Showering Kira & Baby Girl with Love

This past Thursday I threw a baby shower for a beautiful friend of mine...Kira is the type of person you feel instantly comfortable with, she makes you want to be better, she has an awesome sense of humor, she'd do anything to help a friend, she's a super mom, and she finds beauty in everything around her. She is one of my best friends and is such a blessing in my life. Kira has two sweet children that joined her beautiful family through adoption...we adore both of them. And now she has a miracle baby girl growing in her belly! I still remember when she told me she was pregnant, and thinking about it I have tears in my eyes! Adam and I have not struggled with infertility, but people we love have and it makes my heart ache, and definitely reminds me to not take it for granted. So knowing that Kira is now experiencing pregnancy and will soon give birth for the first time, to her third child, puts butterflies in my stomach!

Family and friends of Kira's came over for an evening to shower her and her baby girl with love. :) While enjoying a nutella fondue spread, cupcakes (thank you Karen!), and raspberry lemonade (thank you Adriana!) they wrote words of wisdom and love notes on baby blocks I decorated for little Miss J. Then we played a couple games...the first one was a Madlibs birth story we all created for Kira, and it made for some good laughs! Then everyone became baby sketch artists and drew a baby girl I described to them...but their canvases were paper plates they had on their heads, which made for some hilarious, picasso-like portraits. ;) Then came the generous gifts from everyone! It was so fun ooing and awing over everything and imagining Baby J being in Kira's arms so soon. :) And as a little "thank you" for everyone coming to the shower, they left with a facial masque and some chocolate they could enjoy after they had a relaxing shower at home. ;) Kira, you and your little girl are SO LOVED. Can't wait to meet her and soak up her newborn sweetness!

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I absolutely loved planning the shower for Kira! And I wish I could say I came up with all the details on my own, but some of them were inspired by creative ideas I found online...thank goodness for Pinterest and Google. :) 

Nutella Fondue recipe: here, I tripled the amount of nutella it calls for

Cloud cupcake-topper idea: here

Hanging cloud centerpiece idea: here

Baby block memento idea: here

Madlib Birth Story idea: here

Baby Sketch Artist game idea: here

Ugly Sweaters at Their Finest

This past Monday, we (Adam, Ava, and I) went to a cousin's Ugly Sweater party at Adam's sister's home. Thanks Dave and Mandy for hosting such a fun get together! (And thank you Penny for watching Brooks!) Using the festive photo booth props, we snapped pictures of everyone in their epic sweaters...some were adorned with reindeer & snowmen, others had sequins & bells, and a few had an assortment of cats...Meowy Christmas! ;)

My vote for best sweater goes to Adam's sister Sharla! Her fabulous, chunky, crocheted Christmas tree had jingle bells on it (a treat for the eyes and the ears) AND the tree snapped on and off...you know, options. ;) She even brought a veggie tray inspired by her sweater! Love that girl. :)

Halloween Party for the Littles

My sweet friend Adriana and I threw a Halloween party for some friends and their little guys and ghouls (haha;) earlier this week. She hosted it at her house and it turned out fantastic! My little skeleton (his PJs are multi-purpose;) and lady bug (thanks Katie for the costume!) had a great time.  I had fun getting my doodle on when I made the Pin The Spider On The Web game...and I think the kids enjoyed coloring their spiders with bow ties and necklaces, they were classy bugs. ;) And Adriana's donut eating contest was hilarious! Brooks wasn't quite into it, but we had donuts the next day and I think he realized he missed out. ;) And trying to get that last picture of all our little ones in costume was quite the task! I think they were experiencing a sugar crash, and some (aka Ava) weren't into their costumes, so it was a choir of crying babes for a minute there. haha! 

Thanks Adriana for such a fun time! 

This lady bug partied hard... 

Aven's 3rd Birthday Party!

 Brooks' friend Aven turned 3!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! We were so glad we could celebrate with him and his awesome parents this past Saturday. :)  We love Eli and Alla...and we're excited to love their new little one that's one the way! It was a gorgeous, hot evening...a water slide/bounce house was in their backyard (Brooks for some reason was not into it, what in the world??), kids were running around spraying each other with water guns, incredible food and the most delicious birthday cake was served, and the birthday boy Aven opened his presents. :)  Other than Brooks getting his first bee sting, it was a perfect night!

And check out the photos below of the 3 amigos. :)  Brooks, cousin Samson, and Aven the past 3 summers, all during month of June...at Aven's first birthday party, then Lake Powell, and of course his third birthday. So fun to see them grow up together!

Brooks' 2nd Birthday Party!

Saturday morning we had an early celebration for

BROOKS' 2nd BIRTHDAY!!

His actual birthday is coming up on Wednesday...it's still sinking in that my Little B isn't so little any more :)

It was a PJ party and we had a waffle bar with all sorts of yummy fixings...fresh fruit and berries, homemade syrup (thank you Penny!), ice cream, fudge, caramel, and some tasty bacon & sausage. We lucked out, and I think it hit the spot of the kids and the adults ;)

Some of our wonderful family (missing those who live far away!) and a few of Brooks' closest friends came to celebrate with us. We all had a great time eating, visiting, laughing, playing...you know, what all fun 2-year-old birthday parties are made of.

And everyone was so generous!! Brooks received so many thoughtful gifts (some that he's already loved playing with!) that will make for some fun times this spring and summer! But don't let the last picture deceive you ;) it was during present-time that he actually had a couple pretty good melt downs. That boy is Mr. Independent and was not in the mood to open a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. Yowza. Thank goodness he was surrounded by people that love him no matter what :)

And the candles in the our cinnamon roll "cake"...yes there are most definitely more than 2. But that's because our little man loooooooooves to blow out candles of any kind, so after singing "Happy Birthday" he got to blow them out, a couple times. His friends and cousins even joined in!

Thanks so much to everyone who came!! We love you & your families to the moon the back :) Adam and I are so grateful to have such incredible people in the life of our son.

Our Halloweekend...when Mario scored ;)

This Princess Peach was most definitely preggo...so I guess you could say Papa Mario scored, right? haHA But really, the person who stole the show is our Little Luigi :)

Saturday we went to the Adam's parent's house for their Halloween Bash...we LOVED seeing everyone dressed up in costume, enjoying a delicious dinner with homemade roasted tomato and pumpkin curry soups, playing Halloween games, and devouring creepy, gummi body parts :)

{ Our Nintendo Family }

{ He and She Goblins -- Troll, Devil, Nutcracker's Clara, Little Bo Peep, Cowboy }

{ Family Triathlon -- 2 sweet old women (Sharla, on the right, is the one dressed up;) }

{ Tee/Golfball -- Scarecrow & witch }

Then on the day of All Hallow's Eve we lit the pumpkins we carved, headed out to go trick-or-treating (Brooks was in his stroller the whole time except for the one house where I got the picture:), then we enjoyed a fun party at Luke & Becca's full of sweet treats, a delicious dinner, crazy-hard Minute To Win It games, and lots of laughs because we'd be horrible players on that show. haha!

{ Triathlon fam (party hosts), Lighting McQueen & his Road, Nintendo fam, Ghost Busters fam }

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Spiritual Health:

"Pray Always"...an article and video with words from both President Thomas S. Monson and Elder Richard G. Scott.

I love that Elder Scott said, “Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father." What a powerful blessing prayer is!!

Physical Health:

30 minutes on the elliptical and lots of stretching