Do you want to see my husband in his Birthday suit?

We figured that since D is wearing a suit 2-3 times a week now that he might need a new one. His old one he has worn since his mission. His new suit looks really nice on him. Especially when he is wearing his sunglasses. He still can make me swoon! :)

Happy Birthday Lover!

We have definately had some fun birthday stuff going on around here. Besides my two daughters, we also had my grandpa's birthday, my mom's birthday, and my husband's birthday too.

Here he is with all his girls. They were so excited to help him open his presents.

He recently got a new calling and needed some new things for church. He got a new bag to put his church things in. We had tucked fun things into the pockets....mints to keep his breath fresh, tissues, granola bars for when he has to stay at church for hours and hours, and hand sanitizer for after he shakes all those hands!

See A sitting behind him to the left with a little yellow package? She wanted to give her daddy a present, so she colored him a picture and gave him a candy bar. She is so sweet on her daddy. And her daddy is pretty sweet on her too. She was born at the same time he was going through cancer. He couldn't do much after his surgery and while he was doing chemotherapy so he spent hours and hours just holding her. They have always had a special bond because of it.

M is always asking to take pictures with my camera. She does a pretty good job too. Here is a picture she took of me. (To prove that I was actually at the party!)

Last year I was so burned out by the time my hubby's birthday rolled around that he only got a plate of cookies with a candle in the middle. I thought I would redeem myself this year and make him a fresh apple pie. It was definately worth the time it took to make it. We love pie!

Happy Birthday sweetheart. Here is to another year with the man I love!

Happy 2nd Birthday Little H!!!!

Our baby turned two this last month. Here she is trying to put up two fingers. She was so cute. You could ask her how old she was and she would say "two" and try to show you on her fingers. She never did get her fingers going the right way.

I got her this cute little outfit for her birthday. I made her hair bows to match. I love her hair like this, but it makes her look so much older....it kind of makes me sad.

She was born just before halloween. I have always called her my pumpkin. So I decided to throw her a pumpkin party. I made a pumpkin shaped cake, and homemade pumkin icecream. It was so yummy!

It is really hard to come up with gift ideas for a 4th daughter. We seem to have every possible girl toy already. She got lots of books, and a couple toys. She got a little doodler to take to church. I had ordered her a new shopping cart for her birthday, but I didn't get it ordered soon enough, so it came the week after her birthday. She didn't care that it was late. She has had lots of fun pushing it around with her baby and stuff in it.

When she started opening her presents the first thing she pulled out of the bag was some tissue paper. She said "EWWWW!" It was funny. I guess she didn't want THAT for her birthday.

Happy 9th M!!!

Our little Miss M is not so little any more. She just turned 9.... Deep sigh.....I can't believe she is getting so big. She is still my baby! (Maybe she always will be!) We had fun celebrating her birthday this year. She wanted to have a horse birthday. She loves horses, I mean r...e...a...l...l...y loves horses. She is always begging for us to get one. I have NO idea where we would keep it!!!

For a fun surprise, DH talked to a guy at his work that had horses to see if we could bring M out to ride one. She said to me the day before, "I wish that I could ride a horse." She had no idea that the next day her dream would come true. She got to ride Duchess, a really old, blind in one eye, sweet little horse. She was perfect for M to ride for the first time. All the girls got to ride her, but M definately had the most fun. I didn't have fun at all. Come to find out, I am allergic to horses. By the time we left my eyes were red and my throat was swelling. I didn't even touch the horse! That was just from standing by it. I guess we are definately not getting a horse...ever!

In keeping up with the horse theme, we made a horse cake. I don't know about that pretzel fence. Ideas are always better in my head! We got the little horses at the dollar store. They have been well loved ever since.

She got lots of fun presents too. Most of her ones from us were not a surprise this year. I did surprise her with a Checkers game. I could not possibly count the number of games of checkers that have been played at our house since her birthday.

Her big present this year was a pair of roller blades. She has been wearing mine around for months. She is really good on them too, which is pretty surprising since they are 5 sizes too big for her! We figured she should have some of her own. Now we go roller blading together. It is a fun mommy daughter bonding time.

Happy Birthday M!!!

Vacation lifesaver...

I made these for a recent vacation we took to Lake Tahoe. They were a life saver! I made one for each of my girls with their initial on it. I made the bags from some fabric my mom gave me ages ago. The white flowery fabric use to be some curtains that were in one of the houses we bought. I love using what I have to make something fun. I filled the bags with lots of goodies....coloring books, candy bracelets, travel games, toys, and other various activity items. One of the funnest things I put in the bag was a map of our country. As we were driving whenever we spotted a license plate the girls would color in the state that it was from. I made a copy for the way there and one for the way back. It was great to break up the monotony of the trip. I made the handles on the bags long enough that they could hang over the head rest of the seat in front of them. They could still reach them and get into them, but we didn't have any toys getting lost and the bags were not in the way. They worked out perfectly. I don't know why I didn't do this YEARS ago!

Trippin' to Tahoe....

We got to go to Lake Tahoe with my brother and his family the last week of September. It was so much fun. It was even worth the 20 hours of torturous driving to get there and back with all the little kids. We had so much fun. One highlight was that the kids got to go to Kid's Club everyday. It was nice to only have 1 child for a little while! They had so much fun making crafts and doing fun things there. We also played LOTS of games with my brother and sister-in-law. They have some fun games and we had lots of fun staying up late playing.

It was a little chilly, so we didn't spend too much time at the beach. The kids (D too!) had fun playing in the sand. We don't get to the beach very often, but D builds a sand castle every time we do.

One day we went for a little hike (not so little for the kids though!) We hiked down to the Vikingsholm "Castle". I wouldn't call it a castle, but it was definately a cool building. The architecture in it was amazing.

We also went to a river to see the Salmon spawning. They had a place that you could go down below the river so you could see inside and watch the fish. It was pretty neat.

We also went on an aerial tram ride up to the top of the mountain. The view from the top was amazing. We did a little hiking as well.

It was such a fun trip. Thanks for letting us come with you big bro.!

Hurry and wash your sheets...

or someone might turn them into a fort for their stuffed animals....