Random

On a beautiful hike above Highland, Alpine. We trudged up to the top of a little peak, played in the snow and had fun trying to guess to what the different animal tracks belonged.

Birds in the backyard. I'm not sure how my planter got dented but the birds definitely don't mind as long as it's filled with seeds.

Hot cocoa on a cold day.

Thanksgiving Point pony ride on a horse named Lacy.

Yummy ice cream cone in the car.

Taking a break at the river while on a walk with Grandpa.

Just funny because Afton loves olives. Can you tell?

Cute kiddo in her monkey robe eating the cereal she chose at the store.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was sure fun this year!

First of all we had our preschool Valentine's Day party at our house. It was a little chaotic and I wasn't even able to grab my big camera so everything is from the phone.

Once the kids arrived we sat down and read a few Valentine's Day books. The kids were pretty excited and I was surprised to get through two books. After that I played some music and we went on a shape hunt. I had shapes on the backs of hearts that were scattered all over the floor. The kids had to find a heart (they were everywhere), turn it over, find a certain shape and then help someone else. If they found the wrong shape or a blank heart they turned it back over and kept looking. Once they found the shape we were hunting, they made a row on the floor.

Once we'd found all of the squares we played the freeze dance. Every time the music stopped the kids had to freeze but some part of their body had to be touching a heart. It was pretty funny watching the kids decide how to touch the heart. Some would touch with their toes, some their pockets, some their fingers, etc. It was cute.

Next we sorted our candy hearts. I had some paper hearts laminated and passed them out for each child to use as a mat. We sorted our hearts into colors, ate a few and counted some as well. After that I gave each kiddo a white heart to color showing their favorite. We taped these to the door and made a graph.

After that we decided to work on our Valentine bags. I had brown paper bags and originally wanted to use sponges and stamps but the kids were wound up and we were running out of time so we used crayons, stickers, jewels and pom poms. The kids loved it and I finished them all off with some tulle and a huge initial letter tied to the front.

As the mom's started showing up we helped the kids pass out their Valentine's. They loved watching treats fill up their bag and couldn't wait to open them and really investigate.
Afton was really excited about her Valentine's!!!!

Later that day the doorbell rang and Afton was hoping it was the Valentine Man. It was. There was a brown lunch bag on the porch just for Afton. Inside she found a pink bear pez and a Tinkerbell nightlight. She was so excited she ate all the pez and ran upstairs to try out her new light. It clips on the bed or anywhere else so you can read.

After the excitement died down Afton and Brett went to work on a Valentine box she needed to take to dance the next morning. I found this cute pink box at Hobby Lobby for 1.50 and Afton picked out some stickers and markers. She and Brett had fun decorating and Afton had fun decorating herself!!!

Cutie pie getting ready to go to dance!


These are the cute Valentine's we made for preschool and dance. The treat was for her teacher.

Silver Sage

My dad and I love taking off into the desert. Today we drove west and enjoyed eating junk food, talking, and looking for wildlife.

We saw 22 hawks, 2 bald eagles, 1 golden eagle, deer, a blue heron and I know I'm forgetting something so I'll add it later.

These little outings are always fun and relaxing. In the middle of nowhere is a tiny store called the Silver Sage. We call ahead for burgers and fries!!!


I just thought this was funny. It is in the middle of nowhere!!

Mini Memory

I saw this cute idea and figured I'd try it out. Afton chose some cute animal pictures and I went to work. It turned out really cute and it's really little so we can take it with us to church or to dinner or anywhere else.

Fuzzy feet

Afton loves my fuzzy socks and these cuties were hidden away for the Valentine Man to deliver. Only problem, Afton was helping me do laundry and pulled them out of the dryer. Dangit

Oh well, she was so excited and immediately started to put them on. One pair and then the next.

Sick day

Sick days are no fun. Lots of couch time, towels, throwing up, remote controls for all the cartoons and movies and one really sad, dehydrated little kiddo.
It's been a long couple of days. Glad she's on the mend!

A New Year

I have been working on a New Year's book (not resolutions, just goals) for a couple of weeks. I can usually find a couple of minutes here or there but never enough to get it done. I finally sat down tonight determined to finish and was so enthralled with Afton I didn't quite reach my goal.

Oh well, I love watching Afton. Her little mind is always working. She loves to organize and spent a lot of time organizing embellishments, paper, and some chipboard shapes. Every time I would ask her for a specific color she would hunt through her strategically placed papers and find just the one!! She's such a good helper.
She even found time for a little tea party!

Our day

I love days like today. No plans, nothing to accomplish. Just hanging out doing whatever we want. I don't always like days like today. Some days I look forward to dance or a friend's house or an errand but today.... it was great!

We started the day with Afton eating her favorite cereal while I worked on a project.

Later that day, while I continued working on the project Afton had fun making nests and snakes out of clay.

