Huntin' Husband

Mike went duck hunting this weekend with Travis, Phil, and Travis' daughter, Rylan - they had a blast!! This was Rylan's first duck hunt, so it was fun for Mike to see what he can look forward to with Harli. :). The ducks loved their set up so they were all able to limit out (6 each). Good job, guys (and girl)!

An Early Christmas Wish

Harli found the nativity set today... She loves it! She keeps trying to climb on top of the coffee table so she can get to baby Jesus. (Welcome to Christmas with a one year old, eh?)
I hope she never stops trying to climb higher to get closer to her Savior, for I know she will not be disappointed. May we all remember this year the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Enjoy.

Miss Harli

Harli looks so grown up in this picture!
It's like she turns one and a switch goes off and she starts to grow double time!!
I've said this before and I'll say it again- you don't realize how fast they grow until you have one of your own...
(Oh and don't worry, her attitude is keeping right up! Ha ha)
But I love her more and more everyday. She's such a sweet little bug. I can't get enough! :)

Halloween 2011

Halloween was pretty low-key this year... which was fine by me.
Harli will more than likely hate me for this when she gets older, but she was a cow. Oh and what a cute cow she was! :)

"Hey! What happened to all the candy I had in here??"

So cute.

Hope y'all had a great Halloween too!

Well hello there!

Harli's FIRST Birthday!!

Our baby girl just turned ONE!! So hard to believe it's been a year already. It's been a wonderful year, we couldn't be more proud!


We had a little party for her on Saturday where we just had a couple of her little "girlfriends" and their families over. It was a pink and brown/princess theme.

She got her very own smash cake -
She was a little confused at first what she should do exactly, and started out pretty dainty...

...But she figured it out pretty quickly! :)

She got about half way through the cake and had enough.
I was kind of worried that she was going to barf all night, but luckily she just had lots of energy!

Didn't get too dirty either!

Her new rocker motorcycle and jacket from G & G V.. True Orencole fashion! :)

She got a new swing from G & G S.... She loves it!
('Scuse the annoying overexcited parents in the background of the video! ha ha)

Better late than never.

So I said I'd post the Vandercook family pictures from this summer.... I'm a little late, but it's better than never, right? :)

Cute, right? Enjoy. :)

Lately...

(See!  This is what happens when I get a facebook.  I slack on the blog.  Sorry.)

Anyway- 

As of late little Miss Harli has become...... mischievous. 

Very mischievous.

She is into EVERYTHING!  She does not discriminate- toilet, dog food/water, electrical cords, cupboards, you name it.  (I thought this wasn't supposed to come until they could walk?  Which, she can do by the way, but she just doesn't feel like it yet.  Really.  She's already got an attitude.)

Here she is caught in the act:

This is her walker, which I found her helping herself into the other day...

...and back out.

If we didn't close the door to the kennel, she'd be in it WITH Fergie.

(This isn't the greatest picture, but her face says it all!) I usually put her in her Johnny-Jump-Up while I get in the shower so she can't get into too much trouble while I'm preoccupied....  I guess didn't worry about the TP!  She was so pleased with herself!

All I can say is thank goodness for child-proofing gadgets!  ...and doors.  :)

Besides running around cleaning up all of Harli's messes, I haven't been up to too much.  I am planning her FIRST Birthday party though!  Can you believe she will be one in just a week and a half!?  Where has the time gone?

As for Mike, to say he is busy is an understatement.  On top of his Scout Master calling, they have called him to be the first counselor in the Young Men's, which would be busy enough, let alone his school schedule.  This week alone he had FOUR tests, and THREE next week.  Last week he did his very first surgery on a live animal.  SO exciting!!  And he will do his first spay this coming week, which is also quite cool (but very stressful).  Needless to say, the poor guy just needs a vacation!  I am SOO proud of him for putting in so much hard work.  He is amazing to me!

And this is WAY late, but while we were in Utah, we got some family pictures taken with Mike's family.  I'll put more on later, but here is a preview:

Lately

This summer, Mike did some neurology research for the vet school and he loved it! To make the deal even sweeter, they sent all the research students to Orlando to the Animal Kingdom for a conference where they would present their work that they did.

Mike and his poster he made to illustrate his findings.

With Dr. Eells - Mike's "mentor"

Safari Mickey and Minnie


Mike brought Harli a Minnie Mouse purse... she carries it around EVERYWHERE!

Because he did so well presenting his research, he was chosen to present again at the MSU CVM research day - in front of the whole school next week!! Good luck, sweetie!!

I never liked the taste of crow, but baby, I ate it.

Well, we got a Facebook.
Yes. Us.
The people that have totally dogged on it.
...And now we have one.

...it's just the best way to keep up with friends anymore these days I guess!

Stop by and say hi. :)

Yes, one more post.

