February

February Fun

February is always a bright jewel in my year. I hate winter but I don't mind the month of February. It is a short bright month after a long, cold, and dark January. February is bright with reds and pinks, love, birthdays, and all around fun. Then before you know it it is March and Spring is on it's way.

This February got off to a great start... Tyler's birthday, a trip to Portland, Valentine's Day, tax returns, Tyler's bonus, an inheritance from Tyler's Uncle Steve, a friend's baby shower, several lunches with friends, and other fun things. February was a good time!

Here's what we did:

Tyler took Ailey and Bryn to the Daddy Daughter Dance. They were in heaven and loved every single minute!! They danced the night away with their daddy and had the time of their lives. 

Official Photo...How cute is that? I love it!

Ailey and Bryn wanted to wear one of their matching dress sets and they wanted Tyler to wear a matching tie so he borrowed that one from Kameron and happily color coordinated with them.

They also wanted to wear lipstick and I said "Why the heck not!" So here they are rockin' the red lipstick.

I LOVE this red coat that Bryn is wearing. It is a gorgeous vintage wool coat from the 1930's and made in Paris. It is all around fabulous. My mom found it in a thrift store when Reilly was a baby and she snapped it right up. It is so beautifully made and the lining is fabulous. All three of my girls have worn it to church every Sunday during the winter and it has held up beautifully. This is probably the last year Bryn can wear it. It makes me so sad. I guess I will have to pack it away for future granddaughters. Isn't it cute, though? And...so is the little sweetie wearing it!!

While Tyler and the girls were away and Reilly was working...Kameron and I had a mother/son night and it was awesome!! We had a great time!! We made our favorite movie watching junk food, a big pan of Texas Trash, and drank lots of Dr. Pepper. We watched two movies in a row and laughed our heads off!!

I would like the record to state that Kameron had other offers from friends to go and hang out but he CHOSE to hang out with me!! I couldn't believe it. He chose a mother and son night over his friends. That is a good kid!! We've already been planning our next one.

Then the Science Fair pretty much took over our lives. Ailey was stoked to participate this year. Tyler loves helping the kids with their science projects and I gladly turned the project over to both of them.

One of their data collecting nights. Ailey was very official with her clipboard as you can see. 

More experimentation and data collection

Such a cute little scientist!!

Finally the big day arrived and it was time to turn that thing in!! Hallelujah.

Up close

Ailey presenting her project.

All of our children have loved participating in the science fair regardless of the outcome which is a good thing because I am PROUD to say that Ailey has continued our family's 30 plus year losing streak!! Woohoo... and she loved it anyway!! I ask you Science Fair committee what does it take to be a winner? We have given you years of moldy cheese experiments that scarred our family for life, sink and floats, elaborate wind energy generation projects, my two losing entries about the dangers of smoking and photosynthesis from childhood, and all of Tyler's...who was super sciency and stuff... elaborate projects and still nothing but losers. (Bryn, you are our final hope for that coveted blue ribbon! Our family's hopes and science dreams are now in your hands. Redeem our family name. Something tells me you are just the girl to do it! When I think of how fast you learned to tie your shoes and were potty trained I know that you are clearly the genius of the bunch.)

Kameron at the science fair. When he wasn't cruising chicks...true story...he was off with Ailey's friend's big sister  most of the time. He stopped by our table to stuff his face with pizza and pose for a quick picture with Brynnie. 

This was the highlight from the science fair for Bryn...

Bryn's dream since she was about three has been to play the cello. She talks about it non stop. That night at the school, the kids could try out all kinds of instruments, and Bryn was LOVING IT!! She played and played that cello so nicely, gently, and reverently. It was so cute!!

Ailey requested this picture because regardless of winning or losing she thought she looked GOOD that night!! She was right. Ha ha!!

Ailey's social life has been in full swing as you can plainly see...

Ailey's got a good close group of friends and they have been having a great time this month!!

This kid is no slouch either. Here he is being honored for making Honor Roll at a special ceremony last week. Nice job Kamers!! He also had a band performance at the high school and did a fantastic job. He has also been all over town getting donations for the big scout auction coming up. He's a busy guy.

What's Reilly been up to you ask? With seminary, school, work, and this guy we don't see her very much. Good thing Instagram keeps me up to date.

Yep. That's what the second half of your senior year looks like I guess.

So, yeah. It's been a fun month of date nights, several lunch dates with friends, a sweet baby shower...the baby is coming tomorrow!! And all kinds of good stuff.

And then there was this:

The dress is white and gold!!

