My brother, the photographer

My brother is an amazing photographer. He is also a rock climber and has found a unique way to merge the two. He will be the featured artist this month at the Backseat Gallery in the Comma Coffee Shop in Carson City, Nevada. The show is called... you guessed it, Transitory Moments. Too bad most of us won't be able to check it out. It opens today and will be up until June 28th.
Read more about his show here. Visit his website nip9.com here.

How does he do that?

Vielehr Designs, LLC.

Thanks to Ari's help, I now have an official logo and business cards for Vielehr Designs, LLC.
As most of you know, I formed Vielehr Designs, LLC. and have been doing residential landscape designs for Kevin and his company, Collegiate Landscape, since the beginning of the year. It's been a lot of fun and so far Kevin and I have 4 yards installed with 5 or 6 on the way. I have also done 4 independent designs and I'm excited to see how my little business grows.

Before


After

Finger Foods

Riley has been grabbing at the spoon while i have been feeding him so we decided it was time to introduce finger foods. Knowing that the first attempts would be more about learning how to pick up the food and not necessarily about putting it in his mouth, i bought some sweet potato flavored baby cereal (that are actually quite tasty) and put them on his tray. He was immediately interested and grabbed for the cereal pieces. He managed to pick them up pretty well and they kept getting stuck to his sticky little fingers. Bella and Gunner immediately positioned themselves under his highchair to catch the pieces as they dropped over the edge. It was fun to watch Riley try and pick them all up. He even gave a few to Bella (watch the video). I'm excited for the day when he tries to put them in his mouth and masters the pincher grab.
PS: Riley now has 4 teeth, 2 top and 2 bottom.

Rolling over

Riley has been able to roll from his stomach to back for about a month now but last night he rolled from his back to his stomach for the first time. Nate and I were getting ready for bed and Riley started fussing so I went in to his room to check on him. Not only was he rolled over on his stomach but his feet were where his head used to be. I'm not quite sure how he managed to get in that position but he did it again this morning.

Happy 1st Birthday Max

This weekend we had Max's first birthday party. It's amazing how fast a year can go. It was great to see everybody. There were probably a dozen baby/kids there and the focus was of course on them. Oh how our get-togethers have changed...

Our Garden

We decided to grow a veggie and herb garden this year. Nate built a box that we put along our north fence near the patio and Kevin came and ran a new drip line so we could water it separate from the rest of the yard. We also did separate containers with strawberries and mint since those can become invasive. We are very excited about having fresh veggies and herbs and if all goes well in about 60 days we'll have cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, red and orange bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, sugar snap peas, green beans, green onion, basil, oregano, thyme, Italian parsley, and cilantro.

Hickies

Last night we were at dinner with Nick Godman and Riley was starting to get tired and really fussy. We didn't have a pacifier with us because Gunner had pulled it out of the diaper bag and a new one hadn't made it back in the bag yet. So anyway, because we didn't have a pacifier, I was letting Riley suck on my chin which he often tries to do if he is hungry or sleepy. Needless to say, I ended up with 2 hickies on my chin. Oops, lesson learned.

Riley- 7 months old

Riley is 7 months old today. He is eating baby food like a pro and he officially has 3 teeth with a 4th on it's way. He has made many discoveries including his fingers, his toes and his tongue. His new milestone is that he can pass an object from one hand to another. He also tries to grab onto the spoon when I'm feeding him so I think it's time to introduce finger food. He is so much fun and I'm so blessed that I've been able to stay home with him.

My First Mother's Day

It was so nice to be home for Mother's Day. My uncle Ron flew up from LA and we had the whole family together. My Dad and Nate were in charge of dinner and we all enjoyed an overdue family evening together.

Becoming a mother has been the most amazing experience and I credit my calmness and confidence in being a mother to my mom and grandmother. They are amazing examples of how to be a great mom. My brother Brian and my mom playing with Riley

Keri and Chris are Hitched

This past weekend we flew to Reno for Keri and Chris's wedding. It was not a full flight so Nate and I were able to spread out and use the entire row. Riley did great on the flight. He was awake the entire flight but decided to fall asleep on our descent and landing into Reno. On Friday afternoon we drove up to Squaw Valley for Keri and Chris's wedding. They got married at the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn. It was the last weekend that Squaw Valley Ski Resort was open and it was a little strange to see people heading up the Cable Car to the top of the mountain in May to ski. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The rehearsal was out by the pool where the ceremony would be held and the rehearsal dinner was held steps away in the Village at Mamasake where we were treated to a wonderful sushi dinner. Nate and I were in heaven and completely stuffed by the end of the night.
On Saturday, since the wedding wasn't until 4:30, I got up and had breakfast with the girls (Keri, Jen and Kelley) and then we went to Starbucks (which I desperately needed because Riley had woken up every hour and a half the night before). Since it was such a beautiful day, we took a walk across the valley, along the golf course before we needed to be back to get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was beautiful. The wedding colors were green, black and white and the dining room was simple and elegant. We had such a great time and it was especially nice to hang out with my girls Keri and Jen who I don't get to see as often as I'd like. Thanks Keri and Chris for hosting a great wedding. See all the pictures here.

