Girls Trip to Vegas

At last I am sitting down to post pictures from the girls trip to Vegas.

I know I have mentioned before that I don't have sisters but luckily I married in to a family full of wonderful women.  We had such a great time and I can't wait to do it again.  I am not sure however, how excited Cord is for me to do it again.

I started my adventure with Symonie & Shayla for the road trip down there.  We rented a car which ended up being a lemon but the company was great and thanks to Shayla's sock stuck into the whistling
window we had a great drive down.

Sym, Lindy & Tennille

Amy, Shayla & Kate

Cord's sister Camie couldn't make it from Boston for the trip so we brought her along any way.  It was so funny we all kept asking where Camie was...  "She's in the car" "She's in the Hotel" or my favorite "She is in my purse"  We missed you Cam!!

We spent our first night in Vegas then on Friday we hit the stores -- well we tried to hit the stores -- but President Obama was in town and we ended up getting stuck in some serious traffic so we were limited to H&M. I know I could have been stuck in a worse place right?

After some shopping we made our way to Kate's sister's Cabin.  It was such a shock to go from 72 degrees to 30 degrees.

The cabin was beautiful.  We made dinner and watched Julie & Julia while eating a TON of snacks -- what could be better?

It was so fun to sit and eat & chat!

One view while we cruised the strip

Just for Cole and my nephew Mitchell we stopped by the Gold & Silver Pawn shop.  Why you ask?  Just go here and you will see.  We bought t-shirts for the boys.

This is the Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower.  We went to the top and this is what we saw....

It was a beautiful view on our last night. 

 Thanks girly girls for such a fun weekend!

Byron Gilbert

This is Grandpa Byron.  He is my sister in law Kate's dad & my sister in law Shayla's grandpa.

I feel blessed to have know him.  He was an generous man who made everyone feel like they were part of the family.  His smile was infectious and his interest genuine.  You can read more about him here.

Kate I love you! I am thinking about you and sending my love at this time!

A Visit from our California Homies

My brother Chris and his family paid us a visit over President's Day weekend.  It is always so much fun to see them.  Kim and I quilted, the kids played their guts out, and Chris & Cord watched ice skating.

In other words a good time was had by all.

This is going to be a longer post, full of pictures so grab a snack...

Since the Cannings (being from the great state of California) don't see snow too often we decided to try our luck & head up the canyon for some sledding.

This has been a weird snow season for us -- we hardly have any.  There are so many parts of the US that have been blasted with snow this winter but we have been left out of the party.

So we decided to go up the canyon to a sledding track (our city maintains a fun one) at night in hopes that the snow would be harder in the colder temperatures.

But our plans were thwarted and I didn't have $1500 pocket change.

So we went in search for a small hill the kids could slide down -- that could also be lit up with headlights.

We found one!  Dylan & Cole immediately started throwing snowballs and Kim & I immediately stopped them.

They has such a great time playing in the snow.  Here Elicia is looking pretty in pink.

Elicia, Barry & Will

Trevor

Lily Cole & Dylan

Now for the funny part of our snow adventure...

The little kids were sliding down the piles of snow that the snowplows had pushed to one side of the parking lot and the big kids...

Wellllllll, how should I say this...

They might have

been breaking

a few

rules.

So they didn't feel bad

 Kim broke a few rules herself.

We had such a great time with the Cannings and can't wait to see them on the beach this summer!

Let me eat cake

I have a bunch of pictures to post --  both of the visit from my brother Chris and his family from California and my girls trip to Vegas, but first I am dreaming of cake.  I saw this one on Bakerella's blog.

So before I post anything I need to make a quick trip to the store for food coloring and cream cheese!  I have never made red velvet cake.  Have you?

Click HERE for the recipe.

Girls Trip!!

I am heading to Vegas for a girls trip with my Udall sisters!!

Whooo Hoooo!

The Barn Block

Here is the next block in my town quilt.  The pattern didn't have a quilt on the side of the barn but since I love old barns with quilts painted on them, I decided to add it.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here is my inspiration

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope your day is filled with as much love as mine is.

XOXO

Valentines

Today my kids have all their Valentines Day Parties so we have been whipping up Valentines left and right. While the boys in our family just wanted to hand out candy and store bought "Transformer" valentines. Lily wanted to make some.

So we did a little searching and found these online.

We made these cell phones with candy dot buttons.

Lily had a great time making them and was so proud of herself as she put them all in a bag to take to school this morning.

My friend Britney made these treat filled boxes last year and I decided to copy her and make them this year.  They were supposed to be easy and I think I made them a little harder than they needed to be.

Who me?

But they turned out really cute and I think I can use the idea for a lot of different things. They are Hershey Nuggets that are covered with a printed mailing label.

The designing the labels is where I made things a bit harder than they needed to be -- but hey they are cute right?!

After you put the treats in the boxes you wrap them up in some cute paper and there you have a cute valentine for teachers or anyone special.

I need to finish writing on these last few and then I will sit down and eat all the leftovers.

Happy Valentines Day!! XOXO