birthday extravaganza ~

saturday was the big day. we had family in from out of town and a few friends and we had a party!!
i think that the kids had a fun time. we had originally planned on having it at the park, but due to a menopausal mother nature as my friend put it, we caught cold flash instead of a hot and had to move the party inside. ( a really cold day i might add, some people got snow!!)
i think it still went pretty well. thanks to a friend letting us borrow this....
this blow up play station thing was a hit. they bounced and played for hours.of course we had a pinata..and the fun really began..(cullan taking a whack at it)(then kael )(even little jaren got a few whacks in..)finally after a few times through the line, aunt sara decided to give it a try and help everyone out.it worked!! candy for all.
then it was time for cake.spider man of course.
i just love kaels face in this picture.blowing out the candles!briea was so good through the whole party. she just scooted around, checking things out.on to opening presents. they were so excited and got some great toys!hugs for great friends...
thanks so much to everyone who traveled from far away and close by to spend the day with us.
we really appreciated it and the boys had a great time.

invite~

here is the birthday invite i made for the boys birthday party this year. i thought they turned out pretty cute. the big day is tomorrow! we are excited to see family coming from out of town. they boys have been talking about grandmas and grandpas all day.
(when i made these, i let the boys pick which mustache they wanted. when i got cullans on he looked at me and said "mom...that is perfect!" he is such a funny kid)

50 dollars~

well if you ever read my blog you know that my boys love to get mail. yesterday they got birthday cards from Aunt Monica, Uncle Eldon, and Katie. they were so excited. They got fun cards that had frogs and a race car on the front. when they opened up their cards they were shocked. inside was money! the boys have gotten money before for their birthday, but usually in the form of checks. cullan opened his card and looked up with wide eyes...he then says "mom...i got $50.00!!!" garran and i both started laughing. they were so excited. they got to go have some daddy son time and get some goodies while b and i hung out at home.
here is kael holding his "dollars". he kept taking it in and out of his pocket to show me.cullan with his "fifty dollars" and a bloody nose to boot!
after the boys got back from their afternoon with daddy, they decided to show me what they got. i was really impressed that they did not spend all their money. I think they each came home with a dollar or two.both cullan and kael wanted these rackets. i am still not so sure about them.
cullan got this funky gun thing. it snaps shut. every time he just bust out laughing. he goes around snapping it shut on things and laughing!and of course what boy doesn't want a little gun that shots balls...they played all night and had a great time.
thanks so much Eldon, Monica and Katie for the birthday cards and hours of fun!

just for fun~

so what happens on a boring afternoon when you have restless kids and you are killing time before you have to meet up with your hubby!

take pictures of your kids, got to a fun website and monster-ize your kids. i took a pic of each of them and then let them help me with the transformation. they were laughing and thought it was hilarious. they especially thought the briea-ghoul was funny!i know briea's is misspelled..oh well. for now it will be ok!

they had a bunch fun tools to distort their faces or make things funky!!
enjoy my little monsters!
oh and one witchty-mama!

going around~

guess what has been going around here....

hand-foot-mouth disease!
so much fun!
can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?
both the boys got it. it has been going around the nursery at church.
i thought we had dodge the bullet but NOPE.
oh well at least we have cleared the contagious period and the celebration for the boys birthday is still on. i cleared it with their pediatrician.. we are good to PARTY!!this is what it looks like in case you have never seen it. it presents it self as little red dots that eventually blister. there are a few on cullans toes.you can see it much better in this picture of his hands. there is no medication for it. it is just a virus that has to run its course. Tylenol because it is painful works best!!
kael had a big sore in his mouth but i decided that might be a little gross ;0)

field trip fun~

today was a fun day for cullan. the fire department came to cullan's preschool. they got to look at the truck, check out all the tools, and just be awed in general!fireman charlie explained all about the truck.there were all kinds of tools..some really big hoses....interesting things they use to save lives..best of all.. .the cool sirens!well cool but loud..all the kids loved it but had their hands over their ears.
cullan wanted his picture by the cool fire truck.here is another very nice fireman putting on all his gear.they made a point of putting all their gear on in front of the kids..they did a great job of explaining to the kids that they should not be scared of them. especially if they come in their house at night. i guess kids often hide from fire men because they look scary. so these nice guys did a wonderful job of making sure the kids were not scared and that they understood that if they were in their homes, they were there to help. cullan even talked about when the firemen came to grandma and grandpas house in the middle of the night. i was really surprised he remembered!

