Gavin's Birthday Party!

Last Saturday we had a birthday party in our back yard for one of our friends Gavin! (His mom is my friend and she did the party in our back yard!) My kids loved every second of it! This is before the party started, Juliet in a tube!Max got in to take the pictures cause my back is still out!
A BOUNCE HOUSE? IN OUR BACK YARD? I thought only the rich kids got bounce houses!!! The company came and set it up before the party and it was there until around 6 pm. Plenty of time to get in all the bouncing you could handle! I found out it was 75$ for the whole day! I thought they were like 3 or 4 hundred dollars a day! That is just cool. A BOUNCE HOUSE Y'ALL! A FLIPPIN BOUNCE HOUSE IN THE BACK YARD!
Tarynn set up a bucket of bubbles! HUGE hit! Juliet went through 2 outfits and spent most her time here. (Did she not see the BOUNCE HOUSE?)

She loves bubbles!More bubbles!
They also had a bucket with Ice chunks in it and rock salt on the ice. There are cups of colored water and little syringe sucky things that you squirt onto the ice. With the salt on the ice you can see caverns of color all through out the ice! Pretty cool! (Bounce House anyone?)

Brandon was asked to do face painting! He is pretty good at it!
This is some star wars guy. I don't know the name but Kayden seemed to be happy with it!
I have no idea....
Cinderella
Juliet enjoying cake!
Max got a snake on one cheek.....
and a whale on the other! (you can ask your artist dad for anything and you choose a whale? I love this kid!)
Darby asked for a hamster (like Calvin her hamster) .....
and a cat like her cat Callie. She waited the whole party. She was the oldest so she was the last! She got bored waiting and blotted herself with some green paint! (why don't you go jump in the BOUNCE HOUSE?)
What a dang fun party! I am soooo happy that Tarynn had it here! We loved celebrating with them. She mentioned we could do it again in May for her son Kayden and Dash because their b-days are 1 day apart! That means ANOTHER BOUNCE HOUSE!!!!! YES!

Happy Happy Birthday Max B Dear!

Today is Max's 8th birthday! I can't believe that he is 8! He will be baptized on March 11th with all his family and friends there. He has been taking the missionary discussions and he amazes me all the time with his knowledge and testimony! I adore this little boy! Our traditional birthday post, everyone says something they like about Max! Mommy: " I like that Max is considerate of others! He is always thinking of ways to make others happy or feel better. I like that he is a free thinker! I like that he is creative and he is not afraid to be goofy! I LOVE that he has crushes on girls because "they are smart" or "they like to read"! He is such a great boy! "

Callie the cat: "Meow, I love that he doesn't love to play with me. Out of all the kids he leaves me alone the most! Meow!"
Juliet: "I like that Max loves loves loves me! He gets me ba ba's when I am not supposed to have them! He LOVES to play with me even when I don't want to play with him!"
Darby: "I like that he cares for other people. I like how he's so cute. I like it when he has handsome hair. I'm excited for him to get baptized. He is awesome."

Dash: "I like that he plays with me. I like that he gave me a sucker and that's it. And I love him very much, thats it."

Daddy: "I love the way he thinks. I wish I could see the world through his eyes. His imagination and humor are rare. His laughter is contagious. I love the way he's concerned for the "little guy", whether it's his baby sister or another little one that is in need, he genuinely cares. His love has no boundaries." (Why does B always say it best?)

Happy Birthday my beautiful baby boy!

Confessions of a weak bladdered woman!

#1. So today I had to go to Target for a couple things. When I was there it was SUPER smelly! That reminded me that I had to get air freshener. When I went to check out I was amazed that I had spent $20 on air freshener! So I said to the woman checking me out, "I can't believe I just spent $20 on air freshener!" finish sentence with a breath out of my nose laugh. INSERT SNOT BUBBLE!

