Our little one.

We got an ultrasound today and we were right, it's a girl. You've felt this baby is a girl from the beginning and it was true. I'm really glad that my motherly instinct was correct, it helps me have more confidence in my instincts... YIPEE!!! We are so excited to raise a little precious princess.

Our little one is growing

Tomorrow we get an ultrasound to see if our baby is a boy or a girl. Joseph and I both think it's a girl, so we'll see... I'm about twenty weeks now. In the black top with green skirt I'm 13 weeks. In the red shirt I'm 18 weeks and in the black shirt and khaki maternity pants I'm about 20 weeks. It's so fun to watch the baby get bigger. This week was the first time I could feel it move inside of me. It feels so cool I just love it.

Beautiful Spokane

One of the last sunny days here in Spokane we went up to Riverside National Park and rode our bikes on their scenic trail. It was a lot of fun, then we went out for mexican afterward. These are the sweet moments that make life worth living.

Primary Class

This is my CRT 8 class. We had a pizza party with rootbeer floats to celebrate them bringing their scriptures to class. They sure had a good time. Now I'm an advisor for the beehives it's a lot of fun. I really enjoy going to the Wed. night activities.

2nd dress up night

The 2nd formal night was the last night on the boat. We sure had a fun time. We took our first offical family picture. We went to the captain's ball and danced and drank free fruit punch.

Cozumel, Mexico

Our fourth stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. The place where we went on our honeymoon. We walked to downtown Cozumel. We thought it was like a mile walk it ended up being like 3-4 miles. We made our way to a mexican supermarket where we bought mexican candy, chips, and liter of juice that Joseph drank by himself, he was thristy. Afterward we went to Chankanaab national park where we went scuba diving. Needless to say this was the first time I tried to throw up during my prenancy. I think being out in the heat with not much nutrition did me in. We shortly went back to the boat at 3:00 pm. Loralee and David went and saw the ruins at Tulum, they enjoyed they're trip.

Grand Cayman

Our third stop was Grand Cayman Island, this was our favorite place. We got to feed stinging rays and go snorkling. We took a boat out to the middle of the ocean and there was a sand bank where you could stand, it was like 3 feet deep. We held and kissed the sting rays. The guide put one of the sting rays on my back and it moved around, he said, "he's giving you a back massage," it felt so cool. I fed it fish and it sucked it up into it's mouth. When we went snorkling they gave us saltine crackers and we crunched them with our hands and the first came right up to us and ate the crackers. It was really fun.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

The next day we stopped in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We decided to go see Bob Marley's house/museum and then hike the Dunn's River waterfall. We took an hour drive through native Jamaica, on the way we bought jamaica "grapes" from little Jamaican kids for one dollar. The grapes tasted good, the texture was another story. Joseph thought they were like snotty grapes. We tasted them to say the least. Up at Bob Marley's house they gave out joints to whomever wanted one. There was a Holland family that passed their joint around to the whole family, it was unbelievable. Loralee and I just tried to stay away from the smoke, with clean socks covering our noses, we'd do anything for our babies. So the drive up to Bob Marely's house was cool, actually getting the tour and being around the smoke was not so cool. Afterward, we went to the falls and Joseph held the binoculars and camera and took pictures of us while we hiked the falls. It was a lot of fun and very refreshing. The guides made us do fun tricks off the rocks that made the experience more fun.

Labadee, Haiti

Our first stop on Monday was Labadee, Haiti. It's a private piece of land owned by Royal Carribean. We basically enjoyed the beach and ocean. It was David's first time swimming in the carribean. I stepped on a sea urchan and got four black spikes that went into my right foot, that was not fun. It took over a month for them to come out. Luckily they didn't hurt when I walked on them. For lunch the ship brought out a big bbq and fed the whole island, since the island was basically only those that came from the ship. The ship was too big to pull right up to the island so it docked in the middle of the ocean and we took a little boat over to shore. David, Joseph, and I all bought straw hats to help keep the sun out of our faces. My favorite part of Labadee was laying on a hammock with Joseph and feeling the breeze of the ocean wind and the sound of the waves crashing into the shore.

