Happy Birthday Monkey!

Two weekends ago my parents came up for President's Day.

Among other things, we celebrated Jared's 19th birthday. He requested clown cones from Baskin Robins instead of a cake.

We love you Monkey! Happy birthday!!

Sick Sick Sick

You may have noticed that the 17th has come and gone and no 8 month pictures have appeared on this blog. Well, that's because they haven't been taken. The morning of Corbyn's 8 month birthday (Thursday), he woke up with what I thought was a regular cold. But by Sunday we could tell this wasn't just some ordinary cold. On Monday we took him to the doctor and the verdict was Bronchiolitis most likely caused by RSV. Fortunately he said he was pretty sick, but not anywhere near sick enough to have to go to the hospital which was very reassuring news. Yesterday he finally started to feel better and today he is much better - almost as good as new. He even learned a new trick.

I'm hoping to take his 8 month pictures tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

I am SO ready for spring to be here. It seems like we have had more than our fair share of sickness this winter!

February Decor

I got my Valentine decorations up before Valentine's Day which I was super proud of because all of them are (pretty much) new this year.

I say pretty much because I did this stitchery last year, but when I pulled it out I decided I didn't like how I finished it. So I framed it and I like it MUCH better!

Emily and I had a much needed craft day a few weeks ago. We crafted while the babies took turns napping. She made a cute wreath with conversation hearts and I made this birdhouse. I love how it turned out especially because I kind of made it up as I went along.

My plates for February have hearts and cupcakes, so I did cupcakes on my table to match.

This and That

A few months ago our trusty clock that we got when we were first married died on us. (If you want a visual, it can be seen here in this picture of Rog going back to school.) So we looked and looked and looked, but we couldn't find anything we liked to replace it. Finally we found this one at Tai Pan, but it was missing the pendulum. The manager said we could have it for 50% off, so we took it. But when we got it home and put a battery in it, we discovered it did not work. We had my parents look at the Tai Pan in St. George and it was there (pendulum and all)! Woot! So they bought it for us and my dad brought it up when he came for Jared's mission call opening. We love it - even more than we loved our old clock!

We have the hardest water here in Spanish Fork, but for some reason we didn't even consider getting a water softener until about a month ago. One day I just decided it was time. So we started getting some bids. The first company that came to give us a bid tested our water and it was way above what is considered "very hard" water according to some measurement they do. But we learned that water softeners are so so expensive! We got a few more bids and randomly Rog found an independent guy that would put it in for a lot less than the big companies. So on Wednesday we had him come and now we have soft water!! Hopefully this will help Corby's excema because it has been way bad lately!

For Rog's birthday he decided he wanted to get a backpack to take Corby hiking in. He researched different brands and finally made his purchase. It came yesterday, so he had to try it out. Corby seemed to like it. Now it just needs to warm up and a hiking we will go!

Last year I did pretty good at my goal to be a reader until Corby came. After that I didn't finish a single book I started. Lame, I know. I had heard about the Hunger Games, but the story didn't really sound like something I would like. But finally I decided to give it a try. I finished it yesterday and I loved it! I immediately started reading the next book in the series, Catching Fire, because I had to know what happens next. Read it, you won't be sorry!

Valentine's Day

On Saturday we had a reception to go to up in Cedar Hills. We thought we'd make a date of it and go to Olive Garden before. But as soon as we got to Olive Garden, we realized that we had forgotten the diaper bag! We were both pretty upset. I mean, seriously, how long have we been parents?! So we ended up picking up some Cafe Rio, eating it at home, remembering the diaper bag this time, and heading to the reception. It was my good friend, Bud's reception. He actually got married in January, but they had to postpone the reception. It was fun to see him and meet his wife. And we got to hang out with Kyle and Britt! So even though it started out a little rough, it ended up being a good night!

On Sunday I made these tiny pies and hand pies for Valentine's Day. I used cherry filling because it seemed appropriate. But both Rog and I agreed they would have been better with another filling. I should have gone with the apple!

On Monday I made lasagna with garlic bread for dinner because Italian seems like the most romantic kind of food. And because we didn't get our Olive Garden on Saturday! After we put the Corbs to bed, we watched Despicable Me. Haha. Doesn't that just scream Valentine's Day! Really, it was just the next movie on our Netflix and it came that day. But we both liked it.

