On flowers, chocolates and formal dances...

I am a typical girl. I like flowers, chocolates, love songs, chick flicks, formal dances and figure skating. Colby is a typical guy. He does not. But, he is a great guy and he humors me. He sends me flowers, even though "they are a waste of money and they just die." He lets me have first pick at the box of chocolates and doesn't complain when I take one bite, decide I don't like it, and give it to him. He listens to love songs and watches chick flicks with me, even though he knows I am just going to cry at the end. And for the past three years, Colby has taken me to the Winter formal at his school (yes, we are 30 years old and still going to school dances). This year, we talked our friends the Campbell's into going with us and we had a great time.

Megan, Aupreille and I at the Gala.

Megan and Jason Campbell .

I couldn't resist posing in front of this backdrop. Again.

Now if I could just talk Colby into watching some Olympic figure skating with me...

L.O.V.E.

Nine years ago, on a cold day in February I married my best friend.

Today, I couldn't be happier.

Life just keeps getting better.

Sixteen years ago, on a hot day in July, I never would have guessed that I would end up spending my life with this cute guy. (This is obviously pre-growth spurt. Don't you love the hair?)

I also LOVE that our anniversary is so close to Valentine's day. This year we celebrated with balloons, creme brule french toast, and church that was cancelled due to the weather. (although on a side note, we didn't get the message and we went anyways!)

One of my many "valentines," I love this little girl!

We hope your week has also been filled with L.O.V.E.

Fifteen Months!

Our little Abigail is now fifteen months old. Wow, time flies. It is hard to believe that our little baby is "so big."

We love the games she plays (like pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo),

and her big, cheesy smile.

But we're always on the look out for "hurricaine Abbi" that hits our kitchen every night about the time I am trying to make dinner.

With all the trouble she causes, it's a good thing she's so cute!

At 15 months Abbi's interests include:

Shoes, especially her new "sparkly" shoes.

(when I first bought these she insisted on wearing them all day, even after I put her jammies on)

Baby dolls,

and books.

We love you Abbi!

I "heart" February

I always look forward to February. Maybe because it means the end of my least favorite month of the year, maybe because it means it is Valentines day and our anniversary, maybe because it is one month closer to Spring. I Love February for many, many reasons. This year, I love February most for ONE reason. So far, February has been really, very, perfectly ordinary....

And after the past eight months, perfectly ordinary is absolutely perfect.

Opposition in all things

Yesterday we had one of "those days." It had all the makings of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. We had an ice storm, school cancellations, diarrhea, a bloody nose, a leaky roof, temper tantrums, spilled milk, a broken printer, missed naps, fighting children, a malfunctioning blue tooth, and more... at the end of the day I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, and incidentally it looked like a truck had driven right through our living room. After cleaning up the house and getting a good nights sleep, I was feeling a little better about things this morning. As I was scraping the half inch of ice off my car, this scripture came to mind, "for it must needs be that there be an opposition in all things." That's it. This is my opposition.

Although at times I feel sorry for myself and think I should be the poster child for "trials and tribulations," I really don't have it that bad. I have electricity (which many Iowans are without today), a healthy family (other than the diarrhea), and three cute little smiling faces to brighten my days. And when life gets back to "normal," I know I will appreciate it so much more than I usually do.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is some serious ice!

Just like Grandma Frost, this is why I had kids.

I have much to be grateful for and tomorrow is a new day (hopefully one without ice storms). What more could I ask for?

Fun Food

My kids are not the best eaters, or maybe I should say they are very selective about what they will eat. Ammon will eat large quantities of yogurt, or just about any kind of fruit. Carter loves peanut butter and can eat a plate full of cooked carrots. And Abbi will eat just about anything, as long as it is on my plate and she is feeding it to herself. But take your run-of-the-mill dinner item and they generally aren't interested in it. Every night it is a fight to get my kids to eat their dinner, and from the minute they sit down they ask me, "how many bites do I have to take?" How many bites?? Well it would be nice if you'd eat the whole darn thing, or at least eat until you are full. This dinner time predicament has proved to be even more of a problem the last five months as I've been trying to do it by myself. Picture me holding Abbi on my lap while she eats my food and I spoon feed vegetables to Ammon (which he immediately gags on and runs to spit them out in the garbage can) meanwhile, I tell Carter he needs to eat his chicken and he replies, "no thanks, Mom" and I have to explain to him that this isn't really a "no thanks" kind of situation. After we survive dinner and I manage to get the dishes done one-handed and the kitchen is finally clean, Carter comes back into the kitchen and says, "mom, I'm hungry" to which I reply, "well, you should have eaten your dinner." I spend the rest of the night hearing about how hungry he is because there is NO WAY I am giving him anything else to eat. Then we repeat it all the next night. Needless to say, I am getting tired of preparing meals that NO ONE eats. Lately, I have decided to try a new strategy. First, I am making more "kid friendly" meals (even if it means that I have to eat Mac and Cheese for dinner) and second, I am trying to disguise the food as something fun. You know what? It is working. Tonight the boys ate my "hot dog men" without even complaining and Carter even told me, "yow the best mom evow." I hope he still thinks that when Colby gets home in a couple of weeks and I start making him eat brocolli again. Until then, I think I'm going to stick with the FUN FOOD.

