Sisters' getaway.

I've always had a good relationship with my sisters. I think we've always been close and have had functional relationships. But over the past few years our relationships have grown. We've needed each other. It's hard to describe, and really, not something you can describe. My sisters have helped fill an incredible void I've felt in my life since my Mom passed away. There is no replacing her, but my sisters have helped me cope. I think I have leaned on them more than I've realized because I find myself yearning for this weekend. I just need it. Not even for the getaway, just to be around them. They know exactly what I am feeling. They feel it, too. We grieve the same. None of us live close so we never get the opportunity to just hang out whenever we want. So, we make it happen, once a year.

This year we heard Brian Regan -our favorite comedian ever- was coming to Logan so we decided to hit him up! Seriously, if you've never heard of him, google him. Watch and listen. You can thank me later. ; ) I'm not usually a big fan of comedians, they're either dirty or just stupid, so when my brother introduced me to that which is Brian Regan I was skeptical to say the least. It took about 30 seconds for me to be rolling on the floor in laughter, watching one of his dvd's. He is always hilarious, his jokes don't miss.

I was lucky that he was coming to Logan because that just so happens to be where my in-laws live! They make the perfect babysitters! : ) They were good sports and let me dump the kids off on them so Randy didn't have to take any work off.

So I dropped the kids off and my sisters came and picked me up. We had booked the new Marriott in town (for $45 a night! Priceline, people!) so we went to check in, got changed, and went to a temple session together. That was the first time we've all been in a session together since I received my endowments over 6 years ago. I won't lie, it was more emotional than I thought it would be- looking down the row at us in white. I teared up right away, it was so special being there with them. That is a tradition I would love to carry on with our sister getaways.

In front of the Logan temple.

After the temple we went and ate at the Coppermill, where I'm pretty sure our waiter just told the back to keep on cookin' them rolls.... this table'll eat 'em all up! : ) It hit the spot(s), to say the least. All on my gut. That night we went and soaked in the hot tub. Ahhhhh, it was so nice.

The next day was spent shopping. All. Day. Long. My feet were on fire! Us Judy girls don't mess around. We ate lunch at my favorite, The Old Grist Mill and sat in our booth for like 2 hours gabbing and laughing away. We knew it was time to go when the old man in the next booth over started turning sideways and was acting really interested in our conversation. Sorry dude, this is girl talk. ; ) Then came more shopping and unstoppable laughing. We ate dinner at Cafe Rio and then headed back to the hotel to get all gussied up for Brian Regan. His show didn't start until 10:30 pm! That is LATE for us old farts! I didn't know how I was going to stay up. Dr. Pepper, of course, came to the rescue.

FINALLY it was time to head over to the show. We parked in the back of the building and about died when we saw Brian Regan's BUS parked right there... and it was RUNNING! We just had to take a picture in front of it! I'm not kidding, this picture is blurry because right as Natalie clicked the picture the DOOR OPENED on the bus! You should have seen Nat's face. She was ghost white, mouth open, silver dollar sized eyes, frozen. .... and then walks out Brian Regan's bus driver, chuckling at us. HAHA. That was a dirty trick! I thought we were going to get to meet him! The show did not disappoint. He was hilarious, as always. I loved his new material!

Brian Regan's bus and "concert sign" (inside joke)

YAY-YUH!

 

 

He looked sharp!

The next morning we parted ways. There was a storm coming so everyone wanted to get an early start on it. To say it was fun was an understatement. It was just something I needed, and it did not disappoint! My sister's teenaged daughter told her that when we get together we act like teenagers. HAHA. Kayla, you have no idea. ; )

Ta-da!

Oh my gosh. This just happened about 10 minutes ago and I am still dying. I already called Randy and we had a good laugh about it, but that's still not enough. I need to share. I was thinking... well, it's not really appropriate to put on Facebook.... so I'll put it on my blog. :P ;)

I was just getting ready to put Collin down for naps and told him to come in his room and I'll change his bum. He got a huge smile on his face and went tearing down the hall into his room yelling "chanch ee bum!" Usually he's not that ecstatic about getting his diaper changed, so I was a little curious. Well, when I took off his pants I could see why. There was a poopy. And I didn't even smell it! That is very rare. I swear, I can smell it before he even poops.

