Cooper's Got a Crush...

...on this little cutie pie!

This is Eimear. She moved here from Ireland a few months back. She is a doll and has the cutest little accent. She's in Cooper's kindergarten class and he talked about her non-stop when she first moved in. She lives in our neighborhood as well so we get to see her at the park a lot.

SNOW day!!!

Every now and again Austin gets a little snow.  And it doesn't take any more than just a little to shut down the whole darn town.  It only lasted until the afternoon but the kids enjoyed it (well, Hadley - not so much) while it was around.

Porter Soccer

We signed Porter up for soccer for the first time this year. I just have to say that as far as entertainment value - you get your money's worth out of 3 year old soccer. Every penny!!

A boy and his dad

Mark's mom took these pictures while she was here visiting. I LOVE when she comes because she always takes the best pictures of my kids. I just loved these...

Giving Papa Allen a high five!

LEGO birthday party

I have had a lot of fun putting some of Cooper's parties together. I love to take the chosen theme and find lots of creative and fun games, treats and prizes. This year, with a newborn, it was kind of a half effort - but it turned out just fine.
Cooper wanted a LEGO party this year (surprise). There isn't much in the stores to do a LEGO party with. But here's what I came up with.

I covered the tables with a solid color table cloth (one red, one blue) and put plates the of the same color on each so the tables looked like big legos (though I'm not sure any of the kids picked up on that)

I made some sugar cookies and frosted them to look like tiny legos (using mini m&m's) for the cake. I also made some bigger ones (using regular m&m's) on sticks.

And then I got a couple of different Star Wars Lego character key chains for the treat bags.

Maybe not my best effort but Cooper loved all of it!...Mission accomplished.

Cooper's Party

This year we had Cooper's party at a 'playnasium' called Goin' Bananas. Not as unique as some of his other parties but SOOOOO much easier! I got to avoid the cleaning/decorating before, the clean-up after AND, best of all, having to come up with any kind of activity or game.. We just let the kids run around and be crazy while we nibbled on some veggies and chatted waiting for the pizza to arrive.

Cooper's Birthday

We started the day with "6" pancakes and presents (LEGOs are the "thing" right now, so there were lots of those!)

Later in the day Porter, Hadley and I took cupcakes to his class. This is his class singing to him (he tolerated it, more than enjoyed it...surprisingly) We didn't get pictures of the kids eating cupcakes because they SNARFED them down too quick!! By the time Cooper and I handed them all out & I went to reach for my cameral they were all done.

After school we headed to the park with some of his friends....and more cupcakes!!

Cooper and 2 of his best buddies Drew and Mackay!

Princess, presents and pennies

This is Sarah. I love Sarah and it has been FAR too long since I have seen her. Sarah is a lot of things, she's a mother, a wife, a sister, an amazing writer (I LOVE to read her blog, but it's private so, sorry to the rest of you who won't get that opportunity) she's quick witted and very funny. Not everyone knows this because she can also be quiet and shy at times. She's tender-hearted. She would never in a million+ years hurt anyone intentionally. She's also my niece. There are 2 very specific times that Sarah comes to mind because she and I share 2 very specific "quirks" (I guess that's the best name for it). Because I encountered both of those situations already today, I have Sarah on my mind.

The first quirk we share is presents. Both of us worked as gift wrappers at different stores when we were teenagers. And because of that experience (and just because of our personalities) we CANNOT abide an unfolded edge when we wrap presents. Because I know this about her - I think about her everytime I wrap presents, which I was doing today for Cooper's birthday tomorrow.

The second is pennies. Neither one of us can leave a penny. Once we've seen it - it must be picked up. I attended her ward one time when we were both living in Provo where someone gave a talk on the worth of souls. He talked about how each of us has the same worth to Heavenly Father. We're all pennies. Some of us are new and shiny - other have been neglected or lost. They no longer shine - they may be tarnished or sratched but when you put 100 of them together it still makes a dollar. (There was much more to the talk - but you get the idea).

I sometimes play a game called Lucky Penny that I made up for days when I just don't feel like going for a run. I have to run, but as soon as I see a penny on the ground I can turn around and go home...usually I end up finishing my run with no penny.

Today at Target there was a penny on the ground behind my car. My hands were full so I unloaded the cart, got the kids buckled in and thought "I'll just let someone else find that penny"...but I couldn't - I got out & picked it up. Maybe it's a little OCD, or maybe it's just "tradition". But no matter the situation - when I pick up a penny it ALWAYS reminds me of Sarah.

I hope you're doing well Sarah. I miss you and hope I get to see you this summer!

{P.S. Sarah means Princess...in case you missed that connection. ;)}

100th day

100 days of school gone already??? Wow! That went fast.

Should I be worried that my son seems to have a 'Napoleon Dynamite' style talent for drawing what appears to be a Liger???

Cooper's Valentines

Since I only have 1 kid in school and this is his 1st time making Valentines for his class - I thought it would be fun to actually make cards. Cooper and Porter and I spent Sunday afternoon making them. It was a fun project (and kept them from asking 100 times per hour why we can't play the wii on Sundays)
I thought they turned out great!

Valentine's Day

I have been forgetting to pull out my camera lately!  I did manage to snap one of the boys making Valentine treats for their teachers.  And a couple of the treats I made for some of my friends.  I saw cupcakes in a jar on someone's blog and thought they looked yummy.  And the packaging SO fun to play with.  Literally SO many ways to dress up these cute little jars.  I just had to experiment.

I used this recipe from the Pioneer Woman for the cupcake.  After they were cooked I made a hole down the center and poured in a chocolate ganache and then topped them with a vanilla butter cream frosting.  They were well recieved.  :)

My Valentine

I am so blessed and lucky to have such an amazing man in my life. He is my best friend. He's the one I most enjoy spending my time with. I love that we can always make each other laugh. As crazy as things get around here with 2 little boys and a newborn, there doesn't seem to be a single day that goes by where we don't find something to laugh about. Mark is the supreme example of patience. He has spent time teaching me how to love football - patiently enduring all of my questions and even rewinding and pointing out what he's explaining. He does the same thing with the boys - sharing his love of math, sports, games etc. with a kind of calm and clear that just comes naturally to him. He's an amazing dad. He finds a way to turn every task into a game. The boys adore him and are always SO excited to see him at the end of everyday. It's easy to see why I love this man and why I'm so glad to be able to call him

My Valentine !

Valentine's Party

Since there was no school on Friday - we decided to have some of the boys' friends over for a little party. We decorated sugar cookies and played a little game and there were plans to make valentines - but tag, trampoline and hide-and-seek took presidence...and that was just fine. It's all about having fun, right?

Mackay, Porter, Cooper and Taylor

Brinley, Braden and Drew

My little valentines!

Beckett - taking his cookie decorating very seriously!

super friends

Drew and Cooper

Valentine projects

I was feeling a little "crafty" last week. So, copying ideas from a couple of my friends I did a couple of projects.

The first was this cute can. I opened the bottom of a 'pop top' can, cleaned it out - filled it with candy, glued the bottom back on and decorated it for Cooper to give to his teacher. I thought it turned out pretty cute. {Thanks Kristi for the idea}.

Next I made this wreath with tulle and ribbon.

{I also made a "LOVE" swag, but I haven't finished it - I'll have to add that picture later.}

Both of these ideas came from my friend, Kim's blog - you can see her versions of both here.

and lastly, not that it's really crafty - but it's just not Valentine's Day in this house without frosted sugar cookies.

I have a TON of things to blog about but things have been CRAZY busy around here lately. I'll get to it when I can, but until then I thought I'd leave you with these beauties...because they make me giggle.