Ambree . . .

Ambree got a hair cut! I cut Cade's hair, and then thought I would give Ambree a trim. Well, that trim turned into about 2 1/2 inches because I kept trying to straighten it out! I was a little sad, but figure it will grow back. It is still long enough to do most of the hair styles I do on her hair, and it will probably be nice for the summer! I don't have any before pictures because I wasn't planning on cutting so much off, but I thought her reaction was funny after she saw the hair on the ground, so I took a few pictures. She just stared at her hair and said, "What's that?" When I told her it was her hair, she was very fascinated and had to look at it up close! :)

While I am on the topic of Ambree's hair, I thought I would share some of the fun hair styles I have done with her hair in the past few months. She is at the stage where she really likes me to do her hair and then look at it in the mirror. She loves wearing bows and loves being "pretty" although we try to remind her often that it is her smile that makes her pretty, not just her bows! :) A few of these are originals, but most of them I have found on various hair blogs that I have links to on my blog if you are interested.

The Concert!

I have heard from more than one person that I haven't updated my blog for soooo long! I don't want to disappoint any more people, so here it goes . . .

Here are a few pics from the Rascal Flatts concert I went to a few weeks ago. The ticket was a birthday gift from my hubby . . . Remember?

The main man . . .

My sister Jenny was going to go with my sister Brittany and me, but couldn't go at the last minute, so my sister in law Bethany graciously took her place. Wasn't that nice of her? :) We had a lot of fun.

Bethany, Brittany, and Me

My little sis. and me

Thanks Craig and girls!We'll have to do it again soon! I know this wasn't the longest post ever, and there were no pics of the kids, but it is late, so I PROMISE I will post again soon. I bet you can't wait! :)

I can't believe I'm 30!

On Feb 16th I hit a big milestone in my life. I turned 30! My husband did such a good job at making my birthday special and memorable. He's the best. (I know I may be a little biased) :)

Craig was on call for work on Sunday, and got paged around 8:30pm. He said he had to go to his office for an emergency. This has happened a couple times in the past, so I didn't think anything of it. Well, around 10:00pm I heard the garage door opening and just figured Craig was home, but instead of Craig walking in the door, it was Janell (my best friend from California, who I have known since we were kids). I was so confused and shocked! Come to find out, Craig flew her out for my birthday as a surprise! Well, I definitely was surprised! :)

So, on my actual b-day, Craig told us to just go out and do whatever we wanted all day, until 6:00pm and he would take care of the kids! Uhh, ok, I'm not going to pass that up! So, we went and got pedicures, went out to lunch, went to a movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic . . . which we really liked), and we went shopping!

Here we are just before our girls day out . . .

Here we are with our baby girls . . .

While we were gone, not only did my husband take care of the kids (without ever turning on the TV) What!? He made three different types of cheese cake (my favorite dessert) from scratch and a choc. cake. He also made dinner which consisted of a big salad bar with all the fixings (my favorite food)! There was a bunch of family over to celebrate and I had a great time! What a sweet hubby I have!

The dinner spread . . .
He even typed up the salad options available . . . too cute . . .

The dessert spread . . .
My cute hubby and me . . .
Our little family. Ambree was mad because I made her take off her swimsuit for pictures. What a mean mommy!

After dinner and dessert, it was gift time. I received some jewelry, gift cards, money, books, a GPS system from my in laws (they know me well), and my hubby gave me Rascal Flatts tickets for me and my sisters, and he surprised me with a DVD he got professionally made with pictures of my life from my birth until now with sweet songs. I loved this song he had on it. I had never heard it before. So sweet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-Ff8us0Hg Now I need to plan something really good for his 30th. Any Ideas? Luckily I have a little over a year to plan (yes I am older than him) :) Anyway, all of the fun festivities made turning 30 more sweet than bitter! Thanks to all who helped in anyway!

On Valentine's Day . . .

We ate yummy heart shaped waffles with fruit and whip cream for breakfast . . .
We put up a few decorations . . .
Some were even homemade by the kids . . .
I did a cute "heart" hairstyle in Ambree's hair . . .

Craig got me some beautiful roses . . .

The kids and I got him a couple gifts . . .

And balloons . . .

The kids also made him cards . . .

Cupid left cute teddy bears and some candy for the kids . . .

We tried taking a few pics of the family . . .
And Craig and I got a babysitter, while we went out to dinner and watched a movie at home in peace and quiet! Although we didn't do anything too original or exciting, we spent quality time together and had a great day! Happy late love day to all!

On a lighter note . . .

This is what Cade does to play dough when I am upstairs doing other things, and not paying full attention. . . He mixed it all together and added water . . . fun to clean up!

And this is what Ambree does to my diaper bag when I am downstairs doing other things, and not paying full attention . . .

Do you think Ambree will forgive me for putting her in Hulk pull ups? Cade was done with them and I just couldn't let them go to waste! They worked just fine for their purpose. :) When I first put them on her she was a little confused and said, "This is Cade's". After I told her the Hulk was so cool, she looked down at him and said, "He is so cute". LOL.

Oh, and here are a couple ways to make food a little more fun for the kiddos . . .

Butterfly Sandwich . . . pretty self explanatory.

Snowman on a skewer (use pretzel sticks for arms . . . I didn't have any at the time). The hat is an apple piece and blueberries. The nose is a little sliver of a carrot and the eyes and buttons are chocolate chips.

Celebrating Kathy's life . . .

This past week has been filled with so many emotions. All week, I have been going back and forth from my home, to Orem, helping with funeral preparations, as much as possible with two kids. I have seen lots of family and friends that I haven't seen for a while, which has been fun. On Friday I helped decorate at the church for the funeral, I put a scrapbook together for people to sign at the funeral, I cleaned, I cooked, and we had a family get together with all of our family that was in town. We had a nice dinner and spent 2 1/2 hours just sharing memories about Kathy. We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we danced (some famous Kathy dances), we watched a DVD with pictures from Kathy's life, we stayed up way too late! I didn't get home until almost 1:30 am. Luckily my wonderful mother in law had my kids Friday and Saturday. On Saturday morning, we headed to Orem for the viewing. I thought I would be OK, since I had already seen Kathy's body the day before at the funeral home, but no such luck. I lost it the moment I saw her. I lost it when I watched the video at the viewing with footage of her singing, footage of her wedding, etc. At 10:00 we headed into the chapel for the funeral, and It was amazing. The overflow area had to be opened up to accommodate all the people. There were beautiful musical numbers, and the speakers were wonderful. Although it was a very emotional experience, the spirit was so strong, and I could have listened for hours more. I could definitely feel Kathy's presence, and I know she is at peace. I am so grateful for the gospel and the perspective it gives us on death, and what happens after death. I know that the teachings are true and that I will see Kathy again.

Here is a copy of the program (front) . . .
Back of the program . . .

Inside of the program (in case you weren't sure) . . . :)

A few pictures from the burial . . .

Me with my siblings. . .

Me with my cousins, Shanna and Lyndi . . .

Kathy's husband, Mike, saying his last goodbye . . .

Although Kathy will be missed by many, I know that we all feel very blessed for the time that we had to be with her here on earth. We love you!