Teenage Sledding & Wii Tournament

Liberty got some friends together today for some sledding, food & gaming! Fun group of teenagers! @sealib7 #teenagers {Melina, Jaron, Liberty, Kandra, Ann & Nicole?}

Happy 40th Kris!

Happy B-day, my Kris friend!!! Hope you have a fantastic year! You deserve it! Hugs! Fun ladies to "surprise" Kris for a little celebration! #professionalbirthdaysingers

1st Annual MT Ornament Party

1st Annual Montana Ornament Party! Inspired by one of my best friends, Amber @amberhoffman23 - I braved my first Ornament party since my move from Fargo. I tweaked things from years past. I made it very simple/ Everyone brought treats to share & we made an ornament together. I did a Montana-inspired Ornament that I think turned out pretty fun. Thanks ladies for braving the blizzard to join me. See you next year!

mtseamonsfam Thanks gorgeous, brave ladies for hanging out with me tonight! You're awesome! #annualornamentparty #blizzarddrivers
Special note- @hseedall is on the front row! 1st time for everything, my friend! Lol ❤️
hseedall Haha!! I have to admit I really liked the front row! Such a fun night with amazing women!

Teenage Noodle Feast

Teenage Noodle Party! Liberty & Shannon got together for a late night movie night while they cooked up a zillion types of noodles. All while staying warm in their cosplay snuggies. Good times!

Fantastic Beasts

Liberty went to a movie with a bunch of friends. They LOVED it! Except for the lack of kissing at the end! (Oh my heavens! Are they growing up too fast or what? LOL)

Those left when I got there- Liberty, Hannah and Jaron

Attack on Titans celebrates Halloween

Liberty loves to dress up so hence Halloween is one of her favorite days of the year. She had a fantastic day!

First, they got to dress up for school. She has some pretty crazy, fun friends!

Then, she had several friends come over after school. They giggled quite a but down stairs and apparently all (almost) fit in our basement tub. {The joys of me now being on Instagram and seeing what she's up to LOL}We fed everyone dinner.

Then we took them all over to the Trunk-R-Treat at EVMS and to do some Trick-or-Treating in the Eastgate neighborhood. They are pretty silly!

Fun times with friends. So glad she has such good people to hang with! Happy Halloween!

Orchestra Snack

In order for Victoria's friends to sign up for Orchestra again this year, we worked out a plan to help each other out. We each take a week and pick up the girls after school, feed them a snack and get them back before Orchestra starts. Because we live so close, we can just grab them and bring them home with us. Man! I love these girls!

One day they even got to "eat up" some baby! They loved it!!!

HHS Friends

Liberty has a pretty awesome group of friends at school. Here's the group she hangs out with after school every day.

 (L to R): Megan, Kandra, Liberty, Ann, and Melina AND of course Jaron. 

Seminary B-Day Dance Party

Liberty got invited to Jenna's Bday/Seminary Party tonight. They had a blast! After a movie and treats, they played a little Just Dance. It was a hoot! Fun times!

Let's see if I can get a video added:

{It doesn't look like it will load. Grrr!}

Freshman Seminary

Liberty attended Seminary Graduation on June 8th. She was awarded her certificate for completing her Freshman year.

She then attended a big Luau that evening that the Holmans hosted for the youth. (She never gets me any pictures. Grrr!)

A couple days later, she threw a fun Seminary party for her class. She had several people come. They seemed to have a great time! I'm proud of her for being a planner!!!

Temple Trip Billings: Dinner with Friends

We met up with a bunch of friends for dinner. (The Lybberts & Steinagels came later to join us) Fun people to be with!

Justice's Movie Marathon

Justice wanted to do the same thing his sister did when she was able to watch PG-13 movies--- a Movie Marathon with friends.

Boys are a little different so it was more like one movie & some cotton candy & BBall & cotton candy. LOL But they had a good time!

Neighborhood Bikers

Glory is one lucky kid to have so many friends in our neighborhood. Quite the Bikers Crew!

