Love Me Tender

I hope you cringed when you read the post title, hehe.

Valentines Day has become quite an eventful holiday around here!

I found myself making reasons why I should whip up batch after batch

of this chex mix crack.

Ur my gursh, sooo good.

Make it pink and voila, Valentine crack!

"You are dope, Valentine"

"Valentine, you have me trippin' all day"

"Don't go breaking crackin' my heart"

We had a couple days of heart hair!

We had our 2nd annual friends Lip Sync Battle!

Let me just tell ya, they BROUGHT IT!

It was so much fun.

Instead of everyone battling against each other,

they battled against another couple assigned the same song decade as them.

I loved the little twist, it made you think outside the box. 

I was running around wild the whole night so pictures were so few, UGH!!

I did capture the Hogles. 

They had today's hits and performed "Shiny" from Moana!

Hilarious!
 The glowing crab eyes and pincher gloves made it so good.

And this performance was epic.

I can't even look at this picture without busting a gut!

The Cotters had the 60's. 

They chose Unchained Melody, but did the Ghost movie version.

They filled a pot with brownie batter as the "clay". 

She brought a silver serving platter as the spinning clay table and smeared
 it all over themselves as they sang. 

Haha, it was AWESOME!

The winners each got a Ben and Jerry's pint.
  Losers still walked away winners with lip smackers and 

a piece of chocolate.

 They were ALL winners for showing up 

and being good sports.

Stephanie hosted our family Lip Sync battle.

Brinner was on the menu!
Nothing says love like pink heart shaped waffles.

We kicked the night off with our 70's gig from our party from the weekend before.

After listening to a bunch of songs trying to decide which

one to pick, I was starting to form a love for Disco!

Here we are, trying to I,I,I,I stayin' alive.

Evan's family made all of our tween dream crushes come true with
an N' SYNC, Brittney Spears,

and Christina Aguilera concert! 

" You go Glen Coco!"
David and Abbey's Jingle Bells were rockin'!

We had a 70's contender.

Only Marcie and Austin beat us out with,
Keep On, from the Brady Bunch movie.

How could we compete with Austin's swagger moves? 

Ha!
Funny thing was that he wore those pants on his mission!

The parentals and Craig busted out the big guns with, Tight Pants, and stole the show!
It was a riot! Who knew they had it in them!

Capped the night off with molten chocolate cake.

Only I had to stare. 

Dang you low carb day. 

When it rains, it snows!

Santa brought the boys trick scooters for Christmas.

A couple of days later, they got invited to 

go to Freestone skate park with Randon and Dallin.

For some reason I didn't want them to go because I just KNEW Lane 

would break his arm. 

Not Rusty, but Lane.

So weird how I had that kid pegged to get injured.

They begged and persisted. 

I kept repeating myself that if they went and got hurt,

they would not be able to play basketball that was coming up.

Nope, they didn't care. 

OK, fine. Go.

But if you break your arm I will NOT feel sorry for you or 

take you to the doctor.

 AND will say I told you so.

Ha! Talk about fine parenting right there.

I think the end of Christmas break and the backyard

craziness was killing me slowly.

A broken arm or leg was the LAST thing

I wanted to deal with or pay for.

I ended up going with them.

The boys scooted off to the skate park while I took little

girls to ride the train.

An hour went by with no text from Justin (who was with the boys)

with reports of injuries.

I was starting to feel thankful, and guilty that I was so hard on them for

wanting to go.

As we walked back up towards the skate park, 

my smile started to fade. 

 I noticed Lane sitting on the bench nursing his arm and 

not making eye contact with me.

He knew it, and I knew it.

It was broken.

And of course, with shame beyond shame,

the first words that uttered out of my mouth were:

I TOLD YOU SO, UGH!!!

With the saddest head drop down, he muttered:

I KNOW, I'm SORRY!

Definitely one of my worst parenting moments right there.

We loaded up, dropped the other kids off at home and headed to urgent

care where it was confirmed.

A buckle fracture.

He was stuck on the couch for a few days before we could get into the orthopedic 

doctor, since everyone was on holiday break.

Luckily he only needed a cast for 4 weeks, then babying it for 2 weeks.

Just long enough to miss basketball season.

The doctor asked how he broke it.

He chuckled then said he was the 8th patient that day

 from a scooter accident!

Dang scooters.

I cannot find a picture with the cast!

It was black, but by the end it was splotchy white from the wear and tear of a

12 year old boy.

Here he is, free once again after getting it off.

He was a good sport putting up with such a dramatic mom.

He felt terrible, as did I.

I apologized and all was well.

I must say, we have been doing pretty good seeing how this is our first

broken bone ever in the family!

I don't know if he had farmers tan or dirt tan, lol!

Rusty had his Pinewood Derby and the poor kid got shafted.

Not only do we (cough, Casey) make super slow cars, but we basically
 had to drop him and off and leave to make it to Alison and Bret's wedding. 

We were there long enough to see him get 3rd place in his first race and take 2 pictures.
And long enough for me to realize he didn't even have his scout shirt on!
#winning
Poor kid.
 But he honestly was fine that we had to leave him.

Such an easy going child!

Luckily my friend text saying he just won a race!

Whew, that made me feel better that he at least won one.

Lindi waltzed in saying she was ready for church!

Wow, haha.

Putting that play makeup from Christmas to good use.

She got compliments on it all day:)

I had to park my car outside for a majority of the backyard
 remodel since the RZR and quads needed a new spot.

I went to take Lane to early morning band but couldn't see  because there

was an inch of frozen water on my windshield!

I got a water bottle and tried dumping it to wash it off.

Nope! I made it worse!

Needless to say, Lane missed band and was praying it would melt off

enough so I could take the other kids to school!

We had a freaky day where it SNOWED in Scottsdale!

That hasn't happened in 20 years.

Casey needed to go to a job and asked if we wanted to come
 along to see if we could find any snow along the way.

I'm glad we tagged along because his job ended up being in a Winter Wonderland!

It was so unreal.

This is 30-40 minutes from our house.
Snow on cactus, who would have ever thunk!

Della wasn't loving it.

That probably would have been super confusing as a 2 year old.

What is this white, fluffy, cold stuff?

We found a cup in the car to dig in the snow with. 

Snow baseball and rolled up house plans as a bat!

Alisons Bridal Shower and Wedding!

After hustling and working in the backyard,

we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Alison felt honored we would go through all that trouble just for her.

Seriously, if it weren't for her getting married, the yard probably 

would still be untouched!

I love a good bridal shower.

I get giddy with the selections and assortments of food!

Hats off to the many chefs who brought salads, sandwiches, homemade

macarons, and desserts. 

They were YUM!

Our adopted sister we like to think of her as!

The big day was finally here!

These three girlies we on cloud 9 that they got to be her flower girls.

The father couldn't stop laughing at my honking sunglasses.
What can I say, bigger is better:)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Hunington!

We are SO happy they finally found each other.

Such a perfect match.