Benjamin... This is for You!

Look at what's parked in front of our house this weekend!!



The kids in the neighborhood have also been climbing all over these!



*Note: for those of you who may not know little Benjamin, he's my brother Paul's adorable 2 year old son who, true to his father's profession, loves anything construction! "Dig, Dig, Dig!"

Home Improvements-- Baby Style!

So in preparation for our little boy due to be featured in February, we decided to add a few touches to our little one bedroom apartment. Now, we know that many families will even build on an addition to the house for their newcomer. However, after going over the extensions and floorplans with our contractors, there just doesn't seem any way we can get around BYU's housing rules! Therefore, since expansion is not an option this season, we were left with the option of reorganizing, removing, and adding new pieces to the home!

First, we decided to get a nice area rug so that the little guy will have a softer surface than our carpet to play on! It makes our apartment a little more "busy" but that's ok!




Next, I made a few trip to Micheals and BB&B to redeem some gift cards and coupons for wood letters, painted shapes, wood glue, spray paints, and some cute shelf boxes.

From CutlerClan Pics

Then after a lot of time painting, gluing, clamping (or pressing with cans, since we only have two clamps and I wasn't patient enough to wait), measuring, nailing, and reorganizing, we finally came up with a fun little set up on our wall!

From CutlerClan Pics

Although currently over our TV, this is the wall space that will be above the baby's cradle/crib!

From CutlerClan Pics

IT'S A...

BABY!!!!

Ok, ok, 40% of you were right, IT'S A BOY!!!

Click here to see the ultrasound pic!

Thanks for voting and your support!!!!

Can, Can... Can you Can the grape juice?

My wife can!!!

From CutlerClan Pics

Yup! It's something my family used to do when I was really little. My Grandma and Grandpa had a mini farm in their backyard that seemed absolutely huge to me then, and there we'd pick our grapes. Since their moving out of that house, my family hasn't really done the grape juice thing (that I remember), so this was a neat, nostalgic experience! Alene's parents were kind enough to provide all the tools and grapes!

I wasn't able to help all that much, being busy with all the homework and projects I've got going, but, I did get to do one batch all by myself! Alene started washing the grapes one late night while I labored on a project. She finished that, but I was still banging my head against the wall, so she set out to get us some canning jars. Visiting grocery stores just after midnight was hit and miss for just getting inside, let alone actually finding what we wanted. The first store, Maceys, only had half-gallon sized jars, all the shelves for the normal quart sized jars were large and empty. Out of the 5-6 stores she went to next she got into 3-4 of them, but all of them were sold out of any and all canning jars (except the half-pint sized)! No good! So she returned to the first store and got the half-gallon sized jars.

From CutlerClan Pics

Canning took a long time with our limited experience and small stove top, but we got through 5 batches and 12 jars + some! YuuuummmmmmY! This grape juice is way good! So delicious! I'm excited to have it for the next year or so! (that is, we'll try to make it last that long... don't know that it will, but we see!)

Pack N Play

Hurrah! After many weeks searching Craig's list and KSL classifieds, we have finally scored a pack n' play! Yeah! It's in good condition and after about an hour of sanitizing and scrubbing I am satisfied and excited to use it once the baby comes!

*Special thanks to Celest the bunny (my dear friend since I was 4 years old) for her modeling role in the making of these shots!


The changing table and bassinet. We probably won't use these much because my dad is making us a beautiful wooden cradle, but it's nice to know we have it for trips.


The open play area!

Vote NOW!

Get your vote in before it's too late!
(See the sidebar on the right)

Actual results will be posted on October 6th*
(*Provided the baby cooperates)

"Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime!"

Whew! Well it has been a busy summer for us! And in attempts to make amends for not posting much about the things we did, we thought we'd post about them all!

Trip to Washington!
We started out by helping my brother Paul move out to Bellingham, WA by driving his 20 month old son, Benjamin all the way from Utah on a 2 day trip. It was a lot of fun to spend that time with him and he was such a good boy the whole way. For more on this trip, you can see Paul and Vicky's blog: www.pvduersch.blogspot.com

While there we also got to spend some time with Kelv's sister Tenley and her little family in Seattle. It was wonderful! She was such a gracious hostess, Thanks Again Tenley! Plus we got to go to a Mariners game and see the famous Ichiro!


Viva Las Vegas!
Next we used up a promotional trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! After spending a few hours of prep time discovering all the exhibits and free things to see in each casino resort, we had a great time walking from place to place! But really the best part was just the fact that we had another chance to be together.


Miley, a new nephew, and 2 new neices!
Next as we hung out with Ruth over the 4th of July holiday we rocked out at Stadium of Fire with Miley Cyrus! Plus within just a few weeks we got 3 new additions to the family: Rhett Buehler Duersch, Jenalee Roylance, AnnaLynn Duersch! Hurrah for babies!



Camping, camping, and more camping!
We started out our adventures in the great outdoors at Ward Campout! We actually didn't stay the night because it was same day that we got home from Vegas, but it sure was fun to have a cookout and enjoy good friends!

Next we were with the Duersch family! We spent 3 days at the beautiful Ledgefork campground with Mom, Dad, Ruth, and Jason's, Marianne's, and Heidi's families! It's always fun to go creekin', relax on the hammock, play games, and just spend time with all our family-- especially the neices and nephews!

Lastly, after 9 hours and a blown tire, we spent the pre-labor day weekend with the Cutlers in scenic McCall, Idaho. Once again it was so fun to just be with the family out on the lake, lounging on the shoreline, playing games, and riding bikes.

