Treasures

I love discovering what my kids consider special.

So much for expensive train sets...a cast off PDA will do, poker chips, animal cards, a fuzzy chick, marbles, race cars...the essentials.

The kids have been begging for a pet.

Bub's sad version of a pet is almost enough to break me down.

Almost....but have I shared my view of pets?

There is no way I am taking care of anything that doesn't contribute to the family. So, maybe someday we will have chickens, a cow, a goat...possibly a big dog if I get too scared to go on walks or Darin starts going on business trips.

No cats. No fish. No hamsters. We have a zoo pass if we want to look at animals.

I will most likely eat these words someday.

Kids have ways of wearing you down.

SPARK!

Cristin and the Isa's {Lisa, Alicia, and Elisa}

Never mind the creative classes, the decorations were enough to inspire me

and the food! Holy Moly

for my sister Sarah....KIRBY!

My conversation.

Me: "My sister LOOOVES you"

K: "you don't love me?"

Me: "well, I am married"

K: "So am I and that didn't stop your sister"

Also had a Mindy Gledhill concert. I love Utah celebrities, they are so nice!

Darin is officially up for husband of the year.

Not too shabby

I love how our family picture turned out.

Brenda Hansen is pretty amazing. A picture with all those kids and you can't even tell that it was raining!

Hansen-photography.com

2.6 seconds

Happy

to screaming

in 2.6 seconds.

Thats our boy!

34

My real party starts this weekend at Spark (thanks honey!) but friends and family made the day of my birth quite enjoyable.

Lunch with the girls. I am so lucky to live by wonderful women who inspire me.
This photo is just a sampling of said women a few couldn't come, and a few had already left.
They are a HUGE blessing in my life.
They helped me celebrate by ignoring calorie content and consuming homemade oreos in my honor (thanks Stacie). Not to mention Cafe Rio lunch....mmmmmm (Jamie you are the best!)

Did you know if you sign up for Boondocks birthday club you get $25 to spend there?

It's the truth.
So, we used it to do some birthday bowling, squirt each other with water, and play arcade games. It takes just as long to pick out cheap prizes as it does to win the tickets.

We headed to Price (Grandpa's lamb fry) to find my family waiting with an ice cream cake. Even though it is just like them to do that, I was taken by surprise. Especially since my parents gave me an absolutely amazing gift a few weeks ago. If my children develop any talents, it will have a lot to do with grandparents.
Lots of fun surprises from friends and family...thanks!

It is fitting that my birthday post end with a picture of how I spent the bulk of my 33rd year.
Creating, and getting to know this guy.
I'd call this year a big ole' sucess!

A Sentimental Comic Ballet

Wikipedia described the ballet Coppelia as "sentimental" and "comic".
Miriam was a flower peddler and one of Dr. Coppelia's dolls.
She was both comic and sentimental but above all lovely.

Thanks for the flowers Grandma and Grandpa Rass! They were the icing on the cake for Miss M.

Everyone has been telling us we were going to love the teacher Miriam got for 1st grade.
I already do!
This is the note she gave to Miriam in class today

Dear Miriam,
I went to Roger's Theater to see your ballet yesterday. Thank you for inviting me! You did a wonderful job! You are a beautiful ballerina!
Your costumes were so pretty. I wasn't able to stay till the end, I had to pick up my son at the airport, but I enjoyed the part I saw so much! Keep dancing!
Love, Mrs K.

No matter what your feelings about public education, there are some amazing teachers out there. My little sister being one of them. Go get them kindergartners Sarah!

Grandpa's B-day

It was wiiiiindy. My spinach salad kept blowing off my plate!
But gale-force winds just make for more memorable birthdays.

The wind didn't stop the kids from being monkeys on the playground all evening.

It did stop all but the bravest (Josh Ali Marcus and Claire) from running through the splash pad.

The winds died down in time for some "bum ball". Erik single handedly kept all the kids entertained with the game while the rest of us talked. He's cool like that.

Let me introduce our Punk Rock Baby!

