Birthday! Birthday! Who had a birthday?

I DID!!

And it was fantastic.  When birthdays are on Monday that means you get to spend the whole weekend partying:)  Targhee took me out to dinner Friday night to an "authentic" Italian restaraunt called Zucca's.  It had gotten the best resaurant of Northern Utah award so I wanted to try it.  I'm sorry to say I was disappointed.  I guess I'm not a true Italian because the food didn't hit my "oh yummy" spot and and service was less than par.  My water cup never got filled, our bread was burnt on the bottom, and we didn't get our main dish for over an hour which means we missed our reservations for a play at a local playhouse, and my desert wasn't even sweet!  Who wants a nonsweet desert for their birthday?  Not me!  But, in comparison to the food my company was wonderful.   I always love spending a night out just Targhee and me every once in a while. 

My sister and her husband came in from Sacramento for the weekend which made it even more wonderful.  And on top of all that, she came with news....she's pregnant!  Whoo hoo:)  We're so excited for her. 

I went over to my parents on Saturday and we all played games and then went to eat at Cafe Rio. Then later that night they came to my house for even more games.  Ya we know how to have fun!

Sunday was the BIG family party where me and my brother in law, Aaron, have shared our birthdays for many many years.  Natalie and Tif and their families came to my parents and we played MORE games and had yummy lemon poppyseed cake. Mmmm! 

Monday I of course had to go to school but when I got home Targhee suprised me with presents and more sweet deserts (which don't count on birthdays). 

Please excuse the mop on top of my head.  My hair was all curly and cute that morning but it was snowing pretty bad up on campas and I got caught without a hood or umbrella.  So this is what you get.

 Later that night we all went to the Brick Oven (yes my weekend was filled with lots of food.  My family knows the way to my heart) 

Leilani was so saturated with sugar from the weekend's events she was beyond hyper Monday night, but because of her excessive energy she did  THIS!

Anyway, my 25th year started off pretty good so hopefully that's a foreshadowing for the next 12 months. 

Thanks everyone for making it a great day!

Free? I'm totally there!

I used to work in the fabric department of a craft store and fell in love with minki while I was there, so if I get to get a free minki blanket, I post this:)

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year.  I think holidays have cycles.  When you are a kid holidays are magical and looked forward to with endless excitement, but the older you get the more the excitement lessens.  And then as a missionary the holidays are like, "Huh?  Today's the Fourth of July?  Ya missed that!"  BUT then you get to have your own kids and the holidays start to be exciting again.

We decided to be the Flinstones this year simply because of this...

How could I pass up such an opportunity?

I made a simple little costume from my mom's scaps and searched all of Ogden for a bone, finally finding the perfect one at Fun Daze.  Frew! 

We got our money's worth out of the costume (which ended up being a grand total of $2 for the bone:) because pebbles got to dress up FIVE times.  That's right!  We were party animals this year.  Last Friday my friend Sierra had a dinner party, then Tuesday our ward had their Trunk or Treat, Wednesday RC Willey (Targhee's work) had their Trunk of Treat, Friday my Mom had her Halloween party and my friend Michelle had her party, and finally Saturday was Targhee's parent's Trunk or Treat.  If I had taken full advantage of the candy offered we could have been set for a year!  But, I decided it was best to be comsumed by other children whose metabolism is much better than mine:)

Here are some pictures of our Halloween fun

 

Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles Flintstone



 Pumpkin Carving.  Can you guess which one belongs to who?





My Mom's party complete with dracula fangs, zombie eyeballs, and a triffle with death



Playing Minute to Win it at Michelle's party





Leilani got a little too into her oreo




Cousins, Kopper as Spiderman and Gaige as Bateman

At 9 months

I can't believe how fast babies change.  You wouldn't think there would be a lot of difference in just two months, but she just keeps getting bigger and cuter each day. Here are some of her latest... 

• plays pattie-cake and claps every time you say "yeah!"
• Throws hands in the air when you say "BIG Girl!" or "TOSS it in the oven"
• Says, "Da Da," "Ma Ma," "ba ba," "Hi" and "Mooo"
• Waves bye-bye
• Will eat an entire banana if I let her
• has two bottom teeth
• Can let go and stand on her own for a few seconds
• takes two, 2 hour naps and still sleeps through the night!  (that's my girl:)
• weighs 17.5 lbs (25%)
• 28 inches tall (70%)
• TERRIFIED of the vacuum
• Hates getting dressed
• loves splashing in the bathtub
• favorite place to play... the couch
• loves story time and to turn the pages of the book 

 9 months birthday = new toy!

Cheerleader for her cousin's football game

 playing at the park

 Our little copy cat

 Can't get enough!

