To My Valentines

To my first and only Valentine...
I can't imagine life without you Honey Pie! You are such an amazing person. I am so glad that you are in my life and love being there too.

How do I love you...let me count the ways...
1. I love that you would rather be with me and the kids than anywhere else.
2. I love that you love to cook...and that you volunteered (yes, it was voluntary) to make dinner every weekend.
3. I love that you help with laundry and dishes when I'm lost in the chaos of home.
4. I love that you brought me tulips and Redvines for Valentine's day.
5. I love that you have fun (and tolerate at times) teaching our kids new things...snowshoeing, skiing, building dog houses, making dinner, etc.
6. I love that you hated going to Seven Peaks but went anyway because your kids loved it.
7. I love that you make me laugh, laugh, laugh!
8. I love that our kids absolutely adore you.
9. I love that when you went skiing with Vince, he got stuck on the ski lift by himself...it makes for a great memory. ;) I also love that you're still worried you scarred him for life.
10. I love that you love me.

To my other 3 Valentine's...
Vince,
I love that you love to cuddle.
I love that you told your friends that if they didn't let your sister play with you then they had to go home.
I love that you love track.
I love that you love your brother and sister.
I love that you are saving your piggy bank money for a mission and to help us buy a house with horses.
I love that you love to bear your testimony...and that you dare bear it in sacrament meeting.
I love that you still love to come cuddle in our bed.
I love that you love camping, fishing, shooting guns, the beach...I love that you love being active.
I love it when you ask me to tickle you and then I love your laugh.
I love that you love helping me and others.


Aubrey,
I love that you say "pretend I'm" about everything.
I love that you take hour(s) long baths...you are like your mother.
I love that you have such a tender heart and such an ample supply of hormones.
I love that you are feisty...sometimes I'm not so much in love with that.
I love that you brush my hair.
I love that you are such a princess...with mud on her ball gown.
I love that you have now acquired the love of cuddling.
I love that when you ask if we can buy something you always add, "when it goes on sale I mean".
I love that more than anything you can't wait to be a mother.
I love that you love being a sister.


Martin,
I love that you laugh every time I come close to tickling you.
I love that you love to snuggle before bed.
I love that you shake your head and tell me "no, no, no" when I tell you to sit down in your highchair.
I love that when you pick up a phone you say "Hi Dad".
I love that you play peek a boo with me after naps.
I love that you are super chubby.
I love that anytime you hear water running in the bathroom you try to climb into the bath.
I love that you pull everything out of every cupboard in the kitchen while I cook or clean...it means you want to be near me (or so I tell myself as I clean it up 10 times a day).
I love that you are tender hearted.
I love that you fall asleep anytime you're in the baby back pack.

I know this may have been a boring post for most, but I wanted to let my Valentines know how much I loved them and all of the things I love about them. I can't imagine my life without the love I receive from them. Love ya Valentines!

Good times, good deals, and good food!

Good Times...

A few weeks ago most of my family was able to go with us to the Draper temple open house. My sister and her family stayed at our house the night before. The kids were so excited to see each other. We finally put on a movie in Aubrey's room around 11 pm and made a good ole' cousin sleep over scene. They had lots of fun!

Finally asleep!

This is how it looked the next morning...no kids! They all ended up in bed with their parents.

Maybe next time they'll make it all night at the sleepover.

The next morning we had to leave around 8 am to make it to the temple for our reservation.
It was an amazing experience. I am so glad that we were able to share that experience with our family and especially with our kids. It was awesome to see the reverence they had for the temple. It was obvious that they felt the special spirit that is always there. The reverence was broken once - when Vince said (as we entered the Celestial room and he caught sight of the chandelier) -

"Oh cool! A disco ball!

How funny is that! I'm sure that others got a little laugh out of it too. Afterward we went to lunch with everyone and headed our separate ways. Thanks to everyone who drove forever to share the experience with us. We missed the families who couldn't make it!

The whole gang.

Mom, Cas, and Jerz - Cassy, what was so exciting?
Luke and Kels
Our fam. The kids insisted on kneeling in front. Who knows?

Good Deals...

As most of you know, I'm completely obsessed with Pinching your Pennies. It's an addiction that I am fully aware of and am not doing much to curb. Sorry Josh! But, this last weekend I had an especially great shopping trip so I had to share. Here a pic to show my haul. It doesn't do it justice so I will explain.

In my shopping cart I had all of this (I marked the items that were free with coupons):

26 boxes of oatmeal

29 (8 packs) of Juicy Juice (232 total juice boxes)

31 bottles of Juicy Juice

4 Boxes Macaroni Grill dinners (great for Young Womens nights)

4 bags of bagels

20 cans of Chef Boyardee (great for babysitter nights)
1 bottle of Sobe Life water (free)

2 nail clippers (free)

4 nail files (free)

2 eyeshadow make ups (free)

8 pounds grapes

2 pounds chicken (free)

So, by my estimations, this would have cost around...$295.00 at Wally World. (Remember, just a rough estimate. I think it might actually be a really low estimate.) Do you want to know what I paid for all of it? Just over $50.00! Can you believe that? I think that is amazing! Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought it was great. Now I need a break for a week or so to recover. Now onto...

Good Food...

My hubby is a culinary expert! Last summer he made, yes made!, his own smoker bbq. He bought a 50 gal. drum and made a bbg. A-MAZ-ing! With this smoker he has created some masterpieces. Believe me! His latest was on Saturday. He smoked a brisket for about 8 hours (or more...Josh, a little help with the time). It was super delish!

Did I mention he's also a great food photographer? Is your mouth watering? Mine is!

I am lucky to have a hubby that loves to cook. In all reality he is a much better cook than I. Here's to the next round of good times, good deals, and good food!

Snowshoes and Snow cones

Last Saturday Josh and I took the kids snowshoeing. It now comes highly recommended at our house! The kids and I had never been before, but Josh has been going for the last 2 years. The kids had filled their obedience jars (they get pennies for doing what they're asked and for not saying NO) and so for a reward we bought them each snowshoes. Future rewards will not be so elaborate, but this time it was so worth it! I can see us doing this often as a family.

We went up the canyon and found a nice FLAT trail to let the kids try out the new toys. We had so much fun. I'll let the pictures tell the story...they do much better than me.

Our kids have been wanting snow cones for the last few weeks (they must be excited for summer), so when we were done snow shoeing, I gathered some snow in a cooler. Most people drink hot choco after outdoor winter activities but not our family...snow cones! Josh thinks I'm crazy and that I was going to give the kids some sickness, but the snow cones were great (by the way, none of us got sick!). The kids loved choosing their own KoolAid flavor and now we'll have to take a few more trips up the canyon to replenish our "clean" snow supply.

Vince chose grape and Bobsy chose Strawberry

You know it's good when it's dripping off your chin.

We loved our new family activity. Thanks Honey Pie for getting us hooked. One of these weekends Josh & I will be getting a babysitter so that we can go on a longer and more strenuous expedition...wish me luck, I may die of exhaustion!

On a side note...the other day Aubrey told me I was "scrumptious". Nothing could have made me happier than to know I'm scrumptious!