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Seriously...the very last Hurrah

Amazing seats to a Bee's game

on kids eat free night!
(Bub looks stoked by that hotdog)

Darin was a VERY hungry boy.
(we were there fairly early)

With help from the train, playground, and bounce house we had a great time!

Quote of the evening
Miriam: "Sooooo this is basketball"
Darin: "switch me seats I've got to explain this to her"

The Last HURRAH

My sisters brought their kids up for some end of summer fun.
We did it all.
We pet everything. We saw everything.
I even bought fried oreos!

Playing with Tigers!
Madison used her own money to pay for her and Miriam to fed and play with baby tigers.
BEST COUSIN EVER

The next day we went swimming!

Sarah took the older ones to meet Uncle Mark for dinner and planetarium stuff.
Here's where I get a bit gushy.
My sisters are great. (I love my brothers too but that's another post for another time) I love them and I love their kids.

THE END

The Golden Party

In 40 years I hope Darin and I are healthy, respectful, patient, in love, and still laughing

just like these two.

We celebrated my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary with one of those parties that you see featured in entertainment blogs and magazines. I wish I could say I had a lot to do with how beautifully it turned out, but I felt the less I was around for prep (with 3 darling but NEEDY little ones in tow) the better!

So picture this, you walk in to see a display of wedding photos, which leads you to a comfy living room where a tribute video is playing (made by my special someone). Of course there is love music playing softly in the background, to put you in a nastalgic mood. After watching the celebrating couple grow up, date, get married and have a family you are lead to the food table filled with real food, but includes the amazing cupcakes pictured above. There was another darling display of love notes, and kids wedding pictures to entertain while you select your food.

Then you walk out to past

the candy bar,

and the wish frames, to the white tables decorated in the couples wedding colors (did you notice all the yellow and green?) with "sweet" sayings about marriage and love and so forth.

After you eat, and talk, and eat, and talk you can take a picture in the golden frames to remember the golden occasion.

I know, I know! soooo cute.

It was lovely, and bright, and fun. A party thrown out of love to celebrate love!

Family Pictures

Our birthday gift to my Dad was to have family pictures taken.
Besides weddings, which we haven't had for 5 years, we have never had a picture taken of the whole entire family.
It was fun.Seriously, it was fun.
Bub's travel pull-up leaked so his pants were soaked in the back, there were 5 kids under the age of 4, and it RAINED on us but I STILL had fun.

This was yet another example of my immunity to mosquito bites. I didn't have one bite, but the kids had itchy welts all over their legs and faces. Soren didn't get bitten either...maybe he has my genetic protection.

We went with the Red White and Blue theme because of Dad's patriotic birthday (the pictures couldn't be scheduled until now).

I captured this darling moment of Julia's cute family. That Tatum has such a big personality!
Actually, come to think of it, we are a whole family of big personalities.
My family can drive me insane, but they are FUN and FUNNY and I love them, insanity and all.


Self Portrait with Baby Renny, the bubble blowing champ.
He already has a big personality.

Survival

We love visiting Lisa and Craig's Mountain "Dream Home".
We love it enough to face my fear of making the 5 hour drive with our three wee ones.
Darin came up with a plan to occupy the older two, and we took a chance with little Soren.

View along I-70

First of all, head phones for the in drive movie. So nice to talk un-censored for 2 hours each way.

Here is the fun part.
Darin found great travel toys and games to be brought out randomly throughout the drive.

The Find It game
The penny is the hardest to find, you can go on line and record the date of the penny in the game you purchased. Darin couldn't rest until it had been found.

Quercetti Filo Lacing set
Not only a fun travel toy, but also a great way to show loved ones how much you care.

Wooly Willy Magnetic Face

and the biggest surprise of all was a Leapster.

It was a bit splurgy for us, but all of our current family vacations are within driving distance so we spend lots of our summer in the car.
The kids were thrilled. It made their vacation start the minute we left the driveway.

Soren was a champ!
Sure, he cried for an hour each way, but he slept for the other 8 hours.
Next year might be a bit more tricky.

No on threw up.
No one messed their pants.
No one spilled food in the car.
(our bums did go numb)