I LOVE these...

...two sweet little Valentines of mine!!!

I couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's weekend than to spend it with my two sweet little kids. The smiles on their faces make me so happy, and could brighten up any day.

On Saturday we went and took some pictures of Rylee for the pageant, had lunch, ice cream, and then to deliver Valentine's to the cousins later that night. And even though we had a few mishaps throughout the day, overall, it was a great day!

Between us and the grandparents, the kids got some really cute stuff for Valentine's Day. Lots of candy, stuffed animals, movies, and cute pajamas. Here are a few pictures from the kids opening their Valentines Day presents....

Wearing their cute Valentine jammies from Grandma Judi & Papa Rick.

I LOVE you Rylee & Dax...so VERY much!!! You are my SwEeThEaRtS! XOXOXO....

I also want to say Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Daddy. He was born on Valentine's Day! I miss him everyday and wish that he lived closer so that both myself and my kids would get to see him a lot more. Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you had a fabulous day. I LOVE you very much and miss you too! xoxo.
Here is a picture, a very old picture, of the two of us together. I have newer ones, but I really like this one of us together, even with my silly braces on!

**Rylee & Dax Make New Friends**

On February 3rd I took Rylee and Dax to McDonald's to meet up with my friend Katie and her daughter Jacee. We had been talking about getting together for lunch for a while and decided we would go to McDonald's so the girls could play and get to know eachother. It was SO cute because Rylee & Jacee just immediately got along and started playing like they had been Best Friends forever. They had so much fun together, and by looking at the pictures you would have no idea that this was the first time they played. It was so cute!!!

Later that day my friend Britania and her 3 boys (Jaxon, Dylan, & Xander) stopped by my house on their way back to St. George. It was so funny because at first Jaxon was being really shy and wasn't sure about going into Rylee's room to play, but it didn't take long and they were off playing just fine! Dylan was so cute...he would go back and forth between playing with the big kids to watching cartoons in the living room. This was Dax's first time to meet Xander....it was my first time to meet him too. He is such a cute little guy. They just played with all the toys from the toy box, checked each other out, and crawled around.

When Britania told them that it was time to go....Rylee said, "but he hasn't even got to play with my kitchen yet." They seemed to have had fun playing together....Jaxon even made plans for what he would bring next time he came to play. Kids are so cute!

It was SO good to see both Katie & Britania....I love that we have stayed in touch over all these years and can't wait to hang out again!!!

Randomness....

Because there are a few pics from just random days and random events that I wanted to share...I thought I would create a post especially for that. So here is our recent "randomness".

On January 23rd we watched my nieces, Trinity & Teyara, play their last Jr. Jazz Basketball game. They both play great and have so much fun. They are definitely some competitive little girls.

Here is a picture of the kids watching their last game....Rylee giving me the pouty lips. She just hates when I get the camera out!

On January 30th we went to my nephew Layker's 1st birthday....here is a picture of Dax enjoying a cupcake.

I am pretty sure he will love digging into his cake at his 1st birthday because he had no problem tearing into this cupcake at Layker's birthday.

For the Superbowl I made some cake balls. They were delicious! My friend Britania came to visit the week before the Superbowl and had some with her that she had made, and they were really tasty, so I decided to make some. I tried to get creative and make them into footballs, but after about 5 footballs, I decided that was enough.

Everyone loved them!!!

Ok, so I have been trying to decide if I should cut my hair shorter or leave it long. Either way I know I need a good trim, but I cannot decide if I should cut it just below my shoulders or leave it longer. Its so hard to decide. It seems like everytime I cut it off I want it back....and waiting for hair to grow always seems forever!

But its getting SO long.....

Decisions....Decisions....Decisions....

Unfortunately I don't have too many "random" pictures to post of Rylee because she is going through this stage where she absolutely hates my camera and wants nothing to do with me when its out.

Here are some cute snapshots I have taken of Dax recently.

Look at that hair.....I just love his rock star hair! What a little Stud!

Daddy & Dax

Mommy & Dax

Also, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister Andrea. She has always been so great to me and would do anything for me. On February 6th, we celebrated Andrea's birthday with a special cinnamon bundt cake from me and ice cream. It was delicious. Happy Birthday Andrea, I love you!!!

Teddy Bear Day...

On January 28th, Rylee's preschool class had "Teddy Bear Day". They got to choose their favorite teddy bear from home and bring it to class to share with everyone.

