My Special Valentines

I was so lucky this Valentine's Day because I had 3 Valentines!! It was such a fun day this year, because Peyton was really into the holiday, since she had been talking about it in school. I got up and made her a special Valentine's Day breakfast, and let her open a Valentine from me, then she went to school, where they had a Valentine's Day party and exchanged Valentines. I went to ab-lab and pilates (and felt left out because I was one of the only women not wearing pink or red- oops) then picked up my girl. Peyton was SO happy to open her heart-envelope that she painted and go through each of her Valentines. She carefully pulled them out, one at a time, and asked me to read each one. Then one by one she put them all back. She was seriously treasuring each one. It was precious. We ran a couple errands, then made sure to be home in time for daddy. Jade brought in a bunch of grocery sacks and sent me out of the room, while he started to get dinner ready. He called Peyton in to help him, and surprised me with matching pink aprons for Peyton and I (which he and Peyton were wearing- so cute!). Then they cooked a delicious dinner of steaks, asparagus, mashed potatoes, grilled corn on the cob, and salad. And for dessert, we had a red velvet cake! It was such a great evening, and I was glad to have 3 wonderful Valentines to spend it with.

:

:

Piper discovered her toes, and of course loves them.

Peyton has come up with some gorgeous faces lately...

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

(She was playing dress-ups with some of my old dresses [they are treasures!])

Peyton chose her church outfit all by herself. She looks like a celebrity to me in this picture. Like "no photos, please" with the sunglasses and smirk.

Loving on Tinky

We did Valentine's Day nails, too- red with white hearts. I couldn't help myself!

She was so happy to eat off the Valentine's Day placemat, plates and glass. She had been eyeing them all February. And she LOVED the pink milk.

I had to post the cute Valentine's Day hair. Thank you, Pinterest.

She was very serious about going through her Valentines.

More preschool projects! My favorites were the love-bug and the sparkly snowflake.

Jade's big 3-0.

My honey turned 30 this year! I wanted to do something really special for him... but what? He's not really into parties, and he is almost impossible to surprise. He is always doing things for other people, so I really wanted to organize the perfect birthday for him. When we went on our cruise 2 years ago with Jeremy and Kristin, he became obsessed with the FlowRider surf simulator. He's been dying to do it again sometime. There is only 1 FlowRider in Oregon, in SunRiver (a little vacation town about 4 hours away from Portland). I decided to rent a big house and invite Jade's best friends and their wives to SunRiver for the weekend, with the main event being our group having the FlowRider to ourselves for 3 hours. I was SO excited about this plan. It was perfect for Jade. Low key, not too many people, and doing something he loves. Everyone was going to be able to make it, and everything was reserved and ready. 2 weeks before the big day, Jade busted his kneecap playing church basketball. Panic ensued. I didn't know what to do- cancel/reschedule the whole trip? But everything was already arranged, and the house was already paid for. Go anyway but have Jade not be able to ride the FlowRider? Wouldn't that be depressing for him? After a few tear-filled conversations with my mom (I don't do well when my plans get ruined) and a good conversation with Justin and Jeremy, I decided we would still go, we'd still have a super fun weekend all together, we just wouldn't rent the FlowRider. It would still be a great time.

I needed to make sure Jade wouldn't plan anything that weekend, so in the beginning of January, I had his brothers plan a fake trip to Arizona for the 3 of them. Jade was really sad when he busted his knee, and they "postponed" their trip. I still needed him to be free, so they told him they would still be getting together that weekend, just locally. Jeremy originally thought Jade was a little suspicious of the "Arizona trip", so I decided to help sell the story a little bit by getting into a fight with Jade about him leaving again (don't worry- it wasn't a big fight, more like a little nagging). I told him that Jeremy had called me and asked if we had plans the weekend after Jade's birthday, and when I told him "no", Jeremy said that was great because they were going to take him to AZ for the weekend. I told Jade that I felt backed into a corner, like I couldn't say anything without looking like the bad guy. I told Jade that I thought he had known about the trip for awhile and was just keeping it all secret from me. That is when Jade immediately dropped all suspicion and actually believed the story. He started getting a little defensive (rightfully so) because I kept implying that he was in on the plan. He was so insistent, and even offered to watch the girls for one weekend, if Ashley, Kristin and I wanted to go on a trip of our own. My [kind of mean] strategy worked! He was off our tail!

