It's been a wonderful month!

I love February. This month just makes me smile. Could it have anything to do with Valentine's Day? Or maybe it's my birthday. I think it is a combination of the two holidays actually!! I think it is also all of the valentine's cookies and other parties that come with February! I love pink and red too...that makes it even more fun! Here are some pictures to document my favorite things about February!

 

It snowed a ton lately! We had three snow storms in 3 weeks! That is A LOT for Virginia Beach. We enjoyed it but we are ready for Spring now!

February 5th

Jill hosted a Valentine's Bunko and it was so fun! She is so great at so many things! She made us dinner and dessert. There were 12 girls there...we should have taken a group shot!

 

February 8th

 Of course we celebrated Izzie's birthday which was so fun! Here she is eating our traditional  birthday oatmeal with icecream! For good measure...there is a cupcake to make sure she had enough sugar! Smart girl...she chose not to eat the cupcake!

  

February 12th

 I loved Hailey's Valentine's day hair!

  

February 13th

 We recently got a new bishopric. They are fantastic! It just so happened that the the entire Primary Presidency's (Me, Caroline, Jill, and Heather) husbands were put into the new bishopric. So here is the Bishopric, and the Primary Presidency enjoying a fabulous Valentine's Dinner made and orchastrated by the Burtons! It was so much fun. Their two youngest daughters were our babysitters and the older children were our servers. Dinner and dessert were amazing. They had the room decorated so pretty. It was a great evening.

  

February 14th

 Pink heart pancakes. Lovely!

  

 February 17th

Another fabulous birthday. It was glorious. I slept in. John made me crepes that were lathered in Nutella and fresh bananas sprinkled with powdered sugar. I read in bed until 9:30! After getting everyone ready for the day and Hailey off to school, Jill took care of the little two so that John and I could enjoy a few hours out on the town. THANKS JILL! We went to Panera Bread (it gets yummier every time that I go!) and then went shoe shopping for me. It was perfect! I was a little sad that my friends had not really planned on doing anything for my birthday...I know that is lame...but it is honest. They had mentioned lunch here and there but nothing was ever finalized. Just as I decided to get over it...

  

 February 17th-evening 

(look close...Jill colored my hair...I love it! I went really dark!)

They surprised me with a great gathering at Chile's! It was so fun to have all of these wonderful friends of mine (and many of their husbands too which is complicated while in school) come to spend the evening with me. They had all gotten babysitters for me. It was so wonderful. I couldn't stop smiling. AND THEY SPOILED ME! I also received so many emails, letters, texts, packages and calls from so many important people. Thanks for thinking about me. You helped make my day so special!!!

Thank you John for SPOILING me! You are always so good at the birthday thing. You always amaze me with the things that you come up with. Thank you for the thoughtful gifts. I love you!

Here are some of the birthday dinner guests!

  

 The Fawsons!!

  

 The Tylers

  

 Lynette, Tabby, and Heather (they do have husbands but they couldn't make it!)

Caroline was there too...she is not pictured but she is beautiful!

  

 The Rothmans

February 19th

I don't have a picture of the actual craziness of the day but this is what it looked and sounded like....

HUGE SMILES! LOTS OF JUMPING! TOOOOOO MUCH SCREAMING!!!! MANY TEARS! LOTS OF PHONE CALLS AND TEXTS!!!!!!  YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I think John was in SHOCK! He finally started screaming today!

John matched.....

he matched with an internship site.....this has been a rough process for our little family but we made it.....he did it......YEAHH!HH!!HHH!!

By noon, I was exhausted. I had a soar throat and wanted to sleep. I cheered and screamed all morning long.  We will find out on Monday whether we will be moving to Pennsylvania or Idaho! We can't wait to find out!!!

Again, I feel like thanks need to be given. You all know who you are.  

T H A N K   Y O U

We cannot explain to you the feelings that we get when we think about all of your prayers, and fasting, and tears. We didn't feel alone in the process because of you. We truly have the greatest family and friends all across the country! 

Happy Birthday Isabella

We were blessed with our sweet Isabella 3 years ago and she changed our lives! What a special little girl she is to us. From the beginning she was easygoing and smiley. She was such an easy baby that the transition from 1 child to 2 was an easy one. She just made everything better than it was before. 

