Christmas 2010 - Can I backtrack that far?

I have had several posts I've been in the middle of.... I figured Christmas was as good a place as any to pick up from...

We were planning on having Christmas Eve at my house this year... when our super, amazing, awesome friends {Maddy and Dustin Rogers} invited us to come to their house with Meredith and her family, and Grandma of course! This sounded like a great idea {considering I had just had surgery 4 days earlier and wasn't quite feeling great yet!}


We had some awesome soups along with some equally awesome rolls {brought to AZ all the way from Utah} YUM!!! My mouth is watering thinking about them -anyone heading to St. George want to pick some up for me???


It was a perfect, low key evening - complete with a Nativity reenactment - probably the best one I have EVER witnessed! If you weren't there, you totally missed out. Especially when Nate was helping Brynley give birth!

(You must click on this collage and look a bit closer at the pictures!)

After the Nativity we had the kids play Left, Right, Center - good idea gone terribly wrong... It was an epic failure. Kids were crying right and left as their treats were being taken and given away. I'm pretty sure it must become a new tradition!

(This picture was before the massive bouts of hysteria!)

We then let the kids decorate cookies for Santa - they were really cute! And lastly, Santa dropped off some pj's at the door for all of them! Yay! They were all nice and tired when we left the Roger's house and went right to sleep when we got home!





It didn't take Andy and I too long to get the kids presents under the tree. Grandma was in town and helped get Christmas ready {hence the reason for Days of Our Lives being on the TV!}


It was a very relaxing and perfect Christmas Eve!

Valentine's Day 2011

I know I'm a little late this year... Just wanted to post a picture of the kid's Valentine's they handed out. I am IN LOVE with them! I got the idea from my sister {Meredith} who made similar ones last year. She got the idea somewhere else on the internet, not sure where...

Brynley turned 5!

Brynley spent at least two months counting down to her Birthday, the day couldn't come soon enough! She REALLY wanted her party at Chick-fila this year and so that's what we did - best decision I ever made! She still wanted a cutsie girl theme so she chose Alice in Wonderland {using TomKat Studio Printables of course!} The invites were sweet and it was fun making the cupcake toppers. I really wish I had gotten a picture of the favor bags. Each one had a thank you note as well as a circle with each girl's name. Inside was a Chick-fila cow, candy, and a fun hair applique!

Brynley headed out the door for school on her birthday!

This is the really awesome banner that came with our party package!

Zac at the party

Brynley and two of her sweet friends - Avery and Hannah

All of the party guests {except Addison who hadn't arrived yet}

It was a fun day filled with food, playing, presents, and fun! What made the day even better was the surprise visit from Aunt Shelly and Grandma Nadene. Brynley had no idea they were coming to surprise her on her birthday, it was so fun!
Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

Mia wore a dress and headband to match her big sister!

The Sunday after her birthday was Brynley's family party. She got snorkel equipment from Grandpa and Debbie, dollhouse people and mini van from Grandma and Aunt Shelly and Uncle Joe, Polly pocket stuff from her brothers, clothes from Mom, and a certificate to get her own Leopard Gecko from the Simpsons!
The real surprise was the scavenger hunt to her BIG present!
All of the kids were super excited for the HUGE dollhouse! Brynley has been playing with it almost non stop since she got it!

Brynley made sure to invite Peanut {Lindsay's Hampster} to her party. Mia was obsessed with peanut and almost squeezed her to death!

What I've been up to lately!

Life has been crazy lately but so exciting at the same time! The main reason for my lack of blogging has been my recent employment... I am currently working two jobs from home while trying to maintain the house and kids. I am a million times busier than I have been in ages yet I am the happiest I've been in a very long time. Don't get me wrong, I am generally very happy in my life but things are even better now. I have come to realize how much I have missed working over the last 8 years...

My first job is as an assistant designer at The TomKat Studio {the above cupcake toppers are part of the Alice in Wonderland Collection, these are from Bryn's B-day last week}
We create custom printable items for birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers, etc... This is a DREAM job for me and I feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten it. Thanks to my amazing friend Toni {Who also works for The TomKat Studio} for putting in a million good words for me and to my friend Wendy for encouraging me to just put myself out there! I work from home most of the time except when I get to help Kim with a photoshoot which is also great fun! I look forward to working here for MANY years...


My other job {which was supposed to be pretty temporary but has turned permanent because I adore my boss Becki} is working for Whippycake. The above pictures show Mia and Brynley wearing some of my own creations similar to Whippycake stuff. I used to sew for WC but now I assemble each of the appliques. Again I get to work from home doing something I love, what could be better???? Thanks again to my friend Wendy for helping me get this job!

I also want to mention that neither of these jobs would be possible without the support of my amazing husband! Andy has really helped pick up the slack around the house. We have developed a great laundry system as well as a great partnership in all of the other household chores - We have always shared most of the responsibilites around the house but he is definitely doing a little more now!

Finally, tonight Andy and I went out by ourselves for the first time in a VERY long time! We went to The Keg to celebrate my 32nd birthday... We had a great night - it seems we have been so busy for the last month since I started working that it has been hard to have any quality alone time. We had a fun time just chatting away... I love it that we can still have such great conversations together!

I kind of feel like life is so good right now, perfect really... the only thing that would make it better is losing about 50 pounds... I will start that goal next week I think!!!

A new addition to the family!

Back in January we decided to trade Hayden's Hermit crabs {which Santa brought to him} in for a Leopard Gecko. Hayden got to choose which one he wanted and he named him Leo. After a few weeks we changed his {her, we figured out it is actually a girl} name to Twitch because her tail would twitch really fast each time she ate a cricket! We have really grown to enjoy Twitch, though she is more Andy's pet than anyone else's as he gets to do the honors of coating the crickets in vitamin powder and diggin the meal worms out of their container. The pictures from when we first got her are not the best but if you look at the first few compared to the last, you will see how her skin coloring has changed a ton since shedding her skin twice.

It's been interesting learning about Geckos and how they need to be cared for. It might actually be a bit higher maintenance than a dog even! Twitch had a bit of a near death experience the second day we had her when Andy accidentally squished her with the leg of the ottoman. It was so sad, we thought for sure that she was dead. Her arm seemed to be broken for a few weeks but somehow we nursed her back to health and she is alive and kickin after a few weeks of practically having to hand feed her the crickets!