My Quiet Book

My friend, Hailey, and I decided to undertake the crafting task of a quiet book. We were inspired by our friend, Erika's, amazing quiet book. This one only took me about 4 months to finish! Today was the day. I owe most of the creativity in here to Hailey. I just copied her ideas. We did most of it together and therefore have almost identical books.

I got the whole thing done except sewing all of the pages together and then to the cover and realized that it was too thick for my machine to sew through. I searched Moscow for someone who could help and finally found a store with an industrial sewing machine. I'm SO glad it's done and I think I love it a little more than I should... Now I just need some kids to go with it!

The Front Cover

Title Page

Humpty Dumpty

There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
(This is to practice lacing and tying)

Mary Mary Quite Contrary
(The flowers are buttons that come off and are reversible)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider
(I took this to my preschool and this was most of their favorite. The spider moves up and down and the clouds lift up to show the sun.)

Fish Alive
(The fish just go back and forth)

Little Jack Horner
(Those are plums in the picture below. They fit on the kids thumbs.)

The Wise Old Owl

Star Light, Star Bright
(I told the preschoolers they could make a wish on this page and they all did...and thought it was cool!)

The Moon and a New Camera Lens

Adam and I were headed home the other night and we noticed how amazing the moon looked. For Christmas Adam got me a new lens for my camera which takes good night shots so we thought we'd try it out. Here are a few of my favorites! I thought they looked very heavenly!

New Years in Idaho

We came home from Texas a few days early so we could spend some of the holidays with Adam's family. We had a really good time. This was probably my first really "white" holiday that I can remember.

On New Years Eve we went to Albion to visit Adam's grand parents. It was good to spend time with them. I had only met them for a few minutes at our reception. Here we are at their house. I really liked this old tractor.

Here is the view down the street from their house. It is an adorable little town.

Erika and Grandma Bell

Adam and Grandpa Bell.

When we got back to Boise we were both so tired that we decided not to stay up and ring in the new year. Lame, I know...but we were really tired!

We spent the last couple of days up in Placerville. For Christmas Adam gave me a new lens for my camera. It is supposed to take good night pictures, so we tried it out. Not bad!

It looks like a forest fire behind me...its not! It is the neighbors house with it's porch lights on. I guess the lens works! Thanks, Adam!

This is the most snow I've ever been in! There was about 3 feet or so. It was beautiful.

We went on a walk with Vic and Deej one morning. It is so peaceful with all that snow everywhere.

I might have accidentally pushed Adam into the snow. Okay... it was no accident, but he pushed me in first...camera and all.

Aww!

It was the weirdest thing. On our way home, we saw a camel. Who knew they could live in the snow?

Not quite as romantic as spaghetti...

I had my first go at cross country skiing. I think I could really get into it! It took me a little while to get the hang of things.

Adam looked like an 80's rocker. I loved it! We stayed on the road for a while, and then made our own trail through the 3 feet of snow. I loved it...except for the falling down. Apparently, I don't have my balance just right on the little down hills. Luckily snow doesn't hurt!

We left Sunday morning to come back to Moscow. We went to church in an adorable little town called Garden Valley. Adam took this amazing shot. It really is beautiful there. We've decided that in the end we want to end up somewhere really warm or in Garden Valley!

I'm a little sad to be done with the holidays. We had so much fun being with our families and friends. I hope everyone else had a safe and fun vacation as well! Happy New Year!

Birthdays

Adam and I got to go to Texas for Christmas. It was so much fun. I loved being with my family. We flew into Houston and got to visit the Chappell's and the other Houston friends and then we headed to San Angelo for the rest of the break.

My Dad and My Adam both have birthdays in December. In fact, their birthdays are just a week apart. They both had pretty "big" birthdays this year. Here is dad blowing out his candles for his 60th birthday. I think we pulled off a successful surprise.

We went camping for Adam's birthday. He had a delicious dutch oven peach cobbler for his cake. It really was good! Adam turned the big 30 this year. Where does the time go?! I just wanted to let both of them know that I love them and am very grateful for the influence they are in my life.

