I was telling my mom that I feel like everyday is my birthday or something because I am constantly getting texts, calls, and emails from people asking if I've had my baby yet. Thanks everybody for remembering and caring!! He's still in my tummy though. 
We went to go get Gracee up from her nap the other day for church and this is what we found:
This puzzle kept meowing at her every few seconds and she slept right through it. 
She had emptied every toy drawer completely onto her bed. Little pens, marker caps, lids to play dough, every single toy was on her bed to keep her company during her short pre-church nap!
Here are just a few reasons I have kinda dropped out of the virtual world of FB and checking up on blog friends for a while....
these top two shots are from Joey's nursery. I did a Dr. Seuss theme. There are still a lot of Gracee's things on the wall in the picture, but there will be a few more pictures to come...it's been really fun!
Russ and I made some fun things at Color Me Mine.
Mom and Russ's hands probably did more on this restored rocker than I did, but it was my idea and I am proud of it! Thanks mom and Russ for helping! (This used to be brown with green cushions)
Joey's sweet Dr. Seuss quilt. Thanks Kenzie and Heather for your invaluable help! It was much easier than I thought it'd be to make, thanks to you two!
We're doing a hula girl island theme for Gracee's new big girl room--to make it way exciting for her! More pics to come, but this has been really fun too!
This is Gracee's lil reading nook. Notice the turquoise bookshelf to the left, Russ and Kim helped me restore this baby. Thanks guys! 
Pillows I made for my dear friends, Paige and Marnie. They lost their beloved Madison last year and Marnie is getting ready to move out, so I wanted to complete them before she left. These pillows are matching and will help remind them of their blessings awaiting them, it says: "Every tear today will be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude."-Elder Wirthlin. As they are transitioning away from being together, I hope these pillows will be a small sense of comfort to them to hug and even cry into when needed. 
Russ's late anniversary gift: autographed pictures of this year's amazing BYU basketball team. We were able to take some fantastic pictures sitting front row at one of the games. Our friend Jason made it all possible, thanks Jason for everything!
And last but not least, my father-in-law and brother, Steve, are the only people who have asked to step into Susie's salon. It's not much, but I like to do it for them, and it saves them a few bucks.
My father-in-law is the cutest. He let me style his hair all crazy when I was done! Love you pops!
Just got some prego pics taken tonight!! And only 23 days to go....
I have to point out the ADORABLE carseat cover that my sweet friend Kenzie made! I'm in love with it! That is the animal print with the blue buttons. I also now have a nursing apron and the adorable owl material is for the diaper wipe case I'm going to make. These other things here are gifts from my friend Jenny and Snuggle Buddy Bunny from my friend Diane. Gracee has grown up exponentially since this whole big sister thing has clicked!!
Gracee spends 75% of her time with this pink beat up treasure--honing her nurturing big sister skills.
Me: "Gracee, are you going to be a big sister?"
Gracee girl, I love you. My eyes are wet with tears. Let me describe to you the permanent image just taken in my heart while putting you down for bed tonight.
No, it's not how it sounds. Me and Russ didn't get married to each other twice and we don't have two 5th anniversaries. But we did celebrate our 5th twice...sort of. Last year we decided to take a cruise with our friends, Jason and Kenz, and call it our 5th anniversary trip. It was aout 8 months early though, but we knew/hoped I'd be pregnant when the real thing rolled around so we wanted to go when I wasn't pregnant. But me being the sentimental FOOL (that was for you mom!) I am, we decided to have a little getaway on the real day too.
Our "first celebration" of five years...just a little early! --summer 2010
Carnival Splendor Mexican Riviera (yes the one that got stranded a few months later with some other poor travelers...luckily it wasn't us!) Doesn't Russ look SO HANDSOME here??? Just admit it!
Just a little brisk xc skiing at Soldier Hollow, just minutes away from our Bed and Breakfast, Invited Inn. It was fantastic! Russ doesn't love the concept of doing something active amdist nature (whatever the weather conditions) the way I do but he still enjoyed getting out and doing something different...he said so=)
dinner at Snake Creek Grill in Heber. Russ's meal had blue cheese on it (eckh!)...they coded it in the description by calling it gargonzola!! Apparently neither me or Russ are familiar with cheese lingo, cuz we both hate blue cheese and didn't realize that his dish would be COATED in it! It was pretty icky. But we both like my salmon!
Our first date was on a drive up to Heber where we went to Dairy Keen. We love going on drives together and talking or playing name that tune with the radio. So after Russ's unsettling meal, he decided to get full on a sentimental Dairy Keen treat instead of a good meal!
Then I surprised him by taking him to Midway Ice Castles, also minutes away from our fantastic bed and breakfast. It was such an amazing display of creativity and originality! You should check it out, if you are local. Here are just a couple of many amazing pics we captured.
I gave him a note for each day for 5 days preceding our anniversary. They were all little clues on what fun thing we were doing that day. (I'll do a post on that later). This was the clue for the anniversary day. The quote is from the website for the ice castles, and I thought it perfectly described our relationship.
On the day of our anniversary my prince gave to me...
the most beautiful moment of my life at 1:40pm on the most sunny and warm winter day we had seen yet that year. You have also given me a relationship that is beautiful because of its "ever-evolving nature." That is why tonight I am taking you to a structure that is beautiful for those same reasons.
I love you sweetheart, happy 5th anniversary!
This is just a little shot of our room. The thing that was so cool about this place is it had a sauna and steam room in your room! How fun is that? The owners are named Bill and Susi, what cute names! They offer an hors devours hour where they serve drinks made to order (she uses a Blendtec for her smoothies and doesn't put any of that sweet crap in them!) and cute little classy hors devours. The breakfast the next morning was very classy and they served drinks made to order then too. They stayed and chatted with us for about 45 minutes, they are a really interesting and neat couple. I said I would spread the word about them. We love B&B's with character, this one will go on our list of winners for sure!
