yes, it's my party!

Last week I celebrated my 35th birthday!!
Yep, 35 is halfway to 70, but like Austin said so wisely, now I have another 35 years before I reach 70.  Just imagine all that I can do with that.  wow!
My birthday kind of got drawn out unintentionally.  The day of I tried to do 35 acts of service to celebrate.  One of the sisters in my ward mentioned she had done this for her 40th birthday which she had been dreading and it really made her birthday a wonderful one.  It was fun trying to think of different things to do, a lot of what moms do all day is service so helping Fiona or Lydia find their shoes for the 6th time really helped me meet my goal.  But it was fun to have a different mindset for the day and focus on helping others smile.  35 was a lot more than I thought and I didn't reach it till just after the kids went to bed.  Hopefully, as the years go by I'll get better at finding opportunities so I can keep up the tradition.
On the weekend Austin put together a fantastic evening for me.  We got a babysitter and went out to dinner.  After dinner he took me to the Stake Center where he had thrown together a party with some friends from the ward.  He planned several games for us to play and we had a great time visiting, playing and laughing.  I am so grateful for such a fun and thoughtful husband, and so many good friends.  I had a wonderful time and felt so loved.

good friends and treats=the perfect party

we played a relay race with hockey sticks and nerf balls

one game we had to move a nerf ball without hands from our shoulders to our ankles with our team mate

Austin and I dropped ours

this was called shrinking islands and you had to keep folding your paper in half without falling off

Austin & I got creative and won

The past week

We went for walk along the weeping rock trail last week. It turned out to be a beautiful day and it was so fun to walk with the kids. And we got a funny story out of it as well. On the way back down the trail, Ian picked up a rock. This rock weighs about 5 pounds and is probably 8-10 inches across. He carried it all the way back down the trail and to the car. As we were driving home, he asked if he could keep the rock in his bed. I told him that it was a ‘wild’ rock and it would prefer to live outside in its natural habitat. Ian didn’t take that well. He really likes to argue things. So the whole way home he kept telling me how he was going to keep the rock in the house and he was going to keep it forever. When he grows up and moves out the rock is going to move with him and he’s planning on passing it down to his posterity who will all let the rock live in the house, too. I told him if he tried to keep the rock inside that it would run away. He said that rocks don’t have legs. I told them that they roll away. I told him that when we got home we would ask daddy if it was a ‘wild’ rock or a ‘house’ rock. As soon as we pulled in the driveway and saw Austin he grabbed his rock, jumped out of the car and asked, “Dad is this a wild rock?” Austin was a bit confused and looked at me. I said, “Honey, is this a ‘house’ rock like Ian says or is it a ‘wild’ rock like Mom says?” Fortunately for me, Austin is quick to catch on and told Ian that it was definitely a ‘wild’ rock. So the rock had to spend the night outside. Ian told us that the rock was sad and crying. He made us leave the back porch on so it wouldn’t be scared and he found it a couple of friends to keep it company. It’s still sitting out there happy as can be.

Thursday we had a fun St. Patrick’s Day. The boys both had a close run in with leprechauns in their classrooms. The one in kindergarten left the class new boxes of crayons and footprints all over. The one in first grade was locked in a cupboard under the sick, but when they finally tried to let it out it had left a leprechaun toy and lots of candy for the class to share. At lunch while making invisible kool-aid (it’s a new flavor they have) a leprechaun tricked us and turned it green. For dinner we ate corned beef and cabbage and the kids really enjoyed it (I was worried no one would touch it). And for snack we had rainbow parfaits with yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and mandarin oranges. I love making the holidays fun for the kids, they love the simplest things.


Friday the boys were out of school, but Austin had a training meeting so I took them to the aquarium. We saw seahorses (the babies were only about an inch tall and held onto the grasses with teeny little tails), a HUGE lobster, a sea turtle that was swimming with sharks, and some very playful penguins (that was one of the favorites). We even got to pet some rays, starfish and sea urchins. It was a full day and lots of fun.

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday.  I just made cinnamon rolls, they are so good, I'm probably going to eat another one before I finish this post.

Josh and Bobbie got married last Friday.  Many people came to support them and I am so grateful for that.  I was a little nervous.  They asked me to take photos and that was fun so here are a few that were my favorites.
The ones of all of them together haven't been edited yet and they need a little help with the lighting.