Fashion Show with a Runway (plus Answered Prayers)

Victoria's friend situation has been tricky this school year. There was some circumstances that changed friend dynamics at the end of last year. And it's been hard! Girls can be unforgiving and dramatic so it's been kind of a lonely for my sweet girl. We have prayed many hours for her to be able to find a solid group of friends that will help her be kind, including and the best person she can be. It's been a slow process but I can finally see some of our prayers being answered. I volunteer every Wednesday and have the opportunity to eat lunch with my girls. I see the interactions they have and the people they associate with. Sometimes I wish I could just stick my head in the sand and ignore the info I see. But it's been special to see the transformation happening in her friend situation. Slowly, she has been sitting with a group of new, cute girls. She has been part of a "texting" group that makes me giggle because it never makes sense. LOL It's just a bunch of emojis and a whole lot of "Hey"s but it's cute to see them reach out to each other. Recently this sweet mom of one of the girls reached out to get to know us so we could get the girls together. Can I just say- I adore this mom!! She's is so darling and kind and including. We were chatting after a playdate the girls had together and it sort of seems like God brought us together. I told her we had been praying this whole year for Victoria to make some new friends and she actually said- "I think I felt it." (She's also been looking for ways to expand Clara's group of friends.) How special is that? I love it!
The girls had a great time putting together a super fabulous Fashion Show with their dolls including a runway and music. Pretty creative! Love these girls! I'm so excited for Victoria and this new groupd of friends she has. Thank Heavens for answered prayers!

High School BFF Reunion

We made a quick trip to UT this weekend. 

Brett reached out to his best friend in High School and we met up with him & his wife (also a classmate) & a couple of their boys for an early dinner. It was so fun to visit with them. We chatted about crazy & good things that have happened over the last 20 years!!!! Ahhh! It's so weird to hear myself say that! Thanks Craig & Jen for making time for us.

TOFW in Idaho

This weekend I had the privilege of attending another TOFW with 2 of my favorite girlfriends in Idaho Falls.

After I drove down, got my stuff settled at Amber's & did a little girl shopping- we met up with Brooke & her sisters for dinner. They're some fun ladies!

Amber and I headed over to save seats at the Event Center. It was fun to be able to sit by everyone. At the end of that evening, I also got to go down to the stage and meet Hilary Weeks. I love her so much! Her songs speak to my heart. She's amazing! What beautiful ladies to be with.

We also did lunch together on Saturday. It was super nice of Brooke & her family to let Amber & I tag along with them. Brooke lost both her parents this last year. I can't even imagine how hard it has been for her. But what a legacy all these beautiful women are to her parents and the lives they lived. I felt very privileged to be in their presence.

It was a fabulous TOFW event. The speakers were so perfect for my life right now.
Just a little of what I got out of my time here-

FRIDAY NIGHT

Hilary Weeks: Music Artist Hold on/Never Hold back in regard to Compliments. Advise: Always look up. Don't forget that you're already enough. Pick up the phone when you're missing home.

Michael McLean: My Unexpected Encounter with Jesus Maybe God is speaking to you differently than He has before. He talked about his father's funeral- With how great the Father is- He left His Son to do His work alone. If we've ever felt abandoned- we are in good company!-(ex. Joseph Smith, John the Baptist, Michael McLean, Jesus Christ)

Mary Cook: Living Your Circumstances Choose your love & love your Choice! Live gratefully. Live Ye! Ezekiel 18:32 Where's your focus? Serve Others

SATURDAY

Alissa Parker: Discovering the Angels Around You Read the talk Ministering Angels by Jeffery Holland Oct 2008. Do you see it?? We are all connected!

