Peter is ONE!

We had the big party before Peter’s birthday, but we still had a little family fun on his actual birthday.  We have a tradition that we start celebrating first thing in the morning, and I usually put a single birthday candle in the birthday honoree’s bowl of cereal/oatmeal.  I lit the candle and turned away for half a second to get the camera (bad mom!) and the poor little guy grabbed the flame. Hence the big tears:

Things looked up from there.  He had a good day of playing, eating, napping, playing, napping again, and eating birthday dinner with the family.  Sounds like my kind of day!  He wasn’t quite over the trauma from the morning’s candle incident, as documented here:

1.  Happy and full from dinner.

2.  Oh, what is that, Dad?

3.  OK, now I remember.  Get it away!

4.  Alright, hurry up with the song before I lose it!

5.  Mmmm…chocolate.

6.  Whew, all better and happy again.

We went outside to open presents, and he was loving his new drum.

Who doesn’t love a huge pile of packing peanuts for their birthday??

And here’s one of many attempts at a sibling photo.  Peter is so loved by all of us.  Happy birthday, sweet little one!

Party Time!

The 13th of July was the Saturday between my 40th birthday (10th) and Peter’s 1st birthday (19th), so we combined a party for the both of us and threw in “housewarming” just to get all the celebrating in.  We made the hotdogs and burgers, and everyone else brought yummy stuff to go with it.  It was a perfect evening in our backyard, and afterward Matt and I were just talking about how thankful we are for such wonderful friends that are like our family.  As close as we could guess, there were around 70 friends from church and past & present neighborhoods.

Here’s the party in full swing:

Love this one:

The kids came up with an orderly line all by themselves to take turns on the rope swing.  If they weren’t doing that, they were playing in the little bouncy house some neighbors gave us, playing with bubbles, or stuffing their cute little faces with food and drinks.  I love this shot!

The rest of the photos are thanks to my photographer friend Lori.  She got some good ones.

 

The treat table had rainbow a rainbow cake for Peter and a fresh raspberry cake for me.  Yum!

Happy birthday, dear Peter….happy birthday to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here’s a collage of the birthday smash cake progression.  He wasn’t so sure at first, but after one little taste, he was all in!

Awwww…

Finally, I snapped this last one.  After a big, fun, busy party, we were saying goodbye to the last of our guests, and I turned around and found the man of hour the lone man standing.  He’s such an easy going little kid that he was really content to watch the party from his high chair.  Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

12 of 12 – July 2013

1 – My beautifully colorful flowers I got for my birthday 2 days ago.

2 – Big little man using his sippy cup and enjoying a leisurely breakfast, and probably being entertained by his brother and sister.

3 – I’m in charge of centerpieces for Girls’ Camp.  Yes, that’s right…centerpieces.  The theme is “Finding Hidden Gems” so these are plastic plant pots and Burger King cardboard crowns spray painted gold, soon to be embellished with plastic jewels.  These are for the tables at Head Shed and will be filled with candy.  It’s kind of fun now that I’m actually doing it and they’re turning out cute.  Yes, we decorate the wilderness for camp…it’s what we do.

4 – While I was spray painting and working away, Seth and Lydia were decorating our own “wilderness".”  They kept me company outside by drawing elaborate pictures and scenes on our driveway.  They’re quite the little artists!

5 – After his morning nap, Peter came out to join us.  He’s sporting his Johnny Cash onesie that says “Crawl the Line.”  Thanks, Gerilyn!

6 – This afternoon the 14-year-old neighbor kid Joseph came over for a little hangout time with Seth watching a Wild Kratts episode.  Sometimes you just need to come inside and have a little quiet break with your buddy.

7 – They’re tiny, but I managed to put a couple of braids in Lydia’s hair.  It was a fun departure from the usual hair-clip-on-the-side hairdo.

8 – After dinner, Matt brings out the “birthday bowl” for Peter.  He’s done it ever since Seth was a baby.  I don’t even remember why we call it that, since it didn’t originate on a birthday.  He fills up a bowl with warm water and carries it to the high chair to wash baby’s hands and face.  I think he carries it kind of slow so as to not spill it, and it looked like he was carrying a birthday cake, so we started singing “Happy Birthday” when it’s time to clean up.  Peter likes it (and I think Matt does too).

9 – Peter’s helping Matt fix some kind of little plastic toy that came apart or something.  Daddy’s little helper!

10 – For Family Home Evening, we played beach ball volleyball.  These kids would have stayed out past dark playing it if we had let them!

11 – After the kids were in bed, I finished binding another t-shirt quilt for one of my quilt customers.  Now it’s ready to deliver!

12 – Time for a little reading before bed.  Do I choose serious and inspiring non-fiction (“The Undaunted”), or will it be funny yet still non-fiction (“Parenting Illustrated with Crappy Pictures”).  Yawwwwn…maybe it’s just lights out.  I’ll read something tomorrow.

