Happy Birthday, Cole!

Today is Cole's first birthday.  We had fun at his birthday yesterday.  Jess and Danny had Cole's party at the 2450 East Park near their house and it was such an gorgeous day.  It was close to 70 degrees!  It was beautiful.  Colby and Logan had fun playing on the playground before the party.  Emily's friends, Taryn and Treyton, were having their birthday party at the same time so she and Russell went to that party while  Colby, Logan and I went to Cole's party.

Here is the cute birthday boy:

 They had a monster birthday party for Cole because Jess calls him her little monster.  For a fun snack, Jess made monster cookies with eyes and all.  They were so cute and so good too.  We also decorated our cups with monster faces.

After eating hot dogs for lunch, it was present time.  As you can see from the pictures, Colby loves "helping" Cole open his presents.  In fact I think Colby opened more of Cole's presents than Cole did.  Cole seemed okay with that because he just wanted the toy inside anyway.  Logan also got in on the action of the presents.  He crawled right over and started playing with the presents too.

And we cannot forget the cake smash!  Cole dug right into that cake and started chowing down.  He grabbed handfuls and shoved them in his mouth and all over his face.  He loved it.  By the end, Cole's whole face, hands, high chair, bib, and everything was covered with purple frosting.  It was so cute!

We had a great time at the party and Emily had fun at her party too.  The weather here has been so nice lately.  It seems more like April spring weather than February weather.  I love it so I am not complaining one bit.  We planted our peas this week and also put some nice top soil on our garden area so we will be ready to plant our full garden soon.  We haven't quite decided what we want to plant this year but we have a lot of garden space to fill.  This week has also busy because we are preparing for our ward's Blue & Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts on Tuesday.  Next week will also be busy because we will have the Blue & Gold, 3 baptisms on Saturday, and also planning and preparing for Colby's birthday coming up on March 4.  After that we might be able to take a breather for a week or so but not really because it is tax season and I have so many things to do at work.  So maybe I can relax after April 15....  Huh I am tried just thinking about it... 

Well anyway, Happy First Birthday, Cole!

Happy Valentine's Day 2014

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you all got something special from the ones you love.  What a fun and busy week we have had.  We have had fun preparing for Valentine's Day this week.  

So the week started out kind of crazy at work.  My boss's dad died last week and he has been really emotional which is really strange.  So our work environment has kind of been walking on egg shells because we don't want to cause any more stress on him.  It is actually really sad and we of course feel really bad about it.  My co-workers decided we should show our support and go to the viewing. I was really glad I went and I hope Rick felt our support and concern for him.  The next day some of my co-workers attended the funeral and they said it was a really great funeral.  Stacy said that Rick was very emotional again so we hope he can keep it together and maybe staying busy with tax season will help.  On good thing that has come about this is that one of my co-workers that is not a member attended the funeral and heard the family talk about life after death and how they will see their dad again because they had been sealed in the temple.  My co-worker was very touched by this and started asking questions about the church and asked if that stuff was really true and we told her yes it is true.  So maybe that seed has been planted in her heart and we will see if it grows!

Anyway on to Valentine's Day!  So on the 13th, Emily had a Valentine party at school.  We brought cookies and the kids handed out Valentines to their classmates.  These are the Valentines we made for Emily's class:

 They say "Valentine, you make my heart "GLOW."  and we attached a little glow stick to it.  Emily said the kids loved them.  Emily had fun at her party and they even got to go out and play on the playground for a little while.  That is always fun.  

That night I went to Relief Society and had a great time just sitting and chatting with the ladies.  We tied a quilt for the DI, and made Valentine crafts for ourselves.  We also brought different recipes and dishes of things we make using our food storage.  There were some really good food and anything from pancakes to taco soup to homemade yogurt and even lemonade from self bottled lemon juice.  Everything was really good.

Apparently, while I was gone, Russell took the kids shopping for Valentine gifts for me because when I got to work on the 14th, my co-worker, Lori, asked me if I loved my flowers.  She had seen Russell and the kids at Lin's the night before buying flowers.  Well I leave for work before anyone wakes up at my house so I didn't know what she was talking about.  She felt so bad for ruining my surprise so she told me to forget she said anything.  We had a good laugh over that.  When I got home from work sure enough there were some very beautiful flowers and Valentines from Russell and the kids:

 Aren't they pretty!  I love them.  I am so blessed to had such a great family. 

