I did it!

I cut (well, Debbie did) almost five inches from my hair tonight! Yay for me! For those that know me, this is a huge deal! lol



It's a bit of an a-line (Spencer took a picture of the back-though I see I was looking down too much for you to really see), and it took forever for her to thin out my hair since it's so thick, but I think I will like the change. It will be nice for summer, that's for sure.

I was considering highlights, but I haven't done any color or highlights for six years now, and I appreciate the fact I can continue to save my pennies by keeping it "oh natural" so it'll stay this way for a while longer. Well, until I start to go gray or white...which might be sooner than later since I've been pulling out the occasional white strand here and there lately. Darn genetics. My mom started going gray when she hit 30 too. Sigh. We'll see how much longer I can get away with doing nothing to my hair.






Aaron (who in general prefers longer hair) didn't say anything at first, just came to me and gave me a kiss...uh, I'll take that ;) (yes, he likes it).

"These is my words" by Nancy Turner

I finished this book last week. It was SO great, so great in fact that I have to give it a shout out here on my blog. I laughed out loud, cried a few times (okay, maybe even sobbed a bit)and fell in love with the characters. It took me a week to read it; and would have been much faster had I had no responsibilities (ie: kids) to tend to, I didn't want to put it down. I recently found out (thanks Em) it's the first book of a trilogy and I can't wait to get my hands on the other two in the series! I'll have to squeeze those two in-between my other current book club books. Ahhh, so many books, so little time!

Have you read "These is my words?" If not, borrow mine!!

beach bums.

How cute is this beach bum?



Just pulled away from the kiss I gave her. Stinker.





So besides being denied by my own darling daughter, this was a pretty perfect day at the beach last Thursday. Not a cloud in the sky...happy kids...and a happy mom! What could be better?

Okay, help me out: Family pictures!

Next week, we are going to Utah (yes, again, it's a long story) for a family reunion (of sorts) and it'll be the first time our entire family on my side (14 of us) will have been together in a long while, so we are doing family pictures up there.

What shall we all wear? What's your favorite color combo for a large family group? We are definitely doing dark jeans as we want a casual picture. The pictures will be taken outside at a park. Leda will most likely be in a dress, since she's the only girl and well, I'm taking advantage of that cuteness.

We don't want anything too matchy-matchy and we, as individual families, want to blend in with everyone else, oh and we want the adult women to look as skinny as possible and the kids to look their cutest. Not too much to ask, right?

Camille had the idea of browns and blues and we are considering that color scheme since that entire Bunker family photo (well, sans Camille, lol) turned out very nice. But any other ideas? If you've done something that works for you and your extended family, please do share!!! Pretty please?? I expect every lurker here to have SOME type of opinion on the matter ;)

Girls weekend in Seattle!

One of the many perks to marrying Aaron, was becoming part of his incredible family. I have been blessed with wonderful in-laws, who have welcomed me since the beginning 9 years ago. I really love them all.

So Lisa (Aarons older sister) works for Alaska airlines part-time (while still raising her five kids, and home-schooling them, and oh, did I mention that her husband is Bishop?-whew!) and she got us gals a discount on flights (thank you Lisa) so we could all meet up in Seattle last weekend!

We'd never done this before, and it was my first time to Seattle. I don't get to see my sister-in-laws often, and never without kids, so we took advantage of every opportunity and really crammed a lot into a three day weekend. We ate, and shopped, ate some more (Ivars clam chowder anyone?) saw some beautiful sites, saw an i-max, took some tours, laughed, stayed up til 1am most nights, ate, read books, had breakfast in bed, shopped, ate some more--even driving the streets of Seattle looking for a late night dessert snack. Such a fun memory. I hope we can make this an annual thing ;) thank you to our husbands who took off work to watch the kiddos so us girls could go play! There are 11 kids between the three of us girls, so thank you to our husbands who held down the forts at home!

The first day, it was bright blue skys and mid 70s. Just gorgeous. Good thing we had planned to do the Space Needle that day. The view was perfect up top.



The view from top of the Space Needle


The Marketplace



I got to hold a fish and wave at my kids via a live webcam. They thought that was SO cool. They even saw me kiss the fish (thanks to the guy standing next to me who shoved it in my face...didn't get that shot on camera)



Tulips are my favorite flower. Also my MILs favorite, so we visited the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon (an hour north of Seattle) held only once a year around this time. Oh my goodness, take your breath away gorgeous!






Lindsey (Aarons little sister), me,Lisa (big sister), and my mother-in-law, Shirley



Red tulips are my favorites...Aaron hardly bothers with roses. I've always thought tulips were more beautiful.



Can't leave out the daffodils! They were just as gorgeous. Seriously...fields everywhere!


Rainy day on the pier at sunset



The outlet stores did not dissapoint...



More shopping...



We all LOVE seafood and couldn't get enough! YUM!



Oh, and the tulip rows. Isn't that gorgeous?

Happy Birthday Emily part 2

Emily jokes that April is her birthday "season" so we crammed one more thing in to top of her "season"---dinner with the girls at California Pizza Kitchen. It's one of her favorite places to eat. We had a great time!







After hearing Summer rave about Sprinkles cupcakes, I bought a dozen to share at dinner. They were YUMMY!


After dinner a few of us decided to see what was playing at the local theater, and wouldn't you know it...the movie "Leatherheads" was just about to start! So after checking in at home and getting permission from our Moms ;) we caught the movie. When we got out of the show, the theater looked like it was closed. Seriously, there was no one around-not one employee! So Emily had fun playing, "May I take your order?" behind the counter. Good times!

Happy 31st Emily!

Emily Boyers birthday was yesterday, so I'm late getting this posted but only because I was out of town, so I have a good excuse!