Halloween Wreath

 My friend Brittany and I made these adorable candy corn wreaths last week.  We got the idea from my favorite website, of course:) She has a tutorial on the site.  I added the little sign.  Painted it myself.  I'm getting so into this crafty thing you should just call me Martha.

I love the Fall right now.  It's still warm but the leaves are changing.  So enjoy it while it lasts!  Let the Holiday seasons begin!

After 6th months of wishing

 I was introduced to this website (http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/) about six months ago and have wanted to do this project ever since.  Because of other priorities and obligations I didn't get to it as fast as I wanted to, BUT I finally finished it!   

My dad has stacks of unused scraps of wood tucked in his garage and I asked if I could sift through them to find a piece to paint.  I found the perfect one and had him cut it into three equal peices.  I primed them, picked out the colors I wanted to match my bedroom, and used the template from the website and a projector to trace the image on the boards. 

I couldn't get a very good "whole" view of my bedroom and I'm not quite finished decorating the room the way I would like it, so here are the important pieces.  I made the curtains when we first moved into our apartment and then when I saw this project on the website I new I had to make it. The pattern is almost identical to the fabric in my curtains!  The best part is, the whole thing cost be about 6 bucks!  All I did was buy the sample sized paint from Lowes and a paint brush.  The rest was FREE:)  You could probably pay hundreds of dollars for something like that in a home decor store, so I'm pretty pleased:)  

Bring on the projects! 

Precious Moments

Tonight I have to share a precious moment with my sweet Leilani.  Leilani is a busy wiggly little girl, always on the go ready for the next event so these moments don't come to me very often (especially the last few weeks since she's been starting to get teeth- one is just barely starting to pop out).  Usually when I give her a bottle right before bedtime she falls right to sleep and I slip her into bed with her unconscious, but tonight she didn't fall asleep.  After she finished her bottle she just laid there in my lap.  She smiled at me and let me talk to her and play with her, but she didn't try to push me away or get up, she just laid there.  After a while she got this tired little giggle that just melted my heart.  We sat there together for almost 15 minutes!!!  And then she sweetly put her head on my shoulder while I sang to her and put her to bed, which she did without a complaint.  It's moments like those that make being a Mom worth every minute.  AND it's moments like those I need to remember during the other not so sweet moments:)  Thank you, Leilani.  I Love You!

Amnesty

Amnesty- an act granting a pardon to a group of individuals

Now I am not one who gets involved with politics.  I don't even watch the news or read the newspaper because of how depressing they are.  Nor do I understand politics (who does?)  But I do know right from wrong and I can say whole heartedly that this is WRONG!!  And sadly, we know that it will only get worse.  But as the Lord reminds us over and over in these times,
"Turn to me with all your heart" Joel 2:12. 
"Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice" Joel 2:21.

"He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and he will turn away the evil from you" Joel 2:13. 

Targhee's Birthday Extravaganza!

Can you believe it? Targhee is half the way over the hill!!! Every year, the number just sounds older and older, and 25 is defininetly one of those older sounding ones! I must say that he is aging quite well, though:)
He has been an amazing husband and father and I wanted to do something for him that would make him feel as loved as Leilani and I feel for him. So since his birthday was on a dull, yucky Monday filled with work and school, we had to make it an all weekend celebration. Friday night we went out to eat with his family and my parents at La Ferrovia. One of our favorite restaraunts. If you've never been to this quaint 25th street Italiana treat, you are definitely missing out on one of the only good things Ogden has to offer. We enjoyed visiting with our family and Leilani got to experience her first lemon!!

If you look closely you can see the pain in her eyebrows, and yet she kept going back for more. It was hillarious.

Saturday, Leilani and I decorated the house (Leilani was SO much help) wrapped some presents and made Targhee a cake. When he got home from work we gave him a card with tickets to the State Fair. There, we saw a hypnotist, paid way too much for a plate of Panda Express, saw Moooo cows, Baah sheep, Cockadoodledo chickens and roosters, hog races, and even some seals! (a little out of place amongst the farm animals, but cute little performers).

Leilani did so well the whole night but was exhausted by the time we left.

After we got home we had a rip roaring game of scrabble.

Sunday, Leilani wore a special birthday outfit for Daddy. It was the very first outfit we bought for her after we found out we were having a girl. Targhee picked it out and I remember thinking it was so tiny, but we've had to wait until she was 8 months old to wear it and it was still a little big:)

Sunday night we had a roast beef dinner and cake and icecream at my parent's home. I made the cake. It didn't turn out too bad for a first timer:)

Monday it was finally time for presents!!

Happy 25th Birthday Targhee! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Family Outing

Friday night bowling!!