my fafrit holuday

~ HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ~

Every year I post my very most favorite Valentine in the entire world..... made by the Mouse :)

Have a great day everyone!

xoxo

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 :)

all kinds of wheels

 I finally have the pleasure to announce that the Mouse got his driving permit!

It took him a few years to accept that I meant what I said about good grades and would not cave in.

So I'm proud of him for dealing with it, and proud of him for his terrific grades.....

..... and SUPER proud of him for being such an awesome driver! Ten and two baby!

 Yeah, I could really get used to being chauffeured around.....

..... especially when it includes the Jimmy Dean's Drive-Thru :D

~

In other Mouse news, I completely forgot to mention he got a dirt bike for his birthday last month.

The thing is a BEAST and it scares me.

And one more news flash of Mouse news, he and Tom had a little..... mishap, you might say.

You can see by it's roll bars that it's now a little, shall we say, wonky.

More directly, THEY ROLLED THE DUNE BUGGY W/O HELMETS ON and are lucky they only lost flesh!

This would have been the gash out of Tom's head.

They had just barely put the roll bar back on.

Boys...... sigh :/

Shell & I are wicked

You know what these two sets of feet mean.

SHELL CAME TO VISIT!

She was barely off the plane and we got pedicures first thing!

 I also made her get extra piercings because I knew she wanted them :)

So after we took a class at the Apple store, we went straight inside the mall!

 Second piercings on both ears, plus a cartilage piercing up top - SO CUTE!

 Shell was here when we had our Velvet vs. Cake Goodness Girls Only Taste Test!

I so wish we had taken a pic of all 4 of us: Tori, Taylor, Shell & me - 

we had so much fun and laughed so hard we were dying :)

 We spent a lot of time with the Mouse, and really enjoyed his guitar playing

He has a killer acoustic version of "Blackbird" that he's just GOT to record!

 Then Shell & snuck off for the day and drove to Redondo Beach

 and did something we had planned on for months but hadn't told anyone.....

TWIN TATTOOS

 We searched and searched for something that would be meaningful to us both -

we found a Celtic symbol that is beautiful and means several things.....

Friends and Sisters Forever

 Shell got hers in black on the back of her neck - it looks AMAZING :)

I got mine on my forearm in turquoise - also amazing :)

FRIENDS AND SISTERS FOREVER :)

 Obviously Shell and I did LOTS of fun things together during the week she was here!

Shopping probably topped the list. Well, after the piercings. And tattoos. And seeing friends.

And we drove to Santa Monica so Shell could go to one of the Shabby Chic flagship stores :)

 So of course we HAD to drive to Pacific Palisades and visit the house I grew up in!

It had been nearly 40 years since Shell had seen it! 40 years! Oh, the fun we had here together :)

 Matty took some pics of us before we had to drive Shell to the airport, hehe

They make me happy and sad at the same time - I miss her so much already.

I love you Shell!!!

Mouse and the creatures

 Oh, little Angel..... how can you possibly be comfortable like that?

 This may be our new favorite animal - how unbelievably CUTE!

 Remember when the Mouse went to Cabella's in Utah? Well, there you go.

Hey, HOT DOGS! You gonna eat that? Are you gonna eat it? Are you done? Are you gonna eat it? Are you gonna eat it? You gonna eat it? Do you want it? Can I have it? Are you gonna eat it?

 I love taking secret pictures :) Matty & Tom - ah, summer :)

 Matty's work partner Cardon told him to come jam wearing a toga (as a JOKE)

Matty totally went dressed in a toga and Cardon thought it was so awesome he did it too :D

HAH!

"I don't wanna take a bath!"

"Well *I* certainly don't want to either..... stupid stupid stupid humans!"

the Mouse waiting for an appt. 

this may be my personal favorite :)

Aw, poor Angel! She fell asleep with one eye open and her tongue sticking out again :/

mouse heaven

After Shell and I were done romping through the Sweet Tooth Fairy and reaping the benefits, it was greatly anticipated by the Mouse that he spend a good amount of time worshipping at his personal sacred mecca known to regular people as Cabela's sporting goods. 

 (cue angels singing)

He went in so fast we could hardly document his arrival. We knew he could legitimately stay inside for days on end, but all we cared about was that we had long enough for lunch and a pedicure. And for him to purchase as much army/survival gear as was humanly possible in that amount of time. It was definitely a win/win situation for all parties involved. 

 And then was the time for a ride in Shell's husband's brand spanking new Mini Cooper.

Look at the expression on the Mouse's face! HAHAHAHA!

 It doesn't take a genius to determine what a fine example of a downright fun sports car this is!

Thank you John!!! For taking Matthew on several very momentous rides! :)

 !!!!!

 !!!!!

 !!!!!

!!!!!

 Surely you didn't think I'd forget a pedicure pic did you?!

We remembered just as we were saying goodbye - sniff :( (Don't look Joanne!)

Shell, both you and John were so loving and helpful and fun during our stay - THANK YOU!

 6 or 7 hours later, the hazy view of Las Vegas in the distance.

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy"

Never mind. 

This part was not fun. That's the temperature, not the speedometer. (that would've been fun!)