THE Picture Princess

The cutest clothing website Shabby Apple is having a model search, with awesome clothing prizes, so I am entering Kennedy!

If you know her, you know she is the ultimate Picture Princess! She loves everything about having her picture taken: the hair and (sometimes, for dance!) make-up, the wardrobe and accessories, the posing...ohh, the posing. She would pose for hours for me. I love it! I can't get enough of her big blue eyes and baby blonde hair. She is starting to really like clothes, here we go! She loves to pick out her clothes for school the night before, finding just the right touches with belts, shoes, jewelry and hair accessories. A fashionista in training! She is such a sweetheart, and she makes everything we do together fun!

I would pick the

Canary Dress {little girls and girls dresses from Shabby Baby}

for her, as she loves to rock the dress-over-jeans look, and this dress would be perfect for that or with some little ballet flats for Sunday, and the color-combo is awesome, so fun and fresh.

Fun Running

Do you remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe shows Rachel how much more fun it is to run when you act like a kid and throw your arms around and don't worry what you look like?

That is what these pictures remind me of. I love to watch him run, with his arms thrown back, he loves to "go so fast!"

I love that he was able to run OUTSIDE last week (don't worry, we have snow again), not just up and down the hall!

*I so wish our whole drive way was paved, look at all the misplaced gravel I had to sweep/rake off of it? yuck! But I'm so excited to be back working in the yard I don't care!

Happy Birthday Jenna!

Today is my little sister Jenna's 21st Birthday. Jenna, I can't believe it, you've seemed that age for at least a decade! :) I love how close we've become over the past couple of years, and watching you be such a fun mom and wife has made me so happy! Thank you for bringing sweet Nate and darling Preslie into our family, I can't imagine us without them! I love being with you, you make me laugh so hard, you always say what every one else wants too~! You are so fun and pretty and, you know, the "S" word. You are the most loyal person I know, you always have our backs and I love that about you. My kids adore you. I asked Kennedy what her favorite thing about you was, and she said "She always does my hair cute and does fun things with me and wears cute clothes." I asked Hudson the same thing and he said, "She's pink!" I thought that was very appropriate! Also, teasing you brings so much joy to Dustin's life, I know he appreciates you too. :)

I hope you have an awesome day, filled with nieces, nephews, a brand new pink Chi, shopping, and dinner at Baja Cantina! Wish I was there! Love you!

You'll never guess what I did Saturday night...

I competed in the Eastern Idaho Arm Wrestling Competition!

I know, WHAAA??

To start at the beginning, my awesome aunt Jill competed in arm wrestling at the Utah Summer Games a couple of years ago. Turns out, she's pretty awesome at it, so she has done it a couple times since, and in Logan a couple of weeks ago she cleaned house! So, some fellow competitors told her about the competition in Rexburg this last weekend, and she decided to come compete and visit me.

Well, she talked me into doing it too, and it ended up being quite the experience! There is this whole other world of competitive arm wrestling that I didn't even know existed! There is a lot of technique involved, and moves that I SO did not know. It was so entertaining. And don't even get me started on the spectators...

This first girl I competed against whipped me bad. It was over in about 2 seconds...She was 3rd in the world last year, so I didn't feel too bad...




I totally took her, though. I know, I wasn't too proud...

Jill smoked this girl, it was awesome!

And here we are up against each other in the semi-finals! This is right after she whooped on me. I could hardly keep a straight face!

Jill ended up taking first in one weight class, second in the other, I took third! I even got a plaque. Not as cool as Jill's two big trophies, but still!!


It was fun, and I loved watching Jill. She is not what you would picture as an Arm Wrestling champ, but she is such a good athlete she rocks at anything she tries. I loved spending time with her this weekend! She brought her kiddos Jenessa and Jed and Grandma Jorgy with her, and I loved seeing them all! I loved seeing Grandma tell Kennedy little stories and give Hudson treats. My kids are so lucky to have some of their great-granparents around, they don't see them enough! Thanks for the fun Weekend!

Just because...

Just because she looked so adorable before school this morning. (And because I got a new lens yesterday and couldn't wait to play... yay!)

Lucky Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had so much fun today, it's days like this that I love being a mom. My kids make stupid holidays like this one totally worth celebrating to the fullest extent possible. I love it!

Last year at Kennedy's preschool, Leprechauns visited their classroom while the kids weren't there and left footprints and treats, and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. I kind of felt like a loser mom for only doing magic green milk!

Well, lately we've been reading books about Leprechauns and how they cause mischief, so, along with magic green milk this year, Mommy talked some Leprechauns into visiting our house as well.

Now, I have to admit, late last night as I was making green snicker doodles (because the only store-bought St. Paddy's day treats at Albertsons were in the bakery, and looked disgusting) and cutting out Leprechaun footprints, I was really wondering if I was crazy.

But this morning when Kennedy woke up and saw the "mischief" and found the treats, you would have thought it was December 25th, judging from her excitement level. She was laughing and running around and waking everyone up. It was so cute, she was thrilled! She really makes everything so much more fun than it should be.

Here she is in her cute green outfit, with pink accents, natch...the leprechauns also left her some fun green accessories this morning.

Hudson loved magic green milk, can you tell? He is our own little leprechaun...except he only takes treats, never leaves them...

Here is some of the mischief...luckily, our leprechauns only caused mischief that was silly and not hard for mom to clean up (our couches are freakishly light...really no excuse for there to be so much popcorn under them...)

