Time Out For Women!

In February, I was able to go to a Time Out For Women conference in Orlando with some friends and we had a blast! It was a much needed break for us busy moms and gave us a chance to be spiritually uplifted and re-energize. We were all so excited to have a girls weekend together. Nice hotel, good food and good friends....yes please!! Thanks for a wonderful weekend ladies!




Dinner out with the girls at TGI Fridays...we ate WAY too much, but oh was it worth it!



More dinner fun with the girls.



We just HAD to get a picture of our super cute totes in front of the stage. Seriously, how cute are those totes??!!



The woman in this picture was an AMAZING speaker. She was so inspirational that the poor woman barely got a lunch break because so many people wanted a picture with her. She was awesome!

Recap

Wow...where did the last 3 months go?! I have a lot to catch up on, but for now...I'll just recap!

January 4th: My baby girl turned 10! Seriously, 10! I can't be old enough to have a 10-year-old...ugh!

January 14th: My parents and kid brother came to visit me. This visit included my very first trip to IKEA. Wow, could I spend all day in that store or what! And who can resist those swedish meatballs...YUM! A good time was had by all. I seriously miss my family and it sucks to be so far away from them, but I'm hoping some changes will get us over to the West Coast soon!

February: Ummm...I'm sure a lot of fun stuff ensued this month, but I'm having a brain fart. I do remember we tried to take the kids to a chocolatier store for Valentines day and NONE existed. We went to 3 different places and they all went out of business. That was a bummer, because how fun would it have been to get in on all that chocolate sweetness!

March 17th: St. Patty's Day!! The only holiday that I truly feel like I can own up to. The red hair, green eyes... I love celebrating my Irish/Scottish roots! Below is a picture of Todd's special "Shamrock Pancakes". He is the best! The kids thought it was pretty cool too.



I have been doing lots of painting and updating to the house. Todd actually asked me if I was "nesting"...lol! I will post some pictures and update you when I get my projects done. Hopefully, it won't take me 3 months!

Kidisms!

The other day, the kids and I were driving home from the grocery store and the following conversation ensued:

JEPSON: Mom, I want to be a vegetarian when I grow up!

BREIGH (the ALL-KNOWING older sister): Jepson, do you even KNOW what a vegetarian is?

JEPSON: What?

BREIGH: It's a person who ONLY eats vegetables! Don't you mean a VETERINARIAN? A veterinarian takes care of animals.

JEPSON: Yep! Veterinarian....that's my thing!!!

I had to laugh. Breigh's definition of a vegetarian isn't exactly correct either, but I had to laugh because she just couldn't resist imparting her knowledge on her little brother.

Shortly after this conversation ended, somehow we got onto the subject of money and things we could and could not afford and Jepson turns to me and says: Mom, if daddy cares so much about money, how come he didn't become a doctor?

LOL!! I tell ya, I laugh on a daily basis on the things that come out of this kids mouth. I told Todd this one later on that night and told him he got into the wrong business according to our son!

Family Photos

This is our attempt at Family Photos. I don't have any recent family photos of us and I think these actually turned out pretty good! We just set up the camera and tripod in our backyard and decided to just go for it!

What do you think?

Halloween Pics!

These are our Halloween pictures! This is the first year that I actually got all dressed up. I'm supposed to be a Mardi Gras lady. I didn't get a picture with my mask and gloves, but you get the idea anyways. Breigh was a cheerless leader (gothic cheer leader) and Jepson was a swamp monster. Todd opted not to dress up for Halloween, but Friday night he went as a tourist at our ward trunk-or-treat fall festival, hawaiian shirt, black socks, sandals, straw hat and camera wrapped around him. He was a big hit. I'm just bummed I didn't get a picture :(

Saturday night, Breigh and I went to a haunted house that my friend put together at her house and so Breigh and her BFF, Kaitlyn, got to work in the "cemetery". She had a blast trying to scare people as they walked through. As we were heading home at the end of the night, she said, "Mommy, thanks for dressing up for Halloween. That was really cool!" Enough said!

Fall is here!

It has arrived! My favorite time of the year...FALL!! And FINALLY we are feeling some of that cool weather I've so fondly been awaiting for the past 4 months!

I'm looking forward to getting my Fall baking on with some homemade Apple and Cherry pies to be enjoyed with some good friends this weekend. I've been practicing my homemade crusts several times, and it has been frustrating getting just the right consistency of dough. Who knew pie crusts could be so tempermental? Meanwhile, Todd is more than happy to have me "practicing" my pie dough to perfection.

Wish me luck! I'll post some pictures of the end result!

Demi Lovato Concert!

I just recently found these pictures my friend, Sue, emailed to me and forgot to blog about our fun Girls Night!

July 31st, I took Breigh to a Demi Lovato concert and it was way fun!! Now, if you're wondering who Demi Lovato is, she is the next rising star and currently has a show on the Disney channel called "Sonny with a chance". Breigh loves her and loves her show! It was me, Sue, her daughter, Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn's cousin, Marissa. Kaitlyn and Breigh are best friends and, in fact, we were pregnant at the same time with the girls so, we lovingly refer to them as "belly buddies" because they are almost exactly 1 month apart in age from each other.

Anyways, we heard that Demi Lovato was coming to town and since she is not that well known yet, tickets were cheap so we thought it would be a fun girls night out with our daughters! We actually got pretty good seats too.

I think the best part of the show was the end. Now, that sounded bad. Not that I wanted the concert to be over with, but for the very last song, she sang "Don't Forget", which is one of my favorites. As she started to sing it, she got super emotional and got all choked up and couldn't finish the song. So, she held out the microphone to the crowd, and the audience sang it for her until she got herself together to sing it. It just hit her, right then and there, how she had really "made it" and it was just overwhelming at how awesome her fans are. It was just the coolest to see that. There's nothing like going to a concert and seeing everything live like that. I got Breigh a signed autograph CD (that let me tell ya, I paid a pretty penny for!), but Breigh was SO happy. It was a special mother daughter experience I'll never forget!

I've posted some pictures Sue took on her camera below:


Best buddies enjoying the show!


Demi singing...she's so beautiful!


Full stage view.


She brought this girl up on stage to sing with her. She knew every word to the song. It was priceless!


Oh yeah...and we got to see this guy before Demi came on...David Archuletta (am i spelling that right?!)...he was awesome too! I don't think I've heard more screaming tweens than when he was on stage. Some ear plugs would have come in really handy!


Breigh, Kaitlyn and Marissa (Kaitlyn's cousin). Our seats in relation to the stage weren't too shabby!


Me, Breigh, Kaitlyn and Marissa outside the concert hall.