Sweethearts Dance 2017

 I know not everyone is a fan of the way kids ask for dances here in Utah but I love it! I love how creative the kids are and I think it makes them a bit more brave in asking people they may otherwise not be able to ask!

This one was very cute! I loved the tree and it was fun to flip over the hearts and figure out the name! Will was thrilled to see it was Gaby who he has been friends with forever!

He was very excited to answer and came up with this clever one! It was going to be super fun and he was going with others who he loved too! A win win!!

The dates they do are not just in the evenings anymore! It starts EARLY and this one was no exception! Gabby came to pick him up at like 8am and they all drove down to Saratoga Springs and went to a hot spring. The air was cold but the water was warm!

They were there for quite a while and then came home for a while so they could get ready for the dinner and dance.

These two are cute together! Will has very excited and was having a very fun time with her! He knew he would since they were such good friends.

The group met at Cliff House in Draper to have dinner. They have a really cool outside patio area with this gas fireplace and a wonderful view! I was grateful someone got these great pictures for me!

I'm sure it was the girls who decided to coordinate colors and I LOVE it! It just makes this group look even better! And it's an awesome group of kids too!

These boys are such awesome friends! The picture below is my favorite! I am sure Will was having a hard time keeping a "serious" face and had to bust out laughing for a bit!

Here is the whole group all together! Don't they look awesome! They had a lovely dinner and then went to Alta for the dance. They had an after activity as wel so it was a late night, but he had such a fun time!

This picture was my favorite of them all. Beautiful shot of the scenery and the cute couple!

Alta Idol 2017

Right after the new year Brianne had the opportunity to perform in Alta Idol! She auditioned before Christmas Break and found out that she would be a contestant and only had a short amount of time to work out the songs she would sing.

Before Christmas she worked with her vocal coach to come up with two songs and to make the arrangements so that she could practice and prepare. we were SO grateful for all her help!! She took the advice of her coach and decided to sing Scars to your Beautiful. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! I know I am biased, but wowie!!! we listened to all the other singers and they did well but NONE came close to hers!

After the top 12 performed there was in intermission so that the judges could collaborate and choose their top three to go on to the finals. Those top three would perform another song and the crowd would get the final vote.

After the break they came out to announce the top three and Brianne was in it!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!! we were all freaking out and SOOOOOO excited! That meant that she was performing again and she was the first chosen to sing. Her second song was Kelly Clarkson's "Invinsible". I remember being so nervous and excited for her. I think I had my hands on my face for the entire performance!

And just when you thought she couldn't do any better, she totally did. It was an incredible performance!! As her Mom I was totally bursting with pride! Whatever happened I knew she had left everything she had out there! (the picture below was Brianne after that day at school- each contestant walked around with a balloon attached to their back pack to get people excited about it and to attend)

After the final three performed it truly felt like an hour before they finally came out to announce the winner. The voting is done by text message and they had been in the back counting the votes....

When they announced the winner was Whitney I was stunned. I knew that Brianne had been the better vocalist, but in the end the votes were for Whitney. I knew that she would be disappointed but I also couldn't wait to tell her how proud I was! She had done an incredible job and shouldn't hang her heat AT ALL! In fact her vocal coach made it in time to hear who won and just hugged her and said from what she heard that it should have been Brianne. I knew that meant a lot to her. I also got the following text from a friend....

I thought it was so sweet of her to share that! Well, there's always NEXT YEAR!! Awesome job Brianne, you family, friends and cheering section were VERY proud of you! You rocked it!!

ANNIVERSARY!!

It is incredible to think that I have been married now for 22 years. I always used to laugh at people that said they didn't FEEL like that much time had passed and that they still FELT young. Well I am here to say that I get it now! LOL

This is a drawing that was on the door to our bedroom for YEARS. Brianne drew it of Chan and I and I always loved that she wrote "true love" at the top. Could you get any better compliment than that! If that is what she saw in us then we are doing things right! I kept it on my door until it looked like it was going to fall apart and finally had to file it away, but I always loved to see it and it made me smile.

How incredibly blessed I am to have met a person that is so incredible to me! He makes me feel special every single day! And on this day, our anniversary of 22 years, he made it special by booking us a room in downtown Salt Lake right by the new City Creek Center. We did a bit of shopping, walked by the temple where we were married and got this cute selfie! It was the best night!

We have learned a lot together, have grown, and enjoy spending time together any chance we get!I cannot wait to see what comes next in our adventures! I do know that no matter what it is we will conquer it together! I love you!

Will Snowboarding

I was so grateful that Will finally found some friends that shared his love of snowboarding! I knew he loved to go but he didn't want to go alone- that's no fun! He did go with his cousin from time to time, but he always enjoyed it more when he was with friends.

