Jake's birthday Part 2

We had a busy day on Wednesday! And I think that Jake had a good time. When he woke up we let him open his presents.

This is one of my favorite pictures. He just opened up his penguin costume and Mark is holding it up so he can have the full view. This picture says 1000 words! (I am glad that I stayed up late making it all last week it was worth it.

Here's Jake in his new costume, arms out

arms down

and sliding like a penguin

We went to Kangaroo Zoo during the day with his friend Bryce

Ryan climbing the highest slide at kangaroo zoo!

Jake with the real live Chuck E. Cheese!

Jake blowing out his candles. I love this picture as well since Mark is covering Ryan's mouth so Jake can actually blow the candles out himself.

Here is the cake that Mark put together. Decorating cakes with Mark is my favorite thing. I love Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Jake

I can't believe Jake has gone from this to this!

Happy Birhtday Jake.

(ps there will be another post with more pictures sometime in the not too far future)

I love Free

The children's museum in Salt Lake had a free day on St. Patrick's and so we went. To say it was SO crowded would be an understatement! It was pretty packed and I really couldn't have done it without Emily and Michele. They were huge helpers! Here are just a few pictures I got. Ryan in the Dog house and Emily with the pup.

Michele and Jake at the magnet wall.

Lunch time.

Jake's favorite place. He was here over an hour. He kept telling me that he had to work.

Ryan in the farm area with some chickens. Guess he has the same interest as his dad :)

The first hour we were there it was a total mad house. Jake brushed up against another little girl which was impossible not to do. (there were so many people there it seemed you were always bumping someone) Anyway she totally start crying. Emily was with Jake and asked the little girl's mom if she was ok (thinking it was a little odd that she was so hurt) the mom replied, "she has a broken collar bone." FYI somethings are not worth free. IF you child has a broken collar bone don't take them some place so crowded that they are going to get bumped every 5 seconds.

As it was so crazy we kept hearing other mom's say "this is so bad lets just go home." That is was gave us the motivation to stick it out. And with in an hour it was much better. Thanks again to Michele and Emily for all your help. If you weren't there I am sure I would have ended up with someone else's kids or none at all.

For Jake

I had a lovely trip to Arizona. I forgot how easy one kid can be. It was SO relaxing. As soon as we left the airport we went over to Kellie's apartment. It was so fun to see her and of course her new baby Gunnar. He is darling. Here he is not even a week old yet.

Here is a picture of Star. She is one solid girl. :) I couldn't believe how heavy she is compared to Ryan.

Here is Kellie with Gunnar. She was such a good sport to let me take her picture this soon after a c-section! Thanks Kel.

We had a little girl time (giving Kellie some rest) so Star and I did airplane rides and wrestling a little (I am used to being with all boys) Then it dawned on me that we should paint our nails. Star loved this. It was so fun to do with her too.

I don't feel like I got too many smiles out of Star. She is one of the most somber little kids I have ever seen. I am grateful that I got a few on camera.

As soon as I got in the van in Salt Lake Jake asked me if I got any pictures of Gunnar and what he looked like. He was sad he couldn't come but requested that I got pictures of Gunnar, Star, and Kellie. Sorry Erik, Grandma and Grandpa he didn't want current photos of you. So here they are Jake. I hope you enjoy.

So EXCITED!!!

Kellie had her baby this morning. I am so happy for her. She was due on the 19 which doesn't say much for the women in my family (who are usually at least a week late) Her doctor didn't want her to go too far over so she started her last night and little Gunnar James was born this morning around 3:00AM! Kellie was so determined to have a VBAC and I guess Gunnar had other plans :( he was twisted up in the umbilical cord and every time she tried to push him out that darn cord pulled him back in. So Kellie had her second c-section. No fun. But we are grateful that everyone is healthy! Erik and Kellie were so cute to call me this morning at 4:30 to let me know all about the delievery. I have been counting down the days until Gunnar got here. I have been calling Kellie morning and night for the past week to see if she had been making any progress. I LOVE BABIES! Thank you Kellie and Erik for calling and filling me in on everything ASAP! I am flying to AZ on Thursday night to go and meet him, I can barely wait.

Other great news, my lime tree is in blossoming! Nothing smells sweeter than a citrus tree in blossom (or brand new babies). Oh how I miss Arizona at this time of year. Having a little lime tree in my home sure helps with the home sickness. Mark got me this tree a little while ago since he knows how much I love citrus. I think I have actually enjoyed the blossoms more than the limes. Thank you Mark! Since the only picture I have of Gunnar is on my phone you get a picture of my Lime tree :) Sorry its not a scratch and sniff!

Who's Who?

I have pictures of all my kids at 6 months wearing this same outfit my mom gave me. I think its so fun to compare how alike they look. See if you can tell who is who!

Unbirthday Party and other pictures

My dad got into town last night for his annual brothers ski trip(he is the oldest of 6 boys) Emily and I still hadn't given him his birthday presents so we thought it would be fun to throw him a surprise belated birthday party. He and his brother David and flown into SLC at the same time and their birthdays are just about two weeks apart (they are only 1 year and two weeks apart, YIKES! I can't even imagine having kids that close). Anyway we decided to throw the party for David too. David has a bunch of kids that live in Utah county but unfortunately only Candice could come (she happened to be visiting too) WE had a fun party. The funniest part was the gifts that Emily and I gave my dad. I had an Anson Call family book that he had let me borrow a few years ago and I wrapped it up and gave it back to him. Emily had one of his Monte Blanc pens from their Cancun trip that she gave back to him. He is so hard to shop for. We figured the best presents are borrowing his stuff and then giving it back. Good thing I'm going to AZ in March that way I can get something to give him for father's day :)

So when my parents went to Oprah they bought me these cute jammies. I love them. I just realized I have a little obsession with jammies. I hate going to sleep without my jammies matching and I really don't know how many pairs I have. I am always happy to add to the collection. thank you Mom and Dad

I also bought my first crib. I love it. I even set it up all myself. Way to go Me. Here is a picture of my darling boys in it. Ryan really wanted to be in the picture and how could I refuse?

Here is Andrew in our new high chair. I am in love with this too. I had a high chair for Ethan that I loved other than the cotton cover which was totally nasty by the time Jake was using it. I bought a new cover that never quite fit. I borrowed a high chair from a friend for Ryan and now I have bought this. Best thing is this chair folds up for storage!

And in case you were wondering how many times I mopped my floor this morning, it was twice. I found Ryan like this after I finished nursing Andrew. I put him in the bath and cleaned the floor. Then I got Andrew dressed and apparently there was still about 1/2 of nesquick in the container that I had left on the counter so once again while I was in the other room Ryan had dumped the rest out. I only took pictures of the first time. I wasn't as chipper the second time.