While Russell was at school, the kids and I found his car in the college parking lot and heart attacked it:

Unfortunately, I lost track of time and we got caught!  Just as we were putting the last of the hearts on his car, Russell came walking up and caught us!  He was all smiles and Colby and Emily were so excited to show him what we had done.   Also we got him some balloons and chocolate covered strawberries and they had started to melt.   So I guess it was not all bad getting caught; the kids got to show off and we took the strawberries home before they got too warm.  He loved it.

That night Russell made us a really yummy dinner of bacon wrapped chicken, sweet potatoes, and asparagus and Sparkling Cider.  He even did the dishes!  I love this man!  We had a great Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Crafts

This week we have been having fun making Valentine's Day crafts.  I seem to always forget to do fun Valentine crafts until the day or two before the holiday so we either don't do them or don't have them long enough to enjoy.  This year I wanted to change that so we made our crafts a week before Valentine's Day.  The kids had so much fun.

 While I made the XOXO banner, Emily and Colby worked on heart mosaics made of fun foam.  Logan also had fun scribbling on colored paper.  I was really surprised how well Colby did with this craft.  To make the craft, you had to follow the specific number and color to put the right foam piece in the right place.  I knew Emily would follow the directions but I thought Colby would just put the foam pieces wherever he wanted.  Instead he surprised me and followed the directions perfectly.  He was very focused and had fun finishing his project.  I didn't even need to help him except to take the paper backing off of the sticky foam pieces.

    

 Here are our finished projects.  With the left over foam pieces, Colby and Emily made their own little designs on the back of their mosaic.  

 We also made Valentine's for our friends and family

I took this picture of Emily this week too:

We have been babysitting a baby for my co-worker for the past month.  Emily wanted to hold the baby and while she was holding him she read him her book, "Baby Dear."  I gave her this book when we brought Colby home from the hospital.  It was so cute I had to take a picture.  The baby fell asleep as she was reading.  She is the baby whisperer!

Happy Birthday Logan!

Happy First Birthday, Logan!!  Look how much you have grown:

You have gone from this little baby:

7 Pounds 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

To this little man:

22 pounds 7 ounces and 27.5 inches tall.  What a big boy you are!

We had a really fun birthday for Logan on Saturday.  But first, here are a few more cute birthday pictures of the birthday boy:

Isn't he the cutest baby ever!  I cannot believe a year has gone by so quickly and Logan is growing up too fast.  My baby is not a baby any more..... *sniff sniff*

Well we started off the birthday by having the birthday boy open one present:

Yeah! New birthday clothes!  Logan wasn't too excited, he just wanted to get a bath and get dressed so he could be rocked to sleep for his morning nap.  After nap, it was party time!  We invited grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to come celebrate with us. 

We all had fun outside in the nice St. George weather.  Here are the cute display tables.  For Logan's birthday, we did a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" party based on the Eric Carle book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"  My kids love that book and can quote it word for word.  The decorations and food were really easy to make too.

The big brown teddy bear cake turned out really cute I think.  I actually bought this cake pan back when Emily turned one but decided not to use it for her birthday.  Now 5 years later the pan is finally getting used.  This was one of the easiest cakes to decorate.  I also made Logan his own little round cake to eat himself.  As you will see soon, he loved it.  I also made cupcakes and decorated them with the different colors of the animals in the "Brown Bear" book.  The made cupcake toppers of each of the animals to put on top.  Finally, for snacks, we had snacks of all of different colors also representing the animals in the book. 

I also made a couple of banners and table centerpieces for decorations outside:

First, the flag banner is of all of the animals in the book and the table centerpieces are also of the animals in the book.  The second banner is a "Watch Me Grow" banner.  In it are various pictures of Logan taken through out the year.  I can't believe how much he has grown and changed.  I am going to hang this in his room later which is why I used car cut outs instead of following the Brown Bear theme.  I love how all of the food and decorations turned out.

Anyway back to the party.  Once everyone had arrived, we played a few games about the Brown Bear book.  We had to name all of the colors of the animals, did dot-to-dot puzzles, and mazes.  All of the adults who had never read or heard of the book, were so confused.  They kept asking, "Why it is a blue horse?" or "Since when is there a purple cat?"  It was so funny so we had Emily read the book to everyone and then they understood.