Calee Reed: Music Artist The Break always comes before the blossom. Put the glass down!- How heavy burdens feel depends on how long we hold them on our own

Mary Ellen Edmunds: I Am Well If You Are Well We help someone & it helps us. Love One Another. Mosiah 18:9-10 Meet together Oft- Know what's going on with each other

Tim Ballard: Being a Light When darkness knocks- I will be able to knock it back! If you shine your light- Darkness can;'t be there. By small & simple things- great things come to pass

Emily Watts: Motherhood: Am I Doing it Right? In Principles- Great Clarity/ In Practices- Great Charity Parenting of God: Allows consequences to come but doesn't stop loving us. Take a picture & laugh about it! Principles: 1: My twin top priorities are God & my family 2: Love Wins  3: God can help me but I have t let Him in

We also had the opportunity to participate in a Service project to make Alphabet Flash Cards for Refugees.We did a lot of coloring while we listened to the speakers!

I am so glad I was able to go this weekend. I laughed, I cried, I shared, I served. I am so grateful for Amber & Brooke in my life and the chance I had to get reacquainted with them at such an awesome event. Love you ladies!!! XO Let's not let 7 years go by before we share this experience again!

TOFW: Girlfriends are the Best! & Remembering the Past

I just love Amber and Brooke!!! I have missed them so much! We picked up like not a day has pasted. I loved every minute. We laughed so hard!!! We cried! We crafted! Best weekend ever!!! Love you ladies!!!
It was also so fun to stay at Amber's new place and get reacquainted with her little family. They are all getting so big. It's so crazy to see her with a little one again. What a cute boy!

This weekend, we also got reminiscing about the old days and went back to see when we first started going to TOFW. It was 9 years ago!!! Can you believe that????? We must be OLD!!! LOL

I hadn't even starting blogging when we 1st went. BUT that doesn't mean I didn't take tons of pictures. LOL! So... in honor of our 9th Anniversary- I wrote up a post about it just for you. ;)

Our very 1st TOFW we attended was in 2007in Minneapolis, MN. Read about it HERE.

We went again in 2009. I had started blogging so this one is super detailed. Read about-
Getting Down there HERE.
Friday night HERE.
Partying all night HERE.
Saturday HERE.
Sweet Memories HERE.

I love the memories!!!!!

A Choice GNO

After my Make & Take party, Hailey and I got my kids settled for bed and then took off for a late night GNO. (Brett's out of town this week) We went to the new chick flick- The Choice. It doesn't officially come out until tomorrow but we had the theater ALL to ourselves. It was like a flashback from our Black Friday days! LOL It was a total chick flick! And then when we left the theater almost delirious from our late night festivities- it was like we were in the Twilight Zone. We were seriously the ONLY ones in the theater. Like.... NO employees or anything! {Check out the snack bar below} It was creepy. I think we only past one or two cars on the ride home even with us stopping for gas. Spooky!! But it was some darn good girl time- so it was worth risking our lives in some alternate universe, right? Luv ya lady!

My 1st Make & Take

I have been tossing around the idea of doing a monthly craft night in my head for years. So... despite me playing single mom this week, the painter making a mess of my walls and a zillion other things bouncing around right now- I decided this was the time to make it happen!
I found a cute vinyl charger plate idea and then sent out a text to a few people to see if there'd be any interest. Well... there was. {Even more than I had supplies for} But with a little help from my kiddos to get the house ready, encouragement from my hubby to get my "business" up & running and an answered prayer to find the last 14 charger plates at a local store- it was a success! I think all the ladies had a good time getting together, visiting, snacking and crafting the night away. It stresses me out a little to do things like this but I do know that God has given me the gift of craftiness and party plannerism (Yes- I'm making up words now. LOL) and perhaps it's time to share those gifts. Now I just have to pray that ideas start to flow and I figure out how to fit all my lady friends in my basement! ;) Thanks ladies for spending the evening with me! You're the best! XO

Sushi with Nick

It was Nick's birthday and Hailey got a bunch of us together to celebrate. We went out for dinner to Nagoya's. Brett and I got sushi. Oh my heavens!!! I love sushi!!

We also went out to the movies. We saw The Finest Hour. It was an amazing story!

Happy Birthday Nick!!! 

So glad we're friends.