Then there's these girls

I love my girls - my 3 little, sweet, funny girls. I love my 40 Young Women and I also love these girls. I've been so lucky to have great friends here. Close, call up just to chat, cry and whine to, scrap for entire weekends together kind of friends.

I haven't lived more than an hour and a half from Shanna for 10 years (minus a few months). For the last 8 years we've lived less than a mile from each other and have been in the same ward even for most of that time. She's my sister-in-law and my dear friend and I love love love her. I love that our kids are friends and I love that I can hang out on her couch for days at a time. When I just had Logan I would spend the night at her house a lot even though I lived just down the street. When Todd was out of town I'd sleep there a few nights to break up the time or Todd and I would put Logan to bed in her extra room and then decide it was too much work to put her in the car at midnight to drive home so we'd stay in their living room. We were snowed in together (her family + Logan and I since Todd was out of town) during the first blizzard and they've watched our kids a bazillion times for us. I love that I love my in-laws and I'm so happy Shanna is part of my little group of friends.

Gina moved in just a few years ago and she's been a big example to me. She's a great, cute mom and she's the "good one" of the bunch. I love summers at her house since she has the huge yard. We've had some serious croquet matches and fun BBQ's back there and the kids have had fun running and playing on the swing set and doing slip n. slide. She and I signed up for BuffMom's together last summer and had so much fun. I love that she always has Pottery Barn catalogs laying around her house. Love her.

Katie was my first friend here. From the beginning we would spend entire days at her house scrappin'. Paige was just a baby and she would hang out in her car seat ALL DAY LONG and Katie must've just had Emma and Camille. The kids were so good and we got so much done and she'd always feed me a yummy lunch. She's helped me paint nearly every room in my house and is ALWAYS up for hanging out. I give all the credit to Kaite for us being friends since she'd be the one to call and say she's bored and wants to hang out. She's moving to Texas tomorrow. Doesn't seem right but I still love her.

I never thought I'd have a friend that's a member of PETA. What kind of crazy hippie belongs to PETA? Keri! She's not a crazy hippie. JUST hippie enough to keep some variety and teach us all to recycle and shop with a cloth grocery bag but not hippie enough to be obnoxious about it. I'm so happy she's my neighbor and I think I owe her 10 plates of cookies and brownies for how many times I've had to borrow sugar and eggs (and syrup and chips and cheese). I can always count on Keri to have Tortilla chips and velveeta cheese. All we need is a little salsa and we got ourselves some queso. Keri's fun and easy. Love her.

From the very beginning I knew Laurel and I would be friends. I don't know why. Maybe she was the nicest one to me at church or something. There's just something about her that makes you want to be friends with her. She's fun and always laughing and is the best shopper in the world. She's given me SO many clothes for me and the girls 'cause she finds great deals at Savers or garage sales. No one shops like Laurel shops and she's a cute decorater and just a fun girl. Love her.

And then Tracey. I don't even know how Tracey and I became friends. I had her daughter in YW forever ago and she's always been a Grandma to my kids. She'd take them home after church to let them play and to give Todd and I a minute to ourselves and she'd take them other random times "just for fun". I've never known anyone like Tracey. Who loves kids as much as Tracey? Really, I don't think anyone. I guess that's how our friendship started. Sometimes it feels one-sided since she's always doing something nice for me and I don't think I do anything for her. We can sit on the couch for hours while the kids run around her house like they own it and talk. She's great and fun and I'm glad to have a friend like Trace. She'll always be cooler than me. Love her too.

I hope these girls are aound forever so we can always be friends like this. I have other great friends too and I just love my ward and I love Highlands Ranch and I love my family and my house. Life is good.