May Catch-Up

I'm never going to have/make time to get caught up in a way that does justice to the last two months, so I'm going with the Catch-Up to get the pictures here and prevent myself from getting even further behind. One day, my kids will have the complete stories of these pictures in their scrapbooks because I'm totally not 5 years behind there, too!


This is the reason I take May off from teaching preschool - so much is going on in my kids' classes! Sam & I got to help with the Fox Trot run for Josh's class. That's him in the hoodie. He ran 7 laps around the giant soccer field! We also got to go to his Animal Presentation. All the cute kindergartners made dioramas of the animal they had researched and presented it to their class.



We had a chocolate dipping party with some leftover fruit Libby had and bulk chocolate we had.

And, my sisters took some really cool pictures of themselves with my camera which obviously means they want them posted on the blog, right?
Sam and I made some really cool art projects with toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and marble painting.


We went to some special event at Wheeler Farm, but I honestly can't remember what it was called. We still had a great time looking at the animals, chasing ducks, watching a sheep sheering, and sitting on the tractors.

And, I made some cute owl pillows for my neighbor to give to her friend that's about to have her first baby boy. I kinda wanted to keep them...

April Catch-Up

We dyed eggs



and hunted for them - once at Grandma's and once at Aunt Libby's.



We spent an afternoon at the Thanksgiving Point Petting Farm doing research for Josh's Pig Project. We took a little break to ride the horses.



And pose for some pictures.


Jared & I celebrated our 13th anniversary. He wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse and since my sisters and I always dress up for birthdays, he brought home hats and boots to dress up for our dinner out. We were surprised by how many comments we received about our hats - we do live in Lehi after all!

And, we started and ended April with music. Jared took me to see Reba & George Strait at the beginning of the month. I luv Reba! We went to the symphony at teh end of the month the see a Tribute to ABBA for our anniversary. Thanks to Jared's Mom & Dad for the tickets! And, thanks to Jared for listening to music he would have never chosen on his own!

This picture is from Manda's blog, I don't remember her running down to the floor to get such a close-up, so I'm guessing it's not really from the concert...

but these are!

Sam's haircut

Being the youngest has it's perks. One of those being that mom is too tired to fight the Bowl-Cut war anymore. The boys just don't understand that they have been blessed with good hair. The bowl-cut is the only way I can think of to let their hair grow a little longer without looking like we're Utah County Rebels!

So, Sam wanted spikes. Spikes like Trayce (our neighbor). Fine.
Jake had a bowl-cut until he was 10, Cam until he was 8, and Josh until he was 6.
Sam got rid of it at 3.
You can see why I don't like it - he aged 10 years in the 15 minutes it took to cut his hair!
But, the spikes are cute, too.
And, he has a whole upper half of his face we didn't even know existed!
Like I said, one of the many, many perks of being Sammers!

Spring Break at Powder Mountain

I'm so far behind and every day that I put off catching up, I get further behind! To quote Sam : " S'not fair!" With that whining out of the way, I'm going to try to get caught up..baby steps.

For Spring Break, we went up to Powder Mountain for the weekend (April 16-17). (It was an attempt at a little bit of redemption on my part as the boys had decided by this point that they didn't want a baby, they wanted to go to LegoLand which was the pre-baby plan.)We spent Friday evening at the pool and the kids stayed up watching movies til they fell asleep. Saturday, they couldn't wait to get in the snow. We went over the the hill with the ski lift and sled down it for a while. The best part was that once we got too cold to sled anymore, we put out suits back on and went back to the pool!

Wanna see something cool?

So, this is Baby Meiners #5.
He/she is my favorite right now.
He/she doesn't whine at me.
He/she doesn't poop his/her pants that he/she's not wearing.
Although,
He/she does make me puke my guts out all day,
but he/she can't help that.

The biggest reason, though,
He/she is 2 weeks further along than we thought!

I love you best, Baby Meiners #5.

Manda's Reception

The Party of the Year (at least for us, and at least until Grace's baptism in November) was Manda & Tony's wedding reception. Manda, Abby, Libby, and I worked on stuff from October until 15 minutes before the party started! I was mainly in charge of ties, vests, centerpieces, and wedding cake.


