Hannah's Farewell and Lyla's Baby Blessing!

My beautiful little (or not so little anymore) SIL Hannah Brown is leaving to serve a mission next month for the LDS church for 18 months.  She is going to the San Fernando Valley mission here in California!  Which means she will be less than an hour from us!!!  SOOOOO close!!!!  

We made a quick last minute trip over for the weekend to attend her farewell and also the baby blessing of our niece Lyla and I am SOOOOO glad we went.  It was really great to see and get to hang with family, but even more great to hear her testimony and realize how awesome of a missionary she will be.  Aside from the fact she has the crying gene that Chip also has and runs in the family, she gave one of the best farewell talks I have listened too and you could feel the spirit so strong.  I know that she will be an awesome missionary and the people here in Cali are very lucky to be getting her to come serve them! She has already been a good missionary as her two very vest friends growing up both are converts and were baptized when they were older, and now one is serving a mission too and the other is getting married.  Also, Charlie (her dad) got to speak as the high council speaker and gave a great talk too.  He had had an experience where he felt Hannah would be coming to California on her mission and told it and I hadn't heard it but it was very special and amazing.  What great examples of faith and living the gospel we have in our family.  I also got to spend more time with Hannah the past few days and just realize even more than I already knew what an incredible person she is and I just love her to pieces.  She is drop dead gorgeous both inside and out and we are very excited for her next adventure to begin!

Thanks Hannah for inviting us to come this weekend!

Beautiful Sister Hannah Brown

Also while we were there Becky and Ryan blessed there beautiful little 3 week old baby girl, Lyla Rose.  She is so precious, and it is amazing to think of the miracle of life and how sweet and innocent and perfect these little beings are when they come to earth.  It was great, and the only thing I am sad about is that in the pic below somehow we didn't get the memo about staying after church and so our little family was already home during this picture - BOO!!!  But anyhow - what a gorgeous family!

 I took a few pics of Lyla after but then my camera battery died so didn't get as many as I wanted - the one below is my favorite I did take tho!  She has so much hair, beautiful olivey skin, and is just so precious and tiny!  Love her to pieces already!

The kids had a blast hanging with their cousins and here they just all had sat down together and cuddle during a movie - was so cute I had to get a few pics!

 Ivy and Bladen both saying Cheese for me!

 Serious concentration on the show!

 We went to Jayton's basketball game on Friday night - he is on the JV team (altho he is a sophomore) and he starts and is awesome!  Unfortunately it wasn't the greatest game and they lost, but it was so fun watching him play anyways - and what you think - future cheerleader in ivy?!

 Altho here she was just chillaxin out!

We went to the Gilbert Temple on Saturday morning - the openhouse is going on right now and we have heard that it is AMAZING!!!! We didn't have tickets tho and the line was just too long for the kids to handle so we ended up not going through.  However, look forward to coming to do a session here soon!

 We then went and hung out at a park with cousins again and oh boy was it fun - the kids LOVED this big swing!  Big enough for 5 or more:)

 Chip figured out how to get the water on on the splash pad and the kids had so much fun playing in it.  It was a gorgeous day and altho they didn't have swim suits their clothes seemed to work just fine!

 Ivy wanted her dress off, but then decided she also wanted the diaper off too - she was pretty frustrated when I wouldn't remove it, but finally went running into the water too!  However, when it was off and then randomly came on and splashed her she sure ran fast for mom, and can't say she liked that - but we found it pretty funny!

Great weekend and so glad we made it work!  Now we need another trip to look forward too!

New Year is Upon Us!!!

I think I have been in denial of the New Year, because I enjoyed last year so much, I have been working on my blog, and now I have NO trips or anything really planned.  So today - I planned about 10 different vacations for the year, of which I probably won't be able to take any of, put off working on my blog book from 2013 which has been consuming my free time, signed up for two classes online that start in February, and just basically wasted the day being lazy around the house!  I have been putting off doing blog posts - not really sure why, but figured I better post what we been up to since we got home from our Christmas vacation, before I get too behind and quit altogether.  SO here goes a very random post with a bunch of pics.  It's gonna be a good year - sending out the positive vibes!