The big day came, and I had the whole surprise planned out. He left work early to "meet Jeremy and Justin at our house for their surprise lunch". When he came home, Peyton was already at my friend Stephanie's (where she spent the weekend), but I told Jade she was at a play date. While he was "waiting for Jeremy and Justin" he was inside the house, and I had all our bags in the bed of his truck, where our friends John and Katie snuck them into the back of their SUV. Jade opened the garage to work on a project, and Katie was standing by her car in the driveway (he didn't see John). I told him that Katie and I were going to lunch together. Meanwhile, John snuck up behind Jade and was wearing a hilarious costume. Jade laughed so hard. He had no idea what was going on, because the 2 of them had just worked out together that morning, and John told Jade he had a busy work day. John also asked him what his plans for the weekend were (just fishing around), and Jade was absolutely clueless! He said he thought he was going to do something with his brothers; lunch Friday and maybe doing their airsoft guns on Saturday. John said he was positive that Jade didn't have the slightest hint about the surprise. So Jade wondered what John was doing at our house, and we told him that what we were really going to do was go out to lunch, the 4 of us (and Piper). I said his brothers were going to have him most of the weekend, so I wanted to do a little special lunch with him before he left. Then we started driving toward SunRiver. We kept talking about where we were going to stop for lunch, and eventually as we were getting pretty far on the other side of town, Jade wondered what was really going on. So we told him that because his brothers postponed their trip, I felt bad and planned a little weekend getaway, and John and Katie were able to come, too. We didn't tell him where we were going, but as we passed Salem, he guessed that we were going to Eagle Crest, where Justin and Ashley have a vacation home (it's close to SunRiver). Once we passed the turn off to Eagle Crest, he guessed where we were really going. We got to the house, and Jade started commenting about how it was nice, but really big. I played dumb a little bit, and told him that it didn't look this big online. Kind of sad, but he believed that I accidentally rented a 16 person house for just the 4 of us. Katie sent the boys to the grocery store for some last minute supplies for dinner, and Justin, Ashley, Frank, Lacie, Jon and Ellen all arrived. We had them hide their cars, and hide in one of the bedrooms. When the guys got home from the store, Katie and I had decorated the house with some birthday decorations, and I said "Surprise, Jade!" Then I told him that I brought his real birthday present and had hidden it in the house somewhere. I told him to go find it. He started opening doors and things and when he got to the right room and turned on the light, everyone yelled at him! He was literally stunned. I thought he was going to cry; he was a little choked up. Not too much later, Jeremy, Kristin, JaNea, Nipper, Trevor and Brittney all showed up. We had a big dinner and then we played a Jade BINGO game that I had made. Everyone also wrote something they love about Jade on one of his school pictures. We had cake and ice cream and stayed up late hanging out. Saturday everyone slept in, then mostly everyone went to the big gym that is in the Village. Then we just spent the day at the house; playing games, sitting in the hot tub, playing ping pong, watching a movie, napping, etc. It was so nice and relaxing and fun! That night we had dinner at this Italian restaurant, then went to an old fashioned chocolate/candy/ice cream shop and got dessert. We stayed up late again and enjoyed being child-free (except the babies). I had a great weekend, and I know Jade did, too. Really the only thing that could have made it better would have been if we could have done the FlowRider! I was so happy to be able to pull off a huge surprise for him. He certainly deserves it. Happy 30th Birthday, babe!

Had to take a picture of all the cute pictures I had blown up:

This was when he was looking for his present. I'm pretty sure he was saying "Is this going to be something super gay?"

If I would have been thinking more clearly, I would have had someone in the room have the camera.

Piper and Layla

Dinner

Peyton's 3[1/2] Year Interview

I decided it would be fun to interview my kids every year on their birthday, to see how their answers change and which stay the same. I missed Peyton's birthday, so here is her 3.5 year interview. And hopefully the beginning of a tradition I can remember to keep going!

1. What is your favorite color? "(no hesitation or pause) Pink."

2. What is your favorite toy? "Um…the one that I broke. The bug jar." (I'm pretty sure she only said this one because it was fresh on her mind. She had just broken it the day I interviewed her. The toys she plays with most are her favorite baby doll, Jennifer, and her dress up jewelry.)

3. What is your favorite fruit? "Raspberries"

4. What is your favorite TV show? "The Land Before Time" (She's only watched it one time, and she probably only watched about 20 minutes of it total.)

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? "Yogurt"

6. What is your favorite outfit? "I like… hmm… the grey shirt" (She has a long sleeve Janie and Jack shirt that is grey and has ruffles on it. She always wants to wear it. She also has a beige sweater with a little bit of gold threading through it that she loves, and any of her tights. However, if I would have asked her this question back in June, I'm positive she would have said her "chomper" which means this cute little romper that she has in 2 colors.)

