Where does the time go???

February has come and gone and so quickly! We've had another fun and busy month. I just barely hung my "HOME" blocks last month and I think they turned out really cute. My friend Nikki made them and my mom bought them for me at my friend Jessica's boutique when we were home last Thanksgiving. I just added the ribbon, Spencer hung my knobs and there hang the blocks! It completes the wall for me~every time I looked at it before it just felt like something was missing!

This was Valentine's Day morning right before Church. I took this picture as they all came down the stairs and Bailey, as you can tell, was really excited to get her new Sleeping Beauty Polly Pocket!
After Church on Valentine's Day we flew to AZ and then drove to Mexico on Monday with my mom. My mom has been itching to get us down to her new condo in Mexico so we decided February, while SWBy still flew for free, was the month to do it! She has a beautiful place there and what's so great is that the beach her condo is on is all private beach. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand and in the ocean. SWBy didn't care for the ocean water at first but eventually enjoyed sitting in it! SWBy sure enjoyed playing in the sand. He was so funny he kept taking shovels full of sand and throwing the sand at us but he mostly just kept hitting himself with the sand!

Grandma took Bay to look for sea shells on the beach and Bay absolutely loved doing that. There were so many big, full shells on the beach. She collected quite a few! Bay sure enjoys playing in the water. She was so excited to get to the beach. There's nothing better, after being stuck in a cold place, than spending time on a warm beach in February!!!

This was a highlight for the kids! They sure loved being in this tub on mom's balcony! Poor SWBy got sunblock in his eyes so he was having a hard time opening them!

SWBy really enjoyed Bay's sunglasses, but only if he could wear them upside down! The kids were such good travelers!

Bay and SWBy got to spend some time with their cousins when we were home and they sure had a good time! My mom has recently redone one of the bedrooms in her house just for all the grandsons. She had one room in her house that was no question all for Bailey. It's as girly as they come! So she did a room for the boys. Above is the bedroom. (The picture doesn't do the room justice!) There is a cute table and 4 matching chairs and that's what the kids are sitting in while watching the TV.

This is my best friend Jessica's little girl Hannah! She and Bay are 9 months apart and will be the same school year! They sure enjoyed spending time together. It's fun to see them be friends when Jess and I are such good friends!

Saturday night is the time to fly if you want a flight that's not full! I loved it! Our flight on the way to AZ was full which was less comfortable! On the way home we got our own row, which was so nice for SWBy! He got the window and LOVED to look outside!

My mom bought Spencer a new beanie from Mexico so now Spencer can stop wearing SWBy's and he and the kids can match!

SWBy LOVES this hat! He has been wearing it all the time. One night he wanted it at bedtime so Spencer gave it to him and when I came to check on him this is what I found!

No reason for this picture other than I love it! This is one of the family pictures Jess took at Thanksgiving.

We love our movie time and popcorn!

Spencer is such a great dad! The kids get so excited for him to come home from work. They love to play with dad!

Bring on the New Year!

So far 2010 is shaping up to be a really fun year! January 15th-18th I got to go to New York with my mom! It was just the 2 of us and we had a really nice time! It's been about 10 years since I've been there and I think it's always a fun place to visit. Below is a picture of the Empire State Building. When we went to visit it, it was raining and cloudy so there was no visibility on top. So instead of going up for pictures we stayed down below, looked up, and snapped a picture. You can see how cloudy it was, you can't even see the top of the Building. Something my mom and I always enjoy doing together is visiting museums. Below we are at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts standing in front of what they believe to be an early Michelangelo sculpture.

We went to visit Ground Zero and this is the best picture I could snap of it. What they are building in it's place is going to be really pretty. They are leaving in place the foundations of the Twin Towers and building 5 buildings around it. (At least this is the information we were told.)
Below snapping a picture in the MET.

Mom took me to a fantastic Lobster place. Here mom is with her lobster bib on, getting ready to dig in!

Here is our food! It was way too pretty not to snap a photo! I ordered scallops and I shouldn't have! They were good but it was way too much food! I should have just split the lobster with mom because I really enjoyed it! We probably ordered too much because we were starving when we got there!

The next 2 pictures are from a fun girls night out! We went to see Twi-lite at Desert Star Theater in Murray! It was so great! At least I really enjoyed it! 8 of us from my ward went. It was such a fun night, apart from waiting over an hour at Cheesecake Factory just to leave and eat somewhere else because if we stayed we wouldn't have made our show! If you've never been to Desert Star you need to go! I've seen a few things there now and they always have me laughing and laughing. Twi-lite was a spoof and had me laughing all night!

The rest of our fun group.

