Happy 4th Birthday Oliver

I can't believe my baby is 4 years old. I'm thinking I will forever say this with Oliver specifically.  Funny thing I saw a popular name list online somewhere this week and Oliver was in the top 10 (as well as Jackson).  I see Oliver as more of a traditional name and I don't hear lots of Oliver's when I'm out and about.  So I was surprised to see his name on the list to be honest.

Anyway, a quick letter to you, Oliver on your birthday:

We are all so lucky you came along.  You are still super naughty but that's half the fun.  For now anyway.  You are still super attached to your Daddy most of all.  Sleeping with him most nights.  You have always had a really close bond with Dad.  You're growing so quickly and I'm really going to miss those monkey hugs.  The ones where you wrap your little arms around my neck super tight and legs around my middle and just cling to me.  You finally got rid of your bottle this year.  Just like your brother Jackson, you did NOT want to let that go.  And no more diapers at bed time. You love to play video games with your brothers, Wyland specifically.  This was also the year that crazy big words started flying out of your mouth making us double take which kid was talking.  You will point to pictures of Jackson as a baby and think it is you.  Not surprising because the two of you look so much alike, minus the eye color.  Dinosaurs continue to be one of your favorite toys, but legos are gaining popularity this year.  You are so smart.  You will ask for "homework" when your brothers are sat at the table doing theirs.  You are fearless and adventurous.

Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Love,
Mom and Dad
xoxo

                                      Some cupcakes to take to school. 

                                      A few presents at home that night. 

                                      A few blurry pictures from your family birthday. 

40 and Fabulous!

What better way to begin my 40th birthday than with a race on Thanksgiving morning!  We have lucked out this Winter with some pretty amazing weather.  So I was plenty warm in a skirt. Jeramie and I drove the kids up to my parents bright and early and then rushed down to the race.  We were so worried that we were going to be late.  Instead we walked up to the starting line and basically started 5 minutes later.  So the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  This was just a training run for us and so we went out to have fun.

There was a group of reserve military folks out there running which was kind of fun.  We ran with and passed them lots of times.  At first I didn't even realize what was going on.  All of a sudden it sounded like a pack of horses were coming up on our side.  Nope, just med running in BOOTS.  No thanks .. I'll stick to my running shoe's thank you very much.

        Views with the Wasatch Mountains in the background.  It was really pretty.

My dad drove down with Jackson to walk/run the 5K.  I don't think Jackson was all that excited about it at the time, however, after he did it I think he thought it was pretty cool.  My dad said that he ran the majority of the course!  So proud of him.  Must have been all that football conditioning!

                                      That's me throwing up the 4 - 0!

       LOVE these guys! 

                                       Love this picture of Jackson finishing strong!

                                       Do not love that they chopped my dad's head off!

We did a small family celebration after Thanksgiving dinner.  Turns out that was just the beginning!  On Saturday after a pretty lazy day Jeramie and I were supposed to be going out to a evening planned by him.  As we were getting closer and closer to the time I started to wonder what was up.  Turns out I walked into a surprise party at my parents house!!  And I have basically NO pictures!  I'm so grateful for all the work that went into that party.  There were lots of my friends from work and of course my whole family as well as my extended family.  It was awesome fun!  Mum had posted all kinds of pictures of me in my 40 years, some of which I hadn't seen in many years.

I truly feel so lucky that my family worked so hard to put together a surprise  party.  They got the help of one of my best friends to let people at work know about the party and several friends from work came.  I have the best family EVER!  My only regret is that I didn't get ANY pictures!  I guess I was just too busy having fun.

Happy 17th Birthday Baylee!

Just writing that makes ME feel old.  I often forget how old Baylee is.  The whole disability thing can really throw things off.  She is becoming very very hard to shop for when it comes to birthdays and Christmas.  She loves her iPad and that's about the end of it.  Santa bought her one for Christmas last year and within months she rendered it relatively inoperable.  The newer ones are not made nearly as well as the original.  Her original was an iPad ONE.

Girlfriend LOVES her birthday though!  With an iPad that after a couple hundred dollars worth of repairs it still acted possessed we bought her a Kindle Fire to replace it.  The price was right and she was THRILLED.

I love this pictures of her!

She asked me to bake her a cake for her birthday as well.  I'd had good success with some layered cakes over the past few months so I got talked into doing a 4 layer cake by someone we won't mention (MUM!!!).  "How much harder could it be?"

All started out well....

Strawberry and Chocolate

But once I started frosting the outside .. shit fell apart.

LITERALLY

So we rushed to buy a presentable replacement on the way up to my parents.

