Fun Family Surprise Day

 Photo Courtesy of Swensen Photography

Wow, it has been way too long.  So much to update yet so little time. One of these days I will update our status, but until then I will share a fun family surprise day we had almost 2 years ago now.  It was so fun & the girls LOVED it.  It was captured on the photography blog for Swensen Photography as they captured some great shots for us.  You can read it there HERE.

Here is what we did:

We gave invitations to our girls stating to be ready in their new dresses for their big day.  When the time arrived their first surprise arrived.  Sam with Something Vintage Something Blue, picked us up in his beautiful princess ivy (vintage car). We all hopped in the gorgeous car ready for an adventure.  Everyone watched as we were riding in style & the girls loved every second of it. We reached our first destination spot at La Caille in Sandy.   Justin, with Swensen Photography was there ready to capture some family photos to help us remember this special day.  Thank you Justin!!

After our family photo shoot we traveled down to the fabulous Grand America hotel where we had a little tea party.  If you haven’t had the tasty Grand America’s Afternoon tea, I highly recommend it.  They have lots of different teas, or hot chocolates to choose from & I have even had a scrumptious chilled chocolate drink that was to die for, YUM!!  The afternoon tea comes with finger sandwiches, scones & one of their amazing desserts.  Perfect for a fun day out with the girls or a family day like this one as even Dad enjoyed being pampered.  Let's just say it was a little bit of Heaven. :)

After the yummy tea party Sam drove us to down town Salt Lake City where they were able to enjoy the Christmas Lights at temple square.  It was a memorable evening & their girls loved it  I am so lucky to have such great girls.  I love my girls & Brian too.  Moments to remember for sure. :)

I have lots to share & update on our blog so hopefully this will be just a start for me.  I need to get back in the habit of sharing & writing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAILYN!!!

I can't believe she is 6 years old today. She is getting so grown up. She has already had so much fun celebrating her birthday. She had a girl cousins sleepover last week. They had such a great time eating pizza, watching movies, playing the wii & just playing around the house. We have so many cute little girls in our family. Then she had a party at Grandma Roundy's house which is always so much fun. She picked out Better than anything cake- that is a popular choice around here. Today is her very special day & she has an agenda planned for us. She has requested to have me pick her up from school so she can pass out treats to her friends. Then she asked Brian to bring her McDonalds for lunch. Then she has dance class and then we will meet Brian during his work break for dinner. She opened her Mini Me & cupcake maker today & socks & she got to pick out a Sharpay dress the other day at the store. She did say after she opened her gifts- Is that all?? Little stink. We had to remind her of all the gifts that she got & to remember to be thankful for what she has.
Chailyn- we sure do love you. Thanks for being such a special part of our family.
We love you. Mom, Dad, Jacilyn & Brooklyn

He got it!!! :)

Brian got the new position today. What a relief it is to know for sure he will have a job in a couple weeks. I wasn't too worried so now he doesn't have to do the job hunt. YEAH!!!

We really hope this new position will be a good thing. He will be home a little earlier than before & no Saturdays which will be fabulous. I haven't had him Saturdays for a long time so this is going to be so GREAT!!!

Thanks for all the prayers- I know it helped.

Here's to a FANTASTIC 2009- hope everyone has a wonderful new year. Sorry for no Christmas cards this year- I totally slacked off. Maybe next year- we need a new family picture.

Jacilyn Piano & Chailyn Dance

Chailyn had her first dance concert. She was so dang cute. This is her with her friend Kaitlin- aren't they the cutest little girls you have ever seen.


Jacilyn did a great job at her piano recital. We think she is just AWESOME!!

All three of our girls are wonderful.- Thanks for being my girls. :)

Christmas Time!!! :)

We had such a great Christmas! It would be so nice to have a few more days without work and just enjoy the family. Christmas eve we had some of our family & some of Brian's family over. We invited everyone, but some had already made other plans. We had soup & lots of goodies, dips, treats etc... We didn't due much other than visit & eat but we had a great time. Earlier that day We had a scavenger hunt for PJS- the girls always get a kick out of it & really gets them excited for Christmas. Brian kept tabs on Santa so we knew where he was. The girls love that too. It seemed easy this year to get them in bed. They were so worried if they weren't in bed that Santa would miss them.
Christmas morning was GREAT. The girls slept til 8:00 I was shocked. Brooklyn yelled from her crib- "Dad, come here" Once we all got out of bed we came downstairs to see what Santa left. The girls got all that they asked for- Jacilyn got her IPOD and wallet, Chailyn got her pink guitar and password journal and Brooklyn got a new baby doll. They were all so cute & we loved watching the girls open up their gifts.
As Christmas is now over I come back to reflect on our Saviors birth. How blessed we are to have our savior in our lives. To know he lives and loves us and to know that one day we can return and live with him and our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed to have the knowledge that we have about being a forever family. I love my Savior and I am grateful for the gospel in my life.

SPOKE TOO SOON

So I guess I spoke too soon because Brian got Laid off today. His work sent him over to apply for another position within the company so hopefully that works out. They aren't able to do any hiring until the first part of January because the entire company is on a hiring freeze. So say a little prayer for us that it works out & he gets this new position. :)

Economic Crisis

With the economy the way the way that it is has left me pondering our American Crisis. Brian's work just laid off 4000 employees in the US. So scary. We are so grateful that he is able to keep his position and we feel for those who are losing their jobs at the end of this year. How blessed we have been as a Nation but how troubled many of our friends, neighbors, associates & many we don't even know have been & will be affected by our current situation. We have really seen a hit in our personal business & hope to see a come back in 2009. I was talking with Brian earlier about how we can get out of the recession we are in. I don't have a simple solution but what I realize is that we all need to buy American made products. I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks about & if anyone has any amazing ideas or thoughts about how to get the US back where we need to be.