getting "sparkly-er"

Things have been a little more sparkly around our place.  Bailee got some new shiny accessories ......

I know...I know....it's a bit perplexing to think this gorgeous smile needs any help at all.  We debated the whole braces thing for some time before coming to the conclusion that although the need for them is very minor, it would be better to take care of it now as opposed to later.  Bay has a tiny bit of overcrowding on the bottom and a slight overbite on top.....really super minimal:)

So it should be a fairly simple process and hopefully only last a year at most.  She was pretty nervous about the whole thing.....how would they feel.....how would they look.....

She was admittedly VERY SORE [for a few days] and it warranted a trip to the smoothie shop after school. 

I must admit she looks a little different, but we think she is absolutely beautiful ..... braces and all :#

[ Fairy Tale: 20 years in the making]

Mark and I just celebrated our 20th Anniversary.....HOLY MOLEY....can that be real?  I always thought that when we had been married that long we would be OLD....and that is most definitely not the case;)  

In all fairness, we were babies when we got married.

We always said that we would be on a beach somewhere celebrating.  Little did we know that our 20th would roll around and we would be so involved with house/moving decisions and that throwing anything like that into the mix right now might put us over the edge :/ I do hope that beach is still waiting for us in the near future, but for now we will just celebrate with a trip to the hardware store.  Mark did surprise me with some pretty roses, and I left him a room full of 20 balloons attached to pictures of our 20 years together [getting these home was a MAJOR feat for me since I have a bit of a phobia with latex balloons]

[decorations courtesy of the girlies]

[as close as they could get to our wedding colors]

 Bailee had told us in advance that she and her sissies were wanting to make us a special dinner.  They really went all out with a Fairytale theme.  All the decorations were from different fairy tales that we had to guess.  They even made the kitchen doorway to look like the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel...which I forgot to take a pic of :( It was so fun to watch/listen to them working as a team. The menu was Cajun chicken pasta with salad and caramel apples.  It was a meal fit for a King and Queen....

It was quite a production .....and for a little bit things looked a little scary around our place. The thoughtfulness trumps the mess.....but .....the clean up part of these productions is something we are working on:)

It was such a nice way to celebrate our 20 amazing years together....surrounded by the 3 little people that have made it so amazing!!  We have been through a lot over the years and we have literally "grown up" together.  There is no one in the world I would rather spend my life driving crazy....ha!! 

I love you Marko...and even if there isn't a beach out there with our names on it....we always have our tree:)

Birthday in a Winter Wonderland

Last week Marko had a birthday.  It fell on a Wednesday, right smack in the middle of school and work obligations.  We had originally talked about driving to Fort Collins for dinner, but since Mark and I ended up having a meeting with our builder over there that afternoon, we decided to just eat here in Chey-Town.  By the time Mark made it home, it was late and everyone was hungry.  Mark's choice for dinner was Panda :)

 Grabbing some dinner and just relaxing would have been ideal for Mark, but we have a little celebrator [or 2] in the family that wouldn't hear of it. The cold dark days of winter, might be nothing to celebrate, but we decided to have our own little Winter Wonderland indoors.  We had a marshmallow toss, snowman building contest, and of course a snowball fight.  We also had Mark go ice fishing for his gift.  He was pleasantly surprised to catch money to buy a LIFETIME Wyoming fishing license [he was thrilled I tell ya].

Emmrey tried out her new puzzle maker and whipped up a couple of adorable puzzles to give Mark.  She LOVED watching him put them together and admire her handy work.

 What would winter activities be without Hot Chocolate?  ...and Frozen Custard?  We had a little "fire and ice" thing going on for our treat.

It was a fun way to celebrate this awesome dad......

his girlies sure do love him!!

a little free time

We were very blessed to have 2 full weeks in Utah soaking up some serious family time.  It is always so hard to leave and re-enter "real life".  We did some super fun things, but we also worked in some free time to just take it easy.   We did a lot of playing.....playing with new toys, playing with grandma's Rainbow Loom, playing the piano, playing pool, playing school [that grandpa is a good sport] and playing games with the fam on many many nights...which I never grew tired of:)

 We spent a fair amount of time around the Valley Fair "plaza" [mostly eating at Zupas....oh how we love that place] It is so different over there and while they have added some great things [like Zupas:)] I always find myself missing the old days/times when I worked at the mall.  I was pleasantly surprised to run into a gal I worked with at ZCMI...who now works at Deseret Book.  It was so much fun to catch up with her a bit.  Seems like just yesterday we were gettin' the Juniors dept ready for inventory....hard to believe it has been almost 20 years :/ The girls also went to see Frozen at the nice theater with Ashlee and Breckon...they loved that movie [guess I need to see it too]

 It wasn't all play....but the work was FUN work. We helped Grandpa and Grandma take down their Christmas decor and get ready for the baby shower.  We also walked through a half a dozen model homes and got all sorts of ideas that we may or may not actually use;)

 Just about every morning, Mark and I would take a walk around the surrounding neighborhoods.  Mark just LOVED  hearing me reminisce about the good old days and who lived where...really he couldn't get enough!!  The area as a whole has changed in many ways, friends and neighbors have moved on, but I love how our walks transported me back to my childhood days. We took all sorts of different routes and one morning found ourselves in front of my dear old Rolling Meadows.....I wonder if they are still the Raccoons??? 

