12 on the 12th--February 2020 Edition

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1. I listened to this great BYU devotional while I got ready for the day.
2. The book I'm reading/listening to while driving back and forth to work.
3. My daily breakfast at work.
4. Our "Fun Committee" reserved a conference room for Valentine Box making this week.
5. Crammed in to Jen's backseat on our way to lunch.
6. Pizza at The Village Baker.
7. Our self-time shot (sadly Kramer got cropped out when I had to resize it for this grid).
8. Dinner at Slackwater for family birthdays.
9. My mom was sick and couldn't be there but sent brownies, Peanut butterfingers, & Ready Whip.
10. The guests of honor--Amy and Ashley have February birthdays, and Austin is moving to Australia next week!
11. Whitney is obsessed with Timothee Chalamet and was showing us the preview of his upcoming movie.
12. Loving my bookshelf and cute stuff on top of it.

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1. A little Trivia Crack first thing in the morning.
2. Swiping my badge to get into work.
3. Jess, Jen, Kramer and I went to HomeGoods and Chick-Fil-A for our lunch break.
4. Work still life.
5. The screen savers on my work computer are always interesting.
6. Hooray for sunshine and daylight when leaving work.
7. Our new doormat is cute, but I'm not a fan of our nubby porch under it.
8. The super cute box I bought to put Michelle's birthday presents in.
9. I'm loving these cheery flowers I bought at Trader Joes 10 days ago.
10. I bought Whitney's cap and gown for graduation!
11. Taco Tuesday made by Randy.
12. My current read.

12 on the 12th--October Edition

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1. Whitney and her friend Dallin ran errands with me, he's the only person she hugs!
2. I didn't sleep at all last night so I let myself get a big Diet Mountain Dew.
3. Michelle dropped off a plate of S'more cookies!
4. Whitney loving on Ferris...he tolerates her but secretly loves it.
5. Making No Bake Cheesecake for Randy's birthday treat.
6. I ran into my friend Holly and her daughter Abby at Segull Books.
7. I read in the car for 25 minutes while Whitney and Dallin ran into Walmart.
8. The ceiling at Bethannee P.'s wedding reception.
9. Celebrating Randy's 50th.
10. The tag I printed for his gift (another plaid shirt).
11. The drawing inside the card Whitney made.
12. I am rereading The Book of Mormon by the end of the year.

12 on the 12th--July Edition

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1. Left over goodness from my birthday.
2. Birthday flowers.
3. Cute Junie hanging out on the window sill.
4. Sprinkler season.
5. My nightstand.
6. I'm enjoying this book.
7. Landon checking his phone.
8. Cutest Ferris.
9. I love how my friend Jill addressed this gift certificate.
10. Michelle made Ding Dong cake for my birthday book club dessert.
11. We discussed Homegoing (great book).
12. Our book club selfie.

Miss Sassy Pants Turns 14

This year Whitney's birthday fell on the Saturday of Fall Break, so she had Thursday and Friday off of school leading up to it.

On Thursday my mom picked her up and took her to lunch and then birthday shopping with some money from us and then some from my parents. They also had plans to pick Bella and Tess up from the train to join them for the end of their shopping outing and then for a sleepover at my parents' house.

Whitney saying goodbye to Junie.

Whitney and Bella came back to our house Friday afternoon (Tess went home) and entertained themselves so much I hardly saw them.

On Saturday, we joined my entire family at Wheeler Farms for family pictures. Usually we set up my tripod and a self-timer and hope for the best but this year Robyn's boyfriend (who is a professional photographer) offered to do a photo shoot with us. It's so weird that the kids are all getting so big! Ashley is the youngest cousins and she's now 8 1/2...crazy. It felt like they were tiny for so long and now it feels like they're all teenagers.

After a couple hours of of photo taking, me, Lori, Whitney and Bella went to lunch at Apollo Burger. I took this shot of Whitney modeling her birthday shopping finds (i.e., new shoes, new jeans and new sweater) which she is thrilled about.

She loves, loves, loves these Sassy shoes!

Lori wore her sunglasses during lunch because she was next to a bright window. She could have closed the blinds but she and Bella said the sun felt nice. It was funny to sit across from her wearing glasses though.

Next we went to Color Me Mine (just like last year).

Lori took this fabulous photo of the girls.

Lori and I both painted mugs.

I painted this mug (which will end up being a bright turquoise after it's fired), Bella painted the bulldog, Lori did an ombre affect on her mug, and Whitney did a really cute little sugar bowl, lid and small spoon which she'll probably eat cereal out of.

Later that evening we got together at Lori's house to finally celebrate her birthday (which was September 8th), Landon's birthday (which was August 10th), Andrew's birthday (which was September 29th), Randy's birthday (which was October 12th) and Whitney's birthday...apparently we've had a really hard time getting everyone together. Robyn and Lyman (boyfriend) ended up having a couple Halloween party to be at and Landon ended up going to the BYU-Nevada game, but other than that we were all there.