7. What is your favorite game? "Gator golf"

8. What is your favorite snack? "Granola bars"

9. What is your favorite animal? "Coyote" (This surprised me!)

10. What is your favorite song? "Your wedding video ones" (Which song on my wedding video) "All of them."

11. What is your favorite book? "The book of Mormon" (Oh my goodness CUTE! Primary is doing good for her, already!)

12. Who is your best friend? "Abbie Banton"

13. What is your favorite cereal? "Dad's cereal" (Peanut Butter Captain Crunch that we make a really special treat for her)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Blow bubbles"

15. What is your favorite drink? "Diet Coke" (Oh my goodness! I actually don't think she's ever had Diet Coke. If I had to answer this one for her, I'd say it is chocolate milk out of the milk boxes she drinks with a straw.)

16. What is your favorite holiday? "I like where we can watch a parade, and they get us all wet on the 4^th of July."

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "Blankets" (Her first answer to this question was "a teddy bear", but I made her answer again, because she has never taken a teddy bear to bed with her! I'm not quite sure why she said that. She has a quilt and a soft minky blanket that she uses, plus her little minky 'face blankie' and binky, and my mom's pillow that she gave Peyton to comfort her when she misses her.)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? "Swedish pancakes with whip cream and syrup"

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? "Rice cereal"

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? "I want to be a volleyball team" (Her Aunt Cheyanne plays volleyball, and she thinks it's pretty awesome. Also, Jade took her to see her cousin Macie and friend Madeline play in a volleyball tournament once, and she's talked about playing when she gets bigger ever since.)

Things, and Stuff

I said it last February, and I'll say it again- I hardly have any documentation of the beginning of the year, every year. I know we don't do that much in January, but really I should have at least a post or two! I figured out why it is always this way- every January I make our yearly scrapbook, which consumes 100% of my free time (which isn't a lot to begin with). So, without further ado, here's what we've been up to...

Piper had her 4 month checkup. It kind of makes me sad that she's not a newborn anymore. She did great with her shots- a little crying, and the most accusatory look [at me] I've ever seen- but other than that, no big deal. She was 13 pounds, 6 oz (48th percentile), 24.25" (48th percentile), and her head circumference was 42 cm (77th percentile). Piper is one solid little girl! One of my favorite things is changing her (clothes and even diapers), because I get to kiss on the cutest little thigh rolls that she has! I call them rhinoceros thighs, because they're short, thick, and rolly. I LOVE them.

I feel like I'm somewhat getting the hang of life with 2 babies, though I still can't manage to make it anywhere on time.

Peyton has started gymnastics and ballet again. She's loving preschool and seems to excel (socially, if not academically).

Jade and I went away 2 weekends back-to-back; his birthday weekend (more on that later) and also for his annual yearly "kickoff" for New York Life, as well as the award ceremony for 2011. We went to the Allison hotel in Newberg, OR again. It's the only 5-star hotel in the state. It was gorgeous! Last time, we only went for dinner, then came home. This time the company gave us a suite for 2 nights, and Jeremy and Kristin and Dennis and Marianne each took Peyton one night, so we could go [almost] alone. We had such a great time. Friday night was a special "club" dinner with 8 agents plus their spouse and the Senior Partner and his wife. It was SO GOOD. Really. The menu was incredible- everything they serve is from local sources, organic and made from fresh, whole ingredients. At the cocktail hour, I ordered a hot chocolate, and it was made from scratch! I can't begin to describe how good it was. It even had homemade cinnamon marshmallows on the side. Wow. With cocktails, they had seafood appetizers including a seafood pizza [gross]. To start, you could choose from a green salad with dried cherries, red onions, roasted filberts and pecorino, or celeriac soup. Jade had the salad and I had the soup. The soup was really good- it had a little house-cured ham with it and a guanciale croquette. For entrees, you could choose between mushroom gnocchi with creme fraiche, porcini crusted halibut, a trio of rabbit (braised leg, loin involtini, and rabbit bacon-parsnip cassoulet), or grilled Wagyu Strip Loin with chanterelles, swiss chard and smoked pearl onions. Jade got the rabbit and really enjoyed it, I got the steak and savored every bite. The desserts were amazing, too. You could choose between Soft Chocolate Pinot Cake with chocolate sauce, earl grey caramel and homemade vanilla bean gelato or a Key Lime Marshmallow Tartlet or Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding. Jade and I both had the cake. It was to die for. I had to go back to the room with Piper, so Jade had the waiter deliver it to our room. I was glad to eat it in privacy, because I pretty much licked the plate. So, sorry to turn into such a foodie there, but needless to say, dinner was pretty darn good. Saturday Jade had meetings all day, so Piper and I just stayed in and didn't do a thing. It was fantastic. We slept in, and when Piper napped, I napped. It was so relaxing! That night we had the year kickoff dinner, with all the Oregon New York Life-rs. Jade won 4 awards this year: New Organization Agent of the Year (3rd year in a row!), Investment Annuity Leader, All Star of the Year, and 2nd Prior Class Leader (meaning the leader of all the guys that started in the same year as him). I'm so proud of him! He works so hard- probably he has the best work ethic of anyone I know. Sunday, Jade, Piper and I all slept in until 8:40, and we had to hurry home so we wouldn't be late to church. We couldn't believe we slept so late!

