High Five!

The week leading up to the birthday we get out the birthday tree and put one ornament on a day. It adds to the excitement and helps Emma grasp the concept of time.

My parents had myself and my sisters and our husbands over for a tasteful seminar on intimacy in marriage. I've never heard of ANY other parents doing this for their children, let alone their son-in-laws. We all had such a great discussion and benefited from this evening greatly. I know it can be taboo to some, but I think every relationship needs to have this topic addressed. Thanks again mom and dad!

We spent the night at my parents and LOVED taking the girls sledding down their hill. Lydia was in heaven! It was an absolute beautiful day.

This photo speaks for itself. One of my favorite winter scenes I must say.

My sweetest little Emma turned five today! She is still the same joy, ENERGY, and light she was five years ago. Not much about her has changed over the years. She has a heart of gold, confidence like I've never seen, has trouble watching where she is going, and is the most obedient child there ever was. I am so thankful to have her as my first born.

Every other year we rotate between a friend's party and a family party, this year was a family party. My mom kept Lydia so Ryan and I could take Emma to spend the day with us. We went to see a 3D IMAX movie at the Gateway, took her to build-a-bear to buy a new friend courtesy of her grand-parents, and then we went to Firehouse Pizza for lunch.

My mom and Lydia came back and joined us for cake and presents. It was sooooo nice just keeping the day low key and spoiling the most deserving girl there ever was.

Laying out all of Emma's birthday presents from Ryan and I

Finally finished a LONG over due shower gift for my cousin Jessica. This is her marriage advice book. A big thanks to all of those who emailed me entries. For those who didn't, you will still have your chance.

I work at Olive Garden on nights and weekends. I love getting out of the house, and what can I say, the money is great! This is how much I WALKED with (after tipping out) last Friday night.

Ryan brought me flowers for no reason!

...So I made him breakfast in bed for no reason :)

Ohhh, Monday, cleaning day. Thanks to this "magic eraser" our house actually gets clean. This little friend of mine can get out just about anything, but is used mostly on marker stains left behind on the counters and walls.

J'adore la Paris Barbie

Emma is such an obedient little girl, I know I am not fully appreciating it b/c I have nothing to compare it to. I also know that I am very blessed in this regard. She went 13 days straight without ever being asked to turn her light to yellow. So to reward her she and I went out to eat at Spaghetti Factory and saw an IMAX movie. It was a great day for both of us.
Ryan and Lydia flew out on Saturday to go see Ryan's family in Portland for his nephew's farewell. Ryan and I pretty much had to fight over which one of us got to keep Lydia, but he won out. She was sooooooo good for him and he had the best time with his family.
Modern Technology is just the best. That is Ryan's cell phone he is using to let her watch a movie, pretty sweet eh?
Emma and I had a lot of fun being just the two of us. We were hit with a huge snow storm and I was very thankful for my neighbor Mike snow blowing our driveway.
Sunday night Emma and I went to Logan to spend two nights with my parents. I loved taking my cousin Matt's senior photos on Monday and making them personal to him. Also I enjoyed dinner at Elements with my mom and dad and sister Jamie, and also finishing a huge list of craft projects.
I finished writing my history for the year 2010, and since I got mine done first out of my sisters, I won the prize of this amazing Paris Barbie. I love her so much!! It will be years before I let her out of the box for Emma to play with.
Emma is such a good girl. She just plays quietly in the mornings until I wake up. Ryan is long gone to work and it isn't until 9:30 or so that Emma comes in my room to finally rouse me out of bed. Sad, I know, but lovely.
Perfecting our Thai Green tea. Not nearly as good as Thaiphoon's at the Gateway, but always hits the spot for me.

Sunny Days

The weather outside has been absolutely beautiful, and we've gotten outside to enjoy it as much as possible. Here the girls are at Lee's marketplace feeding the ducks.

I LOVE fabric. I have never sewed in my life, but I still find myself drawn towards sewing projects, I will admit it is under the assistance of my Aunt Lee and my mom, but I still love it. Here is my most recent order from Fabric.com. More to come on table cloths and leggings for the girls
Just another BEAUTIFUL 53 degree day in the middle of February. This is the view heading up to our street.
Sunday our neighbors had their missionary homecoming for Parker. We've heard so much about Parker and he has lived up to his reputation. I think it is the sweetest thing ever how much this family adores their brother/son and I think we should all brag about our family members and not be shy to express how amazing we think they are.

Valentine's Day we had my nephew Jaken join us for our red and pink breakfast. Emma helped me make cake balls that we took around to various neighbors and teachers and let Emma hand out her home made Valentine cards.
For dinner we had a heart shaped pizza, exchanged gifts and played games.

Been to the park as much as possible before the snow returns

Emma started a little dance class today and these poses are ALL her!!

This is the view I see when I look in my rear view mirror, this one photo summarizes so much of the joy in my life.

Love is Tweet

This little magic trick was one that my first grade teacher used on me. To this day I remember the shame of being told to turn my light to yellow. How it works is that when Emma goes to bed at night if her light is green then she gets a star, five stars in a row equals a special mommy/daughter day. Yellow light at bedtime means no star, red light at bed time means no star AND no night light or book for bed time. She has the chance to earn her light back to green by doing something good or helpful that she was not asked to do. So far, no red lights. I'm happy to report this little "light system" works just as well on Emma as it did me when I was a little girl.