What just happened to me? How do I cover this up? Am I a 3 year old crying with a green nose? NO! I am grown woman! Who just had a flippin snot bubble! Sick! What do you do with that? You quickly sniff and say thank you and leave as fast as you can! GROSS GROSS GROSS! (thank you random snot bubble baby for your picture to illustrate my horror!)
No other confessions needed today!

#2. Except I love tulips and Daisies!

Brandon got a haircut!

Look out Ladies.....He is MINE! B got a haircut on THursday (by the Amazing Kat!) He lost his artsy shaggy look and now has a sexy Brad Pitt/Ryan Seacrest hair cut! He went from an understaded HOT to an IN YOUR FACE HOT! I seriously love love love it! Kat colored my hair on Saturday! She came to my house (because my back is still out) Colored it and then helped me wash it in the shower cause I can't bend still! HELLO! Nothing like a little nudity between friends! :) (Maybe I shouldn't blog while medicated) At any rate both B and I have super hot hair now! Pictures of my hair to come after Saturday! (she will be back for touch up and trims and a tan.....for her)

singing at birthday party

A group of friends in our ward get together every month to celebrate the birthdays in that month. It is super cute and one day I hope to be invited into their birthday club. This particular month was special because one of their ladies was turning 90 (Liz McKartey). They asked Brandon ahead of time if he would come and sing to her. Another friend in the group used to to a Charlie Chaplin act so she was going to have Charlie show up for the evening too! It was such a fun and special night for every one involved. I sure love this group in our ward! Here is Brandon and Charlie getting ready to play Happy Birthday to all the birthday people!
Charlie is actually played by Edith Schuller. She is one of my most favorite ladies in our ward!
Charlie and B playing Happy Birthday.
Here they are serenading Liz. Brandon sang, "Longer Than" by Dan Fogleberg. It was really sweet.

She did such a seriously good job! She stayed in character all night!
B, Charlie and myself. (That shirt makes me look like a lumberjack.....it's a gonner!)
The 3 party planners. Donna is on the right of Charlie. They are room mates and I just adore the 2 of them! Seriously 2 of the sweetest, funniest ladies ever. They both were opera singers. Edith sang in Switzerland and I think Donna did too. Donna reminds me a lot of my red- headed aunts. (my great aunts......so funny)
Charlie and DiDi!
Charlie Chaplin with the birthday bear! What a fun, memorable night!

My sweet sweet boy!

Today Max had $1 for his snack time at school. He loves Fridays because they have a coffee cake thing he loves. He doesn't get it every week but B gave him money today. He was pretty excited!

Fast forward to this afternoon. My girlfriend Katie brought the boys home because I am heavily medicated due to my back injury. Max came running up to me with a small Jamba Juice from the after school booth they set up on Fridays. (I never let the kids get them because they are TINY and they are $2 each. Do the math...4 kids....NO WAY! ) Max was soooo excited because he had gotten it for me because he knew my back was sore. I looked at Katie (who was trying not to cry) and she shook her head. She had nothing to do with this. I asked Max where he got the extra $. He had given his friend Edin some Oreos and Cheetos and Edin paid him $1. Max LOVES smoothies and all sorts of frozen treats. I know that was a huge sacrifice for him. He gave up his coffee cake in the morning and his treats in his lunch then he bought me a smoothie. I love this sweet sweet boy. He is always thinking of others.

A visit from my little bro!

So we had a huge dinner with friends and the missionaries when Rye came out! I love this picture of him (hate it of me) but I had to put it in so "all the single ladies" could see how cute he is! Still not loving this one of me but I he is smiling here. When he smiles his eyes smile too. It is kind of rare to catch it though (the big grump)!
Ryeley and Miles. Miles is a family friend and one of Ryeley's best buddies.
Rye and B love each other! They always have a great time together!

