PAPER ANNIVERSARY!

Dima and I turned ONE on May 22!!

The day started off with a lovely breakfast in bed, flowers and M&Ms from Dima, and a book of coupons from Monique.

To celebrate we had the PAPER OLYMPICS!!!

It comprised of each "team" making their county Flag and presenting it:

Representations of my flag: The owl represents wisdom; the fields represent prosperity and hard work; the stars represent hope through trials (the dark night sky).

Round 2 was a three round drawing contest:

1st- draw a cafe rio salad

2nd- draw a train in 3 minutes

3rd- draw a ninja with your eyes closed

Dima's:

Monique's:

(Yes, artist Ukraine Melnychuk won that round)

Event 3 we had to write each other a poem

Event 4 we cut those poems into a puzzle the other had to put together

Event 5 was a card game tournament of our favorite card game... although we don't know the name of it... we played best of 7 (like the NBA playoffs...) and I won!!!! woo-woo!

Oh ya, and as the "closing ceremonies" we blew out one candle (match actually.. we had no candles) ate a slice of chocolate cake from Market Street Grill (Same kind we had on our wedding) to celebrate our turning one!

And then we watched the Office. How appropriate.

What a wonderful year! Can't wait for our Cotton Anniversary!!!

Happy Mustache Birthday

My niece Vienna just recently had her birthday. Apparently she thinks mustaches are the funniest things, and will put her hair, a pen, fork, anything under her nose and just laugh. So, for her birthday they had a Mustache party at the park, and all the kids ran around with paper 'staches. We were sad we couldn't go, but we were there in spirit.

HAPPY MUSTACHE BIRTHDAY VIENNA!!

Picture of sweet little V from my sister's blog.

23 Things Update

1. Move - WE HAVE MOVED!!!! and we LOVE our apt, it has a balcony!! (complete with hammock soon) and it's close by everything.

6. Attend the Temple 2x/mo. - So far going strong. And we've gotten to attend all sorts of new temples now that we are so close to so many!! They are all so beautiful!

11. Cook 5 new recipes- French Onion Soup, and Olyvie so far.

13. Take a vacation - Vegas, and it was LOVELY!

14. Finish the Photo Wall project - finished picking and editing the photos, just need to print and hang!

15. Edit and print our wedding photos - started.... but this one's going to take a while.

21. Continue to learn Russian - slowly, but surely

22. Find 2 new hair-do's - YES!!!! I will try them and post if they turn out...

Up to accomplish this sumer:

2. Hike Mt Timp

4. Make flower hair clips

5. Host a party?

7. Try out Zumba

8. Run a race

9. Meet my new nephew

10. Read 5 books for fun

11. Cook 5 new recipes

20. Have 6 couples over for dinner

23. Make a rice sock?

Мальчики читают

I am well on my way to becoming a Ukrainian!! This past month I have made Borsh and Olyvia, and I am slowly but surely learning some russian. Currently my favorite phrase to say is :Мальчики читают, which means the boys are reading... but it is SO much better in Russian! It is the most fun combination of letters and sounds, it will wake up your ears and make them want want to do a jig!! Also I work with a Ukrainian woman who was in the SLC olympics... how does that help my transformation? well it doesn't directly but it's just one more connection, so yes, I am practically Ukrainian.

Here are some of the other things I can say in Russian:
pen, child, children, rice, apple, horse (although I don't like to say it because it sounds like a bad word to me!!!); writing, reading, 1,2,3,8,0, red, read, bicycle, car, drive, walk, run, swim, lets go, what do you want, what's this?, slippers, sandals, hello, goodbye, goodnight, i love you, and what are you mumbling under your nose?

Ok, so I'm not THAT close, and when I hear Dima talk to his mom on the phone I realize just how far I still have to go in order to really be able to communicate to anyone, but at least I'm on my way, and hopefully by the time we go to Ukraine I'll be able to say more than "the boys are reading" to his family.

Homeless

For two weeks in the beginning of May we were between apartments. Things didn't get so bad that we had to stand on a street corner or go without bathing though. Thankfully we had lots of family and friends who were willing to put us up for a few nights here and there. So after a packing up our life into a trailer and a military cleaning to get out of our Provo apartment, Dima and I hit the open road and headed down to Vegas for a few days of blissful vacation after a month and a half of stress and excitement. It was so fun to be back in my old stomping grounds after so long and see how everything had changed, and yet stayed exactly the same. We spent our days sleeping in, going on beautiful hikes, watching movies, visiting friends, shopping, swimming, eating, and seeing some of Vegas' finest entertainment.

We attended the witty Penn & Teller magic show, the unique and hilarious Blue Man Group (my favorite), walked around the new City Center, Caesar's Palace, Town Square Mall, ate at Planet Hollywood, an AMAZING Italian place that I can't pronounce the name of, romped around Mt. Charleston and enjoyed the unique beauty of Red Rock, went to the temple, and just enjoyed being together.

The strip is so much better prettier at night.

We are so strong.

I may or may not be stuck at this point... :)

Haha, I love this picture... I think we are discussing whether to have the nice stranger take the picture vertically or horizontally... little did we know he'd already made the decision for us.

There once was an old woman who lived in a shoe.... / Check out all that bling!!!

Graduation

Dima graduated with his Masters of Accountancy this past April!! I think I was just as excited as he was!!! It will be good to have our evenings together. We had lots of family in town for the occasion which made it that much better!! It was filled with good eating, Carl Bloch museum, the movies, Easter celebrations, and fun family time. Thanks everyone for coming down to celebrate and be with us!!

Congrats Husband! I am so proud of you!!