Logan's party.

This beautiful baby boy had a birthday. He turned one.  His mommy threw him the cutest birthday party, and we all had such a great time.  Mostly because we could just stare at his cuteness 24/7. As we watched him eat his own little birthday (smash) cake, we pretty much wanted to eat him up too.

pure joy ....

Until his mommy took away his cake.

tubby time to the rescue ....

Logan's favorite thing - second only to his mommy. Followed by his birthday smash cake.

love, love, love this little guy.

Little charms.

I bought myself a little Valentine's present ... initials of my favorite peeps ... LoVe them!

Valentine's Day.

So ... Valentine's day came and went and it was quite possibly my best one EVER, which may sound a little odd since I don't really have a "special" Valentine to call my own. (You can gag if you need to.)  In fact, about a week or so before Valentine's day, I was out with one of my girlfriends and we were looking at cards.  She was looking for her husband and I was ... well, just looking.  I got a little emotional as I read some of the sweet sentiments on the cards and said to her, I wonder how many more Valentine's will pass before I have someone that I want to buy a card for.

But then the day arrived and I could NOT have been in a better mood.  Now that I work in an office environment with other people, I decided to make up little goody bags for the people I share space with.  I gave the girls a little hot pink cello bag filled with chocolates and stickers and I gave the guys a bag filled with candy and a car that said, "I think you're wheelie cool."  I felt like I was back in elementary school - SO excited to pass out my Valentine's!

My sisters, Spring and Courtney, had invited me to join them for lunch at a place in Provo called "Cubby's".  Apparently it is a h.a.p.p.e.n.i.n.g. joint!  My gosh, we had barely walked in and Spring was hugging one gal, waving to someone else, and smiling to a cutie in line who she also knew.  When we went to find our seats, Courtney disappeared and was off hugging a friend that she knew.  (Don't mind me ... I didn't know anyone.)

On the way down to Provo, I just felt giddy.  Like, stupid happy almost.  I had the Christian radio station on (that always evokes emotions anyway) and I just felt so blessed for all that I had in my life. I felt so fortunate to have so many wonderful friends that I loved and a great family that I loved, and kids that had been "my favorite and my best" Valentine's for so many years!!!  My eyes welled up a little bit ... I was filled to the brim with gratitude for the love that I had in my heart.

Valentine's Day is about love and that's what I was feeling overwhelmed with.

When I got home from the afternoon with my sisters, Haley and Sophie and I went up to Salt Lake to the Gateway mall.  There was a big event going on called "1 Billion Rising" that I wanted to attend.  I just love being with my girls.  I'll take any and all of them, any time I can!

And then to top off the day ... I stopped by my friend Vicki's house and she and her husband were making up a luscious dinner for a friend who had recently lost her husband.  We took it up to her house together and then afterwards, Vicki invited me to stay for dinner with them.  (Not the first time I've been a third wheel with the Browns.)  It was like dining in a fine restaurant.  I told John that his steaks are a close second to Ruth's Chris (which I'm pretty sure are the best steaks on the planet).  It was absolutely delicious and the end to a rather practically perfect day.

#happiestvalentinesdayever

LoVe day.

(Chloe as Cupid)

Happy Valentine's Day!
(eat lots of chocolate ... and enjoy!)

xoxo

Snow bunnies.

A friend of Sophie's needed to take pictures with film for a photography class.  

(imagine that)  

So Sophie, Josie and their friend, Maren 

came to play in the snow in our backyard.

When I looked out my kitchen window, 

and saw the smiles on their faces, 

I had to grab my camera too.

Love these girls.

This.

I saw this image on Pinterest and my eyes got really wide, seriously, they did.  I haven't seen anything like this before.  An old door hanging from a tree, creating a table for an outdoor meal. 

the chairs ... the dishes ... those flower boxes

It kind of blows my mind in a sweet, surreal, peaceful, I want that setting sort of way.  I wasn't even sure where to "place" my PIN on Pinterest so I put it on my LOVE this because I do ...

I LOVE this.

Babysitting.

A couple of weeks ago McCall asked if I would watch Logan and Libby for a few days.  I was happy to do it.  McCall and her sister-in-law Brandie were planning on driving down to San Diego to empty Brandie's storage unit and get everything moved into their townhouse before her husband came home from his deployment this month.

I can't even remember now if I ever got dressed that weekend.  There was lots and lots of lounging and laughing and loving.  And one of the things that I got the biggest kick out of was Libby's dressing up.  I think it was the second day they were over that Libby came downstairs with this get up on:  

I busted up! Of course, then when I tried to take her picture she wouldn't smile for me and got all 

mopey because I was following her around trying to take her picture.  I asked her where she got the clothes from and she said from Sophie's floor.  (Soooooo many choices laying on Sophie's floor!)  

I had also sorted the laundry, so there were piles on my bedroom floor as well and that little girl had a hey day putting on different things - all day long, and then every day after that.  I had to be sly to get a picture of her though, because she was just not havin' it.

Here are a few shots I managed to take with my not so great camera phone:

(yes, we watch a lot of shows and eat pretty much all day long too.)

Whenever Libby comes to visit now, she always goes upstairs to check out what clothes are laying on the floor for her to put on.  The last time we were tending, there wasn't any laundry on my floor so she opened up every one of my dresser drawers and pulled clothes out.  When I walked into my bedroom and saw it, I just smiled.  How could I possibly be upset when it is soooo much fun for her and brings us soooo many smiles?  (Not keen on her getting into my jewelry though ... we need to work on that.)

(I'm mildly obsessed with the first picture in the head-dress.  She's pretty stylin'.)

