What a week!!

Saturday:  Photo shoot in the cold, cold, cold wind.  I felt bad for the baby I was snapping photos of!  And my last piece of pizza WITH the crust for 2 years! {see previous post if you're lost}

Sunday: Surprise birthday party for Brian that started pretty great, the middle was pretty rocky and ended pretty good.  Let's just say that as a note to self - scavenger hunts shouldn't involve permanent markers!

And, I really REALLY hope someone got a pic of Brian with "I love Michele" on his forehead!  And, yes, I wrote on Clint and Michele's heads and yes, it was WEIRD!!  {Don't worry, I have stuff that takes off permanent marker}  :O)

Monday:  Valentine's Day!!  This year was the best V-Day in 6 years!  Kid you not.  It was the first in 6 years that Clint hasn't been at high school state wrestling, so we made the best of it!  We went back and forth between going on a date just us, and going on a family fun date... We both decided that the girls needed some Daddy time too, and not just me.  :O)

In the morning, I got up and made the girls and I heart and flower pancakes with buttermilk syrup {yummy!!!}, then we did our chores.  I let Madi pick a craft out of my Family Fun magazine and we worked on that for a while, then ran to the store.  I let Mads pick out a new umbrella as her present from me and Clint {we got Maelee a flashlight}, and she also picked out the complete Chronicles of Narnia for Clint.  {I thought that was a pretty good choice for a 4 year old!}  We came home and had heart-hot dogs for lunch, then watched a fun movie together.  Clint got off work early and when Maelee got up from her nap we headed to the duck ponds! 

We LOVE that place.  It's where Clint and I first told each other that we loved each other.  It's where he proposed, and it's where we always go for special dates - either just us or as a family.  I know, totally sappy but we love it!  :O)  The girls had a blast feeding the ducks and running from the geese.  Usually when we go there the ducks are so full that they're pretty lame but this time they were all starving which made it really fun.  We always take our roller blades and usually push the girls in strollers, but Madi has a bike now so she had a great time riding around herself.  Be sure to watch the videos on the Slidebox, they're pretty cute.  I have to apologize for the crappy quality of the pictures, I used the piece of junk camera I found in a closet until we get a new pocket camera.  I love my big camera, but sometimes it's SO inconvenient!  Thus, we had a convenient camera, and crappy pics as a result...  Oh well, at least they're pictures, right?!?  And, FYI you can click on a pic in the Slidebox, and it will get big so you can see it better.

This scrapbook design customized with Smilebox

For dinner, Clint and I picked up burros from this little Mexican shop {where we met, again, sappy I know!}, and he let me get chips and salsa since I can't have them for 2 years {see previous post}.  We got chicken nuggets for the girls, and while we were eating at home, there was a mysterious knock on the door... {When I was growing up, we had a special tradition called The Phantom.  The Phantom would come sometime during Valentine's Day and leave treats for everyone.  It was always so fun and it's something that we're carrying on for our kids}  It was The Phantom!!  Madi and Maelee each got a new book and some chocolate, and Mom and Dad got a box of chocolates each.  Love that Phantom!  :O) 

I know most couples watch lovey-dovey movies on V-Day, but Redbox was out so we chilled to "Red" instead!  LOL  It was a GREAT Valentine's Day!!

Tuesday:  Pre-school, photo shoot, feed the missionaries {who didn't show, I think they thought we forgot and didn't want to be rude and just show up...}

