Give Your Love

Don't these look yummy?

Well, they were!

But, I take no credit because I did not make them.

Last week for Relief Society night we did a service exchange.

We wrote down a service we would like to do for someone else on a cute sparkly heart.

Some of the things people wrote included,

help to organize something, 3 hours of babysitting,

do your ironing, decorate your wall with vinyl lettering

& there were lots of different specified treats.

Some fun stuff!

We played this like a white elephant gift exchange.

The hearts were on the table and we took turns picking them and could steal someone else's. In the end I got the... Valentines dessert for 2, chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry sauce in a chocolate rose petal.

The girl who made them delivered them to our house.

How fun is that?

It was fun to see what everyone could give

someone else all through their own talents.

What greater way to show Love than to give service to those around us?

I think it helps me open my eyes to what inner talents

I may have but I don't realize it.

I can use these talents to better myself

and to help to give service to those around me.

I know as a mother, I don't always realize

that I am constantly serving everyday.

I am in service to my husband and children,

& through this our love grows even more.

Happy Valentines Day!

Brandon is 8!

Brandon just had his 8th birthday! Eight years go by a whole lot faster being older than when we were little. It's kind of hard. I want my lil' ones to stay little longer.

It is so fun watching them learn and grow at every stage though.

Just about every year we have taken Brandon to IHOP or Denny's, because that is what he wants. This year he said he wants alien pancakes just like last year.

I could totally make those! We even still had his cool alien cup.

So I made him his yummy alien pancakes just like Denny's does.

I have a hard time getting a real smile out of him.

I got him laughing about something.

I think he has a really cute smile.

Especially with all of those teeth missing.

My handsome dude. One of many presents.

He was definitely spoiled this year. I have not thrown a party for him yet.

This was our first, with friends. It was so easy and so fun.

I wish I had of done a few more in the past.

At least I know now.

I Love this kid. From the second he was put into my arms, I loved him.

He is so sweet. He makes friends so easily.

He is smart and funny. It is so good when we get one on one time together because it's harder to come by being in school and with all of his friend time now.

I want to hang on to every moment and make it all count because time disappears too fast.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Brandon's Birthday Party

When I asked Brandon what kind of party he wanted he said, "I want a Bakugan/Transformers party." Haha. I laughed. I had to explain to him that it would be a little weird and difficult to do both. So, he finally decided that Transformers was what he wanted. So that is what we did.

We had 8 boys show up.

Not bad out of 11 invitations. They had a lot of fun. Laughed tons and were just being boys. When the kids were arriving we had a Transformers cartoon playing.

Then we played a few different versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron tag.

Whoever was tagged was on that team.

We then divided into the teams and had a race for one of

the teams to pop all of their balloons first.

We had Pizza, cake & ice cream, then did the pinata at the end.

It was all really fun. They were all so happy. We have such a great group of boys in our neighborhood. This wasn't even half of them!

Winter Playground

More sledding!

We went on the mountain/golf course with the kids pretty early and we were the only ones there. It was so nice. Everyone else showed up just as we were leaving.

These two make a great team! Plenty of hills to choose from! Too bad I missed Justin's huge jump. :)

We saw a bunch of big horn sheep just over the hill from us.

That was pretty cool.

My pretty sneaky husband blended in well with the surroundings and got up pretty close.

This is where the kids and waited.

Mom & Brandon

Brandon & Hayden