7th Anniversary

Todd and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on Monday. There were flowers, sweet messages, lots of kisses and a really nice dinner. The kids were darling too...coloring a picture for us and singing us "Happy Anniversary" :-). Through the years (even beyond the 7 into the 7 years of dating prior), my love for Todd has grown into something I never knew it could. You love your spouse for different reasons at different times and then you have those reasons why you always love them. My love grew the day we got married and met our first challenge as a married couple and then it grew even stronger the days the kids came into our life. Building a family with him has been incredibly rewarding and I can't imagine sharing my life with anyone else. He has given me the most precious gifts I'll ever recieve and for that alone I can't thank him enough. Anyone who knows Todd knows what a strong, hard working, intelligent and honest man he is. I am very proud to be his wife and I look forward to the many years ahead. Thanks for all you do babe....I know a lot of it goes unseen by all but me.

Restaurant kindu failed on this suprise I wanted, but hey, you can tell what it says, right? :-)

Snowbird Staycation

After working all the holidays, Todd took 3 days off so we could do a little mini vacation. We went up to Snowbird to ski, swim, have a nice dinner and hang out with friends. We all had fun skiing and it's amazing how warm the outdoor pool is...it was awesome swimming under the snowcapped mountains and bright blue sky. We had some friends stay in the room that joined ours and we had a nice dinner with them followed by a lot of playing, dancing, a sleepover and room service breakfast. Todd also surprised me with beautiful flowers to kick off our anniversary celebration. It was so refreshing to get out of the gross air down in SLC and just relax together for a couple days. I will say we were all EXHAUSTED when we got back though :-).

From this gross air to...

This beautiful blue sky

This is how Bodie rolls in

Kayla bear skiing

Love my little snow buddies

Swimming in the snow

Late night walks on the mountain

Such a pretty surprise

Chillin

Kayla was done by lunch on the 2nd day

These two were so sweet together

Bodie skiing

Riding the lift together

Breakfast in bed

Coming back from the arcade

Party time

McKayla's school friend had a birthday party at ChuckeCheeses (yeah for mommy) and the mom let Bodie come along since he's in the boy's younger brothers class. I might have been a little "shocked" by the chaos (eek germs), but the kids had a great time with their friends and I enjoyed getting to know their school friend's parents better. McKayla even got to go in the ticket blowing machine (it blows tickets all around for 30 seconds and they grab as many as they can) with her birthday friend which was pretty funny to watch.

 

This was the machine they got to go in

Bodie and the ladies :-)

 

1st time at Gymnastics

McKayla had her 1st ever gymnastics class and she LOVED it. That's really not saying enough...she had SO much fun and ended the class being proud after trying so many new things. She started off on the bars (pull ups, standing on the bar, flips, ect.), then went to the vault, trampoline, back somersaults and high bar. From there they ended the class with floor exercises. On the high bar, they had them climb up on there own, hang and then let go to fall into the pit. Since she hadn't ever done it she was nervous to let go (I can't believe how long that sweet thing hung on). Her teacher said he would help her a little, but wouldn't let her just get down. With his help, she finally let go and was happy to feel how soft it was landing in the pit. She was SUPER proud and I might have had a little tear in my eye wathing her accomplish something new and "scary". When I asked her what her favorite thing was she just said, "All of it. And I really, really wanted to keep doing it."

Ready to start

First time on the small bars

Warm Spell

Yes, that's right, we've had a warm spell this past week. I'm talking all the way up to 48 here...ah, so warm ;-). With all this heat going on we decided we needed to get out of the house this past weekend so we went to the Zoo (LOVE having a pass so we can go whenever we want for however long we want) and ice skating. All of the animals were out at the zoo so we stayed much longer than I would've thought (and the kids talked me into having lunch there). The ice skating adventure was a first for the kids and a first in many years for us. We ended up having a great time and it was the perfect family evening activity. We were so glad we went to the outdoor rink rather than the indoor ones...it made the experience much more magical.

Bodie REALLY wanted a pic w/ the otter...and then he covered his head ;-)

Ready to try ice skating

Watching the Zambonie (is that how you spell it?)

 

Videos from ice skating

New Years 2013

The kids and I stayed in for New Years Eve this year and honestly, we were in bed by 9:30pm. We did have a fun sleepover/movie night in the family room though and had a special waffle breakfast New Years Day. I also took them to the bounce house to release some energy and to Paradise Cafe for dinner since it's one of our favorite places to go as a family (McKayla did keep saying she was sad Todd wasn't there and he was supposed to be when we went to that place...definitely tugged at my heart and made me miss him even more too). Todd and I celebrated New Years on Sunday with a wonderful bottle of champagne and time together in front of the fireplace with a movie.

Happy New Year