Skyler's 5th Birthday Party!

Skyler had his first Birthday Party this year & he loved it!  We can't believe he's 5-years-old already... Almost ready to start school!  We started out by only inviting the four main friends in the ward that he mainly plays with, but ended up inviting most of their siblings as well (since he plays with them quite often too & then they wouldn't feel bad being left behind at home), which made for a much more exciting party!  Skyler was a little jealous that his Dad was playing with all these other kids besides him, but other than that he loved it!

Having his birthday in the heart of the summer, it was easy to decide to do a water party.  We borrowed a bunch of fun sprinkler's from my parents & a slip 'n slide from a neighbor.  The night before the party, Laron was trying desperately to come up with a way to PULL the kids down the water slide, since we didn't have a HILL for them to go down it on.  I told him that the kids would just have to run a little more to slide down it, but he woke up early the next morning & drove around from store to store looking for the perfect thing to pull the kids on down the water slide... What did he end up with?  A $40 doggie bed!  Apparently he tested it down an aisle at the store & it definitely worked the best.  When he showed up with it at home though, only MINUTES before the Birthday Party, we definitely didn't see eye-to-eye on the matter... I wanted him to take it back because it was an unnecessary frill that we didn't have in the budget & he was certain that it would be the highlight of the party!  And I have to admit that Laron was right.  The party definitely would have been a little less exciting without Skyler's Daddy pulling kid after kid down the water slide!  I guess that's what happens when DAD'S get involved in the planning!

After the kids got tired of the water slide, we started playing some water-balloon games.  After a few trial & errors, we ended up having them race across the yard with water-balloons under their chins, throwing balloons at a face on our tree, having a water-balloon fight (Laron was a GREAT target!), playing with a tarp-parachute, hitting a Water-Balloon Pinata & going Bowling for sea creatures on water bottles.  All in all, I think the kids had a great time!

And then of course we had to end with presents & ice-cream cones!  Skyler got spoiled by all his friends, but I think he felt a little subconscious opening up presents in front of everyone... I suppose it was probably worth it though! :)

It was SO cute to see them all hanging out eating ice-cream cones in the shade together... They were all tuckered out after playing hard in the sun all morning!  Thanks for coming everyone!  And "Happy Birthday" once again to our big 5-year old!  We love you Skyler!

Skyler's 5th Birthday!

Skyler woke up on his birthday to what might be becoming our birthday tradition... Mickey Mouse pancakes with candles in it (because what kid doesn't want to blow out candles TWICE on their birthday?!).

 A few hours later me & the kids headed over to Arctic Circle for an early lunch, and to of course, play on the toys :)  When we first showed up they were pretty slow & we mentioned to the lady taking our order that it was Skyler's Birthday today, so after she brought us our food, she told us that the Manager had given her permission to give him a free Ice-Cream Sundae for his Birthday!  Skyler seemed excited, but after she left he said, "What's a Sundae?"  I guess we're usually ice-cream cone people :)

Last year we kinda overdid it on Skyler's Birthday by making TOO many plans, so this year it was nice to keep things a little simpler and to just enjoy the moment.  After lunch Grandma & Papa came over & gave Skyler some presents... His favorite thing were the flip-flops, although it took him a couple days to figure out how to wear them :)

Then, after Daddy got home he opened OUR presents... His favorite things were a new backpack for his first year at school & a SCOOTER!  He's been trying to start saving up money for one (because ALL his friends have one!), but he was getting no where fast, so he was SO excited!  He just kept hugging us over & over again & saying "Thanks Mom!", "Thanks Dad!"  It's always fun to see their big reactions to things!

 I attempted to make a homemade cake this year for him, but that's certainly NOT my expertise, so he ended up with a FISH Birthday Cake.  It kind-of ended up looking like a Goldfish Cracker or something, but he liked it, so that's all that matters.  I figure it was a step up from my traditional boring cupcakes!

When we asked him a couple days beforehand what he wanted for his Birthday Dinner, he immediantly responded with, "A Barbecue in the Garden!"  Ever since last year when we dug a hole in the garden & roasted hot-dogs & marshmallows one time, he's been begging us to do it again.  So I guess his Birthday was as good a time as any to do it!  What a perfect ending to such a nice day... All of our little dear ones gathered around in the backyard around a fire together.  So Happy Birthday Buddy!  You add a boyish-charm to our family that just couldn't be replaced!

Happy Birthday to all our Grandmas!

Well, we've had a busy summer full of all of our Grandma's Birthdays... My Mom, Grandma Pace, Grandma Liz, Grandma Vicky & Nana (my Grandma).  Our lives are definitely sweeter because of you all!  Thanks for all the love & support you all always are to us!  Oh, and "Happy Birthday!"

Our 8th Anniversary!

We celebrated our Anniversary this year 2-weeks after the fact because we were at Laron's step-sister Leslie's Wedding, but we still had a good time.  Laron's mom came up to watch the kids overnight for us, so we took advantage of it!  We started out our first afternoon by watching the fountain show (with fire!) at City Creek in Salt Lake.  Then we went & got some ice-cream on our way to our hotel.  The next morning we ate a quick hotel breakfast, then went swimming, went to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple, did a little shopping to waste some time, had dinner at the Olive Garden (my favorite restaurant!), then onto a play of "The Sound of Music" at the Hale Center Theater.  I had hinted to Laron last December that I would love to go see this for our Anniversary, so he splurged & bought us tickets.  Overall it was a fabulous weekend & SO nice to do something with just the two of us for a change!  Love you Laron!

Manti Pageant

So we decided that the kids were finally old enough to appreciate going to the "Manti Pageant" this year, so we tried it out... On our way down we remembered that some of our good friends from college (Mike & Anne Scottorn) lived down in Ephraim there, so last minute we stopped by their new place to visit them.  It really was one of our main highlights of the trip!  All of our kids really had SO much fun playing together & it was fun to see the life they've made for themselves there.