Wednesday: Photo shoot

Thursday:  Pre-school, appointment with the periodontist to have 2 holes cut in my head.  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Serious!  Having my wisdom teeth pulled was FAR worse, and the pain lasted MUCH longer with those.  I'm pretty tender, but that's about it {of course, I'm making sure that IBProfen stays in my system...  That's probably helping!!}.  The teeth were hidden under a very thin layer of bone, which he had to drill and chip away at to expose the teeth, and they were also partially impacted in the bone on the roof of my mouth, so he had to drill and chip away at that also.  You would think I would be in more pain, huh?!?  He was able to attach the brackets, and I have a follow-up app with him next Thursday to make sure all is well.  Then Monday the 28th it's braces time!!  I have this horrible feeling that once they start pulling these teeth backwards, THAT's when the real pain will start...  We'll see, eh?  But as for now, I'm living on milk shakes and pureed... everything!  {I even pureed stir-fry last night...}  AND, the "don't eat this and that" has already begun {hence the no more chips and salsa!!!}.  I enjoyed my last chips and bagels this week, and Madi is pretty upset that I can't have pizza crust anymore, but she's stoked that she gets all my suckers for the next 2 years!  LOL  It almost felt like I was on death row, saying goodbye to those few things that I love {really all I'll miss is chips and salsa, pizza crust and bagels}, but I do have to say that I am definitely looking forward to less snacking and therefore hopefully some weight loss!  :O)  Who knew?!?

I'll have Clint take a few pics of the holes in my head with my good camera later and post them for you.  It's pretty gross looking, and definitely worthy of the good camera!!!

Talk about a crazy story!!

You would think I’d be better about keeping caught up seeing that I’m always promising to do a better job at it! I promise, someday… :0)
I’m funny. Anyhoo, in December of 2007 I took my memory card to good ole’ Wal-Mart to print a bunch of pictures. A week later I was asked to take some pictures of a lady for Christmas presents and I couldn’t find my memory card ANYwhere! I called Wally World and no one had turned it in and after checking back for a few weeks I figured someone had kiped it and was enjoying the lovely pics of my adorable family. Fast forward to January 2009. A woman in our ward is at Wal-Mart (someday I hope my stories will center around Target, but we need one here first… keep praying!) and is asked if by chance she knows anyone in this picture, holding up a family pic of us. I go up a few days later to claim my long lost memory card, totally amazed that it had somehow managed to hide in the Wal-Mart Photo Center for over a year and find its way back to me. Craziness eh? There were a bunch of pictures on it that hadn’t made their way on to my computer before the loss so I’d like to share with you the laughs we had when we plugged it in. Enjoy!!

Madison’s sand box was pretty gross after the monsoons and leaves falling everywhere so she and I cleaned it out and re-filled it with new GREEN sand! She was SO excited and I have to say that she picked the color out; she’s all about green lately. Ah, too fun!
Ok, I have a lot more to catch up on so here goes! We played at a friend’s pond the other day and Clint reminded Madi that rocks are for throwing in the water. Nothing too spectacular but I thought the pics were cute! Then Madi got a late Christmas present from my brother Wyatt. It was a Cinderella dress-up set and she still insists on having her new Cinderella slippers on and carries her Cinderella purse, stuffed with every little toy she can fit in it! :0) Last week we woke up to a light covering of snow on the ground and the mountains around were covered all they way down to the base. Madison and I drove a little way out of town to take pictures… I think I enjoyed it more than she did, what do you think? :0)

For Valentines’ Day my sweet husband ordered a surprise for me! He was going to be gone all weekend for Wrestling State and I was going to stay home with Madison. So Clint had a dozen long-stemmed, red roses delivered to the house from ProFlowers.com. What a sweet kid! The only problem was that I decided to visit my family and go to state also… Yeah. I kind of blew his surprise. Whoops! He had to tell me about his secret so that I would wait at the house for them. Madison helped me prep and arrange them in the vase and we turned off our heater for the weekend so they were just as beautiful when we got home. Riley took 5th at state (we’re still proud of him, I would have been permanently injured so I can’t talk! Plus, he really wrestled well, he was just matched against some tough kids.) and Madison was his biggest cheerleader! I know the picture is of her sleeping, but that was before he wrestled! She was up on her feet yelling, "Go Riley! Get him! Get him!" Love that girl!

So there it is, we are caught up. That wasn’t so bad!