how this will turn out, but here is my very first blog (drum roll please!!). I guess I'll start off with a disclaimer - the only reason I am taking the time to work on this now is because I am on Thanksgiving vacation. Not unlike any other vacation, unfortunately, it is flying by!! No worries though...we're having fun.

This morning we awoke to a wonderful surprise...it was SNOWING!! We couldn't have been more surprised. We had just enough time and snow, for Riley to roll a small snowball before we headed off to school. School was a blast as well, since I volunteered there this morning. I try to go at least once a month; fortunately I am able to since my schedule is so flexible while I'm in school. This morning I watched the class during music and we made a book about what we were thankful for at Thanksgiving. The last page of each book was a picture depicting the friends and family they were thankful for. It was a really great project that made me think about what I was thankful for.


Being a single mom, while going to school is no easy feat - especially financially. However, we have always had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our back...which is more than some people have. With that said, I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving. I'll leave you with this quote: "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present." ~ Anonymous