Tuesday, March 15, 2011

"Bachelor" Party...

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Monday night was the big "Bachelor" finale. Despite a bunch of early spoilers that predicted Chantel would be chosen Brad ended up choosing Emily. She was my favorite so I was happy. Incase you missed it (or want to watch it again like me) here is a video of the proposal...



Again I decided to host a little party and my Mom was feeling well and surprised us and showed up for the party. We all had a great time hanging out, eating lots of yummy food and of course watching it all unfold...

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Of course my kids didn't stay upstairs like they were suppose to and hung out with us...

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Thanks peeps for coming... I'd use any excuse to hang out with my most favorite people!

Monday 3/14/11

Missionary Homecoming...

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On Sunday the kids and I went to my cousin Parker's Sacrament Meeting to listen to his Missionary Homecoming talk. The entire meeting was wonderful and his talk was awesome. I'm sure he was an amazing missionary! Afterwards we of course all got together for a yummy luncheon... seriously, I don't think I've had better food! It was so nice to catch up with a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins! My Dad and brother Justin came up Friday night and stayed with us both Friday and Saturday nights. Needless to say the kids got lots of attention and were sad to see them go Sunday afternnoon. They took the kids and I out to dinner Friday night and picked up some pizza and watched the kids while Steve and I snuck away Saturday night for a date night. They had lots of fun playing, reading and of course playing tons of hide-n-seek! Thanks Dad and Justin, we really enjoyed your company and free babysitting! Here are a few pictures from the luncheon on Sunday...
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Perfect picture to end with right?

Sunday 3/13/11

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Larger Than Life...

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Yes it's true, our faces are actually a tiny bit larger in the picture than in real life... the picture is that big! It definitely makes a statement! The actual print is 32x48 and the frame is 4 1/4 inches so it's a whopping 40 1/2 x 56 1/2 framed... and I just love it! I was nervous we were going to look like big melon heads since it's a close up but I think it turned out perfect! Believe it or not we painted this wall a couple years ago and the color in the picture just ended up being a perfect match (I was nervous about that as well... because different shades of orange can really clash.) We also spent forever trying to find a frame we loved that didn't cost an arm and a leg and ended up finding exactly what we were looking for at Hobby Lobby (which is the coolest store I must say) for half the price of the other one we were considering and we even loved this one more! Here are a couple close ups...

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Busy Busy Busy...

January and February are usually my least favorite months of the year. The weather is just yucky, there's nothing really going on, the kids are usually sick a lot and I'm so ready for it to be Spring so we can get out of the house and enjoy nice weather and have fun. I usually end up with a mild case of the "blah's," but I think I managed to dodge it this year. We've been staying really busy and I think that has helped a lot. We've been busy painting all three bedrooms and our master bathroom as well as doing some deep cleaning and organizing along the way. Since finishing our basement almost three years ago and painting our main living areas about two years ago, we have painted all the rooms in our house except the laundry room and the main bathroom (which we plan on painting soon.) I guess you could say we love painting! Steve and I have also been busy working out (Steve has been getting ready for a photo shoot and I finally decided to take advantage of my Trainer/Dietitian-of-a-husband and let him train me and do a meal plan for me.) He's been training me five days a week (I know I'm spoiled) and we also completed the 200 sit-up training program together. We also finally got some enlargements done to hang in our house and I absolutely love them! Here are some pictures of the rooms we've painted and the enlargements we hung in them...

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We painted the accent wall "Robin's Egg" (Glidden) and painted all the other walls "Silver Dust" (Glidden.) We left the ceiling, trim and doors white. We also painted our master bathroom the "Silver Dust" color. All the "Silver Dust" walls used to be a light tan color that just looked dingy after we painted the accent wall. The "Silver Dust" really brightened up the room and made it look a lot better. I know I've already posted pictures of these pictures but I thought I'd post them again on the painted wall (because it looks so much better and makes them really pop.) The wall they are on looks more grey in the pictures below-the true color is closer to the above picture and the pictures are b&w not sepia...

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18x24

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24x36

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18x24

I'm not really a fan of the whole pink/blue girl/boy colors but those are the colors that were in the kids bedding so those are the colors we ended up painting their rooms...