Adventures in Sweet Potatoes

Riley is starting to get the hang of eating. He opens his mouth and gets food all of his face like a pro. He loves to try and grab the spoon and his best trick is wiping his messy face all over his sleeve. Today we managed to get winter squash all over his eye brow and in his eye lashes. Thanks to Uncle Brian, he's styling in this fire engine bib. Just don't tell dad that he was eating off the pink spoon.

Smile !!

There is a photographer in our neighborhood who has her studio in the basement. See was offering special photo sessions for Vista Ridge residents so we decided to take advantage of it. We had a 15 minute photo session and got surprisingly a lot of great shots. It was a lot of fun.
Thanks Kerry. Kara Photography

Happy Birthday Nate

So we've gotten a little behind on our blogging so I need to catch us up. Nate turned 31 on April 27th. We decided to have a small group of friends over for a last minute BBQ. It was pretty low key. Jumin brought over the Wii game Guitar Hero which was, of course, a big hit with Nate.

Riley is 6 months old

Wow, 6 months. How our lives have changed... Riley is almost 18 pounds and 26 inches. He has reached some big milestones in the past couple days. On Saturday he rolled over from his belly to his back and he is also sitting up unassisted (for the most part). He has been eating baby cereal and oatmeal for about 2 weeks now but tonight he had his first taste of baby sweet potatoes. He loves watching the dogs and he gets very excited when one of them comes over to check him out. Bella is also more interested in Riley now that he is starting to eat "real" food. He will be her best friend as soon as he starts throwing Cheerios on the floor.

Nate and Leanne as babies

We had our mom's pull together our baby pictures to compare to Riley's. It was pretty fun looking through all the old photos. Riley is a pretty good combo baby. Who do you think he looks like? Compare for yourself...

Nate at 4 mos

Nate at 8 months

Leanne at 5 months

Leanne at 7 months

1st Annual Bagna Dinner

Nate and the Garlic

We have been talking about making Bagna Calda, Bagna for short (pronounced Bon-ya) for years. It means "Hot Bath" in Italian and it is a garlic, butter, tomato and anchovie fondue that my family has every Christmas Eve. Since my mom was coming into town, we thought it would be the perfect time to try making it ourselves since she would be here to help ensure that it was done right. We decided to start small with our more "food adventurous" friends and to minimize that amount of shucking of garlic and chopping of veggies for the first attempt. It was a big hit and a lot of fun. We plan on making it an annual thing and inviting more people.

Farwell to Friends

We had to say goodbye to a couple good friends this weekend. Simone and Troy are moving to Brussels for Troy's work and Betsy and Jason are moving to San Antonio, TX for Jason's work. Our going away get together was at Betsy and Lee's house and it was a great time. Thanks to Betsy, Ari and Sarah for all their coordination. In a few months we'll have to say good-bye to Sarah and Matt too...

Bath Time

Riley hasn't been a big bath fan, so we tried a new approach last weekend. In stead of just filling up his little baby bathtub, Nate filled our large bathtub with water and Nate got in the water too. At first Riley was still a little unsure but having Dad there holding him helped and pretty soon he was smiling and enjoying the water.

5 months old

I can't believe that Riley is already 5 months old. His second bottom front tooth has come in and he is squirming all over the place. I'm sure he'll be rolling over and sitting up on his own before we know it.

Land Cruiser Surgery

A couple weeks ago I bought the lovely red Land Cruiser that you see above from a guy in Laramie, WY. It had been rolled so the guy cut the top off with the intention of putting a roll cage on it, but he ran out of time and money. It had the suspension kit (shocks and leaf springs) that I wanted for my Land Cruiser to give it about a 3" lift, as well as several other parts that I wanted/needed. I got a really good deal for all the parts I was getting. Anyway Kirk and Lee came over last Saturday and Sunday to help me take them apart and swap out the suspension.

It took us about 15 hours total to completely take the suspension of both trucks swap them and put it back together, it was a lot of work, but worth it in the end. My springs were so flat that I probably got a 4-5" lift in the rear and about a 3" lift in the front. Now I just need to get 33" tires (which will raise the truck another 2") and I will be all set for camping, hunting, fishing and off-roading. Of course there is a long list of other things I want to do to my truck, but after the tires the major functional things will be done.


Thanks Kirk and Lee for your help.