89 Years Young

Isn't my Grandma BEAUTIFUL?! She always wonders why we all want to have our picture taken with her. But it is simple, she is beautiful inside and out and we all love her! Well my Beautiful Grandma turned 89 this week and we had to celebrate. Her birthday is on Valentines day and I love it, because I get to spend my day thinking about how much I love her. For her birthday, my Aunt and Uncle came to visit. So I invited the whole family over for cake and ice cream. Anyone that knows my grandma knows how much she loves chocolate and so of course her favorite cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting. I always try to make her a chocolate-chocolate cake for her birthday and this year was no different. I wanted to make a cake that was as beautiful and elegant as she is (well with my limited decorating skills). So here is my cake. I must say that it was YUMMY! I am not a chocolate cake lover (I prefer my chocolate in is pure form), but this recipe is delish! I have discovered that sour cream and buttermilk make any cake, pie or cookie so so much better. I know look for recipes containing on of those ingredients.Back to my beautiful Grandma...I hope that I am half the woman that she is when I am her age. She is kind and loving and you just want to hug her all day when you are around her. I love you Grandma, I hope that 89 is a wonderful year for you. I am so glad that I live close enough to you to spend it with you.

Girls Trip 2010

About two weeks after the wedding I got a much needed getaway. My sisters, Chantelle and I all headed to Austin, Texas for the annual girls trip. I was the last one to arrive and was picked up by Chantelle and Eric at the airport an quickly whisked away to a nail salon for pedicures. The lovely Mnisa(and Eric) treated ALL of us to pedicures...I wish I could to that every time I fly!

After the pedicures we all piled in the car and went to Chick-fil-A for some yummy food. Then we did what girls do best...went shopping! Karin had a fun idea to go to a flea market, we found some great bargains there.

Once our shopping was done we headed to our "resort". Eric and Mnisa have some friends who let us kindly stay in their beautiful home right on Lake Austin. We had a lovely time there filled with paddle boarding and kayaking.Of course we always get a little silly just visiting and playing games.Mnisa, Janae` and Julie after church. It was a nice relaxing week filled with tons of fun! I always love being with my sisters. They were great company and even let me practice my first Woodbadge presentation on them. Their feedback was awesome!

The BIG day!

With only 7 weeks to plan, the time went fast, but I think we were all ready for the big day to be there. When it finally comes all you can do is hope that you have all your ducks in a row and that everything will go smoothly, especially when you have never really planned an entire wedding before.
The morning of the wedding Matt and I met Chantelle, Zach, and Janae' at the temple. The dress and all of the accessories were at our house so it was important that I deliver them. Chantelle got special permission to have me in the bride's room with her and Janae' so that I could lace up her dress. She definitely looked beautiful!

Bailee and Owen were the first ones to greet Chantelle and Zach after they came out of the Temple from the Ceremony.

My friend Lynette did all of the flowers and made these cute little mini veils for Bailee and Brianna.

Owen found a new best freind that week, Alex.

After all f the pictures at the temple, we headed over to Kathrine Albertson's park for more with he family. Thank goodness for Dave, he made a McDonald's run and picked up lunch for all of us at the park.

When pictures were done I had just enough time to take Matt and Owen home for a nap and pick up a few last things at the house and head to the church to finish up preparing the food for the reception and take care of a few last details. Lucky for me I found a wonderful lady to take care of most of the decorations, and my mom got us in touch with someone who made a fabulous cake. It was nice not to worry about those two details on that day. It was such a blessing to have reliable people to work with for the wedding.

Before I know it everyone was arriving for the family dinner, and then it was show time.

Zach's uncle is a DJ and did an amazing job at making this wedding fun for everyone!

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. At some point in the night I kicked off my shoes, because I was constantly running around to make sure things were taken care of.

This is what Emily and my feet looked like at the end of the night...disgusting.

Through all of this expeience I learned one main thing...when Bailee gets married, we are hiring a wedding planner! I am done planning weddings!

Wedding Pedicures

Of course every bride needs pretty toes on her wedding day. Especially when she has some awesome Pink peep-toe shoes!

I arranges for Chantelle, Janae', Bailee and I to have pedicures, by my friend Amy, a few says before the wedding.

Owen didn't want to be left out so we got him a bowl of warm water to soak his feet. Then Aunt Janae' rubbed them with lotion.

Bailee acting so grown up.

Owen happy to be in on the party!

Girls will be girls

It just wouldn't be time with my sisters if there wasn't at least one self portrait of us together. This was a little tricky with my DSLR camera.
My sister Janae` got to come for the week before Chantelle's wedding to help with things. We had so much fun hanging out (I mean running around like chickens with their heads cut off doing things for the wedding). Doesn't she just have the most beautiful eyes?!

