Ski BUNNY

Oh Brooke... How I wish I could be like you. And not care what I look like in front of other people! I love how you just live life exactly the way you want.

I love this picture! Makes me smile so big and love you even more for who you are!

Easter

I love coloring Easter eggs! I don't think I'll ever be too old for that!


I've been going through a lot of old pictures and found this one. I think it's awesome my mom has the same wire racks for drying eggs as we had 20 years ago...

Jordan got extra creative this year and painted his eggs.


I'm definitely not as creative and obsessed with perfection as I used to be. I was totally fine with dunking my eggs in one color and calling it good. Although my "lemon-lime" egg was my favorite this year.

Kaylee and Jordan posing next to their self portrait eggs :)

I am plenty old to find the eggs the "Easter Bunny" has hidden though. This year I requested that my eggs be pretty easy to find. Turned out, I had a lot more fun hunting eggs I could actually find.

Oh, he's just so handsome :)



One of my favorite eggs of Jordan's... Angry Birds :)

It's not Easter without a little snow on the ground! We had quite the blizzard a couple days before.

Holidays aren't quite the same without Brooke. When we were coloring eggs, Kaylee asked why she got all the broken eggs... She claimed it was because Brooke wasn't there. Too funny!

I love that Jordan and I still have the same Easter baskets we had as a kids. Best Arctic Circle kids meal toy ever...

We got so much candy! Mom likes to spoil us... I'm pretty excited for our Red Lobster gift cards. That was a new addition this year. The raspberry cheesecake cake pop and chocolate covered oreo were sooooo good! I have to really be in the mood for oreos, but it was delicious! Oreo covered in caramel, then in chocolate. Best thing ever! I'm ok with that tradition continuing mom! I'm gonna have to try to replicate them in the meantime.

Kaylee decided to "roast" her peep. Didn't turn out quite as good as she hoped... I love my family!

Rain, Wind, & Sunflower Seeds

Gotta love Softball season in Idaho! We really do enjoy watching Kaylee play. Even though this game has some of the craziest rules!



Day one: Using our umbrellas for intended purpose, rain sheilds.

Don't ya hate when you've eaten too many sunflower seeds and your tongue is raw... but you can't stop putting them in your mouth! Ian and I had fun seeing who could spit the shells the farthest. I still think I won. I got lucky...

Day two: Using our umbrellas to keep the sun off us. Idaho weather, you are crazy! The warmth was nice, but I didn't want to risk getting sunburned. No sunscreen and sitting in the sun for 3 hours, not a good combo.



The sun eventually went away and the wind decided to get out of control!

It was fun to watch Kaylee's one play of the game though!

Christmas 2011

Yes, I'm posting about Christmas at Easter... I don't want to make bows at the moment, so I guess I'll get caught up on Christmas. Then, I think I'll be done "catching up". I wanted to document our first Christmas in our first house though.

The days of going in to the woods trying to find the perfect Clark Griswold tree seem to be gone. Many memories of doing that over the years... Good and bad.

Ellen: Clark, Audrey's frozen from the waist down.
Clark: That's all part of the experience, honey.

I think I still get called Audrey from time to time... That's what happens when you watch Christmas Vacation every year! I may or may not be a complainer...

This year we passed up going to the charlie brown lot and went to an actual nursery to get our tree. They were practically the same price if not less expensive. (Well the ones in our price range anyways.) We had rows and rows of trees to pick from. The little guy was so helpful with all sorts of tips and tricks. And the best part... we were in an enclosed building and it was nice and warm. Best Christmas tree experience ever! I'm sold... I'll be going there from now on.
I love Poinsettas. I don't really know why. They scream "old lady" to me, but whatever. I wanted one, so Ian let me get one. Like he would tell me no... I don't know if he's ever told me no to anything I want. Love that guy!

Poor Ian, was still freezing from a long day of changing out all the basement windows.

Getting our tree at the nursery was the best thing ever! They cut the bottom, bagged it up, and even loaded it in the truck for us.

It was such a cute, perfect little tree. We had lots of fun picking it out.

We are still collecting ornaments... This year for my filler ornaments, I made glitter balls. The best part... the glitter is on the inside. No mess! I found the fun tutorial on pinterest. Totally loved the way the lady wrote the tutorial. I was laughing pretty hard.
Here's the tutorial if anyone is interested.


I had fun decorating my mantel. I realized my mantel is longer than I expected... The lit garland I got was 9' long and fit perfectly! I got some other things to make some cute Christmas wreaths, but those didn't happen. We'll shoot for next year....

We had our usual Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's house. Although for the first time in 20 years... we didn't have clam chowder in bread bowls for dinner! (Appetizers as dinner was still pretty tasty though. I'm just attached to tradition.)

Kind of a crazy family picture, but a family picture none the less. RIP Winston. I don't like animals, at all, but he was a good dog.

The main thing I got Ian this year was weights. I had so much fun loading them in to the shopping cart... then on to the checkout counter. I'm glad he's happy about them though. And his arms are getting nice and big like they were when I first met him. Mmmmm :)

And my favorite gift of the day had to be Kaylee's one piece pj suit. Fits her perfectly! :)

New Windows

We were able to put 9 new windows in back in December. Two in our bedroom and the rest in the basement. Dad and Ian spent 2 full days taking out the old ones and putting in the new ones. A small ledge of cement created a small problem... They were literally chipping away at the foundation with crowbars. Lots and lots of noise and pounding, but glad they were able to do it. It saved us lots of money in labor!



Somehow with all the pounding, the sprinkler system got turned on. Who knew we had one! Just watering the lawn in the middle of winter...



We still have a little work to finish all the edges, but figured we'd wait till it warmed up. We got the essential part done and passed the Hud inspection.



I love the new windows. Summer will be so nice when we can open the windows and have the shade of our trees! Can't wait!