Explorers

Soo....what's goin on.... Trying to make small talk in hopes you don't notice I was MIA for about a month.

We've been busy! Who hasn't right?! We went to a new park (new to us) around here and LOVED it. Lots of exploring, threw some golf frisbees, had a few people give us the low down on how the course works, because..obviously..we weren't doing it right. That happened I think three times. We must've really looked confused. It was SO fun! Liam kept throwing his frisbee in the bushes, and Ammon would hunt it down. Shayla picked a lot of flowers. Aria just hung out. The rain came just in time to end the day. (this was back in June, where we had rain for most of the month I think. You would THINK that I would've gotten to see Edward, or even Jacob, as a reward for enduring all the cloudcover and rain..but no.) This park is a definite re-visit in my book.

experimenting

We made bouncy balls! They ended up resembling blubber, but we had fun throwing them and watching them bounce all over the house. And Aria got to put the drool on one or two before we could stop her. That girl's quick, or I'm getting slower.

We tried making these a few days earlier, without Borax. Apparently that is quite the important ingredient. The kids had fun even without the Borax, we called it Goo, and Ammon wants to make Goo all the time now.

you're only as old as you feel, right?!

I had another birthday, of which I'm very grateful for. Let's consider the alternative, right? So I'm 34. I say it proudly, because the kids do, to everyone. "My mom is older than your mom." Nice, right? Nothing like kids being proud of their aged mother. Really though, I love it. It was a great day, and poor Josh, with my birthday on a Saturday, and Mother's day the next day, he really had his work cut out for him. I was trying to convince him to do a birthday month, or at least a week. But he said two days in a row were enough. Luckily, he treats me so good on my unbirthdays, he got away with it.

My special chocolate mousse cake from Colleen. Josh and I kept this cake a secret from the kids...shhh....

Heading out on our fancy date to Applebee's and Ironman 2. Brave Susie and Shelley watched the kids. All of them. For free. And brought cake and presents. Sweetness huh! I love getting help to blow out candles every year. And yes, Aria did get a fistful there. That was one tasty cake. I'm drooling just thinking about it right now.The group responsible for the fun cake, I hear we could've won $10,000 from America's Funniest Videos if they had it taped. Something about Liam's knees in the middle of the cake and the repair job afterwards? At the park for a KFC lunch with the family. Aren't they so hilariously fun? It was such a fun day!! Just thinking about it now makes me smile still. And Mother's Day was great too. Josh and the kids made me a book with a poem in it and pictures of me and the kids. Family IS what life's all about. *grateful sigh*

Cinco De Mayo

For Cinco De Mayo, we went to an all out Mexican food bonanza at Colleen's
house, which was SO tasty and fun. That day I was wishing we had a pinata to
break for the day's festivities, and thought, why not? So the kids and I put
together a quick pinata from a paper grocery sack, some leftover green tissue
paper, construction paper, and tons of glue. And duct tape. Actually, the rest of my
roll of duct tape.

This is what Liam thought of the pinata hitting...not a fan.

Shayla taking aim

Ammon patiently waiting for the best hit The kids who conquered the pinata beast (with the help of Mike)

This pinata ended up being virtually indestructible, and was dubbed the Titanium Pinata. So folks, if you have an event coming up, and need a pinata that lasts through lots of kids, let me know. The only thing is, the candy ends up being pulverized in the process, but hey. The pinata is still in one piece.

Daffodil Blooms

We made a local trip to a daffodil field one afternoon, and my Asian came out and overwhelmed our camera's memory card with zillions of images, here are the cutest:

Note the multiple pictures of Aria. First, she's captive, second, she's easily bribed. The others were running around like March hares and only paused for moments of stillness.

This photo was one of about 6 attempts at getting them all together and at least looking quasi thrilled to be sitting close to each other

Shayla is ever so photogenic

The brothers...this picture is full of cuteness!

An Amazing Fact

So after what, 13 years of marriage, I'm still learning neat and interesting facts about Josh. I may have known this before, but completely forgot about it (rationalizing for my terrible memory).

We're having FHE, and it's Josh's turn to do the song, I am a Child of God. So what does he do? Leads it. In 4/4 time. Like he's supposed to. Even doing the downbeats right on time. My jaw dropped, he started laughing, and I had to coax him into doing the other two verses, just so I could watch in awe. My husband is amazing. Now I know if I can't make it to church to lead in sacrament, I can just send Josh! (the real reason he didn't want me to know!)

Happy Birthday to our Hero

Josh "enjoying" his cake?

(if you know Josh, you know he always has to make a silly face for pictures..*sigh*)

Kids and cousins celebrating Josh's birthday Chuck E. Cheese style

Amber and Shayla riding the sleigh

(I typed this up awhile back, and the site wasn't working...so here it is now)

Another year has come and gone, and Josh is now in his late 30's...ok..maybe still in his mid-thirties for one more year. wink wink...

I think he had a fun birthday (hope so anyway right?). My brother and sister Matt and Amber were here to visit, so we decided that Josh would LOVE an evening at Chuck E Cheese..ok, the kids decided that would be the funnest birthday ever, so we went there. And after all, really you are having fun if the kids are having fun! We called Anna and Peter and boys since they live closeby, and we spread out and did some damage to that old crazy pizza place!

I had a fun time making the chocolate banana cake, I just wish it would've stayed in one piece instead of acting like I placed it on the San Andreas fault line and cracked down the middle. I guess setting a heavy dish on half of one of your layers and squishing it doesn't really help the whole "nice cake" look. But after Amber went at it with about 50 toothpicks, all was well again.

We sure love you Josh, you are the best dad and husband ever, thanks for all you are and all you've helped us become together, as an eternal family.