We've also been making frequent trips to the park.  I feel that is one of my favorite perks as a mom.  I love taking the kids to the park.
Lydia is quite the bubble afficionado lately

Ian likes to climb on top of the slides now, he's become one of those 'big' kids that drove me nuts years ago.  I'm constantly telling him to look out for the little ones.  He is such a handsome little man, I'm glad he's mine.
Lydia gets in a swing and just laughs.  It's quite contagious.
Fiona graciously stopped long enough to let me get a picture.  She was having way too much fun with the other kids.

Wedding Plans

just an announcement for all those who haven't heard yet.  Josh & Bobby are getting married this Friday.  Yes, that would be March 11th.  We want all friends and family to know they are invited, but it is really short notice.  Josh just told us this past Sunday.  Please email me if you'd like the information for time and address.  And please pass the word along.  Thanks!

pony party

We had Fiona's first friend party this past Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  We played pin the tail on the pony; pony, pony, HORSE!; carrot, carrot, who has the carrot; and had an apple tossing contest.  We ate apples, strawberries and carrots.  I made cupcakes and decorated them with green frosting and coconut 'grass'.  It ended up being a nice day outside as well so the girls went out to play on the playground for a bit, too.  Here's a cute pic of all the prancing ponies before they took off their ears and tails (it was way cute, but only lasted for a few seconds. What do you expect from preschoolers?)

kindy 500

Last Friday Ian's kindergarten did the kindy 500. It was so much fun. Austin has been working on Ian's vehicle since before Christmas. As we were unwrapping presents he was eyeing the boxes to see which ones to keep. He started actually building right after the holidays. He's painting and refining since the beginning of February and he actually spray painted my windshield a bit at one point (fortunately, it seems to have come off). He built Ian an X-wing fighter, not to be outdone by the millennium falcon from last year. Ian was thrilled and had so much fun in the parade as all the older boys gave him high 5's. One dad even commented on how our kids pinewood derbies are going to turn out in a few years (I think he was jealous). I tried to get a lot of pictures, it's so chaotic it was hard to get really good ones.

Ian and his best friend Matthew, they love these days when all the kindergartens are together.  Ian has am and Matthew pm so they never get to play during the week.

Austin even got an R2 D2 to help at the controls

I loved that this one had a windshield, so cute!

this girl had working headlights and taillights, I could never get a great picture of them sorry.

this one was another favorite in the parade, Wes said it was his favorite, too.

Red Baron, clever

Not exactly sure what this one was, but it was unique and I like BYU

Fun boys in my group: Parker in a monster truck, Bridger in a pickup (that thing was heavy!) and Ian Skywalker

Ian LOVED the attention

another cute monster truck

the gravedigger (I got these pics just for Josh and Wesley)

another gravedigger,monster trucks seem to be the "in" thing right now

 I also kept an eye out for some cute girl ideas for when Fiona and Lydia get into kindergarten.  The ice cream truck would be fun, but the one below just screamed GIRL to me.  I think I'll be decorating theirs when the time comes, but I will definitely have Austin help build it.  He did such an awesome job!

Fiona's 4!

So last week we celebrated Fiona's 4th birthday. She is so fun to plan for. She loves horses, princesses and pink pink pink. When I asked her what she wanted for her cake this is the answer I got: "I want a cake with unicorns on it and ponies and bambies (she loves Bambi) and the bambies are hugging the unicorns and a pegasus family but the dad pegasus doesn't have wings and the mom pegasus doesn't have wings and the baby pegasus doesn't have wings. And they're all hugging." I felt a little intimidated about tackling that one so we looked at pictures online of pony cakes and I found a doable one on the family fun website. She on the other hand spotted one that was shaped like a my little pony standing up. that was the one in her mind. If you've ever seen my cakes you'd know that cake decorating is not my strength at all. Frosting and I have major issues. Well, I finally saw one that she liked and I thought I could possibly pull off at the grocery store. It was really simple, frosted green with a blue frosting river running through it and plastic horses on top. I made a quick stop at CAL ranch where I found the horses and whipped up the cake the day of the party. Other that the mare being too heavy and ending up knee deep in frosting grass, the cake turned out great and she was so excited. When grandparents arrived she rushed them over to see her cake. I loved seeing how happy it made her.

I also had to show off the outfit that I made for her.  What's even better, after all the work she LOVES it and puts it back on as soon as it's been through the laundry.  I thought it turned out darling and I want to do one for Lydia, too.

this is her prancing pony pose