Hot dog men with cheese heads, ketchup hair and what is supposed to be a pasta tree.

It's amazing that when I tell the boys we're having sloppy joes I hear, "I hate sloppy joes." But tell them we are having "lion face sandwiches" and I got two thumbs up.

Sea creatures. These were such a hit we've had them a couple of times.

Pig cookies. Not that my kids needed any persuasion to eat their cookies, but I made these a while back for a ward party and thought they were fun enough to include in my fun food post.

I am still working on ways to convince my kids to eat vegetables. I checked out deceptively delicious, thinking it would revolutionize the way my kids ate dinner, but I ended up just throwing out frozen bags of pureed cauliflower a couple of weeks later. Any suggestions?

Karate Kids

Ammon and Carter recently earned their first belts in Tae Kwon Do. I was very proud of them for working so hard toward this achievement. When Carter was presented with his white belt/yellow stripe he got to show everyone his favorite move, the double motion. Ammon earned his yellow belt and got to give a speech. I was beaming when his sweet little speech started with, "I'd like to thank my mom..." The boys were so excited to wear their belts for the first time and they are already talking about earning the next ones.

Ammon must really like this pose, he did it every time I asked him to show me his "moves."

You don't want to mess with this one, he may look sweet but he has some serious ninja moves.

Abbi had to get in on the action. When I was taking pictures of the boys I told them to stand by the wall and say "cheese." After I finished taking Carter's picture, Abbi went and stood where he had been standing, looked at me and said, "cheese."

You know it's cold outside when...

There is ice on the inside of your windows..

Abbi is still getting her groove on despite the cold weather. I guess this little native Iowan was born for subzero temps.

A Holly, Jolly Christmas

This year, for the first time, we stayed home for Christmas. Although we missed seeing our families, it was amazing how nice it was for ALL of us to just be home together. We had so much fun doing simple, day to day things like having dinner together, reading stories, putting kids to bed, playing X-box, watching TV, and renting movies. After spending months apart, it was so nice to finally have our WHOLE family together. We enjoyed every minute of our TEN DAYS of Christmas vacation and made the most of our time together.

The kids were so excited to open their one present on Christmas Eve, and loved their new, comfy jammies.

On Christmas Eve, our friends the Taylor's invited us over for a wonderful dinner. The kids had a great time playing shepards in the nativity.

Abbi's costume lasted about 30 seconds, just long enough to snap this picture...

and make her hair look crazy.

We were all smiles on Christmas morning. Santa, Grandma Stewart and Grandma Frost all sent us LOTS of presents to open.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out at home. It's a good thing the boys had lots of "buddies" to join them.

We checked out the new Incredible Pizza company, and ALL of my boys had a blast.

The glow in the dark mini-golf course was especially fun.

Abbi even got her own golf club!

I guess all good things must come to an end. Tonight we had to take Colby back to the airport, again. There wasn't a dry eye in the car when we dropped him off. The good news is this is the LAST month that he will be gone. We are all looking forward to February!

Christmas Surprise

Santa didn't bring my Christmas present this year, American Airlines did. He arrived this afternoon (a day and a half earlier than expected!) Isn't he cute??

Best present ever.

My "little girl"

At church today when I was chasing Abbi around the halls an older woman said to me, "Oh, you have such a cute little girl." At first I didn't think she was talking to me, or talking about Abbi. Because she's not a little girl, she's my BABY. Once I realized that she was talking to me, I thanked her, then I looked at Abbi and thought, "she's right, she does look like a little girl." As hard as it is for me, my baby girl is turning into more of a toddler; playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake, having a preference about what I feed her for lunch, fighting back when her brothers tackler her, discovering that her brothers think it is hilarious when she throws her macaroni and cheese at them or dumps her entire bowl of cereal off the high chair. The sad truth is, my babies just don't stay babies for long enough, Abbi included. As if it wasn't hard enough to have Abbi constantly growing, the boys are growing up too! Today Ammon gave the talk in primary without any help. I was so proud of him. He stood up in front of the primary and showed the right pictures while he read the words I had helped him tape on the back of the pictures. It was so fun to see him do it on his own, but part of me wished I was up there whispering the words in his ear like I did when he was a Sunbeam. The good news is, I am having so much FUN with my kids (most of the time!), but sometimes I wish I could just freeze time and keep them little for a little while longer.

My little girl, looking so grown up!

Hiding the ornament from me that she has just pulled off the Christmas tree.

I love this picture because the kids are actually all looking at the camera and Ammon is showing his teeth. (Since he has gotten his BIG, crooked, permanant teeth in he usually smiles with his mouth closed. I personally think they are adorable.)

Why is it that kids always look so adorable when they are bundled up? I love it.