One of the formal days

David, Loralee, Joseph, and I all sat at the same table for our dinners every night. The second day out to sea they had a formal day where you were required to dress up for dinner. Joseph and David all week got the most random and exotic thing available on the menu. There were times when Loralee and I could not even look at what the boys were having because the sight made us nauseated. I was 9 weeks and Loralee was 8 weeks pregnant when we were on the ship.

more fun things to do

Here are other fun things we did on the ship. We watched the belly flop contest. We went up to the chapel and read the ensign on Sunday and Joe felt he needed to re-enact his proposal. We went to a show almost every night and then we would get a bite to eat at the pizza shop (the panini sandwiches were really good) or a dessert at the pastry shop (we loved the brownies they were so good and moist). There is a picture of the ship, it was called Liberty of the Seas it's one of the biggest cruise ships out there.

Fun things to do on the ship

There were a lot of fun things to do on the ship. We bought binoculars before we left of the trip so we could spot dolphins and lightening shows while at sea. Joseph really enjoyed using the binoculars. We enjoyed sun sets, watching others surf of the surfing simulator, and watching ice skating shows.

Cruise to the Carribean Aug. 2009

We decided to take a big trip before we start adding a bunch of kids to the family, so we went on a cruise to the carribean. Loralee and David joined us (Joseph's brother and wife). We sure had a great time. One of these pictures is just just leaving Miami. You can see the downtown Miami behind us. The first night we flew into Miami and we stayed a night at the Hilton Hotel. David ended up leaving his cell phone at the hotel, but no worries they still had Loralee's...

Hiawatha Trail

Here's the beginning and end of the Hiawatha Trial in Idaho. It's a scenic bike path that used to be home of a cross country train.

Visiting the Nicolay Family in SLC, Utah

Fourth of July weekend we went to Utah to visit the Nicolay clan, we'll most of them. While we were there we did a lot of adventures. One was hiking Mnt. Timpanogos, the boys took turns pushing their lovely mom up the hill. The view was beautiful the whole hike up. Afterwards, we had a bon fire up the canyon. Here is also a picture of Remington, our newphew. Remington looks like Joseph when he was his age. We just seemed to love him to peices as we anticpiate having a little Joe or Angie running around our house.

Stoker Family Reunion

The Stoker Family is growing we are over 100 strong now, with all the grandkids and great grandkids. We spent a three day weekend up in Seattle, Wa at a church camp called Zion's camp. It was a lot of fun. We slept in a 4 big cabin's. We each got our very own bunk bed. The weekend was full of games, food, candy, cool toys for the kids, a family fireside and story telling, movies, board games, laughs, music, and dancing. Joseph and I were chosen to be in the family play, it was a reenactment of Paul Stoker's family when they went to Disney Land and made a video about Star Trek. We were aliens... Another picture is Joseph in his moments of solitude. You were able to fish for free and keep one fish. Since it's church owned they get to regulate the fishing. Another picture is of all the kids playing with water noodles. They had a blast with those. The older men called the little kids 7 and under "immortals" because they would charge at them in full strength with no worry of being hurt and they would get just clobber the older men. Another photo is the family jam session. Mike's girl sang a song and we all got to take turns trying out to be her back up dancers, that was really funny to watch.

Joseph and I like to play cards on Sunday afternoon. It's always my favorite when Joseph gets to shuffle. This is how he does it. Spread all the card out on the floor and then collect them. His family did not play cards very much while he was a young boy so he never learned how to shuffle the cards using two hands. He thinks it's really cool when I do the bridge after shuffling the cards. One of these days he'll learn.

Steaple chase

Jason runs track for Washington State University, and here he is competing in the steaple chase. It is a mile run with 5 hurtles and one of the hurtles has a pond of water after it. It's a burtal run. However, Jason did really good he got 4th and almost tied for 3rd as a freshman.

I went to TN to visit my sister and her family. These are her four kids. Monsi, Madaline, Hyrum, and Jayden. I came to the house really late on a Monday night so all the kids but Monsi were asleep. The next morning all the kids jumped in bed with me they're so fun.

Later that week my parents came over to help celebrate his birthday. He got some new shirts, and a few other things.

Joseph's 28 birthday

For Joseph's birthday I made him his favorite chicken alfredo and cookie cake. That is what he wanted from his birthday.

