For me....

So the title of this post is all for me.  I know you may think I'm being selfish but I realize that I doubt anyone ever even reads this thing anymore because honestly....who is actually THAT interested in my life.  Okay, maybe my mom and sisters....but anyways....Sometimes I don't feel like I should post about anything because I really don't have a lot to say, but last week I was looking back on all the posts that I've done from the beginning and it was so fun reading them!  I had such a good time reminiscing and was so glad that I did post things even though we aren't traveling or doing anything exciting. I just like to remember.  So even if I'm the only one that ever reads this blog I'm doing it for me and yes, the posts are going to keep coming.

Anywho....on to the exciting life that I lead...I am not a decorator. I have never claimed to be a good decorator but I do appreciate a well decorated house. I just don't "see it" if it's not already done and laid out for me.  Well we bought this house that has ridiculously high ceilings which means lots of wall space (blah!)  That means space I have to decorate.  I'm such a cheapskate that I never want to waste money on something that's not useful.  So this has been our bedroom for the past 2 years.  A gigantic wall and a tiny little picture frame on it.  I know.....eat your heart out Martha Stewart.... 

 So I saw an idea on pinterest how to decorate for cheap. Score!  So this is what our room looks like now....

 It was done with scrapbook paper and foam board so it hardly cost me anything.  And folks, the wall doesn't seem so gigantic anymore.  Don't look to closely...I'm kind of an "eyeball it" kind of girl where my architect husband has to measure everything exactly.  He cringes that they don't line up perfectly.  I'll fix it....someday.

Then last week we went to the U of U women's gymnastics meet against Stanford.  It was so much fun.  They were amazing (I seriously don't know how they do that stuff) and the kids had a blast.  We were like 5 rows from the top...so upper nosebleed=bad pictures.  The kids hardly even blinked.

 Gotta love the boots...

 But whenever a song would come on they would all stand up and dance dance dance.  My favorite was when Josh was dancing his heart out to "All the single ladies"  by Beyonce.

 Then we come to this nut.    A couple days ago I was getting out of the shower and she was yelling through the door (as they always do) she kept saying she wanted a carrot.  Okay, if you know my kids you know they NEVER ask for vegetables.  Their lives could depend on eating one bite of a vegetable and they would rather die.  So I asked Kate why she wanted a carrot and she said she needed it to see in the dark.  I don't know if this is actually true but my grandpa always used to say that if we ate carrots we could see in the dark.  This sounds good so I've been telling my kids the same thing.  Apparently she listened!!!  So she said, "Mommy I need a carrot for the dark."  She and Josh were playing in the closet and apparently couldn't see too well.  I gave her a carrot, she took a couple bites and they went back in the closet.  Maybe it worked? She didn't complain again.

Lots of Love

We celebrated Valentine's a day early because I had to work on the real day. I tried to get a cute picture of the kids.....Kate's feet are supposed to be the "V." I saw an idea like that on pinterest and thought to myself...that would be so cute!!  They had used it with a newborn where you can actually keep their feet in one spot.  A 2 year old doesn't.  But her cheesy smile makes up for it.

 Our Valentine's celebration was awesome complete with a heart shaped papa murphey's pizza, and lots of silly games that we played for family night (all love related).  It was fun.

So I don't know if I'm the only one out there that kind of dreads long holiday weekends.  Don't get me wrong...they are nice not to have to get Rach off to school and the thought that we COULD take a vacation (even though we never do) is an appealing idea.  But I'm always afraid (especially when the weather's crappy) that all they are going to want to do is watch t.v. and follow me around for 4 days.  Oh, did I mention Trav went camping with the scouts for one of the nights?  So we decided to go to the aquarium.  It had been a while since we'd been there.  The pictures never turn out so good in that lighting..... It was really crowded but a nice way to break up the day.

 Always ready to pose for the camera...

 The penguins were swimming all over the place.

  Here's our little cowgirl ready for church.....

 And today has been awesome having the kids home!  Even though they were told to sleep in Josh woke up at 7:20 but they have been playing non-stop.  Luckily today was a pretty nice day so we squirted the snow with colorful water, played with sidewalk chalk, went to kid to kid to buy $40 worth of pants for Rach and Josh (Every pair of pants they own have holes in their knees.  Am I the only one suffering with this?  I swear my kids are the raggyist looking kids.)  Now Kate's napping and they've just been playing.  It's been awesome.  No t.v. no following me around. 

 The monkey wasn't so lucky.... I don't know how Josh managed this one but the monkey is actually standing on his head balanced on the light.  Pretty impressive.

 They also pulled out a monster I had made for Halloween and made him facial features and would make him look as funny as they could.  That was a good hours worth of entertainment.

