Monday, April 26, 2010

i {hEaRt} Valentine's

I have the best Valentine's. I am so lucky to have such a great hubby and 3 of the sweetest kids ever! We had a fun weekend for Valentine's Day this year. I love this holiday because it is all about LOVE! Growing up, it wasn't always my favorite, because it seemed to always be about boyfriends and how many roses you got sent. My mom always did nice things for us so that it wasn't about just that, so I try and do the same for my kids and now I LOVE it because it just a day to celebrate how much we LOVE each other as a family and do nice things for each other.
Making Valentine's is always a favorite activity at our house! It seems to just keep going because we have so many family members the kids want to make them for. It seems like I had to get out the Valentine stuff over and over again and I was cleaning it up all week. Rylee LOVED these foam stickers because she could do it all by herself and she was pretty artistic with the way she placed them on some of her Valentine's. She would put them all in a line or stagger them and had pretty even spacing. She is much more into art projects and stuff like this than Logan. She could do it all day long! She liked to use about 10 hearts on each Valentine and finished off a HUGE box of foam stickers!

Logan is really into coloring and writing and spelling lately. He chose some funny basketball Valentine's this year that turned into little hoops and you could shoot little paper balls into them. He did a great job writing everyone's names on them for his class.
This is the Valentine he made for Uncle Kyle. It is not a good picture of Logan, but I love his writing. He spelled this all by himself - it says "Star Wars"
Another picture of his valentine for Uncle Kyle
Rylee peeling off some more stickers
Yep....Avery was there, too! She just hung out in her swing and sucked on her fingers.

Since Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year, Darren and I went out on Saturday. We went on a date with our friends, the Lifferth's and the Barker's. We saw the movie Sherlock Holmes (which was great!) and went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was really fun! My mom was nice enough to watch the kids for us. Avery refused to take a bottle, so my mom did end up bringing her to dinner so I could feed her and then taking her back home. What a great Mom! Before we went out, I wanted some Valentine pictures of the kids and Logan wanted to take his picture with Uncle Brad's bearded dragon. Whatever it takes to get him to cooperate!
My cute girls! They had matching shirts that said "Valentine Princess"

I tried to get a picture of all 3....kind of hard to do!
Kisses for Avery
This is the best we could do!
Finally a smile from Avery!
She had a great time celebrating her 1st Valentines! My brave sister also took all 4 of the grandkids for pictures for my mom while we were at dinner. I think she is crazy! They turned out cute though.
On Valentine's morning, I got up and made heart shaped RED chocolate chip pancakes for my cute Valentine's. Yummy! Avery loves to "help" me cook and talk to me while she chills in her Bumbo.

Rylee showing me her chocolate chip pancake. It is her favorite breakfast!
Rylee takes off her pajamas to eat in the mornings for some reason, and Logan decided to do the same. He doesn't usually do this, but here are some shots of him eating his pancake in his underwear....

Rylee is a cute chocolate mess!

Before church, there was a knock at the door and Cupid made a visit! He dropped off some boxes of kisses for Logan and Rylee on the porch and they were SO excited!!!


Avery on her 1st Valentine's day. It is so much fun dressing her up!

Rylee insisted on jumping in some pictures, too.

Me and Avery
After church, Mom and Dad gave the kids some fun Valentine's baskets with some fun little treats. They love this kind of stuff! Logan's had a book about sharks, some art stuff and a little finger skateboard.
Rylee with her basket - She didn't wear this vest to church, but wanted to wear it the rest of the day for some reason. She loves to dress herself! She got a book and a crown and wand and art stuff.
Rylee showing off her tiara, wand and Princess stamps.
Valentine Princess!
This is our AMAZING gourmet dinner. I am SO lucky to have a hubby who is the BEST at making me special dinners like this. My mom got us lobster to have for Valentine's and he made yummy steak, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus and sweet potato fries. Delicious!!!
The kids loved our fancy Valentine dinner
Just to prove that Avery was there, too
Yep...there was yummy dessert, too! This is some kind of chocolate mousse stuff with yummy raspberries and it was even heart shaped. What a great hubby I have!!! This was AMAZING! I got him a massage for Valentine's to reward him for all his hard work.
Me and 3 cute Valentine's
Daddy and his little Valentine buddies
Avery and her Valentine basket with a little book and stuffed piggy
Avery is such a Happy Baby!

