Little Preschool Graduate

Mae completed 2 years of preschool with Miss Tanya. She loved every minute of it! And to celebrate Miss Tanya threw one heck of a graduation!

Animal Crackers in My Soup

This little girl had her first dance recital in May. And boy did she have an audience! Look at all those gifts! And what an amazing smile!

Pool Time

My Parents rented a house in St. George, so the whole fam went down for the weekend! The house had a private pool so we just laid by the pool and swam to our hearts content!

 But mom! Granpa said I could go swimming, so what if I'm still wearing my jammies!

 My girls are fearless!! 

 ..

Easter

The girls were so cute this Easter! They had so much fun!

Happy Birthday Angel

 My darling little girl would have turned 8 this past January. It is so incredible to think about how big she would be. Every year when her birthday comes around, I wonder what she would have wanted that year. What gifts, what kind of party. What kind of cake would be her favorite and what would her favorite dinner be? Its always a little difficult to think that I will never know. But we throw a party anyways. I like to think she would like it. Its nice to celebrate her memory, and not get lost in the sadness.This year my talented sister in law Kylee and her husband Spencer offered to make a cake. They are so talented, and so incredibly sweet. This cake truly made me think of Kadence and the things I know she did love. It could not have been more perfect.

 While on pinterest a while back I found a tutorial for these amazing little NICU smocks for preemie babies. I knew right away what a touching gift this would be. I wasn't nearly as on top of it this year so I didn't get pics of my crew! But I had a ton of help cutting these little bad boys out. I have such an amazing family! Thanks grandma, Aunt Jo and Kim. Mom and Tasha! And then Kylee & Chelsi spent hours surging the edges. I think they turned out pretty adorable! 

Here is the link for the NICU Smocks  http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2010/09/28/nicusmock/

Happy Holidays

 Kicking off the Christmas season with Grandma's annual Cookie Bake! My great grandma Meldrum started this tradition with my mom, aunts and uncles. When we were little my Grandma Nelson started it with us. She still does it every year even though the family has gotten outrageously huge and most of her grandchildren now how little ones of their own! She made over 450 sugar cookies this year for us to decorate! What an awesome grandma we have! 

 Yummo!!

 Grandma and her little helper aunt Joni!

 Mae's dance class did a little Christmas Dance for all the parents.

 Our gingerbread house! Lou Lou the elf sure likes it, it reminds her of home I guess!

These are our stockings. This year when I pulled the Christmas stuff out Mae was really concerned that we only had 3 stockings. Since I was a bit of an idiot and cut the tags out several years ago I couldn't order another to match. So I made some! I think they turned out pretty cute! Probably should have taken picture that you could actually see them, but oh well!

 Still have lots of fun things to look forward to! Christmas is the best with little ones! The girls are both so excited and mesmerized by all the decorations and festivities!

 Isn't that face adorable? I sure love it! Halloween this year was a blast! We carved pumpkins, well I actually glittered pumpkins which was much more fun! And much more cute! But Mae had a blast gutting the pumpkin and directing her dad on how to carve it.

 Mae first told me that she wanted to be a princess, then it was Captain America. We finally settled on Hermione Jean Granger from Harry Potter. So I decided we'd make Lydi be a little owl!

 My cute little tiger nephew Braxton!

 I went as Luna Lovegood, and we made Cody be Mr. Potter himself!

8 years

 8 years ago I thought I was all grown up. But I was just a kid. Luckily even though I made some questionable decisions at the time (don't tell my mom I admitted that), marrying this man was not one of them! He is the most patient, kind and loving person I have ever known. He likes to think of himself as a tough guy but he is so sweet and thoughtful. I could have never made it through everything without him leading the way!

I still feel too young to be celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary, but here it is! I'm so proud of how far we've come! I'm thinking we might even made it to a 75th anniversary! Think we can make it to 92?