DMU Winter Gala

First of all I want to say that I have the best mom and mother-in-law in the world!  We were so excited to receive Valentines in the mail from Grandma Frost and Grandma Stewart.  Thanks so much for always thinking of us, we love getting your fun surprises in the mail.

I absolutely love these little jeans that Grandma sent, aren't they the cutest thing you've ever seen? 

Last night Colby and I went on a "hot date" to the DMU Winter Gala.  The Gala is an annual event put on by Des Moines University.  It is a fancy event held at the Conference center downtown, complete with fresh flowers, great food and a live band.  In short, it is the best time that $30,000 a year in tuition can buy.

 We started out the night by having our friends the Jolleys over for appetizers and sparkling apple juice.  After our "meal," we put the kids to bed and headed out for the night.  A huge "Thank You" to my wonderful friend Brittany for coming over to watch our kids so we could go to the dance and another "Thank You" to my kids for behaving for her.

You couldn't beat the live band, their sweet hats and the chick with the 80's hairstyle and long leather boots. This is not the best picture but I had to include it because they were one of the highlights of the night.

Colby and I posing for one of many pictures.

After a while, Colby thought he had taken enough pictures of us- so we started taking pictures of ourselves.  Me and Lisa Nance got this great self portrait after a few failed attempts.

Natali Jolley and I had a great time eating, socializing and trying to talk our husbands into dancing and introducing us to their "school friends."

Lisa, Heather and I getting ready to hit the dance floor.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the terrific food, the huge chocolate fountain, the beautiful flowers or the many girls in the too tight, too short dresses.  We had a great night, but will we make it to the Gala next year?  I don't know if they will admit anyone over 30, but we'll see.

I Heart February

Eight years ago today, I made the best decision I will ever make.  Colby and I were married in the Salt Lake temple.  

Eight years, three kids, six moves, two Bachelor's degrees, 3/4 of a doctorate degree, ten jobs, one dog, three dozen fish, one motorcycle, two mountain bikes, one truck, two cars and one mini-van later...

I couldn't be happier.  Happy Anniversary Babe.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's day.  I started out the day with a  5K race.

Brittany and I ran the Red Flannel Run, it was cold but we had a good time.

I came home to find the boys patiently waiting to open their Valentines.

They were excited to find new sunglasses and CHOCOLATE!

Our sweet little Abbi celebrated Valentine's day with her first cold.  She was still a pretty good baby!

We spent the evening with friends, pizza and more CHOCOLATE! What a perfect way to end a perfect day.   I hope you all had a great day as well.

Our week in review

This post is not thrilling, but for Grandparents who live too far away,  I like to post once a week. Here is a review of our last week of January. 

The Big Dig

As part of the Des Moines Winter games,  there was a "big dig" downtown.  We took the boys to the event, where they got to dig in big piles of snow for prizes.  It was a beautiful day and the boys had a blast.

Can you spy Carter?

Unfortunately my camera battery died right before the dig started,  but I did manage to get this cute pic with the Nance's girls.

Date Night

I realized recently that I am never in any pictures, so I took the camera on our date night last weekend and made everyone pose.

Jason and Colby deserve the "fathers of the year" award for pushing the strollers around the mall...

Then they saw Scheels and had to make a break for it, leaving the babies with their wives.

Tights

This week I also discovered how cute Abbi's little legs look in tights.

I just want to squeeze those chubby little thighs.

As we've read about in one of the boys' books,  Abbi has "A Bad Case of the Stripes."

Achilles Tendon Rupture

Last, but not least, Colby completed his case study presentation this week.  (which I was forbidden to attend because supposedly I  "wouldn't look like a student" with 3 kids with me.) I did get to see the practice run and it was great.  And honestly, one time viewing these slides was enough for me!

Sweet Success

I like to cook.  And I consider myself a decent cook, not a chef by any means, but I can hold my own.  However, there are a few dishes that I have never been able to get to turn out. Namely baked potatoes and cheesy brocolli soup. I know these aren't difficult dishes, but time after time I have attempted to prepare these and failed. (I mean failed miserably as in, "maybe we should order a pizza?")  Colby has continued to request these dishes claiming that cheesy brocolli soup is his "favorite." (although anyone who knows him very well knows that he loves about everything).  I am pleased to announce that after consulting four recipes in three different cookbooks (and taking a little advice from each one) I finally conquered cheesy brocolli soup.  The soup got rave reviews from all my boys (Colby claimed it was so good his "head was going to explode" and at one point said he felt like the guy on Ratatouille). The best part is, my kids actually ate brocolli (shhh, don't tell them).

While I was creating my culinary masterpiece, what do you suppose my boys were doing?

Playing lightsabers and jumping on the bed.  For those of you wondering what is going on with the goggles, I wondered the same thing.  When I asked them they said, "they are to protect our eyes from the lightsabers."  How perfectly logical.

