Saturday, January 20, 2018

All of the little things



Don't worry, she is just licking chocolate off of the floor.



These 2 reading scriptures with grandmas glasses:)



Lunch with my Tantrum friends!
In the middle of eating Kristi said she swore she saw her husband driving by (in the firetruck).
Sure enough it was him!
They were at a training and were eating lunch at another restaurant across the street.



Somebody hopped in the car after school super excited about loosing his front tooth!
Why kids think its cool to be toothless, I'll never know.
 Kind of like how they hate going to bed and taking baths.


I got the chuckles one morning when I couldn't find where Della went!



Casey wanted to take me on a special date to the State Fair.
It was what we did on our first date.
Can we say, AWE!
In all honesty, I was most excited about the food!


Our first pit stop!
No worries, we finished it all off.


We went on some legit death rides!
One I thought for sure I was going to get bucked off and tossed across the fair grounds.
I was holding on for dear life, I had bruises on my arms for a week!
We were laughing so hard because it was the most wild ride both of us have ever been on.
On the ground it looked pretty tame!

So we took a breather on the ferris wheel.

last pit stop was for a funnel cake topped with bavarian cream and fruit.
Yum!


Lane got to be in the Veterans Day Parade with his cub scout troop.




My mom loves all things parades, so she was more than willing to come support.


Since they were the 6th group out of 120, they ran back to the beginning and
watched the rest of it with us.




I find Lindi outside with her setup often.


When her friends join in it is quite the production!



 matching hair for the win!


I got on a Dutch Bro's kick.
If it weren't for the long lines EVERY time of the day, I would go more often!
I am in the middle of the line, just crazy!




  Lunch date at Merchant Square with my seesters.
They have the most amazing smoked egg salad.
Just about everything is delicious.

And the best part is that I got a sitter so I could really enjoy:)


My house was clean and these flowers from my lesson with the lighting made for a pretty good picture!


We took the boys Chick-fila for lunch for their birthdays.



Destruct-o baby!
Rusty was happy about his Pokémon cards getting strewn about the house.
Or more that he got to pick them all up:)


Our lemon tree was loaded.
Instead of giving them away for free like I suggested, they insisted they sell them
for 1 cent. What ever makes you happy!


She was cracking me up.
It must have been a cold morning!


She loves these sunglasses that came with Lindi's knock off American Girl doll.


After an hour of them sitting in that box,  I turned it into something more exciting!


I think they spent the majority of the day in there.
It's the simple things in life I tell ya!


Lindi and I trying to keep a cranky teething baby happy.
Not sure if it worked.


I looked over to see Rusty's socks looking pretty sad.


This was a monumental day.
It was Lanes last pack meeting and Rusty's first.
I have no idea how it coincited this way, but I'm glad it did!


Thanksgiving was at the Goodmans this year.
This little stinker had a rough day.
She kept bonking her head on things, climbing on tables, stealing other peoples food...
hence the picture of her covered in jello.

Lindi was fairly emotional as well.
In all honesty I was ready to leave 15 minutes of getting there with kids crying non stop.

But it was Thanksgiving after all so I sucked it up.



The whole shebang


 I made countless pans of pumpkin bars this Fall.


I added to my porch décor



It makes me happy:)




Eight is great!



It was a big birthday for our Rusty boy.
He turned EIGHT.
Which means he got to be baptized.

I forgot all that goes into a baptism!
I assumed he could just wear Lanes old suit.
Stephanie was going to take his pictures on Sunday before dinner.
Luckily I had him try it on real quick Saturday night and he was swimming in it.
Ugh, there was no way he could wear it, he looked ridiculous.
Luckily Collin was nice enough to loan him his for the pictures.
It fit like a glove.
So I ordered the same style and size from Target right then and there!

Getting him to smile naturally was another task.
I felt like I was living the Friends episode where Monica and Chandler were
getting their engagement pictures. Every time the photographer said "cheese"
Chandler had the deer in the headlights, super strained smile.

I was crossing my fingers we would get at least 1 decent smile out of him.
Stephanie was great to help him relax.
I think they turned out wonderful!






He was starting to tense up a bit again.
 Stephanie made the other boys come over to get him to laugh.
A bunch of farting noises did the trick real quick!

However, Collin pointing the fake gun at his moms head was the winner!









His baptism was such a different experience than Lanes.
Not saying Lanes was bad, just WAY less chaotic. 
There was only one other boy getting baptized and it was short and sweet!
Shery Christensen, who is my friend, gave the talk because she is the primary president.
Rusty got to choose who gave the prayers.
He picked both aunt Stephanie's:)
All of the cousins sang the musical number.
I loved it all!






We had everyone over for lunch afterwards.
Pulled pork sandwiches, salads, chips and soda with cookies and caramel bars for dessert.





Grammy makes all of the grandkids a quilt when they get baptized.
He opened it up and instantly wrapped it around himself proclaiming that "Grammy is the best!"

 With his baptism being 2 days after Thanksgiving, then putting together the luncheon and teaching relief society the next day, I was quite grateful to have the week behind me!



 Now, back tracking to his actual birthday!
He had a spend the night at Dallin and Randons house.
Stephanie was so nice to pick up donuts to help him celebrate.


This is horrible, but I cannot remember for the life of me what we got him for his present!!
I know it wasn't a remote control helicopter.
He wanted one, but after Lane flew his into our swimming pool the day after he got it
we threw that idea out the window.
I want to say it was Legos?? 


He picked Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Good choice, bud!



He has the nicest primary teacher, Sis Blau.
She decorated the front door and left a giant rice Krispy treat for him.
Totally made him feel so special.



And of course we can't forget about his birthday party the week before.
He was spoiled rotten this year.
Eight most definitely is GREAT!



Friday, January 19, 2018

Birthday Boys



I think I have said this before, but with 2 boys that have birthdays a week from each other,
you feel like they are twins!
It was an on year for birthday parties.
Since they basically have the same neighbor friends...which is A LOT,
I decided to do a joined party to make it easier.
Freestone rec center is where we had it.
It was a smoking deal and better than have 21 kids at our house.
Yep, you heard me right.
After cousins, school friends, and church friends it adds up!

It happened to be on Lanes birthday.
I was trying to avoid that so it didn't feel like just his party,
but it's the only day that seemed to work best.

So here he is with his birthday gifts.
A remote control helicopter.
11 years old, say what?!




We had a room reserved at the rec center.
Here they are, waiting for everyone to get there.
Jumping on anything in site... the window beams.
I don't know why kids are so bouncy!



We ate pizza first, so I didn't have to hear complaints of "I'm hungry".

After lining them up single file to get parent waivers turned in and wrist bands ( I felt like a teacher), they were free to play!

They had basketball, racquetball, volleyball, air hockey, foosball, pool, and a rock wall!
They were in pure heaven running around to their hearts content!






I guess the lady on the phone taking my cake order was confused.



What is it with boys and bunny ears?






On to presents.
Eek, I was embarrassed by how many they got.
WAY, way too many.
I was ready to scrap Christmas because there was not one thing left they needed or
deserved, to be honest!
In fact, they all wouldn't fit in our car so our friends helped drive them home:/

They were on cloud nine 





Even though our next door neighbors are older, they still play with them
like brothers and sisters.
I made them take over dodge ball.
It was LOUD!
I was out of there in a flash, lol!




A group shot.
We really lucked out in the friend department.
Each one of these kids are so sweet.