An Army Retreat

There are some perks with Joseph joining the National Guard. One of them is his school is paid for. Also in the middle of Janurary the National Guard had a couples weekend. It was so much fun. We got a free weekend at a hotel. Which as great. They had seminars on relationships. It was so much fun. A couple of chaplains taught the class. One of the chaplains and his wife were LDS and were from Boise. They were so nice and invited us to come see them anytime down there in Boise. We won a gift bag from the conference because we were the first to sign up for it. It was an italian basket with fun goodies and food. On Saturday night we were told to go on a creative date spending no more than 10 dollars. We went to the dollar store and picked a gift that reminded us of the other person. Joseph got me a loofa and I got him a razor. Then we went to the fire place at the beautiful CDA, resort and wrote love poems about each other and read them to each other. Then we went back to the hotel and got in our swimming suits and played in the pool. We had so much fun tossing each other around and playing motor boat (I swear we need kids, because without them we treat each other like a child). One time Joseph took me and bounced me up and down while going in a circle. There was another couple that joined in with us and a couple of kids started bouncing up and down. The whole swimming pool was full of waves and laughter. We had so much fun, I think I was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. I was so much fun. One of my love languages is quality time. That night we spent some sweet quality time that really made me love Joseph so much more and I really felt his love that night.

Our little neice bites her toe nails. I went over to their house to see how Brandi's does here home schooling. Afterward Belle went down stairs to play on the computer. Grace sat on the ground watching Belle and minding her own business. I too was sitting on the floor, all the sudden I heard chopping and I looked over and Grace was bitting her toe nails. I had to hold in my laughter. I don't think I've ever seen that before. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots of her. The last time she caught me. I was trying to be quite as to not encourage her, but I just had to get a picture. I told Brandi and she said Grace had bitten off all her finger nails so now she works on her toes. Brandi is still trying to figure out a plan on how to help her stop. So funny.

Our home

Here is our apartment in Spokane Valley were we live now. Everything but our bedroom. I'll have to post that later. We enjoy our apartment it's over 900 square feet, so it's a good size. Our bathroom is so big we've thought about putting a dresser in there.

Jasons' court of honor

Jason and his best friend JT had their court of honor together here in Jan. Jason made pillow cases for the pediatric oncology unit up at Sacred Heart. And JT made shot put rings at his old high school Central Valley. They both are great boys, we are so proud of them.

Jan. 1, 2009 My real birthday

So for my birthday I did tell Joseph that I wanted a rocking chair, a special date and a surprize party. Over time I kind of forgot about the last one. So on my birthday sure enough he took me on a special date. We went bowling (that was a first, we had never been bowling together before). Then he took me to one of my favorite resturants in CDA, Idaho called the Bonsi Grill. Then he told me we were going to the Mall in Spokane Valley, but we needed to stop by my brother's house to give them a check for a portable keyboard that my brother had given us. When we stopped, Eric came out and said, Angie why don't you come in with us the kids want to say hi. So I went in and the kids, mom and dad, and Jason all jumped out and said "SURPRIZE" and that I was. I couldn't believe that he planned a surprize party for me. It was so fun. He even got a cake earlier and dropped it off at Eric's house so it would be there for the party. He's so great.

Birthday

For my birthday this year I told Joseph that I wanted a rocking chair, because we do plan on having kids, and every mother I think needs a rocking chair if there is a baby around. One day I came home from work and the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations were all put up and there was a rocking chair in the corner, with a sign saying, "happy birthday" I was so excited. He got me a rocking chair and he cleaned up Christmas so I didn't have too. he's such a great husband.

cross country skiing

During Christmas break we decided to pretend that we were on a vacation at home and do fun things here in Spokane just as if we were on a trip. So we went cross country skiiing for one of the days. A love of mine and now a love that Joseph likes to do. There is a cenntenial trail about 2 miles from where we live. In the summer it's our running path and in the winter it's a cross country path. It's beautiful with forrest trees lining it's sides and the Spokane river on the left side.

Christmas Day

Here we are enjoying Christmas Day in our new apartment.

