VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a WONDERFUL day! I love letting my family know how much I love them!

We began the day by giving our daughters giant reading pillows. The idea is that the girls can curl up with a good book and read - and after a good book, they can add the name of the book to the pillow itself. :-) They were pretty excited with their Valentine gift.

We also went to Gym Day and had a Valentine card exchange. You're never too old to enjoy cards with pics of the Jonas Brothers, Spongebob and cute dogs.... Kotten Kandy, Applesauce and Keylime Pie enjoyed the treats and decorating their cute bags.
I also made grand piano valentine cards for the Bettenhausens and Moores. I thought they turned out pretty cute.
We ended the evening with a triple date to the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! I enjoyed the company... And I adore my sweet husband! I'm truly blessed to have him as my eternal companion!My best friend, Amy, and her husband, Mark.My good friend, Brandi, and her husband, SydAnd this is my CUTE husband! I love this guy!

FRIENDS AND MUSTACHES

Spending time with friends is a fantastic way to bring in the New Year! And wearing fake mustaches makes it even more fun! :-) We love the Bettenhausens! We had soooo much fun!

My daughters love Apple Pie and Marmalade!


from left to right: Key Lime Pie, Marmalade, Kotten Kandy, Apple Pie, Juice and Nuts

CHRISTMAS WISHES

Merry Christmas! We had such a nice day yesterday! Having my mom and dad here made it even better! :-) We enjoyed the time with family, the time reflecting on our Savior and the good food. (Not necessarily in that order.)Christmas Eve is our favorite tradition! We had an amazing dinner - complete with turkey, ham, twice-baked potatoes, deviled eggs, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole. (Thanks Amy, for the sweet potato casserole. Scott was thrilled and surprised!) We read the Christmas story, watched "The Nativity", drank hot-chocolate, gave gifts to our Savior and dressed in new pajamas. The girls also performed Christmas music for us. Key Lime Pie played "The Little Drummer Boy" on the violin while Kotten Kandy sang "Believe." They are so talented! One of Scott's favorite traditions is the stockings. We opened our stockings first thing in the morning and ate sweet rolls, before we left for church. Our stockings were fun as always. According to Scott, the best part of the day was the church sacrament program. It was filled with quotes from our latter-day prophets and special musical numbers including our daughters singing "What Child is This?" I was in charge of writing the program and putting together the music (since one of my callings is the ward music director and choir director). After church we opened our gifts. We decided that this year we would only give gifts we had made. Opening home-made gifts was really special. Key Lime Pie made fudge for her grandfather and her dad. She made jewelry for Mil and I. And she really surprised her sister with a new skirt she had sewed. Kotten Kandy sewed aprons for everyone. I had fun giving my book, "Sundy's Extreme Lists" for everyone. I also made a fun game called "The Blessing Game." I got the idea from this blog: http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/. :-) After opening gifts, we played games, napped, and played more games. "The Blessing Game" was a huge hit!We have carried on our celebration of Christmas today! Scott is off work so we are playing games today also. We played DICEcapades! It was REALLY fun! And we are about to play Apples to Apples - Disney version. (Thanks to Kevin and Kelly who gave us the game for Christmas! :-) I hope all of your Christmases were merry and bright! We wish all of you a happy new year! And may the spirit of CHRIST be with you always!

PARTY

Key Lime Pie's 13th Shopping Birthday Party was Saturday. We had such a fun time! Each kid got a $2 bill and was told to purchase whatever they liked at either Walmart or Target. There were prizes for their shopping investments: The Swindled Award, The Most Disgusting Award, The Most Unusual Award and The Best Value Award. There were some creative purchases, including a rotten sweet potatoe, a pocket knife, fake blood, and fishing bait. The kids enjoyed shopping and afterwards were also given money to purchase dinner at Krogers.

It was a fun afternoon. And Key Lime Pie was truly spoiled rotten.

To go along with the shopping theme, Scott made a dollar bill cake, complete with the birthday girl's picture on the front! :-)

Note: Our daughter's only get birthday parties with all their friends every 4 years. (It's supposed to be ages 4, 8, 12, and 16... but Key Lime Pie didn't get one at 12 so she celebrated this year!) I think the entire party was a huge success... and she felt very loved!