The Birthday Club

  Timi, Ed, Bethany, Lance

January is a busy birthday month  for Ryan's family. His mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law all have birthdays in January. We decided to have a a little party at our house to celebrate. I decided to be all ambitious and  make them each their favorite dessert. After agreeing to do so I decided I was in way over my head when they started requesting things like Cherry Cheesecake and Angel food cake. I was expecting chocolate cake , spice cake or  lemon bars.  You know, something I could make from a box.  Now I know for most people cheesecake and angel food cake is not a big deal, but I have an uncanny act to ruin EVERYTHING I try to cook. (Just ask Ryan).  I decided to press forward and try something new. (But don't worry I had a back up plan- Albertson's sells both angel food cake, and cheesecake).

Much to my surprise, tho, everything turned out GREAT! We had a yummy Cherry Cheesecake thanks to the recipe Anne Marie gave me, yummy Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies thanks to the recipe Alicia gave me, and yummy Angel Food Cake thanks to the recipe the internet gave me. (I only made 3 desserts because Ryan's mom said she didn't have a favorite, so she just got a little of everyone's).

I was quite proud of myself that I didn't  even have to use my back up plan.  :)

It was fun to celebrate the January birthdays with most of Ryan's family. Unfortunately, his sister and her family weren't able to make it because of the weather. We missed you guys!

And of course, Hallie finishing Eli's leftovers

Party like its 1999...

Well not quite.

Jill, Meg, Hayley

Me and my good friends from high school, Megan, Jill, and Hayley went to Park City and had a fun over niter, where we shopped, ate, talked, and laughed. It was like old times again...Sort of. The only differences? Instead of spending money on ourselves, we spent it on our kids, instead of talking about fashion, boys, and the current Taylorsville drama, we talked about our kids, labor, bills, and the scary world we live in. Instead of cruising around all night "dragging state", we headed back to our room where we could kick off our shoes and sit back and relax. Oh yeah, and a major difference between 1999 and now? Two of them were pregnant!

Things have definitely changed, yet so much has stayed the same. It is so weird to think only 9 years ago we were 4 single girls, chasing boys, living in an apartment in Orem, going to UVSC (UVU now), without too many cares in the world. Now we are all married, have kids(between the 4 of us there are 8 kids, and 2 on the way, crazy!), have homes, husbands(who were so awesome to take our kids over night so we could all have a night away!), and have to deal with real life problems. I am so glad that we have stayed in touch, and still live so close that we can get together on a pretty regular basis.

And even though we are old mom's we were still able to almost pull off an overnighter. We didn't go to bed until 5:30 in the morning!! We then had to get up at 8:30. What were we thinking?! Oh, well it was so worth the sleep deprivation!

Love you girls. We need to do it again, before another nine years have passed.

*I tried to find a picture of all of us back in '99, but couldn't find one I was willing to post. :)

Birthday Celebrations

I know this is a little late, but I needed to write it down for my records.

This year my birthday was one of my favorites. I felt  like the whole first half of the month was just one big celebration.

My birthday was on Sunday this year and so Ryan and I celebrated on Saturday. It started Saturday morning. Ryan got up with the kids and took them to McDonalds so I could sleep in. Then when they got home Ryan said I could go shopping or do whatever I wanted, until it was time to go to dinner.When I got back we cleaned up, dropped the kids off at Ryan's grandparents and we went to dinner at Red Robin(I had to get my free birthday burger). We took some ice cream back to Ryan's grandparent's house to eat with them and play games.

On Sunday, my birthday, my niece  Mia was blessed. So I was able to spend the whole day with my family and share my birthday with Mia and her special day. My family sang Happy Birthday and we had cake. The best part is Ryan took complete care of the kids all day!! He got them dressed, changed every diaper, fed them, and got them all ready for bed. After the kids were in bed Ryan let me watch two chick flicks, and didn't complain once. :) It was a nice relaxing day! My mom and Mia

Then on the following Wednesday we had a luncheon with some of the other ladies in the ward who have December birthdays. It was fun to get together and get to know them a little better. Thanks Alicia for putting it all together.

The next Sunday Ryan's family had a little party for me, and his mom was so nice to make me a yummy chicken and rice dinner. Then for dessert we had my favorite: Chocolate brownies with ice cream. I am so lucky to have such great in laws.

