12 x 13 on the 14th.

I forgot 12x12 this month, but remembered on the 13th. So I did it the 13th instead.

So it's 12 pictures on the 13th of March, posted on the 14th.

Enjoy a day in the life!

1. My morning buddies who crawl into bed with me and want some attention

2. Someone found the iPad... and went to town playing Toy Story

3. My new front loaders and the folding counter Ryan installed this weekend. Love them, love him!

4. blogging

5. Trying to pick the best color shirt

6. We picked one

7. Driving slow to see the buffalo up the street from our house

8. A surprise found on our doorstep

9. How cute is she?

10. Picking Lily up from school

11. Impressions at the ortho

12. Homework with stellbellz

women's conference 2012.

"As women become pure and holy they will have a marked influence upon the world" -Joseph Smith

This year I spent my birthday decorating for our stakes (church) women's conference (theme above). When they originally asked me to be in charge of the decorating I didn't realize it was going to be the morning after my birthday. I do have to say that although I spent my entire birthday at the church, I had an amazing amount of love and support from family and friends. In the end it really was a great birthday.

 Ryan hung strands of lights and pom poms/lanterns/poufs all over the gym for me. The hope was to bring the ceiling down and detract from the basketball hoops etc. While the pictures show all the things I wanted to disguise, I do feel like in real life the lights and poms were indeed effective. 

 Each table had three glass jars. We primarily used ranunculus for the centerpieces. I thought they were beautiful.

We had white tablecloths and burlap runners, I LOVED the burlap.

We tied each end of the runner with twine, it was a simple touch, but I thought it added a lot.

We had a clementine on each place setting. My friend Tamara designed, punched out and assembled 300 tags with different parts of the theme on them. It was the perfect pop of color for the tables.

The table looks slightly bare in this picture, however, we needed room for the large salad platter, chips, salsa and rolls, and Mr. Photographer was gone by the time the lunch was actually served.

 This was the pouf cluster hanging above the dessert table. I loved the impact.

The cupcakes turned out amazing (I was not in charge of those), and Tamara and I had a great time assembling all those white cake stands! (Try to ignore the large teal curtain.. no way to disguise that bad boy!)

We made these tags to identify the cupcakes. Just a simple piece of ribbon with a label. Lots of people commented on the tags. I thought they looked lovely if I do say so myself.

Overall I loved the way the whole thing turned out. Given an unlimited budget and all the time in the world it may have been easier to transform the gym, but I feel like we did a lot with a little. I had the worlds best committee, friends and family who all chipped in and made it possible. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Now, I'm going to sleep... well just as soon as my receipts are turned in and my report is written :)

Stella's Big Date.

It was dusk when the phone rang, I heard Ryan on the other end, but he wasn't hoping to talk to me, instead he asked to speak to Stella. She timidly took the phone from my hands but her reservations melted away as soon as she heard her daddy's voice.

"Stella, would you like to go on a date with me tonight?"

Her smile made me wonder if her cheeks would burst. She ran up the stairs yelling "This is going to be the best night of my life." After a few minutes she was back in the kitchen wearing what she considered to be her fanciest dress. "Mommy, can you pleeaaase make my hair like a princess? I want to look beautiful when daddy gets home." I set down my screaming baby and turned all my attention to Stella. Tonight was her night to feel like the most important girl in the world. We curled her hair while she told me 153 interesting facts, everything from how many boyfriends she has to how the flat iron curls look different from the curling iron curls. When the curling was done, we twisted and pinned until she exclaimed "Do you think daddy will think I'm as beautiful as a princess?" She asked for lipgloss and that black stuff for your eyes and I couldn't resist.

By the time her daddy walked through that door, her eyes were sparkling and so were mine.. but for very different reasons, and to answer her question.. I'm absolutely certain her daddy thought she was even more beautiful than a princess.

In Stella's words:

Where did you go on your date? Cheesecake Factory

What did you order? Those things with like burgers but with chicken strips and a bun on the top and on the bottom and I got Lasagna too.

What did you have for dessert? I got chocolate cake.

What did you talk about on your date? We talked about when I was little, and daddy told me a couple stories.

What was your favorite part of the date? Eating the chocolate cake and being with daddy and just me and riding in his car.

Anything you want to tell me about your date? I loved my date. It was SO much fun. The end.

Finn at THREE!

5 days old

What is your favorite color? ORANGE

What is your favorite food? BANANA

(I say: smoothies, pizza and cookies)

What is your favorite show? DIEGO

(I say: Backyardigans, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Little Einsteins)

What is your favorite movie? TOY STORY

(agreed!)

What is your favorite thing to do? RIDE MY BIKE

What is your favorite song? SNUGGLE PUPPY

(a book that's a song)

1st Birthday

What makes you happy? STARS (glow in the dark on his ceiling)

(I say: Scarlet, Stella and Lily, when his daddy comes home, playing outside, when the neighbor boys play with you and playgroup)

What is your favorite book? Belly Buttons

(I say: Click Clack Moo, Toy Story, Puff the Magic Dragon and Snuggle Puppy)

What is your favorite game? ANGRY BIRDS

(I say: Angry Birds and Dora on the computer)

What do you like to listen to when you are riding in the car? TAYLOR SWIFT

(so true, his sisters are obsessed and he can sing all the words. Hilarious!)

