Happy Birthday Taylor

Our little Taylor is 9 YEARS OLD!! We have had a LONG celebration of this girl’s birthday. She had a birthday party on Saturday for her cousins and friends. She wanted an American Girl Tea Party. The girls came and had little sandwiches and cupcakes and oreo balls and cheese and crackers. They ate and laughed, a lot! Their dolls had their own tea party too. Taylor loves tea parties, and we were sure to take lots of photos to share with Grandma Sharon. Then we played American Girl Bingo and made Pom Pom scarves for the dolls. It was such a mess and so much fun!

So,Taylor had a party on Saturday, then her Grandparents came for dinner on Sunday. Then on Monday we had a party for Rio an Taylor’s Birthday, and to have fun with Angela before her surgery. And finally it was her ACTUAL birthday! She was showered with gifts over the many days. Today I went and got her iPod screen fixed, so that was her final gift. I think she loved it! ♥

Easter

We started our Easter celebration Friday night for dinner and an egg hunt at Grandma Coleen & Grandpa Rick’s house. This is usually one of the highlights of the holiday. She goes all out! The kids each have their own color of eggs to find, and this year they had 22!!

Then the Easter Bunny came on Saturday and the kids were super excited about all their treat! They also each got a new outfit.

Hannah was a little later to get up. Her favorite part was the Bottle Pop sucker. She sucked and sucked, then would giggle because it was so good!

This year I honestly felt like a terrible parent. We decided not to get our kids Easter Dresses/ Sunday Outfits. To my surprise there was only one or two families at church that had new outfits! The kids were fine without them!

Sunday afternoon Casey was feeling bad that we didn’t have anything going on, and that we weren’t with family, so him and Angela planned an impromtu BBQ. After church we went to the Ballard’s for a lovely time. Love just hanging out and being together. Our visit however was cut a bit short, because CJ was having some major breathing problems. We got home and got his medicine in him, and he was alright. Tis the season for allergies and asthma!

Happy Birthday to THE MAN!

Our boy is 4 years old! He had a great birthday. I thought it would be ok to just have the combined party for all of the March birthdays, but learned that my kids are still too little for that. CJ wanted Grandma and Grandpa to come over, so we ended up having a little party with just us on Sunday night. We played TBall. He was soooo funny! He can hit, but doesn’t quite get where and when to run. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the TBall season starts in May.

CJ is predictable and consistent. he loves tractors and trucks more than anything still. He loves to be outside in the dirt and working with his Dad. He is all boy. He loves to “shake his booty” to music. He is quite a little gamer and like to play “the electronics.” We love our little man!

Here is a little video of part of our TBall game. It was chaos, and so much fun! Although I hope that he can learn to control his sports emotions!!

March Birthdays

My family is FULL of March birthdays, so Sunday night we had a Big Birthday Bash. We had Sunday dinner, and then celebrated birthdays for Hannah, Grandma Coleen, Me, Alyssa, and CJ. It was such a fun night!

(She hated the party hat!)

Green Dinner

Every year I have looked forward to having a green dinner at St. Patrick’s Day. It is a tradition that Sharon has always done. Last year, the green dinner was skipped over, and I was pretty upset. So, this year Casey & I hosted the dinner. We had a wonderful menu of:

Corned Beef

Cabbage

Ham

Green Bread

Green Jello

Green Salad

Lime Rickey Floats

Key Lime Pie

Lindsey took some great photos… (I realized that being the hostess and the photographer doesn’t really work out too well.) I was able to snap a couple of photos that I love of the two little ones.

Hannah was eating everything, and this photo was after Angela had fed her the second dessert of the night. She was chubby and full and happy!

I could not resist this adorable little man! She is so cute, and I love this hat!

The Green Dinner was a wonderful night, and it was so fun to have everyone together. I love being together and that family is so close! ^

Kaitlyn is 5!

Today was our sweet Kaitlyn's 5th Birthday! She requested a party with other people invited after attending another friend's party, so tonight was the big "Tangled" Bash. There were 10 girls invited to the party (including my girls). To kick things off they each made their own crowns with jewels. Some were very creative, and they each had a photo. Next was cake and ice cream. I was SO PROUD of my cake. I am going to be honest, I am have some bad luck when it comes to baking… especially if it is baking for a special occasion. I don't know why I am cursed to ruin the cake just about everytime I have a deadline, or something special that it is for. This cake, however, was a huge success. We also played pass the crown, like hot potato, and the princess it landed on got to do a princess dance. Most were not interested in dancing for the rest of us, but a couple brave souls showed us their best princess moves. Next came presents. Kaitlyn is so animated! I love how much she is impressed with every little thing. She got an overload of Tangled gifts, which she was giddy about, as well as an amazing book, some Squinkies, a Barbie, a Wii game, and a Lalaloopsy doll. We had the girls go outside and let balloons go into the sky, like the lanterns from the movie. Repeatedly throughout the party she said to me, "Mom this is the best (birthday) day ever!" The party was a success!