Birthday Girl

Our Alana Girl is 3 years old!!  And we have loved every single day with her!

She is the light of our lives :)  We all adore her and are grateful for all the love and joy that she returns to us!  When Alana's birthday rolled around, there was no question what type of party we would have!

For our girl who wears her tutus and crowns on a daily basis, who shows me her Angelina Ballerina dance with the utmost charm, and who calls any shoes that clip and clop "tap shoes", throwing together a Ballerina party was a NO-Brainer, and was so much fun!
I so WISH you could have seen her face when she saw her birthday cake:

 By far, one of my favorite cakes I've made so far :)  It was so elegant and magical to watch her love this ballerina cake!

We started her party with Angelina Ballerina coloring pages while waiting for all our family to arrive:

 and played a festive game of "Pin the Wand on Angelina Ballerina"

Watched "Angelina" dance:

 and had a HUGE dinner:

And topped the day off with watching our wishes come true, with the perfect day and being so happy!

Target Practice

Addison and Alana came up with this clever idea all by themselves!

Or rather:  They came up with the idea of nailing the push pins into the window sill.  I came up with the wooden slats idea.

Using toy hammers, they nailed in thumb tacks into some wood.  They were having such a wonderful time, and they impressed me so much with their coordination and cooperation, not to mention spending a looooong time on this new favorite activity!

Look What I Made!

Yep.  Made them myself, and I love them!

Better yet, Carter ADORES them and LOVES me for making them for him!

I wrote how I did it on the FiveRealMoms blog,

but I really had such a creative outlet doing this that if you want me to make one for you (with your own picked theme, of course) I will!!  Just email me and I'll make the template for you to print and cut.

Let me know!

Happy School!

Alana's Hair Styling Secret

Yes, she is using a Dinglehopper.

I DID it!

The new bow!

My Brother {in law}, the Mars Rover Guy

See that:

That's a picture of the newest Mars rover Curiosity, taking a picture of the planet itself.

See that blue arrow?  It's pointing to the power supply.

See this guy?

That's Chris.  He married my sister Tauna.  He is a real live Rocket Scientist.

And he's the project manager guru that masterminded that battery.

While the world was concerned if the Curiosity would arrive on Mars safely, Chris told us, "My concern isn't if it gets there...My concern is that once it gets there, will it turn on."

Way to go Chris!!!!  What a success!  We LOVE being apart of this with you!

As is demonstrated by my kids' new found obsession to build Mars Rovers with their legos:

Addison's Rover

Carter's Rover

My Sister {in law}. the hero

Check out my super cool Sister in law!

She's an Athletic Trainer in Progress at BYU.

Reportedly, this player thanked her several times the rest of the game and for days following for making his knee feel better.

I think he thought she was just cute.

Check her out!  What a big shot!

Good news. Bad news.

Yesterday: No loose Tooth.

Today: This was Carter at dinner. 

The first we knew of this loose tooth was at dinner, when it hurt him when chewing his food.  When I felt it, I jerked my hand back in surprise:  YEP, it was definitely loose!

We made predictions that it would probably fall out before school starts.

We told him we didn't even KNOW it was loose!  Did he know?

"No, it wasn't loose until I fell of my bed during quiet time"

So at 7:30, one his way for one last potty break before bed, Carter came BOUNDING into my room where I was reading.

"GUESS WHAT!
"IT HAPPENED!  IT FINALLY HAPPENED!
"MY TOOTH CAME FELL OUT!"

and then his face quickly fell and the sobs came:
"BUT IT FELL INTO THE TOILET!"

Thank you Dad and the rubber gloves.
The Tooth Fairy will be thankful.

Illinois Uncovered...

Alright loyal followers of my blog.  We have already determined that there is a cave in Illinois.  But as if that wasn't surprising enough, this weekend we discovered that there are still many more surprises that the great plains have to offer.  Like This:

This is in Matthiesen State Park.

Walking along the river bottom of a canyon (yes, we are still talking about Illinois)...

we found a system of caves

that opened up to the lagoon with the waterfall!

People were swimming, and climbing, and sliding down the rocks.  (When I say people, I do mean folks without 3 kids in tow).

And with three little kids in tow, we realized something big that helped us have a wonderful time:

Adults go hiking for the views and fresh air...
Kids go hiking to throw rocks in the river and squish in the mud...

