Reflection of One Year Ago

Our sweet little miracles are one!
365 days they have been with us.
It seems so long ago.
Reflecting back to that day has been fun.
Today, we looked at pictures and watched the video of the day they were born.
That day seems like a dream. We have the most fond memories of their arrival and hope we will never forget the magic we felt at that time.
Two babies to take care of....
Then, it was surreal and daunting.
Today, it is reality and our every day.
We love it and love them with our whole hearts.
Happy Birthday Bree and Clara!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here we are, the last of the girl's first holidays. St. Patrick's Day. We scrounged up some green threads and celebrated in style. Please admire their cute green clips. I am beyond excited the girls have upgraded to the bow clips and the headbands are a thing of the past. Clips will actually stay on their head. They have been working hard to grow that hair!
It is so hard to believe we will not be celebrating any more first holidays with our babies. They turn one this week! Ahhh!

A Birthday Trip

30 years old! Yes, Rick is there.
On March 10, Rick will embark on the journey into his thirties.
I had been thinking for months of the best way to celebrate.
I finally decided the best way would be to pack our bags and make some memories on a vacation together, ALONE!
My mom took our little ones(thanks, mom!) and we took off for a little getaway of relaxation in sunny Southern California.

On our first day, we went to the NBC Studios in Burbank and saw a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
It was fun to see how the show is made and also to see a few celebrities.
At the end of the show, Rick was given Jay's cue card that read who his guests were!
Great experience. I highly recommend doing this sometime, the tickets are even free.

We then headed over to Beverly Hills and walked the famous Rodeo Drive to check out
the expensive cars driving on the street and window shop.
It is incredible that people spend as much as they do on their wardrobe at these stores.
One shirt at these places costs as much as our vehicles. Unbelievable!
As we walked to the end of the street, we turned the corner and Rick spotted out a Nike Town.
His eyes lit up, literally. This man loves his Nike apparel and it was much more in his shopping interest. :)
We finished off the night up at Universal Studio's City Walk to do a little more shopping in our price range and have some dinner.

We dedicated the second day to driving the Pacific Coast Highway and spending time on the beaches.
We ended up spending most of the day in the beautiful city of Malibu.
It was picturesque and a dream.
We walked on the beach, looked for starfish in tide pools, took beach naps, laid out, and went and got some delicious red velvet cupcakes at a market in town.
I could easily get used to this lifestyle!
Towards the end of the day, we headed over to Santa Monica Pier and watched the sunset.

We went to a fancy dinner that night at our favorite restaurant Flemings.
It is few and far between that we get to come here, so it is a big treat when we get to go.
Thanks to a gift certificate from Rick's sister, Cari we were able to enjoy a romantic birthday dinner for Rick.

Our last day there was kind of the grand finale of our trip.
The whole reason I had the idea of an LA trip in the first place was to take Rick to a Lakers game.
I knew that he had always wanted to go to a game at the Staples Center, and lucky for us they were playing Miami Heat on the weekend before his birthday!
Heat vs. Lakers, Lebron vs. Kobe. The number one match up Rick said he would want to see.
Rick rooted for Miami, I rooted for the Lakers. The Staples Center was awesome.
All around, great experience. The tickets were pricey but so worth it!




The last thing we had on our checklist of things to do was go visit the Los Angeles Temple.
We walked the temple grounds and enjoyed the peace that always comes with being around the temple. Beautiful!


We had such an amazing time and felt so rejuvenated.
As in love we are with our girls, it was priceless to spend time alone with each other and explore LA.
Happy 30th Birthday to my amazing husband, I hope you had fun.
Love you!

Cuddles

Tonight Clara was having a hard time sleeping.
She has a fever and just feels yucky.
Lucky for me, she loves to cuddle all the time.
When she is sick it is just a little extra.
As much as I would love to think that she will never stop cuddling with me,
I know that there will come a day when it will stop.
So I will take it all in now.
Also, I will snap pictures to prove to her when she is a teenager that there was a day when she didn't find me annoying;)

February Phone Photos

The only photos I have from the past few months are from my phone.
Sorry for the overload, but I need to document somewhere.
Thanks to Instagram, I'm keeping up with picture taking.
If you have an Iphone and haven't joined Instagram, you should. It is wonderful!

1. Thai food date night 2. First PB&J 3. Taking turns turning pages
4. Clara, future piano player 5. Precious 6. Girls karaoke night
7. Watching bball from bleachers 8. Daddy reading 9. Long way down

1. Sweet Bree 2. BBQ date night 3. Clara filling her belly before bed
4. Rick and his mom at UofU bookstore 5. Intently staring at Gpa's beard 6. Cuddling with Gma Cami
7. Me, having some alone time 8. Bree takes over remote 9. Showing off their pearly whites

Playing

Since Bree and Clara were born, I have been asked often how they interact.
People are curious if they have been aware of each other and interacted a lot from the beginning.
It is funny because really they haven't seemed interested in each other at all until recently.

I absolutely love when I catch them playing and talking. It is the best thing yet.
Here is a little glimpse into our lives lately...
Bree even goes in for a kiss at the end. So keep watching:)

Girl's Trip

January was long and gloomy so my mom and I decided it was time for us to
take a little girl's trip down to St. George last weekend.
As I'm sure everyone does, I badly needed a break from our day to day routine.
We had so much fun just getting away and as a plus it was my mom's 52nd birthday while we were there.
I always have fun with my mom and we are grateful for her and all she does for us.
I'm lucky to say she is my best friend.
Even though it was her birthday, she left for a minute one day and came back and surprised me with a certificate to get a one hour massage. Love her!


We quickly found out this trip that the girls are not easy to take to restaurants any longer.
Let's just say people really got a show.
Every time the girls got out of hand, I would just start laughing out loud so hard because it was nuts.
Probably not the best reaction, but I couldn't help it.
I guess it's better than breaking down and crying.
We were at Red Lobster for my mom's bday dinner and the girls were particularly rowdy.
Finally we decided we had to just leave and I apologized to everyone as I walked out.
There were some polygamists there a few tables away and they were the only ones that looked at me with their thumbs up and said, "Don't worry, we love it! We love kids."
Oh my, of course they do.
At least there was somebody who didn't care in the restaurant. :)

The trip was just what we needed to get a boost.
We were able to do plenty of relaxing, eating, birthday celebrating,and talking....just what girls do best.
Perfect girl's getaway.

VDay

Our love day was a little different this year. The girls and I spent most of the day
traveling back from St. George where we had a great girl's weekend with my mom.
It didn't seem at all like Valentines Day until I got home at around 5pm and Rick welcomed me with a flower and a card. Then we seemed to get into the Vday spirit.

It was a little rushed but after we got home I went and picked up a heart shaped pizza, some treats, and also got the girls their first little valentine.
We threw together a nice Valentines pretty quickly.

It ended up being a perfect, low key night loving on our girls and relaxing.
Rick was happy Bree and Clara didn't forget him while we were on our trip.
In fact, at one point last night I was holding Bree and she was really unsettled.
She reached out for Rick and he grabbed her. She instantly nestled her little head on his chest and cuddled with him.
This is not typical of Bree and she is not one to cuddle much.
Needless to say, it melted Rick's heart. Such a priceless moment.

So happy that there is one day a year dedicated to celebrating the ones we love. ♥