A Whole Lotta Love

This year as I was taking down all of the snowmen I realized that my Valentine decor was quite sadly lacking. So I called Wendy in Salt Lake and asked if she could pick me up a couple pieces of wood hearts.
Boy did she ever. I brought home several little valentines projects, ready for paint and personality. The girls were so excited to help so we had quite a little craft fair the other night.

With a little help from Josey and her nifty vinyl cutter, I was able to add a few additions to my Valentine decor.
The little dog holding a heart was a gift from Matthew on our first Valentine's Day together.


I ended up with way more in the way of decor than I'd originally planned. Not to worry though, one can never have too much LoVe in their home.

The Birthday Boy

Our Cody is now 8 years old. His birthday was on the 10th and he had a wonderful day. Bret and Heidi came down and Cody thought that was the best. Uncle Bret made ribs for him and they rivaled any restaurant.
Did I mention? This boy REALLY loves ribs.

He got a new Nintendo DS for his birthday and an Oreo Ice Cream cake to share with his daddy. And to top off this awesome birthday, Cody went to Scouts for the first time. What could be better than that?

Bandito Rides Again

Since we discovered Pickleville Playhouse a couple of years ago, it's become one of our families summer favorites. Last summer, Matt and I went for our anniversary and again at the end of the season with the kids for Jaycee's and Britnee's birthday. We bought the soundtrack that they had for sale and the kids have about worn it out listening to it over the past six months.
So in November when we bought tickets for the Christmas show, we also bought tickets for this performance and give them as part of the kids' Christmas.
We have all been looking forward to today. Jaycee came to Logan early this morning and did Baptisms for the dead with the ward youth and Matt, Cody, Britnee and I came down and picked her up. We bought some new boots for Cody's birthday and ate pizza for lunch.

The show started at 3:00 and the kids sang along with every word. It was a wonderful performance.
I'm so glad for things like this that allow us a chance to spend time together as a family and laugh and have fun in the process.

Rich Rebels Jr. Basketball

This year Cody decided that he wanted to try basketball. Laketown had a really fun 5 week program that he could go and learn all the different basketball basics.


So every Saturday morning we get up and run to be in Laketown by 8:00 in the morning. Cody has been really good at paying attention and practicing hard. He's thinking that maybe he just might like basketball.

Sisters By Chance

This weekend started out not having too many plans as Matt had to work, but on Friday night I got a wonderful surprise~Tia, Kelly, and Kelly's babies came for a visit.

I got to see baby Bentley for the first time since he was in the NICU at Thanksgiving. Jaycee, Britnee and I fought to hold him all weekend. We worked really hard and even made friends with Peyton while she was here. She's grown up so much now that she's a big sister. She's not talking much yet but is one smart little cookie.

My dad had Saturday off so he came over and visited too. Most of our time was spent visiting, eating, and playing games. It brought back a lot of memories of how things used to be.

We all came to my house on Saturday after lunch and exhausted ourselves playing the Wii. What little energy we had left, the girls used in a full on wrestling match.


It was so much fun to get together. We don't do it often enough. Thank you so much Tia and Kelly for the wild idea of a road trip to Bear Lake this weekend. It was awesome!!!

Our New Family Favorite

Ever since I got my Kitchen Aid from Matthew last year, I've been trying to be more creative in the dinner department. Last night we decided to try homemade pizza. I earned two thumbs up for myself by making my own dough and the kids were right there ready to help when it was ready.

We let everybody roll out and make their own pizza. The choices for toppings were sausage, pepperoni, ham, and of course, cheese.

The pizza's were a hit. The end result was a yummy, fun dinner. It's not often that I try something new and have it go this well. It will probably be a new family favorite.

Hello 2011

I'm home from our little vacation, the kids are back in school, and I'm ready to tackle a new year.
I always get excited in January as I begin planning the year. I've never gotten into the New Year Resolution concept much, but I do write down a few goals each year on a post-it note that I hang on the bulletin board above my computer. (Where I'll be sure to see it :)
My main goals for this year are to better magnify my church callings and to be better at writing thank you notes and sending birthday cards. Small goals but ones that I feel need improvement. We'll see how that goes.

I'm also looking forward to several exciting things coming our way in 2011~

*Cody's baptism in March
*Our Spring break trip to St. George
*Finishing our little garden and growing some yummy fruits and vegetables
*(If I can sweet talk Matthew into it) Building a back porch onto our house~complete with pergola and hot tub (Maybe :)
*And spending time together as a family. My favorite thing to do no matter when it is.

So there you have it. Bring on all the great plans you have for me 2011, I'm ready for them.