Twelve

All day today we celebrated the fact that twelve years ago today (seriously, twelve?!),
our incredible Matt joined our family. And we have been thankful every day since. 

He wanted to start with the sibling toilet paper roll of love. It did not disappoint.

And I meant to have him open up his birthday drone last, but mixed up which
gift bag was which in my mind. Whoops. He might have loved it a lot anyway.

I love that my kids are this happy to receive books for their birthday.

Another book. It was a different kind of subject that took a minute to figure out.

An orange ukulele. Of course.

 

And some assistance in learning to play his brightly, colored ukulele.

He spent the good part of his day flying his drone outside. It is a little camouflaged here.

And my favorite photo of his time spent outside. That thing can certainly fly high.

Oh this handsome boy and his awesome and amazing self.

And finally some cake bites with his twelve candles. He just really makes me happy.

We just love our Matt a whole lot. And are so grateful he is ours

7th grade

Seventh grade registration. Sweet waffles, how are we here already? For the third time.

But in all honesty, I am incredibly excited for Matt. He is going to really enjoy junior high.
And do incredibly well. I can feel it in my bones. Love this boy a whole lot.

Another birthday for this incredible guy

Happy Birthday to the one I love! There is no one that makes me laugh more, try more
or love more than this man. He is the kindest person I know and has the greatest heart
of anyone I have ever met. He loves his kids something crazy and I am often overwhelmed
with gratitude because he picked me. Happy, Happy Birthday Love! Thank you for you.

Saturday afternoons and work proposals

Doesn't this look like a super fun Saturday afternoon? Actually it wasn't bad at all.
Because the hours I spent helping Jacob on this project were totally worth it,
for several reasons. First, because maybe now he will be coming home before 12:30am.
Second, submitting the biggest project proposal he has ever worked on is just a fabulous
accomplishment. And last, I will take any time spent with my husband. I adore him.

Plus, we went out after and got an early start to celebrating his birthday.
It was a good day all around.

An afternoon at the Dinosaur Park

Priesthood preparation

This incredible guy had an interview with our bishop yesterday, in preparation
for receiving the priesthood in a few short days. I'm so proud of our Matt
and the person he chooses to be. Being his mom is one really cool job.

February phone pics

I loved listening to my amazing mom speak about the temple to a group of girls Annie's age in our
church at the beginning of February. It was so kind of my mom to take the time and of course,
she had a beautiful table setting to go along with her touching presentation. Also, hearing my
cute niece share what the temple means to her was equally as wonderful. Oh, and I definitely
can't forget my darling dad who sat with my {mostly} sleeping littles so I could be there.

This is the cute picture I took of Annie the day after she had found out that she had been chosen as
one of only two 8th graders to represent her junior high as a National Junior Honor Society officer.
I am so incredibly proud of Annie's good choices and her hard work and mostly, her amazing heart.
It meant so much to her, and to her mom, that so many of her peers would vote for her. And as I
already mentioned, the talk she delivered at the NJHS induction night was pretty fabulous. 

I've never really been one that is traumatized by getting older or thinks too much about my age.
Until the moment I saw this photo. Sweet chicken, we are lucky the house didn't burn down.

Only you can prevent wild fires. I'm looking at you Linn Allen.

This handsome guy was asked to Sadie Hawkins at the beginning of February.

And the cute girl had asked in such a creative way. Spoiler alert: He said yes.

Jacob and I don't buy each other gifts for Valentine's Day. (My fault, I think it is silly.)
But I couldn't resist buying this lovely guy and putting him on our bed while Jacob was gone to a
church meeting the morning of Valentine's. Oh man, it made my day. Yes, I do think I am hilarious.

It was a Connect Four kind of morning this particular day.

And this, as you can clearly see, is the coolest 6th grade DARE graduate I know.
Love this boy something crazy. And his good heart and the great choices he has always made.

All the credit for this picture that I love so very much goes to Annie and
her fabulous photographer self. And the cuteness of a little two-year-old I know.

Family history birthday celebrations

A fabulous friend shared the most amazing idea a few weeks ago (thanks Adri!) and I knew

immediately it was something our family wanted to do. So tonight, we held our very first family
history birthday celebration and I don't have words for how sweet the experience was for us.

This Thursday would have been Jacob's grandma's birthday. And in honor of her and her amazing

self, we spent some time tonight learning more about her, looking at pictures of her and eating some
of her favorite foods. I was not prepared for how sweet it would be for our family to share that or to
remember the incredible kindness and goodness of Grandma Alice. More than one of the stories
shared by her sons (I had sent a questionnaire out to each of them) made me emotional. And the last
story neither Jacob or I could read, because of how it made us cry. We had to ask Campbell to read it.

I'm so grateful for the wonderful idea of a dear friend and the prompting that our family should
follow her lead. And I cannot wait to celebrate the life of each of our eight grandparents throughout
this year. I can't think of anything better to do with my time. What an incredible blessing.

A girl and her horse

More dance photos

I mentioned that Campbell went on a dance date this past Saturday. With a cute girl that attends
a different high school and invited him to join her for their Sweethearts Dance. Well, a few days
after it happened, the mom of his date sent some really darling photos she took before the dance.
And I wanted to share a few because they were just really well done. And someone in this
family happens to love photography and wanted them as a part of our family history.

Would you like to venture a guess as to who had the idea to do the Dab behind
these unsuspecting girls? Yeah, that oldest child of mine. I seriously love him.

My Valentines

Sweethearts Dance

Another dance. Another cute girl.
Another reminder of the handsomeness of our Campbell.
And my oldness.

This can stop any time now. Thanks in advance.

National Junior Honor Society

Tonight, Jacob and I attended the induction ceremony for the National Junior Honor Society
at Annie's school. Which would be neat, in and of itself, but the fact that Annie was elected
as one of only two eighth graders to be a NJHS officer for her school, made it all the
more fun. And hearing Annie deliver her talk at the ceremony was even better. 

We adore this girl. A lot. She is darling and funny and brilliant and hardworking and beautiful.

 Waiting to begin and hiding her nervousness well.

 And listening to the other speakers.

 It was finally her turn and her talk was fabulous.

 You can't tell she was relieved to be finished can you?

And one last picture of these three close friends.

It was a good night. With a darling girl. We are so proud of Annie and the person she chooses to be.

Ben's special day

 

 

 

Today was one of the sweetest days of my life. I'm so grateful for our darling Ben and for
how prepared he was to be baptized and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I could tell how
important it was to him and talking to him afterwards about how he felt made me cry. This boy
is incredible. I'm so thankful for him and for his five siblings and their dad. I'm truly grateful
for friends and family who supported our Benjamin today. It was just a wonderful, wonderful day.

Ben's 8th birthday party

Last Saturday, Ben has his long-awaited eighth birthday party and it seemed to be a hit.

The boys that attended were hilarious and fun and our darling Benjamin was so happy.

A rousing game of pin the basketball on the basketball hoop.

These cute boys had fun trying to build the tallest structure
they could with toothpicks and marshmallows.

And then on to some sports bingo.

Followed by a crazy game of sticker tag in our basement rec room.

Planning an indoor birthday party is not for the faint of heart, but everyone seemed to
have fun and Ben was as thrilled as can be, so we will call it a win. Fun times for sure.

Partner

This handsome guy was promoted to partner at the beginning of the year.

I'm so incredibly proud of him. He is one of the hardest workers I know. He just
goes about it quietly and humbly, so few people know just how much he puts into
his career. He loves his job and every single day, he helps good to happen in the world.

It is the privilege of my life to be married to him.


(And maybe someday he will forgive me for bragging about him. I can't help it. He is something else.)