Valentine's Day 2013

We kept things pretty low key around here for Valentine's Day. I did manage to make Ella a new shirt for the occasion. It matched the skirt I made for her Minnie Mouse outfit.

She requested that I make her hair look like a heart. Thank you, internet, for showing me a picture to copy. She loved her hair!

There was, of course, the preschool Valentine Party complete with passing out valentines. Ella decided she wanted to make froggy valentines and even came up with the tag line, "You make my heart hop, hop, hop!" all by herself. I was happy to design a simplistic valentine to make her "vision" a reality. She colored them and glued a chocolate heart on each one. 

I forgot to get a picture with my girl at school, so we did it ourselves when we got home. 

Here's what Henry did during the party. Loving his smiles!

When Blair got home from work, he had a pot of roses for Ella and me. She adored them and carried them around from room to room. At bedtime, she decided to make herself a bed on the floor and put her roses from daddy right next to her pillow. I think she felt the love!

We hope you all felt the love, too! Happy Valentine's Day!

Perfectly Pink Baby Shower

In September I co-hosted a baby shower for my good friend, Maggie. She already has a little boy and was so excited to have a baby girl. We played up the girl theme with a tea party (herbal, of course) and went with classic pink decor.

Here's a group picture of everyone that attended--minus one friend who was holding the camera. (No, that's not a black mask. I just want to respect my friend's preference to not have her picture posted on public sites.) We had a great time and I'm really going to miss Maggie when she moves away next month. Glad we could make this memory together!

Bear Lake Part Three: Faces

Thought i'd post pictures of most of my family members. (Thanks to Annette for the pics of my family at the beginning of this post!) I tried to get close ups of everyone but I know I forgot several. This probably represents about 2/3 of everyone. Sorry there are so many, I just have a big family!

Bear Lake Part Two

Our second Utah reunion was also in Bear Lake. We met up with my side of the family and had a great time relaxing, chasing kids, playing games, and eating. We managed to spend one afternoon at the lake and got a picture of all the grandkids lined up in order from oldest to youngest with the littlest baby sitting right in front. (We were missing two grandkids because one of my brothers couldn't come to the reunion). Ella is in the bright pink flowered suit and she's wearing a hat.

We stayed in a gorgeous house for three nights and there was plenty of room for everyone. Here's a view of the kitchen and a peek at the soda machine. The kids learned very quickly how to turn it on.

The house also had a beautiful deck, grill, and hot tub (which, incidentally, was broken despite the service repair man claiming he had been there the day we arrived and it worked just fine). And you couldn't beat the view.

Kudos to my brother, Cameron and his wife, Annette for planning the reunion. We all had a great time. I only wish we could have visited with everyone longer.

Bear Lake Part One

I mentioned before that we spent the first couple of weeks of August in UT attending some reunions. The first reunion was with some college friends. We love seeing these friends and we try to get together at least every two years. This time we went to Bear Lake and had three fun days together. But we forgot to get a group picture! So, here are a bunch of some of the kids.

We spent plenty of time playing on the playgroung. Then of course there were drinks in coconuts.

And we all got wet. One day we went to the lake and another day we went to the pool.

On Sunday we even had a little lesson and coloring activity for the kids.

By the end I think everyone was exhausted!