Anyway, so I saw the poop at the bottom of his very wet dipe and was kind of mystified as to how I didn't notice, and was undoing the straps on his diaper and taking the front part down when Collin thrusts up his "front bum" as Macey calls it and yells "TA-DA!"


HAHAHAHAHA. He was so proud. Of what exactly, I'm not sure. The poop that I didn't smell, or his little boy parts. Either way, it was hilarious. Immediately I called Randy, and after a long laugh he says... "that's my boy". Not sure what to think about that exactly. ;)

Valentine's!

Growing up, Valentine's Day was always one of my favorite holidays. My mom would bring home a bouquet of helium balloons and a small gift for us. I love making the little holidays fun for my kids. I've carried on the tradition of the helium balloons and small gifts, too.

The night before Valentine's I was complaining that the house wasn't as clean as I would like because I had put a lot of time and effort into a project I was working on (my father-in-law's 75th birthday present) and had kind of neglected the housework. Well, the next morning I woke up to the sweet smell of PINE SOL! I looove the smell of Pine Sol. I got up and walked out in the kitchen. I couldn't believe my eyes. The piles of dishes were no longer on the counter and in the sink, the counters were spotless, and my feet were not sticking to the floor. ;) Randy had gotten up in the middle of the night to clean for me. Bless him! I couldn't have asked for a better gift. I was so exhausted and was not looking forward to cleaning up. While I was admiring, I noticed the bag of pancake mix on the counter along with some juice thawing. Hahaha. It didn't take me long to figure out that he had also planned on getting up early to make breakfast... but was too tired from cleaning to get up (welcome to my life). :) I thought it was so cute that I just HAD to make breakfast for him. I ended up making heart shaped waffles and the juice he had sitting out. I had the table set up all pretty, and had wrapped little presents in tissue paper for the kids and Randy to open. Macey got a new Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony), Collin got some Little People cars, and Randy got a Cabela's shooting game for the Wii. Wish I would have taken a picture.


During the day, I took the kids to the grocery store to pick out some balloons and to get some stuff to dip in chocolate. :) Macey and I had fun making a heart shaped cake, colored heart ice cubes, and decorating the table for when Daddy got home. Randy doesn't like making me cook on Valentine's Day, and I'm not going to lie, it's nice to have an excuse not to. So we decided he would bring Pei Wei (amazing Chinese food, it's my favorite!) home and we would eat by candle light. It was so fun. The kids LOVE Pei Wei too and were looking forward to it as much as I was. We were just waiting for the garage door to open! :) We ate dinner by candle light, and enjoyed our drinks with the colored ice cubes. Macey was so excited, she said "this is the best day ever!" Afterward we had the cake that Macey and I made and some ice cream. Usually after the kids are in bed, Randy and I will do a chocolate fondu by candle light, but we were so tuckered that we decided to do it the next day. I also burned a cd of all of our "songs" (so corny) from when we were dating and engaged. I made him dance with me. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of our day!

Right before Randy got home, getting the table ready. 

 You can kind of see the ice cubes. They were the favorite.

 Hi Randy.

 Macey loved that I let her be in charge of the sprinkles. Usually I don't allow her that much power. ;)

Macey's outfit I made for her preschool Valentine's Day party. I had so much fun making it. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Collin, though. He was wearing a "Heartbreaker" tee from Carter's.

And, of course, I can't do a holiday post without posting my decorations. ;)

Macey and I made a bunch of hearts to hang from the ceiling in her room. She LOVED it. She literally will go on her bed and stare at her ceiling. She was sad when I took them down today. 

 These are the crayon wax hearts from Martha Stewart's site. They're so pretty!

 My buffet. I made the rosette ball from crepe paper and printed off the subway art for free. I *love* that tree! A total score from Tai Pan. I have been looking for a small one like that since last year (for cheap)!

