Friday, March 30, 2012

Time Sure Does Fly By!

Five years and two kids later, we are still in love! I'm so blessed to call you my husband. I can't wait to share the rest of my life with you and make more babies with you too (wink, wink.) --that wasn't an announcement by the way-- just clarifying that.
Love,
Erin
Happy Anniversary to us! 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Celebrating 5 Years of Marriage: Park City Style!

Steve and I celebrated our anniversary a week early last weekend so that we could hit the ski slopes before the snow melted completely. Park City is such a lovely, enchanting ski town. We treated ourselves to a day of skiing, lots of delicious food, a relaxing/heavenly morning at the spa, beautiful scenic drives through the country and checked out the brand new City Creek Mall in Salt Lake (Steve's least favorite part because it was extremely crowded!) It was a great way to celebrate our five years of marriage to say the least! I'm so glad that I married such a fun guy. We always tell each other that we love each others "aroundedness" (it's a word Jerry Seinfield coined). I'm glad he's not sick of me yet. :) I'm so grateful for my mother-in-law and my Aunt Kristie and Aunt Patty for helping with our kids and spoiling them while we were gone. I'm not sure they wanted us to come home, but I'm glad they had fun!
Here we are in the lodge of our hotel just after arriving in Park City 
 Steve is a snow boarder but he tried skiing with me this weekend. It was fun to ski together (because he's much faster than me on his snowboard!)



 Check out our crazy raccoon eyes from our ski goggles! :)
 We ate a smorgasbord of breakfast food at our hotel before our spa day. It was quite fun to have so many options with their breakfast-all-you-can-eat special!
 We drove up to Midway, UT and got some ice cream at this adorable farm that sold fresh cheese and raw cows milk. It was a beautiful town!

 We got chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups and carmel-- it was delicious!
 The house below is my dream house!
The houses were all beautiful. This house had their own little pond with a pontoon boat on it-- how cool is that?
 We didn't know that it was the opening weekend of the new City Creek Mall--it was really, really crowded! Maybe not the best day to go shopping, but I had fun buying a few things at H&M! It is one of the most beautiful malls I have ever seen in my life! Pretty spectacular!
What a weekend, I tell you! Thanks for the fun times Stevie! Can't wait to celebrate many more anniversaries with you!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Monday Make-Over: Ready for Summer

Chelsea could have blue hair and still be beautiful. But she was wanting a change from her all over dark color and wanted to spice up her look in a natural way. I put soft highlights around her face and put highlights sporadically throughout her ends to lighten it up a notch without making her a blonde.
Before:
After:
 She had a short pixie hair cut years ago and now she is loving her long luscious locks.

I have a drastic make-over coming up next week. I'm SO excited! And it's finally a short hair cut! Many of you are probably wondering if I do short hair-- the answer is YES! I love doing short hair! Stay tuned...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Funny moments

Hudson still has two balloons that are floating around our house from his birthday party a week and a half ago! They are long-living suckers. He absolutely loves them. He eats with them, crawls with them and holds them while he plays with his toys. It's hilarious and adorable to watch. 
Don't mind his filthy, dirty socks! I mopped my floors after I took this picture! Eek!

I took Hudson and my niece, Ava, to the store while Parker was at his singing class the other day. This was Hudson's first time getting his very own cookie. I love how he's taking a bite with a big, proud grin on his face!
Now that he is one year old, he has an opinion and a voice. If Parker takes a toy from him or picks on him, he will let him know that it's not okay. It's kind of awesome to watch him tell him off in baby language by grunting and squealing at him to back off! Watch out Parker, he's a big boy now! :)
They were looking at their reflection in the refrigerator in the picture above. I thought it was a classic picture of them playing together. They are best buds. I love it!

I have a funny story about Parker that I have to write down so I don't forget it:
The other day he started saying some really naughty words like "bite me" and "stupid" (I have Little Rascals to thank for that.) I told him that those were not nice words and told him that we don't say those words. He looked at me straight in the eye and said "Stupid." I glared at him in shock that he would look at me and say it right after I had very sternly asked him not to. I then threatened him that if he said that word again, I would have to put hot sauce in his mouth and it wouldn't feel good at all-- trying to teach a lesson. He turned around and said "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID." So I got out the hot sauce, walked over to him and he then started screaming and sobbing while covering his mouth, and crying for daddy. I didn't put hot sauce in his mouth by the way, the threat of me doing it to him was enough for him to stop saying the word.
Well, for the next week, he told anyone and everyone this story: "I don't say stupid. And mommy put fire in mouth and uh cwy (cry) and I want Daddy." People would look at him kind of confused because they didn't really understand what he was saying but they knew it wasn't good and he was tattling on me for something that I didn't even do! :) I just thought it was funny that he has told everyone about this horrible, traumatic experience that didn't even happen. He's a funny kid. I love him so much, even if he is scarred by my threat. He hasn't said stupid ever since, so I guess I did something right... :)