After the games, it was present time!

Logan got so many fun toys to play with.  He was so excited to open his presents.  His brother and sister were excited for him too.  They kept wanting to help Logan open his gifts.  Sometimes it was okay but other times it would make Logan mad.  Toward the end, Logan started getting really frustrated.  No sooner would he get one present open, his brother or sister would snatch it out of his hands and put another unopened present in its place.  Logan would never even get to look at the present long enough to play with it before it would get taken away.  Finally Logan was fed up and would just drop the present on the ground without opening it.  After that, we let Emily and Colby open the last couple presents.  

These two pictures are things that I made Logan for his birthday.  First I decorated wooden letters for his name to hang in his room.  Second, I sewed up these four little fabric books for him to read.  The kids have had fun reading these little books.  I also made Logan a hooded towel for bath time, so now he has his own towel.

Look at all those gifts!  He sure got a lot.

Next it was time for cake!

Logan loved the fact that he got his own cake and didn't have to share.  He sat and ate it quietly for the rest of the party.  At first, he just used one finger to lick off the frosting and pick at the cake but then he dug in with his whole hand.

As you can see he had a good time eating his cake and he devoured the whole thing!!  Grandpa Farnsworth had fun painting Logan's face with the chocolate frosting.  Logan loved every minute of it.  We dished up the Bear cake and the cupcakes along with ice cream to all of the guests.  We spent the rest of the time visiting with family and watching Logan eat his cake.  It was just a nice relaxed birthday party perfect for a one year old.  

After everyone had gone home, we got everything cleaned up.  We threw Logan in the bathtub because he was covered from head to toe in cake and frosting.  Emily, Colby and Logan spent the rest of the day playing with all of Logan's new toys.  The toys are still all over the house.  But then what else is new, we always have toys all over the house!

Logan is such a cute little boy and smiles at everything.  He has the cutest smile too.  If I am upset or stressed, it all melts away when Logan smiles at me.  He is definitely going to be a ladies man.  Logan is still not walking yet but he cruises around the furniture and walls like nobodies business.  In fact I think that is his preferred mode of travel but he will not walk on his own.  I think he is afraid of falling so he will not let go of anything.  He is getting closer though.  He is still a mama's boy and will only let me hold him.  He refuses to go to a babysitter and clings to me when I pick him up after leaving him with one.  He is a little stinker!  I love this little boy and don't know what I would do without him.  I love all three of these yahoos.  They are my reason for getting up in the morning and living life.  If only I was a better mom to them some days...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOGAN!!!!!!

C-O-L-B-Y spells Corbin

Happy birthday to Logan yesterday!  And happy birthday to my mom and Great Grandpa Maxwell today!!  February has already started out fun.  I am still working on editing all of the pictures of Logan's birthday so that post will come later this week.  Meantime though, I want to keep my resolution to post something so here I am.  

I want to remember this funny moment in Colby's life so I am writing it down.  Colby and Emily love the Hughes family.  Whenever they play pretend, their names are Tyrel and Taylor.  Tyrel has a friend named Corbin and Colby and Emily met him the other day.  Since then, Colby has told everyone that his name is Corbin.  The only reason I can see is because Corbin is Tyrel's friend and Colby is Tyrel's friend so his name needs to be Corbin.  Now this is not just some funny thing Colby says, he is very serious when he says his name is Corbin.  He told me he was going to change his name to Corbin not Colby because he chooses it.  The funny thing is, he minds better when I call him Corbin instead of Colby.  Everyday I ask him if his name is Colby today and he always says "No it is Corbin."  Even if I tell him I like Colby better he still wants to be called Corbin.  

We taught Colby to spell his name  few months go so now anytime he sees letters, he tells me "Look it is my name, C-O-L-B-Y."  So now when I ask him to spell his name, he says "C-O-L-B-Y" and when I say "Spells Colby," he says "no it spells Corbin"  He is so funny.  He has told everyone including all of his grandparents and our family members that his name is Corbin.  Every time they see him they ask him if he is Colby or Corbin now.  I told him I want my Colby back but he still wants to be called Corbin.  What am I to do except laugh?