Fairy Party

Gee, we're still playing catch up on here. This is from Marlee's birthday party WEEKS ago. We had a fairy party. Everything FAIRY! (I admit, I think I went a bit over board) But the girls all looked so cute dressed up, and they had a lot of fun. They got to make their own fairy wands, and had a blast pretending to change Nathan into a cat. I don't know why they chose him to be a cat, but they thought it was hilarious!!!

We played spin the bottle, and freeze dance. That was the favorite game! And then they spent a lot of time just running around. When throwing a party, remember that kids like to just run free. Last time we planned a party, every minute was planned, and by the end I felt tired trying to keep to my schedule. This time we did more of "going with the flow", and everyone had a lot of fun.
Marlee's got a cute little gang of girls to hang out with. All but one of them are in her school class. Everyday they scream and hug when they greet each other while lining up for class. It was a fun party, I think Marlee had a good time, and felt special. That's what we wanted just some Marlee time. My mom was great and took all 3 boys so it could just be her. Thanks Mom!!
This pic is from her actual birthday morning. Love the candles? We had forgotten to get candles, so Nathan improvised and used matches in her blueberry (her fav) muffins. Fun.
I can't believe my little girl is 6. I remember being 6, I don't feel like I should have a child that's an age I can vividly remember. But we love her!! She's so fun, and helpful. A very good, smart, and entertaining little girl. We're lucky to have her in our family. We love you Marlee!!

Get 'em!

This was from the day before Thanksgiving. (I know, late again.) The boys wanted to "touch the chicken".

The Surprise Party

Geez, it's about time I do a post about my birthday (after all, it's been 2 weeks now!) The day after Thanksgiving Nathan planned a SURPRISE PARTY for me. It was so much fun. Lots of friends and family were there. Thanks to everyone who came! And again, thank you Nathan for a fantastic night filled with dancing, musical chairs, and pool. Here are a few pics from the evening . . .

This is me being SURPRISED! (I'm actually pointing and saying, "Hey, that's not the Mayor". Nathan had told me we were going into the building to say hi to the Mayor. And no, he was not there.)All the adults played musical chairs. It was hilarious! The winner didn't have to speak in sacrament meeting for a year!! (A member of the bishopric was there) And wouldn't ya know, it was Celeste who won!!(She's married to the member of the bishopric - I think it was rigged!!)My grandparents came (this is my Dad's Dad) And also my Mom, Elijah and poor little Marlee. She was so sick the day before and still wasn't feeling up to partying that night. It's too bad, she would have had a blast with Abbi and Katie.

Here's Marlee and Nathan dancing. I wish I had a photo showing everyone dancing. There was a dance floor, and Nathan had strung colored lights all over the room. It was awesome! All the little kids loved it too!

Love the action shot of me blowing out my candles. I did get them all out in one blow! I have the strong lungs, Nathan does not.

And last but not least, the pool games. The night ended here. (with Sam getting hit in the head with the cue ball - it was sad, but amazing that the ball jumped the table like it did! Hope your head's all better Sam!!?)

It was a such a fun night. I'll never forget it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. What a great way to start my 30's!!

We've Been "Elfed"

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Birthday Surprise

This was one of the highlights of my SURPRISE birthday party. (More posts of the party to come) Thanks you guys for doing this video!! I LOVE IT, oh and I love you guys too!!

Thank You!!

A GIANT

to Nathan for the wonderful evening he planned for me.
It was awesome!!
And another big THANK YOU to everyone who helped and came.
It was a night I will always remember!!

More details of this fun night to come. It's late, and I'm tired.

Beauty and the Beast

My cute little sister Carlie was in Northridge High School's production of Beauty and the Beast. We brought Marlee along, and she had a really good time. Except when we made her pose for this picture.Nathan, I mean Gaston didn't have a problem posing for this pic.

Neither did her Mamma.

I think we embarrassed her.
Trust us Marlee, it's just the beginning!! (wicked laugh in background)Cute little Carlie (I know, know you're not so little anymore) was a darling spoon in this number - Be Our Guest. You can't see her - she's hiding in the middle behind the fork, and the other pics of her are terribly blurry. Sorry. But this does show the amazing set. They would flip the entire thing around, and it would be the front of the castle!! It was HUGE. This picture just doesn't show how truly big it was. Anyway, enough about the set. Carlie was beautiful and darling on the stage.

This is after the show. Marlee loved seeing the cast come out after in their costumes. Here she is with Carlie. I wish we would have had a picture of when Belle came out and talked to Marlee. Belle (Carlie's friend) remembered Marlee's name, you should have seen Marlee's reaction. Her eyes went huge and I she almost fell over when Belle walked up to her and said, "Hi Marlee, thanks for coming to the show!!"

A Few Oldies of the Oldest

Here are a few pictures of Marlee in the "early years". In this pic, she's about 11 or 12 months. I've always said that Elijah looks a lot like her. I think this picture shows it.

This one wasn't really a baby gap ad. It was a homework assignment for a friend doing photography. We had so much fun doing this photo shoot, and all the fun clothes we got to dress her up in.

I had forgotten just how much I loved her short, cruly hiar!! Especially when we were in Hawaii, and that humditiy made it super duper curly!!Her Auntie Sarah (aka Auntie Rah-Rah) and Uncle Seth took her to the zoo a few weeks after the boys were born, so she could have some special time. She still talks about it, and how scared Uncle Seth was/is of the crocodile!!

