The Best Day of Madi's Life

The summer is just flying by!  I seriously can not believe how quickly the days are disappearing.  Thankfully the kids have been enjoying being home and playing together.  For the most part.  We have our moments, but they have been having fun and enjoying a low key summer.  All month long the kids were looking forward to visiting Grant and Annie (The Woodburys) at their cabin.  Their family is spending a month at a cabin in Brian Head for summer vacation and we have certainly missed them.  Madi was especially excited to see Annie after 3 weeks of having her gone.  So last Saturday we drove up and spent the day with them, it was so nice to be in the cool mountain air and let the kids just enjoy being outside, they loved it!  Here are some highlights...

Bubble Worms!
Kathryn had come up with this fun spin on blowing bubbles, the kids loved it!  Very cool!

Hanging with Heidi...Seriously, how cute are these two babes?

4 Wheeler Rides!

The kids were SO excited about this!  Definitely the highlight of Pierson's day.  Madi was a little scared at first, but she ended up having a great ride and was excited when they got to go for a second ride in the evening.  Thanks Dustin and Kathryn for sharing your fun toys with us!

Great Views!
We drove up to a couple of look out spots, we didn't stay too long since it was getting cold and starting to rain, but it was fun to see how high up we were...

I had to stop and shoot some pics in this beautiful little spot...

 Cute girls!

 My sweet boy!  He was pretty happy about mom plopping him down in the weeds for a photo op, loving those dandelions!

I know I say it every time, but I just love these blue eyes! 

And last but not least - the "party"!  

Leave it to these two girls to find something to decorate anywhere.  They decided they were going to have a party, here they are getting ready...

 Pine cone decorations, very festive!

And bubble "balloons" to add to the party mood.  They were having so much fun and Kathryn and I were getting such a kick out of listening to them play.  They are so sweet and cute together.  While preparing their little party Madi told me, "Mom, this is the best day of my life!"  I asked her, "Really?!  What about Christmas and your birthday?"  She quickly responded that those were the 2nd best days of her life, and that this was the best day of her life.  I asked her about Halloween, Valentines and Easter, and she quickly let me know that those were 3rd, 4th, etc. on her list.  THIS was the best day of her life.  I asked her why and she said,  "because I get to be at the cabin with Annie!!!"  (There was a LOT of enthusiasm in there.) So glad you had so much fun my Madi girl.

Thanks Woodburys for sharing your fun with us, we had so much fun!

Birthdays! (rather we wanted them or not!)

I like birthdays.  I am a big fan of birthdays.  I love having a special day to celebrate my kids, a day that's all about them.  I have always loved celebrating Ryan's birthday too - especially since I've been trying to make up for his 25th birthday for the past 10 years...

Side Story:  (needs to be written down before I get so old that I start forgetting the details of our dating story) Ryan and I met in the summer of 2000.  I had just finished my first year at Dixie College and was attending the college ward.  Ryan had just graduated from BYU and was getting ready for Optometry school in the fall so he was home for the summer.   We met at the college ward where I was serving on the "Activities Committee"  (which was me and two good friends planning FHE every Monday night for the whole ward) Of course I was magnifying my calling to the fullest and was constantly greeting everyone in the ward (no, it was NOT just the guys!) and asking everyone if they were planning to attend the upcoming activity.  After a few weeks of summer apparently Ryan started thinking, "wow, she is so nice, she remembered my name, she always says hi to me, she always asks if I"m coming to the activities, she must really like me."  He confessed all of this to me later of course and by then he had realized - oh wait, she's not flirting with me, she flirts with does that to every body.  Poor guy.  Anyway while he was still under the misconception that I was favoring him he decided to ask me out.  He came in to my work one day, (which I will never forget! It really was so cute!) I was a bank teller, I finished helping a customer and looked up to see him waiting.  "Ryan!"  I said.  He came up to my window and asked me for change for a $5 bill.  Then he confessed that he didn't actually have a transaction but asked me if I wanted to go out.  (Seriously, so cute!) Of course I said yes, then I went home and told my roommate/BFF, Stacy - "guess who came in to my work and asked me out?!  Ryan Robison.  Isn't that weird, I hardly know him."  Poor, poor guy, he had no idea what he was getting himself into.  Anyway, we went on our 1st date and I was TOTALLY impressed.  First of all he had asked me in advance, not just "hey you want to hang out tonight?"  like so many college guys do, he took me on a real date, which included dinner and an activity and he opened doors and was a perfect gentleman.  Stacy was on the date with me, (we ended up doubling and she was with Ryan's brother Steve) and after the date we were both wondering what could be wrong with him.  During the 1st date conversation I found out that he had just GRADUATED from BYU, and was going to Optometry school in the fall.  So obviously something must be wrong with him, there was no other explanation to why he was still single. He was so nice and fun and he even dressed well.  I was so impressed with everything about him.  He was a real man.  Not a college guy. A man.   He seemed way out of my league and since I knew he was going to be moving to Oregon soon I didn't expect anything else to happen, not even a second date.  Not to mention he was 6 years older than me.  (I was still 18, just weeks away from turning 19 and he was 24, about to turn 25).  I never thought he'd seriously be interested in me.

