My cousin Andra at her Bridal Shower. It was great fun to to have a girls night out and celebrate her upcoming marriage. I hardly see my cute cousin and I have so missed her. It's just like old times when I am with her. Mom, Sherrie and I spent the afternoon at IKEA before heading to the shower. It was wonderful to be with those two amazing ladies all day!
Happy Valentines Day, from Jorja. She drew all the pictures and helped me put them on the wall for everyone.
We had a little time to open gifts before I headed to work on Valentines day. I love seeing my girls smile!
Olivia got something to help with her multiplcation. She was super excited!
Jorja taking a random nap. She is too cute when she sleeps!
Josh and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary at the place we got married. It was wonderful to run away for the night and have dinner in the place it all started. Huntsville is lovely and we so love visiting Jackson Fork Inn.
A view of the drive home from Huntsville.
We arrived home from celebrating our anniversary just in time to attend my cousins wedding shin-dig. It was lovely to catch up with family and help celebrate Daryl and Andra's big day.
The cousins... Me, Andra and Marci... we all grew up very close and it was fun to be together again even for the afternoon. We are missing Shanna in this picture, she was there but we didn't get her photo before they had to leave. We are all close in age and it was so fun growing up with these amazing girls. We need to plan a girls night out just the four of us. It would be great to catch up again.
Andra, being Andra!
Dad and Sherrie looking lovely!
After Andra's wedding the kids and I had a busy weekend. We drove down to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Marshall. It was a wonderful visit and I was so happy to have them let us visit for the night, I know how much extra work it is to have us. It is always a joy to see them!
We decided when we got home to surprise Josh. He had driven to Montana for the weekend to visit his brother, Jared. On his way home, they were going to spend the night at his sisters house in Rexburg. So we drove to Rexburg, ID to meet up and spend the presidential holiday with the family. It was a lot of driving in a short weekend, but so worth is. I made it back to work just in the nick of time! Thanks to the Kelley clan for letting us invade!
The big thing for Girls Scouts this time of year is Girl Scout Cookies! They arrived on Feb 29th and Josh had to help us pick up two pallet fulls of cookies, about 1700 cookies in all. Olivia is showing off some of her 500 cookies that she sold. Thank you to everyone who bought cookies and helped our troop, Olivia get to camp and supporting Girls Scouts in general. We are very grateful!
March kicks off our delivery of all these cookies and cookie booths! So keep your eyes open for those Girl Scouts out delivering and selling cookies. Please remember us again next January when cookies pre-sale.
Jorja desperately wants to be like her big sister and they had to show off all the cookies!
Jorja almost likes the boxes more than the cookies... ALMOST!
Josh turned 30 this January 21st. We were happy to celebrate him, though he wanted to celebrate the beard. It was totally his idea and I had to finally cave, because it fit so well. This is what the invite said:
It’s
a “BYOB” Party!
“Bring
Your Own Beard”
So,
Lets Beard up and celebrate Josh!
He
and his Beard would like to have you join us
for
a celebration in honor of his 30 years.
When: On his
Beard-Day of course, January 21st, 2012
Time:
6:00 PM - till it’s over.
Real
or Fake, please join in the fun and arrive with your Beard.
Prizes will be awarded for some of the
most creative Beards.
A rustic Dutch oven dinner will be
served before
Josh and his Beard blow out the candles.
R.S.V.P. Beard
Regrets only please to Megan
Authors Note: No Beards were harmed in the making of
this invitation.
I am sad to say we could only invite people closest to Josh and not the WHOLE family. We have way too many wonderful people that love us! The party turned out very well and I am so happy everyone got involved! It turned out great, except for all the snow. Josh loved the snow, but it was bad for guests to drive it. I was down right surprised anyone came at all in the bad weather. Thank you to everyone who did brave the weather. We were so happy to have you visit for the evening and celebrate Josh's Beard Day!
We had a lot of fun just shopping for our beards and the girls had tons of fun helping plan the whole thing. We tried to keep it a rustic out doors theme since Josh is kind of a lumberjack. Jaye was very kind to supply the linc-n-logs for the kids to play with.
Jorja looked so mischievous to me and that fits her so well!
Please notice Josh's pride and joy in the back ground of Devin and
Brandy's amazing beards.
Josh said that Sean's cop stash counted. So as long as you had facial hair, it would still be alright if you came.
Josh wanted a picture of the group facial hair!
Olivia has decided I should be Dumbledoor for Halloween since I already have the beard. I just couldn't keep it behind my ears to stay on.
