Yes!

10 years ago today, this handsome man asked me if I would marry him.  

And I said yes.

Best decision I ever made!

Pink and Red and Gold

Valentine's Day should probably be my favorite Holiday.  It isn't, but it seems like it should be. It celebrates my favorite things - love, romance, pink...and I really got into it this year.  Maybe it was because it was something to focus on after Christmas or whatever, but I filled my picture wall with Vday art, I made ribbons and bought candy - love was everywhere and I LOVED it.  

My pillas!  These were actually the last things I made and while I am in love with them, once I put them  out I thought, "I've gone overboard.  I need to stop." 

Oh, and how great is my window seat.

These lovely, glittery pieces bring me such joy.

Oh, dude. I am obsessed with these jars.  This picture doesn't do them justice, those labels were sparkly and so cute.  Ugh, love them.

 My picture wall!  My favorite since Halloween, I didn't love my Christmas pictures this year...probably have to change it up for next year.  Again.

All my ribbons.

 Chandy.

These were on my desk and that jar used to be full of heart candies, but I have kids.

 I love this heart.  It's a super bright, neon-ish red.

And WHOOOOOOOAAAAAAA that was my house.  Good laws.  It looks like it's my favorite Holiday, right?  I fully went overboard.  I was sad to take it down, but I must since Easter is in like 20 minutes.  Oh, and don't worry...Halloween will always be my favorite.

Lurve

Valentine's Day was glorious this year.  I mean, it's pretty great every year, but this year is probably on the top of my list.  Vday changes as you get older, yes?  Kids, job, work, life, etc.  It's hard to schedule romance and even harder to get a reservation if said romance involves going to dinner somewhere.  The past few years Cody and I have just done lunch and had dinner at home, pretty simple and it's been great.  This year was no different but for some reason it seemed more special.

We don't usually do 'gifts', but this year I really wanted Cody to come home to a super clean house.  This may not seem very daunting to you, but it is to me.  And our room was no picnic to clean out.  It was sort of a 'spring cleaning' in a way, I was going through everything and tossing whatever I could.  Cody had worked the previous few days and would be coming home the morning of Valentines Day.  I stayed up to the wee hours and it was so worth it!  Love me a clean house!

I secured a sitter for the middle of the day, so Cody and I went out and did some shopping and had lunch.  It's amazing what some small alone time can do for us.  When we got home, Cody let me take a nap (win!) and he ran some errands.  Oh!  I should mention that when he came home that morning, he gave me pink roses and a box of pink doughnuts for breakfast.  YUM.  No pictures, because they were eaten in like 20 seconds.

That evening Cody and I took the boys to the grocery store to shop for our dinners.  Cody and I got some crab legs and steaks with some bubbly and the boys opted for lil' smokies.  We got some movies from Red Box and came home to cook.  Ahhhh!  The crab is trying to escape!

We got the boys set up in their room, complete with bed fort, dinner and treats.  In hindsight, I probably should not have let them have chips in bed.  hmm.  

Cody and I got set up downstairs with our DELICIOUS dinner and movie, 'Pitch Perfect'.

I loved that we included the boys in our date that night.  They thought it was so fun to have their own dinner in their room and they knew that Cody and I were having a romantic dinner downstairs.  New tradition!  Best Valentines ever.

Happy Birthday, Cruz!

 Somehow, this little cherub of mine turns 1 today.  

I love, love, LOVE this baby of mine.  I love to squeeze him and kiss him and I express my disbelief in his cuteness thousands of times every day.  Seriously.  I need a chewing stick.

I remember the day his was born so vividly (as well I should, it was only a year ago.  pfft.) and I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  I get asked all the time if we're going to have another baby.  Truly?  I don't know.  I wish I did.  Once when Cody and I were talking about it I said, "The problem is we have such freaking beautiful babies." To which he immediately replied, "I know.".  Not even being humorous about it - we have gorgeous babies and there's nothing we can do about it.  Theresocute!!