Alas, I still served up my mess and got multiple comments that it tasted far superior to the store bought replacement.  It looked a mess but tasted delicious.

Happy Birthday baby girl!  You are a royal pain in my ass test my patience sometimes but we all love you to pieces.

Wyland's Official Birthday Post

Wyland’s Favorites:

Favorite Color:  Pink and Purple

Favorite Food:  Strawberries and watermelon

Favorite Sport:  baseball

When I grow up I want to be:  a cop or a teacher

Favorite Book:  all the princess books

Favorite Song:  Let it Go

Best Friend:  Oliver and Xavier and Maddie and Bionca, and Diego

Favorite Drink:  Cactus Cooler

Favorite Movie:  Frozen

Favorite Toy:  Elsa, Anna, Belle, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty

What does Dad like to do?  Sit around and do nothing and watch TV

What does Mom like to do?  Watch TV

Favorite thing to do with my family:  go to Disneyland

Favorite Animal:  Elephant and Giraffe

**Unless I cut him off he would just keep naming more and more favorites.

Wyland turns 6!

I can't believe that Wyland is already 6 years old.  Every year I feel like he gets cheated out of a birthday. He's the last one of a close series of summer birthdays and by the time his rolls around people are kind of tired of birthdays in our parts.  I definitely need to make more of a conscious effort next year to make a bigger deal out of his birthday.  But he didn't lack for presents though.

Wyland has a very tender heart.  And the boy likes his girl toys.  I see the stars in his eyes when he looks at something that he REALLY wants but doesn't feel like he "should" want it.  Man it's hard.  I'm am very liberal and as such I let him play with whatever he wants. I don't feel like he should have to conform to gender roles and norms.  With that being said, it's stressful to worry that he will be made fun of.  His favorite color is still purple .. but pink is a very close second.  Although with that being said, as I walked the kids  home from their first day of school I saw TWO other older boys with purple back packs.  I think Wyland has started a trend.

Anyway, we celebrated his actual birthday by heading out to Chili's with my parents for dinner and presents.

He liked what his brother got him.

He was SOOO excited for his Disney Frozen castle.

His iPad mini was a close second (I hope).

Putting the girls to bed.

Jackson's Birthday Survey

One of my favorite parts of birthday blogging is the annual survey.  It's fun to see how their answers change as they grow up.  Last years survey is here.

This boy was smiling and laughing at only 1 month old!

I forget how curly his hair was.

Even more so than Oliver's.

~ 1YR ~

Jackson's Favorites:

Favorite Color:  Green

Favorite Food:  Steak

Favorite Sport:  Tackle Football

When I grow up I want to be:  a coach or a teacher.

Favorite Book:  Batman

Favorite Song:  Flo Rida songs

Best Friend:  Kingston

Favorite Drink:  Cactus Cooler

Favorite Movie:  WWE shows

Favorite Toy:  wrestlers

What does Dad like to do?  Sit on his butt and watch TV

What does Mom like to do?  She loves marathons.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  going to Disneyland

Favorite Animal:  black panther

We chopped those curls off and they never came back.

~ 2YR ~

~ 3YR ~

Jackson's Favorites, if you asked MOM:

Favorite Color:  Red

Favorite Food:  Pizza

Favorite Sport:  Tackle Football

When I grow up I want to be:  no clue

Favorite Book:  Batman

Favorite Song:  Flo Rida songs

Best Friend:  Wyland, Owen, Jackson B.

Favorite Drink:  Gaterade

Favorite Movie:  WWE shows

Favorite Toy:  wrestlers

What does Dad like to do?  read weird stuff on the internet

What does Mom like to do?  She loves running.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  going to Disneyland

Favorite Animal:  black panther

~ 4YR ~

~ 5YR ~

~ 6YR ~

~ 7YR ~

Not the best picture I could fine, but he just looks SO grown up to me in this one.

~ 8YR ~

Another year older.  Man we struggled with second grade this year.  We had an especially bad fit with the teacher (Mrs. McAllister) and while I wish I'd moved him early in the year, alas I didn't and so we had to grin and bare it.  Jackson however continued to love school, especially the social aspect of it of course.  Jackson played his first year in a competitive baseball league.  It was a bit rough getting started but towards the end of the season he was really getting so much better and much more consistently making contact with the ball. He also played flag football.  By far this was his favorite.  He was really good at the defensive position and talked about going into "beast mode" and getting all those flags.  It was a lot of fun to watch too.  While Jackson is high energy and a bit challenged when it comes to focusing on school work, he cares about what people think of him so much.  He is kind and protective over his brothers and sister.

We love you so much buddy!