Manda and Tony at the party. Our friends from Louisiana (that now live in Layton) were so fabulous to come down and do Manda's make-up and help the rest of us with our hair.

Our family shot with a little extra coolness from Cam! Now we just need a good 80's party so we can wear the ties and vests again!



Our whole Brossette family

Lib made the Groom's cake - we behaved and didn't make the U blue.


Grace taught Cam some dance moves.


The wedding cake. Lib baked and I decorated. Luckily, Lib transported it, too. I think I would've panicked on the way had it been in my car.

James & Miles dancing.


My friends,Easton, Michelle, and Laurie that came to the party. Laurie was accused of being Manda's mom once when Manda came to church with us. Easton was one of my preschool students that took a liking to Crazy Aunt Manda. And, Michelle is my friend but also Easton's mom & driver.

Cricut Cake 02/18/11

We needed a cake. One that would feed 250 people, have 3 tiers, be teal, and have a peacock on it. We were having no luck finding one for under $700. That's right, $700 for a cake! So, I got this crazy idea that we could make the cake if we bought the Cricut cake machine. I went to Libby with this epiphany so she could talk sense to me, but instead, she hopped on my Crazy Train!

The machine sat in my Overstock cart for two weeks before I was brave enough to hit the 'Buy It' button. With $100 from the wedding budget and $50 put in from my sisters, it was much easier to push the button!

We tried it out on the Bridal Shower cupcakes.

This is the Cricut Cake Machine.

Peacock themed cupcakes for Manda's Cafe Rio "I'm the Bride" lunch

Libby's food blog pictures to make sure you see all the fabulousness!

Manda & Tony's Wedding 2/25/2011

Crazy Aunt Manda got married!
Married?
Yes, married!
Married?
Married! Sheesh!

Tony and Manda after the Wedding Ceremony

Tony and Manda at the Gateway on our way to dinner at Tucano's

No party is complete without a Sister Picture!

Tony and Manda at Tucano's.

Our Valentine's Day

I wish I had pictures!
But, I didn't know what was happening when I left the house!

Around 4PM, Jared called me and asked me to go outside and look in the car for something. Before I could get to the car door, I saw a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries on the hood. They came with a note that told me to "take a break and go to Hart's for a sodie".

I got to Hart's and the lady behind the counter gave me my mug (that Jared had dropped off there 3 days in advance) and told me that my drink had already been paid for. I wonder by who? Inside the mug was a stuffed frog and a note sending me to Lisa's house.

I got to Lisa's house and she gave me a note and a box with a pair of earrings that I thought I had lost along with two new pairs of earrings. A week before, I had lost one of my favorite silver earrings when I got my hair cut. Or, so I thought. Jared bought me new silver earrings and then found the lost one in my car, so he wrapped them all together. I stayed and visited with Lisa until he called and said I could come home.

I came home to a tablecloth and candles on the table which had been moved into he front room. He had made us a steak, salad, baked potato diner and even had music playing in the background. Music being Reba! He banished the kids to the basement with pizza and a movie and we had a nice, quiet dinner. After dinner, we watched Bed of Roses which was my favorite chick flick from college and required that he dust off the VCR and hook it up!

It was a fabulous Valentine's Day. Jared went so far above and beyond to make me feel special and it worked!

Valentine's Day in Kindergarten 2/14/2011

Every holiday is super-sized when you're in Kindergarten! It doesn't matter how you've celebrated for the last five years, this year will definitely be better!

Josh came home from school wearing his "Special Delivery" valentine costume. He was so funny trying to get out of the carpool van and get his heart on over his coat before coming in the house!

These were his Valentine's that we made for his friends in his class.

And, his Valentine box which had to be the best thing we've EVER created!


Jake and Cam celebrated Valentine's in their classes, too, but they're not up for all of the memory-making photos. Jake's box looked a lot like Josh's. He made it completely himself. Cam's looked similar to the Love Boat, but we left off the frilly pink junk and put S.S.Cam on the back.

Sometimes... 01/22/2011

Sam is really cute.
And, he asks for a prize after going to JoAnn's.
For the fifth time in one week.
And, I oblige.
Then, we glue popsicle sticks together instead of working on our 'wedding jobs'.
(Don't tell Manda!)