triple crown.

Back in the early fall Enterprise started a new incentive program for their employees.  Branch managers who meet certain requirements receive a nice dinner all together.  There are three requirements and if you meet at three you receive a Triple Crown plaque.  Chris has earned two Triple Crowns since november, and has also gotten 3 other dinners for having high customer service.  it is especially nice because he gets to take me down to SLC with him and not only do we get a nice dinner with all the other exemplary employees and "big wigs" but we get put up in a hotel for a night!

i am so proud of my husband and all of his hard work.  he is a wonderful provider for our family and his employees all love him.  i know he will succeed at achieving his career goals and dreams!

thanksgiving 2012.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

olivia produced some wonderful works of art in her preschool class before Thanksgiving.

                               

 

we were able to go down to burley and have Thanksgiving with chris' family.  it was wonderful to be together as a family, but we missed chelsae who wasn't able to come home from college.  we enjoyed dinner in mom and dad's brand new open kitchen and dining room.  they did a beautiful job on their remodel and dinner was delicious as always!

        

after dinner we went for a lovely walk along the river.  it was beautiful with the evening sunshine and crisp air.  zach enjoyed his ride and olivia and brady rode scooters.  grandpa helped to encourage olivia along when she got "too tired."

                 

                  

it was wonderful to see shawnae again and have some time with her.




this yellow bridge was the perfect spot for a family picture! 



          

after our walk we went home and bundled up for a traditional ride into the mountains to see the Christmas lights.  visiting with our friend, the camel!  how cool is he?!

it was a wonderful weekend with family and on the way home we brought someone back with us!  auntie shawnae is moving in with us for a while for a change of scenery and fresh start.  we are so proud of her for the decisions she's made and the goals that she has for her future!

girl's night out. november 2012.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

a few friends and i enjoyed a girl's night out last fall to sushi and a movie (to see the latest Twilight).  need to do these more often!

me and tiff

tiff's SIL becca, tried sushi for the first time and split a few rolls with me.  way to be brave becca!

brady fall art and schoolwork.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

here are some random drawings and schoolwork that i saved for brady's digital album.

          

self-portrait, by brady.  not sure why he gave himself black hair (other than that he is always telling chris that he hopes he has black hair like him someday...)  or why there is a rainbow colored missile heading right for his head, why he is wearing red and black polka-dot socks (we don't own any of those!) the bear to the left is a teddy bear with a Lagoon sweatshirt that chris won for him a few years ago.

i smiled when i pulled this out of brady's backpack because it made me feel good to know that he is proud of learning how to swim and that i was able to teach him that with lots of hard work together.

               

              

some good old-fashioned discipline.....

and a random cute little snake.

olivia's art. princess-style.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

i must say, it feels sooooooooo good to be blogging again.  i didn't realize how much i actually enjoyed it until i took such a long hiatus.  infact, it makes me feel as if i'm back in touch with people that i don't get to see or talk to often.  silly as it may be i feel as if we're having a bit of a catch-up conversation.

in the fall olivia went through quite a phase of wanting to color princesses everyday.  she colored and colored and colored.  the poor dear thing colored pictures for everyone she knew and they were scattered all across our counter tops and tables.  unlike a nice mommy who should have packaged them up right away and sent them off to each lucky recipient, i at least scanned them into the computer and will post them here.  so, if you are on olivia's "friend" list, as she says, smile and know that one of these was colored especially for you!

happy halloween and the band of pirates.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

have you ever noticed that my poor husband is the one who has to either shave or dye his hair...or wear a ridiculously ugly wig?!  this year was busy, busy, busy.  there was no time for making costumes.  no extra money for ordering online (and gasp, would i really do such a thing?)  so...dig through the dress-up box, raid closets and come up with something that EVERYONE in the family can pull off using ONLY items we ALREADY have.  the only thing i splurged on was the before mentioned ridiculously ugly "Jack Sparrow" wig $7.99 at Walmart. gotta love that!

i rubbed some black eyeliner in under chris' eyes (you know, going for the Captain Sparrow look)...however, chris sort of just ended up looking like Ozzy, and quite frankly i couldn't wait to get him home, yank that wig off his head and clean off those eyes.  it was spooky.  (as is this really bad picture of my family trying to look like the misfit band of pirates we were going for...just look at those poor little faces...)

the kids played dress-up as pirates for about the whole month before the actual shin dig.  they just couldn't get enough.  there were various assortments of ways we could assemble our costumes.  brady was a spectacular pirate at school.  i mean really, it was quite impressive that we had everything already in our closets!  

the boys upstairs played pirate all month as well.  it made for lots of fun treasure hunting, map making, and "ARG ye matey!" talk all around the house!

