One Republic Concert

 My brother recently came to visit us in Georgia.  He was here for a conference in Atlanta and spent some time with us over the weekend before heading off to do work things.  He invited Josh and I to a One Republic concert that was exclusively for people at the conference he was attending and he was able to get us some tickets.  It was absolutely incredible.

 I've long been a fan of One Republic, but hearing them in concert took me to a whole new level.  It was funny, but a lot of people at the concert weren't that into it, or maybe just weren't your average concert goers.  We were dancing and singing like crazy, while everyone else sort of just sat/stood there.  Even some on the floor in the area usually full of dancing, just sort of stood around.  We decided that these business people must of thought they were coming to see "One Republic-an" instead of One Republic.  They were all wondering when Jeb Bush was going to take the stage.  Got a good laugh out of how funny we are :)

 Oh how I love this brother of mine.  We miss our family so much and we have gotten to see him twice in the past year.  He is one of the best men I have ever known and our family are fans of his for life.  I feel blessed that we have gotten to spend time one on one with him.

Josh had to come straight from work and he forgot to take off his tie.  Good thing this was for a work conference and he definitely wasn't the only person there in a tie. 

This was such a night to remember!

St. Patrick's Day 2015

 I love St. Patrick's Day.  It's such a random fun holiday.n We always do our St. Nicholas day tradition gone wrong (I always thought it was for St. Patrick's Day...then I learned about St. Nicholas day.  Whoops).  The boys love it though so we keep on doing it.  Maybe one day we will do it on St. Nicholas Day too.

 New St. Patrick's Day shirts.  It took me forever to find green shirts!  Apparently green isn't a popular color for boys shirts.  This was the best I could do.

 Special lunches for the day.

 We usually have Irish Stew and Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day dinner, but my brother Mark was in town and Josh and Lincoln hadn't seen him yet, so we met him at The Shake Shack for dinner.

 This Uncle is pretty loved around here.  He's really the best.

 Yum, concretes.

Not our normal St. Patrick's Day, but such a fun one anyway!  We loved spending it with Mark!

Valentine's Day 2015

Usually Valentine's Day is so crazy at our house with all of the parties, Josh's birthday and all the other things that go on on this day.  This year it was very nice, McKay had his preschool party on Thursday, the boys class celebrations were on Friday and real Valentine's Day was Saturday.  I like having it so spread out like that.  

These cute little superhero valentines were McKay's for the year.  He had pink ones too.

We had a fun little Valentine Party for preschool.  The whole concept of Valentine's Day was a little crazy for McKay.  The whole lovey dovey thing is something he doesn't really like.  I had to be creative with how I did everything to keep him on board. 

 We talked about different things we love and watched some short movies and read some books about Valentine's Day.  In one of the books a girl had a crush on a boy and McKay hated it.  

 We made these cute little penguins out of hearts.  The pictures are so horrible!

 In this game I would play music and when it stopped, the kid would pick up the heart that was in front of them.  They said things like jump 10 times, hop like a frog, bark like a puppy.  The kids loved it.  

 Hunter has had some stomach issues and so he stayed home from school this day.  The kids loved having him with them and he got them pretty crazy.  He taught McKay how to do the worm.  Pretty impressive no?

 Decorating cookies.  McKay ended up deciding that he liked them better plain.  I'm not sure how that happened in a family of frosting lovers.  

 This cute little ispy game was my favorite.  They had to count how many rainbows, cupcakes etc.  I got them here.  

 I have wanted to do this gumball machine with my boys for their Valentine party, but none of the boys has ever had to bring a Valentine box.  They all needed one this year and we decided to do them.  I got the idea here.  

The boys were pretty thrilled with them, not to mention we have gum for the rest of our lives!

This was the boys' Valentine that they gave to their class.  This is the first time that I didn't do it myself, and I am so grateful for people who share their awesome talents!  I got them here.  

 On Saturday Josh woke up to decorations, presents and breakfast of french toast (his favorite). 

 My favorite Valentine card ever.  I got it here.  

  A little tribute to the birthday boy/my Valentine. 

 Fun gift from Josh's sisters. 

Gift from Josh's mom.  This is the Atlanta temple. 

 The boys were cute and made cards for him.  

My mom always put Whoppers on the porch for each of us on Valentine's Day, so we have carried on that tradition the last couple of years.  

 Valentine/birthday breakfast. 

We ended up going to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and were going to do lasagna (Josh's favorite) for the birthday dinner, but we were pretty full still from CPK, so we did it the next night we some friends.  Josh picked Texas Sheet cake for his dessert and we all sung and told him why we loved him.  I love the picture above of the boys all singing to their sweet daddy.  It was a lovely Valentine's day!