Special Visitor

Just after July 4th, my very dear friend and kindred spirit Jana came to visit from Utah.  The kids were excited to see her, but not as excited as their mama was!  Wanna know one of the many things that makes her so great?  She’s always up for an adventure or two, but she’s also game to come along when we have to do normal stuff like running kids to/from birthday parties, making a quick trip to the local farm to get raspberries before they’re all gone, helping make jam with said raspberries before they get too ripe, and running all manner of errands that needed to get done but I didn’t have time to do them before she got here.

We did get out and do some fun things on a perfect Pacific Northwest sunny summer day.  We’d never visited the troll under the Fremont Bridge in all the years we’ve lived here, so we drove to north Seattle to see what it was all about.  I can check that off my list…that was the first and quite possibly the last time we go there.  It’s just kinda weird and cool in a creepy way, but SOO dusty and dirty.  The kids climbed up on it and had fun, but afterward I was looking for a hose to spray them off.

What’s a nice day in Seattle without visiting this fun place? 

I was thinking it would be fun to go there more than we do, but with two kids on the loose and another in the backpack, that would be hard to manage on my own on a weekday.  Better save those trips for the weekend when the whole family’s together.  So glad Jana was there to have fun with and help wrangle easily-distracted little ones.

Her last night here we went to dinner at one of our favorite places to take guess, the Newcastle Golf Club.  We sat outside, and here’s a phone pic of Matt, confident enough in his manhood to wear my huge girlie sunglasses since he was facing right into the sun.

We were serenaded by a bagpiper (wasn’t quick enough with my phone to get a shot of that) at sunset, and after dinner we walked around the paths that wind around the golf course looking for deer and wayward golf balls.  Such a perfect night to spend with family and a lovely, lovely friend.

Love you, Jana!!

4th of July

We spent our July 4th pretty much like we spend most of them, unless we’re out of town for something special.  First thing in the morning is the annual flag raising ceremony/cinnamon roll breakfast at the church.  Then we worked in the yard for a bit before packing our picnic dinner and heading to our favorite spot to play and watch the fireworks.  Up until now, Seth has not been a fan of fireworks.  This has always puzzled us since he’s not a shy or quiet person, not even kind of.  There has only been one year that he hasn’t spent the evening of July 4th either covered up with blankets or hiding in the van, and that one year was when he was 10 months old and didn’t know better.  Well, the spell has been broken!  The neighbors were shooting off bottle rockets and screaming cannonballs all day long, which I thought would send Seth racing into the house and under his bed.  But it didn’t bother him, and he had a great time that night…which meant we all enjoyed ourselves more too.

Baby’s first July 4th:

BFFs Lydia and Miriam:

Our family on the 4th:

(I’m thinking I want a permanent lipstick tattoo for my birthday – sheesh!)

Almost time for fireworks!  Cute Emma, Miriam, Lydia and Seth passing the time playing Uno.

All ready for bed, and yes it looks like he’s wincing because there’s an obnoxious camera flashing in his face.  He really was cutely fascinated by his pink glow stick.

Surprise Road Trip!

Be warned…lots of photos coming up!

Math story problem:

Matt was going on a Boy Scout high adventure trip to Idaho for a week at the end of June.

+

My sisters were going to be in Utah that same week for their 30-year high school reunion.

+

My mom’s 70th birthday was during that same week.

+

The kids hadn’t been to Loa to visit Grandma and Grandpa for too long.

=

Surprise road trip…me, by myself, driving to Utah, with three kids.  Only logical, right?

It was actually a really smooth trip and a pleasant drive.  The last day of school was June 18th, and on the 20th, we were on our way.  We stopped to stay in Boise the first night before driving the rest of the way the next day.  We spent the night in Bountiful with my awesome aunt and uncle, and stayed up WAY too late talking to my Aunt Nonnie.  So fun to catch up with one of my favorite people!  The next day on the way out of Salt Lake, we stopped at my friend’s wildly successful gourmet cookie shop before heading to Provo.  The kids were cute little good sports while we walked around BYU campus on a HOT day.

We pulled into Loa late that afternoon, and I regret not having my camera with me.  Mom and Dad weren’t home because I later found out they were cleaning the church.  Being small town USA, their doors were unlocked and we came in and waited, and waited, and waited.  The suspense was killing me, and I was constantly keeping the kids away from the big front window so as to not spoil the surprise.  Seth got the alphabet blocks from the toy box and started building something on the kitchen table.  I saw Mom and Dad’s truck pull into the yard and told Seth to run into the living room with me for our big surprise.  I didn’t think about the blocks on the kitchen table, and when they came in the kitchen door, the conversation went something like this:

Dad:  Um, well have you started playing with blocks now?

Mom:  What??

Dad:  How did these blocks get here?

Mom:  Well, I’m sure I don’t know.  What in the world??

Me and the kids yelling from the living room:  Surprise!

