Pirate Party

Evan had a nice little birthday weekend. On Friday, after Ben got off work, I took him to the video store and let him pick out a movie and then we ordered pizza and had a family movie night. Yesterday, my family (parents, brother, sisters) came down to wish Evan a happy birthday and to take him out to lunch. He chose McDonald's, so off we went to eat and play at that wonderful establishment (remind me never, ever to go to McDonald's on a Saturday at lunch time... especially if said McDonalds has a play area!!!). The kids had lots of fun.

After lunch, we went to check out the fish tank at Ben's office, which everyone thought was pretty cool, and then we went home for Evan to open his presents from Grandpa and Grandma. This age is so fun for presents because they get SO excited about the present, no matter what it is. :)



Airplanes from Grandpa and Grandma:


Grandpa and Grandma also brought bunk beds for the boys, which was super exciting! Thanks guys!!

After presents, I attempted to make a birthday cake shaped like a pirate ship. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, and it ended up being a bit of a stressful ordeal, but I made it through with some help from my mom and some laughing and making fun from my husband, brother, and Dad. It wasn't the best looking pirate ship cake ever, but Evan loved it and that's what matters.





I couldn't believe how messy my kitchen was after I was done! The aftermath:




After the cake ordeal, my family left to head back home and we started to get ready for the party. Evan kept insisting he wanted a Spiderman party, even though he isn't even into Spiderman. So, I kept trying to find a different theme that he'd be excited about. He rejected several of my ideas until I offered the idea of a pirate party. He thought that would be pretty cool, so that's what we went with!

We had pirate food, complete with fish (crackers) and "cannon balls" (grapes)


We had pirate hats...

"Arrrrrggghhhhhh!!"



....pirate signs....


...and pirate gold, carried by mini pirate ships (party favors):


Evan had fun opening his presents


and blowing out the candles.


The cousins had a blast running around together (and playing with aunt Stacy!). It's pretty hard to get a good picture of 4 small children, but the "outtakes" are fun, too. :)





This one is my absolute favorite. I don't know why Evan looks like he's going to punch someone, but Asher's face is priceless!


Evan told me this morning that he had so much fun last night, so I guess the party was a success.

We were lame and forgot to wrap the presents from us in time for the party, so we gave them to him today after church. He got a "mission vehicle" (basically a big truck with lots of guns)


and a scooter.


He'll also be getting a bunch of soccer gear for this coming soccer season.

It was a great weekend full of fun! I think we're all exhausted and ready to get back to normal, though.

Or maybe that's just me. ;)

Five Years

Five years ago today, I was staring at this sweet little face and wondering what in the world I'd gotten myself into.

I was so in love with him already and I spent hours wondering what he was going to be like when he was older. It didn't take me long to find out... he was a go-getter from the very beginning! I took him back to the doctor for his 2 week checkup and when the doctor held him up, Evan stood straight up on the table. The doctor remarked "Man, look how strong he is... he is ready to GO!" Little did he know, these words would describe Evan for the next 5 years (and probably more)of his life!

My little man was crawling by 5 months and walking by 9 months...

He could climb out of his crib before he was even a year old. He put his climbing skills to good use in other ways, too.

{He's about 11 months in this picture}

He was the most curious, interested, HAPPY little guy you ever saw. It seems like he was always grinning ear to ear.

Evan has always had more than his share of energy, but he's always been a super sweet little boy, too. He loves to be a big helper, even now. He is so full of life and energy, he's hard not to love.

He's always been very good at sharing and being nice to others. He makes a fabulous big brother and loves to take care of Asher.

He's so smart, too. It amazes me every day the stuff he soaks up. He knows all his letters and is even starting to spell a little bit. He can do basic math and he knows all about how the world turns around the sun, and how the organs in the human body work. He is always telling me "My next goal is going to be to learn...." or "I'm going to keep practicing each day to learn new things."

Evan is always singing and dancing, pretending to have super powers, asking questions, and trying to figure out how things work. He loves snow, playing outside, riding his bike, family movie night, transformers, and playing with his friends and cousins. He's such a special little boy and we love him so much!!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Hello poor little neglected blog...

It's been a while since I posted, but honestly, things have not really been all that exciting around here.

Well, except for an incident where we thought someone was in our house at 4am, so we called 911, had the cops surrounding the house, and Ben standing at the top of the stairs with his gun... only to find out it was a smoke detector making some really strange sounds (and responding to our voices!). I didn't want to dedicate an entire post to it, though, because let's face it... it's a bit embarrassing to call the cops to your house over a smoke detector. It was quite a scary, adrenaline-filled night at the time, though.

I did have a lunch in Salt Lake with my Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, and uncle's new wife. That was a lot of fun... not only to catch up with everyone, but also to get out of Logan for the day! The second half of winter is always so hard for me and the kids because we're so sick of being stuck inside!

In other news, Evan is signed up for soccer and will be signed up for kindergarten in a couple weeks. I blinked and suddenly I'm going to be the stereotypical "soccer mom". Am I really old enough for that?? How did this happen??

Another bit of sad news: Ben has broken his third (fourth?) tooth in 3 years and will need yet ANOTHER root canal and crown. *sigh* He saw a dentist right before his mission who insisted that all his fillings needed to be drilled out and refilled which left him with not much tooth left on each of his molars. We probably have not seen the end of these broken teeth. :(

And I'll end with a bit of happier news... Evan is anxiously looking forward to his brithday party on Saturday! I will have tons of pictures, don't worry. :) He can't quite understand why tomorrow is his birthday, but his party is on Saturday. To him, "birthday"= "party" and he's not sure how they're different. I can't believe my little boy is going to be FIVE!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope your day is filled with love. :)

Unfortunately, our day is filled with the sickies. :( Luckily, Ben and I celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday by going on a date.

And I can't help but share some more pictures from the little Valentine photo shoot I did with my handsome boys:











One fun little Valentine's Day story:
Evan brought home a Valentine he had made at Joy School that said (according to him), "Mom and Dad, you make my heart fwub." (in reality, it said "throb".) :)

Playing cars and new hair

Evan has preschool two days a week, so while he's there, Asher and I get to hang out (on the weeks that I'm not teaching, anyway). Yesterday, we were playing with blocks and cars. I built a house out of blocks with a garage for Asher's car. When he put a police man on the roof, I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Shooting the aliens." Oh. Silly me. I didn't realize there were aliens when playing cars! :)

So, there we were, both laying on our tummies playing cars and he was so dang cute that I had to grab my camera (of course).





He quickly became more interested in the camera than the blocks and cars...


....so we had a mini photo shoot. :)








In other news... I've died my hair red again, and I love it. :)

The Inside

As of Thursday, the unpacking is all done (thank goodness!). I haven't decorated or hung anything on the walls yet, but I couldn't wait to post pics.... so here you go.

The living room:

(standing in the front entryway)


(love that big window!!)


We are hoping to get new living room furniture this week.

The dining room comes next, but I haven't taken pictures of that because we have no furniture for it! LOL

The kitchen:




As you can see, there's a little breakfast nook by the kitchen. That's where the back door goes out to the back yard and garage.

The boys' room:





The whole second floor is the master bedroom.

(standing in the stairway)




(the closets and 'office' area)


The master bathroom:




In the basement, there's a laundry room, food pantry, and a third bedroom that we won't really be using right now.

And that's it! We love it so far. Hanging things on the walls is going to be my project for this week.