Oh Sister!

My sister, Darcy, and baby Mit came to visit us for a few days. It was so fun having them here. Especially having a little one in our home. Don't let this pic fool you, Deko was trying to clobber this kid the entire time he was here!

Randy and Darcy went to watch the Hunger games (since I had watched a midnight show, Randy said I couldn't go again.) And I got to watch the babies. So this is our "Katniss" braids. Darcy's braid looks a million times better, cuz I couldn't really see what I was doing to my own hair:)

And the back view

Sorry Darcy, I feel like you were probably bored most of the time. Trippy was sick, Randy had Lasik eye surgery, and I kept taking her to exercise classes! We even went to an AquaZumba class at the pool. -that was pretty fun besides the fact that we were the youngest ones in the class. They only left this afternoon and I miss them already! Can't wait to see those two again!

Opinions, please

So I know I didn't get a good pic, but I totally thought Tripp looked like Finn from Glee -with his "hawk hair" (what Tripp calls a mohawk) and sweet shades. Or maybe I am just a Gleek. What do you think? And everyone at church loves Deko's hawk hair.
Gotta brush those pearly whites to impress the ladies

A night to remember....

Our ward held an adult Valentine Prom on Saturday and it was awesome! I was super excited because I didn't get to go to my prom in High School. (I went to Washington to watch Randy in a play instead:) I had so much fun getting ready for the dance. It took me awhile to find this dress. I found it at a real high-end, expensive store. I think you know where I'm talking about..........The D.I.! I paid a whopping $6 for this dress. When I tried it on in the dressing room, Tripp told me that I looked like an angel. (Yes, I needed Tripp to zip up my dress, is that weird?) Another neat fact about this dress is that it is handmade. So, yes, it was made with love. Randy borrowed this sweet tux from Mike. So we didn't have to spend much on our clothes.

Tina played "mom" and took pics of us before the dance. Randy even got me a corsage. I am so spoiled! He also took me out to a nice restaurant for dinner. And people could not stop staring at us the whole time, it was getting a little awkward.

I believe this was the dance to Cotton-eyed Joe. We did so many group dances that it's hard to remember which one I took a pic of. You can see in the background a red backdrop -that's where we had our pictures taken. I should get those pics soon. I remember wishing that the night would never end, it was that much fun! Randy and I danced the night away and didn't leave until after 10pm -which is a late night for us, since we still had to pick up our kids and put them to bed.

I loved the lip-shaped chocolates!
Pure silliness!
There was also a table set up to vote for awards in different categories. There were things like best dressed, cutest couple, most dangerous driver, most likely to become president, best dancer, most dramatic, and Prom King and Queen. Which one do you think we won?

After we won, we went out to the middle of the dance floor and danced while everyone watched us. It reminded me of our dance at our wedding reception. What a great night! I wish there were more formal dances like this for adults. Now that I finally have a hot date that I want to dance with;) And last but not least, I filmed Randy "bustin' a move" Enjoy!

33

33-the number of hours we went without power. Ugh! We had a lovely snow storm all day Wednesday and then some not so lovely freezing rain on Thursday. EVERYTHING was covered in ice. There were broken tree branches all over the place. I wish I had taken more pics of the trees. This is a hanging basket outside our door. Can you see the inch layer of ice on it? Total craziness! The boys enjoying the snow. Not sure what kind of face Tripp is making.
Tripp loves to eat the snow for some reason
Snow monster Deko

The biggest snowman in the entire complex!

The boys loved riding on the sled, but...

had to put goggles on cuz it was raining the whole time.

Our snowy adventures in a nutshell. The ice and snow are almost completely melted. One week of winter is hopefully all we'll get.