early~

so kael was in the bathtub. i usually always put razors away, but i must have missed it. anyways kael started crying. all of sudden he comes around the corner and his lip is bleeding. i asked him what had happened and he said "i shave like daddy!"
guess he was starting early!
after we got the cut cleaned up..he wanted a band-aid.

i seriously could not stop laughing. kael loved his new purple mustache!

general conference and fun traditions~

every six months when conference rolls around our family always gets excited. conference is a favorite of ours. we love hearing all of the talks and being able to spend two whole days together just being together and being uplifted. a few years back we started a family tradition. since we don't ever watch the super bowl and are not really into football ( i know, we are like the only people on earth that are not that into football. we like soccer!!) anyways we decided to do something fun for conference instead. so we do a conference super bowl. i usually try to get food together the night before. since we watch it at home on tv, i put stuff out after the first session and then people can just kind of munch. this gets me out of cooking for the rest of the day, which is also a plus! this is our spread from this year. it is missing one dish. i know some of the stuff is not that healthy, but it is only once every six months. we usually try to invite some people over, but this year just had the missionaries. i try to do a new dish each time, just to mix it up.this was what i tried this year. these are cheesy bacon wraps! they turned out pretty well. i need to figure out how to get them to stay circular, instead of kind of flattening out.

i am so glad that we get to spend this time together and to listen to the different messages. this conference was great. there were so many talks that i really enjoyed. if you are interested in listening you can click on the link below.
www.lds.org

birthday fun!

since we are having a big joint party with family for the boys on a different date, we decided to just do something simple for kael on his actual birthday. so we made a simple cake and let him pick out what we were having for dinner. here comes the cake!kael was so excited. he had been talking about his birthday all day.one happy birthday boy!happy birthday to kael!! blowing out his candles.guess this means it passed the test.briea was very excited and even looked a little nervous when she thought that we might not be sharing with her.

we did share just a little and she was so happy. look at that face.i don't know how much of it actually made it into her mouth, but it looks like she had a great time trying!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET KAEL!!
WE LOVE YOU.

October 2, 2009~

Happy Happy Birthday Kael!
I still can not believe you are a whole three years old.
You are a little spot of sunshine in our family.
We love how much love you give to everyone and how much personality you have.
You are a great brother to both Cullan and Briea. You are so caring and are a good protector!!
We have loved watching you grow and change. We are so excited to see all of the new things you discover on your way to 4.

so fast~

wow. sometimes they grow up so fast!
(i came out of the backroom the other day to find cullan like this.)
yes that is a cross word.

what does it mean??

what does it mean when you are at the library for story time and your son turns around and gives you the stink eye until you stop singing? even though all the other moms are singing. i was not the only one, but i guess kael was not impressed with my efforts. he was also my only child, that as an infant, would scream like someone was pinching him any time i would try and sing to him.
guess maybe he is trying to drop me a hint!

chill~

with a chill in the air, i thought this quilted background was appropriate!
i am so excited fall is here. it is my favorite time of year.
i love the pumpkins, chilly weather, fun costumes, leaves changing..
i could go on forever!!
woo hoo for fall!

halloween package!~

the kids got a fun Halloween package in the mail the other day. they love getting mail.

it was by our door when we got home. they boys were excited to open it.
they boys got cool light sticks. at first, they were not sure how to work them.
got it! cheese. happy boys. they love them.briea got a ghost....she liked it.... i think...just kidding she really did like it.
i just could not pass up posting that picture.
it was to funny!