Greatest Grandma

Owen has a special something about him that draws him to older people. He especially loves all of this grandparents.
One day at my moms he convinced GG to sit at the little table and play horses with him. He was so happy and she was a good sport and sat there with him.

Saidie

While my sister was here I took the opportunity to do a couple of fun photo shoots with Miss Saidie. These are a few of my favorites.

Chantelle and Weston

This is for my sister, Janae. Chantelle was set up on a blind date with our family Doctor's son on Thursday and they have been together each night since. I am glad that they are having fun.

Curly for a Day

Last night Chantelle asked me to braid her hair so that it would be curly today. Then we decided to try it on my hair too. It was fun to have curly hair for a day, especially since my hair normally doesn't hold a curl. It is has been so much fun having Chantelle around, almost like the little sister I never had. When she was little I was jealous of her because she took my role as the baby of the family, but now it is so nice to have some one so close to my age. I love her to pieces and am so glad that she made such a big move to Idaho.

Goofing off as Curly Angels?

SHE'S HERE!!!

We picked up Chantelle at the airport late last night. Her flight came in a few minutes early so I am glad that we got there a half hour before her flight was scheduled. I made this sign to make it easier for her to find us.
Mom/Gramma waiting for her to arrive. My mom got her some lotion since she was coming to the dry climate from a humid one and an Idaho T-shirt.

Chantelle told me that she loves potatoes, so I got her this Idaho potato cookbook. I has recipes for every thing from french fries to potato chocolate cake.

Chantelle seeing us for the first time with our sign.

Chantelle with her Idaho shirt and sign while she talked to her mom on the phone letting her know that she had found us. We are excited to have her here with us and hope that her mom doesn't worry about her too much. We will take good care of her.

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Day was so much fun this year with two little ones. Bailee completely understood the Santa thing and was so excited for Christmas morning. Unfortunately for Santa, she kept changing what she wanted from the Big Man. She had said that she wanted a new "big girl" bike and that is what we put on her list, but when Santa came for a pre-Christmas Eve visit she told him that she wanted a puppy. Luckily she was happy when Santa spoiled her with a bike and a toy puppy that barks and wags his tail. Owen still didn't know what was going on but thoroughly enjoyed all of the the unwrapping.
We were all spoiled with gifts and most of all by the great company of our families. We had Matt's Parents, my mom and my grandma (GG).

After all of the gifts we relaxed a bit and then started preparing our Christmas dinner. A few years ago we started a new tradition of having a prime rib for dinner. and after the third year I think that we finally have the cooking process down. This year it was delicious! And the leftovers made the BEST french dip sandwiches that I have ever had! Any one that knows me well knows that is my favorite food of all time so it was quite a treat for me... I would even say better than the prim rib it's self.Bailee loves Tinker Bell and was so excited about this doll.

Matt was surprised with a gorilla pod for all of his outdoor adventures.

Owen loved the xylophone he got.

I have been looking at this way cool spice rack for months and was so excited to get one. I love it! A big thanks to my sister Kristin. ( I actually got two...I really wanted one and told everyone. But Matt's mom took the one she got to use in her own kitchen, we are both lucky girls)

My sister Kristin also gave Bailee this princess tent. She was SOOOO excited and said "I've been begging for this". Which is totally true. She pickup a toy catalog at JC Penny's one day and carried it around for weeks. It had one of these tents in it and every time she saw it she would tell me that she needed one. Leave it to Aunt Kristin to get inside her little mind (I believe that it is a gift she has for gift giving).

Owen was spoiled with Little People and loves them all. He hung on to and sucked on these two packs for almost the whole time of opening gifts.

Here I am putting the prime rib into the oven...I am not sure what I was thinking, but I didn't get a picture of it after it came out of the oven.

Christmas Eve 2008

Some of our favorite things about Christmas are the traditions we have in our families.
Each year that we are in Boise we have the privilege of going to the Schildan's for Deanne's delicious wedding soup and the great company of family and friends. This year we went with Tami's mom and her grandma. It was a wonderful time.

We also make cookies for Santa and open Christmas pajama's. We had a wonderful time reading the Christmas story and singing Christmas carols. Owen opening his Christmas pajamas.

Bailee opening her Christmas Pajamas.

Bailee reading stories with GG

Making cookies.

New Years Day 2009

We had a great new years day with my mom. We started by meeting for lunch at the Olive Garden and then we headed over to her house for games. Playing games is one of my favorite pass times and some of my favorite memories with my family. We had a blast! Tami, Mom, and Bailee playing Memory (Bailee's favorite game)

Disney on Ice

Disney on Ice came to town and Bailee got to go with my mom. She was so excited. My mom found her a Cinderella dress and shoes to wear. She was a sweet little princess.

The Shoes, the heels even light up!Watching intently.
So excited.

Cinderella and Prince Charming

Bailee had a great time with her Gramma that day. I am a sure it is one she will remember for a long time.