 Our heart tree.

Word of the day.

Bugged face.

I don't even remember what Macey was trying to do, but she was having a hard time. Finally she got really upset and yelled in frustration, "I'm like, so untarded!"

2010 Breakdown.

 Wow, I thought I posted this a while ago. Woops!

What a year 2010 was! Here's what happened with us:

Collin

• turned 1, had a small family party. The theme was monkey for the monkey!
• started talking
• started walking at 14 months
• got lots of teef
• started nursery in October
• loved to go to the day care and play with the other kids and toys at the rec center while I ran on the treadmill
• total outside boy
• developed a fascination/obsession with trucks, trains, and shapes
• looooooves his Grandpa's and Grandma!
• his favorite show was Yo Gabba Gabba, but has since discovered Team Umizoomi ("ZOOOMI"), but nothing can trump Baby Signing Time ("BEEBEE?!")
• finally, loves books. His favorite right now is There's a Wocket in my Pocket. He goes around the house saying "Wockeet? Pockeet! Neek? Seek! (Nink? Sink!)"
• finally, has a big enough attention span to sit down and do puzzles
• starting to say sentences, this morning he was surprised to see Daddy cause he's usually on his way to work when Collin wakes up, so when he saw him he looked at me and pointed at Randy and said "Wook! Da-ee!" He's also said "Dote chuch" (don't touch) and "I wuss ewe" (I love you). 
• Can count to 10! He thinks he can count to 20, though. After he says ten he says "can-ee!" (twenty! and also how he says candy)

Macey

•  started and graduated from Sunbeams! She loved her teachers.
• turned 4, had a princess birthday party with friends and had a castle cake!
• loves having friends over to play
• graduated from her 1st year of preschool from Miss Camalee's class! 
• developed a fascination with Scooby Doo, the only thing in her life that is not all girly
• obsessed over "decoraysh" and helping me decorate for the holidays 
• realized that she genuinely loves being a big sister and playing/sharing with her little brother (seriously, it's amazing how nice she is to him)
•  discovered her affinity for "sleepovers" (footed pajamas); she had serious 'tude when I had to box up her old ones from last winter. She kept trying to wear them during the SUMMER.
• gave swimming an actual try. Before we couldn't even get her to step foot into the water without her screaming, but we went a few times and she loved it.
• loves her Daddy-daughter and Mommy-daughter dates. We usually go to the dollar theater ("futer") and she eats it up!
• started talking with an accent, like, all the taam.
• started her last year of preschool (sniff sniff) and loves it with Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Rawlings and of course, all of her neighborhood friends! So far she's learned
• how to write her name correctly
• how to write and recognize the letters in the abc's, both capital and lowercase
• can sight read about 10 words and can sound words out, she is on the brink of reading! She is sooo close!
• counts time in sleeps. "how many sleeps until...."
• loooooves her Grandpa's and Grandma. I have to be careful when I tell her we're going to visit one of them because she literally cannot handle the wait. 
• Obsessed with drawing/coloring. She loves writing "thank you cards" to everyone she knows. 
• Her favorite shows right now are Scooby Doo, but will watch anything. She also loves Tangled (has seen it 3 times in "futers") and "Respectable Me"(Despicable Me)
• Is totally a cuddler, and I love it.  
• Is a total ham

DaNae 

• had a very hard time trying to control my stress and anxiety over the job search situation and the loss of our stocks
• started running again, finally. That helped my stress levels and anxiety a little.
• trained to run my first 5 miler!
• completed my first 5 miler! 
• ran in two other races, they were both 5k's that benefited cancer
• LOVED training outside on the trails by my house that are right next to the mountain 
• started  to count calories
• decided to go back to school and started in October
• when it got too cold outside to run, I started taking Collin to the rec center while Macey was at preschool so I could run on the treadmill and he could play at their day care
• have been kept very busy with taking care of the chillins, trying to keep a clean house, making dinners, doing laundry, carpooling, being a wife, exercising, oh yeah and SCHOOL. 
• at the end of the year, I had lost 33 lbs. I know, it sounds like a monstrous amount of weight, and you can kind of tell the difference, but I have more to go for sure before you can REALLY tell. I went from not being able to fit into my jeans to being able to fit in my jeans and almost ready to go down a size. I was hoping 30 lbs would make me look like I did in high school. Darn. ;) Yeah I don't think that can ever happen thanks to my awesome birthing hips.
• got 97%'s in both of my classes that I completed in December. Go me! 
• enjoyed being in charge of the monthly ward newsletter. That calling is right up my alley, I love it!

