IT'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL

I mean I don't want to make a bigger deal about it than it all ready is or anything...but what can I say, it's kind of a big deal.

What's a big deal you ask?

Penny can wear piggies!

It may have taken me 10 minutes to do my one-year-old's hair this morning and it may have taken me an additional hour to chase her around to capture this 'first' in about a bazillion pictures...but hey, you only live once, right!

Here she is flirting with her daddy who loved her new "do"

You needed some more angles? Me too. Here she is doing some dance moves.

On a more masculine note:

Not just anyone can make that shirt look masculine...

AUNT JAZZY

This week, my sister had the fortunate event of welcoming a new baby girl into their home. Her name is Rory Jane, and I find her quite enchanting. Go here to see the new angelbaby :)

This blessed event meant I had the good fortune of taking care of my niece and nephew for a couple of days. Although, four is a bit more challenging than two, it was really fun getting to know my niece and nephew better. Especially, since I thought I knew them pretty well to begin with. Not to mention my kids are in dreamland whenever they're around. While they were at my house, the most entertaining and time consuming (which is a good thing) activity was the Play Dough.

I didn't account for little PennyBells feeling left out of all the big kid activities.

Later that week, we went to Autumn's to meet the new little princess, and perhaps while we were there took full advantage of the weather and their awesome backyard.

Here we have Gracie. Now, Gracie and I go way back. Thanks to a wonderful combination of timing and location, I had the opportunity to bond with this girl from the beginning. Plus, when she entered this world, I was the cool aunt who was young, hip and didn't have any kids yet. She was my only niece for quite awhile. Now, she's a whopping 5 years old and she acts like she's twelve. Always a complete joy to be around. If I had to describe Gracie in 3 words they would be: intelligent, compassionate and beautiful (in every sense). 

(Did I mention hilarious? These photos were all Gracie...each "pose" was so unique and creative :)

This here is Jared. Jared is of the quiet sort who most of the time, you find him minding his own business. So I don't want to brag or anything when I tell you there may have been more than one occasion, while they were staying with us that we...snuggled. And if I were the type of aunt to kiss and tell, which I'm not, then I might tell you he kissed my shoulder while we were watching a movie. And those eyes! Those eyes may or may not have earned him an extra jelly bean or two. I hate to see what those eyes will get him in the future. If I had to describe J in 3 words, they would be: clever, happy and sweet.

(Please don't tell my sister I let her son play with a real shovel-- thanks.)

I feel so grateful to live this close to my sister. I just love her and her cute family to pieces!

Now, if there be any other siblings of our's that ever need us to babysit, you just bring 'em on over.

Here are a few more fun photos...

WINTER WRAP-UP

For me, March is officially a spring month and therefore I'm declaring winter over. No matter what amounts of precipitation I still see from this day forward, I am done with winter. I mean, come on, we hit the 50's this week, Daylight savings is next Sunday, I woke up to birds chirping this morning, plus there has been an undeniable scent of spring in the air.  Spring is here and no one can tell me different.*

With all of that said, it's only fair to give winter it's due attention with a wrap-up of all it's notable festivities of late.

We started out Valentine's Day weekend meeting up with family at the Gateway for lunch and a trip to Barnes & Noble for some Valentine books from Nana & Pompa.

Oh...I just love this shot.  I dunno....I think she might be irritated that I'm taking her photo, or something.

We enjoyed a chill Valentine's day that included heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.

Ahhh...my Valentine. Penny thought he was her's

...she was mistaken.

After that we spent spent a few days gearing up for Phil's week-long school trip (vacation) to the UK. Where he spent time in both London and Dublin.

He was able to spend his birthday skiing and and hanging out with family, who came in right before he left for his trip.

Cute brother and sister duo.

Phil and his sister, Jaimie, both have birthdays in Feb, so we had a dual birthday celebration.

While he was gone, we decided to have some adventures of our own. We finished spending time with Phil's family here:

Penny and Ryder getting in some movie time up at Wolf Creek.

Then went and spent one night with my parents up in Tremonton.  Since Ryder and Penelope were such good sports while Phil was gone, after we got back home, we went to the toy store. Now, I'm usually a little...insistant on the toys Ryder gets, but this time instead of thinking how much use we'd get out of it, the quality and whether or not there was any learning value to it, I just let him get exactly want he wanted to get... Meet Mr. Rex:

 Mr. Rex is a dinosaur almost the size of Penny. And Ryder LOVES him. I go back and forth between thinking this is cute and creepy.

We finished up the weekend anxiously awaiting Phil's safe return. We sure did miss him and hope it's a long time before he has to take off on any other school/business ventures (vacations).


*I'd like to apologize now to everyone in northern Utah. It is because of my previous statement we are most likely going to experience heavy snow storms this week. Sorry.....but no matter, right?!