Christmas Eve

Here we are Christmas Eve doing the traditional gingerbread houses. Afterwards, mom and I took her house to the lady she visit teaches. We sang we "Wish you a Merry Christmas." We then watch the King Singers with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Cruise to the North Pole

At our stay at the CDA Resort we got to go on a cruise to the North Pole (aka the other side of CDA Lake). There we saw Santa and Mrs. Claus in there den. Santa said a few words and read off the names of the kids on board the cruise, stating that they had been good and were going to get gifts for Christmas. When we arrived back to our room we had two mints on our pillows, the sheets were pulled back, and John Tesh's radio program was softly playing on the radio. We ordered a gooie (a X-large sundae with hot fudge, butterfinger, vanilla and chocolate ice cram, and whip cream) through room service up to our room and enjoyed the view and yummy dessert while learning fun facts from the John Tesh radio program. In the morning we got free breakfast and then went window shopping around downtown CDA. Then we went and saw the new movie Seven Pounds. We really enjoyed our vacation to the CDA resort. We highly recommend it to everyone.

A night at the CDA Resort

We decided to spend a night at the CDA Resort for a fun get away. We got up graded to a honeymoon suite for only 30 dollars extra. This room was so nice with two views of the lake, and nice big soaking tub and a fireplace. We got moved from the 3rd floor all the was up to the 16th floor. We really had a good time and we felt so rich for one night.

The first snow fall in 2008

In one day we got all the snow that we recieved last season. And it continues to snow. Cars we buried, so many crashes on the free way, it was a mess. Our CEO had to go around picking up nurses that couldn't make it in. We all got free lunch at work that day.

Work Christmas Party

Each year my work (North Idaho Advanced Care Hospital) has a Christmas party that is really fun. This year it was at Templains resort in Post falls. They had a huge buffe dinner, door prizes, and dancing. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Christmas party

We just moved to Spokane Valley, Washington so we could be closer to Eastern Washington's downtown campus for Joseph, as he is planning on atttending the school come Jan. The first Sunday I was at church I sat next to a girl I knew from the singles branch. Her calling is to lead the music in Relief Society. When it was time for the closing song her son had fallin asleep on her so I offered to go up and lead for her. The first half of the song was okit was 3/4 then it turned to 9/8 I have never seen 9/8 before. I tried leading 3/4 but it wasn't working quit right. Then I tried 6/8 then 3/4 and still it wasn't working so I just smiled and wrote my name in the air to the beat of the music. Well that night I get a call from the activities director asking me if I am musically inclined because she saw me leading the music in RS. I told her that I like to sing and she asked me if I would like to sing for the Christmas party in two weeks. She already had a song picked out called, "The Most Beautiful Story That's Ever Been Told." I told her "sure, but I am really surprized that you thought I was musically inclinded because I had a horrible time leading that song in RS." She said, "well it was the 6/8 leading that convinced me that you were musically inclinded because most people don't know how to do that." We both laughed. I had a great time performing. I love doing things that stretch my comfort zone and help me become a better person. We sat next to the Shenks in the ward. Brother Shenk is the first counselor to the bishop and they have 3 beautiful kids. They invited us to see Celtic Thunder with them on the next monday at the Arena. So we went and had a wonderful time with them. Brother Shenk majored in finance and works at the Bank of America. Joseph and him love talking stocks together. Investing in stocks as become a new passion for Joseph since all the stocks are 50% off now that that market is not doing well.

The holiday parade

Our friends the Nivers here we are in downtown Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. Enjoying the holiday parade. It is a night parade and all the floats have lights on them. At the end of the parade everyone walked down to the resort and we sing Christmas carols and they light up the resort and send off fireworks. Afterwards we went back to the Nivers and played the play station and hung out. It was fun they are great to hang out with.

Thanksgivng Day

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with some of the family in the area. Brittany wanted to see a picture of the table and what it would have looked like if they were here. Mom set the table really nice and it was fun to play with Teigan and Caleb. They are sure growing.

The turkey trot

The turkey trot. On Thanksgiving day it is tradition that Spokane Washington comes out for a food drive and 4 mile run the morning of Thanksgiving. Joseph, Eric, and I drove up together and Jason and his friend JT drove up after us. We started the race with the thought that Jason and JT would catch up with us since they are cross country runners and can run a mile under 5 minutes. Well as we were finishing we saw Jason and JT flying up the street hoping over bolders and skipping around people as they flew by everyone. They caught up to us and just kept running to finish their second lap. They had already looped us once without us knowing it and then they lapped us again for the finish. They are sure fast. It was a blast to get a good run in before eating all the fixins of Thanksgiving and more fun to do it with family. At the beginning of the race Joseph looked over and saw a man that looked just like his dad. He had to go over and make sure it wasn't his dad. Joseph introduced himself with a huge grin saying you look just like my dad. I had to take a picture because Joseph was so cute and excited. Joseph felt a little closer to Kansas on Thanksgiving as this man turned around and put his arm around him for the picture.

