Totally Randy.

Oh my gosh, every time I see this commercial I bust up laughing. I told Randy that the husband in the commercial TOTALLY reminds me of him. Randy doesn't think so... whenever the commercial comes on he rolls his eyes... with a smile! He knows. That is something he would totally do.  

Better than just circles, pffft what?!

Slices Apple.

Yesterday Macey came up to me and asked me to get her some "slices apple". I knew what she wanted, but decided to give her a hard time. I told her, I don't know what that is, slices apple. Does she want apple juice? Apple sauce? Or maybe they're called... apple slices?

She put her hands on her hips and told me with a glare, "It's CALLED when I'm HUNGRY I go to you and tell you I want SLICES APPLE and then you have to get it cause you're the MOM."

Can you tell who's the boss?

Collin turns 1!

I know everybody says it, but I really don't know where the time has gone. We have loved every second with this little guy and can't imagine what our lives would be without him! He adds so much fun to our family dynamic. It's crazy to think that exactly one year ago I had just given birth to a tiny 6 lb baby. Now look at him! This kid is BUILT! :)

Anyway, we celebrated his birthday today with Randy's parents and niece, Libby. Bonnie and Larry stopped in Bountiful to visit Randy's sister and decided to take Libs along for the party. We're glad they did! We sure love her!

The day started off entirely too early. I woke up to the sound of a door opening and a "It's your BIRTHDAY, BUBBAS!!" over the baby monitor.... followed by some crying. HAHA. I think Macey learned her lesson about waking up her brother. Luckily he went back to sleep for about a half hour, but then was awakened yet again by something stinky in his diaper. He hates that. After he had a nice clean bum again he was happy. :) He played for a little bit and then took a 3 hour nap. It was just what we needed to get everything ready! Randy and I made the cake/cupcakes, frosting, fondant and ice cream from scratch. No little task I assure you. You should have seen my kitchen, it was a disaster. Not really a reason for making everything, other than we like doing it. Randy LOVES making his awesome strawberry ice cream (the perfection is the lemon juice) and I love cake. :) I found this cute cake awhile ago and I knew I just HAD to make it for Collin's first birthday. And it was surprisingly not that hard. It was my first time with fondant, too. Then when I saw the uber cute Paul Frank Monkey plates at Target, it was a done deal.

While Randy was busy making his ice cream and Collin was sleeping, Macey and I took off to the local store to get some balloons for the party. Of course, Macey requested that she wear a pretty dress for the occasion and chose the other dress that Grandma Bunny made for her (she had laid it out on her chair in her room last night so she would not forget). Also, ringlets in her hair. Actually she was REALLY mad at me this morning when she woke up and remembered that I told her we would put her hair in curlers last night so she could sleep on them and when she would wake up, her hair would be all curly! Woops. Note to self: NEVER FORGET CURLERS WHEN PROMISED, EVER, EVER, EVER. Anyway, so we go and are choosing the balloon colors and Macey was seriously glowing, she was so giddy with excitement. The clerk was loving her so much that she got on the phone to call a couple of other workers over. Macey had a little crowd around her by the time she left. I'll have to dress her up like that everyday, it gets me free stuff! :) She ended up giving us 2 balloons for free! One for Macey and one for the birthday boy that was napping.

It was a fun day. The party was short and sweet, just the way I like 'em. Collin was spoiled with presents! I shopped the after-Christmas sales for his birthday. I only spent $25 on gifts when full price would have been over $55. Woop woop!

Alright. Enough of me blabbering (can you tell I *love* birthday parties for my kids?)... on to the pictures.

The decor. Simple, but fun.

The cupcakes. The top cupcake was Collin's "smash cake".

"Don't take a picture of me" = Really, do take a picture of me. Now.

  The monkey cake and the yummy strawberry ice cream! Mmmmm.

A good view of Macey's dress she wore and of Collin opening his presents.

Of course, wrapping paper was all that really mattered.

I love this picture. This is what he did while we sang Happy Birthday.  When he gets nervous/shy/scared, he puts his head down on things.  He was so nervous!

Mom? What should I do?

Testing the waters.

Just some crossed-eye cuteness.

Winner: Cutest. Boy. Ever.

Happy Birthday, bubbas! We sure do love you!

Juanita.

As you know, this year I discovered a love for refinishing furniture. I have literally been on the hunt for a nice solid computer desk for less than $25 for 4 months. You'd think in Utah County, they'd be in abundance. Well, I guess they are... but they are hot items, apparently. I could never time it right. I would call on an ad that was 10 minutes old and it had already been sold! And the local D.I. is a joke, people literally stake it out, I swear. GAH! At first I was pretty particular, I wanted something solid with some grooves and retro-ness to it so I could paint it olive green and antique it like I did with this. I have been itching to paint something olive. But after about 2 months of failure I decided not to be picky anymore. As long as it was solid, had drawers to help with clutter, wasn't too deep, it would work. (Is that too much to ask?) I FINALLY found one on Craigslist for $20. I didn't even bother to ask Randy what he thought, I made the call and BAM, it was all mine. Then I made Randy go pick it up. :) I'm really pleased with it. It is a simple desk but super sturdy and solid. Since it's basically a run-of-the-mill desk, I didn't want to waste olive on it. I decided it would look good in black with sanded edges... and to give it some personality, I installed knobs that I painted black polka dots on. :P

So here she is... Juanita. Unfortunately no "before" pictures. It was just a light colored oak, nothing fancy, was in pretty good shape, too... but I needed it black. With polka dots.