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I actually wanted to go really bold and do a really bright pink on Avery's wall and we tried but it was a disaster... think Pepto Bismol pink. It was so bright, it reflected off the white walls and you could see the pink glow way before even entering her room. Needless to say we found a "softer pink" and redid it. The color we used was "Pink Chintz" (Behr.) We left all the other walls, ceiling, trim and doors white and it looks so soft and girly! She loves it and I guess that's what matters. I did a small collage of b&w photos of her to hang on her wall (they are all done on a 3/4 in. "standout" mount because I didn't want to frame them)...

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11x14 (4)

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We painted all of Maddy's walls "Waterfall" (Martha Stewart) and left the ceiling, trim and doors white.

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11x14 (3/4 in. standout mount)

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Maddy wanted a picture of him in his new blue room :)

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Avery was sick most of the time we were painting and spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch.

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Maddy of course had to be in the middle of it all and help :)

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I was at Pro Digital Photos ordering our big family picture for our living room (pictures to come shortly) and the kids were being crazy and touching things. The employee told them he had balloons for them if they were quiet... it worked like a charm and they sat on this chair and didn't make a peep the rest of the time. Maddy asked me to take of picture of them behaving so I took one with my phone...

Cousins' Dallin & Claire's Birthday Party...

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Saturday we went to my nephew Dallin and niece Claire's birthday party. It was all about Dragons and Princess's. Aren't the cakes my sister Jamie made for them adorable! Seriously... she stole all the crafty talent in the family! I usually find a way to bribe her into making cakes for my kids birthdays because she does such a great job!

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Dallin, the birthday boy who turned seven.

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Claire, the birthday girl who turned four.

The kids had to complete "Knight Training" and save the Princess's. Lots of fun activities including killing a dragon...

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The girls got tiara's, wands, rings and hair clips.

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The boys got swords, crowns, dragon manuals and eye patches. 

Thanks Jamie for such a fun party!

Saturday 3/5/11

School Patriotic Programs...

On Thursday the kids had their Patriotic Programs at school. I love that they are taught this and their performances were so cute. Maddox's class was up first (he's on the bottom row, first one on your left)...

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He is still pretty shy but participated a lot more this time. The other day he came up to me and put his hand on his heart and recited the "Pledge of Allegiance" all by himself. I was pleasantly surprised and so proud of him!

Next up was Avery's class (she's on the top row, third one in on your right)...

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During her previous school performance (which was also her first one) she didn't sing at all and just stood there. Before she went to school I told her that we were so excited to come watch her sing and I told her to not be afraid and to sing for us and she did... :)

Here are some short videos (I took video of almost all of the performances so there are quite a few)...

Maddy's...









Avery's...






P.S. Some of the pictures were taken with Steve's phone so they aren't the best quality.

Thursday 3/3/11

Little Ninja...

Maddy told me he was a Ninja and that he wanted me to take some pictures of his moves...

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Don't you love the belt around his head and his game face!?!

Thursday 3/3/11

Steve's Birthday Celebration...

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This past Tuesday was Steve's 38th birthday. We kept things pretty low key and just celebrated as a family when he got home from work...

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Maddy was so excited for Steve to open his present from him that he HAD to help him. He also planned months in advance to get him some Ben 10 figures (ones that he doesn't have of course.) Steve couldn't help but laugh and suggested that we "store them" in Maddy's room :)
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With Steve's strict diet I knew he wouldn't be up for much cake if any at all, so I bought this little tiny cake and thought it would be funny to put 38 candles on it :D It didn't turn out to be the greatest idea... I couldn't light them fast enough before they started melting all over and burning my hands so I gave up and we sang Happy Birthday to him and then he just blew out the candles I was able to light...

Tuesday 3/1/11

Cousin Jace's Birthday Party...

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Last month my nephew Jace turned three. My sister Stacy threw a really cute Toy Story themed birthday party for him. He is obsessed with everything Toy Story and has even given his brother, mom and dad "Toy Story" names. He gets really upset if you call them anything else... it is too cute! Here are some pictures from the party...
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Not only did we all get cake and ice cream but everyone got to make their own personal pizza... yummy!
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My Dad with Avery and my niece Claire.

Thanks Stacy for hosting such a fun party!

Saturday 2/19/11

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy Happy Birthday Steve...

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Today is Steve's 38th birthday... doesn't he look amazing! I can honestly say he's in better shape today than he's ever been! 

Thanks for being such an amazing husband and father Steve! The three of us love you so so much and are so grateful for everything you do for our little family!