Jory's 5th Birthday

Jory had a fun birthday this year (i still can't get used to the fact that I have a 5 year old...) He had school that day so we brought worms and dirt (gummy worms and pudding and chocolate) in for his birthday snack. The boys loved it but some of the girls complained. hehe. Then we had a chill party for just family on his birthday. He had both sets of grandparents there because Keiths family came to visit for a few days. Uncle Brent, and Uncle Adam were there, and Dustin (my cousin) and his fiancée Melissa came to. Jory requested a viking/dragon party after his favorite movie "How to Train your Dragon". We had decorations up for the party and a yummy gandolfo's cake with a dragon on top :)

We had a pizza party first and then served the cake:

Jory scored big on his presents. He got pjs, shoes, a couple movies, 3 new dragons, 3 nerf guns (!), some coloring stuff, and lots of T-ball gear for this spring. He was so cute opening them up, if you blinked you would have missed it. He sped through the whole thing, but kept saying how awesome everything was and that this was the best birthday and the coolest party ever.

The next night he had another party when his cousins Carson and Reese came up. I'm so mad that I didn't take pictures. :( They dressed up like vikings, which only lasted about 30 seconds, and played some viking games. They decorated shields and had a nerf war, hit a pinata, and took turns throwing swedish fish into each others mouths (its from the movie) and then we had cake again. It was really fun and chill and the kids had a blast.
I sure love this boy. He is sweet and tough all at the same time. He is a great big brother and a loving son. He draws me beautiful pictures and teaches me how to play baseball. He loves his family. He is a wonderful example to his brother and I am grateful for him every day. :)

Emily and Kyle

My little sister Emily just got engaged to a Mr. Kyle Stott. :) We are so excited for them and couldn't be happier about Kyle coming into the family. They are getting married on June 18th! We can't wait. The boys are excited for Emma their new uncle Kyle!

Valentines Day :)

Well first of all, I made these couple V-day crafts a few weeks before so we could get in the mood. I was feeling the need to be crafty (it's been a while....) I copied someone else's craft blog, but I don't remember who so I can't reference. I'm not creative enough to think of these things on my own so I'm glad people share!

My wonderful boys (with the help of their daddy) got me some lovely flowers! Aren't they sweet??
Keith and I decided that we go on enough dates, we didn't feel the need to go out on the one night everyone else in town wants to go out too. So we had a nice dinner at home. We used our best plates, lit tons of candles, put fake rose petals on the table, and tried to teach the boys some manners! ha
Jory spent all day drawing me Valentines. Love him! We also had special food all day- pink heart chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, we decorated cupcakes, and make fluffy pink jello for dessert.
Here's the boys about to eat dinner! It turned out being so fun. I think we are going to make it our new tradition. It was fun to include the whole family instead of just celebrating as a couple. We felt really fancy too...
Here's what we ate...yum. Trust me, we make some great salmon.

Reunion!

After Christmas, I was lucky enough to have some fun visitors! My bestest friends from high school (and middle school and elementary) came over to visit! Kalie, Megan, and Juli! It was so fun to see everyone and catch up. I wish they could all live closer so we could get together more! There's nothing like the closeness of friends that you've known for 15 years and have millions of memories with. Love you guys!

Christmas!! ( a little behind schedule...)

Christmas was a blast as usual! We went over to my parents and spent the night so we could do Christmas with everyone (everyone but Ryan and Jenny were there) and it was really fun! The boys scored big as usual. Ryder got a bike and some other small stuff, and Jory got a Kinect which we thoroughly enjoyed all winter break. We did the usual nativity the night before, and had prime rib for dinner. mmmm. Oh and Kyle (Emily's BF) taught us how to do a Tim-Tam Slam, which was a huge part of our break as well. It was a great Christmas, I probably would have more to say about it had I blogged right away, but I'm a slacker and I blog in splurts. :)