As soon as we grasped that reality, "be careful and keep your clothes clean" surrendered to "sure, let's climb up that mountain side and slide down in the mud!"

And it became all about the experience. Steve paused to teach them how to skip rocks.

We let their shoes get muddy so that they could have moments like this to help each other out, support each other, and encourage each other to try, even though it was scary.

We had planned to camp at these state parks overnight, but as we were driving down on Friday night, Steve got a call from work and had to turn around.  Disappointed as they were, we bribed the kids with ice cream sandwiches and s'mores to camp out in the backyard.  We have not as yet camped in a campground (can you believe it)!

I really do LOVE these adventures with our family.  We've reached this really happy point in our lives where all the kids are potty trained and independent walkers...imagine that!   We feel like we finally get to go and enjoy things together, not just have a scene change for our babysitting.  We're able to say "Yes" more and "No" less.  We're going out; doing; living in a new way than we have in the past.  And it feels great.

Talkin 'bout the Good Ol' Days

Who do you think you are?

 Somehow I got bit by the Family History bug and have loved researching names and people that are on Steve's family tree.

But a lot of my research thus far have been names, dates, and places.

Thanks to Steve's Dad, he helped me transform a lot of that into stories, feelings, and faces.

Steve's Brother Brian, His Great-Uncle Bill, Steve's Dad Tim, Steve's Grandma Elizabeth, and Steve.

We invited Steve's Grandma Elizabeth and her brother Bill over recently.  For a couple of hours they told us stories about growing up together.  About when their mom died when they were kids (Tessie, where Alana gets her middle name).  About their Aunt who raised them.  And even about, yes, walking to school up hill, and in some cases, both ways.

As we were together, something in my heart was so alive, felt so connected with these people we were talking about.  But nothing matched what I felt when I handed Bill a 1920 census that I had printed out and he and Grandma were so excited to recognize the names of their neighbors.  "Elizabeth, remember this guy", and that guy, and "oh yeah, he lived down the street in the white house", etc.

Me, Addison, Great-Uncle Bill, Alana, Great-Grandma, Steve, Carter

It was just a moment that names became people, and that dates became occasions.  And it is a moment I want to remember.

Summer of Family

When company comes to visit, it gives me permission to pull out ALL THE STOPS to have the best time of our lives.  So when Cheri and her family came right when school was out, this trip was NO EXCEPTION!

Taryn & Addison, Alana & Avery, Keara & ...wait!  Where's Carter?  He was behind me telling them to jump right when I was going to take the picture!

One morning while they were here, I woke up with the crazy idea I wanted to try.  I explained it to Braden who said, "Do you think it will work", to which the only response I could think of was "There's only one way to find out."

So Braden and I worked together to invent this giant water squishy bag!!!

 It's just two clear shower curtains duct taped together, filled with water from the hose.

Simple concept that was SO much fun!

The cool water beneath their feet was SO refreshing in the heat and it was a unique change from our typical water play.

I am so so so grateful that these cousins have each other.  I think I am more grateful for me that Cheri and I are going through parenting side by side by side through it all.  These children love each other, stick by each other, and put all their differences aside when they get together to just have a good time!

Carter

Keara

Taryn

Addison

Alana

Avery

Mazie

 
Besides taking them to our favorite park, and getting our 6-year olds to go down a big water slide at a community pool, and having marshmallow roasts,

Blackened Marshmallow, yes, but proud just the same

 and we took them on a hike at the nature center,

 and after walking for a little while

we came to this fascinating cave to explore

and for the first time ever, Courageous Carter explored a tunnel at the back of the cave to discover that it had an opening on another side!

Of course, that meant a photo opp for each kid all over again:

We also went to a bounce house which has such a sweet story attached to it.  Carter won tickets to this place as the 2nd place prize in a school fundraiser.  Ecstatic, we went that very day after school!  After that, he wanted to save the rest of his tickets for a whole month so he could share them with his cousins.  It was hard for him to do -- he kept asking twice a week or more if we could go, but then remembered what he wanted more.  And they had a blast, completely worth the wait!  I was grateful to watch Carter's patience and generosity!

Now if only I had taken other pictures besides me stuck on the turtle.  (I was laughing too hard to get out!!)

As you can tell, it was a GREAT few days.  When, oh when will you come back!
Have I convinced anyone else to come visit us?  Please do!