2nd Birthday

What is your favorite toy? BATON (like Leo has in Little Einsteins)

I say: Buzz, Woody, Toy Story Garbage Truck, cars, trains and squinkies

Where is your favorite place to go? SUNNYSIDE DAYCARE!

(I say: Chuck E Cheese, anywhere in Daddy's car, Target, the park, swimming and playgroup)

3rd birthday

What is your favorite treat? CANDY

(I say: cookies)

 What makes you sad? MONSTER

(I say: not getting your own way)

Mr. Finn. You are my favorite part of every day. I love your funny personality, your bright smile, your beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. I love you like I never imagined. It is so different than the way I love your sisters (not more, not less, just different). We have a special bond, you are my buddy, you are always telling me that we are best friends and I love it. We are best friends right now. We spend all our days together. You help me cook, you help me clean, you help take care of Scarlet. You are a great boy, and I am thankful every day to have you as my son!

Toy Story Mania!!

Finn's Birthday was yesterday, but his party was this morning. This was his first friend party.  I was feeling an immense amount of mom guilt because by this point the girls were on their 3rd major party. I wanted to make sure he felt really special. He is obsessed with Buzz and Woody and Toy Story in general. The idea of character parties is not my favorite but I knew nothing would make him happier. He loved the Toy Story ride at Disneyland so I decided to make the party a little more carnival and a little less character.

I found these invitations on a blog and was going to attempt to do my own version, but realized she had them available to download for free. I added my own red stripe in photoshop and printed them off. I love when people are generous.

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a party with signs similar to these and made my own in photoshop. I already had the aqua arrows from a newspaper bunting I'd made for a previous party.

I raided my fabric scraps looking for the birthday colors. I was lazy so I just cut them out with pinking shears and used mini close pins to attach them to some rickrack. My kind of project. Easy!!

I printed the subway art from the eighteen25 girls and brought down some of Finn's favorite toys for the entryway. Can you spot the birthday boy?

Here's a close up of the toys.

The table in the early set up stages.

We colored and put stickers on rockets and flew them with straws.

We hid 100 army men all over the downstairs and they went on a hunt for the army guys.

My friend Ashley lent me her giant board to make into a balloon popping station. They popped the balloons and candy/bandaids/confetti fell out. Notice the blue balloon that clearly had a slow leak in it

 

Marshmallow shooters were among the favorites for the kids. They were hilarious flinging marshmallows all over the house. I loved it when one of them dumped quite a few in, pulled the balloon back and they shot right in his face. He laughed and laughed.

We had Finn's choice for lunch. Hot dogs, chips, squeezer yogurts and lemonade. I made a big cake that did not turn out all that cute, and then LGM (or Alien Green Guys as Finn calls them) cupcakes.

Blowing out his birthday candles.

And finally, if you are still with me, here were the take home boxes (as seen on my cousin Jamie's blog). They were filled with Buzz Lightyear notepads, rolling stamps, stickers, toy story pez dispensers, etc.

I felt like his party could not have gone better. The boys were great, everything ran smoothly, we had the right amount of structured games, and some free time. I took it easy on myself in the food department and the kids liked it and I wasn't as stressed as usual.

It was really fun to see Finn soak it all in. I purposely did the party during Scarlet's nap time and while the older girls were at school so it was all about him. He spends most of his life overshadowed by his older sisters or watching them be in the spotlight.

Finn was SO happy. He hugged us over and over and said Thank You 102 times. It made the whole thing worth it. I sure do love that boy!

stella.

Because my dad encouraged me to document this little story...

Stella 5 years old.

The following conversation took place on Monday 2/20 between the hour of 8 and 9 am.

ME: "Stella run go grab an outfit for Finn and bring it downstairs."

Stella: "MOM, WHY do I need to do that right now?"

ME: "because we might be going to do something fun right after breakfast and we need to be ready."

Stella: "What? Are we going to go VOTE again or something?" (We took them to the Mitt Romney Rally a couple weeks ago for FHE, where apparently she thought she voted??)

ME: laughing

Stella: MOM, SERIOUSLY... Do you not know it's President's Day?

I was laughing about it all day. I sure do LOVE this kid of mine!

12x12 and I'm on a roll.

12x12 two months in a row. I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

Thank heavens for cell phone cameras, they make my life so much easier than 

when I was trying to haul around Ryan's monster camera.

1. Making homemade pudding to take to dinner Sunday night 

2. Lily's pancakes she made while I was making pudding 

3. Stella thought cowboy boots would go perfect with her Valentine dress choice. She was pretty cute if I do say so myself.

4. Mr. Finn all ready for church

5. Coloring during sacrament

6. Sisters. Love!

7. Sweet Scarlet getting ready to fall asleep

8. Ryan lounging

9. Reading Stella's "I can read" notebook with her

10. Music practice

11. Finishing up Lily's Valentine's. It took everything in me to buy store bought Valentine's but they really really wanted them.

12. Icing my foot that I'm hoping I didn't break or fracture rolling it after stepping on Ryan's snow boot. I'm sure my collapse to the garage floor was incredibly graceful. Good thing I was alone :)