Then we quickly went & set up camp at our camping spot & headed back to the Pageant just in time.  Surprisingly, ALL of the kids stayed awake for the entire thing (which got over at like 11:00!) & they were pretty excited about watching everything.  We had to explain a lot of what was going on & Skyler was a little nervous about the Lamanites, but overall it was a good teaching moment.

The next morning the kids LOVED just hiking around & exploring.  And it got SO hot SO fast that that's about all we did all morning.  A little later we decided to try out the canoe we had borrowed from my parents, but Bailey just cried the whole time because she didn't like the life-jacket, so it wasn't as long of a ride as I'd hoped for.  And then Laron got the great idea to bring a tube to tie onto the back of the canoe for a kid to ride in, which Skyler LOVED for the first few minutes, that is until he got too confident on it & started rocking it until it fell over.  He was pretty scared at first, but luckily he had a life-jacket on so all turned out well.  I think it kind-of scared Laron though, so no more kids got to ride in it after that.

 After lunch my family showed up (they were going to go to the Pageant THAT night) & so we went canoeing again with them.  This time Skyler decided that he never wanted to ride in a canoe again!  And Bailey of course was done.  So we all took turns & had fun rowing around.  One time I even tried riding in the tube on the back & was surprised at how tipsy it was (at least for ME)... But it was fun for one ride I suppose!

Here I am holding a little water snake that the kids kept following all along the water's edge.

 It was fun to have some company to break up the day & to distract us from the heat & lack of shade at the campsite.  Thanks for letting us borrow your tent trailer and canoe Mom & Dad!

And who'd want to go camping without these little munchkins?!  Without someone being excited about every little stick & rock, I just am not sure I'd even go... So thanks for bringing a little excitement to the trip guys!

Aunt Leslie's Wedding

Laron's step-sister Leslie just got married (on OUR Anniversary actually!).  It was kind-of cool to re-live our wedding day of 8 years ago by going to the same temple we got married in (Salt Lake) & reminiscing about life before kids.

My parents watched the kids for us for the day & took them to Hogle Zoo while we went to the wedding & had a nice meal at Benihana's in Salt Lake for the luncheon.  Our cook found out it was our Anniversary & even shaped the rice he was cooking into a heart for us (if you can tell from the picture above).  Kinda nice to have a free, fancy meal for our Anniversary, despite our busy day.

Then we drove up to Evanston for an AMAZING reception!  Everything looked perfect from the ceiling down to the chairs.  They had fresh fruit, a chocolate fountain, a photo booth & a candy table (my kid's favorite feature!).  One of the cutest things was watching Skyler dance with his older cousin Kenzie on the dance floor.  He was a little nervous to ask her, but he couldn't stop talking about how much fun he had dancing with Kenzie for DAYS afterward.  And it's always fun to see the kids all dressed up... So fun!  Congrats again Ben & Leslie!

Working with Daddy

Over the Summer we've been doing lots of house projects & surprisingly, the kids have LOVED it!  They've loved all the ladders to climb up & the scaffolding to goof around on.  They've loved occasionally trying to hammer a nail into a piece of wood just for fun.  Skyler often says lately, "Mom, I'm going outside to work with Daddy."  Which pretty much means that he's going to play right around where Laron is, mess up his tools & "borrow" his nails.  Who could ask for better helpers, right?!

Bailey's 1st Year!

Before Bailey was born, I saw the cute idea of taking her picture every month to document how much she had grown from month-to-month & it's been SO fun for me to go back & look at how much our little Bailey has grown!  She has turned into quite a special little girl in our home, with a spirit & an attitude all her own! So without further ado, here's how much our little Bailey has changed over her 1st year of life!

Bailey was a little grumpy on her 1st Birthday because she had some teeth coming in & had a fever that day, so unfortunately no smiles for the last picture... But what an edition Bailey has been to our lives over this past year!  We're so grateful that Heavenly Father sent her to be with our family!

Bailey's 1st Birthday!

Well, our little Bailey is growing up on us... She just turned 1!  On her birthday I tried putting her hair in pigtails for the first time & they turned out adorable!  Pigtails alone make her seem older AND cuter.

Grandma & Papa spoiled her with presents the day before her birthday.  It this stage I think she may have just enjoyed their attention more than the presents, but I sure was thankful for the new clothes & toys!  Thanks Grandma & Papa!

Her birthday was fun, but a little bit of a disappointment as well.  It took me all day to get a picture of her just half-way smiling.  I think she's teething right now & not really feeling well that day, so I was bummed for her to have a grumpy day on her big 1st Birthday.  And then I had worked SO hard to make sure all her presents were wrapped up & that her cupcakes were made & stuff, that when Laron came home not feeling very good & wanted to just have her open up presents the next day, I was pretty disappointed.  She DID at least eat her cupcake, but I had to leave like 5 minutes later for my "Young Women Music Specialist" calling that I missed most of it.  But she didn't seem too shy about eating it & seemed to definitely go for the frosting first.  But as soon as Laron started putting little pieces of ice-cream on her tray, she wasn't too interested in the cupcake anymore.  Apparently she's more of an ice-cream type gal!

 So the next morning we opened presents... The kids seemed MORE than happy to help her, but she actually did a pretty good job at ripping little pieces off of the wrapping paper.  She could tell there was something exciting about all this!  But as soon as the presents were unwrapped, one of the other kids would immediantly start playing with it.  She had to fight to get her presents back, but I think this was the funnest part of her whole birthday.  Just playing with toys in their PJ's, with no other plans for the morning.

Well, Happy Birthday Bailey!  We sure love you & love the sweet spirit that you bring to our family!