February 8-17: Happy Birthday Daddy and Happy Valentine's Day

February 9.  We got to celebrate Bryce's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house after church.  All three monkeys think their dad is the best play toy.  I have to agree.  They are pretty lucky to have such a great dad.

Cyndy made a delicious chocolate cake and we were joined in our celebration by our new friends the Kopaigora family.  Although Bryce had already received his Xbox, I surprised him with his own footie pajamas.  The kids were pretty excited that daddy now has pajamas just like them.  Sadly some adults are not accustomed to sleeping with their feet covered in floppy fleece footwear that is attached to their pants so these are saved for special occasions like movie nights on the blow up bed.

February 11.  Oh Stany!

February 14.  The kids woke up to expressions of love from their parents in the form of candy and balloons--their favorite!  Later that day we took more candy (i.e. Love) to Daddy at work.  (I should have taken pictures, but you can just imagine them running around an office with chocolate kit-kats all over their hands and faces making more noise than most offices are generally comfortable with.)

February 1-7: An Early Birthday Present

Saturday, February 1.  My mom was kind enough to watch the kids for us today.  Bryce and I got a rare day to run errands and do a little shopping together.  I can't even remember the last time we were able to do that.  We got Bryce some new glasses and then splurged on an early birthday present.

I was in the mood to spoil Bryce because he did such a good job of spoiling me on my birthday in December.  Bryce surprised me with these:

My birthstone is blue topaz and these match a necklace that he gave me the night before we got married.   I tell ya, I married a good one!

So what did we get for Bryce?  An Xbox360!  His very first gaming system in his 36 years.  We got Lego Star Wars for the kids to play too.  This is what Kimball drew at church the following day:

He was asked to draw a picture of choosing the right.  He drew him and Stan putting the Xbox controllers away.  Haha.  

This was also the weekend when Abby had a temperature off an on for several days.  We finally took her to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection.  Poor girl.  A week later we discovered she's allergic to penicillin.  

February 4.  I try to make bread at least once a week.  Sometimes I forget about it rising in the oven and this happens:

Unfortunately it happens more often than I would like to admit.

Here are some random pics of cute Abby from the week.

January 22-31: A Mission Call!

On Wednesday January 22, we had a neighbor friend over to play.  We made some Valentine's decorations and the kids invented a new way to make a fort on the couch.

I think it's actually pretty clever.  By using the cushions for the walls and ceiling they can make a small cave on each side of the couch.  Add some blankets and it's the best fort around!  We actually makes forts like this quite often now.  Why haven't I thought of this before?  #smartkids

January 23.  We all met at Charlotte's how to open my parent's mission call: the Oaxaca Mexico Temple Mission.  Yay!  It's what they had requested.  I love my mom's expressions in the pictures below.

January 26.  Abby got pigtails.  It only cost us a few screams and one or two tears.

January 31.  We visited the train museum in Ogden with Grandma Hansen.  Cyndy loves to have outings with the kids and we try for once a week.  The kids always have a blast with their Grandma and I enjoy the time with my mother-in-law.

January 15-21: Hollywood Connection

Below is a picture I posted to Instagram, but since it's pretty much a daily occurrence at our house I think it should be included here.  

I had to exchange one for the other. #homeeconomics #cleankitchen #messyhouse

I liked Charlotte's comment to the post: #truth.  Haha.  I think most moms have had this experience.

My other project for the week was putting together a bigger bookcase for all the kids books.  Here is the before and after.

Before

After

It's an improvement, but I could have used an even bigger book shelf.  I had no idea we had so many books.  I think, however, it's supposed to be a good thing.  Makes kids smarter.

January 17.  We had a fun outing with Grandma Hansen to the Clark Planetarium.  The kids had a great time but the star show made me sea sick.

On Monday, January 20th we went to Hollywood Connection with my mom and the rest of the Norman gang.