Funny boys!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Monday Makeover: Enhancing your natural beauty

As a mother, it's so easy to forget to take time for yourself because you are always doing things for your kids. But who doesn't agree that getting your hair done just makes you feel so much better-- doesn't matter what you are wearing-- if your hair looks good, you feel good! Lindsay (my gorgeous sis-in-law) is a dedicated mother who wants a low maintenance hairstyle. She use to be super blonde, but after having her little girl, never took the time to get her roots done. I decided to give her that brightness she wants while making her color super low maintenance by lightening the hair around her face while giving her an ombre affect everywhere else. I colored her roots a medium golden brown, pulled through dark gold lowlights and bright blonde highlights to make it really pop!
Before:

 After:
 Can you say HOTTIE??
I also put a little bit of make-up on Lindsay to enhance her gorgeous features. She has the most amazingly long lashes I've ever seen! Also, lightening up her under eyes made a huge difference-- that is my number one piece of advice if you want to brighten your eyes and look more "awake!" Cover Girl makes the best illuminating cover stick. I've been using it for at least 10 years! Also, darkening her eye brows really made her eyes pop! Sounds weird I know, but it makes a huge difference!


You are one striking woman, Lindsay!

Happy Monday!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Wicked Awesome Night!

I grew up in a family that LOVES musicals and plays. I still remember seeing Les Miserable for the first time as a little girl and feeling so excited and empowered after witnessing such incredible talent. When I turned 18, my dad had a business trip in New York and took me with him, just the two of us. We went to FOUR broadway musicals and to this day, that was one of the most fun memories of my life. I am very passionate about sharing stories through music. 
That being said, my wonderful husband bought tickets for Christmas to see Wicked. I had already seen it a few years ago but wanted to see it again because it was so amazing! He had never been to a real "professional" broadway musical. Tanner and Meredith got tickets too and we all went together. Let's just say it was a WICKED good time! Oh-aaaaaa-aaaaa-ooooooohhhhhh (that was me belting out Elphaba's last diddy in Defying Gravity... if you didn't know.)
It was so fun to share giddiness with Meredith!! We felt like little girls again, giggling with excitement the entire night! I think our husbands got their "money's worth" out of buying those tickets for us. :)


My next goal is to take Steve to broadway show in New York! I'm going to work on that one! 
Thanks for the wicked amazing night-- alright, I'm done with the wicked phrases... I couldn't help myself!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

One Year in a Flash party

Hudson's first year went by in a flash! So we decided to make that our theme for his party.
We celebrated yesterday in our recently landscaped backyard. Steve and Mike smoked a delicious pork and we had BBQ pork sandwiches, baked beans, salad and veggies. I'm still full just thinking about it. 

Lindsay made the worlds best bars. The bottom layer is a cookie, middle is oreos and the top is a brownie. Perfection I tell you. Meredith made amazing lemon truffles that I for some reason don't have a picture of!
Isn't this vintage polaroid camera sweet? It was great grandpa Tanner's!





 Great Grandpa Larsen (Pop Pop) even came!

Uncle Mike, Aunt Lindsay and Hadley
Look at that little smile!

Grandpa
Aunt Lori 
Great Aunt Kathy (Nana's sister) came too. You don't really know her that well, but you were sure studying her out and charming her with everything you had in you!
Uncle Tanner and Aunt Meredith
Mimi and Grandpa

Cuddle time with Logan (you loved watching the video we made of you!)
You loved opening your presents! Every time you opened a new toy you would squeal, giggle and kick your legs really fast! Even when you got new clothes, you would hold the them up to your face and feel the fabric. You were definitely spoiled but not rotten because you were very gracious for everything!



It's root beer... in case you were wondering!

Look at all those cousins!!!

He got a mirror that said "I am a Child of God" and he grabbed it and kept smiling at his reflection in the mirror! Such a cute boy!
Check out Parker's face-- he was concentrating really hard on blowing out the candle for Hudson!
He did not like getting his hands in the cake! He's my little clean boy.
So, Aunt Kristie hand fed him till he was full. I think he's loved, what do you think??
And that is a full little one year old!
Thanks to everybody for coming out to celebrate!
P.S. We missed you Nana, Mattie and Dee Dee (they were all sick with colds) and Aunt Krista was at a wedding in San Diego!