Ryeley the tourist

We went to City Walk while Rye was here. When we got there he didn't want to take a picture of this giant king kong thing because he didn't want to look like a tourist. He stopped to watch a band that was playing and I went to put our name on a restaurant list. This is what I came back to. I know it is hard to see but it is him video taping and grinning from ear to ear! Nothing touristy about that! It was pretty cute though! He was taping this cool latin band that had these cool pipes and their was a little tiny girl in front (she was like 4 or 5) and she was SHAKIN it! She could latin dance with the best of them! We had a great night and who cares if you look like a tourist? It's a cool place to take a picture!

Water Play In January?

When Uncle Ryeley and the kids came down we had a warm front move in. It was in the 80's for their visit. A far cry from Utah's 30's. One of the days Juliet turned on the hose (I think under the encouragement of others) and started squirting everyone!Gracie soaked and loving every minute of it!
Curtis took over Juliet's job and became the squirter!
She knew what she had done!
Running from her brother!
I love these next two pictures of the girls. They are so cute. I love that they have so much fun together!
This one is just gorgeous. I am framing it for their rooms. I think it looks like a picture that comes in the frame when you buy it! They had such a good time and all it cost me was a load of towells! :)

Kids Dance Wii style!

Uncle Ryeley came for a visit (more posts of that to come!) One of the things that we had a blast doing was Playing the Kids Dance game! Mr. Miles and Darby are having a dance off here. It was pretty funny to see the adults play! Miles thinks he won. (He didn't) I love how hard Darby is laughing. We were all laughing that hard anytime we played! You can even see Ryeley in the back cracking up too!
Gracie is very serious here trying to get the moves! Curtis....so cute....cracking himself up!
Time to get serious! We had so much fun with the wii! We later had a bowl off! Something we will for sure do again! Tons of fun!

Piggy Banks and Chore Charts

We made banks for Family Home Evening this week. This was brought on because the Christmas day after all was said and done my kids starting making their next years Christmas list. At first I was horrified and thought they were spoiled little poops. I later realized that Christmas and Birthdays is what they are always being told to wait for . "Mom, can I get this?" "Maybe for your birthday." Of course they had to make a list. We decided that we would them implement allowance so that they could save for things they wanted and not wait for the 2 times a year to ask. I have always been against paying kids for their chores. We are part of a family and you do the work to make the house run or it doesn't run. I don't get paid to do this so you don't either. SO allowance is just allowance. Can you lose your allowance? DANG STRAIGHT YOU CAN! If you don't want to eat dinner cause it's gross, you are welcome to make a sandwich. That will be $1. If you a draining my energy by whining and now I can't make dinner and had to order pizza that will be $2. (insert evil laugh here)

The kids are very excited. They get 50 cents for every year that they are. Darby $5/week, Max 4$/ week and Dash $2.50. 10% goes to tithing, 10% mission fund and the rest goes to spending/save for what you want. They loved the idea and loved making the banks. It is fun that they are old enough to understand these concepts now. They are super excited for "pay day"!
Darby's bank. Each of the kids loved their banks. The decorations are cute but the blue tape is pretty ghetto. They will work for their purpose and we may make swankier ones when they are older. Oh wait that's called a checking and savings account! :)
Dash's bank. Someone LOVED the sticker idea!
Max's bank. The banks are made out of Sobe water bottles. (they are wide mouthed) The lids have a little letter sticker on each of them. M for mission fund (for the boys) S for spending/savings and T for tithing.
Brandon printed out chore charts with pictures (way better than mine, of course) and the kids (especially Dash) loved them. They love marking things off. (they get that from me) Dash loved his so much he wanted to sleep with it. I love that there is no questioning who set the table yesterday or who unloaded the dishwasher and that's not fair. LOOK AT THE CHARTS PEOPLE! I know some people don't like charts because kids are smart enough to know what to do. My kids are smart enough too. Mommy isn't smart enough to remember who did what yesterday and I am tired of the fighting. SO now we have chore charts. I love them. All I have to say is Look at the Chart. Look at the chart. Those are 4 beautiful words!