My baby is THREE!!!

Yep, that's right. My "baby" is 3. (This is the only semi-decent picture I got of her on her birthday. We had already eaten cake as you can plainly see...) She is sooo grown up! Her birthday was on the 5th. We told her the 4th of July fireworks were for celebrating her birthday.

She said, "Yep. Dat's wight." So confident the whole country is celebrating her birthday. She's a cutie, what can I say? This just happens to be my all time favorite picture of my sweet little lady. Doesn't it just make you smile??

It was taken last year, but will always remain a favorite of mine. It just captures her COMPLETELY. My little lady is so sweet, and loving, also feisty, crazy and goofy all at the same time.

She is intense. She is the only 3 year old that I know that seriously checks a person out for a while (and I mean that LITERALLY) before she determines if she will like them or not (its almost like she's looking right through you!). And, those of you she really loves, you know who you are. So, if you are one of the chosen few who she's decided are on her "favorite" list, count yourself lucky cause this girl is one in a million!

She has quite the personality. Her laugh is very contagious, I might add. I've really loved watching her turn into her own little person with likes and dislikes. She has such a strong spirit about her. I'm just so blessed to be her mother.

Its Birthday week at our house!

Yesterday was J's birthday! My big boy is now 6. Wow. Life goes by so fast. We celebrated his birthday last Monday as a family. We went to Sunsplash to ride the water slides and had A BLAST! We had so much fun riding on the rides together. We did leave S at my sister's house, so it was just the 4 of us. That made for some fast riding, fun times. We are going to do it again towards the end of the summer.

We have a tradition in our house for birthdays. The birthday person gets to choose what he or she wants to eat for all 3 meals for the day. J chose:

Cocoa Pebbles for breakfast (nutritious AND delicious :)

left over shrimp scampi noodles from dinner the night before for lunch

Steak and steamed white rice for dinner....

Except his dinner plans got cramped a little, but we worked it out. We got invited over to Brian's parents house for dinner because is brother and their family was in from out of town. SO, we compromised. We cooked him a steak and he ate it AT their house, while everyone else had really yummy carnitas tacos (courtesy of Matt and Val) for dinner. It was a great night.

We actually celebrated Brian's birthday and J's and S's. Yeah, that's right. Another birthday post is coming up later on in the week. Like I said, its that time of year for us. A week of birthdays!!

What I LOVE about J:

His funny sense of humor. He's funny ALL THE TIME. Even when he doesn't mean to be funny.

His kind heart. I love that my son has a soft, kind heart. He's a great kid now, and he is going to be a great man someday.

His love for his family. He is sweet and tries hard to make good choices. He loves his sisters and tries to protect them, but not always. He is a brother, after all!

He is a smarty pants. He is always trying to learn new things. Loves school. Loves learning. Of course, he just finished kindergarten. Hope that love of learning keeps up for a long time to come!

I hope your birthday was a great one, my little man!

Happy Birthday to You!

We are lucky to have 2 birthdays today in our family tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll do a blog post every time its someone’s birthday in our extended families because, lets face it, that’s almost a hundred people. As much as I love them all, its not going to happen! But, since I am a REALLY bad sister and didn’t even get a birthday card in the mail to my little sister I figured I could do a quick blog about her.

Marilee rocks. If you don’t know her, you should really get to know her! She’s so much fun to be around. All her nieces and nephews love her to pieces. She is a great example to her ENTIRE family. Did I mention that she’s beautiful on top of all that?

She is 22 years old tomorrow and is currently serving a mission for our Church- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. Right now she is on the island of Curucao. She has been out for 9 months, and is officially half way finished with her mission. She is totally and 100% immersed in the work of the Lord, and she’s LOVING IT!
She just got transferred to Curacao a few weeks ago. Transferring to this island, she has to learn Dutch and a Spanish (i think?) dialect- Papiamento.

She is rockin’ it so far. Her first Sunday on Curucao, she had to bear her testimony and she said she just knew the basics, but- HELLO- being able to bear your testimony in a different language that you'd only been barely introduced to within the last few days, and understand what you are saying is awesome! Especially if you don’t blunder out any “I know the cow lives” or something about your father the potato (hey, it happens!). Yeah. She's pretty much amazing.

We have so many great stories of Mar-lie (our nickname for her!). Because of her, I can quote verbatim the entire movie of “The Little Mermaid”. Good times. She is 7 years younger than my younger brother, so she’s our caboose. I can’t imagine our family without her. When she was born she brought so much peace to our house, and continues to do that in her loving, sarcastic way.

I was impressed watching her grow up- she was a really great teenager-the kind you only hope and pray you’ll end up with ( and the best, darn babysitter around!). She’s always had a testimony of the gospel and that has been reflected in her actions all her life. I’ve always been able to count on her as a sister and a friend. Its been wonderful to watch her testimony grow even stronger now that she is on her mission!
Life is a little bland with out the spark of Marilee around. I miss joking around with her. Who else will laugh at my lame jokes (besides my kids) and knows all the inside jokes that we share together? But I know she’s where she’s supposed to be, and I know time will fly and she’ll be back home in no time, joking around with me again.

So for you, Marilee:
I wish I could tell you happy birthday and give you a great big-ol’ hug! Hope you’re lovin’ it with all the lizards out there. Let me know if you have any crazy lizard stories. You know how much I love them! You are an incredible example to me. How did I get to be so lucky to have so many amazing sisters! You’re no longer a “REAR” tard in my book. If you were here, I’d take you to lunch at Beach Hut for your birthday and eat some yummy, gooey, chocolaty for dessert. Then I’d leave you to bake in your car (its that time of year!) for a little bit. I miss you and love you so much. Remember that. On days when you can’t walk anymore, or talk anymore. We are here rooting for you and praying for you!
That’ll do, donkey. That’ll do.

Eight years ago...

Eight years ago our lives changed forever- when we welcomed our sweet little B into the world! I can't believe she's 8! Life goes by so fast. Although her arrival coming into the world was an extremely long and grueling process- I was in labor for 28 hours with her! But she was worth every bit of it.

A few of her baby-baby pictures. She's grown so much over the last 8 years. We are excited to continue watching her learn and grow. We love you B! You're growing up into such a beautiful girl. Your kind, and thoughtful, and so fun and silly. You are so much fun to be around. We are so happy you are apart of our family.