                 

and what do you do when the festivities are all over, costumes have been thrown back in the closets and jammies have been donned?  daddy hurries and gives the kiddos a piggyback ride to bed!!!  

                     

on a side note:  i made delicious canned pumpkin.  i just couldn't bare to see all of the lovely pumpkins on my porch go to waste, so before the frost hit and claimed them for good i hurried them inside and started scooping the guts out of them.  now, there is a disclaimer here.  it is not recommended that you can pumpkin, due to the density of the flesh; however, after many hours researching this particular subject and finding many homesteaders who home can pumpkin year after year with no problems, i decided to go ahead and try it.

it was a messy project and somewhat time consuming, but i think all in all worth it.  i plan on growing my own pumpkin patch this year and can't wait to make pumpkin-flavored goodies all fall and winter long!

zach's 1st birthday.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

my baby's birthday was waaaaaaay back at the end of october.  sadly he has not had his share of the limelight that he so deserves!  he wasn't quite walking yet on his birthday, but began walking about within the first few weeks after he turned 1.  he is adventurous and brave, full of spunk, laughter and cuddles.  he is learning words but does not like to use them!

 

zach LOVED to play with this kitchen set but it was ALWAYS a mess and underfoot.  when we found out we were moving i packed it all up and sold the kitchen.  i have wicked plans to make an new one for olivia under the built-in bunkbed in the playroom!

he also spent many hours back and forth, back and forth, in this swing.  he absolutely loved it and would chill there for hours without hardly a peep.  he loved to watch me mow the lawn, or weed or sweep or clean or watch everyone eat at the patio table...let's just hope that maybe he loves it as much this year?  i have a TON of yard work to do!!!

he is often found dumping out drawers, stealing the tupperware, biting the lids and being altogether cute and rascally at the same time!!!

Birthday Party

i promised myself that i was going to keep things simple for zach's party.  i have a tendency to go over-the-top.  yeah, it's a confession.  in lieu of wiping myself out in exhaustion like i usually do as the party-prepping queen of madness, i made a simple banner, strung up some balloons, and pulled out my trusty chalkboards for decor.  the cake was even simple, two-tiered with rainbow chip frosting and a tiny little bunting.

            

i also "went a little over-the-top" by making a "first birthday" onesie.  well....he had to have SOMETHING special to wear!

                   

zach got his own cupcake.  i'm not into giving a baby a whole cake...that's a bit, ummm, ridiculous to me.

                
 starting out cautious, "you mean i can eat a whole cupcake mom?!" ...then, "Mmmmmm, this is tasty!" 

to sheer delight....

to a thoughtful stage of wondering, "where has my cupcake gone?"....followed by the rage of knowing that there is no more!

we had quite a few good friends and family over to celebrate zach's milestone with us.  earlier in the day we got a visit from grammie and grandpa graf, and aunties shawnae and chelsae.  we opened our special delivery from aunt nickie, uncle nick and the girls.  out popped a bunch of balloons! best. idea. ever!  there was also a cute ball popper hidden amongst the colorful orbs!

he also got a big ball popper from grammie and grandpa graf. (like my facial expression?!)

picture for zach from cousin, Lexi and from friend, Lily

i also spent a little (ok, waaaay to much time) making these cute bean bags. they weren't hard, but i played around with with fabric color scraps i wanted to use and then had to cut out all of the numbers in black felt and i hand stitched them on with a blanket stitch.  z

zach didn't really get the concept of throwing them into the bucket, but hopefully before too long he'll like to play with them and we practice colors and numbers together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

you have made our family so much happier with your cheesy smile, contagious giggles, rascally ways, chubby cuteness and snuggle buggles!