Well there you have it! We had a fun summer and we are ready for fall and all it brings (aka. school, changing colors of the leaves, and BYU football!)

aWordGame

About 6 months ago, I came up with this brilliant idea for a project that I couldn't wait to get started on. The sad thing is that I had to wait. I was way too busy with school and work. I looked forward to summer for this project more than anything. Well, it turns out I got caught up with work (I'm now doing two jobs, one for BYU-OIT, and work for my uncle), and didn't have enough free time to get it going until about a month ago. I pumped out the basic version of the program pretty quick, but since it has slowly gone many revisions. I am finally proud enough of it to post it publicly. Here it is, aWordGame!

The instruction manual tells you the rules of the game and how to play using my program, but I'll give you a little background here:

I can remember playing this "four letter word game" since I was in early middle school. It used to be a favorite to play in church when I was really bored. I loved it so much I made it for PalmOS and played it with my friends at school (mostly in band with Brian Harris, stand buddy). Pretty much this game is classic to me (a lot of sentimental value). Now what I've done with it, is enabled people (me mostly) to play it with someone else via text messaging! How sweet is that? Whenever I'm bored, no matter where I am or who I'm with I can be playing a very entertaining/slightly intellectual game. Ok, so not that intellectual, but it is one that has human interaction and makes you use you brain, so I love it. Don't always have someone to play with, but I play often enough to be satisfied - very happy really.

I'll put a warning right here right now, that it does basically spam you through out the game (you'll be sent upwards of 15-25 messages during the game and send about 10-15), so without unlimited text messaging, I don't recommend it for use with your phone. However, it works all the same with email, so feel free to give it a try, either with me or anyone of your choosing. I can't promise it will always be up and running or that it won't crash in the middle of your game, but if you do give it a try, I welcome feedback!

My Turn!

So I finally braved up and cut my hair! Like 5 inches! SCARY!! I'm still getting used to it but I'm really liking the change. It was time.

ME and My HONEY! And supposed to be... "The Thoughtful Pose"

New York, New York!

So about a month ago 3 of my sisters, my mom, and I went to New York! It was so much fun and it was just wonderful to be together! Here are some flicks of the fun things we did! Enjoy!
(Sorry, I'm a sucker for lamp posts and American flags!)

View from the Empire State Building. The Beautiful Statue of Liberty

View from Central Park. Gotta love those audio tour wands!

M&Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

WICKED!! Can you defy gravity too? Empire State Building

Only in Idaho!

This last weekend, Kelv took me to a special little drive in found in downtown Boise. It's a quaint little place called the Westside Drive In. Kelv has many memories eating here as a child which made it all the more fun to go enjoy a delicious (and huge) meal at this little place. One item we enjoyed wasn't quite your typical entree however. ICE CREAM baked potato anyone?


Actually, you might have guessed, but it's not a potato at all! It's a ball of ice cream, rolled in cocoa. Then after a dollop of whip topping, some nuts, and oreo chucks, they slap it on a plate of chocolate sauce and you're ready to go! Pretty "cool" huh?!

On our way to Boise...

As we were driving to Boise we passed a massive sign. We took the exit to try and find him. But, alas, he was not to be found. We thought for sure we'd see him with the sign describing him so exactly. Oh well, we'll just have to meet up with Alene's brother some other time...

Come on everybody it's FAMILY NIGHT!

Monday Night we had a fun and necessary activity for our FHE. While watching Legacy on DVD Kelv had an incredible transformation! Here's the proof!

BEFORE:


............AND AFTER!!!!

Much Better! If only all our FHE's could be this great! :-D

Anniverary Celebration

Although our anniversary was a few weeks ago, we have been so busy we couldn't find a good time to do anything together for a couple weeks. Sooooo, yesterday we had a belated 1st anniversary celebration appropriately at... the Anniversary Inn! It was so much fun!

We stayed in the Swiss Family Robinson room (since I have always loved that movie) which meant we got to sleep in a tree!!! Plus take our mornings showers under a rock waterfall... AND dance under the tree limbs to the light of a fish tank! Pretty sweet!! It was especially just a nice chance to be together and just have a fun time. We've both been so busy with work lately AND with our schedules not matching as much anymore, it was just nice to get away!

*I just wish these pictures did the room justice!! It was incredible!

Plus... the true highlight of the trip was the car we passed on our way there! :-D

Kelv's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Kelv!!!

So once again, I know this is a month late, but I just wanted to post a little something about Kelv's birthday! We just had a little get together with close family and friends to celebrate just how wonderful Kelv is and how glad he's been alive for 23 years! wOOt! He's getting to be an old man!

This was also my first attempt at decorating a birthday cake so I figured that moment needed documentation... big time.

Also please note the little lego biker and also the biker on his birthday sign! Thanks to Paul and Jason for getting him the cyclometer to keep the biking theme "rolling"! ;-D

Valentine's Day

Hey there!

So I know that it's a little bit late for this, but better now then never right?! Well, we've finally got a laptop back that we can download our pictures onto, so we wanted to do a couple posts of the things we've been doing over the past few months!

Our Valentine's celebration started the weekend prior to the 14th and we had a romantic theme dinner! Ratitouille, salad, and sparkling cider baby!

After learning how to make Ratitouille on the Rachel Ray show, I went and rented the exotic film from Red Box and we made a night of it! It was so fun to chop and roast all the vegetables and pasta together. Plus even though we halfed the recipe, we had enough Ratitouille leftover for Kelv's lunches the rest of the week! It also made a terrific mess of the oven!