To make you giggle . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy0SrWpfFmA

I just can't help but adore this song! It makes our whole house dance - even Jake gets his groove on to it!

Seriously, this is an accurate account of Facebook, right? Once your facebook account goes into play, there's no stopping it! It's like a raging fire! I'm guilty of getting sucked in from time to time, but now there's no way to get away, is there?!?! I saw this on a blog, and I just knew I had to have it on mine! So, I hope you all get a kick out of it like I did!

I just wanted to post these pics because I love my new "antique frames."

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I just love making cookies, can you tell? For Valentine's day, I made the kids a new kind of cookie that I haven't made before.

You want the recipe? Okay!

HOMEMADE OREOS
1 box of Devil's Food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 c. butter flavor shortening
I made these ones with cherry frosting in the middle - so they were little cherry-chocolate cookies. So yummy!

Mix it all together, and bake at 350 for 8 minutes. I like to make them small, so they don't make an enormous mess. They only last an hour or two at my house! Enjoy!
Winter is tough, but Chloe is so good to find things to build with playdough!
Colten is my little cold-blooded boy, but when he has to go out to feed the chickens after it has just snowed 8 inches, he grumbles a little bit. Digging the chickens out isn't his favorite thing.
Jake is now in love with big-peopl shoes. He can wear them on his hands even! It's so funny just to sit back and watch him work through his balance issues while he tries to walk in his brother's boots!

At least . . . .

Well, at least there's Valentine's Day! This is the time of year that I dread. I'm already SO ready for summer, but winter doesn't look like it will end anytime soon. This is the time of year that I realized I took the warm, lazy days of summer for granted. I hate being stuck inside for 90% of the day. Plus, I'm suffering from my yearly "strep/migraine/sinus infection" - cold. So, I guess I've resorted to begging for sympathy.

ANYWAY . . . there is one fabulous holiday right in the middle of all the dreariness - Valentine's Day! Chloe has informed me that when she "gets big" she "will marry" and "she will ski" and she "will have big b______s like Tinkerbell." Thanks for that Disney! Does Tinkerbell have to be so well-proportioned? I'm a little worried.

The best thing about Valentine's day is the treats, right? Every single candy is amazing. I love/hate them all. They're the "worstest" thing I like to eat.

We don't spend ALL of our time stuck inside. Sometimes we brave it to play on a playground.


I got to provide Cole's 2nd grade class with hot chocolate for their SNOW DAY. He was actually pretty embarrassed that I brought my camera so this was the only shot I got of him looking at me. I caught him when he was painting in the snow.


This was Chloe doing her favorite Sunday afternoon thing - watching WALL-E in bed!
Apparently, I forgot to get Jake down for his afternoon nap the other day, and so he climbed up on Sam and fell asleep. Unfortunately, he was a little too heavy for Sam, so . . . .
Colten was more than willing to take over the "cuddling" duty!
Today my mom drove up to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I was still feeling pretty yucky, so I hung back and captured it all. So, forgive me for the billions of pictures I always post, but I just can't help it!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!




Just a dash of red food coloring for the pink icing!
Sam was happy to let the girls do the cooking as long as he got to enjoy the rewards!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!!!

I just figured out how to put images on my blog nice and big! Hooray! I guess I'll be sharing with you my favorite picture - one that I have big on my wall. Yea!

Oh, my gosh!

Last Saturday was a crazy day! It was nuts - I went "food storaging (as Colten calls it when I went to do a little canning for food storage) at 8 am, went to Cole's basketball game at 9, I had a 1 hour break to clean the house and feed the kids, then I left to take pictures for the next 4 hours while trying to see through the haze of a HORRIBLE headache, I got home and jumped in the car with Joe to head to Park City to see the World Cup for moguls (by this time, my headache was making me sick, I hadn't eaten anything all day except for almonds and diet coke, and tons of headache medicine), I had dressed for a "dinner at the lodge" date, but showed up to find out it was a hike up to the hill to see the stuff, but I was so sick by then that I almost fainted walking up that huge hill! Then, I realized how dumb I was to dress like that because it was DANG COLD up there! The wind would blow right through me! So, I began shivering around 6 p.m., and while the event itself was awesome to watch, it didn't end until 10!!!!!! I have never been in so much pain or so cold in my entire life! On the other hand, Deer Valley can make some amazing hot chocolate and "turkey chili in a cup!"
Joe was really in his element there. Not cold at all! So, even though he offered to head back, I stuck it out for him. I think love makes us do crazy things sometimes because it lasted a long, long time, my head was pounding, and I was shaking the whole entire time. Anything for you, Joe!

This is really a fake smile.Luckily, Joe's boss was there with his cute family! It made it more fun to spend that time with them (but I feel so stupid for being in so much pain that whole night!) Their little girl was so amazing! She didn't get cold. She didn't get tired. She was happy the whole time! How in the heck did she do that? I'm thinking maybe I was the only one that was suffering! She's not even 3, and she was doing better than me!!! What an adorable little girl! She got really worried about the skiiers every time they crashed. She wanted to go help them - a true doctor in training!
It was really dark- so the images are very grainy, but that's the final race and one of the guy's final jumps. Next year, I'm planning on wearing snow gear, mittens, socks, and sorels. I will also not be going if I have a headache - so that I don't give anyone else a headache from all my shivering and grimacing. Other than that, it was a perfect date!

Sweet as sugar

I just love my little shadow, Chloe. She has such a sweet and imaginative personality. I also love how she likes to be my test subject whenever I change my lights in my studio around, and to me, this picture captures her personality. I had to post both color and B/W because I couldn't decide which one I like better.

Ooops!

I found some little lost images that I want to record (I'm planning on getting my blog printed into a book every year - so if anyone has any tips for me, that would be great!), and even though most of these are in the summer, I just felt so badly about forgetting them . . . so here they are!

Above, Sam had a great 2nd year of baseball. Below, Colten had a great 4th year of baseball! It was really hard to be in two places at the same time - so I didn't really get a lot of great pics of these games. I had Chloe following me around, Jake asleep in his stroller (sometimes) and I had to go back and forth between the two games at the park! It was hard to time it right!


Chloe is all girl, but when the boys make it look so fun, she likes to get out there and play with them on the "little hoop."
Sam . . . Sam . . . Sam . . . what a goofball. He's always been a handful, but can be such a sweet and funny little handful!


Colten is my oldest. He helps me out with everything. He watches me to make sure I'm happy (sometimes it hurts my feelings when the kids don't like my dinners, and he always tries to cheer me up and sick up for me. What a sweet guy he's growing up to be!), he helps out with baby Jake, and I can always trust him to take care of Chloe. He loves every single sport (football a little more than anything), and he is getting really good at skiing. I'll have to try to get some video of him skiing, since I know that I can't go down the hills he does - so I think that might be the only way for me to see what he's doing! Maybe he'll have pity on me and meet me on a green run one of these days!
I saw this pic, and I think it's so cute of Jake! He was so chubby! It kind of makes me sad that he's starting to lose all of his baby-chub! Is it time for another one? Hmmmmmmmm.



Chloe loves to try on my boots. I saw her struggling with them a few weeks ago, and I had to grab a shot. It was amazing that she actually got up and could walk in them. I think they went all the way up her legs!