So the next week I was very surprised when he called and asked me for a second date.  We had had a lot of fun together and totally flirted the night away, but still, I thought there was no way he'd be interested, just looking for a few fun dates while he was home for the summer.  I had plans on the night he asked me for and so I suggested another night.  He said that would work and we set the date up.  Again I was so impressed, dinner and an activity, (Pasta Factory - magic happens there I tell ya) then we ended up just going back to his house and sitting in the living room talking.  During our conversation it dawned on my that during our 1st date conversation we had both said how old we were and when our birthdays were and his was coming up soon!  I suddenly asked him, " Oh my gosh it's your birthday this week isn't it?"  He said yes.  I was racking my brain trying to remember when he'd said it was!  " Oh my gosh was it yesterday?!"  No.  "Is it tomorrow?!"  No.  And it sunk in, that day was his birthday!  I felt terrible!  He had switched the day of the date because I asked him to and of course he didn't say anything.  I could not believe he had taken me out on his birthday and I didn't even know it!  I felt SO bad.  He insisted he didn't care and I ended up staying and having birthday cake with his family.  It was fun, but I felt so, so bad.  So, since his blissful 27th birthday,  (which was pretty awesome just because we were married!) I have always wanted to make sure his birthday was a great day for him.

This year, however, with our birthdays coming up, we both kind of thought - yikes!  Ryan turning 37 and me turning 31!  How could that be happening?!  I know my 40 year old friends and sisters in law would be rolling their eyes at me, but seriously, how did this happen?   I still feel like I'm the young new mom, how could I suddenly be in my Thirties?!  So even though I wasn't too excited about our "aging", we did manage to have fun celebrating our birthdays...

The kids really make half the fun, they love birthdays so much that even mom and dad's are exciting for them!  They are so cute and fun filled with excitement!  We had a delicious birthday breakfast planned for Ryan - Ryan and I finished up a grueling 17 day diet of no carbs and no sugar the day before his birthday so we were very excited for some good food to celebrate his day!  I know, I could not believe I actually made it 17 days with out a treat!  It was ridiculous, but I was very proud of myself!  So to start our celebratory day of indulging in carbs and sugar we enjoyed a delicious french toast bake for breakfast.  Oh my, it was delicious, everyone loved it and the kids were asking when we could have it again.  A new family favorite for sure!

We sent the birthday boy off to work with lots of hugs and kisses and geared up for lots of fun that night...

 We took the kids bowling and they had so much fun, they were a riot to watch.  Jensen even enjoyed himself and was pretty fascinated with all the balls.  Which by the way, besides Mama and Dada, his official first word is "ball"! (Just like big brother)

 After bowling we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Texas Road House and then it was home for the main event!

 We get pretty excited about birthday cake around here!  This was a brownie ice cream cake I made and it was so good!  Better than good really, it was pretty much brownie and ice cream perfection.
I also have to add, one of my favorite things about these pictures - notice Madi holding her beloved Monkey during breakfast and also cake time?  Flash back to Ryan's birthday 3 years ago, she was holding her beloved "Monk" and including him in the birthday singing.  Oh, she surely makes us laugh.

Jensen hadn't figured out the candle thing yet for his own birthday, but now he's got it down and was so exctited about Daddy's candles,  yay!  