The spread of gifts. Lori wanted work done for her gifts so Adam and Randy hung a couple heavy duty items, mounted her flat screen tv to the wall and fixed a toilet.

We had cheesecake AND the Oreo Ice Cream dessert.

All lined up so we could sing to them.

We relit candles and put them on Andrew's piece of dessert so he could blow them out and spray as needed.

Birthday Outings

Even though we had a family dinner scheduled on Monday for my mom's birthday, Lori and I decided to take her out on Saturday on her actual birthday (June 21st).

Andrew was home for the weekend so it was a bonus to get to see him. Of course he was all sorts of chatty (not), but he is actually smiling in this picture so that's something.

We went to see "Words and Pictures" because it's a chick flick and something my dad would never agree to see. We liked it!

We went to Bucca di Beppo for a super tasty, late lunch.

Our self-portrait.

On Monday evening we met everyone at Goodwood for dinner (Robyn's boyfriend Lyman brought the flowers for my mom).

She also got a new tv for her workout space in the basement (which was a big surprise).

And a bunch of workout videos...I soooo don't want these for my birthday!

Landon had football practice and Randy was on a campout for the week so it was just Whitney and I representing for the family; plus she was staying with Adam and Amy for a few days so she arrived and left with them. Weird.

Rewind--Whitney's 13th Birthday

Whitney talks about her birthday all year long. She is always saying things like "You know what you could get me for my birthday...", or "I can't decide what I want to do for my birthday (she'll say this 5 months ahead of time)." It's pretty funny and not exhausting at all.

I'm not sure how or when we started doing "corner presents" but they have become a favorite part of the kids' birthdays.

Whitney was happy with this stash of gifts.

My mom checked Whitney out of school early so they could drive to Salt Lake to meet up with Bella for some shopping and then a movie.

Bella stayed over that night and the three of us watched "Thirteen Going on 30" together. It was their first Romantic Comedy/Chick Flick and it was hilarious to watch with them since they're both 13. They weren't old enough to swoon and didn't understand a lot of what was funny, but we had a good time.

We had a full day of fun planned for Saturday.

We picked up Lori and went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

Then we went to Slurp for the first time and had a hard time taking a self-portrait (of course I love dominating the photo...NOT!)

Oh Whitney.

Next stop was Color Me Mine for our misspelled table appointment of fun.

Lori got right down to it, but Bella and I were pretty stressed about messing our projects up. I was surprised at Whitney's hesitation too but her issue may have been because she had too many ideas.

It took her over an hour before she was ready to paint! She made a cool striped design using tape. We were there for 3 hours and had a really fun time. I think Bella and I would be less stressed the next go around.

We had a family party that evening for Randy and Whitney and I had arranged for a friend from church to make this amazingly beautiful apple pie for Randy.

Adam entertained us as usual!

Whitney blew out all 13 candles (I hope she didn't wish for a dog!).

The big crowd.

Everyone gave Whitney cash!

Five for Friday

Greeting friends, this is my first Five for Friday post of the new school year and I'm very happy to say that I am posting from home at 10:30am because I don't work on Fridays! It's glorious. I've been cleaning, rocking out to music on Pandora, and enjoying the solitude that comes from having the house to myself, I'm stoked!

 BEFORE

1. I failed to report that Whitney got a newish hair style last Saturday to start junior high. 

AFTER

Sharolyn (our stylist of 7 years) thinned it out (Whitney's hair is super thick and getting curly), cut some bangs, and flat ironed it beautifully. We just wish we could recreate this look at home. I keep telling Whitney she has to practice, practice, practice but so far she's mostly invested her energy into complaining about it instead. Aargh! At least she had a few days of feeling good about her hair before she had to wash it and begin the battle again.

 

2. I got thrown into the deep end of being the primary secretary last weekend when I had to scramble to find 8 substitute teachers to replace all our male teachers because the Stake was coming to do a training for all the men. It was crazy for a bit but some nice women agreed to help out. I made these as thank you gifts.

3. I was able to upgrade my phone to the iPhone 4s a couple weeks ago and got this awesome case from this shop on Etsy...of course I love it.

4. Speaking of phone cases, we gave Landon a phone for his birthday (eek!) and Adam designed this case for him. It's pretty cool and I probably should have asked Adam to make a case for me, but they're a little pricey to have made so we did it for a birthday gift for the boy instead. (#84 is Landon's football jersey number in case you're wondering.)  

5. I saw this on Pinterest this morning and it resonated with me. I always know things are going to work out and I'm grateful for that, it keeps me from being a worrier.