Randy

• had a hard time with stress about the job search situation, as well (but didn't show it as much as I did, he's good like that)
• his stress reliever has been fly fishing, it's his passion!
•  spent hours a day exhausting every lead, every job opening, etc. 
• worked the Census, that was.... interesting
• had his 10 year high school reunion in Logan, it was fun catching up with old friends and meeting new people! 
• had a job interview in Indiana (thank heavens he wasn't offered the job, because we would have had a REALLLLY hard time saying no. It was actually a blessing in disguise because he was offered the job in SLC 2 weeks later)
• finally, after 10 months of desperately searching, landed a job that has potential and he couldn't be happier! He loves going to work everyday!
•  has fun playing 'pick up basketball games' at the church twice a week
• liked trying to keep up with our yard and all the work it entails! He also made a new garden plot for us.
•  helped his brother build a monster skate ramp at his cabin
• built speaker stands and bookshelves for the kids' rooms
• also started watching his caloric intake and exercised more, he lost 20 lbs
• loved spending time with the fam outside, we went to a lot of parks for picnics and walks 
• sports, sports, and more sports. He is a big Jazz and BYU fan. We both are, but he is a die hard. 
• oh, and games. :) We went on a scrabble binge for a few weeks where that's what we would play every night. 
• enjoyed working with the 11 year old scouts and going on camp outs with them.  
 

2010 was a really challenging year for us, but we weathered the storms together and are looking forward to a bright 2011! Even though it was tough, we still managed to make a lot of good memories as a family and continued to have faith. And we accomplished a lot! We feel like we are where we are supposed to be in life and that is a great feeling!

 

Family Pictures.

The last time we had professional family pictures taken was when Macey was 3 months old. Yeah, we're awesome. The rest of our pictures were from our camera's tripod. ;) Oh, wait. We've had a couple taken by friends that were good, but you know what I mean. The last time we were all in a studio and paid for family pictures was when she was 3 months old. She's almost 5, by the way.

I was super excited because I've heard really good things about this studio and I was getting a $15 discount for booking in January. The kids' pictures turned out pretty good. I LOVE the ones of Collin, they are so him. But our family pictures left something to be desired. I was not thrilled. In fact, they are so not flattering for any of us that I will not be posting them. I'll probably even delete them from this computer. ;) The lighting was horrendous and our pose was even worse. To be completely fair though, Collin was an absolute nightmare to work with and there was another family there (whose kids just happened to be perfect little angels... jerks) so our photographer wasn't able to work with us as much as she probably wanted (needed) to. Well, I guess the family attempt wasn't a complete failure, we did get this that I think is ok. Still a little too close and cropped kind of weird (because it was such a close shot), but it works. We will be attempting another family photo op sometime soon... one that I can hang in the living room without being embarrassed. ;)

Here are my favorite pics of the kids:

Definitely some keepers, right? My favorites are the ones of Collin and his truck (his most favorite toy in the world), Macey doing her ballerina moves (in the outfit that I swear, was designed with Macey in mind, it is so her). Oh and of course of the two of them together. Especially the one where Collin has his hands in his mouth. Now you see why we call him the Bobo's? Such a monkey. In that same picture is a classic Macey face, too. I love pictures where they're not posed, ya know? They don't have to be smiling perfectly. I love seeing THEM. :)

Christmas Break.

