Elise Turns Nine!

We celebrated Elise's ninth birthday this week.  It was on April 15th, and true to form, Eric was submitting our taxes that morning!



 

Elise loved the princess cake!  Of course, so did Erica!!

 

 

 

 She even blew out her own candles this year!  I'm not sure how much spit did the extinguishing, but she got the job done!

 Elise loved her new little monkey.

She had a multi-colored cake, colored with neon dyes.  The cake was bright pink and green (which looks like a citron-color), and the frosting was a fun purple color (the camera does not capture the color well at all!) and was flavored with coconut extract.

 

HaPpY BiRthDaY ELiSE!!!

 

We are so lucky to have you in our family!

Happy Seventeen!

 

Seventeen years ago today I gave birth to the cutest little button of a baby girl.  She was so tiny, only 6 pounds, 4 ounces.  Eric and I were both smitten immediately, and were in constant competition over who got to snuggle and love her.  Now I have had the joy of watching her grow to be a beautiful, smart, generous, kind, talented, strong young woman.  I am so proud of who she is and how she upholds her standards.  She brings so much light and joy into our home.  We have been so blessed to have her in our family!

 

We signed Heidi up with a local gym membership for her birthday. She got a bunch of cute workout clothes to show off!

 

Heidi's Black & White Cake



Yes, I was terrified that the paper flower in the center would catch fire! I started singing my own version of Alicia Keys: "This cake is on fi-ya!!"

Surprise inside: ZEBRA STRIPES!!!
Turned out AWESOME!

I think the cake was a hit....

 

HaPpY BiRthDaY HeiDi!!

Party Like a Princess

Erica turned 4 years old on May 14!

Four princesses turned up to celebrate Erica's four years!

Erica wanted an ice cream cake, like Mom's.

The princess theme continued....

Now she can dress up like a princess whenever she wants!

The biggest hit of the party was opening up her own Leap Pad, with a touch-screen! It's like a kid-version of an iPad. What four-year-old wouldn't want a high-tech device?

*****

And she lived

Happily Ever After....

  

....or at least until the next day.

(She is four, after all!)

My 30th Year....(ha ha!)

I had a great birthday this week! I spent the day working on a project for a YW activity, but at least I had the day off from work!

Eric and the kids spoiled me with presents, flowers, and a Baskin Robbins cake....mint chocolate chip, my favorite!!!

As Eric was trying to personalize my cake, he was fishing around in my box of candles to find the appropriate numbers. He found a 3, but couldn't find the ___, so I grabbed the 0 and said that would work fine. Aren't I officially 30 if the birthday picture says I am?!

I will leave it to your imagination to fill in the appropriate number for the blank.....aim low :)

You are as young as you feel!!!

Here's to another fabulous year!

Eight is Great

Today my angel girl Elise turned eight years old!

We celebrated with a yummy coconut cake.

The figurine on top was so sweet and reminded me of our little sweetheart!

She loved it when we lit the candle!

Erica was a big "helper" in opening presents! She was just as excited about all of Elise's presents as Elise was!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our family!!!

Heidi's Sweet Sixteen

It has finally happened.....every teenage girl's dream and her parents' worst nightmare.....

Heidi is SIXTEEN!!!

It actually isn't my worst nightmare, I am only being dramatic, but this year was a tough one to wrap my mind and emotions around, as a mother.  I find myself vascillating between both excitement for this new venture of DATING and apprehension for this new venture of DATING.  

After all, I was sixteen once. (My poor, poor parents....)

Since this is such a momentous year for Heidi, we decided to throw her an extra special birthday party.  Last weekend I took her and several of her friends to a near-by hotel, where they swam in the pool, watched movies, ate untold amounts of junk food, gave each other makeovers, and stayed up most of the night gabbing.  They had a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed spending time with them.

On her actual birthday, Eric took her out on her very first date to a sushi restaurant.  Those two love sushi!  When they got home, she was greeted with some beautiful flowers, presents, and, of course, her birthday cake!

For her cake, Heidi chose a chocolate cake with raspberry filling.  I frosted it with a chocolate mousse icing, and topped it with an arrangement of her favorite flower, red roses.

This girl is so special to me.  Words can't even express how proud I am of her, the choices she is making, and the woman she is becoming.  She is a compassionate friend, a responsible student, a loving sister, and a good example to her parents at all times.

We love you so much, Heidi!!!

Season of Change

I love all the seasons.  I love how the world can change into a different place four times every year, treating your senses with the evolving sights, smells, and sounds.

This weekend was Eric's birthday.  It is another season of change as he enters into his fourtieth year!  We had a very busy, fun-filled weekend to celebrate this big year.

On Friday night I arranged for a group of our friends to surprise Eric at a local restaurant, Emory's.  It was nail-biting trying to get him to the restaurant without any suspitions, but we pulled it off!  As we walked up to the table everyone hid their faces in their menus, then popped up and yelled "Surprise!"  It was great!  We had a lot of fun, and the food was fantastic!

On Saturday Eric and I headed to the Suncadia Resort near Cle Elum, Washington.  The fall colors were absolutely amazing!!!  We couldn't have gone at a more perfect time!  We spent the evening relaxing, surrounded by the peaceful beauty.  It was a great retreat!

Sunday morning we drove back home in time to get to church.  That night we had our family celebration with cake and presents.

I made Eric's favorite, German chocolate cake.  In case you were counting, there were 20 candles on the cake.  If we'd had the full 40, I think we would have had the firefighter unit banging at our door!

The weekend turned out wonderful, full of friends and family, food and fun.  What more could you ask for?

Happy 40th Birthday, Eric!





Birthday Boy and the Parent Bowl

Ethan turned eleven years old today.  Only one more year, and he will graduate from Primary and receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  I can hardly believe it!

Despite the fact that it was also the first day of school, I think Ethan had a pretty good day.  He woke up excited to pack all his new school supplies in his backpack and run off to the bus, meeting up with his friends.  After school, he had a special soccer practice, the last before our first game!  They played in a Parent Bowl, where the kids were teamed up against the parents.  Both sides fought hard and dirty!  One of the boys even taunted one of his 30-year old opponents, calling him grandpa!  We all had a pretty good laugh over that one!

In the end, the kids beat the "grandpas" four to three.  It was a close match!

When we got home, and after the men of the household grabbed a quick shower, (believe me when I say it was a necessity before we could proceed!) we enjoyed birthday cake and opened presents.  Ethan had requested a gingerbread cake for his birthday.  I racked my brain to figure a fun way of decking it out, considering I don't frost a gingerbread cake.  We serve it with whipped cream instead.

As I looked at that very brown cake, all I could think of was dirt. 

And mud.

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a pile of slop.....which sort of reminded me of......

a soccer field, of course!!

So here is my soccer star, in miniature form, scoring that all-important goal!

I thought it was clever, anyway, and it made us laugh at the optical illusion!

It was fun to see my Little Man as a.......little man!

Birthday Girl Elise

 We celebrated Elise's 7th birthday all weekend long.  Here, the girls are playing at the park.

Since Elise's birthday was so close to Easter this year, she got an Easter-themed cake.  It was a funfetti cake, surrounded in marshmallow Peeps, adorned with Cadbury Eggs, and topped with the Easter Bunny himself! You can't get much more Easter-ish than that!

Elise's favorite present was this DORA the EXPLORER microphone, which played Dora songs.  She is having to fight off her little sister for rights to this one......Good thing Erica's birthday is coming up soon too!