With the weather being so wonderful we took off (Afton on a bike with me jogging alongside) for the mailbox. We can take the Jordan River Parkway trail all the way there. We never run into anybody and Afton is getting so fast!

After the mail we made our way to the park where Afton obviously felt we had enough photos for the day. She is such a good sport!

Notice the sweatshirt change. The pink sweatshirt was good while we were playing inside but the black one is better outside because it has a hood. Makes sense.

Bike bag

Afton loves riding her bike and she always wants to bring someone along but there hasn't been anywhere to put them.

Thanks to Grandma Sandy Afton now has the cutest little bike bag. It attaches with two pretty ribbons and has just enough space to hold some water, a treat, and a little friend!

Thanks Grandma!!!!

Beautiful hike and Instagram

We sure enjoyed our Saturday morning today. We sat around in our pj's until 11:30 goofing off and drinking smoothies. Once we finally got ourselves ready to go we were excited to hit the mountains for a hike. You'd think in all that time I would have been able to get my camera battery charged, but nope. I didn't even look at it until we left.

We snapped a few photos at the beginning of our hike (a fun group of boulders) and the battery died before we even left the car.

But I wasn't entirely sad because I had the chance to try out some Instagram photos. There's one gal I just love and her blog is full of these photos (I'll link her later). I have always loved them (even though I am such a fan of bright, light, clear photos) and was excited to try a few of my own. I love the vintage old school look. I feel like I am looking at photos of my grandparents ranch and the sage and skies in Central Utah.

Brett loves taking pictures and it's nice to be in the photo's once in a while!

Afton could have stayed here all day. She loves climbing over and around these boulders and only needed my help a couple of times. I of course just hovered because I am a spaz that way! She might need me....

Instagram shots
1. Grandpa Tom was on the trail ahead of us with his friend Paul. We got on the phone and looked up and waved once we were in the open and we left this little message saying Grandpa Tom so he would see it on the way down.
2. Afton loves getting her hands dirty.
3. I really love sagebrush. I love the look, the smell, the color. When I am hiking I like to pinch a little between my fingers and just breathe it in.
4. It was obviously warm enough for Brett to have his shirt off!!! It must have been around 50 and on the hillside it seemed even warmer. Brett kept trying to get me to take my shirt off! :)
5. Me
6. Shadow shot - we are always right behind her.

1. Kissing shadow shot.
2. Hitching a ride.
3. Sliding down a little dirt hill.
4. Cool shot, amazing blue sky.
5. More sliding.
6. Laughing at Brett - not sure why.

A tiny bit of snow

I can't believe the lack of snow this year. I LOVE it! I wish every winter was like this. We did however manage to find just enough snow to stop and play for a while.

On the way to the mailbox Afton cruised right through the snow on her new bike but on the way back we stopped for a while. She had fun making footprints, drawing faces, shapes and lots of squiggly lines, and loved throwing snow in the air.

I helped a little with this one.

Snow day?

Snow day with a question mark?
It hasn't really snowed this year and it's January 7! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this winter so far but I know my little Aftee is dying for a snow day.
We woke up to a teeny tiny bit of snow on our lawn but by the time Afton and Daddy got outside it was pretty much gone. Sorry sweetie!
Afton still had fun though, she ate a little, made hand prints in some and tried to catch a few 'corn'flakes on her tongue! I think she's calling them snowflakes now but that's what they were earlier this year!
And Dad as we all know is in heaven just standing in the yard, no matter what the weather. I wonder what he was thinking about as he stared into the garden? More corn next year? A bigger plot? I'm glad I have my super warm BYU hat on?

And can I just say Thank You to my parents for my new Christmas gift??? I took all of these pictures (minus the first one) through my closed window, inside my nice warm house with my new telephoto lens!!!! Oh man am I excited. I feel like I am finally able to watch Afton and catch some of these moments without being right in her face. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my 50 mm but sometimes it's nice to have some distance between us! She didn't even know I was taking pictures!!!

New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's Eve Brett and I took Afton to my parents and headed out on a date! We went to Kohl's (we are awesome) to find some shirts for Brett and then over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was definitely yummy food but it took so long to get in that I'm not sure I'd put forth the effort again. Brett made up for our long wait though by sprinkling his peanut shells all over the floor. He said it was a compliment to the restaurant. Hmmmmm

We were back to get Afton by about 8 and my dad seemed so shocked. He looked at the clock and then at us and said, "Really?". What can I say? Life's different. We aren't the same as we used to be (thank goodness) and we couldn't wait to go home and celebrate with Afton.

Once home we put some chocolate chip cookies in the oven and popped open some sparkling cider. We had fun toasting and blowing our horns. Afton loved the poppers and wanted us to keep switching our crowns. We had so much fun, laughing and goofing off. While Brett was putting Afton to bed I fell asleep reading on my bed. Boy am I pathetic. Brett came in, looked at me and said, "Really?". What a night. I finally got up and Brett and I watched a movie, watched the countdown on TV, listened to the neighborhood hoopla and went to bed!