Spotlight: Megan-angelo...

No special reason for this post...

just thought I'd give a shout out to my lovely and talented Sister-in-law, Megan,

who is (insert corny french accent) an a-MAZ-ing "Art-eest Extra-ordinaire"!

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Meg painted this Salt Lake Temple painting for me for Christmas 2 years ago,

and it is truly one of my favorite things in our entire house!

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It hangs on a shelf in the vault of our Master Bedroom, and is incredible!

Matt did some accent lighting to spotlight it, and you should see it at night!

Mmm... makes me happy just thinking of it!

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It's like the gift that keeps on giving! It brings me joy every time I look at it!

Anyway, Meg asked me FOREVER ago to please photograph it so she could include it on her website/blog. Well, I finally got around to it yesterday, so I thought I'd post the pics while I was e-mailing them to her.

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I wish the pictures could do it justice... her paintings are just gorgeous!

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She actually uses sheet rock mud in a frosting tube, so they are all chunky and full of awesome, rich texture... unlike anything else I've seen! I just love, love, LOVE her stuff!

If you want to check out MORE of her beautiful work, click here:

http://artwithdimension.blogspot.com/

She is sooooo very talented and we are so blessed to have her in our fam!

(Thanks, Meg... hopefully you'll get a few extra hits from this post!) :)

Daynen's 1st Birthday Party!

Drum-Roll puh-leez...

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Look who turned ONE!

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And here are the long-awaited pics from

Dayne's 1st Birthday Party

last Saturday!

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(It just took me this long to download, edit and post them!

To say there were a LOT of pictures is an understatement!

Here are just a "few"!)

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Welcome to the wild and crazy PAR-Tay!

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Just a small little gathering, by our usual scale, with 75 of our closest friends & family!
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Thanks to all of Dayne's adoring fans who came to wish him well on his special day!

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We had GREAT grub...

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Fabulous entertainment...

including Jeremy, our highly-popular (look at that line!) and INCREDIBLE Balloon Guy...

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No... seriously... A-MAZ-ing balloons!

(This 3 1/2 foot Clown was bigger than the Birthday Boy!)

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...and for all 40 kids!
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He also tells jokes...

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does Magic...

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and juggles...

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with FIRE!

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The kids thought it was awesome... even the big ones!

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And what Party is complete without a Pinata?
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...and Cake & Ice Cream?

(Thanks again Suz, Mauri & Cheryl for serving it up!)

(And Cupcakes for the kiddies...)

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The Birthday Boy got his own little Cake...

(This was actually post-party, because we ran out of time!)

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and "walked away" with a pretty good stash of LOOT...

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including this HOT set of "Wheels" from Mom & Dad...

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which turned out to be popular with his friends! (Look at Sela's face! :)

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He was spoiled-rotten, for sure!

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The Bounce-House we set up Downstairs was a hit...

(...Thanks again to the generous Jane!)

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especially with the Big Kids...

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and Dayne-o's 2 Big Brothers!

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who actually ended up sleeping in it!

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Thanks again to everyone who came and enjoyed the evening at our "Crib"!

We all had a great time and most importantly, so did the Birthday Boy!

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After all... You only turn 1 once! :)