I just thought this was a photo opp not to be missed! I don't care if you read my blog or not, but this is too funny not to read!!! Bailey has been begging to go outside and use her sidewalk chalk, so a couple of weeks ago it was dry enough for her to do so! She loves to practice her letters and as she was finishing Spencer was outside with her and she said, "Hey dad, come see my f n' b's." Spencer was taken back for a minute when he realized she had written "F B F B F B."

It may have been dry out that day but it was still chilly! Bay's poor hands were so red and cold, but she didn't seem to mind!

One of the few things SWBy eats is Peanut Butter! The kid loves it and I'm glad he does because we're able to get some fat, protein, and calories in him that way! This is dinner one night after enjoying some peanut butter! He had peanut butter every where!

This cute wooden rocking horse was mine when I was little and SWBy loves it! He gets on and and says nothing but "weeee."

Christmas!!!

I loaded my pictures backwards again! So we'll go from newest to oldest! For Christmas from my Dad and Step-Mom I got a ton of vinyl to put on my walls! I love it! And for Christmas from Spencer I got the wall below painted red, my rod, and cute knobs which aren't yet hung because I don't yet have frames for them. They'll go beneath the pictures of SWB and Bay. This project sure gave Spencer a run for his money! The texture in our corners is awful to paint on! The red kept bleeding through to the side walls and then the side wall color kept bleeding through to the red when we would try to fix it! It was a pain. I finally bought fine tipped paint brushes and Spencer fixed our bleeding paint problem with those! It was time consuming! Spencer knew I wanted this done before Christmas so he spent all of Tuesday, December 22 working on it for me! THANK YOU SPENCE! After we got this wall all done I kept walking back and forth just starring at it. It has been plain and blank since we moved in and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I got this idea from the Rod Works blog and I love it! Below is some more of the vinyl that I got and hung. It sure makes a difference making my walls less plain! I love it!
During December I put out a Christmas candy dish on our kitchen table! That was one of SWby's favorite things this year! He was constantly eating the candy. We went through quite a few Hershey's kisses. Below SWBy has helped himself to some Kisses. He peeled them open and threw the wrappings on the floor. I was upstairs doing something otherwise I think I would have put a stop to this sooner!

Below Bay and SWBy are getting ready to have a movie night!

SWBy got this truck from Unlce Ev for Christmas! The kids love it!

Christmas morning after opening all of our fun stuff!

Bay had a Christmas dance and tumbling demonstration this year! It was so cute! All of the girls in her classes did such a nice job and we really, really enjoyed watching Bay. She is learning so much and such a cute little dancer and tumbler!

I hosted our preschool Christmas party this year and we decided to put on a little program this year. It was really cute! It was only about 3 minutes long but it was cute and the kids did a great job! Bailey was Mary. That's her holding the star.

Fun stuff in November!

We've had a fun November! Bailey and I had the opportunity to go to Disney's Princesses on Ice! It was so much fun and Bailey absolutely LOVED it! She keeps asking when we can go again! I really enjoyed the time I had to spend with my sweet and sassy little girl! I hope to do more things like this with Bay! We went with her friend Lauren and her mom, my friend Jenny. Before we went to Princesses on Ice we went to dinner at the Garden Room on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was so much fun! Below is Bay and me and Lauren and Jenny.

I'm sure you all know New Moon came out this month and my friends and I went to the midnight showing again! It was so fun! I thought the movie was so good and way better than the first! Below my friend Melanie and I are waiting in line to get into the movie theater. It was pretty chilly and her husband was nice enough to bring us a pizza! We were in line by 5:45. Some were in line as early as 9 or 10 am. They showed Twilight first at 9 before New Moon which is why we were there so early!
Below, finally in the movie theater, (L-R) Natasha, Melanie and me! Yes we made shirts! We got free iron on prints! The backs were all different but the fronts were the same - "Team Edward!" After New Moon I came home, finished packing our van, got about an hour of sleep and then Spencer woke me up to drive to AZ for a week of Thanksgiving fun! Below is just part of our Thanksgiving party. This was my table and the family members lucky enough to sit with me! Or maybe they were unfortunate to sit with me, either way this was my table. (My mom, my brother, my dad, and of course Spencer.) Thanksgiving dinner and dessert was so good!

Below, we are off to the park for a marshmallow gun war! Bay and SWBy really liked their cousin Presley's wagon! It was fun to be home and see everyone. My dad, sister, and stepmom came down from CA to spend Thanksgiving with us! So everyone in my family was there.

This is the very first year I've done Black Friday shopping! There were some deals going on that I couldn't resist! So of course I roped by best friends into going with me! Our malls in AZ opened at midnight so we were there at 10:30 waiting to get in. I'm so glad because they let us into the mall at 11:30 and we could line up outside the store we wanted to go in. Thankfully we were there early because the line to the Disney Store was really long and we were among the first in line! I was done shopping for SWB and Bay by 12:15! I saved 50% on the princess castle Bay wanted which I thought was well worth the 12 am shopping time!