Green bluff

The trip to green bluff. Green bluff is a bunch of farms that allow you to pick your own fruit at a discounted price. We went apple picking and mom and dad got some prunes too. There was a hay maze for the kids and homemade apple pies and pumpkin donuts that we enjoyed as well. It was a fun outing and is destined to be a family tradition.

husband and the bbq

My sweet husband decided to make me dinner as a surprise. I came home from a tired 12 hour shift at the hospital, and I stepped outside of the car and smelt a yummy bbq and thought "oh someone is bbqing." Little did I know it was us. Sure enough I went downstairs and was totally surprized and I was in love. It was the best stake I have ever tasted. And great zucchini too.

The Brotherhood of Beef BBQ

Joseph is the Elder's Quorum President and has been since we moved to Post Falls. It is a tradition in this ward to have a Brotherhood of Beef BBQ every summer. The elder's quorum uses almost all of their budget for a nice ribs, steak, and shrimp bbq. So on the last Saturday in August we had a blow out bbq over 60 people showed up, and it was a really nice night with everyone. There was great company, great food, and great weather. Way to plan a good time Joe!!

A Day with Aunt Angie

Tyler, Quinn, and Belle all came over for a Day with Aunt Angie. We made chocolate Halloween suckers and homemade apple juice. After we were done the kids jammed on the ukulele and electric piano. Then we finished by playing some fun game. We really enjoyed each other and Brandi had a quite house with Evan and Grace sleeping, which I think she enjoyed.

Making apple cider

We had a family home evening with Eric and Brandi and their family and we went to one of Eric's co-worker's house. They live out in the country down around Fernan lake. They have some land out there and a big orchard. So we got 4 grocery bags full of apples. So we pulled out our juicer, and we made homemade apple cider. It was so tasty. You have to stir the cider before you drink it, because the contents seperate. But boy is it good. We've also made apple cobbler, which is yummy too. I love fruit. Brandi is planning on making yummy homemade apple sauce with her's.

YW campout

Brynne Erickson and I went to on a campout with the YW up to Beauty Creek which is just 15 min. away from where we live. Northern Idaho is truly so beautiful. We met at the church at 4:00 and pack up. We got to the campsite and picked out our site and then set up camp. Then we roasted hotdogs, and talked. When it got dark we did our spiritual activity when was a simulation of the tree of life and following to the spirit in your life. When had the girls hold hand, blind folded, and told them they could not talk (this was symbolic of being together in the pre-mortal life). Then we broke their hands and they stood all alone (symbolic of being born and walking by faith), we wispered in their ears to follow the still small voice. Then a loud tin can with rock shook every few minutes leading the girls into bushes and tents (symbolic of satan leading us to no where, he's loud and persuasive). In the back ground there was a stick, later became a big rock that was pounding on a tree, it was quiet but consistant (symbolic of the holy ghost). They had to figure out that they needed to follow the small sound.

Healthy Eating

I love to eat healthy. When I went to Costa Rica I learned how to make a Costa Rican salad. My host family made a salad like this almost at every meal. It always had shredded carrots in the middle, followed by different veggies around the carrots. The dressing was fresh squeezed limes and salt, and it tasted so good. A great salad and so healthy. Another favorite was fruit, mixed up in the blender, like a 1/4 of a catolope just blended up, and ready to drink. Costa Rican's eat so well.

We went 4 wheeling, had a huge bon fire and roasted hot dogs. We listened to Enya from inside the cabin at night as we looked over the lake with the the great view that we had. We had so much fun just being together and enjoying one another. Joseph is truly my best friend.

Time at the Cabin

I have a co-worker that owns a cabin on the Pond Oreille and he said we could go up there and use it whenever they weren't so we did. We went swimming, canoeing, fishing...

Driving back from Utah we found a small tourist town called Deer Park. They had a bunch of historical museums one being a old car museum and an old jail. We had a lot of fun picking out our favorite cars. In the jail, I read out loud the self guided tour, it was realy interesting seeing how the prisioners lived.