So I was SO glad when he started spending more time with Parker & Hayden, they both loved to go too! Yay! Now he had snowboarding buddies! AND this year they had also had a foreign exchange student that would go with them too at times, but when he couldn't go Will would get to use HIS pass! EVEN BETTER!!!

 I was grateful to Hayden's girlfriend Lala for getting these pictures of them up at the resort. He spent so much time up there he even ended up buying himself some new goggles and snow boots. I was so glad to see him going again! It's one thing that is uniquely HIS. No one else in our family does it! Way to go Will! Looking good!

Room Shopping with Brianne

One of the gifts Brianne received was a gift card to At Home which is our favorite decorating store! She was wanting to re-do her room a bit so it was the perfect gift!

These are the before photos- she has had a lot of this stuff for quite some time and she just wanted a bit of a reboot.

It didn't look "bad" necessarily, but you know how that goes! You can just get tired of stuff and need something new. She also wanted to get a REAL nightstand- she was tired of the plastic drawers.

The trip to At Home got her the new pillows and bed spread etc. She even got a throw for the end of the bed. She was LOVING IT!

The next thing we did was moved her desk over to the wall with the chalkboard. That's when I suggested she use some Christmas money to buy a larger desk! This one served it's purpose for a LONG time, but I knew a larger one would be MUCH better and could have some storage.

The dresser fit perfectly on this wall too- glad that it worked! :)

Aren't the pillows cute she chose! I LOVE the colors! So fun and happy!

And here is the desk she got!!! YAAAAAYYY! It's much cuter, longer and has storage! Thank you IKEA!! Oh and Chan for putting it together! It wasn't easy! Haha! But now she has much more room to do her hair and makeup etc! Yay! Teenager room DONE! :)

Happy New Year!! 2017

Happy New Year from Brianne and her friends! They all celebrated together by having their own little party! It was awesome!

2017 is officially here! Woo hoo!!

Christmas Day 2016

Christmas morning! I have to say that I LOVED that the kids all slept together downstairs. It very well could be our last Christmas under the same roof, so I was glad that they did that! :) And no matter how old they are the excitement of Christmas is ALWAYS there!

We didn't have a TON of gifts for them, just a few of the things they had asked for, but they always enjoy opening their stocking stuffers from Santa! He carefully wraps each and every one! :)

This year I also tried something new! I used specific wrapping paper for each of them and DIDN'T use name tags on the gifts! So they didn't know whose gifts were whose until that morning! It made it extra fun! I will probably do this EVERY year now! That way, no more guessing what it is or shaking the gifts!

We enjoyed opening gifts together in the morning and spending some time together. Christmas is FUN!

I think being a parent at Christmas is much more fun. I love to give gifts and see the joy that it brings to them!

This one was a surprise to Brianne! She had NO IDEA I was getting it! She's always wanted a ukelele, so I thought it would be fun!

We tried to take our time a bit and watch everyone open their gifts. Now that they are all older it's a lot easier to do! Haha!

They were all very happy with their gifts! Now it was time to get them to their rooms and to get ready for the day ahead!

First thing on the agenda was to go to church! It's not often that church lands on Christmas Day! So we all got dressed and went to Sacrament. It was a lovely service and the perfect thing to do together! I made sure to get a selfie of us all when we got home before the family all arrived!

After our church service we had everyone over to our house for the Christmas breakfast of sausage fondue! It's a tradition that MUST go on! It was awesome to have everyone over and to exchange our gifts at our home. It was a Christmas FIRST! We've never had the family at our place on Christmas Day!

I think that has been the one benefit to Tom and Kathy being in their apartment. We've had the opportunity to spend time in ALL our homes! It's been fun to interact that way and to see each other decorations etc. we don't often do that.

After breakfast we enjoyed some time together, the kids played, we got out some games etc. And the adults enjoyed sitting and chatting together.

Myles looks pretty focused in this game with Annie! I think he REALLY wanted to win! LOL!

One of my favorite things was listening to Carter share more about his mission with Chan's family. I love that they ask him questions and are genuinely proud of him for all he accomplished.

And as usual Gamma and Papa were VERY gracious to all the kids and got them some wonderful presents!

They were all very excited and again, loved getting to open them up here at home! What a treat!

 Carter ALWAYS ends up asking for something with the Oregon Ducks! But he also got a lovely church sweater! :)

 I LOVE BOTH of their faces in this picture! Carter was super excited but so was Gamma! It speaks to what I was saying earlier, it's just as much fun (if not more) to give!

I think Duke was a little overwhelmed by the people! He kept coming and laying on Chan! Pretty cute actually! we love our little poochies!

We loved having the family over for a while! Thanks Tom and Kathy for all you do for our family!! And later that night we all went over to Annie's to round out the day with the rest of the family. We enjoyed visiting with them as well and Carter got to see some family members that he hadn't seen yet since he had been home and I know he enjoyed that! It was a wonderful day full of love! Can't get much better than that! :)