Happy Valentine's Day!

The gorgeous roses Graham gave me.

The table setting.

  The conversation heart red velvet cake I made.                 

      

Of coarse Emerson dressed up for dinner.

I didn't want to go out on Valentine's Day, so I decided to make it a special night in with the family.  I made it fancy because Emerson loves it when I go all out.  Even my friends boys dug it. 

Emerson's 50's Dance

Dancing with her principal, Senorita Pacheco.

Swinging with daddy

Emerson's school had a 50's dance fundraiser.  She had so much fun wearing her poodle skirt and dancing.

Baby Joe Dirt

Also known as, child abuse!  Graham loves this mullet wig.  He refuses to throw it away. 

Ocean Views

You have to give up some amenities when you live in Southern California like, a big backyard or even a backyard at all, a bigger house and so on.  But, when I can look out my window and have a view like this, I think it's worth it.

My Little Angels

I know everybody thinks their children are the cutest things alive, but seriously, look how cute mine are!

Just One of the Boys!

My friends boys are always over at our house, they are definitely a part of our family.  Atticus gets so excited to see them.  The boys love playing with him and making him laugh and Atticus follows them around everywhere.  My favorite is when the boys play the Wii and Atti plays along beside them with his own controller.

I can feed myself!

Atticus now wants to sit at the big table with everybody else to eat his dinners.  He loves to use his fork and he does a pretty good job making it into his mouth.

1995-2008

I have heard from some of my old friends from high school since I started this blog.  It has been really fun to go on your blogs and find out what you have been up to since we graduated high school.  I thought I would update you on what I have been doing the last 12 years.

After high school, I went to SUU for a semester and didn't know what to do so I decided to be a nanny in New Jersey.  After six months of being a nanny, I realized I didn't like kids.  I decided it was time to go back to school.  I fell in love with New York City and wanted to stay there to go to fashion school.  My mom talked me out of that and persuaded me to pursue fashion in California because it was closer to Utah.  So, I packed up my clothes and headed out to Los Angeles, (I didn't know a soul) to attend fashion school at FIDM.

The first month in LA, I started going to the USC student ward, where Graham was finishing his Master's Degree.  Graham immediately started stalking me and I kept telling him I wanted to be just friends.  He is still convinced to this day I was playing hard to get.  We got married  in September 1997 in the Logan, Utah temple.

I graduated with my fashion design degree and starting designing women's wear for various companies.  I loved every minute of it.  

I went from reading 10-20 fashion magazines a month, shopping for latest fabrics and styles, going to fashion shows and designing clothes to reading parenting magazines four years later when I had my first child, Emerson.  I quit work and became a stay at home mom.  I was glad to find out I didn't hate all children.  It is definitely different when it is your own child.  I do miss designing and hope to get back into it again when Atticus starts to go to school.

Since Graham and I have been married, we have lived in LA, Pasadena, Moorpark, Farmersville (Yes, that is its real name) and Lemon Grove.  All in California.  We moved a lot because of Graham's job.  We have been in Lemon Grove for the last 4 1/2 years.   Lemon Grove is 10 minutes East of downtown San Diego.  I love it here.  It has beautiful weather all year round and we love the beaches.  I don't know how long we will be here.  Graham is a city manager so we kind of go where he gets the next job.  

Graham and I have been married for 10 years.  We have two kids: Emerson, 6 and Atticus 1.  We have one dog named Putty.  We have had him for 8 years.  We decided to get a dog first before we had kids.  I think it worked out well.

My days now are spent schlepping Emerson to and from school, play dates, mommy and me classes, birthday parties, cleaning, laundry, Young Women and cooking.  All the joys of motherhood.  I LOVE IT!

Keep in touch, I really enjoy hearing from you.

January Pictures

Adorable as always!  Atticus loves to hang-out with Emerson and play with whatever she is playing with.  Hey, at least he's playing with Ken!

January Pictures

I don't know how I did it but I convinced Emerson not to have a birthday party this year.  Her birthday is so close to Christmas.  Every year I try to talk her out of a birthday party in December so she can have a half birthday party in the summer, but she never agrees.  This year, I talked her out of a party.  She has been wanting to go horseback riding for a long time.  So, for her birthday this year, she got to have a riding lesson and go off trail riding on a horse named "Irish".  She had so much fun.  She got to brush him and feed him a carrot at the end of her ride.