Hudson thought this was hilarious. It was like someone had done his day's chores for him! :) He actually cleaned the balls up before I could! I am kind of wondering if this was the best idea, though. I really have a feeling many future messes may be getting blamed on leprechauns...


I let Kennedy help plan the menu for our all green dinner, and she did a great job! We had chicken pesto, green beans, peas, salad and green punch. We also colored placemats and Leprechaun pictures for the table and used every green dish in the house. They loved it!

Now, for the luckiest part of our day: We found my wedding ring!

For those of you who don't know: I lost it in my friends' driveway on Christmas Eve. I really have been sick about it, I dreamed almost every night that I found it, and Dustin has been looking several times, even with a metal detector. I have refused to let myself really think that it was lost, hoping that when the snow was melted it would show up. And yay! it did today. What a miracle! And right when the silver was starting to wear off of my big, gaudy fakey (I hated not looking married :) . Nice to have the real deal! Words cannot express how I feel about having this ring back! Everytime I look at it, I remember the first time I saw it, and how I felt. I will never let it out of my sight again! Thanks so much for watching for it, Chad and Jessica!

wonderful weekend

I had such a great weekend! On Friday afternoon my Mom met me at the Red Lion in Idaho Falls for the overnight crop Creative Memories does there twice a year. It is rapidly becoming a cherished tradition! We've had Jenna a time or two, and once Trulie came, which was so fun, but my mom and I have been every time since I heard about it two years ago. Last year my sweetest neighbor Tracy started coming, too, (she is a consultant!) and she has just added to the joy! Luckily, Dustin realizes how much I look forward to these weekends and doesn't even question it, just tells me which of the two available weekends he won't be on call. We just plan on it. Oh, how I love him for that!

It is so fun and relaxing to sit and gab while we work on scrapbook pages, they even provide yummy meals and snacks. I always get so much done (28 pages!) and come home a happier mommy. Honestly, though, this year, I would have liked it to be maybe not quite so close to our vacation, but, hey, didn't stop me! When I told Kennedy good-bye on Friday afternoon, she gave me a big hug and trudged up the stairs with her friend, saying "at least she'll only be gone ONE day this time." Yeah, I felt a little guilty. But I went and loved it anyway! Plus, she is on 100% of the pages I do, I'm pretty much staring at her face the entire time, so its not like I'm completely abandoning her...

I could probably win the prize for the amount of spreading out I do with my supplies...I like to see everything, and I take every available inch!

To make the weekend even better, when we finished up on Saturday at 5:00, we met Dustin and the kids for dinner and then my AWESOME mom took them home and put them to bed while Dustin and I hit 2 movies, with a Cold Stone in between! So fun! I found out, in bits and pieces, though, that Grandma Josie is definitely nurturing the sweet tooth that both of my kids have inherited...not exactly straight home and to bed...first a stop at the Cocoa Bean cupcake cafe, then to Florence's Candies, then to G's Dairy Delights....hmmm, not sure who had more fun, us or them! Thanks for the fun weekend, Mom and Dustin! I love you both!

FYI: We saw "Push" and "Taken." I liked Push, but the end was a little disappointing. I was expecting it to be as cool as X-Men ( I know, I'm this huge nerd who loves comic book movies) but it wasn't. Not a complete waste of time, though. However, we could not have been more...what's the word...exhilarated by Taken. WHOA! Seriously, one of the best shows I've ever seen. Definitely in my top ten. Maybe five. Maybe two. Awesome. A little scary, but awesome. Very satisfying. Dustin feels the same. Go see it!

Do you think she needs a little sister?

I'd like to say that she had to tie him down to do this. But, I'm pretty sure he asked her for some. Hopefully it was just to satisfy his constant need to make a mess. He did gleefully rip the clothes off of all of the polly pockets he could find in her room, though, so that's good.



Oh, and here are her new dance pictures! She is so pretty!

PS - Jenna, Kim: the title of this post is NOT an announcement. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love vacations...

I really miss those fresh fruit smoothies and pina coladas in pineapples. I miss getting no one but myself ready for bed at night. I miss the warm sand and the sound of waves, and someone else making my every meal. BUT...

I missed this more.

I really missed these guys! I have really been enjoying them this past week, and yesterday was just a great day.

Here's why:

Kennedy got herself dressed with a minimum of dawdling, and was so cheerful for morning. Hudson slept all the way till I was done tae-bo-ing and pilates/yoga-ing...he never does that! Plus, he was so happy, too, happily followed me around, chattering and driving his cars, while I got the WHOLE house cleaned and tons of laundry done. I was so productive, it was awesome, and I didn't even feel like I was neglecting him, he was just so happy to watch and jabber. Then, Kennedy got home and we had a quick lunch and then went outside to sled. It was the perfect sledding day: the snow was perfect, and it was warm!

We both just had on snow pants and long sleeve t-shirts by the time we were done. Then, after some hot chocolate, Hudson had a gloriously long nap, even through the front room carpet being shampooed (not even by me! Kirby guys stopped by, and it was "No thank you, I already have one. Yes, you can still clean my carpet." Awesome! Seriously, after the pushy vendors in the DR, the Kirby guys were a piece of cake!) Kennedy and I did some of her crafty-homework together, and just relaxed in our clean house together. It was so nice, I loved not having anywhere to be yesterday but home.

And to top it all off, last night was Taco Night, which I love! We do it up right, chips and salsa, delicious rice ( I have an awesome new recipe, THank you Wes! I'm going to put it here...) and homemade guacamole. Yum. Sorry, no pictures. I was too hungry.

So, I just had to jot this day down. Just about perfect. So thankful to be me.