Happy Heart Day!

So, Frank and I had a "discussion" Friday morning about how I always wait too long to take his shirts out of the dryer, so HE has to iron them (I've probably ironed his shirts maybe three times - ever!). It's a complaint he's had since day ONE of our marriage, and I always get super bugged that he's so ungrateful....ya da ya da ya da. So this year, I decided to give a gift from the heart, and instead of getting offended, I gave him this..
.

And Frank gave me these....they were actually long-stemmed roses, but Frank helped me make an actual arrangement by removing all leaves, cutting stems, and filling the space between the vases with white rice to hide the stems, and rounding it out with a little ribbon - I LOVE THIS STUFF!

I made the kids coupons books with these bargains:

• Pass for Unloading Dishwasher
• Trip to the Dollar Store
• One Hour Computer Time
• Pass for Making Bed
• Play Board Game with Mom
• Trip to A&W for Root Beer Float Cone

2-Day Tween Makeover

Here's the 2-day makeover I did for 11-year old Sarah....

Before...

AFTER

This room was achieved on a major budget. Since this is an 11-year old GIRL, I wanted to make sure that it felt "loungy" for her and her friends to hang out. I did this by positioning the bed in a corner, and filling it with all different types of pillows, and added the tissue balls for a little exrta whimsy. We kept the existing bed, and painted the knobs black. The curtains are just your cheap wal-mart panels with sequins - of course. They were just pinned up to create a valance.

Before...

AFTER

This nook was just screaming for a little attention, so I gave it to them. To save time and money, we left the existing paint, and only painted the desk area to really set it apart, and utilize the entire space. The tiny desk just wasn't cutting it, so we bought an old desk at the D.I., took off the top, posistioned the drawers on the outer walls, and bought a cheap door ($20) at lowes, set it on top, and painted it all white to pop off the pink. It now looks like an expensive built-in! Spraypainted a cork board, and finished it off with ribbons to display her pictures, and just put scrapbook paper in frames to complete the look.

Before...

AFTER

Just as important as the bed, is a full-length mirror! We did this with your cheap wal-mart mirror, then painted the frame on the wall. The lamp shade was embellished with Pretty Petal flower clips, and the letter "S" with coordinating ribbons.

THE FUN NEVER STOPS!!

To Do...

So, I made a "to do" list last night with 22 items on it, and what do you think I did first thing this morning???

...Organized my scarves and necklaces - NOT ON MY TO DO LIST! I think I'm just rebellious. If I didn't make a "to do" list, I probably would have actually completed the scheduled tasks. By-gones :)

ANYONE?????

Is there anyone NOT on a diet who will go to In-N-Out with me??? Anyone??? I've never been, and I'm just dying to sink my teeth into a nice juicy burger! No one else is up to it though....stupid new years resolutions...maybe next month ;)

sLeDdiNg

(only picture I got before camera died :() Happy Winter....

Happy New Year!

Frank wanted to surprise me for the new year, so we sent the kids for a sleepover at his moms, and partied like this....




*Checked in at Hotel Monaco downtown


*Walked over to Benihana, and had THE MOST DELICIOUS DINNER!


*Went to the Gateway to watch Sherlock Holmes (and ATE even more...)


*Went next door to the Gallivan Center to watch fireworks, and create a few of our own ;)


*Walked over to a cafe at midnight and and enjoyed, YES, even more food! Super nachos and hot chocolate!

PERECT WAY TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR....THANKS FRANK!

Lava Hot Springs

For Christmas, my mom and dad gave us all a family trip to Lava Hot Springs! We left the Monday after Christmas. Frank and I decided to leave a little early to take the kids "where it all began" in Logan. We had lunch at the Blue Bird, and wished we hadn't....it was FREEZING! Even the waitresses were wearing coats - we got out of there as fast as we could, but still managed to get a few photo's (of course!)We got to Lava, turned the heat on full blast in our motel room, and left for yet another meal. We eat at the best little pizza place - just feels so homey & WARM! Especially because there were 27 "family members" in our party! We had an adult table...

a BOY table...

and of course, the little GIRL table!