On January 25th, Jade turned 30! He is officially old! Because I had a big surprise planned for him, we spent his actual birthday in a pretty low-key fashion. We did what we have done the last 3 years in a row; went to Outback Steakhouse with our friends Lacie and Frank (who shares Jade's birthday).

Peyton, Piper and I have stayed busy at the Children's Museum, Pump it Up, Jr., and story time, and I have been at the gym as often as I'm able. I kind of gave up exercising at about month 5 of my pregnancy, so once I got the "all-clear", I knew I needed to get back into the habit of regular exercise. It's easier said than done though. My new motto has been "It's easier to exercise one hour a day than feel out of shape for 24" as well as "strong is the new skinny". I'm working on it.

Jade busted his kneecap playing basketball at the church one night. It's the same leg as the ankle that he broke playing flag football 2 years ago, then had to have surgery on last December. Thankfully, he didn't have any major ligament damage, so he won't have to have surgery. He is just in a straight brace 24 hours a day, so the knee won't bend at all. The only good thing about this injury is that he can still drive, unlike last year, when his brothers and I had to chauffeur him around everywhere.

Also, my trusty phone from 2005 finally bit the dust, so I caved and got myself an iPhone. It does lots of cool things, I just don't know how to do any of them yet. I'm going to go take iPhone classes at the Verizon store with all the old people.

Well, I think that about sums it up. Happy beginning of 2012!!

:

:

If you would have told me back in October or November (or even December) that Piper was going to turn out to be such a happy, smiley, sweet little baby, I would not have believed you. But sure enough, she is a lover-girl! She has a great little temperament.

I feel like I'm always posting pictures like this, but really Tink is so obsessed with Jade. Here she is cuddling him:

Gotta love the preschool masterpieces! My favorite is on the bottom-left: "lego prints on L"

R.I.P., little buddy

Peyton was so excited about her daddy's birthday. We went to the cupcake shop and she picked out some mini-cupcakes for him. Then we sang to him when he got home from work, and gave him his presents.

Birthday boys

Blurry picture, but I tried to catch a shot of Peyton trying to ride Tink.

Lastly, Peyton "nursing" her baby, Jennifer.

She caught me snapping the picture

Pictures

Christmas week.