 And here's one last one for the road.  Man I love this girl but 2 year olds are so bossy.  At her 2 year check-up last Monday her doctor said it was "Almost disturbing" for how well Kate talked.  I hope that's a good thing.  She did tell me last week as I was putting on lipstick that "Mommy's got a red mustache."  What a knucklehead.

My baby is 2!!

That's right!  My sweet baby is 2!  I seriously can't believe it.  I guess the more kids you have the faster time goes.  Well, we decided to celebrate her birthday a day early.  So for every party you have to have some presents...

 Little helpers to help open the presents....

 And then we had some cake.  Trav was in charge of the cake this year so he decided to do the roman numeral 2. Josh kept saying it looked like an 11 so Kate was turning 11.  And of course the kids helped decorate it.  We saw this thing that said  "If you want to make different flavors of frosting then just add kool-aid mix to vanilla."  Well since Kate's favorite color is purple we decided to try it with grape kool-aid.  What a pretty purple color!

 She blew out the candle.....

 Then took a big bite!

 I hope you can appreciate the looks on everyone's faces.  Let's just say they don't make grape flavored frosting for a reason.  It kind of tasted like purple laffy taffys but without the laffy and the wrong consistency.  Rach and Josh wouldn't even eat the frosting, and that's saying a lot.  But we do have leftover cake at our house if anyone want's to try it!!

 Yes it was superbowl Sunday (who was playing?) so we had the commercials...um...I mean "game" on after dinner.  I like how the boys are glued to the t.v.  3 generations worth.  The girls don't even care.

 The didn't even notice anyone else was in the room they were having so much fun reading.

 The actual day of her birthday was yesterday and we didn't celebrate at all!  Unfortunately the little birthday girl has the croup and was really sick so we just chilled, watched Finding Nemo, she did take time out to dress up as a knight.

 And for as sick as she was (and still is) this picture's actually really perky.  She's so cute.  It was funny because when she woke up that morning Josh said "She looks the same!  She doesn't look 2, she's still little!"  I don' t know if he thought there would be some big transformation or something but he seemed disappointed Kate was pretty much the same.

 And I know this isn't the most flattering picture but Rachel lost another tooth a few nights ago.  This was her first 'top' tooth.  She's pretty excited about that.

 Here's one last one of my big 11, oh I mean 2 year old, still doing her favorite thing in the world....reading with a big stack of books.  Love this girl!

10 Years!

That's right.  Trav and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  Holy cow.  That makes me feel so old!  I guess I better get used to it since I'm so close to turning 30 I barely dare to tell people I'm still in my 20's.  3 more months......I still have 3 more months......

Anyway, even though we would have loved to go on some exotic trip for this awesome anniversary we decided to get crazy exotic.  The day-of was actually nothing too special.  Normal day.... Trav had scouts that night so we didn't even go out or anything but Trav did get serenaded by the most amazing lip sync ever from his totally awesome family. (Just imagine Em as the singer, Rach playing the keyboard, Josh on the ukelele, Kate as the back up dancer.....to a Chicago song.  I know!) We should have taken pictures but of course I didn't think about it.  Then over the weekend we dropped the kids off at their cousins house and headed off to exotic lava hot springs.  We stayed in this cute little hotel that was like a 1 minute walk to the springs.

 This was actually both mine and Trav's first time ever being there (even though my mom swears I've been there before....doesn't count if I was still a baby and can't remember it).  It was really fun!  The whole time though I kept thinking that the kids would really love it too.  We'll have to take them back there sometime.

 Mental note:  Don't wear glasses by the springs.....

 Awww....we still look the same as we did 10 years ago. 

 Now this is amazing...I am ALWAYS cold.  I can be wearing socks, slippers and be wrapped in a blanket all at the same time and when I climb into bed at night my feet are still ice cubes.  Now here is the amazing part.....Me, in a swimsuit, in January, outside and being SO hot!  It was raining a freezing cold rain while we were there and it felt so good and refreshing.  These springs worked a miracle that day.

 We only stayed there one night but it was just enough (there's not much else to do there but sit in the springs and really there's only so much of that you can take.)  And as we were driving out of town look what road we found?  Yep, Main Street turns into Maughan Road.  So cool.

 I also got some amazing flowers for the anniversary.

 And on to one of the troublemakers.....Josh made a chef hat in preschool and is always so excited to help out in the kitchen now (and of course wearing the hat).

 This poor boy was bored to tears the other day because I wouldn't let him play video games all day (imagine that) so we had an amazing battle with his army guys.  We had it all set up looking so awesome I had to capture the moment.  About 2 minutes later Kate-Zilla came through and destroyed it all.  Oh well....setting it up's the fun part right?

It's been an amazing 10 years.  Can't wait to see what the next 10 bring.