a very special visit

the first house i ever lived in was a small two bedroom apartment in orem. i can't recall more than a hand full of memories from my time there. the most vivid memories i have, besides running into the couch resulting in stitches and getting my mouth washed out with soup, was a very loving uncle who lived below us. 

my sisters and i would often go missing, but my mom knew exactly where we were, uncle jonny's.

i remember he was always so welcoming, even though now as an adult i know it had to be bothersome at times having little girls knocking at your door all.the.time! it was as if he knew my mom needed a little break from our overwhelming energy. he would make us celery with olive and pimento filling and let us snack on chocolate wafer sticks. the smell of his musty basement apartment, his retro 70's couches and all his collectibles somehow was our little heaven away from home.

uncle jonny is very sentimental. visiting his home now is a trip back in time. he has paintings and drawings from all those years back. one of the teddy bears even has a nickel in his pocket that one of us girls gave to him. he has a hand painted lemonade sign framed in his office that one of my cousins painted along with several other framed art from his nieces and nephews. everything has a meaning to him. perry even got her name from his favorite color, perry winkle. i remember him showing me a crayon with the wrapper that said "perry winkle". when i was pregnant with perry we went to visit him around christmas like we do every year and perry-as a name-stuck in my head and i've loved her name ever since. 

on numerous holidays we receive a very thoughtful card from uncle jonny. not one addressed to our entire family, but one to steele, one to perry and one to brett and i. he has a very steady hand and loves to do calligraphy. he writes us each a little note in his beautiful handwriting. steele is always so excited to receive mail. it is such a kind way to let us know that we are his family and he loves us.

a few days ago, heidi and i took the boys down to see uncle jonny. steele was so excited, especially because i told him we were going to be able to play with a train set! it was all set up just for the boys. they were a bit rambunctious but it was it was a very nice day at uncle jonny's. 

we sure do love our uncle jonny!

one crazy brotha!

i had to share this photo that my little bro emailed home today!

what a nut! i'm sure my mother is not too happy with this.

he said he touched him too! 

i don't think missionaries are protected when 

they're being stupid, ryan!!

starting to grow on me....valentines day

never been my favorite holiday.

i think it stems from never getting a carnation

on valentines day in junior high haha.

but...

i'm starting to enjoy making it fun for steele.

we went to cheesecake factory with j&j the saturday before.

it was perfect avoiding the crouds...

oh wait, we still waited aprox 115 minutes. 

i don't get the whole telling you your wait in minutes.

anyway, we had such a good time. 

i don't know why i needed it so badly but i did. 

a kid free night of just shopping and good food.

we always have a good time with fergie and the juice!

brett sure knows what i like....

except i still haven't found the time to actually flip any pages.

gossip magazines are better if you have a pool to lay by.

and we all know with this crazy utah winter we'll have snow till june!

 on valentines day we decorated cookies 

and made a little package for aunt fergie. 

tax season isn't kind to CPAs so we went and 

surprised jennifer with a plate of cookies and treats.

i had steele just walk into her office

and say "happy valentines day!"

sugar cookies are for sure the best part of valentines!!

no, perry did not eat that cookie. 

all me.

can you tell who snuck most of my skittles?

since we had already been out on saturday

we decided to stay in and make a delicious meal.

chicken parmesan, grilled asparagus and zucchini, cob salad...yum.

i also thought it would be fun to eat by candle light. 

steele thought this was the best part of dinner!

he kept asking us to sing happy birthday to him.

 hope you all had a fabulous valentines with the ones you love, 

because we sure did!

................

xoxo

Saddest little princess...

She is finally feeling better but still doesn't have a lot of energy. Nothing is worse than the stomach flu, especially at 8 months. She also had it at 3 months too! Lots of pumping and giving her bottles ever 30 minutes. She doesn't really love the watered down Gaterade unless it's really warm but just cries when she finishes the 2 oz of milk. Holding her little lifeless body just breaks my heart. The worst was her looking at me with the saddest eyes and saying "mamamama!" I cried every time she threw up. Brett gave her a blessing around 3AM and that seemed to help her sleep. I love to let her just rest her head on my chest. She is the sweetest little thing.

this little piggy...is 8 months!

i'm back.
had to purchase more storage for the blog.
which i guess means i have done a pretty good job over the past few years.
it was nice to take a little month long hiatus.
but i still need to keep the blog current for the little bros on missions.

so...
here are a few pics of my sweet, growing way too fast, pear.
she is developing such a vibrant personality and i can't quite describe how much i adore her.
most of these are older but i still wanted to post them.
she is about 6 months in most of them.

{i gave this one to my dad for christmas. i love it!}

and these three are just so fun!

esther is crawling now! 

braxton is scooting...

and perry, she is not interested in any of it.

{wish i would have swapped esther and braxton...}

can you believe how much they've changed?!

i think perry has changed the least out of the three.

i'll be back soon...

xoxo