my girl Tori :)

SOOO proud of this girl, and SOOO happy and excited for her!!!

I've written about Tori before - she's beyond awesome - but this time tops them all :)

Tori made the decision to serve as a sister missionary for our church!

This is no small decision - it means 24/7 hard work and dedication for 18 months.

But it also means the experience of a lifetime through serving others in the name of Christ.

And a lot of fun :)

Her call came in December - we were all DYING to see where it would be!

I knew it had to be someplace fabulous, because Tori will make such a wonderful missionary!

And I was right - she was called to serve in the ROME, ITALY mission!!!!!

Could that be any more fabulous?!?!

I absolutely treasure this photo of me with Tori and Tori's mom Tina :)

So last week a handful of us went with Tori to the LDS Temple in Santa Monica

Is she too adorable or WHAT! She was so excited - what a WONDERFUL day in her life!

Tori is the daughter I never had and such a blessing in my life... I hardly have words for it.

I just love her so much. I was her escort through the temple and it was a such an honor for me.

It meant more to me than I can express... it was one of the best days of my life :)

Here she is afterwards with her dad - he pinched her right before I took this pic :D

What a darling father/daughter picture - I just love it :)

And I think this may be one of my favorite photos of all time -

Kerrie Edwards (Tori's amazing Young Women's leader), Tori and I afterwards :)

~

TI VOGLIO BENE SORELLA ROST!!!!!

winter time and 2013

You can never have too many pink Sharpies!

Daniel gave me all these for Christmas - he even customized them (see the smiley faces?)

Love them! :)

My precious Luna - such a sleepy baby :)

Matthew makes a *GREAT* fire! :)

And Davy makes one *AMAZING* grilled egg and cheese sandwich! :)

Are these the sweetest little babies in the world or WHAT! :)

Blue and sparkly :)

My new laptop cover - decalgirl.com is the bomb!

Yep - I love my cozy pillows :)

the boys are back in town

So fun to have Henry and John over to practice new music with Davy!

Someone was really happy to relax after his first semester in grad school!

A very, VERY familiar sight - hehe - and one of my favorite things to listen to from the other room!

There was MUCH poker being played during Christmas break!

Talk about CARDS.....

everyone's a comedian :)

I snuck this pic of Tay while she was warming up by the fire :)

Tay brought her kitty Mila over for a play date with Kitty... Kitty was NOT very hospitable :/

Aw, and there's the Mouse :) Having some fun with his friend Caroline :)

craziest Crimbus ever

 Yeah I'm a month late but that's the breaks. And I hardly have any pics but ALRIGHTY THEN.
Our Christmas ("Crimbus" in our house) was *NUTS*

The new roof, interior painting that nearly killed me, and new flooring that DID kill me, 

was barely finished when the holidays were in full swing and the boys came home from Illinois.

I was lucky to get a wreath on my door. Most everything else never even made it out of the attic.

During all the craziness, EVERY single package delivered was tossed in the back of my car.

It was the only way I could keep everything safe and out of the way and in one place.

By the time the Crimbus arrived, I was LONG out of energy. I could only stare at the box mountain. 

To make matters worse, none of us could remember what box was for whom!

Packages had trickled in since October - the older boys sent all their gifts here as well.

I never thought I'd see the day this happened, but there was only one thing to do.

SURRENDER.

So on Crimbus morning, Daniel opened a box one by one, and we yelled out who the gift was for.

Sometimes we'd miraculously remember who a box was for and give it to the right person.

It was so much fun to see the gift and then announce who it was for!

We were actually more on the creative side this year, and chose things everyone would love -

it was SO. MUCH. FUN. 

Daniel got some "Fight Club" SOAP for Davy, hehe :)

Love this pic of Daniel, who did a great job orchestrating everything :)

SOME of us were not as impressed and decided to lay on all our stockings :)

Aw, my little Christmas Angel :)

Later on Taylor and her best friend Alli came over and we played games :)

SOME people got cool new coats (and scarves)

~

BEST. CRIMBUS. EVER.