Dad, The Master Chef

Josh loves to cook.  His little girls love to cook with him.

He's so much more patient than I am.

As always, there is a mess in our kitchen, wonderful food to eat and one talented dad, making up his one recipes and we get to be the taste testers.  No better job that that.

Micheal's 3 Year Anniversary

They had a really neat assembly at Mtn Crest on Micheal's 3 year mark of his death in Iraq.  They were doing a freedom assembly and they asked Amy to speak.  I man named Phil Taylor is from Texas and does free portraits of fallen soldiers.  My cousin was living in Texas at the time and got in contact with Phil and got Micheal's name on the list.  He flew out to Utah to present it to her at the assembly.

Amy with my cousin who turned Micheal's name into Phil Taylor with The American Fallen Soldiers Project.  It was such a neat thing to see and witness.

Here is Phil with his masterpiece.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  He spent over 80 hours on it.  He spoke with Amy about Micheal and his personality, likes and dislikes.  He really puts a lot of emotion, care and a religious aspect into his portraits.

Needless to say, Amy loved it.

Of course, Amy did a wonderful job with her talk.  It was so full of emotions.  One minute I was laughing, the next I was crying.  A typical Amy talk.  It was so well done and she truly is an amazing woman who gives to much to the people around her and helps others around her and gives them a sense of hope and understanding.  I am so proud to call her my sister and my friend.

What would this day be without some serious mischievousness?  We went by that night to visit Micheal's grave and of course Amy mounted herself up on it.  Micheal would not be happy if it wasn't a day without laughter and total inappropriateness (to other people, totally fine by us).

Running at Night with A Beard in The Winter

This is what happens when you have a big, bushy beard like Josh and you go out running at 10 o'clock at night, in the winter, in Utah.  Your beard gets frozen and has ice chunks in it.  

When he came home and I saw his face, I had to get a picture.  Document, document, document.

Halle Turns 3!!!

It is hard to believe that Halle is 3.  Some days I feel like I've had her for 30 years and yet sometimes if feels like 50 years only 3 days.

I sure do love this little bundle of joy though.  She can be so irritating and so incredibly lovable and sweet all at the same time.  For about a month before her birthday, she would ask EVERY DAY if it was her birthday yet.  Let's just say that we almost celebrated it a month early to shut her up.

We went and ate at Angie's as a family for her bday dinner.  It was lots of fun and I really can't explain how crazy Josh is in pictures.  Honestly, why can't he just pull a normal looking face?  I swear that majority of my pictures of Amy and myself are of one of us holding the camera out and away from our face, like this one.

Halle wanted a dog cake.  I made this at Amy's house and used my mom's cake form.  It was nice to spend the day up at my family's house and just relax on Halle's bday.  She loved the cake.  I decided to color the cake batter so that she would love it when we cut it open and it was all colorful.  It turned out really cute.

She just LOVED all of the attention, having so many people sing to her and have all of their eyes on her.  She's quite vain and an attention monger.

I love little Miss Halle.  She is so full of spunk and personality, it's exhausting to be in the same room as her. I do love her to death though.  She can be the love of my life and the bane of my existence all at the same time.  Happy birthday Halle!  You are the best addition to our family.  You keep us on our toes and you make us cry laugh on a daily basis.  We love you and couldn't imagine our lives without you.

Valentine's Day

I did the same valentine's this year as I did last year for the girls.  They just love them so much and I didn't want to think of something new to do.

 
 Yes, Halle is totally cheesing it in this picture.

 I woke up to find these roses on my nightstand along with this...

 A heart shaped note from my sweet hubby along with some of my favorite chocolate.

I then found the same thing in both of the girls' rooms on their nightstands.

 Chloee's.

 Halle's.

Seriously, did I marry the sweetest man and daddy or what?  I thought it was so sweet that he even thought to do something for the girls too.

 The girls got some really cute things for vday that I had been hoarding from a good sale.  They both have been asking for "Dorthy" shoes for quite some time and I was able to find them on a great deal.  They both got their "red" shirts and we had a really fun day together, taking out their valentines.

That night we went over to the Family Tree Assisted Living place in our ward.  I have come to love these wonderful people there.  This is Ramona.  She is one of my favorites.  We took them some red blankets and wished them a happy valentine's day.  She was in LOVE with Halle.  Halle sat on her lap and gave her kisses and hugs.  For all of you who do not know Halle, this is not the norm in any way, shape or form.  We also went and saw Pauline but I didn't get a picture with her.  We sat and visited for a little bit and then let them go to sleep.

All in all, it was a wonderful day!

I Cleaned My Closet

I cleaned my closet out.  Clearly, it was overdue for a cleaning.  All of these clothes went to the DI.  Yep, I have given up on the fact that I will never be that size again and those clothes are just taking up valuable space. It's kind of depressing.  Oh well... Here's to being chubby.