What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving?  Zappos.com.

Have you visited this site?  It's an online mecca of shoes, bags, and apparel for all.  The best part?  Free overnight shipping both ways.  What's not to love?

Something else I'm loving - my sister-in-law, Stephanie.  (enter violin music) I love all of Cody's sisters, but Steph is almost like my Nanny.  She is always SO willing to watch my kids when I need her.  She sacrifices her free time and I don't know if she's aware how much I appreciate it.  There are even times when she'll come over on her way home from work and just want to take Cache with her so she can spend time with him.  Hello?  How great is that?  She is just awesome, she loves my kids and I LOVE that.  Everyone should have a Stephanie and if you don't?  You might need to find one because I have no intention on giving mine up...

This week has been crazy with weather.  Monday we had a messy, icy snowstorm that was insane!  It was almost a white-out, this is basically what it looked like outside:What's that?  You don't see anything?  Oh that's ok, because NEITHER DID I.  I was taking my life in my hands just driving around.  The wind was blowing so hard and the roads were super slick.  To give you an idea, there was a 42 car pile-up in Payson.  42 cars!!  When does that happen?

Last night I went over to see Ann - she and her sister Amy had a little party selling Valentine/Spring decorations.  So cute!  I left with these darling little heart boxes -

I was recently informed that I come off as being 'un-social'.  Wha?  I may be a bit bias, but I think I'm pretty social.  Apparently not.  So last night I did my best to be friendly and meet people.  I had a great time and met some rad girls, so there 'un-social Julia' haters!  

Tonight I have another 'Thrillionaires' class - I have been going for about 3 weeks and I still get nervous before I go.  Wish me luck!

Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley

The Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints passed away today at the age of 97.  

 This was a great man - I can't help but get emotional at the thought of him, he was so humble and...amazing.  I can honestly say that this is the Prophet I grew up with - I remember his talks and his work so vividly, he was an incredible man.  He did so much good - so many incredible things for the Church.  How wonderful that he was able to pass peacefully, so joyous for his family.  My thoughts, love and prayers are with his family, the First Presidency and the members of the twelve.

Birthday Weekend

Just got back from a fabulous weekend in Las Vegas!  I drove down with my Mom and brother, Rich.  I took some pics of the boys before I left Thursday morning...

When we arrived in Vegas we drove to my sisters house and picked her up.  Rich stayed with my brother-in-law, so the 3 girls drove downtown and checked into our hotel!

Pretty fantastic, no?  We were in quite a rush, so we ran up to our room (on the 24th floor...) and freshened up, ran back to the car and sped over to The Venetian to see 'The Phantom of the Opera'.  We grabbed our tickets and as soon as we sat in our seats, the lights dimmed and we heard, "Welcome to my theater..."  We made it with seconds to spare.  Seconds, I tell you!  The show was AWESOME.  The set and costumes were so incredible, and the theater was so beautiful -It was so fun to see it with my Mom and my sister.  Afterwards we walked around the Venetian shops and had dinner.  The next morning as we were getting ready, my sister-in-law Jess called and told us that the Monte Carlo was on fire!  Hello!  She told us that she was suspicious since my brother was in town.  I guess she called him and said, "Ok Rich, the Monte Carlo is on fire, what did you do..."Here is a pic of the hotel after the fire was out.  So crazy!  We had a full day of shopping ahead of us, first we hit the gloriousness that is H&M (Lu, I had a moment of silence for you!) and I spent way too much money.  That afternoon we went to Fashion Show Mall and Rich met us for lunch.  We had a good time playing with the camera - here's Andrea looking gorgeous and Rich looking...regal.

Me and mumsy

Andrea displaying her feelings about the relentless paprazzi

Not sure what I'm doing here, dissecting my lunch?

After a rather long day of shopping, we headed back to the Hotel.  We thought about going to dinner, but opted for Room Service instead!  Oh yeah, we vacay in style.  The food was SO delish!

We then piled on the bed to watch 'Stranger Than Fiction' and I loved it - I had never seen it before and it was such a good show.  Sadly, the next morning we had to check out of the dreamy Hotel, but we stopped at Caesar's Palace to do some last minute shopping.  My Mom was very intrigued by this ginormous spider hanging in FAO Schwartz...it just might be hanging from their porch next Halloween.

We got to hang out at Andrea's house before we left town and the weather was so nice!  We all sat outside by the pool and soaked up some much needed sunshine - I didn't want to leave.  Now I'm really craving warm weather!  The only downer of the trip is that I got a wee bit sick yesterday, so the drive home was pretty lame.  I feel a little better today, but not much. Guess I'll just have to keep thinking about our great weekend!  Happy Birthday to my older sister who is the greatest ever - I love her so much, she is my best friend.  Can't wait until we do this again!

Viva Las Vegas!

This weekend I am headed to the City of Sin with my Mom and brother, Rich.  My Mom and I are spending a few days with my sister for her Birthday and I am SO stoked!  The first event on our agenda?  Going to see 'Phantom of the Opera' tonight!!  I am beYOND excited, I have never seen it on stage so I'm sure I'll just be grinning with my mouth open the entire time.  Rich will be hanging out with my brother-in-law and the girls will be staying at a Hotel on the strip.  It will be a weekend full of shopping, laughing and carbs. If you would like to join us, just look for the silly trio that can't stop talking or using our credit cards.  Have a great weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Provo

Say what you will, I love this City.  This Summer Kate and I were driving around taking pictures for the Annual Ladies Soiree and chatting about memories.  I came across these pictures today and thought, "Man, this is such a pretty place to live".  Enjoy!

