I Got Crafty

....... My front door needed a wreath...so I got crafty made one! I love it! It's so springy and the colors look great against my blue door. I'm still not a fan of the blue door and I'm getting the necessary paperwork together to ask permission from our HOA to paint it barn red. I hope they say yes, I think it would look amazing! Anyways, the wreath took me about a day and I'm super happy with the results.

Brooke's Book & Spirit Day

....... Brooke loves arts and crafts, along with many other activities but arts, crafts, drawing, creating...that's her thing other than music. The other day she wrote a book and proudly read it to me. I wanted to cry. It was the sweetest thing ever. I took it and tucked it away with her first grade work that I keep and will turn into a binder at the end of the school year as a keepsake. Here are a few of my favorite pages. I love my sweet girl so much. Also I had to stick in this cute collage of her dressed wacky for Spirit Day! So fun!

February Updates

...............I can't believe today is the last day of February! I still need to upload Brooke's birthday pictures. Here are some of my instagram photos from this month. Brooke started softball and LOVES it. She also had a fun Valentine's Day class party and I made "heart" meatloaf for dinner on Valentine's Day. My sweet neighbor shared with me an AMAZING chocolate chip cookie recipe. They look huge because they are huge and thick! If you are interested in the recipe there is a video how-to on you-tube ( I have no idea if I spelled that right), just type in Minnie's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies....that's right Disneyland chocolate chip cookies!!! I bought our sweet beagle Ruby a fancy new bed. I bought it at Costco, it was such a great deal! I love Costco. We had a pretty cold winter storm which brought snow in the mountains close to our home. The view was beautiful and it reminded me of SCV. I bought myself a fun decorative owl I couldn't resist at Anthropologie, (that store is dangerous to have so close by) and I threw in a cute photo of my sweet boy.

My Boy....

..has such an imagination. While folding mountains of laundry the other day he calls me out to see that he "built a hot-air balloon" just like the ones that periodically fly over our neighborhood. Love that boy of mine.

Happy 7th Birthday Brooke!

My baby turns 7 tomorrow. 7. I'm doing this post tonight since I know I'll be running around like crazy tomorrow doing my best to make her birthday special. I can't believe she's already 7. As I was browsing photos on my computer to put together the photo collage above my breath was taken away for a minute. I had a lump in my throat and I couldn't hold back my tears. I miss my baby girl. It honestly feels like those photos were just taken yesterday. She can't already be turning 7, but she is. My darling Brooke you are and will always be my sweet baby girl. You make me so proud every single day. Your smile lights up any room. You are so loving and kind and caring and you always try your best. I love listening to you sing in your room and make up songs, I love how you write me letters and notes with beautiful pictures and you leave them in different areas around the house so I'd find them when you are at school. You bring such joy into my life. Often times throughout the day when you are at school and I'm out running errands with Brody he says to me "Mom, I wish Brooke was here with us." I think the same thing too. How blessed I am to be your mother, how blessed I am to have a daughter. I love you so much. Happy 7th birthday my sweet girl!

Craft Fun!!

Last Saturday I went to a craft night that was hosted by a friend of a friend in my ward. It was SO much fun, like beyond fun. I still can't stop staring at the plaques I made and I can't believe I made them. Ha ha. The Keep Calm plaque is double sided so you just flip it after Valentine's Day how smart is that!?. I wished I would have signed up for more crafts, everything there was so cute and creative. I really enjoy doing crafts and it is something that I have been meaning to do a lot more of this year. I'm great at pinning recipes on pinterest and trying them out and incorporating them into my meal planning for the week but most of the crafts or craft ideas I pin I never get around to doing them. I need to be better about that. Plus getting creative just puts me in a much better mood. My dad built me a GORGEOUS mantle and I need to fill it up with cute things...preferably homemade for holidays and stuff. Bryan if you are reading this please buy me a silhouette cameo...I need to get my craft on.

It's Been Forever!

It's been forever! My poor little blog. We had the BEST holiday season. November and December just flew by way too fast. This past November Bryan and I celebrated out 10th wedding anniversary and we were able to leave the kids with my parents and spend four days in Vegas. It was a blast. We saw two Cirque Shows, (Mystere and Zarkana) as well as Jersey Boys. We also ate at a fancy pants French restaurant where the food was amazing. I felt like royalty with the service there, I kept thinking this is what it must feel like to be Kate Middleton. Anyways we stayed at the hotel Vdara and it was fantastic. We both had so much fun. We ate fantastic food and enjoyed our time together without the kids. Thanksgiving was fun as well. We were able to spend it at home in California and we were able to see and spend it with our families. Upon arriving home our house was already decked out with Christmas decorations (I did it before we left)and we had a little visitor join our family for the holiday season. I decided to join in on the fun and purchase our very own Elf On The Shelf. The kids thought it was the most magical thing ever. I honestly don't know who had more fun with it, myself or the kids. I cannot wait to start the magic again next Christmas. We miss you Jingle! We had our fun trip to Williams Arizona, home of the Grand Canyon, and we boarded the The Polar Express! It was cold up there, but so much fun. The look on Brody's face was priceless. He kept on saying "I beleive, I believe!" He was star struck when he met Santa. It was a perfect little trip. Now onto Christmas...it was the best Christmas ever. The kids loved every minute of it, as did I. Brody was thrilled with his scooter and Brooke was in awe of her pink electric guitar as well as all of the other fun things Santa Claus brought them. Bryan bought me a beautiful watch that he secretly found pinned on my "my style" pinterest board. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever. the day after Christmas we packed up and headed to California to spend time with our families.We were all very spoiled there as well. We are so blessed! We had so much fun ringing in the new year over there too. January has been tough, we've had a lot of sickness running through our house but now we seem to be doing better and getting back into the swing of things. Brooke turns 7 on the 7th and I turn the big 3-0 in just a few days. I can't seem to wrap my head around that one. I feel somewhat caught up now and I hope to do better about keeping up with my blog since we have some fun events coming up! Enjoy!