Alas, I don't know if my little Cruz is our last or not, but I do know that he is the best baby on this planet.  He sleeps like a champ, he is always so happy and so content.  He has dealt with tons of sickies but still pulls through and no matter how hard I try, he won't cuddle (which is completely unfair).  He wiggles like crazy, never holds still for us to change his diaper, he's smothered by his older brothers who love everything about him, he squeaks and chirps and has recently starting saying, 'uh oh..".  Which is random...we never say that.

Ugh, I love him.  Love my little lovekin.  Happy Birthday, Cruzer!

Be Mine...

Every year my ward hosts a radical Valentine's Dance for the adults.  This will be the 4th year they've had one and the first year I was able to go!  Lemme esplain..

Year 1 - I got to sing with a big band while everyone danced, but then I had to rush out to go to rehearsal.

Year 2 - Cody was working.

Year 3 - I was pregnant.  Like really, really pregnant.

Year 4 - No show!  No work!  No baby!  I'm in!

Ooooooh, wait.  You see, Cody works part time in Sundance and had a shift that day.  He tried to get it off to no avail which left me without a date.  Swayed by my friends, I decided to attend ala carte.  So!  I got all gussied and headed over to the church.  I talked with peeps and helped Celine take pictures of the couples arriving.  She even got this candid shot of Miss Lonely Heart...

The place looked beautiful...I mean, really.  So, so pretty.  The VooDoo Orchestra played and the music was outstanding!  Such a fun night, I was having a wonderful time.  That is, until they played 'Since I don't have you' and everyone got up to dance and I was sitting alone at the table.

Love my ward and the dance was wonderful.  Hopefully next year I can wrangle up a date.

Fire Chief

You've heard me talk about the stellarness that is my Father in Law.  I mean, the man is ridiculously stoic.  Humble, hard working, genuine and selfless...dipped in gold, basically.  It came as no surprise (to anyone) when he was made Fire Chief of Provo City.  WooHoo!  Totally deserved.  Last week we went to see him get sworn in and my goodness it was an awesome sight.

Now, I've never been to one of these.  I assumed it was in the chambers of the Mayor or some city official.  We walked in and I saw two fireman in their dress blues standing at the door...like British soldiers.  All shiny and pressed and expressionless.  The room was giant, filled with family and friends and tons of firemen from the department.  Why did I assume this wasn't a huge deal?

A lot of people spoke, telling stories of Gary and how remarkable he is.  What a wonderful man he is and leader he will make.  Finally he was able to stand and say a few words.  I love that man!

Congratulations Gary!  And 'you're welcome' Provo City.

Baptism

On February 2nd, Cache was baptized!  

A special day indeed.  He was soooooo excited, he's been talking about it for months.  When I tried to talk to him about what happens at his baptism he couldn't get past the 'white outfit' he got to wear in the font.  That's all he talked about;

"Do I get to keep the jumpsuit?"
"No, honey.  It's just for that day.  Now, after you get baptized-"
"Does it have a hood?"
"Nope, now-"
"Does it have buttons?"
sigh....

The morning of we were racing around getting everyone ready.  I was speaking so I came down to my desk to write a quick poem for my talk.  I heard Cody and Cache talking upstairs and Cody was telling him what it means to be baptized and how important the Holy Ghost is.  Such a dear moment.

Friends and family came and everything went perfectly.  Cache loved it and I was so proud to see him in the font with his Dad.  I beamed when Cody confirmed our son a member of the Church...a fantastic day.

"Today I'm getting baptized,
I can't believe it's finally here!
I've waited for so long, it seems,
to reach my 8th year.

I'll show my friends and family
how I love to choose the right.
I'll say my prayers every day,
in the morning and the night.

I'll march forth with courage,
I'll study the Savior's word.
I'll show through my example
how much I love the Lord.

I stand for truth and righteousness,
I know the church is true.
Today I'm getting baptized!
...and I'm so proud of you."

Spy Party

Cache has been obsessed with spy stuff lately.  He bought a book at his school's book fair months ago and the mania has grown.  **Side Note: I gave Cache $11.00 to spend at his book fair.  The savvy kid spent $10.99 and got 4 books.  I love him.**  A spy party seemed in order and Cody and I had a BLAST putting it all together.  The invites were addressed to each Agent in a manilla envelope with 'Top Secret' across the front.

