Father's Day 2011

This Dad is so much fun.

He works hard  to provide for his family.

He plays hard with his kids and he makes them laugh, a lot.

He washes dishes and folds clothes and cooks and cleans bathrooms.

He is appreciative of things that we do for him.

He goes out of his way to make life better for people around him.

He makes us all feel happy.

We had a great day celebrating him!

Vinyl Gifts and More

When we were in Idaho for our Cole Family Reunion my sister Lauren's mother-in-law Diane offered to cut some vinyl for us. She and her daughter began a business (Vinyl Gifts and More) and was kind enough to share her talents. It's only taken me FOUR MONTHS to get them hung (Thanks Ryan!).

I always have a hard time deciding what I want to put on my walls, but I loved this quote when my Granddad gave it in Conference and a few of my cousins had it done in vinyl so I decided to go with it. Who said I had to be original? I love the way it turned out. It is in the family room, above the doorway to the door to the garage and basement stairs.

Lauren gave me this initial vinyl... I finally painted a piece of wood and hung it on a cute piece of wrought iron. It's in our front room.  I love the way it turned out!

I love President Hinckley's "Be's" and thought this would be great in the kids' room--I put it above the door.

**If you need any vinyl cut they have a great website with a lot of ideas and will also do custom vinyl.  Visit their site here.  Thanks Diane and Lauren!

**Do you have vinyl on your walls?

Mother's Day Goodness

I was spoiled rotten on Mother's Day... starting with a made-by-Ryan breakfast of french toast and bacon served on a super cute plate made by Coleman with fruit smoothies... we had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert (I love having dessert for breakfast!).


Olivia made an awesome book all about me, including this fabulous portrait...
...information about me (I love her assessment of my weight--Ryan said she was bound and determined to get me on the scale, but he recommended writing what she did--"less than my dad"--I got taller too!)...

...and her depiction of our kitchen counter below is scarily accurate. Someday, I will tame it. Today is not that day.

Ryan's gift was that he is making our blog into a book! I feel more motivated to blog more often so that we can record all the happenings in our family. I also feel a weight of guilt lifted off for not scrapbooking anything in the last 7 or 8 years.

More than great gifts and yummy food I am just so grateful to have three wonderful kiddos and an incredible partner to help me raise them. They are a joy and fill my life with wonder each day.

My Favorite Christmas Gift

I love giving gifts. In my family, we draw names (so as to not have to buy for 7 siblings and their families) and this year I got to give to my youngest sister Lindsey. She just had her first baby and they just moved into their first home, so when she said she'd love something for her house, I got very excited! Ryan did a photo shoot with their family several weeks ago, and I think we put together a really neat gift--since we won't see her on Christmas, I got to give it to her a few days ago when her sweet baby Jonah stayed with us for a couple of hours. I am sure this is the favorite gift I gave (or will give) this year and she loved it too. How could we go wrong with such a precious baby photo?