I love how John's dad described her in his words. He said, "Isabella has a twinkle in her eye," and that is exactly how we feel. She is kind and thoughtful. She is still so easygoing and cooperative. A few facts about her: 

She is still madly in love with her binky and burpclothes. WOW what a fight! This is the only time that you really get to see her upset. I told her today that since she is 3 she is too big for binkies and that they are for babies. She told me that they are not for babies, they are for HER! We will work it out...eventually. 

She has been completely potty trained for about 9 months. Never an accident! It amazes me! 

She speaks like a person...right, she is a person...but she communicates just like you and I would. 

Her hair is SO curly...and still SO short. 

She is tall. She has long feet. Do you see where I am going with this? Tall like her momma...tall like her sista!

She loves babies, and a Zhu-Zhu pet she got for her birthday. 

She still takes naps (and loves them) she will nap for 2 hours. Many mornings she is asking to nap by 10am. Silly girl! She was an awful night sleeper and has turned into an angel sleeper. Just for the record, Talon sleeps all night too so I am one happy GIRL!

She is so glad to be in our family. She tells me this all the time. She loves her brother and sister so much. She is always rubbing my cheek or kissing me and telling me that I am her sweetheart. She loves her daddy and they have a special bond that I hope will last a lifetime.

I have been very excited about her 3rd birthday. She is old enough to appreciate the work put into a fun party!! Her two year birthday was a family one and I was ready to spoil her...in the cheapest way possible atleast! I have found that you can still do fun things on a small budget...it usually just takes more time and planning because you have to make everything yourself. She is worth every second.

We had 18 little girls which made it even more fun!

Izzie has been talking about having a butterfly Birthday party ever since she was a butterfly for Halloween. There are a lot of pictures. Bare with me.

The girls drank nectar from flowers!! Hmmm...I thought it was clever. The cheese is cut into butterflies and the crackers are flowers and butterflies. I am filling you in on some of the mundane details.

We had bug graham cookies too!

Fruit pizza!! Butterfly style. The green body and antennae is kiwi. The wings are mandarin oranges.

Pin the body on the butterfly.

I have not decorated cakes before. This is very amateur but it was still fun to make.

Each goody bag had a hand painted butterfly which I added a magnet to the back. Check out the butterfly antennea...the girls were asked to wear their wings!

These butterflies were flying around the room (attached to the strings of helium filled balloons).

Isabella is LOVING all of the attention.

Decorating Butterflies!

The best part about this party was that my mom and dad were able to be there. My dad's 60th birthday was this same weekend and I thought it would be fun to make this a little special for him too. My sister-in-law worked really hard on a special album from all of his children and it was given to him at the party. They were SO HELPFUL! I couldn't have pulled it off without their help! 

I have a lot of blog catching up to do...how late is too late to blog about Christmas?? We also had great visitors...Johns mom, dad, and youngest sister were here and them my mom and dad were here! Hopefully I'll get to these soon.

Somber

Meet Lily. She was ours for 3 days. John came home from work and heard meowing coming from his car but he dismissed it since there couldn't be a cat in his car...he just drove home for 20 minutes. About 30 minutes later a few girls came to our door and told John that there is a kitten in his car. Sure enough...she was in the engine...under the hood. He rescued her. Our kids were in HEAVEN! We instantly made her comfortable and made her a bed and litter box in one of the bathrooms. She instantly knew what to do. We fell in love with her and her beautiful green eyes. She didn't shed. She didn't care if the kids pulled her tail. She loved to snuggle. She listened and obeyed. Seriously...you tell her to come and she came. Our apartments would not let us keep her. I tried. I called animal control today. They came a few hours later. It was awful. I know it's hard to understand...if you don't love them...you wouldn't. We are so sad. Mostly John and I. The babes think that we will be getting a dog next week when one gets stuck in John's car. My heart is broken...and we called to get her back. They said we had to pay $70 adoption fee. RUDE! Watching the animal control lady put her in a box and her kicking just made me sick...can't get it out of my head. Of course tonight I get THREE emails from craigslist with people who would love to have her. I am tempted to pay the $70 just to give her to a good home...I might!

A very sweet baby shower for a very sweet friend!