But if you are interested:

Tyler: blue and black

Reilly: blue and black

Kameron: purplish and brown

Ailey: purplish and brown

Bryn; white and gold

AND...now it's March and THIS GIRL is FORTY!!

Happy Birthday Stacey!!

Valentines 2015

Happy Hearts Day

This year while perusing my feed on FB I was surprised at how many people hate Valentine's Day... like absolutely hate it... and their hatred spreads over to St. Patrick's Day, Halloween etc. One person in my ward posted about this and so many people commented with "me too!!" More people than I realize don't celebrate these other holidays, don't decorate, and don't do anything festive. This really surprised me. I just wasn't raised that way. I've mentioned this before but I come from a festive family. My mom always decorated for all of the holidays and did fun things to make them special. Valentine's Day was never about romantic love, having a boyfriend or that special someone...it was about celebrating LOVE!! All kinds of Love!! That is something that I think is definitely worth celebrating. I like celebrating and decorating for the other holidays too. I think it is a nice way to celebrate the joy of life. To step out of the mundane day to day and have some FUN!! Life gets serious and hard and stressful and I feel like we need to take every moment that we can to be JOYFUL!! So while celebrating holidays isn't always...actually almost never is...convenient, economical, and sometimes appreciated...I still do it. I never regret doing it either. I think that it is family traditions like these that bind our family together and  help us to feel loved all through our lives.

I remember as a kid each Valentine's Day my grandparents on my Mom's side would send us cute valentines with a few bucks in them. We would get heart-shaped candy boxes from my grandparents on my father's side. My mom would have special surprises for us and candy on Valentine's Day. Even after I went to college I would receive care packages from my mom full of fun things for me and my roommates for all the holidays. My grandparents that lived far away still sent me a care package with cookies, a valentine, and a few bucks. In my neighborhood growing up, all our neighbors would ding dong ditch valentines and treats on our doorstep...and we did the same to them. It was just FUN!! Life doesn't always have to be so serious, does it?

On that note...our Valentine's weeks started out with our YW fundraiser to pay for Girls Camp.

For two weeks the girls dipped and decorated pretzels and sugar cookies, packaged them, and delivered them on Valentines Day.

They turned out really cute and all our girls earned their money for camp!

We decorated around our house too...

Ailey and Bryn worked hard on their valentines for their classes, their boxes, and picking out the perfect Valentine's Day outfits. They decided what they wanted to bring for their teachers...red tulips.

I had a few more deliveries to make after dropping them off at school in the morning before I returned in the afternoon to help volunteer in two class parties. I love our elementary school so much! They do such a great job of making this day special for all of the children.

First up was the Kindergarten party...it is so nice that Bryn and Elle are in the same class. She and Bryn had a ball!!

The kindergarten had it going on with all kinds of fun activities. Bryn's teacher is in the hot pink shirt. She is wonderful.

Brynnie wanted me to make sure that I got a picture of her with this kid...a particular friend of hers if you know what I mean?!

The girls and one of their buddies. He was in our group with the girls on the field trip to Greenbluff and bonded with them and since then he isn't ever very far away. Ha ha!

Brynnie wanted a selfie with mommy

Bryn and Elle in the photo booth. The kids had such a great time with that. There were a whole bunch of props and they got to take a bunch of pictures with all of their friends. It was really cute.

Then I was off to the 5th grade party. I got there just in time to help serve up the chocolate fondue!

Ailey and her peeps. It's weird to say, but the 5th grade party was wilder than the kindergarten party. I was exhausted by the end of the day!!

All in all, it was a fun day and I am glad that I got to hang out with these three wild and crazy girlies!!

We had a four day weekend last week so the Valentine parties were all on Thursday. On Friday, Elle came over and hung out with us during the day. Our kids were thrilled that she brought with her a huge box of valentine donuts for breakfast and Papa Murphy's pizza for lunch as a Valentine's Day surprise. Thanks Kelley! :)

On actual Valentine's day Tyler and I managed to sneak away and have some time together in the morning and then we had a family dinner at our house. Reilly and the BF even opted to skip a romantic night on the town to join us. Shocker. It turned out to be a fun night...not a perfect night...but fun all the same!! You've gotta roll with the punches I've learned. Teenagers will be grumpy, kids will argue, perfection will not be achieved...so what! Laugh it off.

We had homemade custom pizzas, artichokes, strawberry jello pretzel salad, and raspberry frappe. The kids got their little valentines gifts and candy. We read our love notes (the papers that everyone writes down what they love about each other) and enjoyed the evening. Justin had never had an artichoke before so it was fun watching him learn to eat them. We are introducing him to all kinds of foods. I remember distinctly when I had my first whole artichoke at my friend Naomi's house. I loved it and never looked back! Delish.

