Back with my beauties

After a long day of traveling, I was soooo happy to be home! I missed Rusty and the kids more than I thought I would. Visiting Brandy for a few days was was great, but returning home to my family was the best. I have to say, the kids missed me so much! I never expected them to not let go of me and want to hold me and touch me. They couldn't get enough! They have both snuck down to snuggle with me every night since I got home. When we walked in the door they had a key lime cheesecake with candles waiting so they could sing happy birthday.

Why is the frosting from the waxy candle the best part?

O to the H I O

Yay! Finally a visit to see Brandy. Thanks to Grandma for taking the kids and Rusty skipping out on me for yet another significant day, I was able to take a few days and spend my actual birthday with BrandyBran. We had so much fun putting together our Christmas albums, an advent calendar, eating, talking, cruising. I miss that girl. It was a bit different being with the 3 of them without my kids. I really missed my rugrats! Izy loves to wrestle Avery which gets a little commotion going between the two. I thought this picture of them wrestling was so cute.

We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. As always, dee-lish. We spent the rest of the night shopping around until we got kicked out of Sephora at closing time. It was so nice to actually have a chance to look around at everything without worrying about the kids. Thanks Clint for coming home early! Love this pic of Brandy.

We had such a great time but became completely exhausted from the time change and staying up all night and getting up early. As hard as it was, it was a good thing for me to come home. Everyone back to normal schedules! Thanks for putting me up for a few days. Love you and see you soon!

Welcome to the Dirty Thirties

Thanks to all who joined us at dinner at Tres Hombres and fun at Liquid Joe's. I had a blast! I thought going out would make me feel young again but in fact it had the opposite effect. The Spasmatics are so fun to watch but watching the young and stupid club goers is even funner! It made me realize that being old and 30 is a good thing. Knowing your limits and when to stay in your chair has its plusses. Having a life partner and 2 kids is much more appealing than trying so desperately to find someone to go home with. So glad I'm not them. I'm thankful for the years past and all that I've learned. I guess that means I'm glad I'm 30.

Me and Russel my Muscle

My adorable brother Jason brought his laptop so Brian could Skype in from Maryland. So fun. It's just not the same without them.

Amy, Jeff, Casey, Liz, Jeff, Jess, Reinier, Lisa, Muscle. Not pictured but loved just the same are Angie, Jared, Trish, Clay, Emily, Creed.

Charity and Kristina dogged out after dinner to go take care of sick hubbies. Missed you!

Girlie Stuff

Uncle Jason got us tickets to see Disney on Ice. The way we see it~ a great opportunity to wear dress-ups out of the house! Of course the princess segment was our favorite. Rusty is right, this picture is proof, the have completely mastered fake smiling. (just like me!)

I can't explain our obsession for Hello Kitty but it is BAD! We love her! Last week at the mall we stopped at our sanctuary ~ The Hello Kitty Store ~ and the cashier invited us, I'm sure the guest list was limited to her biggest fans, to Hello Kitty's birthday party. The girls were so excited. Right when we walked out of the store Marley looked up at me and said "can we come mom?, Can we wear our dress-ups?" Yes baby girl, we will be the first to arrive. Unfortunately her party consisted of balloons and a line to wait in to take your picture with Hello Kitty, but that was good enough for us. Look how cute she is!

Florida

Rusty was in Atlanta over Halloween and the kids and I didn't want to be alone on such a fun holiday, so we crashed my sisters party in Florida. This was supposed to be their one way ticket to move down there but thankfully they decided to stay in Utah. It was fun to visit their potential residence though. I keep asking her what's not to love about Florida? It is beautiful and you complain about clouds and 70 degree weather instead of snow and 40's. We spent Halloween in Miami with Alex's family and spent the following few days in Key Largo. Luckily Rusty was able to take a few days off to kick around Florida with us. We went to Theatre of the Sea where the kids had major animal interaction. They loved being up close to the marine life. One day we went out on the ocean and spent the afternoon hanging over the front of the boat looking for fish. We saw a stingray, turtle, and lots of fish. One night we drove to Key West to hang out. What a CRAZY place! Definitely not for kids, but it was worth the drive to experience chocolate-covered-keylime-pie-on-a-stick!

Halloween fun

Hopefully it's fun for the kids, right? Sometimes it seems like more work than fun but I guess it makes for good memories! We went with Steph, Hudson and Sawyer to Halloween Street at the Expo Center. It was decorated cute and the kids went door to door along the path and trick or treated. The girls loved their costumes ~ pink puppies ~ they adore pink puppies. It never crossed my mind that they looked like lambs until 15 people there said "oh, look at the cute pink lambies". Whatever.

We also visited the Witches at Gardner's Village. Trish, Tyler and Tate joined us for lunch there but after they left the girls went and got manicures!First manicures. They got "spooky nails" with glow in the dark polish and cat and ghost decals. So cute! I love having girls!

Preschool halloween program. They knew the songs and rhymes so well, it is so amazing to watch them do their thing in front of a room full of grown-ups. Ivy stole the show when she stood up and did her line ~ Marley said "There are witches in the air" then Ivy's line was "but we don't care!" The way she talks with her little attitude is so funny. I am so lucky to have found a school they can go together and learn at their own pace, love their school and their cute teachers.
My little know-it-all. You can hear Marley louder and about a 1/2 second earlier than all the other kids. And Ivy's hand movements crack me up!