Here Jessica, Tangi, and I are in the Children's Place capturing our 12 am shopping spree. Thanks so much for going with me guys, it was so fun!

After leaving the insanity at the mall we grabbed some food at Denny's for old times sake! We were a little slap happy by this point and found quite a few people staring at us!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Spencer's aunt Jeanine had us all over to her house for dinner and games. It was a lot of fun and I found that we must get some of these little cars that she has. My kids loved them! Above is Bay and her cute cousin Anna! They are such good little friends.

Here SWBy is! He loved this little car! Luckily there were 4 of them because he absolutely did not want to give his up!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving Spencer had the opportunity to go to the ASU game with his brothers & brother-in-law! He had a great time! Thanks BJ and Ev!

One of my friends thought it would be fun this year to make PJ pants together. So last Friday a few of us got together and made PJ pants. I made some for our entire family! Spencer's and mine were way too big and we had to rip out the seems and cut them down a bit! SWBy's I didn't use a pattern for and had to rip out his "seat" seam to give him a little more room in the bum. Bay's were the only pants I didn't have to do over! I was thankful for that! Oh, well! Live and learn! Hopefully next time will go smoother!

So Much to Catch up On!!!

Wow! Sooooooooooooo much to catch up on! I didn't realize how behind I was until I actually started looking at all my pictures! And I of course forgot the order the pictures load so I loaded the pictures backwards! So we'll start at Halloween and work our way backwards! Below is sweet little SWBy all tuckered out after a full day of trick-or-treating! Our neighborhood is a fun neighborhood to trick-or-treat in and I'm so glad we were in town for it this year! I think a lot of the excitement and fun is because one of our neighbors does a haunted house in her garage! She is the neatest lady and has such fun kids. 2 of her daughters are in Mia Maids with me and I absolutely love them and think they are the nicest, cutest girls! Below is our neighbor and me in front of her haunted garage! Spencer and I convinced Bay to go through it and to say the least she was a little freaked out at the end! I held SWBy and Spencer held Bay when we went through. SWBy wasn't really diggin' the haunted house either but Spencer and I thought it was so fun! A lot of the youth from our ward, mostly YW were the ones in the haunted house and I thought they'd take it easy on me since I was holding SWBy but they kept jumping out and scaring me! I scare easily so that probably didn't help SWBy to be any less frightened!

Below is Bay with her "pixie dust" makeup on! She was so cute, throughout the night she kept asking me if her makeup was still on! This was Bay's 3rd Halloween costume! She kept changing her mind on what she wanted to be!She began as Cinderella at my mom's Halloween party, then Sleeping Beauty at our ward's Halloween Carnival, and ended as Tinker Belle on Halloween! They were all cute costumes! Little SWBy was a turtle at all of our Halloween festivities, luckily he didn't care! But he sure was a cute turtle. He didn't really care for the turtle head (hood) of the costume to be on his head though!
Spencer and I were Cleopatra and Caesar! We were invited to a murder mystery dinner party again this year and these were our characters for the party. I thought I'd save money by going to a fabric store and making our costumes but I actually spent quite a bit more because I didn't realize what I was buying! Oh well, they turned out so cute. These are the first costumes I've ever made! Because they cost so much I made sure we wore them at all of our costume festivities! Spencer wore his Caesar costume to work last Friday and actually won 2 awards! Below is our Ward's Halloween Carnival! It was pretty fun! The YM & YW put the carnival on and it turned out well! The game below that Bay is playing is called "Whack a Deacon" and you do just that! I thought that was pretty clever! Bay sure enjoyed it, I think it was the most popular game!
SWBy did not want to be put down at the Carnival and my arm was hurting so we finally got the backpack and Spencer carried him!
Here is our cute little turtle just wanting to be held the whole carnival!
I'm glad to find out that Spencer likes my hair better long and blond! He's always wondered what I'd look like with short dark hair, so here you go!
Below is Bay and her cute little friend Lauren! They got their faces painted and looked pretty cute! Lauren and her family were a Cave Family!

This is Bay's second costume, Sleeping beauty!

On their way to our Ward's Halloween Carnival!

The weekend before Halloween I went home for my 10 year High School Reunion! I really didn't want to but am so glad Jess and my mom talked me into coming down for it! Thanks mom for flying us down! It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and it was nice to see old friends and catch up with them! Below are my BFF's and me right before we went into our reunion!

The night before our reunion Karen, Jess, Tang and I got together at my mom's and had tons of fun! I'll forever be grateful that I've always had good friends! (Above) While catching up at my mom's Jess thought we needed a few pictures and this was one of them! From left to right is Karen, Me in the back, Tangi, and Jess!