After dinner, we went to the springs with the kids, and then my mom and dad tended ALL the grandkids while the adults enjoyed some "alone time" at the hot springs - SO FUN! Kids had so much fun staying in the motel. They were especially excited about the microwave and refrigerator. You'd think they'd never seen one before! Carly even took pictures to document!

The next morning, we went to breakfast, and headed back. We took the long way, and drove through Logan again for a quick trip down memory lance, and to pick up some squeaky cheese, and aggie ice cream!

The BIG day!

Kids were in our room at 6am (I'm sure they were up long before that, but that was when we told them they could wake us up). The kids are at really fun ages for Christmas. I was afraid that it would be a little awkward this year since I just told Logan about Santa, but for some reason, he is pretending that I never told him...it's the weirdest thing! Maybe it was just too traumatic to learn the truth - who knows? Anyhoo...here's the pics...

Eve

We did things a little different this year, and decided to have Christmas Eve with just me, Frank, and the kids. First....we made sugar cookies for Santa (YUM)!

I had planned a fancy christmas eve feast, but last minute decided that I'd enjoy myself more if I didn't do all the work, so we went to Red Robin instead! It was surprisingly fun...

Later that night, the"elves" left pj's on the front step, and each kid picked a story (and picture) of Jesus that they would tell the rest of the family (Logan's idea)...

Frank helped the kids build a giant fort in Carly's room, so they could all sleep together, but the excitement was just way too much. Around 11:30, we finally put the kabosh on the party, and made them all sleep in their own beds!

Christmas Stories!

family photo shoot (minus one)

LoGaN

ChAsE

cArLy

Thanksgiving

New Moon Partay!

Halloween

This year, we had a LADYBUG...

and the "disappearing" NINJA'S (I say disappearing, because they were so excited to trick-or-treat, that they left without picture's - so this is all we got!)...

Carly had her pre-school Halloween Program. Here she is with her teacher, Miss Melanie...

Punk'n Carv'n

Chase is 7!

We only have friend parties at ages 3,5,8,12,16&18, so this year was Chase's "family" party. We decorated his room while he slept, had candle-light pancakes for breakfast, went to McDonald's for dinner, played at Kangaroo Zoo, and had doughnuts instead of cake - Chase's dream come true. My "little peanut" just keeps getting bigger, and bigger - go figure!Ya, frank's picking the hippo's nose. Funny thing...every year that the kids get more mature, Frank and I go the other way! Good times :)

Sporty Spice

When Carly started ballet a year ago, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, surely, there is nothing cuter than a "tiny dancer"....

UNTIL...

we signed Carly up for soccer! She is so shy in ballet, that I was really worried about her not being aggressive enough for soccer, but we signed her up anyway. She is an entirely different person on that field. She's the smallest on her team, but kicks some major butt! She's very aggressive and focused, and can blow the boys goals out of the water! I just can't get enough of my little "sporty-spice".

Now, don't get me wrong, before we leave, she'll still say, "look mom, I'm going to wear my bracelet so they know I'm a girl", and she makes sure her hair accessories coordinate with her "blue butterflies" team uniform!

Happy Birthday Frank!

Frank's 35! I wanted to do something really cool for his birthday this year, so I though it would be fun to go camping...just the two of us! Fun, huh? Well, Frank shot me down. Instead, we went to dinner at Red Lobster - ORIGINAL - right? Oh well, camping will have to be for MY birthday! That weekend Frank also found out that he passed the first section of the CPA exam, so we really could have done ANYTHING for his birthday, and he would have been on cloud nine! Good job Frank :)

Did you see me??

A couple months ago I was asked to sing with a choir at the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. We had three hour practices twice a week. It was pretty fun - SUPER STRICT (I tried be-dazzling my shirt collar, but they wouldn't go for it :(...But all of it was worth my 5 seconds of fame! And of, course, the experience itself.

Family Picnic

My grandma Peterson came to visit from Canada giving us all a great excuse to get together. I enjoyed myself with the camera, so here are a few collages to sum up the night...

"Siblings"

I especially like the one of Mark imitating me and Stacy trying to "stand skinny" for the camera to get our best angle!

"Little Girls"

These little ladies love the camera almost as much as we do!

"Couples"

You can't tell from these photo's, but there were also nine boy cousins present too...they were having so much fun together, they missed out on their photo-op :) GOOD TIMES!