It doesn't end there. On Thursday the 11th my friends, Lisa, Amy, Ashly, and Ulia took me to Chile's for appetizers and Paradise pie. When we were done eating we didn't want to go home so we headed over to Target to do a little shopping, and be a little silly. Thanks girls. It was so fun! Ulia, Ashly, Lilly, Amy, & Lisa

And to end my wonderful birthday (or should we say two weeks?) Me and my best friends from high school,Jill, Megan, & Hayley headed up to Park City for a fun overnighter. We had so much fun shopping, eating, and reminiscing. I had a blast and this was one of the best birthdays ever! Jill, Megan, Hayley

Thanks everyone that made my birthday so FUN!

Who stole my Christmas Spirit?

I have to admit, I have no Christmas spirit this year. Usually I love, love, love Christmas. I love all the decorations, the anticipation, buying gifts, seeing lights, the music, and all the magic.

This year, not so much. I had all these great ideas of things to do a few months ago, and now it is here, and I have no desire to  do anything. It just doesn't feel like Christmas. Maybe, it's the economy, or maybe I am just lazy.

I barely got my Christmas cd's out two days ago, I haven't done one fun activity with my kids(yes, I know I am a terrible mother), I haven't wrapped one gift, I haven't watched one Christmas movie, and I only put my tree up because Eli begged me for days to do it.

I don't know what is wrong. I am trying to catch the spirit. It's just not happening. I think I need to try a little harder. Any ideas? What can I do to bring the Christmas excitement back into my home? 

My little bundle of JOY!

We went and saw the lights at Temple Square, and it was the first time I have really bundled Hallie up in all her winter gear. I think she looks so cute.

Hallie with cousin Luke

Hallie with mom

Hallie with dad

(Eli was in Idaho with grandma, so I don't have a pic of him. It's not because we gave him away).

Thumbs down to turning 4!

I do not know what turning four morphed my sweet little boy into, but he is no longer sweet and innocent.

Since turning four, and I mean literally since his actual birthday he has been a terror.

He throws tantrums over EVERYTHING. This is my kid who maybe threw 5 real tantrums his first three years of life. Now he probably averages 5 tantrums a day!

He is destructive. He lies. He whines all. the. time.

He argues everything. Especially cleaning up his room and playroom. The newest trick he plays when I tell him to make his bed and clean his room is to first complain, whine, and argue with me telling me he can't and that he doesn't want too. After telling him he can't come out until it is done. He then throws all his covers and pillows on his bed in a pile (his idea of "making" his bed).. Then throws all the stuff on the floor under the bed or pushes them to the side. (Because I told him I didn't want anything in the middle of the floor. I guess in his mind if it is against the wall, it isn't in the middle of the floor). ARGGH.

He tries to be sneaky and hide things.A couple weeks ago he got in trouble and Ryan said that he was going to take his giraffe away (this has replaced tiger). Eli went into his room before Ryan got there. When Ryan walked in he noticed Eli's giraffe wasn't on Eli's bed. So Ryan proceeded to the closet (one place he has learned to hide things, under his bed being the other). As Ryan was walking over there Eli asked him what he was doing. Ryan opened up the closet and sure enough there was Giraffe. Ryan picked him up and Eli says, "I should have hid him better huh, dad?" And that is my new Eli. Of course he doesn't see it as a bad thing hiding his giraffe he just saw that he didn't do a very good job hiding it.

What am I supposed to do with this kid?? I am literally going crazy. Nothing we do helps. We take his prized posessions away. He cries for a minute and then gets over it. We send him to his room. Again cries for a minute and gets over it. We take privilages away. He doesn't care. We tried the sticker chart where got a sticker every time he did something good, and could earn things. Problem is he's never good enough to get very many stickers, so then he gets bored with it.

Any suggestions? Or better yet, anyone want to take him and whip him into shape? But then you have to give him back when he is a perfect, polite, well behaved little boy.

PLEASE someone tell me this isn't going to last the whole 4 years. And if so please tell me 5 is better.

A Hallie first

*Sorry  pictures aren't very good. They are from Ryan's phone.

We love going to the BYU basketball games. Last weekend we went with Ryan's family, and took Hallie for the very first time. She was so good and loved being with the crowd, family, and eating lots of popcorn.

Eli loves to go to to the game to watch the cheerleaders. He plays around  and won't  sit still until the cheerleaders come out. As soon as they are on the floor he perks up and watches their whole little routine. He LOVES cheerleaders. I don't know if I should be proud or concerned.

Aunt Tiff and Eli