On Tuesday I was feeling a little sad that my dessert didn't turn out to be as amazing as I had imagined, so I decided to Valentine up some homemade oreos. I had them sitting on the bar when Rog came home from playing basketball with some guys in our ward and I think he was pleasantly surprised!

So that was our Valentine's Day this year. It was a little disjointed and nontraditional, but what matters is that we got to spend time together!

Oh and Rog made me a cute certificate for a DVD player and shelf (to go with a TV he got me a little early for my birthday) for my craft room! What a cutie!

Big Boy

Corby is becoming such a big boy. Not in size - he's actually quite a little skinny dude now. But in the things he does.

He sits in the cart at the grocery store.

He sits in high chairs at restaurants.

He spills water and plays with the ice.

He sits up and plays with toys.

He crawls and makes cute faces.

He plays with power cords.

{You moms with girls have bows, but I get frog hats.}

He pulls himself up on things. (As of yesterday!)

And he works hard on the computer.

Yes, this little dude is growing up right before our eyes!

Called to Serve

Last Thursday night Jared opened his mission call. It came in the mail Wednesday morning, but he had to wait for my dad to come up to open it. So we had plenty of time to speculate about where he is going based on how much it weighed. :) He reserved a room in the Canon Center and had a bunch of his friends come for the big reading.

Here is a little video I whipped up.

Or if you don't want to watch the video...

He is going to the Sweden Stockholm mission! He will enter the Provo MTC on July 6th to learn Swedish.

My dad served his mission in Denmark (right beneath Sweden). Missions in Europe are tough and we grew up hearing all about that from him. But surprisingly he seemed very happy about Jared going to Sweden. My mom was really nervous about him going to somewhere in South America, so she gave a huge sigh of relief (literally - you can hear it in the video) when she found out he was going somewhere she considers "civilized".

We are all so excited for him! Now we just have to convince my dad that we all need to go pick him up in July 2013!

January Birthday Celebration

We have a tradition with the Pughs of going out to eat for our birthdays. In November we went to Outback for Zack's birthday. Roger and Emily's birthdays are both in January. But because Elise joined the Pugh family only a month ago (December 29th), we couldn't really go out. So we got take-out Chinese and had a little celebration at the Pugh's apartment last weekend. My mom was staying with us for a few days, so she came with us. And Jared and his friend, Cailey, joined us too.

I made these polar bear cupcakes because I figured they were wintery.

They were pretty easy. I adapted them from a more difficult design in my What's New Cupcake book. I just frosted them, dipped them in some decorating sugar, put toothpicks in the spice drops, and piped the ear, eyes, and nose detail. I think they turned out pretty cute!

We also played a new game - Snatch It.

We had a great time. Happy birthday Rog and Em!

Stacey's Wedding

On Wednesday Stacey Lynn Jensen became Mrs. Derek Lowe!

It was a beautiful day at the Salt Lake temple. Absolutely freezing, but beautiful. I love attending sealings at the Salt Lake temple because it makes me think back to when Rog and I were sealed there almost 4 years ago! (Has it really been that long? Seems like just yesterday!)

My mom was nice enough to watch Corbyn for us. We had a little time between the sealing and the luncheon, so we went to my favorite place - Wood Connection. I got to pick out a few Valentine's Day things for my Valentine's Day gift from Rog which is really the best gift he could give me.

They had their luncheon at Tuscany in Holladay. We ate enough food to keep us full for the rest of the day - seriously! It was delish! After the luncheon we picked up Corbyn and got ready for the reception.

The reception was at Noah's Event Center in South Jordan. It was a fun place to have a reception. They even rented out the ice skating rink! We got to see some friends we haven't seen for a long time and Corbyn had fun playing with my necklace and bouquet!

Stacey did a great job picking out our outfits. I seriously will wear mine again!

It was a great day! We are so happy for Derek and Stacey!

January Decorations

I got my January decorations up pretty early in the month, but it took me until now to blog about it. Go figure!

Here are my January plates. They are actually Christmas plates that I got for half off back in December, but I figured they would work for January because there is nothing Christmas about them.

And my January table. I made the snowman last year. And the calendar is the same one I made for Rog for his birthday. I really liked how it turned out, so I decided I wanted one too! (He took his to work, so I will rarely see it.) It won't go on this table every month, but I didn't have anything else to put there, so I figured why not!

Now to decorate for the month of love!