Above is SWBy in the bouncer! My mom had a fun Halloween party for the kids at her house Saturday afternoon before the reunion! She borrowed her friends bouncer that all the kids including SWBy loved! We had games, crafts, great food, and a treasure hunt for candy!

Bay got to spend the whole day with Anna and Liza! They came to my mom's Halloween Party and Bay got to spend the night at their house! (Above) Anna and Liza were cute fairies and Bay was Cinderella!

Friday night, before our High School reunion, Jessica organized a dinner with our High School Cheer Coach and some girls that we cheered with! It was so fun to see all of them again and see how they are doing! Above is everyone that came! We had dinner at my favorite pizza place! Nello's in good ol' Tempe, AZ!

(Above) I had so much fun in cheer with these girls! The one to the right of me was my flyer and she was so awesome, except for when she gave me bloody noses!

Above is my awesome cheer coach, Mrs. Zinke and me! I just love her! She is so fun and I had so much fun cheering for her! This same night we gave her a quilt that my mom made for her our graduating year but didn't finish it until our 10 year reunion. So for 10 years my mom had the quilt top in her closet! The quilt had all the 1999 seniors pictures on it! It was pretty stinkin' cute and Mrs. Zinke loved it!

Before leaving for AZ we took a field trip with Bay's fun little preschool to Black Island Farms! We got to ride through the farm and learn about what they do, all the kids got to pick pumpkins, and then they got to go play games and see the farm's animals.Above are some of the kids from Bay's preschool (2 were sick and not there)! Here, we're getting ready to ride through the farm!

Spencer turned 30 on October 16th this year so I threw him a surprise birthday party! Spencer was sort of surprised! 2 days before the party Spencer came home from work sick and didn't know if he would go into work on Friday, the day of his party! This really caused me a lot of anxiety! Friday was a busy day for me, I had to get my mom from the airport, get the food for the party, and get our house ready for the party! Originally I told Spencer that I'd come pick him up from work in SLC at 3:30 and we could go to dinner and a movie but we had to be home by 7:30 to get our babysitter home because I thought 4 hours was long enough for her, when in reality my mom was our babysitter and that's when the surprise was to take place. So my plans were dependent upon him being out of the house and at work! Well when he didn't know if he was going into work I kept wondering how I was going to get him out of the house! Spencer jokingly mentioned playing golf if he did stay home and I thought that would be the perfect way to get him out of the house! (We have a course right by our house.) Now I just needed an excuse for why I wouldn't be home in the morning so I told him I had Young Women's stuff to do at the Church so I'd be gone all morning but really I was picking my mom up from the airport and shopping for food! Luckily he ended up going to work on Friday and I picked him up in SLC and then we went to dinner and a movie. My mom, his dad, his brothers & sister flew in from AZ for the party. On our way to dinner Spencer called his sister's house to thank them for their birthday phone call (Jan called in the morning and then left for UT that afternoon) and Spencer talked to our sweet little niece Anna who told Spencer that Jana was in UT. So Spencer was perplexed as to why Jana was in UT without telling us. I told him "oh she probably doesn't know what she is saying" but he said "yeah but she's usually in the know!" I tried to make that comment seem like nothing and luckily I had him convinced that Anna was just being silly! After the movie I was so nervous and we were running a little late! When we pulled into the garage I kept thinking "oh Spencer just go into the house first" because he usually leads me into the house first. So I was trying to stall so he'd go into the house first and I guess that's what tipped him off that something was going on! So when he walked into our house he had his surprise face all ready because he knew something was up! However, he was really surprised to see my mom and his family at his party! His family waited upstairs and didn't come down until after the initial surprise! In the picture above Spencer is really surprised to see them! The party was fun, I'm so glad for those who could make it and am so glad that our family could make it up for his party! Keeping his party a secret was so hard for me because I tell Spencer everything and not only did I have to keep this from him but I had to keep fibbing to him in order to keep it a secret! I even had to keep it a secret from Bailey because I knew she'd tell him. And actually Bay did tell Spencer we were throwing him a birthday party. She had just had a birthday party with one of her preschool friends so I'm sure that's where she got the idea to tell Spencer we were throwing him a birthday party. When Spencer asked who was coming to the party she said all of her preschool friends and their mom's! I was panicking inside when she told Spencer we were having a birthday party for him! Luckily Spencer didn't think too much of her comment! At his party we watched a video of his life that my friend put together after I got her the music and pictures and we had a little questionnaire about Spencer and we had TONS of food! It was a really fun night!

SURPRISE!!!

One day when I was running SWBy came into my room looking like this! I thought this was too cute not to capture!

Our Young Women in Excellence theme this year was, "There's No Place Like Home." It was pretty cute and we all dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz and put on a little skit for our program! It was a cute YW in Excellence night!