The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton.  Read it.  Love it.

Read it again.  Love it some more.  That is all.

Seriously though, one of my favorites ever.  I loved this book!

Copper part two

Here's a few more outdoor pics of where we stayed.  It was beautiful and peaceful and just what the doctor ordered.  Thanks again Dena and Ben!

It was awesome.  The End.

Copper Mountain

Part of the reason I haven't posted in forever is because last week we went to Copper Mountain!  My BFF Dena and her husband have a friend who owns a townhouse on the resort (ski in ski out) and she invited us all up there.  It was SO much fun, a perfect 4 day weekend getaway!!!  Lots of pics coming...sorry :)  Mostly I'm sorry because you will be pretty jealous of where we got to stay!  We ate a ton of good food (thanks Dena and Jenna!) and it was so fun to feel like a grownup staying in a condo :)

Here was the dining room one night.  We decided to light the massive candles that were there.  The flames were HUGE, check it out!

There was a hot tub outside one of the master bedrooms...it was awesome.  Here is our view from the hot tub.  Not too shabby...

I was worried about Kennedi and the tub, she is always scared to get in the pool, but she LOVED it!  It was so fun, and she wanted to go swimming the whole time.  The kids went in the mornings so the grownups could go at night!

After the hot tub we bundled up and went to go play in the snow.  It was SO deep...it went up to our mid thighs in some places.  Kennedi didn't love it at first, but she started to get into it.  And by get into it, I mean buried.

And we can't miss a family photo op.  And by we, I mean me.

And since this post is long enough, I'll end it here, and post another one with a few more scenic views :)

Be my valentine?

Monday before valentine's day we had Family Home Evening and for the treat we decided there was nothing more fitting than to make valentine cookies!  There is at least one reason I'm glad we're living with Grandma...she has far more patience than I do for stuff like this!  I'm working on it :)  The kids loved it and we enjoyed the fruits of their labor!

Kai was too busy eating the scraps of dough and the decorating sugar to get many action shots....

She loved every part of this...once she got past the flour on her hands!

"I got this grandma"...

On Valentine's day we all went out to dinner at Olive Garden and watched a movie.  It was a great day!  Love my family.

Kennedi B-day Part Deux

So way late is Kennedi's birthday part two.  We had a little family party for her on the 4th.  She woke up asking for her "Happy Birthday"...which meant cake.  She'd been to two friends parties where we sang happy birthday, and she was so excited for it!  The cake was the somewhat lame, but I didn't care.  It was a marachino cherry with almond frosting cake...tasted pretty good, although the POUND of butter that was in the frosting was a little hard to get down :)  She loved it, she loved her presents and she loved being the center of attention!  Here's a few pics of the festivities...

We curled her hair and put on her tutu...she loved it!

Her "happy birthday" cake...

She got a crown from her aunt and uncle and wore it all night...she was so funny and such a girl!

We sure love our little girl!  Happy Birthday Sister!

She's TWO

I can't believe my baby is two.  Holy Moly!!  The year(s) have flown and she is fully acting her age.  Most of the time she is the sweetest, loviest and most hilarious girl....the other part of the time she is more than a handful.  We are celebrating her birthday tonight, so I'll get some cake and present pictures tonight, but here are a few of her on her actual birthday, which was yesterday.

We tried to get her hair in curlers.  The first time my MIL did this, it was adorable...this time not so much.  We're going to try it again tonight for her party though, so hopefully it will work again!

 And for the first pictures, I wasn't actually trying to get a picture of her curlers....this is her being stubborn and not looking at the camera.

She finally would pose for me if I promised she could go play in the snow after.  She perked up a bit after that!

And here's a few more I caught before we made it outside.

It started snowing Thursday night, and is still snowing as I type mid Saturday morning.  So the kids had to go outside and play in it.  This is Kennedi's first time really going out to play.  She did NOT love the snow blowing in her face, and was at the sliding glass door wanting to come back in!  It was pretty funny.  She lasted about 5 minutes.  Once the snow stops we'll get her out there and I think she'll like it more.  Kai on the other hand loved it!

Look at how chubby she looks in her snow gear!!  Hilarious

A couple things about Kennedi now that she's two:

She loves her family and she doesn't have any favorites.  Well, maybe dad.
She loves playing with Kai, and tries to be like him all the time.
She is jealous of Kai going to school, and snags his backpack whenever she can!
She is talking a ton for better or for worse!
She has one dimple on each cheek that are my very favorite!
She loves adrenaline and is always trying to scare us, or have us scare her.
Her favorite movie is Tangled.
She empathizes with the football players on the field and says OUCH every time they are tackled.
She loves to give "animal" kisses....she can't say butterfly.
She is a snuggle bug and loves to cuddle up all the time.
Her favorite game on daddy's phone is "bubble butt"...aka bubble blast.
Since yesterday she walks around saying "I Two".

She is our total joy and we love her so much!  More pics coming of her hopefully cute birthday cake and party!

Morrison

So Friday morning I was talking to the 'rents.  They told me they were on their way to St. George, A.K.A. Paradise, A.KA. Heaven, A.K.A. my favorite place ever.  We have a lot of good memories there, plus it's warm.  Win win.  So after I got off the phone with them, my longing to get out of the house and do something grew exponentially.  Unfortunately going to St. George was out of the question as it's about 10 hours away, so I started thinking of places I've wanted to go, things I've wanted to do.  Well there's a little town called Morrison that we drive through all the time, and I've always wanted to go walk the downtown, and there's a river that you can walk next to...super cute.  So as soon as Kai got home from school we got the kids ready, grabbed some lunch and off we went!

It was getting  a little chilly, so we bundled up Kennedi with her blanket and she was good to go

We walked across the bridge and Cameron read about the bell that used to be on the school, but when they built a new school house it somehow got moved to like Ohio or something and then there was this committee to get it back to Morrison...not sure.  But it was hilarious because the kids and I had kept walking, and Cameron came to catch up with us after reading the story and he was telling me about it, but couldn't understand why they would have the plaque there when there was no bell.  This was hilarious because this was the bell he didn't see....

It was above him the whole time.  The plaque is to the right of the kids on the side of the bridge.  Hilarious.  And there's the kiddo's posing for me and having fun.

It started to get pretty windy and cold, so we headed back...passing by an old antique/junk shop.  Kai wanted a picture by the handcart.

By the time we got in the car it was super cold and windy.  Then we turned around to go get gas, and realized that this is what we barely beat by the time we got in the car.

We were pretty bummed out.  It had started out so sunny and warm.  It certainly did not help with my St. George fix!  But it was fun and we enjoyed our time together and our time away from the house and packing! But we do have big plans to go back and go here:

The Blue Cow Eatery.  We'll let you know how it is.

And I still want to go to St. George.  Mom and Dad, we'll be visiting soon!  Preferably when they are having record highs.