Happy Birthday Grandma Western

We had a birthday party for Grandma Western yesterday. All of Mark's siblings and spouses came over. It was a lot of fun to visit with everyone. Aunt Sara took this picture so I had to take one of just her. Here is the picture of Sara she was complaining that it was too close but I think she looks great! Thanks again to everyone for coming.

Happy Birthday Jake

Jake has been talking about having a batman birthday for the past few months. WE let our kids choose if they want a present from mom and dad or if they want a party. Jake chose the party. Since he was turning 4, he was allowed to invite 4 friends. It was pretty low key. Mark even surprised us and came home from work. Here are Jake and his friends from left to right.

Jaden, Harry, Jake, Cohen, and Kaden.
Jake kept telling me that he needed a bat suit. I spent a lot of time on Monday making this. I didn't get a chance to get the pants sewn but I figured Jake wouldn't mind too much. He woke up and told me I was missing the thing that covered his eyes and his bat shoes. He then got his book out and compared his suit to the one in the book. I never knew he was going to be so hard to please. Ethan woke up at 5:30 and saw their bedroom door decorated (its a birthday tradition that I grew up with) He was so excited that he had to come up stairs and tell us. He wanted to wake up Jake. He eventually did wake him up at 7:15. Jake wasn't even going to put on his costume, he said it was for Halloween. Ethan convinced him to try it on to make sure it was his size. Then He wouldn't take it off. I am glad he ended up liking it.

Here is Jake with his friends. I made a round cake for our family and poured 6 cupcakes for the party. Another funny thing about the party, when each friend would give Jake a present before he could get it unwrapped they would all tell him what it was. It was pretty cute.

Here is Jake with his cake. Mark did the bat for me. I really don't have any artistic talent. I think Mark did great! I was going to get one of Jake blowing out the candles but he blew them out in the middle of the song so I missed it. Jake had the night planned out for us. So we did as he requested. WE had pizza for dinner then cake and ice cream. He opened his present from Ethan and Ryan, and one from us (Mark cheated and got him a $3 action figure from us.) Then we played with the toys. We then went swimming at the legacy center. This morning Jake woke up and told me on his next birthday he doesn't want to go swimming. Happy Birthday Jake!

the boys

Here is the latest video of our boys. I think it might be kind of long. Ethan had a program on Friday night. It was his annual Speech Fair. It is to create awareness of deaf children speaking. We thought he did great. Thanks to Jannifer, Joel, Becky, Emily and Grandma Carrie for coming. It was nice to have you all there. Ethan also lost his first tooth last night. He was so excited that he woke up in the middle of the night and came running upstairs to show us the money the tooth fairy left him!

For Grandma Hemingway

Here are some pictures I took of Ryan in this cute cloth diaper. Lee Ann gave me this diaper when Ethan was born. She immediately told me I didn't have to use it. She just thought it was so cute on Mark. I am sure she could tell by the look on my face I had no interest in using cloth diapers. Little did I know that by the time I had my third kid cloth wouldn't be so bad. (SAVES SO MUCH MONEY!) I sewed some Velcro on this diaper like I did on my other ones. Afterwards I felt bad for doing this without checking with Mark, since it was his diaper. He looked at me like I was ridiculous to even be worried and then said, "I am never going to use it again, do what you want." Ha Ha! Well I think Ryan looks the most like Mark out of the three boys so I had to post some pictures for his grandma. I am sure it will bring back some memories. Ryan is defiantly more adventurous than Jake ever was but not quite as daring as Ethan. It is nice to have some balance. Lately he likes to stand on this little rocking chair and rock. I keep getting worried that he is going to fall but he hasn't yet so I keep letting him do it. Oh and when I got done taking pictures of Ryan I put the camera down. Ryan immediately came over put the camera in my lap and then got on his chair to pose for more pictures. What a silly boy.

Mark is the Greatest

I just have to give a little shout out to Mark and say what a great guy he is. For our anniversary Mark gave me coupons for one pedicure a month. So last night I used my first coupon. Mark was so great. He did all the dinner dishes while I soaked my feet in my foot spa. Then he did all the scrubbing, buffing, and filing, and painted my toe nails all without any complaining. He is amazing!

Zoo Day

On Wednesday last week it was free Zoo Day again. This time I was feeling up to going. I sent Mark to the grocery store before he went to work to get some lunch meat so I could pack lunches. Mark of course came home with tons more and decided he was coming with us. Jake went to the store with him and was asking him if he was going to come to the zoo. Mark said "no" Then Jake told him that he could look at all the animals with him and then Mark changed his mind. It was so fun to have him along! This is what Ryan looked like with every animal he saw. He was so fun to take.

I just think this is such a cute picture of Mark and the boys. He is such a great dad.

AS we walked past the carousel Mark asked me if I was going on it. I said no. He said he didn't want to go on it. I thought we were just going to tell Jake that we were going to pass on the carousel this time. The next thing I know Mark was buying two tickets and getting on the elephant. He is such a softy.

One of my friends met me at the zoo. This is Jake and Kaden, whom he calls "K" or "K-K" I don't know where he comes up with these nick names. They had a lot of fun together too.

Engaged!

My sister Emily got engaged on Friday night we are so excited. We love Matthew. I have tried to move these pictures but for some reason I can't get them in a different order today. So these are obviously of her ring! As she says so "pretty and sparkly" we just can't stop looking at it.

Here she is after I begged her to cancel her meeting last night so she could stop by my house on her way back from Rexburg.

I stole this picture off of Alyse's blog. This is a little bit of a funny story. Alyse posted this picture on her blog Saturday morning stating that one of these couples got engaged last night. Well Saturday night the other couple had gotten engaged too. Congrats to Matthew and Emily and Bob and Alyse. We are excited for both weddings!

Emily will be getting married on April 14 in the Mesa Temple.

Alyse will be getting married on May 22 in the Salt Lake Temple.