Feelin' the Love

It's no secret that my daughter will seize any opportunity to decorate, celebrate, and party. Valentine's Day is certainly no exception. A week or two ago she took it upon herself to make some Valentine's decorations for the front windows. Just simple paper cutout hearts with "candy heart" messages such as "Be Mine" and "Text Me", this was the extent of the Valentine decor around these parts.

Then, a week ago Sunday she spied the Walgreens ad full of Valentine's goodies and spent a good, long while drooling over the wares. "Oh Mom, this Valentine's Webkinz is SOOOO cute!" and "Oh, I sure would LOVE to get a Valentine's Beanie Baby." This is her not so subtle way of dropping hints for me. She knows, or at least she thinks she knows, that if she doesn't say something then nothing will happen, but she doesn't want to be too obvious so as to elicit an out and out no from me. Earlier in the week she had made a comment about the Valentine's Day a few years ago when I had given them each a little stuffed animal with a homemade Valentine's card and how that was the BEST Valentine's ever!

Yesterday, I could tell she was feeling a little dismal, I think she could sense that I hadn't done anything and wasn't planning on doing anything for the special day. She made a comment about how Valentine's Day was such a boring holiday because all they ever do is have a party at school. I had to bite my tongue not to laugh. She is so dramatic, that one. You have to live with her to get the full effect of her drama.

Off to school they went this morning with nothing more than a "Happy Valentine's Day" and a "Don't forget to take your Valentine's" from me. While they were gone Rex, Colby and I went and got some balloons, candy and bubbles and a little something for each of them. Colby picked out mini sports balls, Rex- a hulahoop, for Owen a water gun, Gracie- her beloved Valentine's beanie baby, and for Matthew (what do you get an 11 year old boy for Valentine's Day?) a small pack of Pokemon cards. Then we arranged everything on their beds for them to discover when they got home from school.

On our way home from school Gracie was asking if we were going to do anything fun today and I said I didn't think so. She slid further into her pouting state. For some reason when we got home nobody went into their room. I was so proud of Rex for not spilling the beans because I wanted this to be an unspoiled surprise. FINALLY, after an hour or two one of them went in there and excitedly came running out. They were all so surprised and happy that it made me feel good I had actually gone to the trouble. Instantly, Gracie's mood changed and it suddenly turned into the BEST Valentine's Day ever!

She ran off to make plans for dinner. She made the flowers for the dinner table out of tissue paper and nametags for everyone's plate. Owen commented that he thought the flowers were real and this made me smile. We had heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner, with pink lemonade served in Valentine's cups, of course. Luckily, Vaughn and Kindra stopped by to drop off chocolate covered strawberries and yogurt dipped pretzels for dessert (yummy!) which saved me from having to bake heart-shaped brownies. We finished off the night with family home evening (this is three whole weeks in a row)! And it was even on how we can find love in our families. We were definitely all feeling the love tonight!

(No, that's not a ghost in the middle of our picture, it's a fingerprint smudge on the camera lens.)

What I Miss...

About Rexburg

(besides the obvious things like Michelle and her fam, the in-laws, our friends, the schools, the small town community...)

Harper's Homemade bread. Seriously the best white bread ever. I love it. I still miss it every day. And at around $2 a loaf it's a deal that can't be beat. I wish they sold it here...

A nice, toasty heater in the bathroom. Ugh, I can't stand getting out of the shower these days!

Yummy, yummy snow cones (with cream) for cheap, cheap, cheap! What else can I say!

Pizza Pie Cafe's (formerly Craigos- sniff, sniff) oreo dessert pizza. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

This beautiful view of the temple from the back windows of our house.

Ohhhh, Rexburg- I do miss you, I really, really do...some of you...well most of you...or certain months of you...ah well, but that's a post for another day!

Girl Power!

Last Saturday Gracie had her fellow girl cousins (at least the ones who live here and are old enough to party) over to celebrate their girliness (they all happen to be the only girls in their families). I was less than enthused with the idea and tried to put it off for awhile. Anything that requires extra effort on my part is usually met with my sincere desire to not partake. She was persistent in her plans and proceeded to make lists of all the party would involve. She even made invitations, leaving the date and time blank until she could coerce one out of me. I finally caved and told her a date and time far into the future (like 3 weeks) but she was so excited she could hardly stand it. She handed out the invitations the next day and then excitedly looked forward to the date of the party. I'm pretty sure a day didn't pass where it wasn't mentioned. Finally, the weekend of the party was around the corner and I resigned myself to the inevitable. I had to call my sister-in-law to confirm the time since we hadn't written it down anywhere and neither Gracie nor I could remember the time. I think I was hoping that it had been so long that nobody would have taken it seriously or remembered it. Unfortunately Luckily, Kindra told me that Macie had put the invitation on her fridge and had been asking her every day if it was the day of the party yet. So Gracie and I started talking activities and supplies, which was left mostly up to her. She was in charge of it all, all I had to do was drive her to the dollar store and provide the cash for the goods. Which wasn't much, we only spent about $10 total. This is one of the great things about Gracie, she loves to do these things and she will take the initiative to make it all happen. She is so much more creative and fun than I am.

Here's the sign from the front door. Nothing fancy but I thought the girls skirts made out of cupcake holders were a cute idea, which I of course had nothing to do with.

They began with making jewelry, beaded bracelets, necklaces and pins. Then they made fancy fans (that was my one contribution). They had a little grape koolaid tea party with blueberry muffins.
That was followed by makeovers and dressup.
I wish I would've taken more pictures of this part.

