Superbowl...Monday

So our tradition is to tivo (tevo?) the Superbowl and then do a big party for family night on Monday and watch it together. Part of the fun of this is to not find out who has won before we watch the game. You would be AMAZED at the lengths that we go to to not find out (Josh especially). It is a lot of fun. We were rooting for the Packers this year (can you tell?) Josh is a big fan of Donald Driver, so he was the main reason that we were going for them (we are Broncos fans).
So I have a secret, well, I think most of you know it, but I just realized it. I have a problem with simplifying things. I try to make a production out of just about EVERYTHING. I LOVE to plan parties or make a party out of just about anything. Well, I have a ton on my plate right now (planning a party among other things), and I finally simplified something! I had all sorts of fantasies about what we were going to eat, I was going to decorate a huge table (of which we wouldn't eat 1/4 of the stuff there, yes that usually happens). Well, I got a little overwhelmed because I was working on a few other projects during the day and I just let it all go (I never do that! So excited!) We grilled these wonderful burgers and the rest of the food was SIMPLE!
I don't know why I go so crazy over everything because Josh and the boys LIKE simple (I am not saying I am going to go simple every time, but it is now an option).
The boys watched as much of the game as we would let them (it got too late to finish it). It was such a fun night!
Cute husband/daddy who we all adore and love whatever he loves. I never thought I would enjoy the Superbowl as much as I do.
So the big hit of any night at our house is popcorn. If it is movie night WITH POPCORN, it is the best thing in the world. Again, they love simple.
We got them these cute little popcorn containers for Christmas from the Target dollar section. They were in their stockings. Santa scored big with these...he must know them or something...
We had so much fun. I think I end 3/4 of my posts like that, but it's true!

Kid's Craft-Snowmen

I have seen these little snowmen, or something like them all over the web. I have been wanting to do them with the boys for a while. Seriously they were so easy, and the boys thought they were way fun.
We just took huge campfire marshmallows (the normal size would be just fine, in fact probably better if you're not keen on peeling your kids off the wall after the sugar rush hits them), put three of them onto our skewers, I used frosting to "glue" everything down and for the "carrot" noses and chocolate chips. I wish that I had had mini ones for the eyes. Ours are a little bug eyed...full of character right? The top of the hat was Reeses mini's, but I wanted to use Rolos (couldn't find them, doesn't anyone eat Rolos any more?).  I think that the skewer poking out of the top of the hat problem would have been solved with Rolos

Like Palmer's shirt?  Last summer at camp he got to draw on a shirt with sharpie markers.  He made it over the other day.  That should be a project in itself.  He had a ball doing it, worked on it forever and it was just an old shirt we would have thrown out anyway.  I am not quite sure what "doggie camp" is, but it is probably something great right?
The boys loved things that they can do all by themselves. That was a plus to this activity. The only thing I did was to hold the frosting bag closed while they took the tip and put the frosting where they wanted it.
They were happy with the results. And I was happy to have something for them to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon (oh how I LOVE 9:00 church).
Hunter's snowmen had a little trouble with his nose and he ended up with a hook nose. We liked it.
When we were done Lincoln asked if they could eat them. Palmer told him "not until Mom takes a picture." I am glad that they have just come to expect it.
Apparently they were delicious, although they couldn't possibly eat all of those huge marshmallows. But they did a pretty good job.

Lunch with Laura

I have this friend Laura, who is kind of awesome. She writes the FUNNIEST blog that always gets me laughing. In person she is just as funny as her blog and I spend most of our times together laughing. I got to go to lunch at Mimi's Cafe with this awesome friend on Saturday and it was...awesome.
She brought her cute baby Tennyson who is ADORABLE! I had to include this bottom picture. We asked the waiter to take our picture and he HAD to have Tennyson's attention so he was going crazy to get him to look at him. It was so funny. So even though his hands totally wrecked the picture, we forgave him :)

Valentine Idea-10 Things I Love About You!

Before I was married I WAS NOT a huge fan of Valentine's Day. Maybe it was because when I was in sixth grade Sean asked me to go with him to the Valentine's Dance, but he also asked my friend Laura to go with him and we BOTH SAID YES! In true guy fashion he decided that there was nothing wrong with having two girls to dance with. Well, I found out and was done with him! Okay I promise I am not scarred (I hooked up with Brandon at the dance and he gave me a New Kids on the Block pin, so you see all's well that ends well. And I have forgive Sean-mostly.) Or maybe it is because I was never into the whole boyfriend thing and never had any reason to like it (although there was the time at USU where my roommates and I went with 12 guys to a comedy club, that was kind of awesome). I digress, Valentine's day has always in the past just been annoying to me. Well now that I am married (to a man who puts Brandon, Sean and ALL TWELVE of those studly men from the comedy club Valentine's Day TO SHAME!), and have an eternal Valentine, I am no longer a hater. In fact I am very much a lover. It is fun to have a day to tell your spouse/significant other/kids/friends/family that you think they rock. Yes, we should do it all year round, but Valentine's Day is ANOTHER chance to do it!