After dinner we gathered around the old victrola for some old-fashioned fun. Well not really a victrola and not old...but it was a record player...a new and improved record player. This was one of Tyler's birthday gifts that my family chipped in for. It was the perfect gift for him as his passions are music and technology. It's pretty awesome. It has a USB port and you can hook it up to a computer and record from it. It sounds incredible. Our kids were gathered all around it marveling that music could be played off of those big black records. Haha!

My dad, knowing that Tyler was getting this for his birthday, sent a big box of his old records. It was a total 50's, 60's, and 70's flashback. You haven't lived until you've heard The Monkees and Janis Joplin on vinyl!! :) It was quite the eclectic collection of records. Tyler has been on the hunt for more old records to add to the collection. It was so much fun!!

photo by Ailey

Oh yeah!! Bryn lost her first tooth on Valentine's Day which she thought was pretty special.

Anyway...hope you all had a wonderful Valentine celebration!! Enjoy life. Celebrate a little. It's all good!!

Birthday and Trip

Tyler's 44th Birthday and a Trip to Portland

We've had quite a lot of fun things going on around here lately, hence my lack of posts. Anyway the biggest celebration was Tyler's 44th Birthday!! That is always a happy celebration but after the year we have had it was EXTRA special. Tyler's birthday tradition is to celebrate and have his party on Superbowl Sunday. This year was especially exciting with the Seahawks playing but alas we won't discuss that sad situation.

We made some alterations to Ty's Superbowl Birthday Cake

We had a great time celebrating Tyler and eating all of his favorite foods despite that which must not be discussed... *sob*.

I treated Tyler to a trip to Portland as one of his birthday gifts. I am not sure how much of an actual "treat" it was for him as it was also a Sisters Creed business trip. Still...we had a fantastic time and it was a much needed getaway for both of us. And...I really appreciated him pulling the trailer, helping set up for our show, helping to tear down, lugging heavy things, and dragging the trailer home. He is so great to do all of that for me. To show my appreciation I also got him a new dolly to help with all the loading and unloading. It's shiny and green, his favorite color. :) Seriously though, he is so great to support all my dreams. My dreams become his dreams and he just jumps right in to help make them a reality. He also helps load and unload my mom's trailer every.single.show. and that means a lot to me. He's a good guy. I did well in the husband department.

Last year Tyler didn't come on the Portland trip so he was super excited to go and have some fun this time. We love Portland.We were as giddy as school kids as we pulled away from home. There is just something so exciting about heading out on an adventure together. Unfortunately we got to the edge of town when I realized that I forgotten to pack jeans...or really pants of any kind. Who forgets pants?? Does that sound familiar? I DO!! On a regular basis. This is the second trip that I have done that. I blame leggings. I had leggings on...in case you were worried...but due to the fact that I had leggings on (yes, leggings are pants in my book) packing other types of pants/jeans completely slipped my mind. I had my cute dress and boots packed for my show and my nighttime wear (wink) but I had clearly forgotten everything else. So we had to turn around and come back. After retrieving my necessary clothing, saying goodbye yet again to our children, and being mocked by my sister, we got back on the road.

There is something so joyous about bidding goodbye to the gray of Spokane and saying hello to all the greenery and milder climate of Oregon. Not to mention the beauty of the trip. Outstanding. The gorgeous Columbia River and all the waterfalls soothed my frazzled soul.

Multnomah Falls in one of my favorites. We love waterfalls. I think that after lakes they are my favorite part of nature. I grew up in the shadow of a huge one...Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon...and that was where Tyler and I met as well. Waterfalls are kind of our thing. Multnomah is pretty spectacular and it was Tyler's first time stopping at it. We jumped out and hiked around. I was stoked that the bridge had been repaired and was open to walk across again. It was closed due to rock damage last year. We ran around and took all kinds of nerdy pictures...see below...and had a great time. It was quite romantic. The lodge there is so pretty. I would love a house that looks just like that and that is situated right by a huge waterfall. Perfection.

Picture from the Multnomah Falls Lodge website

It started pouring rain but we didn't care a bit and I had the frizzy hair to prove it!

Then we headed up to the bridge...

The view was breath taking!

We also checked out this waterfall too...

Horsetail Falls

Isn't that one of the best sounds in the world? I'd love to come back, bring the kids, and hike to all of the many falls in the area. Gorgeous.

