Kindred Spirits

You know what's awesome?...
When you really love your husband's friend's wife.
I love this girl.

Thanks for a great brunch, Christy. It's really too bad I live in Salt Lake and you live in Germany. I just know we'd be perfect neighbors and even better friends.

Birthday babies

Our nephew, Jack (Brent and Markelle) and our niece, Isabel (Laurel and Jason) share a birthday. We love celebrating both birthdays--even though I anticipate it being a little tricky in years to come... we love these kiddos and really love watching them grow up.

First stop:
Jackson Brent Carter
Age 2
January 31st
3:00 pm

{Sadly, none of the pictures I tok with my camera worked out very well... I'm still trying to figure out all these settings... but I stole these cuties from Markelle's blog.
Check out Jack's adorable shirt. Markelle made it!}

"I'm two."

Opening presents.

Best buddies.
***

Second stop:
Isabel Lee Richardson
Age 3
January 31st
6:00 pm

{I took pictures with my camera for Laurel at Isa's party... luckily, I was smart enough to change my settings back to "dummy standards" so they would turn out... check out the birthday cake. Laurel is amazing!}

Happy family and birthday cake--complete with Barbie.

I like these guys. Brad, Blaine, and my dad, Dave.

Back together again. I love these people. They really are my best friends.

Another cake picture. Isabel wanted Amanda in the picture with her.

Jenesse and Robby.
Love this couple.

Kaiya is one funny girl... she was jealous of all the Isabel attention, so I started taking pictures of her. She is such a little poser.

Now, that's a handsome boy.

Michelle and Kaiya.

The birthday girl in all her glory.

I had to put this picture on here to show off Laurel's handiwork. She made this crown for Isabel to wear on her big day. So adorable.

Here's the best present ever... Michelle and I got Isa this super-cool pop-up princess tent. I kind-of want one for me. I can just see myself going in there to drink my morning diet coke everyday.

Man, oh man.

Best. Show. Ever.

Just messing around...

...And practicing taking and editing pictures in RAW format like my photo teacher told me to.
...Aren't I a good listener?

The Funk

I've been in the funk.
Maybe it's the time of year--weather--inversion.
Maybe it's Conan's hiatus from television.
Maybe it's the economy.
Maybe it's the fetus kicking me (which I love) and stealing all my normal, secure, non-crazy hormones and replacing them with insanity, insecurity, and anxiety.

Thank goodness for:


This guy.

This guy.

This.

These.

This woman.

And this reunion... this weekend.

Love this man

I can't believe that a great man like Conan gets canceled when there is so much garbage on television.

If you don't believe how "great" he is, check out this clip... He is so gracious to his fans, his staff, and yes, even to NBC. I love how he tells his fans (particularly the youth) to not be cynical--that cynicism is his least favorite quality--and that kindness and hard work pay off and promise amazing possibilities.

I love you, Conan. Thanks for being my favorite television host for 16 years. You rock my world.

Confession:

I am really starting to get hurt feelings that my son prefers his daddy.
Seriously.

More soliciation of the cuteness that is my son...

...I just can't help myself.

Oh, Conan.

I should be blogging about my brother, Brett coming home from his mission tomorrow... but I'll just let you read Michelle's blog for that. (For the record, I'm so excited, I can't stand it....seriously.)

I'm just so sad about this Conan news. Isn't everyone?

Love that boy

I know that we are a little biased, but we think this boy is the cutest, smartest, greatest kid ever. He is just growing up so fast and getting so big that sometimes I barely recognize him. It's a little alarming to me that he is not really a "baby" at all any more; he's a little boy... and becoming less little every day. His sense of humor is probably the greatest thing about him these days. We are just loving that he is developing this fun, hilarious, and sweet personality.

A few things he's into lately: He's quite the climber, he loves balls (insert joke here), he is "talking" more and more and is even getting somewhat eloquent, he's becoming pretty independent and only wanting to feed himself, he's loving his new mega-blocks and anything that he can put or fit together, he loves the stairs (climbing up and down them, sitting on them, and throwing things down them), he LOVES his daddy and won't even try to learn how to say "mama", he loves books, he loves bath-time and teeth-brushing-time, he loves getting tucked in and especially loves the "tuck-tuck" song, he loves getting chased, caught, and tickled, he loves to show everyone everything and share what he has (we're not sure how much longer this will last), he's recently taken to running -not walking- everywhere he goes, and he loves putting his fingers up his nose (and laughing hysterically while he does it).
He is one funny kid. We feel so lucky to have him as ours.

This is not the greatest picture, but this shows how much of a climber this kid is. He has also recently taken to climbing on the couches and chairs--and is always very pleased with himself when he gets to the "top". I figure it's only a matter of time before he finds a way out of his crib.

Again, not the greatest picture--but we thought this was hilarious and actually had a camera on hand to document it. We were at the Nike outlet in Park City with the Walkers and Jake's eyes about popped out of his head when he saw all the balls. This kid loves balls... Just like his cousin, Jack he is obsessed. We think it's pretty cute.