What a Fortunate Valentine's.

Speaking of love and all...there is the SWEETEST Korean family in our ward. They were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a few years ago. Anyway, their family was sealed in the Provo Temple the week of Valentine's. (I was able to attend the sealing, thanks to Julie babysitting) What a SPECIAL occasion. That is what it's all about!




(A few days after the sealing they had me & Brie over for some Korean food (Bry was working late so they sent me home with a few dishes of food for him). I told you, they REALLY are the sweetest!...Anyway, we decided to send some fortune cookies back with their clean dishes.)

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Touches of Valentine's around our apartment...

***Don't mind the stacks of Brie's clothes on the back of the couch. That's currently one of the few places that Brie can't reach. (Also the reason the decorations are all found ABOVE a certain height :0)) And let's be honest, I'm impressed that they're even folded. Some weeks I don't get the clothes clean, period. Other weeks I get them cleaned AND dried, but then they sit in the laundry sack for a week or two before I get them put away :0)***

For the last several years I've been trying to add to my holiday decoration collection. This year I decided to put a few dollars towards Valentine's. Here are the additions.

Heart on a pedestal thingy--Thai Pan Trading: $3

Fake flowers---Dollar Store: $1
Heart tissue paper---Dollar Store: $1
Black photo frames---Dollar Store: $2

Someday it'll be fun to have money to put toward more quality/long lasting decorations, but for now these work GREAT! An inexpensive way to add to our little collection.

Tim's school was selling little items for Valentine's Day. He decided to buy a carnation for the Moms at home. How sweet is that? This is the one he gave me. Seriously, how thoughtful!

Bry (& Brie) was SO awesome to be my cupid. I'd put little things together and he'd drop them off for me. What a GREAT husband :0)

The Fortunes I wrote to put into the homemade fortune cookies I was GOING to make.

I spent ALL of my free time on Friday attempting to make them. I even tried 2 recipes, but failed miserably! I was planning on having these cute little custom fortune cookies to have waiting for Bry, after our dinner at PF Chang's*, but oh well. I gave him my "attempts" and he was gracious and grateful :0)

Saturday night we made a late night trip to Macey's to buy a few boxes of premade fortune cookies. Sunday morning I stuffed each one with a handwritten fortune (see image above).

*More on our Valentine's date when I get pictures downloaded from my Mom's camera.


After church we had the fortune of taking Valentine's dinner over to Grandpa & Grandma Robertson. What a treat for us!


My favorite part of the visit was seeing how Grandma THOROUGHLY loved the little homemade valentine from Brie. She kept going on about it...that made my afternoon :0)


Unfortunately we didn't get to stay long because we were off to another family dinner. Sometimes it's tricky having both of our families in town when it comes to holidays, but I can't complain. I love them ALL and I'm grateful to have so many opportunities to spend time with everyone!

At the dinner we handed out fortune cookies as a little Valentine's treat. Someone commented on it being the Chinese New Year...what a kawinkeedink, that hadn't even crossed my mind. I wish I had been smart like that :0) But it was a fun happenstance.

(Cute decorations, Julia!)

(Yummy AND cute cupcakes, Liz!)

And here comes my favorite part of the whole day...




...watching Brie play with her cousins. It made my heart happy :0)


I'm grateful for all the love I feel ALL year round,
but how fun that we have a specific day to show a little EXTRA love.

Happy (belated) Heart Day!

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone...
We think the world of all of you!! We sure blessed out
in the Friend and Family departments :0)

(More pictures to come from our week o' love.)

27 squares in honor of...

...27 years! (Now that I think about it, I should have done 54 squares. Rach and I always add up our ages and joke that we're really that old ;0))

To spare us all from a long post I made this lovely little collage instead. And yes there are 27 squares. I'm cheesy like that :0)


Highlights from the birthday festivities...

• All of Mom's sweet presents before, on and after my birthday
• Graden girls meeting up at Village Inn and Julie treating us to birthday pie. Yum!
  
• Bry getting up bright and early to make us streusel cake
• Elaine stopping by to visit us on our birthday
• Hanging out all day with my twinner (and Brie) :0)
• Finding cool props---to use on photo shoots---at DI and Savers. Rach buying me an awesome vintage looking rocking chair!
  
• Mom taking us out to Brick Oven for lunch
• Tim doing a birthday shout out on his high school radio station
  
• Bry, Rach, Em and I going out to Chili's for dinner and racing on the way back home!
• Bry giving me the wreath I've been wanting from Thai Pan Trading (thanks to some help from my sneaky Mom)!
• Em giving me The Pioneer Woman's new cook book!
• Playing Scattergories Junior with my fam
• All the sweet cards, ecards, emails, voice mails, blog comments and facebook wall posts that I got from my AWESOME family and friends!!

Here's to another awesome year :0)

Take 5: Meal time at the Gradens :0)

I don't know if it's an age thing, or a Brie thing or a ME thing, but meal times at our house have been pretty entertaining lately. Brie has started taking an interest in feeding herself, well...in using utensils. Since she hasn't quite figured them out yet it makes things entertaining :0) (However, the other day Bry came and had me look...there was Brie spoon feeding herself apple sauce. Too cute. She of course started playing with the spoon when we pulled out the camera, but it was fun to see her figuring it out!)

