Maddies's 12th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADSTERS!

This is one happy birthday girl; surrounded by great friends Britton and McKinnley and eating a chocolate bar!

Rylee and Kennedy jumping for joy with the completion of the toilet papered tent! The big girls were inside and didn't know what they had in store...the bad news for Rylee was that it rained that night and she got to clean up wet toilet paper!

S'Mores outside.

McKinnley, Brittany, Emma, Britton, Sydney, Addison, Caitlyn, Maddie, Amelia. This really is such a great group of girls - I love them all like my own.

Mads got to celebrate twice this year - what with her popularity and all - we had to split her parties into 2 groups; friends from school and friends from church.

Both groups made puffy paint t-shirts and (attempted to) camped out in the tent.

We've had a wee bit of an issue with brown dog ticks this year - we may or may not have found them in our beds with us at night. Stuck.to.us. Anywhoo, Mads regularly has nightmares about them and so I had to let her know that I would kill all the ticks in the world for her on her Birthday sign!

The kitchen, decorated with birthday signs.

We are so grateful that Madison is a part of our family. She is often the life of the party and loves to make everyone laugh. She is not afraid to be silly and/or make fun of herself and doesn't take life too seriously. She has a HUGE heart and honestly wants to do what is right. WE LOVE YOU MADS!

Sunday afternoon's

Steve may kill me for posting this, but I had to capture a familiar Sunday afternoon activity: naps on the couch and a little grooming from the girls. Sometimes they buff and file his nails (he HATES to cut his fingernails...claims it hurts him??) sometimes pluck his eyebrows (but finds this strangely relaxing) and also allows an occasional makeover...but we won't go into details here!

Ryry's dance recital

I am still mourning over the fact that I didn't get any pictures other than those here. And it's not just cause I spent over $130 on the costumes, although that was one hard check to write. It's cause Rylee looked so stinkin' cute...she danced 2 different performances: the first was Cinderella and the second was West Side Story. State Street really knows how to put on a show; the performances lasted the ENTIRE day! Really though the day was a great culmination to 1 year of weekly dance practices with Ry and her 2 besties Olivia and McKenzie.

Steve's 29th Birthday

Zion's...my, I mean our favorite place. :)

We'll get here one day (maybe I shouldn't hope for that?)  Biggest Loser in St. George was fantastic.  They let us come in for a look around and while it didn't quite look like the TV show, it was plush and looked like a blast.

Signs.  Obvi.

Don't ask.  A gift from my sisters.  Steve looks confused?

Saysay and ZoZo

Cause what else do you do when your dogs are pawing at your leg and crying for your attention while you're working at the counter?

Flower shots by Rylee

I cannot tell you how often I download my pictures and find gobs of photos of flowers! Seriously, it's been going on for like 4 years now, and she's not to shabby at photographing them either!

Wight's visit 2010

How is it that I have the greatest friends in the whole world? I remember our very first Sunday in our new ward, Fairway Village of Vancouver, whispering to Steve "I'm going to be friends with that cute girl in the front!"and 11 years later she is still gracing me with her presence! We had such a blast when Karen and Madeline came to visit us and, as usual, played until we dropped!We spent a couple days at home and a couple in my favorite place, downtown Chicago.

How sexy are we?

The girls put on a fantastic show for us which involved some risky stunts!

When Rylee broke her glasses (if I were prepared, she would have a back up pair... oh well) we had to tape up the middle of her frames, nerd style. Karen put her vanity behind her in a effort to make Rylee feel better. See what I mean?

We frolicked in fountains,

Posed in the "Bean",

Shopped till we dropped for just the right purse for Karen,

played in the turnstyle,

pretended to be 5 while eating brunch at American Girl,

wished we could eat the Worlds Largest Chocolate bar (only $99),

and quite possibly the funniest of all, were entertained at Ed Debeviks. We may have had a few bums in our faces while the servers were pole dancing!!!!!

Come back Wights! WE love you!

Mads

Is she really headed to YW this year? It seems like just yesterday...

Forida with friends

We were lucky enough to be invited by the Meeks to join them in WARM (we thought it would be anyway) Florida Keys. It averaged about 65 degrees while we were there, but that didn't stop us from laying out by the pool anyway. Actually, it was amazing and seeing the vegetation and my favorite, the palm trees, was plenty rejuvination.




The drive out of our resort- nice, eh?




Susan with her cute girls Rachel and Taylor. Jackson invited his friend from Cleveland and Susan left the baby of the group (Dylan) behind. They all got along great and secretly Mads and Ry want a brother now!







Our 'villa' was decorated with such vibrant, tropical colors and with the lush grounds around us, the whole trip was eye candy for me! I wish I would've taken a photo of the main lobby area, in had a huge, dark wood plantation style porch with (classy) wicker rockers on it and celing fans to blow the breeze around. Heaven!