We took pictures of the bike yesterday, so I have to show off the bike too... :)

Summer Projects

We've had summer projects out the wazoo, but are so glad to have them all done!

Summer project #1:

Kitchen backsplash

While I was in Utah, the kitchen fairy/husband visited and left a backsplash!!

I was SO surprised!

If you recall, this is how my kitchen used to look...

But now...

Much better!

Thank you, hubby!


Summer project #2:

Cement/ patio revamp

(This picture doesn't show very well, but Mike poured the cement the firepit is sitting on, and also the cement under the chair. He also built that little table!)

He also poured a sidewalk along the garage and a driveway (not pictured) for his bike into the garage.

Summer Project #3:
Finish bedroom

If you remember this awful moment in our lives..........
After
-ripping the ceiling, old insulation, and support beams out
-pulling all the furniture out
-treating for mold spores ...scrubbing, bleaching, scrubbing, treating, scrubbing some more...
-reinstalling beams, insulation, drywall
-installing furring strips for the new ceiling tiles
-installing ceiling tiles
-putting up new crown molding
-reorganizing furniture
and
-cleaning it all over one last time.....
It's FINALLY over!!!!! Our bedroom is back together and useable again!! Woohoo!
Not that a permanent sleepover in the front room wasn't fun for a whole month...... I'm just glad to sleep in my own bed!





...And now that it's all done, we're just in time for us to start the school year. Phew! Where'd the summer go!?? :)

Utah ....Yeah, it's a long one.

Utah was a blast, ya'll. I had so much fun (Notice I said I not we... more about that later)!

The recap is much better in pictures:

Harli's first plane ride!! She was SO good. The plane was full except for the one lucky seat next to me, so she got her very own seat for a minute. She thought she was so big sitting all by herself! (Can you see the attitude already?)

The first week while it was just me and Harli, we were in Lehi with my family.

We got to go to a couple of Erik's baseball games. [He's #14 - up to bat]
Go Royals!

And Zoe's track meet! Get it girl!

Harli hangin' out with Grampa S during the meet.

What's a trip home without a little girl shopping!?

I love this picture.

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium which was awesome. Harli LOVED it! She could have stared at all the fish all day.

We also made it to the Foster Care Foundation's Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway.

SO cool. Some of these people are so talented.

This one was my favorite.

We got to meet Snow White there too! [Harli didn't know quite what to think of her!]

Harli got to meet all of her great-grandparents.

This was one of those moments you just want to bottle up and take with you forever and ever. I have always pictured myself as that little girl on grampa's lap, and now to see my own baby right there - so sweet.

Four generations:

Grama Herd, Mom, Me, Harli

Grama Schwartz, Dad, Me, Harli

And then, Mike came!!

[Mike was supposed to fly in on a Tuesday, but changed his flight to Sunday (which was Father's Day), and was able to surprise his Dad for Father's Day. They were both pretty excited! :)]

Another four generations:

Grama Robb, Mom V, Mike, Harli

We went to see 17 Miracles (about the Willy-Martin handcart companies) at the District in South Jordan. Highly recommend... Both the theater and the movie!

We're not neccissarily Pirates fans, just of the skulls. LOL

Of all the toys, Harli loved the phone books the most. Go figure.

We took the motor home to Lagoon on Friday [Grampa V loved his co-pilot!] and were supposed to camp overnight, but......

That's when it all happened.


[Mike is going to hate that I posted this picture... but I had to!]

So I'll have to back up a little to tell the whole story.
By Tuesday, Mike wasn't feeling too hott, but he just pushed through. Wednesday, not good either. Thursday, he went to the gym... He was lifting when he heard a pop and a little pain. Didn't think anything of it, and kept on. That night it hit him pretty hard. His body ached all over so bad he couldn't be touched, he had a fever that would go up and down, and then he'd get the chills. He was in bad shape. He felt a little better Friday morning, so we thought we'd try Lagoon, but the poor guy got there and couldn't get out of bed. After calling Ranae's doctor, we decided we'd better get him to the ER. So we drove back to Tooele, went to the ER, waited THREE hours [worst ER ever.], and found out he had a hernia. But that they didn't know what all the other stuff was - but figured it was a separate entity, and to just go back home and wait it out. Fast forward to Saturday evening, Mike's fever hit 104, so we took him to the LDS hospital's ER. Much better! They rushed him in and ran all kinds of blood tests, and a CT scan. Long story short, they said the same thing, but wanted us to come back the next day to check him out again. Monday we went back and they told us he was clear. They only thing they could figure was that it was a nasty virus his body would just have to fight off itself.

Needless to say, Mike's Utah trip wasn't as fun as mine. :(

To try and end on a high note, the last day we went out to "Black Rock" off I80. It was such a pretty day! :)

I am so glad we got to visit home for a while. It was great catching up with everyone! Sorry if we missed you - we'll make sure to catch you next time.