My Funny Valentine

Bry had his 30th birthday right before Valentine's Day.  It was a strangely emotional day for me.  Each year I can't imagine my love growing for this guy who's a TOTAL clutter-bug, who INSISTS on being 20 minutes early for everything, and who would buy ANOTHER wallet for himself in a flash, not because he needs one, but because it's 65% off!!! (and then store it away in a closet for years so he has a fresh supply, just in case) 

Maybe love has little to do with two model-looking people getting together and living a perfect, lavish life.  Maybe it's about a man and woman CHOOSING to devote themselves to each other because no one else would put up with them!  (I know my wisdom is astounding;)

I DO completely and utterly adore this dude- faults and all.  We have worked so hard to build a partnership, friendship, and love that I'm truly proud of.  He is a remarkable man who I TOTALLY don't deserve.  But, best of all-  he makes me laugh more than anyone else in the world.  I'm so lucky to have you Bry.

Baby Minnie Mouse is 4!

I lied- it's ACTUALLY Ivy who is now 4 years old, but as she INSISTS we all call her Baby Minnie Mouse at the moment, it's easy to get confused around here. 

All I can say is: I LOVE FOUR!!!  If twos are terrible, threes are thorny, (okay... maybe that's a stretch, YOU think of an adjective for a difficult three year old that begins with TH!) fours are just plain fab.  Full of love, helpful, fun-loving, curious, tender-hearted, self-sufficient, imaginative, sensible- just delightful.

On her birthday she woke up to princess balloons, streamers, and other assorted girly decorations.

 

Don't you just love the delight in her face?



We used my Sister-in-Law Kim's recipe to make some crazy good cupcakes. 
(Just stab a regular yellow cake with a fork like crazy, pour jello over the top and chill, top with whipped cream and raspberries- YUM)



Her very first doll house.



It was a wonderful day to celebrate our Ivy girl.

Here's her official Four Year Old List:

Favorite color: "rainbow...with pink and purple stripes"
Favorite activity: "playing doll house with daddy"
Not-so-favorite activity:  "sitting on the naughty spot"
Favorite food:  "waffles"
Least favorite food: "a dead turkey and cat"
Favorite show:  "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"
Biggest Fear: "monsters and giants"
Favorite toy:  "dolls"
Favorite animal: "cats"


 

Ivy is an amazing big sis.  Both Hyrum and Ivy are so sweet with Delia (sometimes I'm afraid they spoil her too much)  This picture was taken right before DeeDee kissed Ivy.  I just love the anticipation on her face.

Ivy loves playing "mommy" all day.  She's very rarely seen without some sort of baby in her arms.

She is super fun-loving and loves to laugh.  Listening to her full-out belly laugh is one of my very favorite things in the entire UNIVERSE.

She is 100% Daddy's girl.  She asks the very same question EVERY SINGLE DAY before she says anything else: "Where's daddy?"

I love how this pic shows off her darling freckles and stunning eyes.

We're so very privileged to have this darling child in our family.  I don't know if she chose us, if we chose her, or it was just the luck of the draw, but however she made it into our family-I'm so grateful to our Heavenly Father for our Ivy June. 

Forgotten Santa

Hyrum's Christmas exuberance was so fun this year.  He was super excited to tell anyone and everyone his birthday was on Christmas day and they were welcome to give him a gift.  This extra holiday spirit resulted in an abundance of Christmas-themed pictures.  This one was one of my favorites and was tossed in my ever expanding pile of important papers to look at one day.  Luckily, it was saved and now can be documented for the world to enjoy: 

Santa... with pockets.

A Christmas and a Birthday

We had another low-key holiday, but sweet none-the-less.  

We had to continue our gingerbread decorating tradition.



Cute little pizza face kisses!



Instead of having a big tree with presents underneath, we had two mini trees on a table with presents in the pacn'play.  Kinda sad, but it saved my sanity this year.

We have very mis-matched, random decorations, but each item reminds us of specific memories and phases in our lives, so I wouldn't have it any other way (until we can afford to buy new stuff in 50 years:)

Awww... a Santa photo without a screaming kid in it...
just wait a few minutes...





On the first day of winter we celebrated by creating our own snow flakes since we don't have our own here.  (I totally missed not having snow!)

 On Christmas Eve, after dinner and reading the Nativity, we opened family presents and played until bedtime.

On Christmas morning the kids opened their presents from Santa, we ate breakfast and rushed to early church. 

Finally, in the afternoon, (after some much needed naps) we celebrated Hyrum's Birthday! 

Hyrum decorated his own cake with an elaborate scene from Star Wars (you'll have to ask him what's going on, 'cuz I can't remember all the names)

We are so lucky to have this boy in our family. 
He watches out for all of us and is so kind-hearted and helpful.