I named her Juanita because after 20 hours of manual labor she still only cost me about $30. :D Really it shouldn't have taken me that long to get it all painted and finished but there was a minor mishap at the very end. Oh, something about me going out into the garage way too late at night to hurry and put the finish on. Turns out, I grabbed the wrong can. So I had to strip it off and do it all over again.... when I was awake. That doesn't matter to me anymore. What matters is that she's finished now and serving her purpose. Before, my computer was on our old newlywed kitchen table down here. It looked awful and somehow accumulated SO MUCH CLUTTER! I was more than happy to get it out... but problem is, when we brought Juanita down here, we realized we don't have anywhere to put the kitchen table. So... we moved it to the side and now I have some craft projects on it. I think I will refinish it and sell it for ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Happy Easters 2010!

This year my Dad and brother Rhett and his family stayed with us Saturday night and Easter morning. It was fun having the company! They were on their way home from a 4-wheeling excursion in Moab, we are the halfway point. Randy likes to call us The Hotel Slade because my family comes and stays with us a lot. I wouldn't have it any other way! We love having company! As soon as they closed the door to leave Macey got puppy dog eyes and quietly said, "I wish I could see them again."

Sunday morning Randy got up and made us a nice breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs. Then Macey and Collin got to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. They were both less than enthusiastic, especially Macey. She had stayed up late Saturday night playing with cousins Blake, Ashley and Mate (Nate).  And she's a little grumpy in the mornings even on a good day! We all had a good laugh over her 'excitement'. After breakfast the crew got their gear packed up and took off before the morning session of conference started. We were so beat that we fell asleep after the first speaker! I didn't wake up until the whole morning session was over... woops! I'll have to catch up with the Ensign next month, but I sure did like President Uchtdorf's talk! :) After we all woke up and got going again we decided to keep it a low key Easter. None of us got dressed until I announced it was Easter Egg Hunting time, then Macey asked if she could get in her pretty dress and if I would do her hair "like this" (she spins her finger around, ringlet style). Grandma Bunny (Bonnie) sewed Macey 2 cute dresses and gave them to her just before Easter! Macey has been in heaven just staring at them, waiting for an opportunity to wear them. She looks so cute in them, thanks Grandma Bunny!

Here are pics of the big Easter Egg Hunt. This year was SO fun with Macey. She really got into it. We had hidden 13 eggs outside, and she found every one of them without much help from us! Collin had about 5 eggs inside to find... he didn't really care about them... until Macey (unbeknownst to me) opened an egg for him under the table... then he decided that maybe Easters really is something he's interested in.

Collin putting an egg in his easter basket. This is about as excited as he got.

Showing her favorite egg.... pink, with sparkles. 

Collin quietly devouring his loot under the kitchen table. 

Happy Birthday Lori!

Today is my oldest sister and sibling's birthday. She would have been 43 this year. Lori died of Leukemia when she was 20, I was 2 and a half. As I was reminiscing today I decided to search the word "Lori" on my Judy family blog. I was surprised at how many posts showed up. One of which, was mine- in 2007 (before my Mom died) on Lori's 40th birthday. This is what I wrote:


I was just 2 and a half when Lori died... but I have a few memories of her. I remember I used to sleep with her at night in the Rainbow room. One night Rhett came in to tell me a scary story about Bigfoot that made me cry... she got really mad at him and told him to get out. I remember her cuddling with me and telling me everything was going to be alright.

She also taught me my numbers and colors... I don't remember much of that, just that purple was her favorite color, so it was mine too!

I remember being at her funeral... and being so confused. A few years later when I understood what had happened, I spent a lot of time crying and praying. Every night I would ask Heavenly Father to let Lori know how much I missed her. And I know He did. I have felt her presence many times in my life. Even though I did not get to know her that well during this life... I am so grateful that I have all the time in the world to get to know her in the next life. I feel like I have become so close with her since she has passed away. I know that she has held, cherished and loved these new babies that have come into our family. I felt her presence many times when I first had Macey... those memories are very dear to me.

I have a picture of Lori on our bookshelf in the front room... I have tried many times to put it somewhere else... out of Macey's grasp, but it always finds its way back to the front room... where we see her everyday. Strangely, it's the only thing Macey does not throw down on the ground.

Happy Birthday Lori!

I love and miss you!!


In one of my childhood development classes that I took at BYU my professor said that typically, children don't remember much until about the age of 4. I remember he asked us to raise our hands if we all remembered something in our lives when we were 5. Most of us did. Then he asked 4, still quite a few hands up. Then 3, almost all of the hands went down except for me and a few others. Then he asked age 2, I was the only hand up. I believe that I have these vivid memories of my sweet sister for a reason.

When my Mom was dying I believe it was a little easier letting her go knowing that she had a daughter on the other side that she desperately wanted to see. And I know Lori was there anxiously waiting with open arms. I often think about what those two are doing together. Busy working, no doubt. Finally reunited. I think of that moment a lot and wonder what it was like for both of them, how much joy there was. Now with that picture in the front room of Lori is also a picture of my Mom. It will always be in plain sight. They are still very much a part of our family. Not a day goes by when I don't think about them.

Sometimes I get caught up in the "what ifs" but need to remind myself that this was the plan. It is His will. I am so grateful for my knowledge of the Gospel and knowing that I can be reunited with my sister and Mother once again. I love the saying "Because someone we love is in heaven, we feel heaven in our home". Our family is so blessed to have two angels on the other side, doing all they can do to ensure ours is an eternal family.

 Lori and me in the "Rainbow Room".

Happy Birthday, Sis!