Before and After

Look closely at these pictures. Something very important (and expensive) has changed. That's right--Paul and Rachel spent 3 hours in a tanning booth! Beside the fact that they don't look as pasty white in the second pic--Rachel is now the proud owner of some nifty, pink, braces. Paul pulled out her last baby molar last night; we only had to bribe her with a new DS game and Red Mango frozen yogurt for her to let him pull the extremely loose tooth out of her mouth. (Did I mention, I don't do teeth? I don't know why, but they creep me out a little. Paul will also scrub vomit out of carpet, and find dry Star Wars underware in the middle of the night--I know, I'm a lucky girl). I also registered Rachel for Jr. High today, sniffle, and she and I went to New Beginnings last night! Uggh, Hello, I get it, she not my curly-headed little baby anymore! She's my skinny jeans wearin', Taylor Swift singin',Facebookin',almost teen! And that is pretty great too!

Close up.

29?

I think that Paul decided to be 29 this year. Sounds like a good number, and I am totally fine with choosing your chronological age (especially considering what is looming over me in March). We had a pretty low-key celebration this year. At dinner we went around the table and said things we love about Paul. We all think that he is a pretty awesome dad/husband. Paul really liked the card I gave him depicting a couple on a tandem bicycle (he is always telling me that we are going to get a tandem bicycle-after seeing this card he may want to rethink that).

"Think of it as just a little extra milage on your birthday suit."

Night(s) of 1000 Wonders!

Megan and Marcus are finally hitched! Just in time, because I, for one, am completely exhausted (and I was only marginally involved in all the brouhaha). A quick recap:
Thursday, Jan.14th, the Awesome skating party at Noah's. Dave and Melanie threw the funnest dinner for the families to get to know each other. They catered a soup and salad buffet and had a Cold Stone ice cream booth with 12 flavors, waffle cups, and all the mix ins you can imagine! My kids thought they had died and gone to heaven! We watched a collage of M&M pictures and ended the night with ice skating on the roof followed by cookies and hot chocolate!


The ice skating involved a lot of people holding one of the boys up on the ice. Thanks to everyone who took a turn around the rink as support crew!
Friday we decorated cookies for the favors at the reception. I made 200 gingerbread snowflakes and Kay Hamilton mad 250 snowflake sugar cookies and friday we piped buttercream frosing on with silver and white sprinkles. They were gorgeous! I should have taken a picture, but I ate about 10 broken cookies and was on a sugar high!
Saturday, The Big Day!
Grandma Keith had been praying for good weather for at least 6 weeks, and while it was cold there wasn't any snow to prevent us all from driving to the SLC Temple. The ceremony was very nice. Meagan looked beautiful and so happy! Marcus actually looked a little nervous, but he came through like a champ! Before the actual ceremony while the officiator was talking to M&M someone's (who shall remain nameless, because they were so embarrassed) cell phone started ringing. Everyone was so relieved that it hadn't happened to them, except for the poor individual who thought that their phone was off only to be shocked when it went off at the worst possible time! We all had fun teasing said person after the ceremony--you are a good sport JPK! The pictures were super freezing, but luckily Megan was prepared with furry boots and silver sparkly tights under her wedding dress! Here is a pic of the proud grandma's with the bride. Megan's dress(that she designed and altered herself) was beautiful.

We just had time to get Paul home to relieve the big boy sitter, before Mom and I headed back up to Murray for the wedding luncheon at Macaroni Grill. Very nice.
I had time between the luncheon and the reception to have a 15 min. nap, get all the boys into Sunday clothes, and buy Rachel black footless tights to wear for her responsibilities as present taker! The reception was BEAUTIFUL! and packed. We squeezed on to Zach and Jennifer's table and started sampling the great food: hamburger sliders, sweet potato french fries, cake pops, choc. covered strawberries and gourmet hot chocolate. We are such slackers that we didn't even go through the long, long reception line. The kids had fun in the photo booth. The ice sculptures and the cake were beautiful. As we were leaving Rachel saw the Cinderella Carriage that was waiting to take the newleyweds to their car (while fireworks exploded in the sky) and she decided right then that this would definitely be her future wedding! I told her to start saving her babysitting money right now! It was a gorgeous evening and very memorable for everyone--we missed you Marth and Dave!
Heather said that this was her last wedding cake (until Rachel of course). She really did a beautiful job!
Mal, Heather and Eric (sorry) behind the 900 lb. ice sculpture.
Cake Pops!
Cousins Amy, Bonnie and Zach
Jon was there in spirit and cardboard

Rachel and Hannah took advantage of the dress-up box before popping into the photo booth!

"Aggrifying"

AG-GRI-FY-ING-adjective
Origin: Older sister
1. Causing great distress when taken into public forum

2. Overwhelming feelings of horror and helplessness related to anothers behavior

3. to annoy, irritate, exasperate

4. pure evil

Rachel coined the term yesterday when we took Jake and his friend Patrick out for ice cream cones. Jake proceeded to eat the cone first, leaving a huge glop of ice cream that he ate off the table like mommy's little piggy.

New Year's Extravaganza

If our New Year's party is any indication, this is going to be an exciting year. The boys were excited for days that they were going to get to stay up until MIDNIGHT! We ate dinner at Wingers and then came home for a night of revelry. We watched G.I. Joe and the kids learned a lot of new words. We played games and ate snacks. As the hour grew nearer we noticed that it had gotten very quiet.


Each of the little boys found a nice spot to curl up for a long winter's nap. We tried to wake them up for fireworks and poppers, but they were gone. Paul, Rachel and I set off two really noisy fireworks, and yelled Happy New Year. Then we covered the little boys up and went to bed! Jealous much? Paul thinks we have discovered a new bedtime routine: let everyone just stay up until they drop. Hmmm...