 Ahhh...just writing this post has got me missing our heavenly weeks in Utah. 

 

Celebrating a Special Delivery

My brother Ryan and sis-in-law Jenn will be welcoming their 2nd child in just a few weeks.  While we were in Utah my mom wanted to have a little luncheon with all the girls to celebrate their baby boy.  She and my sister Ashlee planned and set things in motion and we helped out where needed.  Jenn said the only thing they really needed was diapers, so we kinda went with a diaper theme.  I put together a couple of games/activities.  

The first was to write a message on a diaper for Ryan and Jenn to enjoy during late night changes;) 

 We also did the poopy diaper game, which we called "Poop Happens".  Even though most have played this game many times and many showers, it is always funny to see how grossed out everyone gets.  I must admit, some of the diapers look a little too real.

 Man....they were really getting into it.  

Look at those serious poop detectives

 Emm was totally serious about it all.  She was not one bit afraid to get right in there and smell those babies

These 2 gals really know their poop ....

they tied for 1st place with 9/10 correct.

 Ashlee had been to a shower where all the guests brought a children's book and wrote a message inside. Coincidentally, I had already put together a little diaper gift to leave for the baby so we added our little book with message to it.  I just LOVE the book idea!!

 

Olivia loved helping mom with the gift opening...

it was like Christmas all over for her:)

 Here is our gaggle of girls minus my niece Courtney and soon to be sis-in-law Kristy.  ....we're quite the crew:)

 

And because all the sisters and mom were together ...I had to grab a picture of that too:)

Loved that we were there for an afternoon with the girls [doesn't happen often enough] 

Can't wait to meet the little guy!!

Gallivan Center take 2

On New Years Day, we made a second attempt to go ice skating at Gallivan Center. Karsyn would have been devastated if we hadn't made it back and we already had our tickets from the last try. We were lucky enough to have Aunt Ashlee join us.

   Downtown Salt Lake was surprisingly and eerily quiet as we walked around.  Perhaps because everyone was at the Gallivan Center.  It was pretty crowded at the old rink...not exactly ideal for us amateurs.

 I have not ice skated since high school so I was not sure how this was going to work out.  Emmrey and I leaned on each other for support.  ....

 However, once she got her hands on one of the little walkers....she left me in the dust :/

 Karsy could have been all over that ice showing us all up.....but most of the night I saw her like this....arm in arm with her sis giving her a hand.  Melted. My. Heart<3

Those of us that were a little rusty did all right and I am pleased to say we survived without incident ...okay maybe there was one little fall...or 2 ...but it sure wasn't this gal:)

 We had a great time...it's always fun with Aunt Ashlee.  Cute cute girls!!

Happy New Year!!

We got to ring in the new year with extended family this year.  My brother Ryan and his wife Jenn were gracious enough [and brave enough] to invite us all over to celebrate.  Of course we were all too excited to get together.  We couldn't get enough of this crazy haired cutie;)

Jenn had put together this cute activity where you pop a balloon every hour to countdown.  Our girls still talk about how fun it was.  The first hour was to fill out reflection sheets.  I thought it was so crazy that they were almost identical to the ones we filled out as a family from last year [we must think alike;)]  Now if I could just find our sheets from last year so we could see how we did.....

The next hour (9:00) we did Resolution pictures.  This was so fun (for most of us). The girls thought of theirs pretty quickly...actually, Mark did too. I on the other hand, had a hard time thinking of what to write.  This either means I have too many things to work on, or nothing to work on:)  I wish it were the latter :/  Jenn sent all the pictures to everyone so we can encourage each other this year....yikes....I thought we could keep it between me and her;)

At 10:00 it was cereal box puzzle ..[Minute To Win It style].  The kids all tried there hand at it.  Kars had the lead with 49 seconds and then had it ripped from her with Bode's 47 second time....oh so close!!  In between all these fun activities we played games and ate yummy snacks.

The 11:00 hour brought glow sticks!!  The kids were in heaven in the basement with the lights out.  They gave me quite a show.

 11:45 was prep for the countdown.  We got our horns and party hats on and headed outside to see the fireworks that had already started.

 

Midnight was game on....Forties gone wild in the front yard....blowing horns and whistles up a storm;)  It was a super fun night. And we all made it to the end except for Olivia who managed to sleep through all our ruckus.

 Happy 2014

Zoo Lights

While in Utah, we took the girls to see Zoo Lights along with my sister and her boys [thanks Jami;].  We had never been before, so we didn't know exactly what to expect.

 We started out by grabbing a bite to eat in the Beastro.  It was pretty quiet in there, so we figured we would pretty much have the whole Zoo to ourselves....ha!

 As soon as we walked out the doors, it seemed the crowd was growing.  It certainly wasn't unbearable....just lots of people wanting to visit on the next to last night of the season.

 

The kids found this slippery hill outside the Primate house to be loads of fun.  They slid down snowboard style and luckily we had only had one fall, that didn't result in too wet of clothes.

 It was a very festive atmosphere with more lights than I imagined and Holiday music blaring from the speakers.

 It was pretty darn cold though!!  As if it weren't cold enough....Mister Kole insisted on carrying around this huge ball of packed snow nearly all night....funny kid:)

 We really enjoyed our little outing and loved that we got to share it with the Weavers [minus Scott]