I won the award for the shaggiest beard, we made Josh pick the awards. I for sure deserved that one. I was shedding all over the place. I totally had a hairy chest when I took my beard off.
Mom for sure wins the award for most realistic! She was kinds of freaky as the bearded lady.
Dinner was mighty fine I must say! We cooked the dutch ovens in the garage door opening, barely away from all the snow. But, it worked great! Thanks Mom for helping me with the food, I never would have known how to season the roast that well.
James won the award for the longest beard!
This was supposed to be Atticus's beard, but due to weather they did not make it. Olivia sported the beard for a bit.
I hope your wish comes true my love!
The kids were my favorite! They were hysterical in their beards! I am so sad that I did not get all their pictures. So, if you happen to have pictures of the kids in their beards please email them to me. I want to scrapbook them all. I was too focused on making sure dinner was ready, I didn't get their pictures in time.
Just for Josh so he could have his cake AND ice cream! It has been tradition that his mom buy an ice cream cake but that is a tradition of the past due to his bowl issues.
We had a great evening! It is always wonderful to hang out with good company and I couldn't have pulled off such a party without you all.
Thank You for making it a wonderful Day for Josh!
Happy 30th Baby, I Love You!
Jorja playing with her Christmas gift from Santa. It's a cool game that she can run some energy off in the house and helping her with her letters and counting.
Olivia on her new scooter, just one problem. Her right foot began to hurt from using it more than the other.
January is Birthday Month for our family. It starts with Jaye and Olivia. Jaye turned four years old on the 3rd and Olivia turned 9 years old on the 10th. So we had a party in the middle for the both of them on Sunday the 8th. The family came out and we had a great shin-dig.
The kids eating dinner before cake and ice cream.
Jaye's Car cake and Olivia's sherry cake made by Andrea! Thanks Aunt Andrea it was so yummy!
Aunt Brandy brought the Balloons, of course she did! It's not a party without balloons!
A little down time, so we played pin the tail on the donkey. Too funny!
The whole gang showed up for cake and ice cream. We opened presents first of course. Jaye made out like a bandit and had way too much fun opening presents. Its so fun to see him center of attention, he is too funny!
On a plus side, Jorja didn't through a fit but was sad that their were no present for her to open. We had big talks earlier in the day to prepare her.
Uncle James gave Olivia this lovely gerber daisy to keep forever. Along with a gift cert to Barns& Noble.
Olivia's turn to open presents. She got this great book set from Grandpa Rod and Grandma Sherrie.
I loved Nancy Drew! I am excited for her to read them. She is almost through book one.
The slinky and head bad from Brandy and Devin totally rock!
She lovingly put all her jewelry away in this great jewelry box from Grandma Ginger.
She got a great new game from Blake and Linz friends Apples to Apples, Jr. Can't wait to try it out! Plus, some new bootie slippers and lip gloss from Linz Dad and Step mom. List goes on and on...Spoiled rotten! Thank you to everyone! You are all too generous and you can tell she is loved!
The Clan!
Singing Happy Birthday to Jaye and Olivia!
Hope all your Birthday Wishes come true!
The two four year old's playing with the balloons and blowers.
Two days later we had a family dinner and celebrated on Olivia's Birthday. I can hardly believe my girl is NINE! She is so grown up I can hardly stand it! So grown up... but so young still. The girls did a great job helping me make the pizza dough. Jorja had more fun playing in the flour while Olivia measured. Olivia gave me quite the scare after school on her birthday. She didn't come straight home from school and was twenty minute late. I was a nut driving to the school looking for her, calling the school. About to start knocking on every door to find her when she walked around the corner with the neighbor girl. Talk about heart failure! I am so happy to have my girl home safe and celebrating on her birthday.
Opening her cards from Great Grandma Taylor and Grandpa Steve and Grandma Glenda. She had just one small gift from Mom and Dad to open on her Birthday, a new recipe box for my baker girl.
Jaye, Atticus, Blake and Grandma Ginger joined us for dinner. It was so nice to have everyone over for the evening to help celebrate Olivia. Love you all!
Jorja insisted she had to wear The Birthday Hat! I like it!
Happy 9th Birthday Olivia!
I am so proud of the girl you are growing up to be. I love that you are awkward, smart, cute, sensitive, talented, unique, caring, brave, helpful, playful, hardworking and thoughtful. Keep being you!
I just pray... that you learn a little more common sense along the way.
