February-ness

Are you ready for the mother-load of posts?

We had a busy and fun February.

And most of all, I'm glad it's over and March is here... lots and lots and lots to look forward to in the coming months.

So, let's break it down--

1. New Beginnings

Have I mentioned I was called in November to be the Young Women's secretary?

It is fun and a new challenge and change of scenery from what I'm used to and I LOVE IT.

It is a privilege to work with the other leaders and we have a great group of about 17 girls who come regularly.

Our president is particularly talented and I love how she does things.. I don't remember New Beginnings being this cool.

The theme was "It's a jungle out there."

My assignment was the refreshments and we made jungle animal cupcakes.

They were a labor of love and Alyssa-friend came over and helped me for 4 hours!

The leaders minus Natalie - Shanna, Patsy, Kendee, Jana, Bethany

Can you tell what each one is? Hopefully they are recognizable.. A zebra, monkey, lion and tiger.

Sign-in table with the guides for the Personal Progress Scavenger hunt... brilliant idea.

The stage before the night began.

Next up...

2. Lovely Lover's Day...

Much of our Valentine's day and every other holiday surrounds food. Whenever we go to the store before a holiday, we always end up getting way more food than we can handle but end up justifying it by saying, "we can have this for Valentine's breakfast," or whatever it is... What can we say? We are lovers of foodness.

Brooke opening her Valentine

Chocolate-covered strawberry yumminess

Brent was in charge of the yummy Belgian waffle+strawberries+whipped cream+bacon+scrambled eggs+orange juice

Let me tell you... this guy can make a mean breakfast.

Happy to be eating Daddy's food-iness.

I also want to remember that for dinner we had Tuscan chicken cakes with tomato-basil relish... if you don't know what these are, you should look in my recipe label, because they will surely make your life complete.
Of course, after stuffing ourselves with great food and candy all day, we had to make our annual heart cake.
Dark chocolate cake with ganache on top really brought the day to a blissful close.
Full bellies + full hearts = lots 'o love.

Brent decorating the LOVE cake.

Are you still with me?

3. Bedroom change

This is trivial and less-than-important to the blogging world, but fun for me. And we blog for ourselves, right?
Ha. Yeah, right.
So... we switched our bed to the other wall...
I like the change... it opens up the traffic flow, but the accent wall does stand out maybe in a bad way.

Thoughts?

Yes, I know the picture is not centered..

4. B-rookie: Our Potty-star!

Happy to report total success in the potty department!

She is in a diaper for naps and at night-time but we haven't had an accident in over two weeks and she's done great the last two weeks while in nursery at church.

We're all very happy and can constantly be seen doing a celebration potty dance in her honor.
Thank you for all of your advice, everyone!

Everyone's comments were so valuable.

I do have to say that I don't think it was really anything I did with Brooke.

She is so smart and caught on so fast and really did most of it herself.

Brooke with her big potty prize after going #2 for the first time.

Happy lady

I can't imagine you are still reading but just in case, here's #5

5. Brent's job change

Brent will be starting his third rotation with the AT&T leadership development program next Monday.
This is wonderful as can be because his 2ND rotation was maybe one of the hardest 8 months of my life.... (probably an exaggeration, but still very hard)

It was normal for him to work for 14 hour days and in this next job, the schedule will be much better and much more realistic.

Also, to go along with this, we almost had to move to Dallas for this rotation.

Prayers were answered and we're obviously staying here, but there is a good possibility we will be moving when he is out of the program in October, but I'm still crossing my fingers.

I really really REALLY love San Antonio.

Alrighty...

I think that about covers it... the hip happenings from US lately...!

Easter with Us

We had a really wonderful Easter Sunday shared with good friends, AMAZING food (by all the other women), and cute cute kids.

An abundance in Easter fun and festivities to follow.....

The Brooke girl

Brooke participated in two egg hunts. One of her very own at our house, and then one at our friend's house after dinner.

She loved looking inside each egg before moving onto the next.

Checking out the loot.

She loves her new "Easter bunny."

After our nice Easter church meetings, we came home to take naps, make jello and spinach salad to take to Easter dinner. Here are Brooke and Olivia checking each other's eggs out.

All the Mommas: Kendee, Alyssa, Muah, Crystal

All the kiddos ready to start!

Kinda looks like she's sayin, "Down..! Set...! Hike..!" Yeah, Brent would love it.

One year old, Maile.