We've been friends for just about twenty years. That's just craziness! How are we old enough to have been friends that long? We met in Jr. High, grew up in the same ward in church, went to High School together, seminary (most days, lol), did swim team, went to dances, and share so many wonderful memories. Too bad I wasn't a great picture taker back in the day...since I don't have many. Sigh. But these were a few fun ones I thought everyone would enjoy seeing--since so many of you know and love Em!

Thank you for your friendship, and I'm so glad we are lucky enough to live by each other during THIS phase in our lives. Who would have guessed we now get to share this time together having and raising children? You are one of my best friends--like a sister, really and I love you! And yes, Hilary (the one I wrote about a few posts ago) is in almost all of these too. The three of us just migrated towards one another back then! :)


Em and I goofing off in the car on the way to a Formal. Too funny. I love your face here Em, and that was my favorite dress you ever bought for a dance. It looked so great on you.

Prom our Senior year (1995)

I can't recall where this was taken, but I have written it was in 1994

Em came over to help me get ready for a dance that I was less than thrilled to be going to (despite the grin on my face). I was actually laughing here at Em's joke. She felt silly taking this picture with me since she wasn't dressed up, so grabbed one of my Teen magazines (lol) and pointed to a picture of this girl and said, "This is what I'd look like if I were going!" Emily always knows how to make people laugh.

This is classic. We ditched school this day for a few hours to drive to San Clemente High School so we could decorate Jeff Ginn's car to ask him to a girls choice winter formal dance. We had SO much fun this day, I totally remember it! Ahh, Em, look at my red Mercury Tracer in the background. I think I got in my first car accident later on that week. lol


Em,Hilary and I at the beach before we all left for college. Or maybe it was the winter break we were home from college? Either way...good times.

I love these two kiddos...

...especially on days like this when they aren't fighting.

Mighty Magic Minis!

We have a new love at our house:



Mini popsicles = less mess = happy Mom!





And Chase now squats down each time I take his picture. Why? Because he mimics me getting down to his level as I attempt to get a good shot. Smart cookie, eh?

Big girl bed!

Okay, so I realize that most kids transition to a toddler bed waay before now, but when you have three kids in 3.5 years, you tend to stick to things that work for YOU and you don't disrupt things if they are going well--especially if it involves sleep. And Leda (two months shy of turning three) has never given us an ounce of trouble about being in a crib-she's never tried climbing out, so like I said, it's just worked for us to keep her there!

Well, fast forward to when Mom is out of town, and Dad decides he's bored and wants to transform her crib to a toddler bed and give it a whirl. So he talked up the concept to Leda, even went out and bought her a princess pillow and TA DA! She's now in a big girl bed and LOVES it! It's funny though because she doesn't climb out of her bed by herself---ever. She says she's too scared to get out of bed without mommy or daddy's help (never mind it's like 2 inches off the ground) but hey, I'm not complaining. I'd rather her NOT know exactly how much power she now has!

Here she is the other night after I tucked her in...complete with a wave as I left her room. So funny that girl!

My Utah trip...

I'm back and had a great time, though it was hard to leave. I was excited to see my family of course, but I left behind in Utah--my best friend, and cutest new nephew. It's hard having Carrie be in Utah. It's been two years, and I'm still not used to it. We talk just about 2-3 times a day (thank you free long-distance), but it's not the same when you can't run over to her house whenever you want. But enough of that. We had a great time. I think I was a help to Carrie, even though she had meals brought in two nights I was there and I played a lot. She has such great friends there in her ward that take good care of her.



The first day we went on her first postpartum outing to Costa Vida for lunch (um, sweet pork anyone? YUM!!!!) and I kept her out too long and Gabe screamed the whole way home because he was hungry. Ya, I felt bad about that one. But the rest of the days were uneventful. He is such a sweet baby, and has the calmest disposition. We are so encouraged over this since my sisters other two boys cried all the live long day when they were babies. Gabe is such a sweetheart, and is SO tiny. His features are so petite and his is just too darling for words. He loves his Aunt Marcy because he smiled at me when I told him goodbye (alright, he was asleep, but whatever...) and I'm so glad I got to go.



I was able to get some shopping in, a few naps, I got 300 pages into my 1000 page book, had lunch with my Grandma Joy and cousins, took McKay to see a $1 movie, learned how to help an 8 year old with 2nd grade homework, got him up for school and made him breakfast each morning, ran into the school with wet hair to deliver him much needed library books, ate at Kneaders and Costa Vida more than once, made pizookies, watched a lot of the show "10 years younger" on TLC with Carrie and my most memorable: early Sunday morning for two hours while the rest of the house slept, I got to cuddle up with a newborn, a blanket and my book in a big cozy chair in their front room (with a huge bay window) and occasionally looked up to watch the snow fall. I couldn't believe it was snowing. I woke up to a winter-wonderland in March and so enjoyed the beauty of that morning with Gabe. Corny, but true. It was such a great morning.




Thank you so much to my husband Aaron. Seriously. You know when you get married you assume the person you are marrying will be a good father, but you never really know until he jumps into the role. And Aaron jumped into the roll and ran with it. He's so hands on, I can leave the house with no instruction and the kids are taken care of. I'm so grateful to him for taking off a few days so I could go. Man, do I love him.




Before I left, I was looking forward to a break from the chaos that can be my life at times, but I found myself missing those people who cause the chaos ;) so I'm very glad to be home. Chase has not stopped saying, "Momma, Momma" all day long (seriously, it's borderline annoying) Spencer said he likes to be home with me more than Dad (hee hee) and when Leda woke up this morning she said, "Mom, I just LOVE you and rubbed my back as we hugged. These things melt me. Just melt me. I'm so grateful for my family.