For the LOVE...

I LOVE Valentine's Day... mostly for the sugar cookies! ha! I'm a bit OCD when it comes to making messes, but look at that happy face, playing with his "play dough!" Tuesday we make the cookies...

 They were great helpers....but don't worry, they had their own separate dough....

 Wednesday we frosted the cookies...

 ...and invited our cousins Tabitha and Loralye to help.

 I think I need an intervention. I may have lost track of the number of these I downed! We delivered to friends and neighbors...

 Valentine's Eve the kids got new jammies....this isn't necessarily a tradition, but they are always needing new jammies, so why not?!

 V-Day breakfast was heart shaped pancakes and strawberries (like every other family in America).

 Emri had preschool, and while Mommy was showering, Jet passed out watching a movie. THIS NEVER HAPPENS (one, that he'll watch a show longer than 5 minutes and two, that he'll fall asleep on his own free will). The boy has been waking up around 6:30 every morning for the last couple weeks...apparently it caught up to him. 

 Our Heart Throb & Little Love Bug...pretty cute if I do say so myself ;)

 This beautiful arrangement was delivered just as I was trying to head out the door to meet Brett. The card read, "To my two very special girls. I love you both more than you know, because you are both more than I deserve. Love you Emri, and I guess you too Jami.  -Me" So sweet...and of course a little sarcasm too. Emri was so happy to get beautiful flowers on Valentine's!

 I snagged a couple pieces of pizza from the kids dinner, left them with a sitter, and met Brett on his way home from work. We had a very romantic pizza dinner in the car as we drove to Brigham City to make it for  a 6:30 appointment! haha! Memorable at least :) We met up with Brett's parent's and a few of his siblings to do sealings. It was really neat...and a great place to be with the hubs on our day of love! 

Hope everyone enjoyed their day too....NOW...onto birthday planning/celebrations! We've got quite the week ahead of us!

iPhone/Instagram Dump

My blog is seriously lacking in excitement these days...and it's due to a number of reasons which I will tell you!

1. We just don't have a ton going on right now... winter needs to be over. Don't worry though, with Valentine's Day, 2 kiddos birthdays to celebrate, and a 1/2 Marathon all in the next 2 weeks I'm sure my blog will be a little more exciting in the near future.

2. Our computer is in the very basement of our multi-level home...which is poorly insulated. IT IS FREAKING COLD DOWN HERE!! I never have the desire to sit in front of the computer for more than 30 seconds!

3. We haven't been up to a lot, but when WE DO do stuff, I've been a slacker at taking pics! 

It's been a while since I've dumped all my random pics into a post, so here they are... dating back to November--ish??

Stopped at work to see Daddy....I always put them in the chair. My kids WILL NOT be afraid of the dental office!

 A treat Brett surprised me with one day.... my fave :)

 One of my BFF's bdays just happened to be on 12-12-12! She is a party animal....so, WHY WOULDN'T THERE BE A MECHANICAL BULL at her celebration?!?! The birthday girl, Jami...

 ...and me, Jami! Hilarious!

A few of the old BHS crew! Tschagg, Jami, Angi, Jami, and Jaime (apparently it was a popular name that year?!)

 Brett was out of town one weekend in December on a boy/family outing...Emri brought "Hooey" into my room and said I could sleep w/ him so I wouldn't get lonely without Daddy. She's tender!

 My little monkey boy...

My sis-in-law, Ingrid, and I put together these cute jars of "Christmas Scent" to give to all the ladies that work with our hubbies at the office.

 Got to have lunch, sans kiddos, with my sweet friend Amy while she was in town for Christmas. Miss my Ohio girls!

 A picture of Mommy and Emri....love 3 year old drawings!

 Been loving my new Blender Brett got me for Christmas....hoping the green smoothies cancel out the calories of all the shakes we've been making! ha!

 A Christmas shin-dig @ Angi's house with some high school besties. Love them all!

 Emri stickered me up one morning and said "There mama, now you look like a rockstar!"

 Some composition notebooks I covered and gave to my young women class to use as journals.

 Emri and I both caught the stomach flu last month....This was my view for about 24 hours.

A few days after the bug hit....just chillin in mom's bed. No moving allowed!

 

A date night with my love. Dinner, some thrift store shopping and pie for dessert at Kneaders. YUM.

"Look Mom, I'm a bookworm." She melts my heart!

 It's been so dang cold...and we had a nasty inversion that seemed to last forever...I'm pretty sure at least 2 weeks. You could walk outside and taste the air! GROSS! Finally we got a big storm (I welcomed that one) and the smog cleared out. Beautiful blue skies...so rejuvenating. 

 The under side of our deck looked like a death trap!

 Once it "warmed up" (maybe 30 degrees??) Brody and I drove up to Morgan to do a long run. We ran 10 miles...our 1/2 Marathon is in 1.5 weeks!

 Couldn't resist taking this picture! Superbowl Sunday at my parent's house... I found a little 3 year olds frosting-sneaking evidence :)

 Jet trying to get the last drops of Dad's spicy drink :)

 A few weeks ago, Emri had been asking Brett to teach her how to play the Wii....we never turn it on anymore. I could barely watch her play MarioKart the first few times without getting motion-sickness! Now she begs to play every night with Daddy after dinner, and she's getting quite good at it! I pretend I don't know how to turn it on (only Daddy can) so I don't get begged to play it all day!

 Emri got CandyLand for Christmas and she literally beats us 9 times out of 10 when we play! Sometimes Daddy pouts...

 I went to Time Out For Women with my in-law ladies and my mom in Layton...Sadly, this was THE ONLY pic I took! And it has ZERO women in it....just a million freaky birds that I thought were going to attack us when we got out of our car.

 And this is just today :) Emri is signing her own Valentines for her preschool party! I can't believe she is this old! So sweet and fun though! 

Papa's Happy Birthday

Papa had a birthday!! We went to SLC Sunday to celebrate. I offered to make a dessert of his choice. Of course he picked something I'd never made before, German Chocolate Cake! I went to Pinterest and found something tasty looking and gave it a whirl. It sure looked pretty! I will tell you a secret...MY cake is from a box! The frosting was from scratch...HERE's the recipe. **Bakers Note** I only did 2/3 cup sugar in frosting, then added a little brown sugar as well. Definitely give the syrup time to thicken while cooking....like 12-15 minutes once boiling. BE PATIENT it will happen!**

 Love the candles, Mom! 55+1 :)

 Papa's gift from all of us was a "Little Giant" ladder.....Jet photobombed!

 Where's Momma Max...oh, that's right. With the babies. Always. 

 I guess the cake wasn't so bad! I must have been nervous for no reason. :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Fire Station Field Trip

After being in bed for a couple days with stomach flu, Emri and I were excited to get out of the house for a firld trip. Emri and her little friend Ryder heading in to the station.

Checking out the inside of the firetruck... 

 Jet decided to be brave and go in too...

 Seeing the gear the firemen wear...

 Plugging her ears when the sirens went off.

 The Little Fish classes. Emri is bottom row, third from the right.