Let's Glow Birthday Party

Make a wish Hayden! (Colored flame candles.)

Freeze tag. The boys each had several glow sticks. The "it" person had to wear a glow mask!

Glow in the dark Bowling

The boys catching frogs. Yes, we have tons of frogs right now.

Hayden's Birthday Party was Friday night. And can I say I am so glad birthday's are only once a year! Phew! Hayden had a great time with his friends. Hayden was very grateful, and must have said thank you a hundred times! It was very sweet. A few highlights of the evening were freeze tag, an Easter egg hunt with glow bracelets inside, glowing bowling and football. I wanted to make glow in the dark slime but I didn't have any takers, they just wanted to wrestle and play football! Oh boys will be boys! This party was fun.

If I were to do it again I would definitely find a big black light, because it wasn't dark enough to see everything glow. All I could find was a scorpion hunting black light, which is tiny! So plan ahead and order online. The Easter egg hunt was so cool, but you have to have the larger eggs to fit the bracelets inside. It took me forever to squeeze them into the regular eggs. I couldn't get a good picture to show the eggs glowing because of the flash on my camera so you just have to trust me-its a must do! Also next time I would start decorating a lot earlier because the glow bracelets last a really long time so its OK to light them up early. And my last piece of advice would be two and a half hours is way to long! Two hours would have been plenty!! What was I thinking!

School and A Birthday

Back to school shopping and lunch at our favorite place.

Waffles, whip cream and blueberries!

Cupcakes and ice cream. Everyone is focused on dessert.

Oh man it has been a busy end of summer. I can not believe how fast summer vacation flew by. Blah. I hate that. The last few weeks of summer were spent swimming, hanging with cousin Xander, and Lovey and Grandpa Darryl. It was a great finale for a fun summer.

Monday Ethan started 7th grade, at a new school. He changes class every period, and has a locker! Big stuff. He already really likes it. Hayden started 3rd grade. He really likes his teacher, but I think he misses having his brother at school. And Libby started preschool. My babies are all growing up. (Sob, sob!)

Tuesday was Hayden's 8th Birthday! He brought treats to school to share with his friends, and we had Grandma, Poppa, and Noah over for his special dinner. Hayden was very excited about getting a new bike, a football and even some cash. We are having a "Glow in the Dark" birthday party next week with his friends. And he will get baptized in September. Eight is a big year! I love you Hayden. Happy Birthday!

One Year Older

Shawnee is one year older! Oh my! We celebrated his birthday weekend with his parents on Friday night. We had lasagna, his favorite, and a gigantic chocolate cake, also a favorite. If you really are what you eat, then Shawn would be chocolate, through and through. No joke! Shawn had to work on his birthday, (Not right!) but he made it in time for Ethan's flag football game. Phew! It was a good game. Then we hit the lake for a few hours. I thought the water was freezing but it didn't stop the kids from all jumping in. Although that might have had more to do with the fact that I bet them beforehand that they wouldn't. They made sure to rub it in that I was wrong. It happens. Then we hit date night. And we might have made our friends wait an hour for us, oppse!! It was a crazy busy day. Can you believe that we are still friends? Thank goodness they are forgiving.

Happy Birthday Shawn. We love you.

Best Weekend Ever

My Mom and Step Dad, and Amberly and her family and dont forget Becca Boo, all came out this weekend to celebrate Ethan's birthday. It was so nice of them to come out even though they were only able to stay for a short time. I loved having them here and was plotting ways of making them stay longer. Slashing tires, locking the doors, kicking and screaming? But summer is right around the corner and we will be making a trip out there soon. It was fun packed weekend, as always. Ethan had a flag football game, there was a fun shopping trip to target, lots of eating, late night conversations and laughing, lots of jumping on the tramp, a walk to the park. And the highlight of the trip (next to Ethan getting the preisthood, who can compete with that?) was going to the movies. Ethan, Shawn and I (and even becca on one car trip) read the Hunger Games together. We have been waiting for over a year for the movie, ever since we found out the movie rights had been sold. And we were not disapointed. It was so good! And to make it even more of a perfect night we ate at Chipotle, Yummy!

 For Ethan's Birthday I wanted to make a banner that was more boyish and less fussy then my normal. So for this banner I used washi tape, a SMASH pad of paper, and just used clothes pins to attach to a ribbon. It was the easiest banner ever. Using more washi tape I put up several pictures of Ethan over this last year.

 My adoreable nephew Radley, ating yummy banana chocolate chip pancakes...made by Amberly. Yum!

 I put these two ladies to work cooking and baking! We had lots of hungry tummies to feed!

 Amberly made Libby the cutest birthday box. Inside the box is a list of questions that we will ansewr every year on her birthday to see how much she changes and grows over the year. I love the idea. She also gave her the cutest little pair of yellow shoes. I want some in my size!

The girls made a trip out to Target. My happy place! Yes Libby is entertaining herself with soda and popcorn. What? Dont judge me! JK!

Taryn and family we missed you...Next time you have to make the trek out here!!

Twelve Years Old

Can you believe my Ethan is TWELVE? I can't, how the heck did this happen? But he is definitely a tweener. He is all about hanging out with his friends, texting, gaming, (being obnoxious!). I absolutely adore him, and couldn't be more proud of the young man he is becoming.

On his big day Ethan requested the Bagel Shop for lunch, and laser tag with his friends. We piled 9 boys in the car and drove down to Laser Quest for pizza and a few games. It was a blast, Ethan was beaming the whole night. I am usually all about the homemade parties, but this was so easy, all we had to do was show up!! We would definitely do it again.

Happy Birthday Ethan! I love you!

Libby's Fort

 Look who I caught snuggling up with Libby! Sneaky kitty isn't even supposed to be inside!

Libby's 2nd birthday is on Monday. I can not believe my baby is two already! Shawn's Mom brought her present over a little early the other day, and I am so excited about it! Libby loves to play outside but she won't go out there by herself, so I am really hoping this will encourage her to go out and play. Even Hayden was caught having fun playing on the fort with her yesterday!

Thanks Grandmaand Papa, we love Libby's present!

Eleven! Oh my!

Ethan decorated his own cake Pokemon style! Everyone skating together!

I can not believe my Ethan is eleven! Doesn't that sound so old? It has taken me a while to get used to the idea. For Ethan's birthday celebration we went to USA skate. Ethan's cousins have had a few parties there and they are always a blast, so he really wanted to have a skate party too. It was so fun for everyone; It was a lot of the kids first time but they picked it up really fast and became quick experts, Hayden did a really good job, and Shawn and I even got to push the stroller around the rink. I would totally recommend a party here. You know how I like my home made parties, but this one was fabulous, and by far the easiest!

Ethan is:

Eleven years old

loves to hang out with his friends

loves to build Lego's creations

the most creative kid I know

(for example: last week he figured out how to make a paper gun that actually shoots)

loves his baby sister and begs everyday to let her sleep with him

loves to be the one to get Libby out of her crib every morning

still cuddles with Mommy every morning

(and better still when he is 12!)

loves to read at night

loves to draw

idolized by lil' brother

loved to death by Mom

I love you, more then you can know! Happy Birthday Ethan! Thanks for being you!