Valentine's Day

Louis and I will be in Italy visiting my parents over Valentine's Day!  So we decided to do a little celebration before we leave and celebrated last night.  I got Louis this cute little Lego set of a couple having a picnic, and I used that as my inspiration for the night!  We can't exactly go have a picnic outside with the three feet of snow that is on the ground (I'm not exaggerating with that number) so I did an indoor picnic for us instead!  I laid out a red checkered tablecloth and put some battery powered candles around it.  I prepared some lasagna, broccoli, and French bread.  I put out the Lego set for us to do together and called it good!  We enjoyed our dinner while listening to music, after we were done we heart attacked our kid's doors!  We ended the night by putting together the Lego set.

It was a simple, but really sweet night together.  There is very little that I love more than just being with Louis.  It doesn't matter what we're doing.  I am grateful for the love that we have shared these last 10 years, and I am so grateful for the eternity we have left together.

Today we did our annual candlelit pizza dinner!  I think it is one of my favorite traditions as a family.  We had a few extra people join us this year, Louis' parents and his younger sister Kami.  We had pepperoni pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and bread sticks.  Louis even made everything so I could finish a project I was working on.  We enjoyed our dinner and we also went around the table saying what we all love about each person.  Most of the kids whined the whole time because going around the table was taking too long, but it was still a nice time as a family. 

Brandley Family Reunion

Over this last weekend we enjoyed a family reunion in Bear Lake with Louis' family.  Louis' brother Josh rented a huge cabin that included indoor slides going from level to level, an indoor playground trampoline and basketball court, a ping pong table, pool table, theater room, and plenty of bedrooms and beds for everyone.  We hardly saw our kids all weekend as they were off playing wonderfully with all of their cousins!  The adults enjoyed talking and playing games together.  It was a fun get away and a rare thing being able to be with all of Louis' family at the same time.

Ethan's 4 Year Old Pictures and Interview

These pictures were all taken on my phone, so not the best quality, but the boy in the pictures is pretty cute!

Ethan is Four!

Our cute little Ethan buddy boy is four years old!  Our whole family was so excited for his birthday to roll around, especially the girls.  We celebrated Ethan's birthday by having a pizza movie night, eating cake, and searching the house for his presents! 

Ethan has been loving Blue's Clues lately so I made a super simple paw print cake.  To avoid having to wrap his presents I drew some quick paw prints and taped them on his presents, then hid them around the house.  He had lots of fun looking for the paw prints and finding his presents! 

I was also able to take Ethan on his first birthday date!  We went bowling and to get a Frosty from Wendy's.  It was so fun watching Ethan bowl for the first time.  Every single time he picked up the bowling ball he said "It's so heavy!" Then he'd very gently nudge the ball down the ramp and say "knock them over, knock them over!"  It was fun getting to spend that one on one time with Ethan.

2018 Review

I didn't blog much in 2018 so I thought I'd do a quick recap of the year.  A few words, and mostly pictures.

Every Valentine's Day we have a candle lit pizza dinner as a family, it's one of my favorite traditions.

This year we added in some root beer floats as well!

At the end of March we headed on our first long road trip as a family.  We drove to Missouri to visit Louis brother and his family for Easter/Conference weekend.

My dear Grandpa passed away in May at the age of 95.  We were blessed to get together most of the family the month before to celebrate his birthday.

Our 4th of July was adventurous starting out with a fun celebration at the park and being interrupted by a fire down the street and an evacuation order.

A visit up to Grandma Donna in Idaho.  We enjoyed going out to eat, playing at the arcade, and talking with Grandma Donna.  Hotel stays with kids is always fun!

Our 9 year anniversary!  We spent a night away in Salt Lake where we enjoyed a couples massage, a walk around temple square, and a nice dinner together.

The girls got their ears pierced!  Mary was so brave and Avery bawled!

Back to school feast and first day of 2nd grade and Kindergarten!  I also got my wisdom teeth out 2 days before school started.  Kami saved us, by staying for about a week to help out.

Louis and I went axe throwing!  Louis said it was one of his favorite things of the whole year!

That about catches us up on the highlights of our year!  We have a lot to look forward to in 2019, hopefully I'll be better at keeping the blog updated this year!