(Alona did a great job of documenting our trip and both birthdays. To see all the fun pictures you can click here and go to her blog. Thanks, Alona!)

The "P" Party

Adam has a December birthday and we were going to be in Texas so we decided to have a little party for him here in Moscow. I love themed parties and this is no exception. We decided to have a "P" party. "P" has no significance, it is just a great letter for costumes and food!

I decided to join the club in our ward and be pregnant! I am also wearing pink and plaid. Without even thinking Adam knew what to be...provocative (thanks Alona)!

April is a polka dot (if I remember right) and Matt is a pill.

(I apologize for the graphic nature of this picture) Brett came as a proctologist... and yes, his finger is brown.

Hailey was a little more tasteful as a pod of peas!

Sean and his roommate, Ben, came. They didn't dress up, but they are both wearing pants and they played a lot of games.

Stephanie stole my costume by wearing pink and being pregnant...except hers isn't a costume! Jon is a punk!

The Langstons never let us down. Lanny is wearing pink panther pants and Katie has peace panties on her head.

Here Andy is being pleasant and Hilary is puckering! A few others came that I don't have pictures of. We had a good turn out and I'm grateful for good friends.

Here is a shot of the food table. My favorite were the "phortune cookies". I had Adam's family and friends send me a fortune for him and I put them in cookies. Everyone got a fortune cookie and then read Adam the fortune. I liked it!

I am not sure why this picture is turned, but here is the cake. I wrote the word with chocolate and then put sprinkles on them.

Happy Birthday!

And what is birthday without a game of Mormon Bridge? Good times in Moscow!

Winter...

Well...it's winter in Moscow and besides freezing to death, I've discovered a few things that I don't love about Moscow.

One is the fact that our windows freeze over. I woke up to find this one nice winter day. Sheesh!

Here is an up close shot of the ice. It's real cold here!

The other complaint I have is the nice lovely hill that we live on. Sure, it has a great view that we love...but it is nigh impossible to get up it when the roads are snowy and icy. Luckily Adam has snow tires. Let's just say I've done a lot more walking lately!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving break was really good. This was only my 2nd Thanksgiving away from home, so it was a little weird for me, but I had a great time anyway.

On the way to Boise we stopped in Donnelly to stay with Brandon. It was snowing when we got there and their cabin looked so nice.

I really love these pictures.

What vacation would be complete without fishing? Apparently Adam's. We went steelhead fishing near Riggins.

We all looked like better anglers than we were. I lost my float and hook within 30 minutes. Ahh! I didn't feel too bad because neither of the boys even got a bite. Better luck next time... to us all!

This is a view from the balcony at Brandon's. The lake was starting to freeze over and it looked amazing. While we were sitting at breakfast one morning we saw 2 bald eagles fly right by the window. It was pretty cool.

This is a view of the canyon as we were heading to Boise. It was so pretty.

This one was the sunset on the way up to Placerville. We headed there after we got to Boise. We made it to Boise just in time to hear Vic speak in church. He did a great job!

Brett and Hailey went to Boise for Thanksgiving too. We told them to stop by the cabin for a few days. We all had a great time playing with Noah...playing Rook...and Ping Pong!

It was too wet and cold outside to roast the hot dogs in the pit, so we used the fireplace.

Here are the cute Cahoon's!

One of the 4 wheelers was broke so I took the 100 on our little venture through town.

Adam's bike ended up not having enough traction (or something) for the snow, so we went together...for a while.

Noah didn't love the 4-wheeler so Brett walked and Hailey and I rode around.

I took the cute little guy for a while so they could ride around. I think it was a good trade.

So...I forgot to take more pictures of the week. We had a great time with the Warr's. We ate and shopped and watched movies and football. It was good times! Erika and Chris took us to the Festival of Trees and to dinner. It was a lot of fun. I snagged this picture with my phone. The tree had real roses and orchids on it. Beautiful.

Thanks Warr's for a Happy Thanksgiving.