Party in Salt Lake

Kaleb  always asks each year to have a cousin party.  So we did!  It was really fun.  Ryan and Erin let us have it at their house, so there was plenty of room for everyone.  Kennedy had a birthday this month too and her party was cancelled cause they were sick, so we combined the two.  DOUBLE the FUN!!!  :)

OK, these pictures all went out of whack and didn't rotate, so just bare with me on this one.

Robyn's showing everyone Ryan's funny drawing she asked him do draw for her art class.  It was her homework to get 3 different people of different ages to draw something.  Since that's what he does for a living, she thought it would be awesome/funny to have him draw something and hear the comments from people.  So great.

Present time is always fun.  He got legos, a nerf gun, a cool ctr ring and slap bracelet and money!  With the money he got from grandparents he bought a big Hobbit Lego Set.

I LOVE Kennedy's face when she saw what one of her gifts was, a Lego set.  How CUTE!

Mom and Tiff.  Tiff getting all warmed up with the snugglie.  Nice! 

Boston and Emily enjoying the small trampoline.  This was Boston's favorite place to hang out.

Kennedy and Kaleb, MAKE A WISH!!!!!

OK, these girls faces are so adorable.  Reagan and Kaiya - too CUTE!!!!!!!!

Burke made a 4 layer cake for Kaleb, he wanted a hobbit cake - ewe, I don't like that guy!!!  Or whatever he is!  The cake was too heavy and started collapsing, as you can see above.  Oops, it was still a hit though.

Ryan busy doing Robyn's homework.

Dad and Oakley were being crazy as usual.

We played games, all sorts!  OK, only two.  But they had a fun time.  This one was the corner game.  Juli put a  number in each corner, someone counted while all the kids, surprisingly quiet, chose a corner to wait in and they the counter shouted out a corner and all those little ones were OUT!

You can't see it well, but Sophie made this banner, up on the wall for Kaleb and Kennedy's b-day party.  That was so nice of her!

When I told Kaleb we needed to come up with a game, he started making up a hobbit game.  It was awesome.  They made this dice out of a box and then him and Quentin and Ryan drew pictures for each side and if it was a good thing it would tell them how many steps to go forward, if it was bad - like this Org, they would have to go back a certain amount.  Ryan drew this one - Ahh!  It was Org Attack, take 3 steps back, he even rhymed, awesome!  We put them in teams since there were so many kids. 

At one point they were all on the steps at the same time, it was so funny to see.

The boys won!

Burke was showing Katelin and Reagan some magic tricks, then they would try them.  It was adorable.  I love how Reagan is resting on Katelin's leg.  hahaha!  They were pretty impressed with those tricks.

 

Another successful party.  :)

Kaleb's Day!!!

AND he's ELEVEN!!!!!  I love how the girls decorated our wrapping paper!!!  It's SO cute!  I think this may be a new tradition.  We were out of regular wrapping and only had Christmas stuff, so we wrapped it on the wrong side and they went to town decorating it all.  So much fun.

I LOVE this pic Katelin drew of her, that she's pointing at and Kaleb with a mohawk. 

Scrunchy morning smile.

Thought he's love this shirt.  Hahahaha!

He was super excited about the new Harry Potter Lego Wii game and all of his new art supplies.  What a fun morning!

The goods...

Happy Day Kaleb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valentines DAY!!!

Here's the heart hair we did for the day.  They are so cute!  The girls wanted to wear as much pink as they had, and they were pinked out!  Kaleb at least wore his redish jacket, so THAT was good!

Kaiya was super excited to make her box this year.  We made an ipod valentines box, that was called an iLove and had different love songs on it.  Also headphones hanging from the side that had heart earbuds.  She loved it, too cute.

Katelin's class made this HUGE envelope.  She was so excited for her first v-day at school.  Lots of treats!  Yay!!!! 

Kaleb was so silly this year - oh, I forgot he wore his red shirt too!  Way to go buddy!!!!!  Haha!  I asked him if he needed to make a cool box and he said no he was just going to use the box his treats came in.  BORING!  Hahaha!  But I wasn't going to make him (me) make something.  So we didn't.  He was happy just to get candy.  I guess he's getting too old for that kind of stuff.  5th graders aren't so into that?  Hmmmm.  I think some in his class did.  Funny boy!

Close up of Kaiya's ipod box.

The next day was Kaleb's birthday and we would be driving to Salt Lake, so I decided to make his b-day dinner along with our v-day dinner.  NICE!  He's been into chicken pot pies lately, so we made these little muffin type pies.  Biscuits from a can, put into a cupcake tin stuff with mixed veggies, cooked & shredded chicken, and cheese.  They were a hit!