Christmas CD.

(Cover)

(Back)

As I've already mentioned, my kids and I made a Christmas CD this year in lieu of a card that we sent out to friends and family.  We made a "Volume 1" in 2002 and have wanted to make another one ever since. It was so much fun to do, all those years ago, and still remains one of our favorite things we've done as a family.

We all chose one song to sing alone and then the girls and I sang one together.  Elliott wasn't really interested in participating, but I wanted all of us to be on the CD so I had to bribe him.  He was only nine then so I figured singing "Rudolph" would be a song that he could handle.  The day we were going to record, (and yes, it did end up taking LOTS more days than one to record, but what did I know when we first got started?) I told Elliott that if he would sing on our CD I would buy him a new Nintendo game. He said he would do it, but that he would only do it once.  And that's exactly what he did.  He went into that booth and sang Rudolph ONCE.

There was a part in the song where he messed up a little bit and I was outside, listening - SO nervous that he would just stop singing right then and there and that would be the end of it ... but that little boy kept on going.  (When I listen to that song now, the fact that he messes up is actually really precious - especially knowing the "back story" of how important that one take was.)

Now that the kids are grown and voices have drastically changed, I had a few requests that I wanted them to sing and they had songs of their own that they chose to record, so there's a nice variety on it and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  (Both CD's are a treasure for me, actually.)

We have a friend, Rob, who has a recording studio right here in Draper.  He and some friends run it together (in addition to their day jobs) so we were fortunate enough to get a great deal on studio time.  We technically started to record with him last year, but like most things it took a lot longer than we anticipated ... the CD's would have been mailed way late so we opted to wait, which actually ended up being a good idea - we tweaked a few of the songs we had already recorded, added a few more, and sending them out this year made it 10 years since the first one - so it was kind of like an anniversary album.  

On one of the nights we were recording, Chloe, Sophie and I were the only ones left in the studio. Rob said he had gotten an interesting phone call a few days earlier. The guy on the phone told Rob that he was the manager for a "high profile celebrity" who was in town and was looking for a studio.  This celebrity and his buddy had been snow boarding in Park City and came up with a rap song they wanted to record.  Then the guy said, "But you have to keep it really hush hush.  No one can know. Not even your friends and family. We're just looking for a studio that's willing to let them come in and work late - for as long it takes."

So Rob said, "Sure. Who is it?"

"It's Justin Beiber and Jaden Smith."

Whaaaaaaaaaaat??!!!!!

Yup ... how cool is that?!

As soon as Sophie heard that Justin Beiber had been in that same studio just days before, she sat in every chair that was in the room.  She wanted to make sure to have touched the same chair that the Beibs had touched.  She also asked Rob if he had used the bathroom - he had ... and then she headed into the bathroom.  (Oh, Soph.)

But, if I was her age, you KNOW  I would have done the same thing! ;)

Christmas greetings.

One of my favorite things about the Christmas holiday season is Christmas cards ... getting, and giving.  Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that about me.  This year, it didn't seem like I was getting very many cards in the mail.  Every day after work, I would drive up to our mail box, set the stack down on the kitchen counter, and quickly look through it for any cards.  Most days, my kids would hear me say, "Dang it!  No cards today."  Or, "Shoot, we only got one Christmas card today."

Well bless my kids stinkin' little hearts!  When it was getting really close to Christmas, they sent me a card ... and then another ... and then another still.  It made my heart so happy.  First, that they would take the time to go and have the pictures taken, and then take the time to have them printed off into Christmas cards especially for me!




Whenever Chloe and Elliott (just the two of them) have their picture taken together, it usually looks like an engagement photo.  That could be partly because they look around the same age (and look a lot alike) and partly because of the way they pose.

This next card was Chloe's idea ... so funny!




When I renovated my basement two years ago, and brought the big sectional upstairs into our family room, rearranging was necessary, which created one rather big blank wall in that room.  I bought five large frames to put pictures of the kids faces in.  I knew exactly which pictures I wanted to use of each of them, but was having trouble locating the disc that had those specific pictures on it.  BOO.

The kids (and several of their friends) have given me a hard time about those empty frames hanging there for two long years, so I decided that now was the time I would fill them.  I told McCall that I was going to fill them on Christmas eve and put a bow around each frame as a surprise for the kids when they came down on Christmas morning.  Pretty good idea, right?!

Well ............... Christmas eve came, and I still hadn't found those pictures.  The girls and I were standing in the kitchen and I said, "I had the best idea to surprise you guys with tomorrow morning, but now it isn't going to happen and I'm bummed about it."  And then the girls said they were going to go rent a movie at Red Box and get some treats.  I gave them a couple of little neighbor gifts that hadn't been delivered yet and asked if they would take those around for me too. They left and were gone for hours!!!!!  It was Christmas eve!!!!  Where was my family?!?!?!

When I called them (a couple of times) and asked what was taking so long they had pretty good excuses - When we went to the Wright's house they invited us in and we stayed for a while to visit with them.  Oh, and Wendy gave us a fruit cake ... When we went to the Dieterich's Sophie dropped her phone so we had to go back and look for it, but we're almost home.

When I walked into my family room on Christmas morning .....

 SURPRISE!!!

The day they went to the park to take the Christmas card pictures, Chloe had the idea to take individual ones to put in the frames for me.  McCall told her that I had already planned on doing that for them as a surprise on Christmas morning, but when I mentioned that my surprise wasn't going to happen - the girls went to the studio where Chloe works and printed off the pictures!  Then Chloe played Santa's helper and got up at 5 in the morning to fill those frames before I got up.

I wanted to eat them all up.