We decided to have the kids come to the "Spy Training Facility" where they could reach Super Spy Status.  Upon arrival, each Spy received their own spy kit equipped with all necessary SpyWare:

Notebook, pen, rubber bands, rope, flashlight, paper clips, chewing gum and "bugs".

Also during check-in, each spy received a name tag.  Everyone dressed up and it was hilarious.  The names they chose were great, we had 'Agent Secret', 'Agent Gold', 'Agent Nick Fury' and 'Agent McGee'.

We had 5 Sectors set up with tests for the spies to pass.  After each Sector, they received a star on their badge.  Sector 1 was Self-Defense and Escape Technique.  The kids loved this and Cody was the greatest instructor.  (Cody set up his GoPro camera to take pictures during the party - our own Spy Cam!).

This Sector had laser beams.  They had to retrieve some jewelry from across the room and try not to get burned!  Agent baby watched closely.

We had a crime scene Sector and each spy had to examine the evidence and solve the crime.  They were so diligent and quiet while looking everything over and taking notes in their notebooks.

Placing stars on their badges.

Everyone passed!  After I applied the star to their badges, Cody shook their hands and congratulated them for achieving Top Spy Status.  It was so official.

It was seriously so much fun!  The kids had a blast, so did we.  Happy Birthday, Agent Secret!  This blog post will self-destruct in 10 seconds...

Epic Eight

We have had a FULL day of celebrating this little dude's 8th Birthday.

Yeah, that's right.  He's eight.  What the what?  He's growing up too fast..how cliche'.  This boy of mine is so, SO smart.  He's quick and clever and such a stellar young gent.  I'm so proud of the little man he's becoming and can't place any claim on his awesomeness, I swear he's just born with it.  I LOVE him.  Happy Birthday, Cache! XOXO

Golden Globular

I LOVE to watch the Golden Globes.  Big fan!  Even more so this year because these dashing ladies are hosting...

"Oh, boy!" "Sounds swell!"

Stay At Home Mom

My friend shared this recently, perhaps you've seen it?  I must say, I loved it.  I was surprised by the woman asking the question.  Her whole, "I work long hours and get everything (and more) done and still have time to make social calls, so why can't she?".  I DIED when she said that kids are an excuse to relax and enjoy.  WTF?  "What do stay at home moms do all day?"  Hmm, what did I do today?  Oh, kept 3 little people alive, that's what I did.   I like where the columnist noted that motherhood is needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.  My friend Amelia and I always say, "Everything takes 2 hours".   Just getting everyone ready and out the door to run some simple errands takes forever.

In the olden days (before I had 3 children) I could leave whenever I wanted, I could watch an entire movie uninterrupted, I could even spend a whole day cleaning my house singing as loud as I wanted.  Remember when you could take your time getting ready?  Or nap?  Or just shower or go to the bathroom in peace?  What about talking on the phone without suddenly every little human in your home needing your attention thatverysecond?

Those days are gone, friends.

But that doesn't mean that my world is filled with chaos and frazzlement.  Well, sometimes it does, but you adjust and shift things around get into your own system of doing things.  Being a mom is hard and crazy and frustrating and rewarding and joyful and wonderful and the worst and best thing in the world.  I'm far from perfecting this (which is made very clear to me when I see other mom's wearing lip gloss at the grocery store with their 5 clean children), but hey...everything takes two hours.

In the Words of Dr. Evil...

...it's frickin' freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth.

And trust me, I know it's January and that means cold, but goodness it's been super cold lately.  Some days it doesn't get above 10 degrees outside...and that's during the day!  Brrrr.  Let's just say we've kept our wood-burning stove occupied, most occupied, indeed.  Oh!  Our furnace also went out. Yep.  We had noticed things were colder in our home, but we just attributed that to the fact that it's an ice box outside.  We woke up one morning and it was 52 degrees in our house.  Not awesome.  Fortunately we have a neighbor who specializes in this sort of thing and fixed it that afternoon.  But, as I said before,...brrr.