Emma had her little Valentine's party today with her three little girlfriends she's had since birth. Daviny Rasmussen, Lily Stowers and Addi Malmberg.

I bought a bird cookie cutter and had our local baker (Lee, from the Straw Market) whip me up some darling bird sugar cookies that we used as the party favor. Lee's marketplace made me some red bread to use for sandwiches.

My mom did this when I was a little girl and I just now remembered it a few days ago. Take some tiny flower pots, fill them with ice cream, top with crumbled cookies, a gummy worm, and silk flowers, voila!!

In keeping with the Love Bird theme each of the girls made a bird feeder to take home. Emma and I gathered pine cones earlier in the week, then the girls layered them with peanut butter and then we topped it off with bird seeds.

I am fully aware this as not a great photo. However, it was freezing outside and I forgot to adjust my settings for the lighting and just snapped a quick photo of the girls before letting them run back inside. So I did the best editing I could for what I had to work with.

"Hold you!"

On Tuesdays I volunteer in Emma's pre-school. I LOVE her curriculum and I love that they say the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

Wednesday Emma had Addi over all day and I was able to work on my little Valentine's magnet project.
Ryan has been loving the Hunger Games series. I love a man who will read!

My friend Holly brought me these as a thank you for watching her daughter Lily, ummm, yeah, can you see how flat the bag is? This is how I spent my Friday, eating these all day long!

Emma rocking the shortie hairstyle!

Lydia's big thing right now is "Hold you." She likes to sit on my lap or be as close to me as possible. I adore it MOST of the time :)

I'm not actually trying to potty train Lydia, she's only 18 months, but the girl knows what she wants. It's rare that anything actually happens on the potty, but she sure loves to try :)

Butterfingers

I absolutely love the quiet of a snowfall. I love the sound of snow underfoot. I love waking up in the morning to every branch of our trees frosted with snowflakes. It all sounds so cheesy, but I love winter.
My parents came out and dazzled our girls while Ryan and I had the best date night. We mixed it up from our usual routine and it was nice to have something different.
Lydia has a few loves in life, I've already mentioned her 'taggy' that she loves, but along with taggy is her 'piggy pillow' she got for Christmas. She takes it everywhere with her. Here she is enjoying some breakfast with piggy pillow.
Butterfingers strikes again. I don't know what is with me, but I have a reputation for dropping or fumbling things. It's ALMOST comical, almost.
Saturday night we had a family night at the Solomon center with Ryan's buddy from work, Brad, and his darling family. It's nice to have kids the same age.
Lydia is the funniest little ham. She is a princess on a whole other level than Emma ever was. She's only 18 months but LOVES to wear accessories, and keeps them on all day. Notice her slippers on top of her footed pajamas, her birthday crown, spider hat, baby legs on her arms on top of her pajamas, Emma's dance costume with mismatched hat. For now it's cute, I hope it's not a sign of the drama yet to come.
Mondays are cleaning days. How is it the weekends can turn a house upside down? But I spend the better portion of my Mondays cleaning and doing laundry for the week to come.

Locks of Love

My friend Holly and I take turns running the car pool for pre-school. It is fabulous not to drive both ways. Plus, it makes Emma so excited watching out the window for them to come. Here she is off to hop in their car.

Lydia is the sweetest little love bug. She absolutely adores "Jethus." She can spot Him anywhere and LOVES to look at His pictures. Her most favorite thing ever is to watch the most beautiful video of him called Come See the Light. It's on every day in our house, and she likes to watch it over and over again.

All men have strengths, but I must say that I wouldn't trade my husbands for anything. Bundy is a fixer. He can and does fix anything and everything. My chi had finally given up the ghost, but not to worry, Bundy was on it. The cords had actually come detached from the plug, I don't even know how one would go about mending those, but Ry did it, and now I'm back in business.

For Christmas Ryan got me this hair crimper that I adore. I use it all the time on myself (when I actually get ready) and about every day on Emma. We call it mermaid hair.
Family Night we went and saw Narnia and then followed it with a game of Jenga. Emma is actually pretty good at it, especially considering how clumsy she can be sometimes.


My sister Sara surprised us all and flew my sister Stacey in for our girls night weekend. Me and my mom and sisters are RARELY together, just the five of us. I can't remember the last time we were. There are usually kids or husbands lurking in the background. It was so nice to spend time together and we really made sure it was quality and made up for lost time. I have two sisters that look alike, Stacey and Sara, we call them the twins. They are the same size, sound the same, dress the same, everything. Then my oldest sister Jamie and I are much more alike, personality, hair, etc. It's fun that way :) P.S. Stacey has a huge salad with every meal, and loads of salt. I think it's so funny, hence the photo.
We haven't been going to my parents every Sunday like we used to, but I sure love it when we do. This was just a typical Sunday evening....Lydia loving up on Papa and Annie (my parents who do not go by grandma and grandpa) playing cards, and wall ball and four square in the gym.
My sweetest little Emma has a heart of gold. One day when I was getting the tangles out of her hair and she was crying I told her how some little girls don't have any hair. She said she could cut hers off and give it to them. So we let her hair grow out until it was long enough to donate. VOILA! The time had come. A little bit of me died inside when the first chunk was cut off. But I have to say how VERY sick I am of tangles, hair washing, curling, clips, pony tails, etc. It will be nice to have a break. Definitely I will grow it back out again, but for now I am happy that some other little girl can enjoy Emma's thick hair.