random

bubbles...
friends...

grease monkeys...

my girls...

no comparison

i might not be all glamorous and get to wear my high heels and cute clothes most days. you'll usually find me in jeans and a t-shirt, hair in a ponytail, with a chance of a shower. and instead of my favorite perfume, i get to wear the lovely fragrance of "puke de mia" on my neck (and arms and face and clothes). but man, nothing beats that feeling of standing over my baby's crib to pick her up in the morning while she greets me with her precious smile. and then i get to spend all day with her. i'm so lucky to be a mom.

pumpkin boy

i was at my sister's house yesterday and she gave me a bunch of clothes for van that luke had outgrown. i knew van would be diggin' on this pumpkin shirt because he loves halloween. sure enough when i showed it to him, he was so excited and couldn't wait to wear it to school. so i pick him up from school today and ask him how his day was. he said it wasn't good because people were calling him "pumpkin boy". i was trying so hard not to laugh as i attempted to convince him that they just thought it was cool. he wasn't buying it.
those little punks. he's already self-conscience enough as it is. still, i couldn't help but laugh.

mia's blessing weekend

i totally forgot to blog this until i looked at robyn's blog this morning and remembered about the cute pics i sent her that i hadn't posted, so here's a quick run down of the happenings...

senior sanders, robyn, and her spunky little 4 year old harrison (i can't believe i didn't get any pictures of harrison!) drove clear from iowa just for the blessing (thanks guys!)!

first of all, let me tell you something about robyn (forget the fact that she's incredibly beautiful and talented and gets up every morning at the crack of dawn to be a personal kickboxing trainer, is the funnest mom to her 3 adorable kids, serves in the stake relief society presidency, never forgets a birthday, has healthy meals on the table for her family every night by 5 (i could go on and on)), she is one of the most genuine people i know and loves to make special time for all her nieces and nephews (and us, her lucky sister's). she's really a gem. (you're welcome robyn. i know how you love the spotlight. hee hee)

here she is showing us how to make these way cute hair clips for our girls...

and making cookies with van. and she took jasmine to "sam moon" to buy jewelry. they love their aunt robyn:)

of course she had to love on mia and londyn whenever she could (family pics are on when you come in december!)


other noteworthy items of the weekend (that i got pictures of)...
karen turned 20! i snapped this cute pic of the birthday girl and her cake. yay! karen's not a teenager anymore:)

and vovo had mia laughing out loud which is rare for our serious little girl.



the blessing day was great. always good to have family around.

we went to maryanne's house after church for lasagna and paula's famous brownies.

my mom was in austin watching catherine's (my older sister) kids, so she and lauren and adam drove the 3 hours out to dallas to be with us. perfect timing. AND my cousin chad and his cute wife brittney and their 2 boys (who moved out here from utah last year) came too! the more the merrier...



my cutest 16 year old niece lauren:)

and of course the famous blessing dress that my mom spent hours and hours on. thanks again mom, it turned out so beautiful!


i was bummed that i didn't get a picture of my mom with mia in her dress or even one at all that weekend. i found this one of her holding mia when she was just weeks old.


so, the little princess here (being oblivious to it all), created a beautiful day of family, love, and togetherness, just by being born. we love you mia.

things of note...

- mia slept from 10 last night to 7 this morning! yay! (she usually wakes up around 2 or 3 to eat)
- the rain is holding up the progress of our house:(
- my sister trisha had her baby 2 weeks early. beautiful little kate weighing 5 lbs. 8 oz.
- it's cooling off here in texas, making it for perfect running weather
- my brother michael wrote another great inspirational post (he should totally write a book)


- jas and dad had a daddy daugher date at the olive garden for all you can eat pasta last week (he's such a great dad)

- i went to van's school to eat lunch with him, which he thought was pretty cool

-jasmine is so over landon, and now has a crush on a boy named zach in her 4th period class

- van likes to wear his "muscle shirt" to bed

- little miss mia likes to sit in her "bumbo chair" but doesn't like cooperating with the camerawoman who is trying to get her to smile. little stinker.
and...
- i love my family

4 ladies and a bald man...

now i know absolutely nothing about photography, but i do have a fancy camera, somewhat of a creative eye, and the magic powers of computer software. so when paula asked me to take some pics of her beautiful family i was more than happy.

as you can see, paula and her family are gorgeous. being such a good looking fam, they made me look like i got some skills:) thanks guys!

i just wanted to remember this

van has never skipped a night brushing his teeth. never. and if he happens to eat anything after he brushes his teeth, he'll brush them again before he gets into bed. he couldn't have "the tooth bugs" eating away at his teeth while he sleeps.
now that we're in a routine with school starting, it looks like he has also become very efficient with his good habit. this is what i saw when i walked into the bathroom after they left for school. his toothbrush is all set up for when he brushes his teeth tonight. funny kid:)

my heroes

this is my dad and my brother after crossing the finish line at "the top of utah" marathon in logan, utah last month.
my dad is 62 and can run a full marathon in less than 5 hours (that's 26 miles!)
and my brother michael who is paralyzed, took 1st place in the hand cycling division AND missed the record by only 8 minutes to qualify for the Boston marathon!
so waa waa for me who just had a c-section 2 1/2 months ago...i got nothin on them:) congrats guys! see you at the austin marathon in february!

mom turns 60!

at the ripe old age of 7 weeks, mia takes her first plane ride as we head off to utah to surprise my mom at her 60th birthday party! (this was a quick family trip so don't be mad at me that i didn't come visit you my utah peeps:))

knowing that my mom would be expecting something big for her 60th birthday, my dad thought of a brilliant plan. he let her pick her favorite restaurant and invited grandma (her mom) and the kids and their spouses that live in utah (4 kids live in utah and 3 here in texas) and set the date for the dinner. as the date got closer, he had my brother call and say he was going to a wedding rehearsal and couldn't make it . then he had my sister angela call the day of and say that her kids were sick and she couldn't be there either. she was a little bummed as they drove to the restaurant with just my youngest sister christine, to meet up with trisha and grandma at the restaurant.

little did she know that my dad had invited all her brother's and sister's and their spouses, AND that her 3 daughters from texas had flown in just for the party! we got the cue that she was coming and hid around the corner and watched while she entered the room filled with all her family (including the fakers that weren't supposed to be there). then the three of us from texas casually walked in the room and said "is there a party in here?" you should have seen the look on her face as she screamed in surprise and of course started crying as she hugged us (it was so fun to be sneaky!)my dad treated everyone to whatever they wanted on the menu while we all talked and laughed, and filled up on steak and birthday cake (thanks dad!).

after dinner, we performed a little something that we put together to pay tribute to our wonderful mother- complete with funny stories, "mom-isms", musical numbers, and talking about the things that we love most about her. then we watched a slide show that my dad put together about her life. the feelings we all had were unanimous...she showed us so much love, and taught us how to be happy. some of our best qualities we got from her.

holding back the tears, she watched as she enjoyed what she said was "the highlight of her life".

dad and his girls

pretty mom with her daughters.
happy 60th, we love you mom!

i don't know why michael wasn't in any of the group shots, but here he is with his wife mary (happy birthday cute girl!) holding mia.

bonus that my hubby was able to be there as we enjoyed the rest of our short stay with mia and my family...

we stayed at angela and paul's house, and this is what i saw when i came downstairs one morning. i grabbed my camera right away to capture a priceless shot of a typical saturday morning with the howell family. paul playing his guitar, while angela in her pj's holds ava in just her underwear, with zane drinking his bottle listening to dad sing.

when it's all said and done-