I'd like to blame my new year laziness on the temperature.  While I still feel excitement and the promise a new year can bring, my house is a disaster and I have no motivation to clean it.  None.  There's always something better to do than take down Christmas!  Like a chocolate treat or a nap.  *sigh* It's so shameful.  I did take down the tree today, so that's something.  The older boys are at a friend's house and Cruz is sleeping...so now really is an ideal time...what the crap am I still doing on here?  Off to clean.

Happy New Year!!

2013 is here, friends.  Are you psyched?  Ahhhh, a new year full of promise and goals.  I love the feeling of a brand new year.  Everything seems achievable - a clean slate in which to build new dreams on (how poetic).  I'm not going to bore you with my resolutions...or you know?  Maybe I will.  Not ALL of them at once, you see, nobody has that kind of time.  A big one?...that I probably make and promise every year?  To blog more.  I've goaled this in the past, but this time it's different.  I haven't blogged in what...4 months or something ridiculous like that?  Chances are I don't have any readers anymore.  In a way, this is a good thing.  Now I feel less likely to filter my posting.  Not that I'm full of profanities or offensive material, Heavens no.  It's just that subconsciencely I would alter my posts to appease or impress.  Do you do that?  I do.  And that's not how a journal is supposed to be.  So I'm going to change that.

In other news, it's apparent that I've neglected to post about a myriad of life experiences that happened since August.  I'll cover those, I promise, but I'll get to it when I get to it.  I don't want to hold off blogging about something because I still have this old story to blog about (goodness, that sounds familiar...pretty sure I've promised that in the past, too.  Crap).  

So!  Stick around, peeps.  I'm changing my blog layout and that will take a few days, but come back, won't you?  

So...Summer happened.

This Summer has been awesome.  Crazy, but awesome.  I think everyone's Summer is madness.  The days (while long and glorious) are usually jam-packed with plans or laziness and suddenly you see 'Back To School!' ads everywhere.  Rather than go into every little story of what went down the past 3 months, here's the highlights:

The boys took swimming lessons.  They LOVED it and I loved being able to take them to the PGFD Pool Party and just let them play in the water without panicking.  I fully intend of having them take classes again next Summer.  Also?  I want a pool in my backyard.  Yeah, I know they're expensive to maintain...I still want one.

I hit a deer.  My deer-free 16 years was brought to an abrupt halt when I hit a deer on the way to my parents house one night.  I totaled our car and we had to drive my Dad's 16 passenger van around for a week while our car was in the shop.  Good times.

When I hit the deer my Debit card decided to hide.  Forever.  NO idea what happened to it, had to wait 9 days to get a new one.  9 days without a card?  Ugh.

Cody and I celebrated 9 years of marriage.  I love, love, love him.

The new gym has been picking up and Cody is really busy.  I'm so proud of him.

My beautiful friend Bethany was in town and we got to spend an entire day together.  I love her beyond measure.

I saw 'Rock of Ages' and loved it more than I probably should have.  I'm a stoner, friends.  That movie probably deserves it's own blog post.

My other beautiful friend Rosey has been in town a couple of times this Summer and we've spent some days together.  One night we went to see 'Crazy for You' at the Hale with my beautiful friend Celine (I have beautiful friends, ok?).  *Sigh*, how I love the theater.  The last time Rosey was here we went to dinner with our beautiful friend, Brandalee.  We ate at Puffer's and shut the place down...we talked for about 5 hours.  Love them.

Went to Lake Powell with my family.  Blog post coming.

My beautiful friend Hailey came to visit from New York for most of July, and I got to spend some afternoons with her.  Her family was staying in my old house and it was a trip to walk through it again! She is so wonderful.  We went to lunch with beautiful friends Amelia, Mindy and Lisa.  I want a repeat.

The older boys went camping with Cody's parents, complete with bows and arrows and BB guns.

I did some Thrillionaires shows.  Always a good time.

I opened an etsy shop.

We sat on the porch and watched it rain, we've had popsicles, we have tan lines, we stayed up late, had movie nights, ran through the sprinklers and went for days without shoes.  I love Summer.  But you know what's next?