Such a fun day celebrating the best Daddy and husband!  We are so lucky to have him. So glad you picked me Babe, I love you so much. 

Aside from being a little disturbed about turning thirty-one, my birthday was great too.  Kenny and Erin were in town and we were so excited to be able to get together with them.  JoAnn was so sweet to come stay with the kids so we could enjoy going out to dinner and catching up with Kenny and Erin.  We had a great time of course, and a little break from the kids was just what I needed, plus it made coming home to celebrate much more exciting for them.  Madi had been writing me little notes all day and I came home to many more, Pierce had joined the note writing craze and  my favorites included being taped to the garage door, where I couldn't miss it when I walked in the house, and on the phone.  

After totally depriving myself of treats (I went back on the diet after Ryan's birthday until my birthday) I was really in the mood to bake something delicious, so instead of my usual Costco birthday cake I decided to make my own.  Half way through the process I was thinking what a bad idea it was to spend so much time baking my own cake, but once we tasted it I decided it was worth it!  I made this delicious Old Fashioned Chocolate cake and it was Heavenly!  (I decided that next time I just need to bake the cake a day or two in advance and put it in the freezer - go with that if you decide you want to try this beauty.) And since this is already a self indulgent post, I'll add that thanks to the ridiculous diet, I hit my best weight that morning since before Madi was born!  Wahoo! Anyway, the cake was fantastic and the kids were so cute and excited to celebrate, it was a perfect evening.

Love my 3 silly kids.  It really was a happy birthday.  

Goodbye School - Hello Summer!

We are well into summer around here, I can't believe we're already half way through June!  Before any more time flies by, here's a look at our end of school wrap up...

Pierce had his Spring piano recital themed "Night at the Movies",  it was so fun - all the kids played songs from a movie and Kathryn served popcorn, red vines and soda.  It was so cute, casual and fun, not to mention very easy to keep the little ones happy with a red vine!  Kathryn had them do a second performance at a care center and this was a great opportunity for them.  Here's Pierce playing the theme song from "Star Wars"!  

He LOVED playing this for his recital (imagine that) and had it memorized so quickly.  He did a great job, I was very proud of him!  I am so grateful he has the opportunity to be taking lessons from Kathryn, just one of the many perks of having her at the end of the street.  Thank you Kathryn! 

Pierce received an award at the end of the year assembly for scoring a 99% on his end of level test in Language Arts.  He was so excited to get an award and was even more excited when he found out I was there watching him!  Way to go bud, we are so proud of you!  

Here he is with his great teacher, Mrs. Winger.  He has loved her this year, she has been a great teacher for him!  

And spring wouldn't be complete with out baseball...

Pierce finished up another season and had a great time!  Way to go Angels! 

My little Madi girl, isn't so little anymore...

She was excited about her big "Kindergarten Graduation" program.  

Her she is with her wonderful teacher Mrs. Barrett.  We love Mrs. Barrett and I have been grateful to have her teach both of my children, she is a gem! 

Madi was especially thrilled about her big dance recital!  She loves her recitals and is always so excited for Daddy and brother to come watch her perform on the big stage.  Here she is with her best friend Annie...

I love having them in dance together.  They danced to "Broadway Baby" and had a great time!  They were both so excited to receive flowers from their Daddies and have them come carry them off the stage (she was done smiling at me by the time we took pics with the flowers, I wont complain, I was lucky to get these great smile from her!) She had also lost her 4th tooth the night before and was thrilled about that, probably the real reason I got this great smile.  

Well that wraps up our end of the school year!  The kids were so excited for summer and honestly I was dreading it.  Looking forward to the break from homework, yes.  But looking forward to the fighting, bugging and arguing, NO.  The first two weeks I was about to lose it - constant bugging from a big brother, screaming and fits from a little sister, complaining of being "bored", always wanting to play with a friend,  you get the picture.  I was not loving it.  Not to mention it was impossible for me to get a thing done around the house! My summer to do list of cleaning and organizing was looking like a distant dream.  And them came our trip to park city for Ryan's UOA Conference AKA our  Summer trip  for the kids...

Although the first night was a total nightmare (as I suspected since Jens is a huge fan of sleeping in his crib and no where else.  I'm talking awake from 11:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.  AAHHH!) once we got through that, some magic happened and Pierce and Madi were having a grand ol' time together!  3 days of hanging out in the hotel room watching movies and going swimming was a ball for them!