We had the mega blocks out this week and Kimball started assembling a bunch of small guns.  After which, he declared, "Welcome to our weapons factory.  It's like Wonka candy factory only weapons!"  Obviously we have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

January 8-14: Seven Years Have Flown By

Bryce and I were married seven years ago on January 12, 2007.  These have been the best years of my life.  I have never been happier than as Bryce's wife and the mother to Kimball, Stanford and Abigail.  I wanted to celebrate this year with a fun night out so Bryce and I dressed up and went to the symphony on Friday January 10th. 

We ended up staying at the Marriott Hotel in City Creek which is right across the street from Abravanel Hall.  It was such a nice evening.  We were able to hear a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Israeli pianist Inon Barnantan.  It was one of the most amazing live performances that I have been to.  Mr. Barnantan was absolutely riveting to watch perform.  Both Bryce and I were on a bit of a high after the performance.  We ordered chocolate cake and ice cream to our room and then slept soundly.  The whole evening would not have been possible without Grandma and Grandpa Hansen who graciously took the kids so we could enjoy ourselves.  

The view from our room.

Obviously our anniversary celebration was the most exciting thing we did all week, but since I can't stop taking pictures of our kids, here are some random ones from the week.

Abby with a new hairdo.

Stan and his tower.

This is a snowman Stan built with Grandma Hansen.

January 1-7: The First Week of the New Year!

It seems fitting that if I am going to start this project late that I play a little catch up.

We celebrated the new year Ukrainian style at the home of some neighbors of Bryce's parent's, Liz and Alex Kopaigora.  Alex is from Ukraine and Liz is sisters with the wife of one of Bryce's cousins.  It was super fun to try duck and Ukrainian dumplings.  We made some new friends and had a nice time even if we called it a night long before the the actual new year.

Two of my monkeys on New Year's Day.

The second of January is Abby's birthday.  It's so hard to believe that she is ONE!  We celebrated by taking her to have a photo shoot at Camera Shy in Lehi.  They turned out so darling.  I wish I could post them all.

We waited until Sunday to have cake and ice cream for Abby's birthday so we could do it with some family around.  My parents and Charlotte's family were able to make it to Ed and Cyndy's.  Abby was so funny.  She didn't know what to do when she saw that brightly colored cupcake in front of her.  After a small pause she finally stuck her mouth on it.  I think she enjoyed it more after I cut it into small pieces.  (And yes, I bought her cake rather than making it.  What can I say?  She's a third child.)

My parents gave Abby a box of tissues.  She thoroughly enjoyed taking them out one at a time.  What a perfect gift for a busy one year old.  Ed and Cyndy had already given Abby the cute blue jumper with the hot pink accents that she wore to her photo shoot.  All in all, it was a good birthday.  We feel so lucky to have Abby in our family.

Is it too late for a new year's resolution?

I realize that it's March 5th.  I realize that if I start today the project that I am about to tell you about, that I will essentially be doing so 64 days late.  I am not the planner.  I leave that to my husband.  I am a follow your whim sort of person.  So here goes.  No regrets.

For the past several years I have put together a photo book of my little family using Shutterfly.  I have loved doing it.  It's very satisfying to see a full year of photos all organized in chronological order.  The down side is that I don't spend a lot of time journaling the pictures.  There may come a day when I will wish I would have spent more time talking about the pictures and the memories attached to the visual reminders.  But, no regrets.  I am so happy to have the books that I have made.

Another thing you should know is that my dad has been keeping a blog as a kind of journal for the past several years.  He did a great job chronicling his and my mom's mission to the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple.  For Christmas some of my siblings and I gave my parents a book of all their blog posts from their mission.  It was a lovely book and made my dad cry (which is not that difficult).

You can find my parents blog HERE.  My dad has also managed to keep his updates going since they have been home.  I love reading the summary of each week.

My parents are off on their next adventure to the Oaxaca Mexico Temple Mission in May.  I have been thinking about them leaving.  I look forward to reading my dad's blog posts so that I can stay in touch and know what they are up to.

What if my parents could have the same insight into the lives of my kids?  (Do you see where I am going with this?)

I'll spell it out:

1.  I blog and post pictures.
2.  My parents get to read it (and so do you, if you want to).
3.  I turn it into a book at the end of the year.

Now you can see why I have a bit of anxiety about starting on March 5th.  Oh, well.  No regrets.