(Bry did the cool decorations)
He loves to make us laugh and gets so sad and frustrated when he slips up and misbehaves.



He is very smart and hard-working (when he's interested in the subject matter)

He has captured the hearts of his teachers at school, church, and many neighbors. 

They constantly compliment him and tell us how sweet he is.

But, best of all he's an amazing big brother and gives love to everyone around him.
We love you Buddy!

The Lost Pictures

I SWORE we took pictures of Delia's birthday, but couldn't find them when I posted.  They just turned up magically the other day.  Here they are!

Thanks so much to those who gave her cute clothes, toys, books, and money!  We are so very grateful!

DeeDee is 1!

The best word I can use to describe our little baby girl is DELICIOUS.  I know, that's kind of weird, but it's just what it is. She's so beautiful, and cute, and funny, and cheerful, and sweet, and lovely- such a perfect little gift.


She giggles when we play, sing, read books, when we feed her, when her diaper change is FINALLY over, when we come in to get her after a nap, and when she thinks something is funny and wants everyone else to laugh. The rest of the time, she's usually screaming, which, crazily enough makes her even more lovable. We love our feisty girls in this house.

I had to include a crazy hair collage.

This is Bryan when he was a baby (a little older than one, but he looks so much like Delia in this one, I had to post it.)  Ivy was looking at this picture with Bryan and she asked, "Who is that?"  Bryan replied, "It's me when I was a baby."  Ivy inquired back, "When you were a girl?"

This is me on my first birthday.  (I love the retro high chair)

Here's Hyrum at his first b-day

And Ivy too!

  
Our darling Delia adds such a sweet spirit to our home, we're such a lucky family to have her!

She's such a tiny little thing- she's still in 6 and 9 month clothes and wears SIZE 2 diapers!

Here's another little video... 
I had a super hard time filming Delia singing- I could hardly hold the camera up from laughing so hard.  The weird thing about her singing talent is she'll only bust it out for Daddy- NO ONE else.

My Guy

Nope, he's not perfect, but he's super close.

l

Bry and I recently celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and his 28th birthday.

l

We've been together long enough for some major fights, catastrophes, emergencies, meltdowns, sicknesses, deaths, and days where we couldn't stand to be in the same room. But miraculously he still comes home every day with excitement in his eyes- even though he's exhausted and our life is pretty dang boring. He's really something special and I'm a lucky girl.

l

There's so little time he gets to spend with us, so he likes to leave notes before he leaves early in the morning to remind us of his love.

l

Here's two examples of their hilarity:

(yes, he's going to kill me for sharing these)

"Roses R' Red

Violets R' Blue

I scream sad that I have to leave you.

But don't you fret,

I'll be right back.

Just as surely as cats are black."

l

"Of all the places on earth to go,

I would like to have you know,

there's no place I'd rather be

than, well, anywhere as long as my beautiful family is with me.

Which is why a sorrowful moment

I face each day, when 'goodbye' I have to say.

But what joy comes at the end of the day

when my angel children come running my way.

But that's not the crowning jewel,

you'd better sit on a stool.

For the greatest gift I was given

was my angel wife -Erin."

l

One thing we've discovered in our humble marriage: laughing together heals and strengthens. I'm so, so grateful to have a guy who will laugh with me, even when life is yucky.

Ivy June Turns Two

We had a sweet little family celebration for Ivy's 2nd Birthday.

We ventured to the mall for some dinner and Build-a-Bear bliss. I thought Ivy would totally love picking out her own little friend, but she was still a little too young to understand what was going on.

After the mall we came home for some cake and presents.

I attempted my first Ivy safe cake; (no eggs or milk) it tasted like bread with icing and sprinkles. So the kids loved it and Bry and I choked it down.

Ivy has brought a new dynamic to our family- mostly good and sometimes very... not good. She has a HUGE personality, I'll just put it that way.

Here's her top five phrases:

1. "HYWUM!!!!!" (ear-piercingly screamed)


2. "I can't have it? It has milk in it?" (She's getting used to the fact that almost everything everyone else is eating is off limits- yes, it's heartbreaking)


3. "Can I kick/bite/eat/break it?" (This girl has a giganto destroy impulse I have no idea how to handle. All of our books and toys are taped to unrecognizability.)


4. "I ready to be a good girl!" (I swear she spends half of her life on the naughty chair. For those two minutes she can be heard promising repentance. It takes her about one minute of freedom to find more trouble.)


5. "Mom! There's a ghost in my room." (Umm... I don't know where she got this one from. We spend a lot of time chasing ghosts out of rooms though.)

Even though she tends to complicate things a wee bit, we love her so dang much. She might be a little high maintenance, but she gives the best hugs and kisses we can't live without.