It was a really fun Valentine's! I {hEarT} these guys!!!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Hardware Ranch

A couple months ago, (Feb 6) we visited Hardware Ranch, an elk refuge not too far from our house. Since we moved back to Utah, it has become a tradition to visit Hardware Ranch each winter. We love going! It is not terribly exciting, but it is something fun we can get out and do in the winter. We invite all of our family, and whoever can comes along with us. We had a really fun time going this year. We met up with everyone at McDonald's for lunch, where my naughty teenage brothers used the lunch treys on the slide and broke them! Once everyone was there, we headed up to the ranch. This year our group was pretty big and we had a lot of fun. On Darren's side, Val came along with 2 of her kids, Spencer and Lauren. His brother Kevin and April and Haley came and also his brother Matt and his family - Mandy, Cambree, Chloee and Liam. My parents came and my 3 little brothers - Jeff, Brad and Kyle - and both my Grandmas.
Before we went out to the ranch, we checked out the Visitors Center. They have some interesting things and lots of animal facts and the kids always really like it. Here is Darren and Kevin trying out an antler on Spencer.
Here is Logan reading one of the displays with lots of different animal furs.
My funny Rylee!
I don't know why this picture won't turn the right way - I love Logan's nervous eyes - I think he thinks the cougar might still be alive! He was pretty funny about taking his picture with a cougar - YUCK!
Avery was pretty interested in this elk's mouth. Gross! Uncle Jeff thought it was pretty funny!


Jeff thought it was so funny to show Avery all the animals and she actually seemed pretty interested in them!

Rylee checking out a display
Rylee and Grandma digging in the sand
Logan modeling some antlers. So silly!
Spencer trying them out.
Rylee and Grandpa playing in the sand. They had a bunch of different things so that you could make animal hoof prints. One of the things was the bottom half of an elk's leg.... Gross!
Me and Darren...and an elk!
Family shot - I love Rylee's pose
After the visitor's center, we headed out to the wagon ride. They take you out on a little ride right through all the elk. I think we took up the whole wagon with just our group, except for one other couple and 1 ornery guy who was by himself. Here are Rylee and my Grandma. She rode on Great-Grandma's lap for quite awhile. I love how this picture turned out!
Avery loved it! I was a little nervous because it had been so cold, but we went on a beautiful day and it wasn't too bad at all. She loves being outside and having so much to see and didn't fuss at all! It was a little bright so she had a hard time opening up her eyes.
Logan wanted to ride with Aunt April and hold her thumb!
Here are some shots of our group - my brother Kyle, Mandy, Matt and Liam
Rylee with her Great-Grandmas
My mommy and daddy. Aren't they cute?
Another one of Logan sucking his thumb again...
My cute nephew Liam - I love his curly hair!
My brother Kyle loves this kind of stuff!
Rylee looking at the elk
Cute Avery!
Some of the MANY elk - I think there were over 200 when we went. Not as many as last year. They have up to 500 during the year. The herd was starting to leave already since there wasn't too much snow. These were some of the biggest bulls.
Rylee and Daddy being silly!
I think Rylee is telling us that the elk "MOOOO"
Another big bull elk
Our cute family! We love going on little adventures together!
After the hayride, the kids got to see the big horses that pulled us.
Rylee was pretty nervous!
Logan loved seeing them up close!
Then it was time for a snowball fight! Kyle got hit just right and it stuck in his glasses!
Rylee loves snowball fights - especially when she gets to eat it!
I love how excited Logan gets while he is picking up the snow
He loves playing with his cousins and uncles!
Rylee thought it was so funny when she hit someone!
Eating more snow!
Love those big eyes!

What a fun day! We love being closer to our family now and being able to go and do fun things with them! We had a great time.