FALL.

Number 9

Happy Anniversary to my Mr.!!

Independence Day!

Happy 4th!  Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that it's already the 4th of July?  We don't really have anything planned, I kind of feel like it's just another day...which makes me sad.  I should have planned SOMETHING.  We didn't do the parade this morning because it's just absolute mayhem (and with a baby?  No, sir), there's fireworks tonight in PG so we'll probably go to that, it's too late to plan a BBQ but maybe I'll spend the day baking sugary treats.

The best part?  Cody came off the fire this morning around 8:00 and went to the station and slept.  I talked to him a bit before he fell asleep, said he stayed up all night protecting a house that would be the first one to go if the fire went in that direction.  He said the fire started coming towards them this morning, but a helicopter dropped retardant on it (and hit some of the fireman, too!) and it's unlikely it will come closer, but there's still a chance, I guess.  Last I heard the fire wasn't at all contained and people were still being evacuated.

In other news, turns out Cruz is celebrating his independence by rolling over on his own.

What?!  So not ok with this, especially since he's doing that little squirmy thing when he's on his stomach trying to crawl.  What in the world will I do when he's mobile?

Have a happy and fire-free 4th!!

Stadium of FIRE

More like, 'State of Fire'.  So, we live in the desert.  It's dry here.  This year?  Stupid dry.  I think the last time it rained was November of '04.  There have been cah-razy fires around here lately, all in the past month.  Over Strawberry Days there was a massive fire in Saratoga, there's a huge one near Mt. Pleasant and these fires raged for days and have destroyed tons of homes.  It's just heartbreaking to see these sweet people on the news with only the clothes on their backs and no home to go back to.  Devastating.

While I have ached for these people and have followed where the fires are burning, I have also felt sort of removed from it all.  Until today.

This afternoon I left Cody at home with Cruz while I went grocery shopping.  I get out of the car in the parking lot and look up and see smoke on the mountain.  It's north of our house, but still - smoke.  My first reaction was, "Ugh, this whole freaking state is on fire".  I took a pic..

...and called Cody to tell him about it.  He couldn't see it from our house and while I was on the phone with him I saw the wildland fire truck whiz by with sirens blaring.  We both just sort of "huh" and hung up.  Two minutes later he calls me back;
"You need to come get Cruz, I just got called to the station."
"Why?  Do you have to go fight it?"
"Everyone's on the fire, they just need coverage at the station."
 I got back in my car and thought, "It just started, how can everyone be up there already?"

As I'm driving back I notice that the smoke cloud is getting bigger and denser...not good.  I come inside, Cody grabs his gear and kisses me goodbye as he heads out.  As I'm driving down our hill once again I'm starting to freak out about how huge this fire is getting...

I called him and he said he was about to head up to the fire, said it's in the Alpine foothills and they've already started evacuating people.  Then he says that 4 houses are in danger of being burned.  What the what?!!  This is when I start to get scared.  My husband is going to go fight this hot, massive fire that is burning out of control.  I did my shopping while updating my Mom and friends who were calling, asking if Cody was fighting it.  When I came out of the store my jaw just dropped...

I called the Fire Chief;

"Hello?"
"Is he on that?"
"Yep."
"So he's up there..."
"Yep."

Awesome.  I drove home and when I got in my driveway I said a little prayer.  I was a bit surprised that I was that scared, but then - it's a huge fire!  Cody's up there!  I can't reach him!  On the other hand, it's Cody.  As my bff Amelia stated: "This is when even keel Cody comes into play.  He won't panic or do something stupid.  He just won't".

I've been checking the news, saw some incredible pictures...

 Cody just called me and told me he's going to be on the fire all night, he's protecting homes.  Earlier the winds blew the fire North away from residences, but at midnight there's supposed to be a cold front with winds blowing South at 20-30mph.   I'll know more in the morning (so will he), but he sounded in good spirits...maybe even a bit bummed that he hasn't seen more action.  Aw.  Ugh, scary though, right?  This fire is too close for comfort.  Hopefully it gets contained and all the boys can come home soon.  Quite the day!  Love my firefighter.