Rylee chose her little brown bear that she named "Little Bear". She was so excited about teddy bear day. Here is a picture of Rylee and Little Bear before preschool. At school they got to play and dance with their bears and took their measurements and weight. Little Bear was 11 inches long and weighed 12 oz. Her bear won the "cutest face" award.

Rylee has been doing so great in school and has learned so much. We do work with her a lot at home also, but she absolutely loves learning. Even when I am not showing her how to do something she is writing letters or asking me how to spell something so she can write it down. She knows how to spell a lot of words on her own without asking, such as Rylee, mom, dad, Dax....really any word that spells the way it sounds, she can write or at least tries to. She is always interested in writing new words and will ask me how to spell her cousins names, Kailey and Trayton. So I will tell her K-A-I-L-E-Y, and so on and she will write it herself. She is one smart cookie.

She also writes and recognizes her numbers and can count to 30 with no problem. She can actually count to 50 with no problem, but usually stops at 30. She also counts to 10 in Spanish. She is just so smart and we are SO proud of her! We love you Rylee....

Here is some of what she has done recently in school. And also some of her words she wrote on her dry erase table.

Here is something very special that she made for us in December for Christmas. It is so cute and just made me cry when I read it. I wanted to post it because I think it has the cutest poem and most of all it shows her cute little handprint.

A Few Firsts...

...for our little Dax boy! It is so crazy to think that just a week ago he was standing and would take a few steps, but only when he thought I was holding on to him. If he could see that I let go of him he would get nervous and sit down. Now this week he is taking so many steps....it won't be long before this cute lil guy is walking. And the funny thing is that he wants to try and run rather than walk. So it is a little scary! He is so cute and so full of personality. I love it!

I have a short clip of him walking on February 9th...he took about 5+ steps. What a BIG boy!

(I had to play it a few times before it would play without skipping-but its only 6 seconds)

Recently we moved him into a forward facing car seat. I know he is not quite a year yet, but he is so tall and has hit the 20 lb. mark. He is already at least 30 inches tall and 20.5 lbs. He does look pretty little in it, but its so much easier and he seems to love it.

Dax had his first taste of chocolate pudding. Brett decided Dax needed to experience the yummy taste of chocolate since Rylee was eating some and poor Dax was so sad that he wasn't getting any. How can you say no to such a cute little face? He definitely loved the pudding! Look at that face!

He also had his very first popsicle. He held it and went to town on that thing. Brett actually gave him his first banana flavored popsicle while I was grocery shopping, so this picture is a few days later and is actually his 2nd popsicle. Brett said that when the popsicle was gone he got so mad and started crying. He acted like someone had taken it away.

Dax also had his very first ice cream cone. I didn't get very good pics of this because we were in the car and the cone didn't last long. Aunt Andrea decided she would give Dax a vanilla/chocolate twist baby cone. He loved it, but immediately squished his fingers through the cone and had ice cream dripping from every direction. It was a mess....but a cute mess!

And last but not least....the first lollipop. Its the famous powder suckers. I love these things because kids love them, and they are not sticky. That is the best part! This was a giant one. I was too worried about the other one breaking from the stick, so we got the BIG one. He loved it...look how proud he is of this sucker!

Really I don't feed this kid sweets much, but the funnest firsts when it comes to food is always sweets! What can I say....sweets are good!!!

Happy Birthday to Trayton & Layker....

For the month of January there were two of my nephews that celebrated a birthday! My sweet nephew Trayton turned 4 years old on January 17th and my little nephew Layker celebrated his 1st birthday on January 30th.
Because I was in Mesquite celebrating my birthday the weekend of Trayton's party, I missed it, but Rylee still went. Since I was not there I didn't get any pictures from Trayton's actually party, so I decided that I would just post some random cute pictures of Trayton.
Trayton is such a sweet and shy little boy. I really wish I could have made it to his birthday party but I am so glad that Rylee was still able to go.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY TRAYTON....I Love You!!!

On January 30th, my little nephew Layker turned ONE! He is getting so big. He started walking about a week before he turned 1. He seems so little to me still. I guess its hard to tell when my kids are so tall for their age. Layker has such a cute personality already. He always crinkles his nose and giggles, its so cute! I look forward to Dax and Layker being able to be best little buddies!

Brinne gave Layker a cupcake to eat by himself and he had that thing gone in less than 2 minutes flat. So she gave him a second one. He was loving it.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY LAYKER...I Love You!!!