Our Christmas was super relaxing this year because we didn't have to travel. I was a little sad about spending my first Christmas away from my family, but it was really nice not having to go to the airport Christmas morning to do 2 Christmases. We started off with Christmas Eve lunch at Jade's parents' house. Jade's mom made traditional German Christmas food for everyone. We had the whole spread- potato pancakes with applesauce, brats, sauerkraut, stollen, brotchen, everything. I love honoring their heritage, and I love the tradition of it, but I really am glad I'm American, because I couldn't survive on that stuff (I'm just the teensiest bit picky, you could say). I did love the rolls and the pancakes (without the applesauce), but I was really bummed I missed out on my family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner of turkey/stuffing/mashed potatoes. After lunch and lots of chaotic family fun at grandma's (keep in mind there are 16 kids under 12 in our family), we all went home for the night. We let Peyton open Piper's and her matching Christmas jammies, then Jade and I thought it would be fun to take her to the Portland International Raceway to see the 20 minute drive-through light set-up they have. WRONG. About 45 seconds into driving through, Peyton asked Jade, "Can I play Monkey Preschool Lunchbox?" Peyton had absolutely no interest in the lights, whatsoever. Such a waste. Then Jade told me we had a secret stop to make. He left us girls in the car, and came back a few minutes later with some bags of food, from a restaurant I had never heard of. When we got home, we put the kids to bed and Jade got my surprise dinner all ready- my traditional (Thanksgiving) Christmas dinner!! I literally cried I was so happy. It was the greatest surprise, and it tasted unbelievably good. Hubers Cafe everyone- check it out. Then we watched Elf (still one of my favorite movies) and played a game of Sequence and went to bed. Christmas morning we all slept in a little (probably thanks to Peyton's late night Christmas Eve). Jade went downstairs and got the lights turned on, the hot chocolate started, the [Pillsbury] cinnamon rolls in the oven, and the Amy Grant playing. We had Peyton (and kind-of Piper) sit on the stairs and then let her run downstairs to open her stocking. She was absolutely hilarious. She took everything out one at a time, carefully unwrapped each trinket, then wanted to talk about it for 5 minutes. Jade kept reminding her to hurry, or she wouldn't finish presents before the rest of the family came over. After she finished her stocking, we ate breakfast, then went back to the tree to open gifts. Peyton was so cute. She wanted to play with the presents as they were opened, so it took a while to get through them. Jade and I opened our gifts while she played. One fun thing Jade's family does once in awhile is a gift scavenger hunt. I was so excited this year because Jade did one for me. I only got about 3 of the 7 clues without help. Mommy brain. It was so fun. We video-chatted with my mom and let her watch Peyton open her presents, which was almost, but not-even-close-to, as good as her being here. Then we had most of the family over to our house for the traditional Swedish Christmas morning breakfast of rice cereal. (I have to interject: it sounds like baby food, but it's SO good; rice boiled with a ton of milk and maple and brown sugar... Heavenly.) Everyone left to go to church, which was great because they had a special Christmas program, and it made me wish Christmas was always on a Sunday. After church we all went over to Justin and Ashley's for Christmas dinner. Ashley had gone all-out with a formal, themed table and a kids table with favors and pens for coloring, poppers, everything. It was the Cutest Christmas dinner I've ever been to. Pretty tasty, too. After dinner, we let the cousins exchange gifts, and played Christmas songs with the chimes. Then we put the littlest kids down for bed and sent the older kids to watch a movie while we did our gift exchange. It was such a great Christmas. Monday we decided to be a little bit Scrooge and take down Christmas. Usually I like to leave it up until New Year's Day, but this year I just wanted to be done, so that I could have a head start on getting back to post-holiday break life. We met the adults for dinner at P.F. Chang's that night to have a meal without the kids. Tuesday we took the whole family to the Wings and Waves waterpark that is about an hour away from Portland. The kids had a fantastic time, and it actually wasn't that bad for the parents, either. Next time we'll go on a day when school is in, so it won't be so crowded. Wednesday Jade went out of town for work, and I did errands and cleaned. Thursday Jade came back in the afternoon, and we went with all 5 siblings, plus 5 spouses, plus 2 parents to the temple. It was the first time we had ever all been together, and it was such a cool experience. We did a sealing session, and it was neat because it was just our family, and the sealer was an old family friend. After the session, the boys went to play basketball and the girls went to Ashley's and ate junk food and visited. Friday we took the whole family to OMSI, which was packed, but really fun. It's so great to go places with Peyton's cousins, because the kids entertain each other, so can sit back and relax a little. Friday night we met up at Jeremy and Kristin's without kids to play games and say goodbye to Jerai and Phil, who went back to Idaho this morning.

We had such a fantastic week with our whole family. This truly is my favorite time of year. As a mother, the love I have for my children is immeasurable, yet I know it's just a fraction of how much love our Father in Heaven and our Savior have for us. I'm so grateful to have this special time of year when we celebrate and honor Jesus Christ. I feel so blessed and so lucky to know of a loving Heavenly Father and His Son, who sacrificed everything for us. I often think about that infinite Atonement; that was for every single one of us, but I am so humbled to know that He still would have done it, even if it were just for me. Merry CHRISTmas!

:

Enjoy picture overload...

:

Opening up the jammies

Christmas morning

Stockings

Tinky looks like Max from The Grinch

She couldn't finish opening up presents until she had on her new Belle dress

Piper and Layla. Sometimes I call them "the twins"

These aren't even Christmas-related, but I loved her outfit so much, I had to take some pictures.

She is SO tall. Maybe she just seems extra big to me because Peyton was so tiny.

Jade likes to start them kind of young with the *safe* rough-housing.

This picture makes me laugh, only because Peyton was the one who took it. All by herself. I was just loading pictures onto my computer and saw it. Jade didn't take it, and I know I didn't take it. I showed it to Peyton and she said, "I took that picture!"