Happy Birthday Ayden!

I can't believe how fast my munchkins are growing up! We just celebrated Ayden turning 5 and here really shortly Deacon will be one. None of my pleas for time to slow down seem to be working!

I let Ayden pick out what sort of party he wanted this year, (usually I get the theme that I want) however, I gave full control to Ayden this year. He picked out a Pokemon Birthday (one that I desperately tried to convince otherwise) however, I lost and put a big happy smile on my face and did the best that I could. Just before his birthday we took an unplanned trip to Southern Utah to attend Jarron's Grandma's funeral. We will miss her dearly! His party was set for the day after we returned and I thought that I would just go to the store and pick up some Pokemon cake toppers and the cake would be great. However, no such luck in that department and I threw this cake together along with the creativity (very lacking) in just under 2 hours. I was a little disappointed in my skills but it worked cause Ayden loved it!

We have made it a tradition to sneak into their rooms while they are sleeping and decorate their beds.

And their bedroom doorway!

Ayden on his birthday morning blowing out the traditional candle on his donut.

It just so happened that Cayton's school was having a fundraiser event at Red Robin that night and so we hit two birds with one stone. We had a very fun and wonderful dinner and Ayden opened his gifts at the restaurant. The two boys couldn't have been happier with this wii game!

And to top it off a hot fudge sundae all to himself!

The last 5 years have gone so fast and Ayden keeps me on my toes. What a special kid this one is!! I love you Ayden! Happy Birthday!

Oh so LUCKY!

I sometimes take for granted these precious little beings that I have been entrusted with but oh how dearly I love them! Here is just some randomness of our lives so far in March...

Bentley got her first hair cut at 27 months. I can't believe that I waited so long.

The boys had a blast building this trap to catch a leprechaun

Unfortunately, it didn't work and the leprechaun escaped but not before leaving gold coins and lots of goodies. He also knocked over chairs and messed up the house a little and turned the milk and toilet water green.

The kiddos dressed in some of their goodies after our green pancake and egg breakfast.

And of course Deacon's 10 month picture had to be taken with green cupcakes

I'm the luckiest person this St. Patrick's Day to have these little kiddos!

Faster on the outside!

9 months on the outside of the womb goes by so much faster than on the inside. I can't believe that Deacon is already 9 months old. What's probably more surprising is that I'm not pregnant!

Here are his 9 cupcakes. It was the month of the Tiger and I was a little busy with Valentine things so my Dad made the Tiger for me. Sorry the picture doesn't do it justice. The cupcakes don't have any icing because we killed two birds with one stone this month and decorated them for Valentine's Day afterward. Jarron was very against PINK cupcakes for his picture.

Deacon has really grown up a lot this month. He got his first tooth.

and is now a crawler. He is the earliest crawler I have ever had and he already gets into EVERYTHING! My 3 very silly boys! Ayden just had to take this picture.

Deacon is 21.2 pounds and we only found that out because he had to go to the ER at 2 am just a little while ago. The poor little guy had a bacterial and yeast infection and some very red and swollen baby boy parts. To say the least he was a very sad little boy for a couple days. He has fully recovered and his usual smile is back!

Interesting!

My sweet Valentine got me a new camera for Valentine's Day. Can you say SUPER EXCITED!! I have been wanting one so so bad since mine broke. Anyway it has this crazy feature on it called facial recognition. I was so excited to start using it...don't ask me why just cause. So, I took the time to program it and take pictures of all my family and it was working great for awhile. I would take a picture of Bentley and sure enough when I was focusing on her it would say Bentley right on the screen. Well, by the time I got all of my little ones programed in I went crazy and started taking lots of pictures of all of them. It didn't take me much time at all to realize that all my children come from the EXACT SAME MOLD! All my children look incredibly different to me and I don't have a problem telling them apart but my camera does! Their faces are all so similar that if I have all of them in the photo together none of them have the right name under them. Deacon is Ayden and Ayden is Bentley. I guess technology isn't always perfect. So much for having fun with that feature in my family. However, I couldn't be more excited for my new gift...get ready for LOTS of pictures!!

Valentine Frenzy!

This Valentine's season I felt the need to show immense amounts of love to my husband and children and, to say the least, our family had an incredible time.

I made this Valentine sock banner (idea stolen from a wonderful friend whom if my husband could would ban me from her (J/K) but we do get into a good kind of trouble crafting and sharing ideas). Anyway, I made these cards:

and starting Feb. 1st you draw a card out of the socks and do what it says. They also all have a "Love scripture" that goes along with it. Some examples are: decorate cookies and deliver them to friends, heart attack a family, who can give the most hugs away?, spend the day in gratitude and say "thank you", A heart hunt (same as an Easter egg hunt but with hearts), we picked a secret Valentine, and A hershey kiss scavenger hunt, just to name a few. We had a BLAST doing all these things and really enjoyed the love that was shared within the family and outside the family.

I saw these incredibly super cute Valentine chair backers and just HAD to make them. After I got going I found them to be very time consuming and rather difficult for my stage of sewing (which is just UNDER beginner level) Good thing my Mom was there to help. I did end up making ELEVEN of them (for future children and yes we plan on that many of us) However, besides my children I haven't ever made anything so worth my time! We put these on the backs of all our chairs and we would put fun surprises in them for the 2 weeks leading up till Valentine's Day. We filled them with love notes, balloons, candy, heart champagne glasses, heart straws and anything else we could find. It was a lot of fun to open them up in the mornings and see what someone had given you. Jarron wants me to make some that can be just for "anytime" but that I'll have to think about.

I made this "Be my Valentine banner" when I was making my "happy Birthday" banner. Before this season I didn't have ANY valentine decor because I couldn't ever find any I really liked so now all my decor is hand made and that much more special.

Valentine countdown. All the kids had one of these and if I was more on top of the ball they would have candy wrapped in the tulle...14 pieces to be exact. They got to eat a candy a day till Valentine's Day. Since it is passed V Day the candy is all gone.

In case you don't get it A-Ayden B-Bentley C-Cayton D-Deacon

The Valentine Wand. I made this wand and the purpose was to do a secret kind deed or act for someone else. When you did you left the wand in it's place and then that person had to do something for someone else. To my great surprise the wand was passed around quite often!

I wish that we had pictures for everything that we did but I don't but Valentine's Day and the season will forever be changed in our home...for the better! Some really fun things we did was: started writing fun notes on the walls in the shower with crayons, hid secret love notes in funny places for others to find, went miniature bowling, decorated cookies, delivered cookies and "love buckets" ate pink mashed potatoes and rolls on V Day (thanks Gma Wallace!), made candy bar bouquets and most of all expressed love for each other in ways he never had before!

Up to date...almost

Sorry I took so long updating everything. However, even as I write this it still isn't current. We have been having a really great time celebrating Valentine's day and the days leading up to it. I have been very busy making lots of really fun crafts especially for Valentine's Day. Pictures to come soon...hopefully before March is here! :o)

8 months

What a handsome boy! January 11, 2010