Amanda's shower

My cute friend Amanda is expecting her first baby {a boy} and Nicole, Rachael and I organized a shower for her. Rachael thought up a mustache theme, and we had the most darling decorations, table spread, and mustache related fun to celebrate the arrival of Amanda's little man. I love these girls and am grateful for all of the friends {near and far} who enhance my life. I've been blessed to know and associate with wonderful women and am so much better for it. 

70 years young

Today is my father-in-laws 70th birthday. He is one of the most wonderful men that I know. He is brilliant and taught linguistics at BYU. He is creative and tells the most wonderful stories to our kids and comes up with ingenious ways to fix things. He is sympathetic and always has a listening ear and is always very concerned when anyone is sick or hurting. He is friendly and loves to talk to people and find out about their lives and stories. He is contemplative and has well thought out ideas and theories on a huge range of topics. He is devoted to his wife and family and has kept them his first priority in life. And he is faithful to the Lord, and His church, and has taught me much about the importance of forgiveness, covenants, and relationships. I am so grateful for him and for his influence on my husband, my children and me.

Happy birthday Lauren!

Lauren turned 7 and we had a great celebration in her honor.

Her birthday was over the weekend, so we got to celebrate for several days. Saturday we took her to dinner at her restaurant of choice, the Sugar Bowl.

Check out the lady photo bombing on the left. Awesome!

Saturday night she got sick and ended up spending the night in our room. Thankfully, Sunday morning she revived we opened presents first thing. She was so happy to get new lace up shoes from her sisters, a BIG bike from her parents, and new dresses, shorts, BYU shirt and lego set from her grandparents.





 

We had birthday dinner at home and enjoyed having my Grandma Mary come and eat with us. Lauren chose mint brownies for her birthday cake equivalent and I hope all of her wishes come true.

Monday we took a treat in to share with her class at school and loved seeing her show off her "star student of the week" poster.  Lauren is such a wonderful girl and I am so grateful that she is our daughter. She is so excited for the coming year and all of the opportunities it will bring. She is good to the core and a wonderful influence in our home.  We love Lauren so much.

When pigs fly...

You'll have a hailstorm in sunny Ariz*na!



It will hail so much that the street, sidewalks, rooftops and grass will be covered in white {snow}.



You can even collect hail on a cookie sheet to save for a later date.



People get pretty excited during a hail storm.





 

 

Wet heavy hail translates easily into packing material, and before you know it you'll end up building a snowman.

 

 

The next morning the sun will come up and you'll pose for pictures with your snowman one more time.

Because in the sun he will melt, 

  and melt,

 and melt small, small, small.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love this day to love your loved ones a little bit more. I hope you had a great one too!

 

 

Decorating Valentine's cards to send out to their grandparents and for their class friends.

Since Ada's not in school, she picked a few friends to make and deliver cards to.

 Waking up to some fun surprises from Grandma Vonnie. She loves Valentine's Day and sends us a fun package to help us celebrate in style every year. Thanks Mom!

We celebrate Valentine's day with the girls by having a fancy pancake breakfast in the morning complete with heart shaped cakes. They love finding their place at the table and a surprise too.

Lauren's teacher believes in making the holidays fun and the little girls and I got to go in an enjoy their class party complete with Valentine crowns, magnet frames, and a mailbox full of cards.

 Ellie's wonderful preschool teacher also makes the holidays special for the kids and helped them all decorate a beautiful Valentine envelope for their card exchange. 

 

Ada got a few deliveries from her sweet friends and loved eating her sugar cookie and cupcake. 

 

                   

And since we give the girls extra love and attention in the morning/day time, that leaves J and me guilt free to enjoy a night out. This year we enjoyed a quick meal on our way to the temple and I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate with my one true Valentine.

Family photos

We had a family photo shoot in November and I'm finally getting around to printing out the photos, so I thought I'd share a few here.  We had a fun photographer take our pictures at the Desert Botanical Gardens and loved the venue and how they turned out. Enjoy!