Promise Yourself

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

--Christian D. Larson

*I turn 32 today and I thought I would post my favorite quote...My sweet & dear friend, Em, printed and framed it for me our freshman year at WSU (we were roommies!) and I look at it almost daily.  Not that I'm always great about following every one of these things, but it's always a good reminder to BE BETTER.  I am so thankful for my life and can't wait to see what's in store for my 33rd year.*

Happy Friday!!

We've had dress up day around this house today so I snapped a couple pictures of the kids playing together!  After deriving some inspiration from Jenny's blog, I am trying to get better at editing so played around a little with these below.  Oh, and I finally changed things up a bit with our blog layout...it's only been 5 years!  Amazing what things you can tinker with when you have all your work done for the day & the kiddos are napping...

(she originally had PB&J all over her mouth in this one...:))

Family Pictures by Anna Vancleeve

Earlier this fall we had our good friend, Anna Vancleeve, take our family pictures.  She is so talented & we were very happy with how they turned out!  It's not easy to get a bunch of good group shots with two little ones but she did & we were so happy with them!  

If you look closely Brady is holding up the "M" on the mountain

One of my favorites!  Grammy had it made into a canvas for Jeff's birthday

She also edited them all with this vintage look--I love it!

If Brady had been smiling this would have been my all time favorite!

Fun in the Snow!

Okay, these were taken back when we had a bunch of snow, but they were too cute to not post!  Nothing better than playing in the snow & (in Livvy's case) eating the white stuff!

Can't recall if he was helping her clean her face or just the opposite...:)

NYE 2011

We had a few of our close family friends over for a little NYE celebration!  I think one of my resolutions for 2012 is to take more pictures of us & our friends!  Not just the kids!  Even though they are a lot cuter...:) Weedins, Johnsons, Holmquists, Robinsons, Taylors & Shueys...what a great crew!  Kiddos rang in the new year at midnight which was amazing!  Brady gave all of his girlfriends a kiss & most importantly his mama!  At one point he suggested they line up...whoa somebody's getting a little overconfident!  Moms & Dads took turns out in the garage playing Ping Beer Pong...total blast!

After a lot of play, things started to wind down!

Sweet Girl

I couldn't resist posting all of these!  I love this little girl--she makes us smile every day!

Christmas with Grammy & Grampy!

Grammy & Grampy drove up on the 26th to spend the day with us & open gifts together!  It was an absolutely perfect day--very relaxing (Grammy even brought up yummy leftovers from Cody!) and so much fun.  I swear they spent 8 hours on the floor with the kids playing with all their new toys.  It was really special time for all of us!

Brady made a cookie plate for Santa for them & they loved it!!  He was very proud of himself. :)

Grampy grew up on a farm so he was a good person to play with Brady's new farm set!

Working on the new puzzles!

This was really cute--Livvy would climb into this tiny box and Grampy would close it up & pretend to give it to Grammy as a gift--Livvy probably did this 10 times.  She loved all the attention & being the special present for Grammy!

More puzzles!  As I said...literally 8 hours!

Brady got a remote controlled Millenium Falcon & it was a huge hit!  It became somewhat of a challenge to pry it out of Daddy & Grampy's hands but when he finally did, he was by far the best flyer!  It was a ton of fun & we were laughing about it all day long.

Here's an incredible show of athletism by Grampy getting out of the way of this thing!

Christmas Day

I think the word I used last year to describe (at the risk of sounding cheesy!) Christmas was "magical."  Well, this year you could double that because Livvy was really into it & GOT it!  The anticipation & excitement were pretty much over the top.  Jeff & I were awoken by both kids coming into our room & climbing into bed whispering "It's Christmas morning!!  WAKE UP!!"  I loved that Brady woke his sister up before coming into our room & that they somehow resisted the urge to peek into the family room.  Such sweeties.

Here is the picture I took of the kids coming down the hallway to check out what Santa brought!  I wish you could see Liv's face too!  The still pictures gave way shortly after this...we videoed a lot of the gift opening & just tried to be "present" for the next couple of hours & soak it all in. :)

Sometimes the wrapping & tape is a little more interesting! :)

One of the highlights of the weekend was that I was asked by my cousin, Gretchen, & her husband Christian to be their baby girl Lucy's Godmother!  I have always hoped to be somebody's Godmother & was so honored.  She is probably the sweetest little 3 month old I have ever been around & it was a pretty powerful thing holding her up there & making a promise to her parents & God to be a positive, faithful rolemodel in her life & to always, ALWAYS keep her in my prayers.  I loved every second.  Her baptism was at the 10 am service Christmas Day so after opening gifts & eating breakfast we headed there.  

Kids were excited to get back & play with their new stuff! :)

After naps & playing at our house we headed to Nana & Papa's for Christmas Dinner.  Uncle Dusty had cleared one of the front ponds off so we could do some ice skating & the kids got pulled around in the sled...they LOVED this!

It's funny to see a 6'5 guy gliding around effortlessly on skates--my brothers never cease to amaze me! :)

Gina has hardly ever skated so Dust was helping her around...I joked that I was getting a flash forward in 60 yrs!

The mountains looked gorgeous...just need a lot more snow!

I love this picture of my mom

Dusty giving Brady a tutorial on his world famous whipping cream :)

After dinner we headed up for a little Kinect dance game--it's a lot like Wii but there's no controls...the sensor just sees the people in front of it.  It was HILARIOUS...the videos show some pretty incredible moves by Liv, Brady, Papa & Daddy.

Gina was a pro!