Utah Trip Cont….

Emma learned how to get out of the porta crib. One day I spent 1/2 hour putting her back about 20 times, finally I just stood at the door watching her until she fell asleep.  She woke up 1/2 hour later and I put her on the bed and watched her again till she fell asleep. Little stinker.  If she weren’t just so dang cute…..



Although we didn’t make huge plans for Valentines, we did do a few valentine-y activities and had a good time with Grandma, Grandpa and Janine’s family.

Making Cakeballs!
















Yes, Janine did just barely have a baby and look this great, all dressed up and in makeup.  Oh and we just got hair cuts together. 






And yes, this is me…still in my pj’s, no makeup and didn’t touch that newly cut hair.  Hmmmm…..we’ll keep this image small.






Friday the 15th I got a surprising phone call. It was my brother Jaron and he was inviting me to join him and his family for dinner that night. Each weekend they drive from Dayton Idaho, to Primary Childrens in Salt Lake for their son Jacon’s infusion.  They have food vouchers and hotel paid for (his infusion lasts about 7 hours). 

I rarely get to spend time with this darling family so I was honored to have been able to not only have dinner with them…but without my own 5 distractions(3 were spending the night with gma and gpa Duck and the other two with a sitter)!  I LOVED spending every moment focusing on these darling three boys. Oh how I LOVE them!!! (and all their famous Daves messy goodness!)






Yes, Lil’ Johns hair and eyes are for real.  This little guy just stole my heart!!!




Oh, and to die for lashes.



That night I got to spend shopping with CArrie, and then we headed to Janine’s house with Becca to love on baby and work on baby bows  (for carrie’s little sophie) and then nursery decor.  A girls night! Just what I needed!

Valentines!!!

I love Valentines Day. I love the colors, I love hearts, unfortunately I love the treats, and I love doing fun little things with the kids. Forget all those haters out there that dislike the holiday because of the 'Hallmark' stamp put on it, I'm grateful for a little extra push during our busy lives to stop and thank those around me for all they do and express how much I love them!!

Emma had her first little pig tails! I had to part it crazy to get the hair to stay....I think we might wait till she has a little more hair to do it again.

 



Maliyah working on our Valentine craft/treat. 2 mini candy canes put together with a sucker stick in the middle then melted white chocolate filled in the center to hold it all together. We made these last year too, but only had large Candy Canes. I was glad I found mini ones this year! This was last years picture



Then this darling little Candy bouquet was a gift from a friend. I felt so loved!


 

The kids had already put together Packages to send to all the family, but we thought it would be fun to make a little music video to send to all their friends that they love so much! I hate waiting for videos to upload...so we'll see if I do it. But in the mean time here are some pictures of the creation...



 



 

 

these are just a couple of pictures from the Sunday before Valentines. I took them after I had posted that day.

Happy Birthday Brent!

This week was my not only Valentines DAy, but Wednesday was my brothers birthday and My Older Brother and his wife's anniversary. They were married just a few months before Duck and I. My poor parents.

Anyway the kids still on a music video kick wanted to make Brent one, instead of just calling to sing happy Birthday. Here are a few pictures and I'll try to post their little music viceo!

 

 

 

Ky was much more in the mood for dancing this time around!

One of the kids favorite games is Don't Eat Pete. We have a Valentine version and didn't get to play it on Valentines, so in honor of Brents birthday we played it!

The rest of our week! {valentines & photography}

The three littles were all playing very nicely during school today and I had to capture that moment. It's rare.



I was in charge of putting on our preschool valentine party. I usually am. I also like to be able to open it up to anybody who would like to attend, so this year wasn't any different! We were going to have about 18 kiddos (23 including babies).

Wednesday night I let the three older kids stay up late with me (Duck was working late) and get ready. I had three snacks to prepare so they each got to help with one, as well as help make their valentines.

Jayden got to help me make the cookie pops!



Terrible, colorful, filled with unnatural dye....sugar cookie dough!



The intent was to make hearts, but Jayden was loving all kinds of shapes and things. Mostly he did rocks.



I overcooked them. Twice. They really weren't that good. But we had fun making them!~



We had two bags of Chocolate nuggets the kids were wrapping. Kyson and Maliyah then wrapped around them their invite that had their pictures on them. Jaydens had his picture invite stapled to a bag of goodies. They wrapped a LOT of chocolates. The good thing about this extra wrapping? It's harder for me to get into.





Maliyah helped me make a Valentine Chex Mix. It needed a wrapper around it. It was yummy!!



Kyson got to help me make our Jello Treat. Unfortunately it didn't turn out quite as well as pictured below. Those are NOT the ones we made. Our 'foamy' stuff didn't ever happen, therefore not rising to the top, therefore not creating the cool pinwheel effect. BUT....they rolled up, they were yummy and they still looked really cool! I just forgot to take a picture.



Maliyah's and Kyson's Invite (tiny chocolate wrapper)

 

Jayden's baggie topper (this ones my favorite! shhhh...) and then Emma and Savannah's candy wrappers



 

Happy Valentines This Week!!




The party was a hit! I think the kids had fun, we were able to pull it all together quick quickly and we were done in just over an hour. Yahoo!


 

I'm part of a photography group on Facebook and this year they are hosting a 52 photo a week challenge. There is a theme each week then we take a picture with that theme in mind and post. This week was a Self Portrait. I NEVER take pictures of myself. Why would I? And I"m always the one with the camera, so pictures are never taken of me! With that being said, it was really weird to take this picture and just see me in it. I had to of course be a little creative with it! The picture on the right is the first one I posted. Then later posted the one on the left for seriousness sake!


 

Emma had her first ponytail this week. While Duck and I were gone at a funeral Thursday our babysitter put it up. There isn't much to be in the pony, but it was cute so we tried it again the next day.

 



Friday night Duck was gone at a campout, so we had some friends over. Their dad and two older brothers were on the same campout. We played games, had popcorn and watched 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. I forgot how much I LOVE that movie!



these two little girlies kept wanting the same toys!