Love is in the Air

 Tis the season for love.  On Valentines Day, my kids' doors were heart attacked.  That blue marker decor was later added by dear sweet Brenna.  Thankfully, we only have washable markers at this time and it was fixed in a jiffy.  Appropriate to the sentiments of the month, we also got to celebrate Paige and Jason's marriage!!

We have been honoring the happy couple at showers (this spread is at my house, thanks to my lovely and talented neighbor!)  I didn't get a good pic of the banner and tissue balls she made, but my  house looked so festive and fun!  Paige had a freezing and stinky (literally smelly-it was at Wheeler Farm) bridal photography session.  All her pictures turned out stunning!  We had a fun family shower, a little dinner, just lots of fun in anticipation for the big event.  Last Wednesday was the reception.  It turned out perfectly.  All the grandkids in their orange...

 The siblings and mom and pop...

 There was a Leatherby's ice cream bar (delish), mingling and dancing. 

I busted some moves my momma would be proud of, or at least entertained by.  I hope the videographer captured some good moments.  My kids will be proud (embarrassed!).

 We all partied and ate and had a great time. 

The next day was the wedding ceremony at the Draper temple.  It was beautiful.  It is winter, however, so when we came out for pics, we were human popsicles.  We hurried through our pictures before the happy couple had some alone photos and I didn't take any with my camera.  I know their photographer got some good ones, so I will copy those.  We are so happy to welcome Jason into our family and look forward to watching this happy couple grow-literally...we'd like more cousins ;)!

 

Thrilling Threes

 

Because the 'twos' have been linked to the word, 'terrible,'  I am going to go out on an optimistic limb here and prematurely call the threes for Brenna 'thrilling!'  I don't think that is a stretch as Brenna has brought excitement and thrills to us from day one.  She keeps us on our toes and I don't think that her year of being three will be any different!  We sure love this red headed lady! 


Brenna chose to go to Jungle Jim's playland so she could ride the horses.  She is obsessed.  She also has a bit of an issue smiling like a regular child.  We tell her to smile and we get something like this...

or this...


Well, it makes us smile (or shake our heads), at least.  After Jungle Jim's, her restaurant of choice was "Old McDonalds."  We figured we had had enough germy play and opted to take the happy meals home for a blanket picnic and movie.  The next day was her actual birthday and she was so happy.  She got to go to church and tell everyone to sing to her.  We had a delightful pancake dinner with family and she couldn't wait to open her gifts.  As soon as she opened her Minnie Mouse dress up she said, " I need to wear it, " and thus began to disrobe. 

Brenna's favorite thing to do is dress up and dance.  Some moves are a bit risque and other times she closes her eyes and lets the music take her someplace new as her arms are thrown to the sides.  She is a crack up.  Unfortunately this week, she has picked up her old habit of running away.  I do not enjoy chasing her down the street in the snow with no shoes on.  Thank heavens for our neighbor (especially their dog) who alerts us to Brenna's escapades.  I love this age and the things she says.  She fakes laughs and will say, "Ha Ha.  I'm laughing."  She recently watched Beyonce's Super Bowl half time show and turned to my dad while explaining, "I wear panties on my bum.  But, Deyonce, she doesn't wear panties on her BIG bum."  Love her logic.
 
Here is to our super spunky 3 year old who loved her birthday and loves M&M's and 'shlockate.'  (chocolate)...We hope this day met her expectations because she always surpasses ours!! 

It's Great to be 8

 There are certain occasions that are milestones.  Every year that we celebrate a holiday or birthday, I seem to be thrown back as to how another 12 months have flown by.  But, let me say, that an 8th birthday is a momentous occasion.  It is like we are entering a new frontier of parenting-having an 'older' child.  Watching Grant grow into a little man is heart wrenching and thrilling at the same time.  He is a rambunctous child with a heart of gold.  His baptism is just a month away and he is so ready for it.  Grant has been playing junior jazz basketball this winter and has progressed a lot!  He is a good sport and  had more than one instance when he lost the ball as he was checking to make sure someone was okay. 