I decorated the table with a fun maze for the kids and a treat from us and valentines spread all over.  We had a fun, nice dinner together.

Later the jello in our fancy goblets were ready.  YUM!

I just LOVE all my Valentines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me as of late

OK, so I know this isn't a nice picture of me or anything, but I was going through pictures that I hadn't posted yet and came across this one of me.  I'm not sure who even took this, I'm guessing Katelin, she likes to take pictures of random things every once in a while.  I've been spending a lot of time in my bed lately, not feeling 100%, OK, not even 50% some days!  I've had major joint pain that hits me mostly in the late afternoon/evenings.  So I do what I can and then Burke sends me to bed.  There's been many tears and blessings and prayers.  This winter has been so cold and seems to have flared up all of my auto-immune diseases all at once.  I know it's something I can and will come through.  My favorite times spent sitting there is when the kids will come and sit with me to do homework or read or watch American Idol and Biggest Loser with me.  It's difficult being a mom from the bed though.  I'm excited to be done with this.  I've started another cleanse and am really enjoying it.  It's from the Young and Raw website.  Lots of great recipes.  Last time I did a detox it really helped, I just need to figure out how to  make it stick, maybe doing a cleanse every 6 months would be good.  I've been opening the scriptures in random spots lately to see what I might learn for the day and they seem to turn to scriptures of comfort and to look and that we might live, turned to that one two days in a row!  I know I am not alone in this.  I'm sure Jeremy is near by, I know the spirit has comforted me through blessings and many prayers from family and friends.  How cool that we know these things!!!  It will be OK.  There angels on my left and right to bear me up.  We are promised help. 

Sunday lesson

 For my lesson in laurels we made this list on the board about our Savior answering the question, "What think Ye of Christ?"  I saw this idea to do this with the girls in an activity.  One girl would stand with her back against the board and the others would write all around her awesome things about her.  Then a picture would be taken and she'd get to keep it as a reminder of how awesome she is in the eyes of others.  As I read this idea, I thought how the Savior needs to know what we think of him also.  So I put this picture on the board, had one of the YW write the question for me and then they each got a piece of chalk and started writing.  I loved reading as they continued to write. 

I thought we needed those cute YW that were there that day to be in the pic also:  Robyn, Sydney, Taylor, Jamie (and of course cute little Audri, Taffee's daughter).  I just love these girls and all those who weren't there also.  They've been an amazing influence for good in my life.  I've loved to listen to their answers in class, see them in "real" life at school and around town, give them encouragement when needed and just see them be them.  So grateful I've gotten to know them in this life.  :)

Kaiya's birthday

 Kaiya had over some friends to party with us after school.  Ashton, Belle, Liliana and Julissa.  We had cake and played games, Say Anything.  It was adorable watching them play, they are so funny.  While they played I did their nails.  We had a fun girl party.

 Our big 9 year old.

 Kaiya's actual birthday was on Saturday, I was going to be in St. George trying to get better with Tiffany and then I was going to meet them in Salt Lake.  So they slept at Omi's that night and woke up on her b-day.  I sent decorating stuff with Burke and her presents so they could have an awesome day.  Burke made cupcakes and formed them into the #9, so cute!  Kaleb and Katelin stayed up and helped decorate and make cards.

 

Kaiya LOVES office supplies.  So I bought this little bin with drawers and personalized it just for her.  The top says Kaiya's Office Supplies.  Then on the front of each drawer I cut out vinyl that said what was in each drawer, so she can keep it organized.  She loves that stuff.  She has it all now, pens, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, hole punch, post-it notes, stamps, envelopes, tape, and more.  And it's all girly and hers.  It was really fun making it for her and she gets it out often to use it.

 Burke surprised her with a girl lego set.  She loved putting it together.

 Later they met Cyndy and Cal at Planet Play where they played  all sorts of games, they even had miniature golf and miniature bowling, with tiny bowling balls.  They though it was awesome!

 Oh, here's the mini bowling, how CUTE!  Wish I could have been there!

 On Sunday they ate ant Grandma and Grandpa Simmons house.  They were impressed Burke took photos of the weekend.  I really wanted to see it all.  He did a great job!  I'm so happy they had such a great time.

 AND she even got glow in the dark balloons!!!  She and Katelin decided to sleep over at Burke's parents house that next night.  Party weekend I tell you!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet little Kaiya!