10 years and counting!

This day I married my friend.....








Now, 10 years later I would marry him all over again, and here are a few reasons why....









* He truly is my best friend
* He can make me laugh even when I'm steaming mad(which usually makes it worse!)
* He inspires me to be the very best me.
* He's not afraid of a pile of laundry!
* He doesn't mind a good "chick flick" every now and then!
* Not only is he a wonderful father, he is a really good daddy.
* He is very ambitious and a hard worker.
* He has great legs!
* He's not afraid to ask for directions.(or for help when he gets stuck...I've
actually pulled him out 3 times in the past month! LOVE THE SNOW!!) :o)
* He is the man of my dreams and there is no one else in the world I would
rather take this awesome journey with!

I am so grateful for this wonderful man and I look forward to many more great years to come!

Happy Valentine's Day!

At the Mikesell home we celebrate Valentine's Day as a family holiday...our anniversary is in two weeks, so Quinn and I have OUR time then. So as a family we had our annual candle-lit dinner. I first tried this last year and the kids loved it so we went ahead with it again this year. It's amazing the ambiance that a few candles add to a dinner...even with four kids around the table.




After dinner we watched a quick movie and I caught this cute picture of Allie and Kate sharing a love sac. I love my family and it's fun to have a day set aside to show them how much I love them. (Not that I don't every other day of the year, but you know what I mean!) Hope everyone had a great day!

Alive and well!!!

Okay, I'm sure some of you were beginning to wonder if I fell off the face of the earth or something, nope, still here and praying for life to slow down! It's now February and I find myself wondering what happened to January! Here's my excuse....Quinn bought me a digital scrapbooking program for Christmas and I kid you not, I have been on that thing 24/7! It is the most awesome thing in the world! I feel like such a stumbling block has been removed! Since Christmas day I have done about 70 or more pages! I can scrapbook anytime day or night with no mess and no little hands in the middle of my stamps and markers! It has totally saved my life! Anyway, off the scrapbooking soapbox, I am recommitting myself to updating my blog at least ONCE a month! :) So just so everyone knows, I AM alive and well! Here's a sample of what has been taking up all my time lately...well maybe not ALL but lets just say a good portion of it!!

aLL i wAnt fOr ChriStmAs is mY tWo frOnt TeeTh

Layton lost both of his front teeth yesterday (Sunday)! A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here is the play by play....

Apparently it isn't any easier just because your dad does this for a living! Needless to say, the tooth fairy was very generous, especially when it's both front teeth at Christmas time!

Freedom of the Seas!

Quinn and I had such a great time onboard the Freedom of the Seas. What a perfect opportunity to "reconnect and get to know eachother again! And do you know what I found out? I would marry him all over again! He is truly my best friend and there is no one in the whole world I'd rather spend time with! (No offense to you close friends out there!) :) It was a perfect week in every sense of the word and I couldn't have dreamt of a better vacation. We had so much fun surfing, rock climbing, eating, scuba diving, soaking up the sun, having dinner with friends, singing kareoke (yes, even Quinn!), dancing the night away, and those quiet moments in sweet conversation....only to name a few! We missed our kids, and were so excited to see them when we got home, but I would go again in a heartbeat..

Travel Update!

Okay, so this took place a few weeks ago, but I couldn't let it go unposted. Over conference weekend, we made a mad dash to Grand Junction, CO to see the Burtons and their new home. It was such a quick trip, but SO worth the drive! The kids played like they had never been apart and it was so fun to see Allie and Ellie get to know eachother a little more. We love the Burtons and are so grateful for their friendship and for letting us literally "drop in" for the weekend. We had quite the crew with 8 kids between the two families! I'm sure it was a little crazy, but we had such a good time.

We were able to do some hiking in Arches National Park, but it was so windy that day we were afraid it was going to blow us all off the rock, so we didn't get to stay as long as we all hoped.


We were also able to go to dinner with Jeff and Nicole Cornelious and their beautiful baby girl! They are doing well in Moab and it was so great to see them too. (Leave it to me to forget my camera)

It was a great weekend and we hope for many more to come!
Thanks Burtons!

Halloween Overload

Does everyone else celebrate Halloween as a week long holiday? I love Halloween and getting my kids all dressed up and taking tons of pictures, but it seems my kids are already in sugar shock and it's not even the big day yet! We began our festivities last night with Allie's preschool Halloween carnival...so fun! The kids really enjoy it, so you know, we do too. Poor Allie had to make due with a make-shift pirate costume...I won one on ebay, but the darn thing didn't make it in time, so I had to get creative last minute. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll actually have a real pirate costume for Halloween! We will be dressing up again tomarrow for Music Makers, then again next week for our ward trunk-or-treat, and on and on and on.....at least the kids love it and don't think I'm trying to torture them...Kate actually laughs the whole time I'm putting her in her "duck" costume! Maybe by the time Thanksgiving gets here, they'll be down off their sugar high! Happy Halloween!