Nicolay Brothers in hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

David and Loralee's wedding

David and Loralee's wedding they tied the knot. We are so excited that Loralee and David got married. It was a really fun seeing them get married and enjoying the family. I had the privilege of staying with the bride to be before the wedding for a couple of nights while Joe stayed with his brother and dad at a hotel. Loralee and I had a good time as we talked about her coming events. The first night I got there she pulled out her dress and said the seamstress (her friend) had her dress for weeks trying to find time to alter it for Loralee, but just in the end ran out of time so she gave her dress to another seamstress that to her knowledge was a professional, but with all the bead work and such that was on the dress the seamstress really did not do a good job. So two days before the wedding we were in Loralee's room wondering what we could do with this dress that just hung on her body. We pulled out a few safety pins and hid the pins under her white jacket that she planned to wear at the wedding. We were able to form the dress better to her body and it looked ten times better and showed off her amazing waist. She said I lost ten pounds and I want to be able to show it. And that she did. She looked amazing on her wedding day.

4th of July we had a BBQ with mom and dad and Jason. Then we went to a concert in Liberty Lake and ended with fireworks on Liberty Lake.

family camping

We had a Stoker family get together up at a small lake here in Idaho. We slept in a TP and went fishing, the kids caught a few fish. It was a lot of fun being with the family.

Fun date night...

Joe and I went out for a date night at the Rockin B Ranch. It was a night full of fun. First we saw a cowboy shoot out. Then we had a huge BBQ dinner with ribs, steak, chicken, and homemade corn bread and more, all served in a tin plate. Lastly we enjoyed story telling time and a live country band. We really had a rockin time as we went back to the wild west. It was one of my most favorite dates that we have ever been on.

dehydrating

Mom and Dad Stoker bought us a dehydrator for Christmas. We have had a lot of fun, dehydrating all kinds of things. When fruit starts to become a little on the ripe side we throw it on the dehydrator and put it in our food storage.

Bread making, a new love.

Ever since we've been married I have started to make homemade bread. When we moved to Northern Idaho from Utah the good homemade bread was just too expense, 6 dollars a loaf. So I just started making my own bread. We have a Bosch store here, owned by a member family that we know, and they offer bread making classes. www.wishfulkneads.com is their website. We invested in a wheat grinder and over 450 pounds of wheat berries. So each week Joe finds me in the kitchen baking bread. I've learned how to make sprouted wheat bread, which is healthier and tastes just as good. Here I am soaking the wheat so they will start start to sprout.

Way to Go Jason!

Jason's Graduation Party!

Jason graduated from high school and the community college this year. The family gathered together to honor him. Before the ceremony we gathered together for games and food at the Liberty Lake ward building. The kids played dodge ball and we enjoyed everyone.

All smiles! We are truly happy!

This is Jason and his best friend JT running in a race before state. Jason accidently stepped on JT's left foot taking his shoe off. The shoe incident kind of threw them both off their game. This is the two after the race thinking, "man that stunk." JT and Jason are both at WSU this fall they are running for the university. The past few years these boys have done a lot together. They both graduated High school with there associates degree taking most of the same classes throughout their jr. and sr. year. They were in the same ward together, and they both ran cross country and track together.

Here we are gathered at Loralee's home for a morning breakfast.

Nicolay Gathering

In May we went to Utah between spring and summer semesters to go visit the Nicolay clan in Utah. We had a bon fire one night and roasted hot dogs and s'mores. Here David and Joe are trying to get the fire started. David is pushing air out of Joe and it seems to be working.

Senior Pictures

I took Jason my little brother out this last week and we took over a 100 pictures for his Senior year. It was a lot of fun and the pictures turned out great, with Joe's nice camera, Jason's great smile, and Manatoe park's beauty.

Water park fun. Since Brandi (my sister in Law) just had her 5th child Eric decided to let her have a little rest, so he took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood park. There is a water fun area there where the kids ran around and got all wet. Here Belle is warming up and getting Grandma all wet.

Handsome Man

So we went suit shopping at the mall the other day. We made the mistake of having Joe try on an expensive suit first. We went to three other stores and none of the suits he tried on even came close to comparing to this suit from Nordstrom Rack. So we ended up bying it, at least he wears it every sunday, unlike a wedding dress that goes on for one day and then sits in the closet the rest.