We packed up and left for Logan on the 26th and stayed there until the 29th. The Slade family party was the night of the 26th. We played games and had a white elephant gift exchange where I was the hit of the night, if I do say so myself. I gave away my snuggie. Randy was not amused. ;) We went around the room that night sharing Christmas stories... of course we hadn't prepared one, so I got suckered into talking about my Mom and this time of year. It took me like 2 minutes to even start talking because I was dealing with ugly-cry-face, and when that happens you can't even understand me because my mouth is all contorted because I'm crying! It was embarrassing, but felt good to talk about it. I'm pretty sure I rambled because afterward I looked at Randy and asked if it made sense and he lovingly said "sorta". Haha! Oh well, I was told afterward that I got the point across and it was very touching. It came from the heart, that's all I can say. I hate when I cry and have to talk at the same time. The rest of the time we played games, visited, shopped, got massages (I know, life is hard right?) and visited some more.

Macey showing off her new necklace that came with a REAL pearl (that we had to dig out of the clam!)

 BAPA time!

Randy and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on the 28th. I had scored a killer deal on Priceline and booked a 4 star hotel for $45. Randy's parents graciously watched Collin and Macey so we could have some time to ourselves. We didn't even know what to do without our kids by our side, it was so funny! We went to the Logan Temple and did sealings, then went and had a nice quiet dinner at The Coppermill (my favorite, I was soo craving their rolls) and then enjoyed a peaceful night at the hotel. It's so weird not putting kids to bed, can I just say? We so loved the night off and with just each other. I know we're not the mushy gushy type, but I would marry him again in a second. He is such an amazing husband and dad. We have so much fun together! We spent the night reminiscing about our inside stories, how naive we were when we were dating and first got married, how silly we were etc. But what surprised us the most was how much we have gone through in just our 6 years of marriage and how we have weathered the storms together. He's my rock and my best friend. Love you, Randall!

On the 29th we furthered our trek up north to Idaho. My Dad had decided he was going to finish his basement and was in the process of recruiting people to come help with the drywall. Most of it was already done when we got there, but I did watch. And I'm pretty sure Randy drilled some holes. It was AWESOME to see it. My family is huge and this basement will be the perfect meeting place for us when it's finished. Our time in Idaho was spent visiting, shopping, more shopping (for Dad), and having fun with the fam! OH and I met up with my best friends from high school! I really cannot believe that that was the first time we all had met up SINCE high school. Almost 8 years ago. That's really sad. I'll admit most of it has been my fault since I'm in Utah and it's hard to break away when you're only visiting family in Idaho for a couple of days, but it was so nice to see them and catch up. I love those girls!

New Years Eve was spent at my sister Heather's house where we spent the whole time laughing, playing games, and stuffing our faces! It was a BLAST! We played Pit, Rock Band, and Just Dance 2 for hours. It was hilarious watching the men dance and get into it.

Randy and Rick whooping it up!

Our family party was on New Years Day. Everybody went swimming at Heise except for us. Pouty face. Besides not packing any swim suits, we couldn't go because Randy had recently had a cyst removal surgery that he was healing from and I had some moles removed and let's be honest... who knows what is in that water! We were bummed we couldn't be with the fam, but what can ya do. When everybody got back from swimming we had dinner and the gift exchange at my Dad's. It's always nice when we're all together. Except for Collin was an absolute TRAIN WRECK because we had been gone for a week at that point and he had missed that day's nap and was sooooooo onry and I was soooo done with it.

I think everyone was so glad they were not Collin's parents that night

 See my eyes? So done. Thankfully a good night sleep cured his onry.

It was a memorable break, but I think 8 days gone with little kids is too much. We were lucky that we were able to do that, though. Randy's bosses weren't working all break so he had no reason to go in, so he had the whole break off of work! Don't know if that will be the case every year, but I doubt it. When we finally got home Macey said "Wow, I forgot how much I love our house!" Haha. Not me! Nothing beats your own bed (and separate rooms for the kids)!! Here is what our trip home looked like:

He fell asleep playing with his new laptop. So cute!

 Nodding off.

 8 days of scruff.

This is how we left my Dad. The holidays wear him out, too. Poor guy. :)