Paige and Wally!!!!!

The best part of our Valentine's Day I couldn't talk about until today, because I had to wait until all of the appropriate people were in the know. Late Valentine's Day evening Paige and her boyfriend Wally stopped by unexpectedly for a visit and announced that they are engaged!! I cannot be more excited/thrilled/proud for Paige! Wally is an amazing guy, and I'm so grateful that he knows what an amazing girl Paige is! Their wedding date is set for August 5th in the Manti Temple.

(They wanted me to stand in the picture. Don't know why - I look like a doofus, but whatever!)

To know a bit more about my sweet sister Paige and what has made her so amazing, you can read more about her on past blog posts: (I don't know how to make a link, so I'm telling you where/when you can find them!) October/November 2009, and August 2010. You'll see what I mean.

Congrats, guys! We're so excited to have you in our family, Wally! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had so much fun with Valentine's Day this year. I've had it in my mind how I wanted to do Valentine's Day for a while, but I haven't had kids old enough to do much. So this year, I finally had some fun with it. I made a special Valentine's Day breakfast for Aiva, complete with pink heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and bananas. She thought it was pretty cool. Then Aiva got to take Valentines to her friends at preschool.

Sorry, this picture is blurry. I made a special Valentine's Day dinner for my family. The menu:

Miso soup (my step-dad is Japanese, and he has us hooked!)

Linguine with Silky Mushroom Sauce (YUM!! It's healthy, too. :)

Steamed Broccoli

Sparkling red grape juice, complete with goblets. Aiva enjoyed having "cheers" every minute or so.

And, if you look closely, Aiva was dressed up for the occasion.

Then Mike took Aiva out on a daddy-daughter date to the movies. To "pick Aiva up" for their date, he snuck around to the front door and rang the doorbell. When Aiva answered, he was standing there with a red rose, just for her. Aiva was enthralled, and loved their date.

The reason we do such an "unromantic" Valentine's Day is that our anniversary is at the beginning of March, so our anniversary seems very anti-climatic if we celebrate V-day. So we've decided to make it fun, and all about the kids. In the future, Mike will take the girls out, and I will take the boys out, if we happen to have any! :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

{the messies}

I guess I just don't have my stuff together. I think I ask for help from "the moms" more often than anyone I've ever seen. And for this, I appologize to all of you! I guess that I just figure that for every problem that I have, the answer is out there in one of your brains. So this is another one of my "pick your brains" post.

I have debated for a while on posting about this, because it would have to begin with an embarassing admission. I think this is an issue for many of us, but it's hard to admit it "publicly." Here it is: I am . . . not a clean person. I'm not a DIRTY person either, but keeping a clean home does NOT come second nature to me. I remember when Aiva was a baby I had a good schedule down and my house was quite tidy almost all of the time, and I thought to myself, "MAN, I am good at this MOM-STUFF!" And then . . . baby #2 came. I feel so incredibly overwhelmed. I cannot stay on top of the house. I feel like I could go around and around in circles all day long, and the mess would reproduce the second I turn my back on a clean room. If I decide to take it easy for a day, it looks like a bomb has gone off in my house. Not kidding. Come over on a Monday morning after I've taken Sunday "off."

I think to stay on top of it all I would have to be cleaning sun-up until sun-down. But I can't do that. I'm just being honest here, ladies. I'm coming out of the messy closet! I'm admitting it - I need help! I need to play with my kids. I need time to eat. I need to have my daily devotional time. I want to make time to exersize. I need to craft every now and then!! I've decided that I really, really need a cleaning schedule to keep me on track.

I need the feeling of peace that a clean home provides. I know that the Spirit is always stronger when you aren't hankered down with clutter. I want to feel pride in knowing that I can be a good steward over what is mine.

So . . . I know that a lot of moms struggle with keeping on top of the mess when you have children. But I also figure that there's a few of you out there for whom cleaning house comes more naturally. I'm not saying that your house is "PERFECT". What I am saying is that your house has that general "feeling" of cleanliness most of the time, even when it is a bit cluttered. So I'm asking: What are your secrets??? Do you have a schedule? What is it??? Do you have a magic fairy I can borrow???

So now I'm a bit embarassed, especially because I'm sure now everyone in my ward that reads this is going to stop by on Monday just to get a peek at Sister Cole's messy house. Again . . . I'm not a complete slob. But it's a struggle for me. I'm trying so hard to be a clean person. But I need a system. I need to organize my life to organize my home. If you have a system . . . please share. :)

Obsession

I know it's still {very, very cold} February, but I have been hit with a major case of Spring Fever. As such, I have been looking at the possibility of sewing some Spring/Summer dresses for my girls. Aiva is a funny little person. She's a high-energy tomboy {always pulling her bows out, won't wear shoes} but she HATES wearing jeans, as they are too restricting, and much prefers dresses. So I need to get a collection started for the coming warmer weather.

Anyway, in a stroke of luck as I was browsing looking at ideas for dresses, I came across this absolutely AMAZING photographer: www.karamayphotography.com/blog. Boutique clothing designers from all over send her their stuff and she photographs her beautiful little daughter wearing them. But I have FALLEN IN LOVE with so many of the dresses she has featured, and I am plotting at how to duplicate many of them, as I simply can't afford the boutique prices.

Here are several that have me drooling:

Oh. My. Gosh. Gorgeous.

by Zozobug Baby

I LOVE the sleeves!!!!! I will be making something with sleeves like this.

from www.etsy.com/shop/PalmTreePrincess

This picture was on the blog, but the website had been taken down. Oh, so cute, though!!

GASP!! I HAVE to make a pettiskirt like this to peek out from under stuff!!!

The dress on the left is made from a man's white button-up shirt! And I LOVE the style on the right!

This and the pettiskirt above are found at:

www.etsy.com/shop/TheMeasure

www.etsy.com/shop/KateEmersonDesigns

Both above are

www.etsy.com/shop/elizakatedesigns

The real reason I posted these is to get a good collection of photos for myself to look at at a glance, instead of having to go back forever into her archives to keep the ideas in my head.

And here's a little secret: I have actually never followed a sewing pattern before. Gulp. Here goes.