Chip has a new favorite place called Pizza Revolution - basically a Chipotle style place but with Pizza he loves, and we have been a couple times on our date night already.  I love the skinny Margarita pizza, he gets the same thing every time that he came up with, and we both enjoy the awesome coke machine with over 100 drinks to choose from!  Love my man! So far we have been out every weekend this year and it makes a huge difference for us to have that time away with NO kids, to have adult conversation without getting interrupted, having to wipe kids faces, etc.  Good thing we have the best babysitter EVER!

We went to Home Depot after dinner the first night back and picked up this AWESOME grill - which Chip's parents were awesome and helped us out with for Christmas - and we (AT LEAST I AM) are soooooo excited to use it!  My brother recommended this brand and we are very happy with our purchase!  It only took a week sitting in the garage for Chip to put it together, and then he wanted me to wait so he could break it in the first time to use it so hopefully that will be this week! Yummy grilled food is a favorite of mine!

 Sweet little kids after church who are mesmerized or dazed at a show while mom finishes dinner!

 Ivy's AWESOME bedhead!

 First time with this cute little flower clip - LOVE IT!!!

Griff started pre-school and was SOOOO excited!  He is loving it and the best part is when we go to pick him up - he just BEAMS with smiles when he sees us walk in - he seriously gets SO excited to have Cash come sit with him on the rug and is just so happy that we are there watching him.  It makes my heart burst with happiness every time!

 The first day he had to take Cash's lunch box cuz we hadn't got him one, so while he was at school we went and picked him up one - NINJA Turtles cuz we know he loves them.....and of course it didn't disappoint.  He carried it around ALL day from the time we got home.  Such a little sweetheart!

 Ivy lets me do pig tails and i think they are the cutest little "ponies" as she calls them ever!  She is a little diva with so much personality and we love her to pieces.  And yes, Kevin, we love her beaver vest - haha!

 She cracks me up with her smiles and faces and funny little things she says.  

 The grill all ready to fire up - after Chip worked to put it together!

The next weekend Saratov Approach opened here in LA and we went to it with friends - Maclain was there and he produced it and also was one of the missionaries in it - it was SOOOOO good - everyone should go see it --  here we are with him after and also the director and also another cast member - Nikolai from the show!  

 This yummy cake has been a hit at our Sunday dinners, and cute little Ivy does the funniest thing with her toes EVERY time she eats so had to snap a pic!

She got a few new swimsuits for this year and so had to take a pic - Love her playing with her princess, showing her new outfit off!

 She loves her beach coverup and constantly wants to wear her "jacket" around the house!  I don't love that but she is really cute in it!

 Brothers diggin in the sand!

 After school activities included the beach 3 times last week - a very fun way to spend our afternoons - soaking up the rays and hanging with friends!

 Stealing the snacks!

The bird lady came by and let the kids meet her very well mannered bird.  She was funny and the kids loved it!

We also have been hanging out at the park a bunch with friends and the kids love that, and I love how much it wears them out and passes the slowest part of my day away!  

Ivy took to my friend's husband and wanted to play with him the whole time, and the baby too!

My baby loves to read books, especially chapter ones with no pictures, and will sit and babble to herself and read to her dollies for long periods of time - I love it!

 More beach pics with Dayton - we saw dolphins swimming and it was a blast, and the most beautiful sunset this day!

 Brothers helping each other out!

 On Saturday Ivy met a new little friend.  He is 3 and was the cutest little boy ever - so sweet and liked Ivy too - he even gave me a kiss when we left --- wish he could share some of his tan with us!

 Gave Ivy and me a pedi before church on Sunday.  She loved it and sat perfectly still while we did it!  She is ALLLLLL girl!  Such a girly girl! I love it!

Can't believe January is over half over, and it has been so warm and we have cleaned all the rooms out and jumped back into school and just are living the dream (as a mom can do with 3 littles;)  No but I LOVE my life right now, my kiddos are so fun, life is good, and I am working on my goals and ready to conquer some things this year!  Happy 2014 Ya'll!!!