BIRTHDAYS!

At the end of February, Jeff sent me to Arizona for an early birthday get away.  I had the best time.  The weather was in the 70's and sunny. It was gorgeous.  So nice to go home and warm up. I filled my days with family, eating, movie, games, more family and friends. Everything I love!  I even got to speak at Ethen, Elizabeth's son's baptism.

Since it was close to my 40th birthday, my sweet sister and dear friend Heather Biggs put a party together for me.  We met at Laura and Brent's sub shop once it closed. 

Laura is amazingly talented and decorated the place super cute with pink and green balloons, centerpieces, etc. The place was darling. She even blew up pictures of me through out my life, connected them with ribbon and made adorable garland for the walls. It was fun for everyone to see themselves in the pictures too. She is so awesome.

Then I was surrounded by family and friends. Some friends that I hadn't seen in way too long of time. We played a game of music from the 80s, enjoyed visiting and super yummy food.

I LOVED every minute of it. I have been so blessed with such amazing friends and family through out my life. HUGE BLESSINGS!!

It was just THE perfect trip ever!

The day after I got home, Brennan turned 14!!!!!

Holy cow. I cannot believe my little guy is 14.  It's so scary how fast time goes by.  Brennan chose to have his traditional chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Then he chose breakfast burritos for dinner and Jello cake for dessert. That night, he and I went to the movies together. It was so fun to have some one on one with the birthday boy. AND look at that cute birthday sign below. My amazingly talented sister made it. It is so darn cute. We got good use of it right away!

Later that week, I went down to Mississippi to have my hair done by my dear friend Mary Berry. She surprised me by having my other camp friends, Kriss Norris and Alayna Weiss there to celebrate my birthday.  Alayna brought our favorite Mexican food.  We had so much fun just laughing and chatting away while Mary made me beautiful.  Wish I took pictures. Dang it! I just LOVE those girls. 

On Friday of that week, my most awesome friends here had a birthday lunch for me. We went to our Italian food joint and had more laughs, conversation, and yummy food.  SEE WHAT I MEAN?  I have THE BEST friends!!!!!! I was so spoiled.

On my actual birthday, Jeff decorated the kitchen so cute with 40 decor everywhere. It was so fun. We also woke up to sunny skies and warmer temperatures.  So, after eating my birthday strawberry shortcake for breakfast....we went HIKING!!! I loved it. And even though Brooke was making fun of me for being so old the whole way, it was so fun.  Later we enjoyed lunch and movies with the kids....then date night with Jeff. It was FABULOUS!!! I couldn't have asked for a better 40th birthday. I felt so loved.

What a Winter!!!!

This has been a crazy winter. We have had 4 snow days and record low temperatures for the month of January. We have been FREEZING! Yes, I know I'm wimpy. But give me a break. I'm still an Arizona girl at heart.  

Brooke had fun with her dad doing a science project on distillation. 

Brennan made the honor roll for the semester! Woo hoo!

I helped Brooke's class make 4 fleece blankets for Youth Village where the children don't have any blankets. That was quite entertaining watching them. But they did a good job.

We've had school cancelled 4 times so far. Once we didn't have hardly any snow.  Two days we had a major ice storm. It was gorgeous seeing the city in ice.  BUT, we had major problems and damage because of it. 

This is a picture of the city tree that is behind our fence. It got so weighed down with ice, it came crashing over our fence breaking it and our fence and covering the swing set.  Hopefully they'll be out soon to fix it all. We also had a few days of  several hours with no power in our city due to trees crashing on the power lines.  We had tons of trees down all over the place.  The longest period of time without power was 7 hours starting at 10 pm. We were very grateful for our handy generator that night! BE PREPARED!

We woke up today to another cancelled day of school because of snow. This time, it was real.  Kinda funny because it took us all by surprise. Nobody was really expecting it. 

I think we ended up getting a good 5-6 inches though and had so much fun.

Regan made me proud and actually played in it longer than she ever had before.

Brooke built herself a little man.

Jadyn lasted about 5 minutes. But she still looked cute.

Brooke and Regan were brave enough to make snow angels.

Jadyn is such a momma's girl.

Brooke and Brennan ganged up on me in a snowball fight.

All in all, we had so much fun...but so not equipped for snow.  Without proper snow clothes and gloves, it is so cold. It's fun being able to have snow just a couple days a year though. But, I have a feeling we haven't seen the end of it yet.

Texas Trip and Stuff

The day after Christmas, the kids and I loaded up into our Yukon XL and drove to Houston. Jeff, unfortunately, had to stay home to work.  But, one of my old young women, Allison Enright, was getting married and I had to go. Our dear friends, the Echards, were so wonderful (as always) and put us up in their beautiful home. It was great seeing them.  The next day was Brooke's 10th birthday!

We drove over to Friendswood to go to our old ward. It was so fun seeing everyone there and seeing how much the kids have grown.  Then, my fabulous friends Shelli and Todd Horman had us over for a yummy dinner and cake to celebrate Brooke's day. It was so sweet of them to make her feel special even though we were away from home. We loved being with them again.  Brought back so many good memories of living there.