Baby sis was just content to sit and watch.  She is such a good baby!

A name and a blessing

While we were in Utah we were able to have Abbi's baby blessing.  It was wonderful to be able to have our family and friends there with us.  Colby gave a beautiful blessing and afterwards we had a great lunch at Grandma Frost's house.  Thank you to everyone who made the day a special one.

We decided to dress Abbi up as a little 70's baby- 1979 to be exact.  She wore the same dress that I was blessed in 29 1/2 years ago. (until I'm 30 I will still admit to my age!)

Our little angel. Thank you to Uncle Daniel for taking the fantastic pictures of Abbi in her blessing dress, they turned out great!

Posing with Mom and Dad.

Abbi and Mommy.

Abbi with Great Grandma and Grandpa Cisney.

Grandma and Grandpa Stewart.

Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Frost.

Abbi with Mom and one of my best friends, Kami.

Abbi with Mom and Grandmas.

Sorry that my picture captions are so generic, it is hard to be creative with so many posed pictures of the same event!

Fabulous Five Day Weekend

Thanks to some extremely cold temperatures (negative 37 degrees!), teacher prep day, Martin Luther King day and an ambitious husband who finished his case study two days early; we all had a five day weekend.  We didn't do anything too exciting, but it was nice to just all be home together.  We hit the gym, went to a doctor's appointment, took the kids to the McDonald's playground, had some friends over for dinner and a game night, went to swimming lessons and church, built a snowman and even hit the clearance sale at Old Navy (I have to interject here that I consider myself the world's best bargain shopper.  I got a coat for $10 and jammies for Abbi for $1.74 a pair- sweet)

The boys all ready for church in their new sweaters (thanks Grandma!)

The only picture I took of our game night.  Abbi and her buddy Logan Campbell.

Two month shots!  Poor little girl, she was so sad.  She is still a little squirt, weighing in at 10 lbs 5 oz and 24 inches long.

Our family snowman (who was not built the day it was negative 37)

The boys helping Colby shovel the walk. (I thought it was cute, they got out their beach shovels to go out and help him with the snow.)

I hope you all enjoyed your "Martin Luther King day weekend" as much as we did.

Christmas Vacation 2008

After weeks of debating, checking weather.com on a daily basis and getting teared up whenever "I'll Be Home For Christmas" came on the radio, we decided to make the long trek to Utah for the holidays.  We traveled 17 hours across 3 state lines, through the smallest town in the U.S. and over the continental divide with three kids in tow (and that's a lot harder than over the river and through the woods), but we finally made it to Grandmother's house(s) and we were so glad that we did.  Here are the highlights (and probably way too many pictures, but I had a hard time narrowing it down.)

*New Christmas jammies*Early Christmas with the kids* Packing in a hurry*The Hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska*Doughnuts from Walmart*

*Hanging out with Grandpa* Playing Rockband *Meeting new cousins*Bandaids and Candy Canes from the information desk at the mall*

*Playing in the snow with cousins*A snowball fight with Dad and Uncle Scott*Homemade hot chocolate*

*Being held non-stop*Twilight*Classic family fun center*Costa Vida*Singing Bon Jovi on the Wii*

*Decorating Christmas cookies with Grandma*Shopping with 3 kids at Old Navy*Attempting to go to Quilted Bear with 5 kids*Family Pictures in the Snow*

Madagascar 2*Abbi's first Christmas morning*Christmas bread*Homemade Christmas candy*

Christmas dinner on the farm*Playing with 2nd cousins*Skiing*

*Girl's Night Out*Marley and Me*"Great" service at Z-tejas*Staying out until 2 am*

*Breakfast at Granny Annies*Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Cisney*Skiing again*Checkerboard gumdrops*X-box tournament*

*Riding Frontrunner*Racing Go Carts*Pedicures with the girls*Mamma Mia*Lunch with friends*

*Wrestling with cousins*Wingers*Playing in the snow again*Training Table*Playing "don't break the ice"*Seeing Crystal's cute pregnant belly*

*Going in Grandma's Attic*Chuck E Cheese*Going to Bedtime Stories*Red Robin*Abbi's baby blessing*(more pics to come!)

The Dark Knight on Blu Ray*The T-shirt game*Falling asleep at 11:45 on New Year's Eve*Trying to convince the boys to leave Utah and come back to Iowa (they had too much fun!)*

We had a great trip and can't wait to go back to Utah this Summer!

Two Months Old

It is hard to believe that Abbi is already two months old.  She is growing so fast!  She is such a good baby and we love having her in our family.  Here are a few of her most recent "tricks."

Sitting in the Bumbo chair that Santa brought for her.

Her first pigtails (barely!)

I know that everyone thinks this about their kids but seriously,  

have you ever seen such a cute baby?