Our room had a balcony with a nice hot tub so even when we were just hanging out in the room or Jens was napping, they were able to get in and have some fun...

The pool was great, it was fun for them to go swimming each day...

Jens was a good boy and didn't mind kickin' it by the pool with Mom, watching brother and sister play...

And of course I can never get enough of those blue eyes...

We were especially excited to have Aunt Kate, Bennett and Tay come join us in Park City for a day.  The kids had so much fun swimming and playing with Bennett and Tay! Jens and I did join them in the pool that afternoon, he wasn't so sure at first but once he got used to the water, he enjoyed some pool time.  Unfortunately no pics since mom was in the water with him.

Pierce, Bennett & Madi, fun in the hot tub!

The highlight of the trip and probably of their entire summer was the Alpine Slide.  Ryan and I were excited to take them, I had been once as a kid and just remembered that it seemed really big and really fast.  They were so excited to go, and it was even more fun than we anticipated - we did the Alpine Slide and also the Kids Flying Eagle zip line and the Alpine Coaster....

 Excited for fun!

Not so excited anymore!  Madi was terrified to go on the "Flying Eagle" but she did it, crying all the way.  By the end of the day she had decided it was fun.

 Madi and Dad had fun on the Alpine Slide together, and notice our little Woodland friend who popped in to be in our photo.  Pierce trying to make it go as fast as possible!

The Alpine Coaster - Which I have to say was so fun!  The kids had a ball, scary rides and all.  We were so glad we got to have that short afternoon to do something fun with Daddy.  (Ryan's schedule was so crammed he had to skip a class just for an afternoon to actually do something as a family!  Not much of a vacation for us!) The kids had so much fun, so I'm calling the trip as success, even though we were frustrated with how the conference went and it didn't give us much family time. I was especially glad that Pierce and Madi seemed to make a turn and start enjoy playing together.  How I have missed the days that they played endlessly together!  Things have been much smoother at home since we got back.  If fact for the entire first week after the trip, the kids didn't ask to play with friends once! They are doing much better at playing together, we might make it though the summer after all!

Watermelon

Who loves watermelon?!

Jensen does!  

Could there be anything cuter?  I don't think so. This baby boy melts me, I love him so.  

p.s. - for those who have wondered, I have never photoshopped or edited his eyes, those are his all natural baby blues, they are stunning.   

Jensen's 1st Birthday

My Baby Boy is a year old!  It's hard to believe he is already this big, the year has just completely flown by.  I wasn't ready for the day, but it came anyway.  The kids were so excited to celebrate his birthday and have a big party for him...   

Of course we had to start his first birthday with his first birthday muffin...

...wondering what all the fuss is about.  Ohhh, there it is!  Still a little sleepy, but he did enjoy that muffin! 

We had a very busy day that day that involved 2 trips to the school, (well 3 counting including our regular Kindergarten pick up)  Jensen was great all day and happy even with my dragging him around half the day.  Our first trip at 9:00 was for me to do my final "Reading Store", I've been in charge of our PTA's reading store this year, where the kids get prizes for their reading minutes.  The 3rd and last trip was for the end of the year awards assembly.  Pierson received an award for "Outstanding Academic Achievement" for scoring a 99% on his end of level Language Arts test!  He was so excited to get an award and I was very proud of him!  In between those events I made frosting and frosted cupcakes like crazy, then after school it was time to set up and get ready for the big party!  

We had our cousins, Grandma and a few friends over for a front yard BBQ.  (Backyard doesn't really work for us what with all the dirt and all, but thankfully our front yard has great shade in the evening) Ryan grilled and everyone enjoyed delicious food while the kids played.  The friends we invited were all of my close friends with babies,  AKA Jensen's girlfriends.  Seriously, can you believe he is the only boy out of 5 of us having babies in the same year?! 

The babies of 2011 - Jana & Kapree, Kathryn & Heidi, Julianne & Sarah, Me &  Jensen, Staci & Alli 

I love these girls so much, I am so very blessed with such wonderful close friends! I know this picture will be a treasure in 20 years.

He got lots of fun gifts and had plenty of help opening them!  