Darling Lincoln, who belongs to Neil and Crystal.

Olivia getting her egg hunt on.

Crystal and Neil, like I said before--great pic, you guys!

Lake, who is Maile's brother and Brooke.

Daddy helping hunt for eggs.

Family Easter shot.


And that was our Easter!

Now, a few other items to note:

Item #1: Thank you to all of you who commented with advice about the paint color. After much deliberation, it was Brent's idea to paint the back wall an accent color of light brown/dark tan, and the rest of the walls a neutral cream. He had been wanting to do this from the very beginning, months ago when we started talking about it, and I decided it was time my man have some say! I hope you like---

Item #2: Last Monday, I started session one in the Wilton cake decorating classes with a friend! I have been really excited about doing this for awhile and it really has been a blast. We have had two out of the four classes and we made our first cake today.... which really took forever to work on after the class at home.


Yes, the rainbow is terribly cheesy, (dare I say ---- tacky?) and there are plenty of flaws but I feel pretty proud. :) Thanks for letting me blog-brag. Okay...

Happy April to you all!

Celebrating Love Day with a RED theme

We had a relaxing Love day. I liked that it was on Saturday and that we could wake up and lounge together all day long. The day before, Brooke and I took baloons and chocolate covered strawberries into Brent at his work. He was surprised and maybe even a little embarrassed to have balloons at his desk!

We had lots of red respresentation for Valentines Day! A special homemade RED hairbow just for the occasion.

Brooke got an extra special Valentine's gift this year! A RED chair all to herself that fits perfectly by the TV stand. It even came with an ottoman! Since we have had this, I often can't find her and now I know right where to go.. she's happily sitting in her chair!

I love this picture of her clapping...

We got takeout at my new favorite restaurant here.. Italian, of course, and made our traditional heart cake but made no effort at decorating it cute. Although it was RED velvet on the inside... just a boring white frosting!

A few months ago, I told Brent not to spend any money for Valentine's day because I had gotten him something. It is a beautiful distressed photograph of the Salt Lake Temple, where we were married, with our names and wedding day engraved onto it. Brent was still so sweet and I woke up to a trail of candy from the bedroom out into the living room where there were THREE vases full of flowers and a nice card. My sister, Amy, thinks flowers are so cliche on Valentine's day, but I would feel bad if I didn't get any. Brent also cooked up an awesome eggs, hashbrowns, sausage and RED smoothie breakfast.

And what better place to put our brand new picture that on our newly painted RED wall in our office........!! Yes, we spent most of Valentine's day painting.

Our office has been needing an overhaul since we moved in, and we love it! We actually spend time in there now.

We framed our diplomas and put them above the desk. The painting is of the football stadium in Berkeley. I had been looking for some kind of picture or painting that we could have after moving and my Mom found this gem on ebay for $20!!

Next painting job... Brooke's room! It looks more lime than it is in this picture, but I really love it. Painting has become a new hobby and something that Brent and I really like to do together. Thank you to my friend, Emily, for teaching me how to do it.

Sorry we've been M.I.A. for the past month. Every once in awhile, one needs a break from blososphere, I suppose. A few more posts to come later on!

Our own little Christmas

Brooke and I left on the 20th for Utah, while Brent stayed to be a hard workin' man in Texas. He met us on Christmas Eve, and when he walked in, in the middle of the party, I was so relieved and happy to finally have him there. Anyways, the night before we left, we had our own little Christmas together. We took small gifts to Utah, and anything bigger we opened that night.

In front of our tree.. excited to have Christmas... on the 19th!

We also got to open a big package from Grandma and Grandpa Guerisoli since we wouldn't see them until after Christmas. They were so generous and it made for a few more things for all of us to open.

New outfit from Grandma. Not sure why she's scowling at new clothes!

This was my big present from Branta (Santa + Brent = Branta!)... or so I thought... a fabulous red coat! Santethany (Bethany + Santa) gave Brent a new gray sports coat for work and church, jeans and a new dress shirt that will be noted in another post.

Brooke got a babydoll appropriately named, "Brooke."

We have taken turns each year getting each other an ornament. This year it was my turn and I found something perfect for our year. It was a key that said, "2008: First Christmas in our new home."

What a cute profile.

Atermath of our Christmas! Turns out after getting a baby doll including a bassinet, stroller and carseat for the baby, all she wanted to play with was the shapes puzzle. Go Figure - these kids!