More Photos - The Helmets

I think I owe everyone 9 more photos. So, here are a few, and tomorrow I'll finish it up.

These pictures are from the spring of 2006. The boys are Elijah's age in the first photo - 9 months. And that would make Marlee the age that the boys are now - 3. Some of you don't know that Noah and Vance had to wear helmets for 3 months. Their heads were flat, and needed some correcting. It looked sad, but it really wasn't too bad. When they were newborns they loved having their heads rubbed. Van ALWAYS fell asleep when someone rubbed his head. After the helmets came off, they didn't like it anymore. That always made me a little sad. The worst part was how bad their heads would sweat with them on. And boy would they stink!! We had to wash them everyday, phew!!! Oh, and the other bad part was all the stupid things people would say. One of the dumbest was when we would get asked, "Oh, are they Siamese twins? They were connected at the head?" Believe or not, that question was asked more than once.

Here's Vance.

Now they have beautiful round heads. I think. When Noah saw this picture he said, "Hey look!! Elijah is a spaceman!!" Little did he know that it was him being a spaceman.

Birthday Wish(es)

Sorry folks, Nathan asked that I write down my wish list for my birthday, and put it somewhere where he won't loose it. The only place I could think of was here. So, in no particular order (except for the first) here ya go Nathan . . . .

This one is a little tricky. I want a necklace, but it's "between" what these two look like. For more info please contact your wife.

Time to start reading again. . . (no I did not choose this because of the dogs name!)I don't know if you've noticed, but for the last few years, I have always gotten Christmas music. I would love this one. It was one of my favorites growing up. Unfortunately I don't think this one will have the skip in the record, ". . to kids from 1 to 92, (skip) 92 (skip) 92 (skip) - many times many ways, Merry Christmas . . ."This sweater looks yummy. Yes, I said a sweater looks yummy. And of course in BLACK!! P.S. It's on sale this week.I am in terrible need of a handful of these. . .And in desperate need of this . . .I recently remembered this book and decided I must have it to read to the kids. I think the boys would enjoy the silly (warped) sense of humor. "Misses McTwitter the babysitter, I think she's a little bit crazy. . . " (well, now that I think about it, maybe I'll skip that poem till Elijah's a bit older). lolAnd if I'm dreaming real BIG, I would love one of these . . .

The Neighbor

So we have a neighbor. He's kind, and keeps to himself. Most of the time he's quite too, except for two times each year. The first is late spring/early summer. He always gives Nathan a hard time about our trees. And he always asks us when we are going to cut down our trees. He does not like them. Not at all. The other time of year he gets noisy is when the leaves fall off the trees that he does not like. Then he gets really noisy. That little leaf blower of his sure is loud! For some reason he thinks that he can blow his leaves into our yard for us to pick up. IT DRIVES ME INSANE!! So, he gets his leaf blower out, and starts blowing away. I don't mind the extra leaves so much, really, look at the pictures. We have so many leaves that another bag of them from his side really won't hurt. But, for some reason it just drives me crazy that he blows them over the fence. AHHHHH. And no, we won't confront him about it, I don't want to have the, "Cut down your trees" conversation. So, I'll just complain a little here, get over it, and start raking the leaves.

There is a little boy hidden in this picture, can you find him?Ooohh, there he is!!! Noah was having fun hiding in the leaves.

Day 21 (waaaay behind!)

So, only 9 posts left to finish my challenge of picture posts. I'm looking forward to getting it done, so we can do our annual "I am thankful for . . ." posts.
Nathan took these two photos a couple weeks ago while we were driving through Ogden Canyon. It was a beautiful afternoon!! I love fall so much, the leaves changing colors and the crispness in the air. It's perfect!

Halloweeeeeeeeen!!

Here's our Halloween post: better late than never, right?!! A week before Halloween, Sarah and Seth came over to "carve" pumpkins. We cheated/opted out of the carving part, and did potato head pieces. It was easy - the kids could do it themselves, and clean!! We liked how our monster pumpkins turned out. It sure is hard to get a decent picture of our kids together. Someone is always looking the wrong direction, or pulling a weird face.Halloween was a blast!! I was a gypsy, but kids these days don't know what that is, so they all thought I was a "girl pirate". Isn't Nathan's, costume awesome?!! He's a Mexican wrestler. Elijah did not like him with the mask on. Van's the ghost, Noah's the spider, and of course little Marlee is Snow White.We had a great night. The weather was warm and mild (for the most part). We didn't have to bundle the kids up (which was nice not to have to cover up their costumes). We started out the evening at South Weber's 'Trunk or Treat'. (our old ward) Marlee and her friend Katie thought they were so big because their dad's let them walk around the street on their own!! Look out!! They're 6 going on 13.The kids got a ton of candy, but we wanted them to do the "real thing". So we headed home and went around our neighborhood. We ended the night having to call Nathan to come and rescue us - it started pouring rain!! Of course by the time he got to us, it had stopped, but the kids were tired, so we called it a night. Isn't he the cutest elephant ever? Even if he won't smile for anyone!! Noah and Vance loved Trick or Treating!! They understood it this year. And Marlee had a blast being out with friends!! Now the candy's gone, so are the tummy aches, and now we can begin to look forward to the next few weeks full of holidays and birthdays!! Hoo-rah!!