christmas pics finally!

the kids got money from their grandpa in CA so I took them to the store to pick out their own toys.  logan wanted to save his $ so jackson, being the sweet soul he is, used his $ that he got PLUS $ he has been saving and got this lego set to share with Logan. 

Jackson and his best friend Jackson on his last day at school.  I know he will never see Jackson again and it's heartbreaking because they were such close friends. 

 For Jackson's class party, they made gingerbread houses.  It was really fun!  The boy in the lower right corner is Enzo, who is another one of Jackson's best pals.  We love Enzo, he is a very sweet kid.

 This year, Brian and I decided to limit the amount of presents we gave the kids which was HARD.  I love to shop and shop and spoil them rotten but I did that last year and within a few hours they were saying how bored they were!  It was TOO much.  So we put a limit of 10 per child (I'm sure that still sounds like a lot to some) and it was hard to not keep shopping.  Carli would have been happy with 3 - once she got to the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, it was all over for her.  It took her about an hour to get through everything else.  But it was a great Christmas and I don't think it was nearly as overwhelming for the kids as in years passed.

 One of our favorite games we got is Headbandz.  We have had so much fun playing it.  It's a game that everyone can get into!

 Even Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jeff got into it...  Easy for all ages!

 Carli in her Christmas outfit.  Isn't it cute? HA! :)  Halloween tights and a cowboy vest.

 The boys and their new weapons which are almost as tall as they are!

 The kids really wanted to go to Idaho to see Brian's parents / brother and wife and we were supposed to leave a couple of days after Christmas but the kids begged and begged so we went the day after.  We scrambled to get everything ready and took off in a hurry.  They had the best time.  We went to a movie and Carli slept on Grandpa the entire movie.

 We all then went to our favorite restaurant there called Tomato Street.  Carli drew this little guy which I was so impressed! I think Grandma drew the face but she drew the arms and legs.  I've never seen her draw arms, legs, and hands even!

 playing games, surprise surprise!

 Brian talked Aunt Monica (our sister in law) into making sushi for everyone so she did!  She's a gem!

 When we got home, Kait was SO happy to see her BFF, Madeline.  They met at Challenger last year and lucky for them, we our families adore each other so spending time together is a weekly occurance! We claim that we are the reason that they are moving closer to us but Madeline's mom says it's to be closer to Madeline's school, which is up the street from us.  Uh huh...  whatever you say! :)

Heading back into the scrapbooking world....

I gave up scrapbooking about 2 years ago.  I gave away or threw away most of my stuff, and have had no real desire to go back.  But I also haven't had a strong desire towards digital scrapbooking either, aside from my blog.  But I just saw this:

This really appeals!!!!  page protectors and each little pocket has a picture and a tiny bit of scrapbooking on it.  I could really get into this.  I'm so excited!!!!  Scrapbooking, I'm coming back, but in a different form, hopefully a little more simplified and accomplishing more on 1 page than just a single picture or two!  Woohoo!

our epic week

This is a really cool scene that Jackson and his class did at school.  I thought it was so creative.  Each child made one of these, a building in this city.  I love Jackson's teacher.  She's great.

 Braved the temperatures and took the kids to the zoo last week with one of our favorite friends, Alicia, and her boys.  We love hanging out with them!

I revisited an old favorite and made this afterschool snack for Logan and his buddies.  They devoured it!

 According to our friends, we are LAME because we have never taken our kids sledding.  Yes you heard that right.  We live in the snow and have never been sledding, ever.  The even more pathetic thing is that we have sleds - 4 of them!! We got them 2 years ago and have never used them.  So we went for it on Friday and the kids had a BLAST!   So we dragged Brian out on Saturday and went again.  I can see this being a regular activity!

family night at fat cats

kait was complaining a couple of weeks ago that we never do anything as a family anymore.  over the summer, we are constantly going to lagoon and stuff but during the school year, we are pretty busy going all different directions.  so we went to the bowling alley for pizza, bowling, and games.

these are a few of my favorite things

I love it when people post the things they love, and so this is my version for 2012. 

I  LOVE this color of MK lipgloss.  I always order it and then lose it, and then I have to wait till my friend orders again 3 months later.  This time I ordered 2.  I've already lost 1 but I still have 1!

a good friend of mine is trying to open her own bakery business.  the cookies below were DIVINE.  she makes cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc.  She made all of the desserts for our ward party in december and they were devoured.

 4 months ago, my bakery friend called and told me we were going to go tryout a class at a fitness center down the street from our house.  I've been going 4 days a week ever since at 6am everyday.  I feel so much better, look way better, and know that this is the best thing, exercise-wise I have ever done for myself!

 my favorite graphic design friend.  I can't tell you how much she does for me.  She is amazing and I am thankful for her everyday!

if you live in Utah, you MUST try Red Mango.  I just discovered it 2 weeks ago and have been 3 times.  It's low cal and delish!

                                                                    Old Navy is a staple in my life.  'nuff said!

 I cook from this cookbook weekly, if not daily.  yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

 I've been trying not to eat quite as many sweets as I normally love to, so this gum has become a staple in my life.  I eat a piece every single morning on my way to the gym, and then a couple of times a day. 

 I love my friend that owns Glow Skin and Beauty, formally Glow spray tanning co.  She is almost an aesthetician and she rocks!  I go to her twice a month for shellac, which I love!  Proud of her and her drive and determination! I'm happy to be one of her favorite clients! :)



terrible no good 2's

 My pictures aren't uploading or downloading for that matter, correctly.  I have a bunch of half pictures and so I guess it's time to use my real camera again. 

Regardless, See Carli's hair above.  Cute, in pony tails, longer.... since she cut her hair last year.

See picture below... after she went and got her hair cut to FIX the crop of hair she cut out of her hair a few days after the above picture was taken.  It was a blessing in disguise, because her short hair was adorable.

unfortunately however, that super cute 'do, only lasted a few days because we went to a friends house and thought Carli was playing with the kids, until we discovered her not with the kids... but in a childs room that wasn't home, cutting the FRONT of her hair off.  Blast!  There is nothing my amazing friend that can to fix it this time, so we are stuck with too short to do anything with, bangs in the front.  The hair is impossible to style so we brush it and that is all. So now we have this:

A friend of mine suggested we do this with all scissors.  Love the idea!

car mishap

I seem to be incapable of going too long without a car mishap of some sort whether it be a ticket or ding on the car itself, heck, I even totalled my car a couple of years ago when I was pregnant with Carli!  8 months pregnant to be exact!  Witnesses were freaking out when I got out of my car hugely pregnant!  But that's another story for another day.

On this day, I went through the bank drive through to grab some deposit slips to fill out and then I wanted to U turn back around and go through the window again after I had the deposit slip filled out.  That dang white thing in the pic below scraped along the bottom of my car (see above).  I seem to freeze when I get into predicaments like this.  Actually, I don't freeze, much to Brian's shagrin, I keep going!  He always tells me that when I hear something weird against my car, stop, and reverse but for some reason my brain doesn't wrap around that logic and I keep going and then I ended up with a dent a mile long.

Sigh.

giveaway

this is an awesome giveaway from my favorite graphic artist.  She does a million different things: photo editing, christmas cards, birthday party invitations, labels, business cards, logos, etc.  you name it, she will do it!  be sure to enter for your chance to win!