We were all excited to make Jensen a giant cupcake for his birthday and it did not disappoint!  I loved how it turned out, so fun! 

And now, what the party was really all about!  Here's our sweet, sweet boy enjoying his birthday cupcake...

As you can tell he's already got a sprinkle on his lip, he had dipped into the frosting the moment I set it in front of him! 

He thoroughly enjoyed it!  

We love our Jensen boy so much! 

Madi is 6!

My little Madi girl is 6!  I am usually a bit sad for my kids' birthdays, it's so fun and exciting for them and I love that, but it always makes me a bit sad that they are yet another year older and growing way too fast!  This birthday however, was an exception.  I have been looking forward to Madi turning 6 for months!  She has been a hard 5 year old to say the least.  Of course you all know how sweet and adorable she is, and some of you have the choice experience of seeing how not sweet she can be.  And believe me it's just as not sweet as the sweet!  She has been a real challenge for me this past year and I have been fervently hoping that being 6 will help her grow out of her tantrums and fits.  

And due to her fits and losses of privileges we kept her birthday very simple.  I tried for the last couple months to use her birthday as leverage, telling her that she'd lose her friend party if she didn't shape up.  But did that work?  oh no!  She simply replied, "well I've never had just a family party before."  What a stinker.  So the friend party was not happening this year and I"ll admit I enjoyed keeping it so simple, it was so easy!  

We started the morning with our traditional birthday muffin, my kids love this and I love that what they want is so easy, thanks to Costco!  I love her excitement here...

She was so excited to wear her "birthday girl" shirt to school, (so glad I found this gem last year and bought it a size big) and to take treats to her class.  

After school I let her spend the day with her best friend, Annie.  They had fun playing all afternoon and I  they were thrilled to go get a Happy Meal for lunch.  Pierce had a baseball game that evening and Madi did not want to do her birthday dinner with out Brother so we headed to Pizza Factory for an very early dinner at 4:30.  It was actually so nice, we practically had the place to our selves!  It has been really fun tradition to add to our family, the kids love getting their special birthday pizza.  Here she is with her #6...

She was such a good sport to endure Brother's baseball game thinking of how excited she was to get home and open her presents.  Excited and eager birthday girl...

She loved the LaLa Loopsie dolls that we got her and was so excited!  Love this face...

Since we had the conflict of the baseball game we decided to do her "cousin party" the following night (I couldn't let her go totally party-less and she was thrilled to have a simple cake and ice cream party with her cousins).  So we saved her cake for the next night and sang to her and enjoyed some of my cinnamon rolls (thanks to my freezer stash!)

She loved it!  

The next night we had all our local cousins over along with our close friends the Woodburys and the Brooks.  The kids were so funny, since we kept referring to the party as "the cousin party", they were thoroughly confused as to why I had invited "Annie's family" and "Joey's family".  Pierce asked me at one point in our conversation about it, "so Mom, Joey is  our family?!"  He loved the though of that!  I had to explain to them that even though it was a "cousin party" I was inviting them because they are our very close and special friends.  We sang to Madi, served cake and ice cream, opened gifts and then sent everyone on their way with a simple goody bag!  Honestly, I loved it!  So easy, and she was just as thrilled and excited as if I'd spent hours on a pinata, planning games and cutsie goody bags.  

Here she is with her "Lala Loopsy" cake, this was the kind of cake she wanted this year, so it worked great to give her the new Loopsies and then just use them to decorate her cake.  She loved it and it was so cute! 

It took some serious effort to blow those candles out...

But one by one she got them! 

She got plenty spoiled with fun gifts! 

My wonderful and talented friend, Julianne, made her this darling apron!  Isn't it the cutest?  I love it!  she loves it too and is so excited to help me in the kitchen so she can wear it. 

This is not a great pic but I had to include it, to show off her other cute handmade gift.  My amazing friend, Kathryn, made her this darling little crayon/notebook carrier for church.  It holds a notebook on one side and crayons on the other and is personalized with her name on the front.  She loves taking it to church!  I am so lucky to have such talented friends to make my children such wonderful and special handmade gifts!  

What a great two day celebration we had!  Madi was such a happy birthday girl and it was so fun to celebrate her, we love our Madi girl!