In any case, recent meals usually involve Brie:
1) getting food all over the table, her face AND the floor
2) pulling off her bib at least 5 times
3) using her feet to push herself away from the table.
4) trying to grab my plate and whatever I'm eating
5) holding a fistful of food over the side, saying "uh oh" and dropping it! A personal favorite :0)

Anyway, here are a few clips...more like out takes from a meal with Brie. Hope you enjoy the series!

Oh...just realized that I just posted them from last to first instead of first to last. Go me :0) So start at the bottom if you want to see them in order.

"Brie, are you all done?"
(Is it just me or do you ever feel like a broken record? :0))

We're all friends here...

...so I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I have my "ice breaker" wedding set up for April and I am pretty scared about the whole thing. OK, maybe scared is not quite the right word, but I'm feeling pretty inadequate about being the person in charge of preserving this couple's wedding day memories for posterity. Wow. BUT, on the positive side, that unsettling feeling has definitely been motivating me to get my tail in gear and to get working...on all the things that have always puzzled me and gone right over my head. In any case, any extra prayers sent my way would be appreciated :0)

In preparation for doing this couple's engagements...Rachel & Buddy (Bry's cousin and her husband) were my AWESOME guinea pigs. We had a great time and I learned A LOT! Thanks you two. Here are a few pictures from their shoot...

(To see more of their pictures click here, Belle Petite Photo)

Graham Crackers & Milk.

About a month ago Brie woke up from her afternoon nap seeming really distraught and sad.... which doesn't happen very much, but always makes me sad :0( So what comes to mind as a way of comforting my little pal? Introducing her to graham crackers and milk!! :0) I know they're not a favorite for everyone, but it sure brings back great memories for me! (Plus, Brie hasn't been a big fan of whole milk yet, so I thought this might be a way to get her to like it a little more.) Anyway, I snagged the camera and set it up so that I could film Brie dipping her crackers...and her fingers :0) Here's the second clip I took (a banana was obstructing the view in the first one)...



Yay for good ol' graham crackers and milk :0)

Favs from Logan.

I of course took a lot of pictures in Logan, but decided to just make a collage and call it good :0)

Some of the highlights from the week were:

--having Rach spend the night with us at the hotel
--getting shakes in Preston, Idaho
--visiting a Pepperidge Farm thrift store (stocking up on Gold fishies for Brie!)
--meeting up with Bry every day for lunch and dinner
--eating at the BlueBird and at the old fashioned A & W
--watching some fun TV shows ("The Little Couple", "The Cake Boss", "Say Yes to the Dress", "What Not to Wear", etc.)
--seeing Utah State campus for the first time ever
--taking Brie swimming (seeing her in her swim suit with her cute pudgy legs :0))
--getting continental breakfast each morning (no prep, no clean up)
--being with Bry a lot more than I normally would during busy season

Fun times! I'm glad we went up with Bry for (probably) his last assignment in Logan.

Our little Ham.

That Brie...she's TOO funny! Her newest thing is waving and saying, "HI!" to everyone she sees. Even if I'm at the store she greets everyone in sight. It's great to see the smiles that she gets :0)

** Check out her 4 chompers. (excuse the food :0)) She has at least two that are gradually coming in, but taking their sweet time. It's fun to see how much more she can eat with 2 bottom AND 2 top teeth. She's lovin' it! **

Twin Sheets turn Twenty-Seven.

For those of you who don't already know...Yes, I DO have a twin sister! Here are a few pictures of the two of us (in which we actually DO look alike! :0))

Me and Rach

in our younger years :0)

Me and Rach in Provo.
Good ol' Denny's :0)

Me at Rach in Logan.
When she came up for a sleepover

Me and Rach in Rexburg.
Roomies at BYU-Idaho

You guessed it...Me and Rach.
Fellow Ground hogs AND Twin Sheets :0)

Happy 27th Birthday Pook.
I sure love you and am grateful to be your twin!
Thanks for letting me come down with you :0)

Marriott Spring Hill Suites.

While spending a week away from home in Logan, I spent a lot of time in our hotel room-- since I forgot a stroller (shoot!), it was freezing outside, the swimming pool wasn't heated enough for Brie and I was plum too lazy to pack Brie up and drive around Logan--BUT it was a beautiful hotel room at that. AND, I honestly think it was probably bigger than our whole apartment! It at least felt roomier.

So, near the end of the week, when Brie was napping, and I was sick of watching TV, I decided to pull out our point & shoot and take a few shots of the room. Only I would ever do that :0) I was amazed to see how many cool textures, patterns and fabrics they had used. Way to go Marriott :0)

If you want a personal tour of our room...
here's one brought to you by our lovely little Canon :0)

OK, more REAL details on Logan to come.

Us Sheets...we like to Share.

So I think this is how it started... a few weeks ago my Mom & Tim came home from Guatemala a bit sick and shared it with Em and then Em shared it with Brie and Brie shared it with Rach and Rach shared it with me. Lot's of sharing going on here at the Sheets' house :0) OK, I don't know if that's really what happened but in any case, we've all been sickies this last week. (It was at least nice spending time together even if it was resting on the couch, eating saltines and popsicles!)