Gracie modeling the giant diamond ring from the goody bags. They also contained cute little tiaras, a magic wand, flower hair barrettes and of course some balloons and bubble gum.

They ended with ice cream sundaes.

Much giggling and girliness abounded and a great time was had by all. They decided to rotate the fun to each others' houses every year. Next year it's Audrey's turn!

Using His Head

This kid still makes me laugh when he does things like this...

or this...

or this...
I think it's so cute every time he puts a hat on his head, or headbands or Kris' headlamp. It never gets old. Remember this: http://growingupgrover.blogspot.com/2010/01/hats-off-er-on-to-you.html

Take a Hike!

A week ago Saturday we decided to take a hike. I had remembered hiking to the Wind Caves when I was a small child but I never knew where they were. I asked my mom and she said they were just over at Usery Park, about 15 minutes away from us. Isn't it funny how in my little child mind it was such a far away and exotic place? So off we went. We had been itching to get out and do something and soak in all this most wonderful weather while we've got it. We went late in the afternoon, and it actually turned out to be such a beautiful time to go. On the way down from the top we got to watch the sunset. And it was gorgeous.

Here we are at the beginning of the hike, we didn't really have any idea how difficult it would be. It was 3.2 miles round trip, which doesn't really seem like that long, but for us out of shape hikers it was a bit challenging. We were getting passed by 80 year olds. Seriously. Granted, we did have small children with us. At least that's the excuse I'm going with.

The majestic saguaro cactus. As a child I didn't really understand their beauty, I took it for granted having grown up around them my entire life. In fact, I was never a cactus fan at all. I preferred forests. Until I began working the front desk at a hotel when I was a teenager. People from all over were fascinated by the saguaro, we had a huge one right in front of the hotel and everyone would take pictures by it. Gradually, I realized that they were something special and I have grown to love their strength and majesty.

The views were amazing. We could see the whole valley- from the skyscrapers in Phoenix to the fountain going off in Fountain Hills (which by the way ain't got nothin' on Old Faithful).
Hiking buddies.
One of these boys is doing his own thing... Kris says he is as stubborn as his mother.
Colby was so gung ho thoughout the entire hike. He wanted to do it all on his own. He only rode on shoulders for probably 30 minutes total. The hike took us about 3 hours.
Peek-a-boo Gracie.
At the top!

It was long and challenging but there is nothing better than reaching the top. So many parallels to life in hiking. I love it! It was a beautiful hike and I highly recommend it, we all had so much fun even when it was difficult. Gracie had us cracking up because she pretty much complained the whole way, asking us why we made her do this, saying we should just quit and go home and then when we got home my dad asked her how the hike was and she told him it was "awesome!" And it was! (In spite of all her complaining.)

December Recap

Well, actually I'm starting with the end of November. Gracie had her orchestra concert on the 23rd. She loves playing the violin and she did a great job!

On December 2nd we went to Matthew's choir concert. I sacrificed an hour of sleep once a week before school to get him to choir since it was an extra activity that he wanted to do. Maybe it was because of all those girls...

I've been trying to upload videos from his concerts but am not having any luck :(

On Dec. 8th Gracie got to participate in the school spelling bee. And she won (she's only a 4th grader)! She was SO excited and we were all so proud of her. I could hardly stand the nerves, I don't think I have ever been more nervous in my life. Now it's on to the district bee this week and I'm so nervous it's killing me. I'm just praying she can make it past the first round.

On the 12th we went to Matthew's band concert. They did a great job. We love the music teacher at their school, he's a great band teacher and he also did the choir class.

Dec. 18th had us out in the desert enjoying a cookout with Kris' side of the family. We had yummy hot dogs, smores and some fun 4 wheelin'.

Colby really enjoyed the smores.

On the 23rd we got to take a little boat around Val Vista Lakes and see all the Christmas lights. We had fun with G&G Walz and G&G Archibald. The kids were especially excited since it was followed with dinner at MickeyD's.

We made sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
It was kind of a quick, thrown together ordeal since I so did not have it together.

But at least we did it.

We also did Christmas Eve jammies but I can't believe that we didn't take any pictures of the kids after they put them on. Kind of depressing. Oh well. Then we drove around looking at Christmas lights.

Christmas morning.
Gracie had been pining away for this mini American Girls Samantha doll for ages.

Luckily Santa came through.

Colby's huge Elmo.

Matthew's new mountain bike, now he and Dad can really tackle the desert together.

Owen playing his new DS and Rex wishing he had one. Kind of makes me feel bad but he's only four for crying out loud. He was a tricky one this year and I think he is the one kid who kind of got the shaft. He didn't really get anything that he was dying over. There's always next year.

Birthday Boy!

Owen turned seven! He's the middle child and a classic one at that. He gets all the hand-me-downs and I always feel guilty about that but he doesn't seem to mind. He's good natured but can have a fiery temper (wonder where he gets that from?). He is an excellent student, he soaks up learning and loves reading and math. All his teachers (school and church) love him. He makes friends easily and is very helpful. He enjoys riding his bike and playing video games. We love you, Owen! Happy Birthday!

The special birthday boy donut

(Colby was in the background saying "cheese")

The hoped for skateboard, he's pretty good already.
He got this crown at school and wore it proudly. In fact, he told me that he was going to save it and wear it every year on his birthday. Sometimes his innocence just melts my heart. I hate it when they grow too old for this stuff.