Pink Toes

One Sunday afternoon I was quitely painting my toe nails while my husband was resting peacefully on the cough. I looked over at his handsome foot and thought I wonder what his toes would look like with some toe nail polish. So I proceeded to paint his whole left foot and I even took pictures, and he didn't even crack an eye. When he woke up he didn't notice until about five minutes after when he stretched his foot up in the air, he said, "Oh what did you do to my foot, I have to go to Yoga class in the morning." He is the only guy in the class and the teacher is a little suspicious of him, so we took off the pink paint. I laughed so hard it was so much fun. And he still loves me.

Here is Joe with our first Nicolay family pinewood derby car. He made it look like a formula one car, one of the fastest race cars out there. Boy did that car go fast. We raced it at our ward pinewood derby and it got first place the moment we put it on the track. Good job Joe. He is really handly with wood carving.

This is one of many beautiful waterfalls at the La Paz park, sorry it is side ways...

This is my friend Gretel. She is the english teacher I met. She is so nice, I ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. She and I went zip lining, and horse back riding.

This is our last night together, one big happy family..

This is a Costa Rican game you play. You have to throw the ball before you touch the ground.
This is no snow in Costa Rica, so this is how they enjoy slidding down the hills...
This is my Costa Rican family. Maribel, Hernan, and Raquel Ortiz. I love them so much, they are eating their Sunday afternoon snacks.

I went to Costa Rica while Joseph was gone for two weeks at an Army school. I kind of got the better end of the deal, but Joe was so supportive of it. It has always been my dream to go to Costa Rica and serve, so that I did. Here is a bunch of little ticos that I taught english to.

more of our apartment

Here is our bedroom and our dinning room/laundry room. There are two washers and driers but only two are functioning right now. A set came with the apartment and a set are ours. Joe made the nice fabric covering so you don't have to look at the misc. things on the shelf. However, if you look closely you will see that the ends of the fabric is stapled instead of sown... He just makes me laugh.

Here is our living room area.

The enterance

This is the enterance into our basement home. It has a painting of fairies, a bird bath, birds, with ivy around the painted cinder blocks.

Our home

Here is our home. It is a little apartment under an assisted living home in Post Falls Idaho. We have a bedroom, computer room, living room, bathroom, and dining/laundry room. We really enjoy it. Our favorite thing to do is to invite people over to see how many we can fit in our humble abode. We have had a few dinners with 13 people over all at once...

Congratulations Joe on your 4.0 GPA

Joe was accepted into Phi Theta Kappa an honor society at North Idaho College. Last semester he took 19 credits and got a 4.0. He continues to keep that 4.0 so far with his 20 credits that he is currently taking. Last night we went to a formal banquet where he was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa. Way to go Joe!!

Sweet kids

Here is sweet Quinn and Belle, Eric's kids (my oldest brother). They came over for an aunt date and we made valentine cookies, and then delivered them to the elderly folks that live in the assisted living home above us and to the folks that live in Legacy House (an assisted living home that my parents own). After making cookies we took Joe's car through the car wash. Belle's door was slightly open which we found out when we all got sprayed with water at the beginning of the car wash. I leaned over the sit to open and shut it before we all became wet animals and as I turned around the car got knocked into drive, instead of staying in neutral. So the car took us right through the wash in a matter of 2 seconds. I hit the brakes and noticed we were outside of the car wash and the car was covered in soap. Luckly the car wash people let us go through the car wash again. This time Belle's door was competely shut and we didn't get wet at all.

Happy Birthday!!

Joe invited Eric and Brandi's family, mom and dad, and Jason over to celebrate my 27th birthday. We had a lot of fun pinning the tail on the donkey and doing a cake walk. Good times!

Jason my brother

Here is Jason my tough "little" brother after finishing a race against a few schools in his region. He got 10th in this race, he ran so fast, he is so impressive. He runs everyday miles on end. He is looking at going to WSU, BYU, Utah State, or Portland Oregon for college. He hopes to get a scholarship and run for one of those schools. When he graduates he will have his associates from Spokane Falls Community College since he did running state while in high school. The kid is a go getter and a heart throb, girls love going on dates with him.

Christmas Break Snowshoeing

Here is Joe and I snowshoeing up by Mountain Spokane. This was Joe's first experience at this new sport and he seemed to enjoy himself. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of being out in among God's creations. We pretended that we were on a first date. We asked all the first date questions and had a lot of fun pretending, Joe is so good about following along with all my good ideas....

