A look back at January

I hope to update this with more frequency so my posts aren't so heafty, but hey, I did it!

* We had our New Year's party at the Christensen's.  I got to do some decorating, which I loved!  I made this cool hanging thing, inspiration from PINTEREST of course!  I made it my own creation!  I'll explain more about that over at the craft blog!

The Chiapelli's and Shumway's also came.  The Showalter's and Bicshoff's ended up having sick kids, bummer!

We ate wonderful food and visited, played 'minute to win it' games, watched football, played spoons, ate more, then watched the ball drop with our gross pomegranite sparkling drink!  Thanks Shawn! 

Speaking of Shawn, he did some firecracker surprise for us for the new year.  Who has firecrackers?  Scared the pants off Tara when he lit them.

It was a great night full of laughs, glad to have friends to celebrate with.


* Owen started preschool (well, I was doing home preschool before, he started taking it at the community center), AND I did my first digital scrap page, acutally about that day. Still deciding if I like it...

* Fed the missionaries
* Met with a new bride and booked another wedding for September. I've had 4 bride inquiries for September 2012. Unfortunately 2 of the 4 were on days I already had booked, bummer. I acutally just heard from an additional bride yesterday, for August. Pretty cool!
* Did a newborn shoot and loved it.
*Watched these cute boys sleep. There have been a few times I've come back from the bus stop and the house is still quiet, shocker! I've been taking more photos = good!


* We took the kids to Falls View Splash park over MLK weekend. They loved it! M was in true form being all sneaky with them. He told them he had to draw assingments out of the bowl, they were things like 2 hours of homework, clean the basement, read for an hour, clean the toilet. They were pretty upset about their day off being filled with work, as you can clearly see by Q's face!
M made the switch while they weren't looking. The new papers said 'go to splash park'. It took a second for them to catch on, but they were pretty happy. We packed up right then and headed to Canada.

We had much fun, of course. I actaully bought a waterproof digital camera, but didn't buy batteries! Ended up getting a disposable one there. Need to finish the film and develop them.

Thought I'd lost E. Little turkey just took off and headed up this big water playground on his own. The kids loved the wave pool and all of them were great in the water. G and O went w/ M to do the arcades and fun house, loved it. G got a ton of prizes and O was very patient waiting for his turn. 

We got vouchers for the resteraunts in the hotel = super expensive, but last time we did it.  This time we ended up leaving, walking through the cold to check a couple of other places.  Ended up at gool ol' Wendy's. 

*M went back to C-ville to interview.
*Went rollerskating with Melissa.  Ended up having a great time!  Brought back many memories for me, still love it!  I was glad Melissa pushed for me to get skates.  I love that about her... who cares, I'm gonna skate!  I'm glad I followed.


*Q turned 9 years old.  Can't belive it!  We had a family party for her this year.  We actually watched the C kids for date night the night of her bday so they celbrated with us.  I made cookies and cream cupcakes, which I sent in to school that morning.  They turned out so yum, they are my favorite right now! 



*We got to go out the following night. That was nice. Dates w/ my man are good!
*Had dinner at the Damsteads house. They fed us delicious Chinese food. Really, it was so good! We enjoyed visiting with them, must do more together!
*Went to playgroup. I rarely go anymore, which is sort of dissapointing for my boys. I guess they don't know the difference, but they enjoy social time, should go more.

We went to the mall and played in the play place. I treated them to some lunch then we rode the carousel. They LOVED it! $2 is such a small price for such joy!


Love this shot of O, taken into the mirror.





*Lunched with the lady friends at Tara's this month. Ate yum panini and soup, enjoyed girl talk, let the boys play. Very fun!
*I have really enjoyed having some Saturdays with my family, it has been SO nice!
*We attended the Shumway's annual Chinese New Year party, again great food! I even tried a new recipe. We've decided it's a keeper, we really enjoyed it. It was wonderful, Megan does a great job making it so festive. We had to leave just as the party was getting started.

Syd watched the kids while M and I went to Eric Zappia's suprise party. Different since we didn't know anyone, but still good.

*Q attended her first after school AIS program. She hated the idea of going and wants to quit. Nope!

*Overall a great month. We've had very little snow. I've loved the couple of snowfalls we've had, so pretty. Crazy weather.