The day after that, I got to go shopping and do lunch with Stephani Echard. So much fun. Then went to quite the racy bridal shower for Allison. So much fun. I'm so proud of this girl. She chose a great guy. He is so lucky to get her! The temple sealing was wonderful and Allison looked gorgeous.  I was so happy I got to be there to share that special day!

Skipping forward to 2010....determined to make this a fabulous year. So far so good.  For MLK day, Jeff had the day off. Luckily it was a gorgeous sunny day. We took the kids to lunch and the zoo.  All the animals were out and happy that they finally had some sun and warmth after record low temperatures.  

The animals were having so much fun...including my animals. :)

We loved being out in the sunshine!

Love these little faces!

All in all...it was a near perfect day!

What a blessing!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's that wonderful time of the year where we run, run, run from one event to another!  We have been BUSY!!! Some of the things we've been up to lately...Brennan's Middle School Christmas Choir Concert.  Brennan is on the left 3rd row. One of the only 3 boys!

Brooke's 4th grade class had a field trip to the Pink Palace museum.  The kids had a worksheet to fill out. We spent most of the time filling the dumb worksheet out which didn't leave any time to actually enjoy the museum. But, I enjoyed being with her.  Here she is with two of her friends, Carson Rees and Sarah Emerson. We had a lot of fun going to lunch with them and all the rest of our crazy kids afterwards.

Here are the other kids that joined us that day, Carter Emerson, Regan and Ryleigh Rees. BOY was it a noisy car full!

Another day we went to see Brooke's choir sing on our cute little town square.  They were supposed to be music for the fair on the square. Unfortunately, it was a very cold and rainy day. It pretty much ended up being just the parents that showed up to watch. We were all wishing we could move the concert to the warm school instead. No such luck!  We got to enjoy all 10 Christmas songs in the freezing cold!

Regan's preschool had a little program for us where they sang cute Christmas songs.  Here Regan (far right) is with some of her classmates.  They were soooo cute!  I was sad knowing that this was the last preschool program I'd get to have one of my children in.  They are growing way too fast for me!

Here Regan is with her reindeer that she made for the program.

Jadyn had her Christmas class party. Isn't she so cute?

Brooke with her friend Alysse at her class Christmas party.

And of course, Regan had to have a picture taken with me! 

That's just some of the fun we've been up to lately!  Put on your running sneakers! At Christmas time you go, go, go!!!!

Rocky Top Tennessee

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids out of school for few days and rented a cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN right next to the Smoky Mountain National Forest.  This is the third time we've been there, and we loved every minute of it.

The first day we went miniature golfing, ate some good southern food for lunch, took a ski lift up a mountain and rode the slides down, and went to the Christmas shops. Then we went back to the cabin and made S'mores and played games. The kids and Jeff had fun in the jaccuzzi. (I hate them personally).

Here's Jeff and me at the top of mountain by the ski lift. So beautiful there. 

The next day we went to do some hiking in the national forest. It was perfect weather. A gorgeous day. 

We hiked on this trail for 1.5 miles up to a water fall where we ate some lunch.

I think the other hikers were jealous they didn't think about bringing lunch too. After the  hike, we drove to the highest point of the National Park and enjoyed a gorgeous scenery. 

As we were leaving the park, we saw this cute little guy up in the tree. No trip to the Smoky Mountains is complete with out seeing a black bear. 

That night we took the kids to a dinner comedy show with Christmas music. It was a lot of fun.  It was a perfect, beautiful, much needed vacation. 

This week we had a great Thanksgiving. Jeff's sister Holly and family came into town. We had a great time with them at the zoo, shopping and of course turkey day.  So blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Halloween and Race for the Cure

    

I cannot figure out this new formatting for the life of me. Sorry for the mess.  This Halloween was busy.  Halloween morning I got to participate in my 2nd Race for the Cure for breast cancer. Once again...an amazing experience. This is my team, Postively Pink, above.

I got to race with my friend Nicole Rees (left) who was an awesome run/walking partner and see my friend Mary Berry (right) as well as lots of other women I love to death.

The neighborhood that we run in is so amazing. A lot of the neighbors decorate their homes to participate and support.       

         

Here is an example of some of the homes that decorated. 

It is such an emotional and empowering experience to see so many people come out in support, see the survivors and see the names of those who didn't survive.  In all, Memphis had 16,000 participants in the race.  And of course, my thoughts were with my favorite survivors Elizabeth Cluff and Cheri Sharp who have been such an example of strength and courage to me.

Brooke and Jadyn dressed up as pirates. Regan was a cute witch. Brennan was the candy passer outer. We told him he was too old this year.  But, he did a great job.

The church put on a trunk or treat on the 30th. They had a chili cook-off and games and a costume parade. The kids had so much fun. Regan won a costume contest for her age group. They said she won for "Prettiest Purple Witch."  I thought that was so cute.

Regan's preschool also had a party.  Nothing cuter than a bunch of 4/5 year olds dressed up for Halloween. She loved it.  It was a great Halloween.