...for some reason I am craving a slurpee right now...

Pirate Party

Last night we had a Pirate Party for Captain Cache!  It was so much fun - lots of people came and Cache had a blast.  Here are some photos -

I made this little sign for the front door - the pizza delivery guy was pretty impressed.

A little table decor...

The cake

Captain Cache!  I should mention that he referred to himself as 'Captain Cache' all night.

All the guests were given a pirate bandana, a pirate necklace and an eye patch.  Our niece Amber rocked the ensemble a little too well.  Here she is enjoying some popcorn before the pizza arrived.

Cache's pirate booty.  Instead of tying his gifts with ribbons, I wrapped his presents with craft paper and drew treasure maps.

Another goofy expression from Cache...but I think he was irritated that I was taking another picture instead of getting down to business and giving him some cake.

Opening his gifts with Dad.

Thanks to everyone who came!  It was a fun party and Cache wanted to go to bed in all his pirate garb.  As you can imagine, pirates are a pretty rowdy bunch so I have some cleaning up to do and some pirates passed out on the couch...yarr! 

Happy Birthday Cache!

Cache Clyde Jolley

Today is Cache's 3rd Birthday!  So cliche', but I can't believe that it's been 3 years already.  It goes so fast - look at all these pictures!  So cute.  He's such a great little boy...

Happy Birthday, buster!  We love you so much and we love having you in our family.  Thanks for being such a good kid and being very patient with your parents...we still don't know what we're doing.  We love you - Happy 3rd Birthday!

Weekend

What a weekend!  Friday night I went to see 'The Thrillionaires' with Hannah and had SUCH a blast.  When we weren't in sheer awe of their genius, we were laughing our heads off!  If you ever get a chance to go, you must - absolutely radical.  Afterwards we said 'hi' to the cast and kept gushing about how great they were - we could easily have been mistaken for groupies.  And that is in no way depressing.  Afterwards we had a yummy dinner at Ruby River...oh how I love Girls Night.  

Saturday we had lunch with my family for Cache's Birthday (which is on Monday)!  Everyone was able to come, it was awesome.  Nothing like a little get together at my favorite Burger Joint.  My parents gave Cache a train set (he loves trains right now) and my Dad set it up on a table next to us.  My parents were busy holding Cole and playing trains with Cache, so Cody and I were able to catch up with Marty, Jess and Rich.  It was so much fun.  Thanks for coming everyone!

As I mentioned, Cache's Birthday is tomorrow and I'm excited.  Possibly more excited than Cache is!  We got him some great presents and I think the party will be fun. The only thing I'm not excited about is we're in the middle of painting Cache's room, so his stuff is ev.ry.where.  Have a bit of cleaning up before the guests arrive tomorrow!  While Cody and I were shopping for his b-day pressies, I came across this...

Just the other day my sister was asking why they don't make Hamster wheels for kids.  Ummm...turns out we just weren't looking hard enough!  Now I'm off to bake a cake and work my party magic for tomorrow - hope you had a great weekend!

Silly Things

Have you ever sat down and thought about the silly, trivial things that can just make your whole day?  For example, the other night after Cody and I went to see some friends and have cake for Marty's Birthday, we had to stop at the store to pick up a few things (turns out spending our life's savings at Costco didn't quite cover everything we needed).  Cole was sleeping, so Cody and Cache braved the produce and I waited in the car.  Cody comes out with the groceries, we come home and put the kids the bed and I got in the shower.  When I come out, there are a dozen roses on the bed.  How the stealthy gentlemen was able to get the roses into the car, the house and our room without me seeing is totally beyond me.  The man is a magician.  Magician I tell you!  I mean, no reason roses...is anything better?

Cache loves chapstick - he loves to carry it around, open and close the lid, put on multiple coats, he just loves the stuff.  Currently his flavors of choice are cherry and mint.  Like most curious kids, he loves to twist the stick so it's almost completely out of the tube...then he tries to put on the lid.  This, of course, creates cherry and mint build up in the lid top.  We're all familiar with this, yes?  The other day Cache asked me to help him put the lid on his mint chapstick and I noticed the mass amount stuck in the lid.  *sigh*  So I pull out a few q-tips (1001 uses and counting!) and clean out the smushed chappy.  Yesterday Cache walks proudly down the stairs and says, "I cleaned out my chapstick!" and he's holding the cherry tube.  All I can think is, "Oh great...I don't even want to know where I'm going to find little chunks of that cherry stuff".  I mean, who knows what he used!  His bedsheet, a toy, his socks, I have no clue.  I sort of forgot about it and when I went to empty the garbage in my bathroom, I found this...

...a bunch of q-tips with cherry chapstick on the top sitting in the garbage.  How cute is that?!!?  I know, I actually have a picture of garbage on my blog, but I could not resist - I nearly died.  He went upstairs, remembered that I had used q-tips to clean out his other lip lid and did the same thing he saw me do!  Granted, he used like 40 of them.  No lie, I nearly burst into tears, such a cutie.  I came downstairs and showered him with praise, for which he was most grateful.  

And finally, talking to my sister today - always a joy.  Especially when we begin quoting 'Clueless' and are laughing so hard that we are silent for many seconds.  I love her.  Have I mentioned that my mom and I are spending next weekend with Andrea in Vegas for  her Birthday?  That definitely makes my day!