Hawaii

Someone finally chronicled our Hawaii vacay!  Check out Jenna's post and I'll remind Mike that he needs to get around to doing our Hawaii post :)  He tried to tell me tonight he wasn't aware of his responsibility.

photo tag, kind of

I cheated and picked pictures from my 3rd folder (the sixth folder was boring!). These pictures make me laugh. Haven looks a little sneaky, which is so fitting.

Halle looks confident and was probably dreaming up an extensive party plan.

And finally, who'd have thought we would ever have a baby with bright blue eyes?

P.S. We are expecting another cute baby on Christmas Eve! We'll see about the blue eyes part.

P.S.S. For those of you who have been waiting to see proof that we really went to Hawaii, please forgive me. Unfortunately, I was pretty nauseous at the end of our trip and now whenever I think, talk about, or look at pictures of Hawaii I feel like I'm going to toss my cookies. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's the truth! So perhaps Mike will have to do the Hawaii post.

Trading Kids and Whistler Fun

My mother-in-law frequently watches my kids and yesterday and today she needed me to watch hers.  So as of yesterday, I can add "goat-sitting" to my resumé.  Jenny was somewhat of a runt when she was born so Margo (Mike's mom) has been nursing her back to health.  My responsibilities include taking her out to run around in the backyard every so often and attempting to bottle feed her every 3 hours.  My kids and Dakota think Jenny is all that, so watching Margo's kid has been a breeze!

After our super successful (and a little crazy) youth fundraiser dinner and dessert auction last Thursday, we tucked the kids in bed at Aunt Sar's house and Mike and I headed to Whistler (in BC, Canada) for a weekend of skiing.  Mike has been skiing about 5 times in the last year, but it's been probably 15 years since I've hit the slopes.  Needless to say I was a little nervous, but totally excited at the same time.  I'm happy to report that in two full days of skiing, there were no major wipeouts!  The weather was grand, the slopes were not too crowded, lunch at the top of Whistler and Blackcomb was fantastic, and we thoroughly enjoyed the company.  

Resting my legs

Riding the Peak to Peak Gondola, what a sight!  I kept thinking about how much my Aunt Lisa would be freaking out...she hates heights.

On our last run Friday, Mike and I had the mountain to ourselves.  Do you see any other skiers?

A view of the Village from the top of Blackcomb.

Stay tuned for Hawaii posts!  We fly out tomorrow for 9 days in paradise.

Grandma's Boots

Grandma Barrett was selling these boots at our garage sale and as we were setting up the night before, Halle decided they were a must have.  Since last August, my kids have thoroughly enjoyed the boots.  Every time I see them wearing them I chuckle too myself.  Secretly, I wish I had a pair my size!  Thanks grandma for selling your boots that day.

I Love Brad Paisley!

We bought Brad Paisley tickets for our staff and their spouses for Christmas way back in November and Saturday was finally the big night!  My sister, Sarah, and her husband, Danny, joined us, and my youngest brother Jeremy had a ticket also, but wasn't feeling well so Halle was the lucky replacement!  This was the third time I've seen Brad in concert and he just gets better every time.  Dierks Bentley opened for Brad, which was a special treat in itself. 

After the concert, Halle reported having a great time but admitted being a little tired (she stood on her chair for most of the evening)!

Brad's version of "Guitar Zero"

Halle was Aunt Amanda's permanent sidekick all night, and Amanda is always an awesome sport when it comes to her biggest fans.

The whole gang, minus Sarah who was our photographer, after the concert in front of one of Brad's 7 semis.  (Click to enlarge.  From L to R: Crystal B. our front desk and her hubby Joe, Amanda our assistant/front desk rover and her hubby/my brother Kyle, Tara another fabulous assistant and her hubby Ross, Mike, Halle, Me, Danny, Sarah's hubby, and Summer our hygienist and her hubby John...Thanks Sarah for taking the picture.)

Brad's Fleet of trucks and buses, they don't travel light

And now here are a few clips taken with our point and shoot camera for your listening enjoyment (we really had some great seats)!  I have to say, one of my favorite parts of the concert was when Brad was getting ready to sing Letter to Me, one of my favorites, it's on my player and if you are not familiar with it be sure to pay attention to the words.  Before he started the song he talked about how he thinks about high school every time he sings it, and how he used to worry about being cool, and whether or not he would ever get a date and if his parachute pants were cool enough.  Then they proceeded to show senior pictures of him and his band...hilarious.  He said that what he really needed to see was a glimpse of all of his fans, and how that would have changed everything.  He finished by saying he is living proof that high school is not the best years of our lives.  And all I can say to that is AMEN!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

This year, my Valentine surprised me with a visit from the "O Chords!"  I was in the kitchen, working with my Young Women and fellow leaders on our Valentine fundraiser (more on that below), when someone yelled that I was needed in the living room.  I walked in to find the handsome gentlemen pictured above!  They handed me a rose and then proceeded to serenade me.  Everyone got a real kick out of my special visitors.  My husband is so thoughtful AND sneaky!  (P.S.  The O Chord on the far right was my high school history teacher.)

The youth in our ward are doing a few fundraisers over the next couple months to earn money for camp. Our first attempt was a huge success!  We presented the women and men at church with the opportunity to order homemade valentines that we would deliver.  The gifts were different for each group and we kept everything a secret.  We received 94 orders and made a good chunk of money to put in our camp fund!

The Loads of Love card and cherry pie was the gift for the men, and the rose, cookies and Love You Much card was the gift for the women.  I think everything turned out really cute.  I prepared a lot in advance so that Friday afternoon the YW could come and assemble the cards, pies, decorate cookies and package things up.

Halle and Haven received a Valentine from Mike, which made them feel pretty special!  I'm pretty sure the rose was their favorite part.

I was helping someone at the door, only to turn around and find Asher had stolen my heart cookie!  He did give me half later. 

just for you

just for you

this will be fun.  thanks Meredith!

(adorable photo found on flickr)

okay so the first 5 people to respond to this 

post will receive something made by me to you.

my choice.  

made especially for you.

of course there are some restrictions and limitations:

1  i make no guarantees that you will like what i make!

2  what i create will be just for you.

3  it will be done sometime this year.

4  you have no clue what it will be... it may be a story.  it may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque.  i may draw or paint something.  i may bake something and mail it to you.  who knows?  not you, thats for sure.

5  i reserve the right to do something extremely strange.  

the catch?  oh the catch is that you must repost this on your blog 

and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.

the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!  

oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!