What a lovely little evening we had!

Here is the color scheme...thanks Chablis for the great idea! I loved the yellow with the black and white damask and the lemons just spoke to me.

And the invitation!

Here is the food. This salad is from Heidi's Recipes and it is so tasty! We like to call it the 32 ingredient salad. Every single ingredient is well worth it and oh so yummy! It's called California Pizza Kitchen Thai Crunch Salad. TRY IT!!!

And more food!

Check out the Lemonade Punch! Delicious!

Here is the girl! This is my sweet friend Natalie. I just LOVE her. She is so wonderful and I am so grateful to have her in my life. Isn't she so stinkin' cute? This picture was taken a few weeks ago. She is precious. She has two little girls and is expecting her little boy! Hi Jill! I love you too. This shower was a team effort and I was glad to have her by my side. Her house is beautiful and it was PREFECT for the event.

 Meet the pom pom! One of them anyways! They were gorgeous. If you haven't made one of these yet...you really should try. They are so easy and instantly look like you slaved for hours to make them, or you spent tons of money to buy them. Jill just showed me some ones made out of fabric that I have been drooling over. Nice mental image aye?

We had lots of candy...al yellow and black and white of course!

I love the presents! By far MY favorite part! Even if I just get to watch!

And the water bottles. There were yellow straws too....although I forgot them at home. But I did run an errand JUST for those straws so they are worth mentioning!

If you haven't seen enough of these lemon cake pops yet...sorry. This is it! :) Really, I loved these little guys. I dreamt them in my head for two months prior to actually making them. They looked almost as cute as I had imagined. They were made out of lemon cake and tasted perfect.

And last but most certainly not least, here is the boy! Natalie delivered him on Tuesday January 12th...just 10 days after her shower. He is so precious and Natalie is madly in love with him. His name is Rigdon Ash...cute...SO CUTE!

This and That

Meet Cindy Lou! If you have never heard of Elf on the Shelf...you should talk to Santa about getting one next December. My kids were IN LOVE with her. Every night she flies back to Santa to tell him whether our children were naughty or nice. Then she would fly back to our house before the kids were awake and was always in a new spot. They could not wait to find her every morning. Hailey would just talk and talk to her. She is wearing one of Hailey's barbie skirts...how sweet of Hailey to share.

John and I love to go on dates....WHO DOESN'T??? We try to go out pretty often. We had so much fun on this particular date! We were able to attend one of my best friends weddings. April and her man had a wonderful evening planned and it was so great to see all of these girls that I have so many memories with. I have been married for almost 7 years and three babies later they are all finally tying the knot. I can't wait for them to have children and for them to experience this wonderful stage in life!

Oh brother!!! Or sister maybe...is this a boy or a girl? Talon is going to have a hard time breaking away from all of his sisters toys. A necklace, curling iron and wings?!?!?! WOW!

I hosted a Holiday Mommy Luncheon/ Cookie Exchange. I just had a small group of women over and we had an intimate....childless lunch. All of the dads were out of school for winter break so it was perfect timing.

These cookies have been some of my favorites for years. They are so tasty and so yummy. The white sprinkles were an idea I got off of my friend Heidi's blog. Check it out here. Everyone was able to bring their cookies home on this cute platter. I forgot to take pictures of the table and of the food but it was delicious!

 

 

I came home from dropping Hailey off at the bus stop one day to find a box at my door labeled "Mike's Pastries." I found this little shop with my sister-in-laws while we were in Boston this Fall. Ummmm....I was SO happy and SO excited and SO thrilled that someone knew me well enough to know that this was the PERFECT christmas gift for me!!!!! I couldn't figure out who it was but guessed that it must have been from John. After texting him to thank him he informed me that they were not from him and that he had no idea who had sent them to me. It didn't take me too long to realize that they must have been from the Hecker Sibling Gift drawing. Emily...John's sister just got married to this great guy named Travis...who had my name this year. It was from him. THANK YOU AGAIN! I loved them. All 10 of them come packaged so cute and they are so delicious. John benefitted from this gift as much as I did!! We even loaded them in the car and put the cream filling on ice for our 10 hours in the car to Georgia. I couldn't wait to share these wonderful treats with John's brother and his wife!