Joseph and I moved to Northern Idaho after we got married. Joseph has picked up fishing a bit more since he was been here. Here he is fishing away in his cowboy hat. Fernan Lake is one of our favorite places to go. It's so peaceful and so beautiful, Northern Idaho really has great outdoor beauty.

Cozumel, we went scuba diving. This is one of the boats we took out scuba diving. Cozumel is known for it's great scuba diving. There were huge corals that we saw, 50 feet tall. It was a lot of fun. The other picture is where we got to swim with Dolphins, one of my life goals. It was so fun. We made them do tricks, we rode on their fins as they pulled us. We laid in the water face down, and two dolphins came up behind us and pushed our feet and we stood up on their noses as they pushed us along. We made them dance, we kissed them, hugged them, and got in a water fight with them. It was a dream come true, Joe and I had a blast, playing with them.

Chichen Itza

This was our adventure to Chichen Itza one of the seven wonders of the world. We bought tickets online, the whole trip was quit an adventure. We went to the piere where we met a "lady in a green shirt and white pants," she gave us our tickets for the ferry that went to Playa Del Carmen. Where we met another green shirt/white pants man, who took us for a half mile walk to a bus stop. As we waited he wrote different numbers on our tickets, but never cared to tell us why. We all loaded up on one bus and off we went. Several people with us were going to different locations, we were a bit puzzled. After 15 minutes the bus pulled over on the side of the freeway and they unloaded all of us, we were puzzled again, until we saw a bus number 13 come. The number matched the number on our tickets. We loaded on the bus and we were on our 4 hour drive to Chichen Itza. However we stopped at a water hole where a few people swam. Then we stopped to get a bite to eat. When we finally got to Chichen Itza, we started to get a broken english history of the historical site. During the tour a little man was running around shouting, it is going to rain, ponchos, 50 cents, ponchos 50 cents! In my mind I thought, "oh it won't rain that bad we'll be ok." Then all of the sudden, a HUGE rain storm came through with rain drops the size of quarters. After a few minutes I was getting soaked to the skin, so I grabbed some money and went over the the poncho man and I asked how much and he said, four dollars. Talk about inflation... We got home safely at 10:00 pm.

This is us eating at one of the three different resturantes that they had at the Melia in Cozumel, Mexico. This was the grill and it had a beautiful view of the ocean and every night you could watch the sun set over the water, it was very romantic. We had a lot of fun in cozumel.

This is Joseph and I in Cozumel, Mexico where we went on our honeymoon. The hotel in the back is call the Melia. It was right on the beach, with all you can eat food and drinks. One day we decided to explore the island by renting a cheap scooter for the day. Joe calls this scooter the "death scooter" I think because we drove it on the side of a Mexican High way where the mexicans we driving over 55 miles an hour. I was driving, going fast and loving it, and we were wearing small "baseball like" helmets, and flip flops . So I guess not real ideal for a crash. I had a blast, until I had to stop, those scooters are hard to balance. I think that is when Joseph took over driving.

Oh the joy of children. Here is Joseph's oldest brother, Alma and Elisa's kids a few days before our wedding. The kids loved playing with Alma, until he was exhausted. However, he sure enjoyed them. It was so fun to see family at the wedding.

Here is "handsome man" (my nickname for Joseph) in his Army suit awaiting the start of our reception. Joseph's nickname for me is "sweet joy" I never tire of hearing him say that he is such a dear man.

Raise the roof. Here is the family raising the roof. Some of the faces are so funny. Everyone is so fun. We felt so much love from everyone on our wedding day. It truly is a celebration of love when two people who are madly in love get married.

Nicolay Family est. 2007

Hello Friends and Family,
The Joseph and Angie Nicolay Family was established on June 6, 2007 in the SLC temple. Here we are raising the roof, because we were so excited to finally be married. YIPPEE!! Raise the roof was always been a tradition to the Nicolays. Joseph first introduced it when we were dating. One evening as I was leaving his apartment, I noticed that he was sporting the new pair of pants that I had just bought him. I hollered out the window, "boy you sure look good in those pants." Without a second thought Joseph went straight into the raise the roof dance. He had me a laughin and a smilin.