 We celebrated Grant's birthday by inviting a few friends to go to Boondocks.  If you will recall the Harry Potter episode of 2012, Dave and I vowed not to have another out of control 15 boys in our house tearing it apart kind of party.  I loved giving the boys their wrist bands and let them laser tag and play in the arcade for hours.  Dave was supposed to keep track of Brenna (Katelee tagged along with the boys), but somehow she got locked up in the kiddie land and I kept spying him playing everything from skeeball to little basketball...looks like I know what to do for his birthday!!

 Here are Cameron, Grant and Matthew strutting their stuff after a night of fun.  We had pizza and donuts after.  The evening did not disappoint.  Then, on Grant's actual birthday, we let him hang loose.  All chores were excused, homework that was not due was delayed to the next day, piano practice was skipped and as soon as he came home from school he played electronics until dinner-not a usual privelege in our house, but he was in heaven!  He got to choose the menus for each meal and he choose quiche for breakfast and pesto pasta for dinner with sweet potatoes as a veggie.  Does anyone else find that a little bit of a discerning palate for a kid?!  Here is his cake:

 He got some good gifts and

 we sang in his honor.  We love Grant lots and can't wait to see what this next year brings for him. 

Holiday Memories

 

 

 

 I am slow to post Christmas for a few reasons...first, we lost our camera after our family party on Christmas Eve.  In fact, we didn't take any pictures with said camera because it was not located until a week later.  Where?  In our dirty laundry basket.  Why I didn't think to look there, I don't know!  Then, our computer crashed.  But it has been repaired and I just realized I took a few pics on my phone, so I thought I would document that Christmas 2012 did in fact happen at our place!  We had a wonderful low key holiday.  Dave's brother was in town from California, so we got to see both sides of our family this year-which was fabulous! 

 We played games, ate and stayed home all day on Christmas.  Brenna loved it so much that for the next few weeks, I had to say 'Merry Christmas' to her before bed and when she woke up.  If I didn't say it with enough enthusiasm, I had to try again, until she found it to be acceptable. 

It has been so bitter cold here.  Not, 'oh I need a cup of hot chocolate cold.'  More like, 'My nose broke off outside, please dip me in a tub of hot chocolate' kind of cold
  
 But, on one of the warmer days (30s)  the kids loved sledding!

 And of course we stay busy with lots of other things...school...Katelee cutting her own hair...Brenna sticking a bead up her nose...and discovering a wall mural made of boogers.  Apparently one of our children, who shall remain nameless has really runny noses at night and picks and wipes all along their wall.  So, we are finding all sorts of adventures indoors!  Next up, birthday season for me and the kids!  Bring on the parties!

Christmas Carols

 

Christmas isn't Christmas without the music!  Life isn't as enriching without music, for that matter!  Anyone who knows me, realizes how important music is to me. This year to help celebrate Christmas and share our love for the season, my 3 little piano students put on a fabulous recital. 

 

 These kids worked hard and it showed!  They have grown a lot in the past year and even pulled off some awesome duets.  I, of course, got teary as I began the recital as I shared the way music moves me and how special those kids are to me.  And, I cried at another seasonal song this year...'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' 

I kid you not, we got to take our kids to this fabulous breakfast with Santa and when I heard the jingle bells down the hall, the whole room busting out in the song to welcome the Jolly Elf, my eyes were watering...lets just say embarrassing.  Who does that?!  I love the magic of the season, I love seeing my kids experience the joys of childood and apparently, I just love the Claus family.  After the delicious morsels were consumed, we met up with S.C. and wife.  Brenna wasn't having it with Santa, but she did enjoy Mrs. Claus.  The kids loved talking with him, have enjoyed getting messages on the email as well, unfortunately Dave got a message from Santa and he is not currently on the nice list.  So, he has a couple of days to work on that.  We will see how it goes!


We have our special Christmas program in church tomorrow, with music that fills me with the true spirit of Christmas.  I hope we are enstilling a love for giving in our children as we think of all the gifts we have.