I have a seriously talented friend name Kirsten. As evidence of her crafting/photography talent check this site out. She is a contributor to the site and they have amazing stuff. Well, a few years back I got this "10 Things I Love About You" book idea from her. She had done it for her husband the year before. So as I am a total good idea copier I did one for Josh. It was so fun to put together.
It would be so much easier now days to do this with digital scrapbooking or Shutterfly books (that I am a huge fan of). Here are the pages I did that you can use for some ideas, but the beauty of it is that every book will be original. It was also a fun chance to get to tell Josh all of the things I love about him.
I think it is a total pick me up on a bad day, so it could be a good idea for kids too. I will be doing these one year for my kids, but not this year...






I promise I was not trying to snub my other kids. I did this 6 years ago so most of our pictures had only Palmer in them as Lincoln was only 6 months old.



This was my 11th page that I threw in there, because I could. Josh has told me that he loves the book and reads it every now and again. It was a total success, now if I could find such a good idea every year...

Dinner with the Gals

I got to spend a couple of hours with my mom and sisters a few weeks ago to celebrate my birthday and my little sister Michelle's birthday (four days apart). It was so much fun. I do not get to see these women enough. Actually I think if I saw them every day it might not be enough. It is so fun to be with the gals that I grew up with. We laugh at the same memories, finish each other's sentences and have the same sense of humor.
We went to Zupa's. Have you been there? Oh my goodness I have been there twice and both times were TO DIE FOR! Their Cauliflower somethin' somethin' soup is my FAVORITE! (sorry, don't know the exact name). Have you been there? I would like to know what you like if you have as I haven't really branched out. I need some suggestions, otherwise I know myself and I will stick with Cauliflower somethin' somethin' soup forever-I tend to stick with what I know I like.
I feel so blessed to have these women in my life.

Mr. Basketball

The boys have been playing basketball for the last few weeks. I always love it when they are involved in a sport as it gives them an outlet for all of their energy. The harder they run, the better right (although I haven't really noticed a lag in their energy afterward.) Hunter and Lincoln play on the same team and Palmer is on an older team, and of course Josh coaches both teams.
Basketball is an interesting sport. I think that it is an easy one for adults to play (I say this because I can play it, and that means it isn't too hard), but it is pretty difficult for these little guys to figure out. Even the basics of dribbling the ball is a stretch for their coordination. They do such a great job, but I can tell they get frustrated sometimes. But I really do think they have a good time playing. Above is Lincoln teasing they guy he was supposed to be guarding. I think it was somewhere along the lines of "na na na na na", and the other kid was loving it. They eventually both were focused by their coaches, but it was pretty funny to watch in the mean time.
Hunter is a lot younger than the other kids and he has come such a long way. He has the cutest run that just makes me laugh. It fits his personality perfectly.

This was when one of the kids was shooting foul shots and Lincoln was playing behind the key. He got some pretty good spins in.

During the younger boys' game (did I mention that they start at 8:00? Yes, this means we get up around 7:30 on SATURDAY mornings!) Palmer usually keeps McKay entertained.

Palmer's game is always a bit intense. These boys are ALL OVER THE PLACE!

I am so grateful for the boys getting to have these experiences in learning team work and to be a good sport. Not to mention the exercise that it gives them. We have one last game left in this season of basketball, and onto indoor soccer...

Another Year Older

I woke up on my birthday to breakfast in bed from Josh and the boys. My tray was covered in notes the boys had written and pictures they had drawn.  Josh gave me a beautiful card (he is an ace at picking out the perfect card) with a schedule of photography classes that he had signed me up for. I am so excited about it! I have already been to one of them and I learned a lot. I am such a lucky gal to have all of these cute and sweet boys that love me. All day long the boys would run up to me and tell me "Happy Birthday!" and give me hugs and kisses. It was awesome.

Josh brought me these beautiful flowers. They were breathtaking! I love the smell that still fills the whole kitchen. It was fun to watch the lilies bloom. They are enormous!
My parents made the day special and came to visit, bringing me a cake (with much gratitude from Josh who was just about to start making one).
My MIL, Ann came to stay with the boys that night while Josh and I got a date. She brought me the most wonderful give. It was this beautiful necklace that I have LOVED for a long time.
I love any chance that I get to be with Josh. We went to see Chronicles of Narnia, which we both LOVED! "Voyage of the Dawntreader," is one of my favorite books so it was very fun to see. It was a good birthday.

The Boys' Valentine Cards

I have been DYING to do this idea for a while now. I first saw it two years ago and stored it away in my little "to do" file. Well, this was the year. I think they are the funniest thing and the boys think they are very cool.



If anyone wants to do these, just take a picture of your child like this, develop it and then you cut little slits on the top and bottom of the hand and then thread a sucker stick through it. If you would like to do all of the embellishments, I just did them in Photoshop and they aren't that hard. If anyone wants to just take their child's picture themselves and then email it to me, I would be willing to do the stuff on Photoshop for you.

McKay and Jack

McKay and Jack are cousins. I babysat Jack the other night and they played so well together. I have always thought that McKay was so big...guess it's all relative. McKay is 6 months older than Jack! They were so cute together.