Boy, that would have been a priceless photo had I thought to have my camera.  They were SO surprised and had no idea, especially since I’d parked the van at the barn across the street.  I love surprising people, and they kept saying, “I can’t believe you’re here!”  And of course, Mom kept saying how she hadn’t cleaned the house yet, but those of you who know her, have you EVER seen her house dirty?

The next day was Saturday, so we helped them with some yard work.

Terilyn and Gerilyn (with Cardon cousins) came a couple of days later to celebrate Mom’s birthday.  Here she is showing her baby book to her granddaughters.

Fun with cousins Hyatt and Hannah:

Time for birthday celebration!  I stitched this “Quilter’s Psalm” wallhanging for Mom, and I think she liked it!

Look at my pretty Mama!  Seventy years YOUNG.

 

Random snapshots of Peter with his favorite kitchen tool and his favorite time of day…bottle time with Grandpa:

That night was the great night crawler hunt.  Dad put the sprinkler on the lawn during the day so the ground would be nice and soft for those big suckers to break through to the surface.  With flashlights and plastic cups in hand and our quietest voices, we set out after sundown to find and grab enough to take fishing the next day.  I haven’t done that in a LONG time.  It’s cool and gross and fun all at the same time.  We were overzealous and caught more than the bait box could handle, so I think Dad ended up putting some back around the lawn.  Here’s Seth:  Look what we did!  Molly June the kitty:  What the???

We got up the next day and drove up to Cook Lake, the same one we fished at during our family reunion 3 years ago.  It’s so high up there that the air physically feels thinner, but it’s secluded, peaceful and so beautiful!  See what I mean?

Grandma made Lydia a homemade fishing pole out of a stick and some fishing line.  So cute!

Here’s the one and ONLY fish caught the entire day, and Dad caught it. 

It was only fitting since he spent most of the day changing bait, fixing lures, unhooking snagged lines from rocks, like this:

Peter was a champ, either hanging out in the backpack…

…and even took a good little nap out in the wilderness on the big camp quilt.

 

Grandma’s getting the little ones started early!

These pretty little blue butterflies were all over the place.

We drove to Manti a couple of days later for some swimming and the Mormon Miracle Pageant, and then it was already time to make the trek back home.  One last photo with Grandma and Grandpa before heading out.

We drove from Loa to Bountiful and spent the night again with the Sannars after a late-night trip to Nielsen’s Frozen Custard with just Aunt Nonnie, Terilyn, Gerilyn, and me.  The next day, I planned on driving to Pendleton, Oregon, spending the night there and driving the rest of the way home the next day.  We rolled into Pendleton around 5:30.  Miraculously, I was still feeling pretty energetic, kids were OK and not melting down, and it was actually only about 4 more hours to home. Soooo, I decided to go for it and drove the whole way from Bountiful to our house in one day.  I’m glad I decided to do it because we not only saved money from not staying in a hotel, but I got to sleep in my own bed a day earlier than planned, and when I woke up the next morning, I was already home!  What a great trip and awesome start to the summer!

12 of 12 – June 2013

1 – The blossoms on our tree from last month have turned into little baby apples!

2 – Day one of the 30 Day Squat Challenge is done.  I added crunches to it, so I did 50 of each this morning.

3 – How perfect is this rose?  I love having roses in my garden!  And they’re not as difficult or temperamental as I thought they would be.  What a beautiful peach color.

4 – These are definitely my favorite.  Peonies remind me of my grandma and my mom.  Plus they smell sooo good.  Too bad they don’t stick around for too long.

5 – Look who’s learning to climb the stairs.  Those arms at the top of the picture are Seth’s, encouraging Peter to keep going.  You’re almost to the top!

6 – Eventually, lunchtime grapes end up in their stomachs, but they start out as a funny joke to make their cheeks “chubby.”  I think it actually makes them look like they just got their wisdom teeth pulled.

7 – One of Peter’s many expressions.  “Are you talkin’ to me?”

8 – Play time with Dad before he goes back to work after lunch.

9 – I’m participating in a quilters’ round robin.  There are 7 of us spread out all over the country, and each of us put together the center block.  Then it gets sent to the next person and they add some kind of border.  I received this quilt with the huge green border on 2 sides and had to figure out what to do with it.  Challenge?  Yes.  Impossible?  No.  I added the smaller border of “snowball” blocks to bring back a little whimsy, hoping they resemble some kind of Christmas confection to tie in with the gingerbread man.  Time to send it on!

10 – My other sewing project has an upcoming deadline.  I’m going to Girl’s Camp this summer, and I’m the designated apron maker.  I’m almost done sewing 6 aprons for all the cooks in Head Shed.  They’re gonna be cute!

11 – Seth and Lydia got to take a bath in the big tub in the master bathroom, and Peter watched the whole time, wishing he could be in there too!

12 – I’m going visiting teaching this week, and I decided to share the first presidency message from the Ensign instead of the visiting teaching message.  This is a great message from President Uchtdorf about having and using spiritual landmarks so we can move forward instead of aimlessly walking in circles.