New baby niece

I'm an aunt for the first time! Kyle's brother and his wife had their little baby girl Josie last Saturday.

She is SO adorable! To make things even cuter, she makes little squeaky noises. Ah, I think we're in love :) This is going to be one spoiled little baby.

Baby Josie

Kyle holding the little one.

I think she was in the middle of her squeak-cry here :)

Happy!

Congrats Kalvin and Kiri on your baby girl! 

Malheur Forest

Last Friday Kyle, me, and a friend of ours decided we needed to get out of the valley and take a break (we've all been stressed with work lately). We drove up to Malheur Forest in Oregon, my first time being there. It was gorgeous! There was a forest fire there almost 10 years ago and the extreme fire damage is still there!

Breaking down camp.

(yes, we had more than 1 tent up.)

Near our campsite was this very authentic outhouse.

no, we did not try it out. ;)

This may sound silly, but the funniest thing about the trip was when we stopped at this "last chance" convenience store outside of Vale, OR. 

As we were leaving, I saw this rooster standing outside, looking intently inside where we were. So, we walk out the door towards the car and the rooster follows us to the car doors! Almost hops in! And, even when we start the car, it doesn't even spook the silly rooster. 

what's up, weirdo chicken?!

He continued staring intently at us as we drove off.

Zoo Boise

A few weeks ago Kyle and his sisters and I decided to make a trip to the zoo! I must say, the zoo is still a fun place to go as an adult!

A special feature they have this summer is a butterfly exhibit. Note to self: if you want to be attracted by butterflies, wear a very colorful shirt!

Tons of butterflies were landing on Katherine the whole time! It helps that she wore a very bright-colored shirt :) . It was so funny and really awesome. 

There are so many gorgeous butterflies out there! 

A big hit with our group was this sloth-bear. He was so funny to watch! He had quite the personality; I swear he was flirting with our group. 

I should also mention the sloth-bear's humble abode. His living spaces were AMAZING! I was insanely jealous. The sloth-bear comes from India. The decor all around his pit is Indian-themed. 

They had a lot of other fun animals: 

Can you spot the leopard? 

Monkey!

This was a personal favorite: spooning rabbits! Awww! 

Penguins!

Some kind of anteater rat

Beautiful zebra 

Baby prairie dogs! They were so adorable and tiny like hamsters! 

P.S. Listen to what Mumford and Sons did with this song. Totally in love!

Happy 4 Years

Happy 4 years of marriage to my hubby and I!

And here's to many, many, many more! To see other marriage/anniversary posts go here and here.

And, here's one of our lovely love songs to add more love to this lovely post ;)

Recent thrift finds

I have a small collection of wall decor piling up in my box :) 

Wall decor just makes me happy!

Several weeks ago Kyle and I hit up Idaho's largest garage sale. Overall I thought it was worth it. I didn't leave with much, except a full belly from a yummy slushy and a little serving dish/platter that I plan to hang on the wall. 

25 cents! yep, that's all. 

Later that day we decided to go to a favorite thrift store of ours, which ended up being a more successful trip than the garage sale. 

This hanging, "Bless Our Home," almost made me squeal in the middle of the DI :). I saw this sign here on a blog that I regularly read [check above the stove in the pics]. I fell in love with the sign. Lo and behold, months later I'd find it at my local thrift store! Score! 

$2.00

 Framed embroidery. Now, I don't know what caused it, but I have really fallen head over heels for embroidered pictures. I'm not sure where to hang them. Do I add them to my gallery wall? Or do something different? Any suggestions? :)

$1.00 for both

Ok, now THIS is something cool I found the same day as the couch incident. It almost made up for not getting the couch! (well, almost). Embroidered antique cars! I thought of my dad as soon as I saw them. My dad grew up loving antique cars and even built up his own business around them. I think they'd be perfect in a little boy's room.

$1.75 for both! 

Linked to this site:

Thrifty finds: weird edition

So, an apology to those ahead of time who really like what I'm about to show you.
Let me preface myself. I loooove going to thrift stores!
Not only do I love finding random treasures and things from way back in the day but I love to laugh at all the random crap I see!
Some of the random crap is pretty terrible. Here are a few pictures I encountered a month ago:

Space dolphins!

Umm...

This was something we saw today in the record section. I can't remember the band name.
Maybe I was too distracted by the awesome styling and the amount of chest hair showing.

DEEP v-necks...

The couch that wasn't

Everyone please cry with me right now...

Amazing orange leather couch

We saw this beauty soon after we entered a local thrift store and immediately ran toward it.

It already had a SOLD sticker on it.

NOOOOOO!!!!

:::shakes fist angrily at early-bird customer::: 

For so long we have searched for an affordable, but cute, couch for our living room. A colored one was a MAJOR plus! Like many of you, I am a Pinterest-obsessed person. All over Pinterest I have encountered the most ADORABLE couches! Yellow, red, blue. Covered in pillows. I want a colorful couch. And the Amazing Orange Leather Couch was gonna be the one...until I saw the evil SOLD sticker on it :(

Other than that, we are doing good :P 

Hope ya'll are having a nice weekend!