Blessings in abundance

Merry Christmas Everyone! 2011 was good for our family. We feel so blessed. We had a few changes to our lives this year. The best one being Randy's job with an amazing boss. He enjoys going to work and it's a full-time steady job! A million times better than being a sporadic substitute teacher. It was hard for me, having Randy give up his teaching dream (I was looking forward to vacationing all summer long). But this was a wonderful opportunity for him and he's really good at it. He works for MYCO as a broker. He buys and sells medical laboratory equipment to clinics and hospitals.

Another change we had was moving into a teeny tiny apartment to become assistant managers at the complex. I never knew how whiny people could actually be until I moved here. But it has been a very interesting learning experience for my family. Tripp actually enjoys helping me pick up garbage around the complex and gets mad at people who litter.

Tripp turned 3. He is a wild, athletic boy! He loves to wrestle Daddy and Deklan. He loves learning and preschool too. And he says the best prayers ever. (Sometimes blessing daddy to play Halo) He is a good brother to Deklan. He always tries to console him every time he cries.

Deklan turned 1. He is my master of disaster. He can get into just about everything. He always looks back at us and smiles when he knows he is doing something naughty. He likes to take stuff from me so I will chase him around the island in the kitchen. He loves his Trippy and wants to do everything he does.

I enjoy being a stay-at-home mommy everyday. I love being able to play with my boys whenever I want to. I am grateful for Randy and his willingness to support our little family.

Wishing all of you the best for 2012! Because you know that my family is going to rock it!

When it's not fun to go home...

This is my Grandpa LeFevre. Tomorrow (22nd) is his birthday. He would have turned 71. But he died on the first of this month. This is the most recent picture I have of him. Yeah, that's little 6 week old baby Tripp. I used to pride myself about still having all 4 of my grandparents still living. Now I am down to 3. It's hard to write this without crying, but I feel like more people should know about Grandpa and how much he was loved. Two words that best describe Grandpa: Flannel and candy. That is why they are on top of his casket. Grandpa loved candy so much that he called it medicine. I remember as a child falling off my bike and skinning my knee. Grandpa brought me some "medicine" to make me feel better.
He didn't like flowers. My aunt and the rest of us thought a candy bouquet was more fitting for him. Grandpa was number 7 out of 14 children. They didn't have alot of money growing up and he told us that they would use dried cow pies as frisbees. When Grandpa was a child, he was diagnosed with Polio. One of his legs was significantly shorter than the other which caused him to walk with a limp his entire life. My cousin Victor spoke at the funeral and told the story of how Grandpa would take me, Zayna, and Victor to get coffee with him in the morning. And the funny stares we would get cuz all of us followed Grandpa into the cafe, in a line, walking with a limp just like he did. He always bought us hot chocolate and occasionally we could talk him into buying us some fries as well.

It was hard for me being at Grandpa's house after the funeral. It just felt like he was going to walk in the back door from feeding the animals or walk down the hall with a bag of candy to share with everyone at any moment. Grandpa was generous. I think just about all of his children have lived with him at one time or another as adults. My family lived with him while we were building our house. I remember hearing him laugh at me every morning as I ran into the kitchen, grabbed my breakfast, and ran to school. He was usually smoking at the table and I was trying to avoid getting the smoke smell on me. Not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but I have a ribbon on my shirt with a mini Twix in the middle of it. All of my family members were wearing ribbons like these and several of my cousins wore Grandpa's flannel shirts to the funeral.
Notice how he is only picking out the suckers. Can anyone say "addict." It was just Deko and I who went to Idaho, since he is free on the plane.

My sisters. Funny how we are in order from youngest to oldest.

Darcy, Tera, Me, and Zayna


And this is where the kids hung out during lunch. -right next to the candy bucket.



Grandma Chidester (who just went through breast cancer), me, and my Mom



I went to a "hat and wig" party for her while I was there, but I'll include those pics in a different post.



Not sure if there are any easy funerals. They make me realize how short life really is. Grandpa you were loved and I can't wait to see you again.

Who is that baby?

This is what happens to my sweet baby hair when Deko is left alone with Zayna for a few hours.