Then we headed on in to Portland. We were a few hours ahead of my mom so we had time to check out some sites in Portland, check into our hotel, and get ready for dinner. My cousin, Paul, is a chef at a FABULOUS restaurant in Beaverton called DeCarli. We had the culinary experience of our lives there last year and Tyler was eager to check it out. Paul was working that night so it was extra fun to see him in action and eat his creations. He sent out all kinds of amazing dishes to us. Again... unbelievable gastronomic experience. Tyler was blown away.

Tyler, Me, Paul's daughter Zoey, his wife Whitney, and my Mom...horrible picture quality but whatevs.

Me and Zoey doing our Oregon "duck faces"...ha ha! Zoey is the cutest thing ever!!

It was so fun to hang out with Whitney and Zoey and catch up on what has been going on since we last saw them in November at my Uncle Mike's funeral. I LOVED seeing Paul cheffing it up in the kitchen. He REALLY has such a cool job!! I love his passion for food and I love that he is doing what he loves to do in an amazingly trendy and fun restaurant. The place was packed full on a Thursday night and Paul said that it is full every night of the week. How awesome is that? If you are in Beaverton go eat at Decarli. You will LOVE IT!!

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, it was set-up for Junk Salvation. Set-up is always stressful, especially in a new venue. This was our first show in Oregon. We attended the show last year but just as customers to check out the show, and also to support our vendor friends who were there. So figuring out the loading and unloading...and all the arranging can be tricky. Plus, Stacey wasn't there to help. Anyway...it all got done. This show was fun because we could have Valentine decor, and even some Easter, in addition to all our regular merchandise. Here are some pics.

Remember that weird orange packing crate thing that Kirk and Tyler were working on over New Years?

Here's the finished product:

Our smaller and more mobile cash wrap. We have a big huge cool one made out of an old drafting desk on casters but we needed a smaller one to use at certain shows and this turned out fantastic.

After set-up we had an hour or two before the evening sale so we hustled back to our hotel to change and run back to the show. The show was fun and went until 9pm. By then we were absolutely exhausted. We found a quick place to grab some dinner before going back to our hotel. I love that Portland has so much to choose from...even when you just want something quick...there are a whole bunch of good fast-casual places to choose from. Spokane REALLY needs more places like that.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast on the run and had to be at the show by 9am. It was fun to be in a different area with a different vibe. Lots of Oregon vendors who were fun to meet, great customers, and interesting people. Tyler took off and spent the day with Paul and Whitney. He had a wonderful time with them and ate all kinds of amazing Vietnamese food. When the show was winding down they all came to see us. After tear down and the loading up of two trailers...in a complete down pour...we met up with them at a fun restaurant. We were absolute drowned rats but they were kind enough to be seen with us in public. It was so nice to be able to talk and laugh and cry. It was wonderful to be able to talk about my Uncle Mike and reminisce and reconnect. We missed seeing my cousin Wendy and her family. Unfortunately, they were all sick with colds and the flu. :(  We headed back to our hotel late that night only to find the hotel and parking lot bathed in abject darkness. It was pitch black. Apparently a tree had come down on some power lines causing a fire. The hotel was without power for over 12 hours. We were given two flashlights (Tyler grumpily declined the GLOWSTICK we were originally offered. Can you believe that?) and sent on our way. My mom's room was across the hall from us so we could find each other in the dark if need be. Luckily it wasn't too hot or too cold and it ended up being kind of a crazy adventure. The power came on sometime during the night and we were able to have hot water in the morning or that would have been a real problem!!

Before heading out of town we stopped at IKEA and loaded up with all kinds of fun things and food. Who can turn down Lingonberry juice on tap, Swedish pancakes, cream cakes, rye crisps and all kinds of good things?!

 Not this Scandinavian Boy!!

There were a few things that I couldn't turn down either...

I so wish there was an IKEA closer to me. My house has had a good sprucing up with all kinds of fun...yet cheap...new things. I love it.

Tyler and I also stopped at several places and we picked up some great pieces of furniture to redo for an absolute steal. There are definitely great buys to be had in Portland. We are already planning another buying trip in the spring before my biggest show of the year...FARM CHICKS.

On our way out of town we managed to hit one of my very favorite cafes. Cafe Yumm. They have amazing vegetarian food (and other non-vegetarian items). My friend, Janyse, got me addicted to Cafe Yumm and this sauce!! I am forever in her debt. Yet I cruelly texted her pictures of me eating it. Ha ha. Yumm sauce is out of this world delicious...kind of lemony, tahini-y, kind of nutty. Trust me. It's delish.

I love tempeh!!

We arrived home that night safe and sound to a spotlessly clean house (thanks guys!) and to cute kids. It was a great rejuvenating trip!! Now, when can I go on another one? :)