The Birthday Girl

Abby is offically 3 although I am not so sure we are past the "terrible 2's" stage. She is a beautiful, smart, happy and talented kid, but boy is she stubborn (a trait that I try to blame on her dad, but there is a possibility that she got a bit of that from both sides). She had a great birthday - her dad was here this weekend so she got to spend time with him too. He took her to see "The Princess and the Frog" - which she absolutely loved - I think she mostly just enjoyed being spoiled by her dad. He had to fly home that night and then we went up to my parents and had a "family party". Here are some of the highlights. This is Abby and her "bestest friend" Katie - we sure have enjoyed living closer to cousins. When asked what kind of cake Abby wanted for her birthday, the only request was a "pink" cake - so here is the "pink" cake with a Dora candle borrowed from Katie.
The only part of the cake that was eaten by Abby was the "pink" frosting - but it is her day, so I will let her eat what she wants.

Here are the presents - Katie helped unwrap a few.

I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures of Abby with Frank on her birthday, but I did want to post these pictures of the twins with their dad. Here is Paige with Dad

And Piper with Dad.

They both quite like the guy!

The Christmas Tree

I figured if I could post about Halloween in December, then I should be able to post about Christmas in January. Well - it has been a tradition to cut down our own Christmas Tree every year, so I decided to keep up that tradition this year. However, I did have to ask for help (I am starting to get quite good at it now:)), and my dad came with us. In the past we have spent hours tromping through the forest in search of the "perfect tree" - this year, not so long. Paige and Piper were with us - so our search was a radius a quick jog back the car to see if they were still asleep. Turns out, I only made one trip back to check on them before I see my dad and Ethan carring the tree back to the car - I think my dad cut the first one he saw. It turned out to be the "perfect tree" though - It was by far my favorite of any of our past tree's, inperfections and all. Thanks Dad for your help - I would not have even attempted it by myself.

Not real great lighting for this picture, but here is the tree decorated. Last year my grandma gave me the best present ever, she hand tatted me snowflakes for a tree, they are all different and so intricate. It was a simple tree, but like I said earlier - my favorite of all past tree's.

I had to include a picture of our house as well. When I was a girl, my favorite part of Thanksgiving was decorating for Christmas outside with my dad. Well, my parents don't put up as many lights as they used to, so when I called to ask if I could borrow some of their old rice lights, this is what happened. First, my dad told me he needed to prune the tree's first (yes, we are in a rental, but my dad tends to forget this (he also laid sod in the backyard this fall)) so he came over and spent all day up in the tree's. Then, he called my grandpa, (who is 90 next month) and together they "built me a tree" - I really wanted to do a green tree and a red tree, but the red tree was lopsided, so they took branches they cut off the green tree and tied them up to the red tree to make a great tree. So anyway, the project I thought I started, turned out that my dad ended up doing most of it (I put the lights on the red tree, Dad did the rest). It was so fun to come home at night and see my house lit up - thanks Dad and Opa!

He is 7!!!

Ethan had a birthday in December - I can't believe my little guy is 7 already. I wish I had the time to go through all of my old pictures of him and show how he has grown, but I will have to settle from pictures from the big day and maybe next year I will showcase his life (yeah, probably wishful thinking). Anyway, he had a fun day - I had a final that morning, but picked him up from school at lunch and took him out. I gave him a choice of anywhere in Cedar and guess where he chose - yup, McDonald's (because they had cool nerf toys). We had a party for him that weekend - it was a Pokemon/Bakugon party, we played BINGO and musical cards (instead of chairs, I enlarged pokemon cards for the kids to stand on). Over all - I think we all had fun.

Here is a shot of the BINGO game.

As you can see from these pictures, when you have a theme party, you tend to get that item. We are not lacking in the pokemon or bagugon toys at our house.

The cake didn't turn out as good as I wanted it too, but Ethan liked it - the boys drew the "pokemon ball" for me and I tried to copy it.

Happy Birthday Ethan! You are a special guy and we are super lucky to have you in our family!!!

One semester left...

Again - it has been forever since I last posted - and tons has happened this last month. So - my goal is to post something everyday until I am caught up. I thought by telling everyone my goal, maybe I will be better motivated to keep it. Anyway, I wanted to brag for a minute - I passed Advanced Calculus!!!! I know that I have my Heavenly Father to thank for that achievement in so many ways - there were countless days that kids took up all of my studing time. Looking back now, I can see how I was inspired as to what to study. What would have normally taken (and did take most of the rest of my class) 12+ hours to do, I was able to get done in just a couple of hours. I also need to give a huge thank you to all my family and friends who watched my kids, not only while I was in class, but also when I just needed to get in some uninterupted studing. THANK YOU!!! I now only have one class left (which I am in now) - Abstract Algebra - and I am done. (I have already started a countdown - 14 weeks to go) Well, I will go finish my homework while the girls are still asleep, but keep a lookout for new posts soon for Ethan's birthday, Christmas, Snowboarding/skiing with the boys, Abby's birthday, Piper crawling, Paige laughing, etc.