Happy Birthday dear BLADE

My baby is 4 years old...where has the time gone?

Blade wanted a Monster Truck birthday cake, and I tried my best. Sometimes things just don't cooperate...but that's okay. Blade saw it and he was happy and excited about it and did notice that it looked more like a car than a truck and called it a "racecar monster truck". Oh to be like Blade and truly appreciate everything...I love this boy.

Look at that pure joy in his eyes. It melts my heart.

All of them are growing up so FAST. I love these kids.

(I have multiple postings with only 4 pictures each because it was the easiest way for me to upload, so keep reading until you come to April 5th...if you want to read ALL the new posts)

I started making Blade's cake after he had gone to bed last night and while I was decorating it, he woke up and wouldn't go back to bed until I was done and went to bed myself (and for those of you wondering, he did not get dressed for the picture, he had fallen asleep with his clothes on and we're smart parents and didn't want to wake him to put PJs on.

These are the trucks from Grandma and Grandpa. You pull them back and then they take off, there are also buttons on them that make siren/horn sounds and some also talk.

Again, love that Blade is truly loving the birthday celebration.

Last night Chay made a great birthday sign for Blade so that when he woke up he would be welcomed by this BANNER!

Another one of Blade's cars. He's really into vehicles and he wanted a BIG monster truck for his birthday.

"What do you want for your birthday?"

"A big monster truck that I can drive outside on the road!"

"You're not old enough to drive yet"

"That's okay, you can drive and I'll sit in the back"

Well, I'm not a Monster truck type of gal and so Blade received a remote control Monster truck...which he loves and Chay loves. I don't have a picture of it because it was constantly moving and it would have been a blurred picture. I heard Chay ask a couple of times, "will my presents be as cool as Blade's?"

Happy Birthday to Doug!

I love my brother so much that I had a son on HIS birthday (do you know how much planning that takes?). I almost had Chay on Doug's birthday but missed it by 7 days. It's a good thing I made it with Blade because I don't think I could manage a third attempt.

I often hear "you sound just like Uncle Doug", or "you sound just like my Dad". That's a compliment to me. However, I wish I were more like my brother.

Blade wouldn't say it to you on the phone but he does wish you a

"Happy Dirthday"

I finally made it to see "Captain Nicole" play one of her lacrosse games this season. She's a good player and I enjoyed watching her play. Lacrosse is a very time consuming sport but it has been good for Nicole over the years. (I'm so glad that when I played sports in high school, we didn't have practice 6 out of the 7 days of the week.)

Alana joined us for Easter week end and we started he Saturday off early by going to Lowe's free workshop so the boys could build a birdhouse. I'm all about taking care of God's creations...and worthwhile free activities.

The final results.

We had planned on painting the houses when we returned home but, I couldn't find the craft paints that I had for years...then I remembered that I threw them out a month or so ago even though they were still good because we hadn't used them for years and what were the odds that we would use them? (I found out "pretty good") AND this is an example of why I have a difficult time throwing things away.

Which reminds me of another crucial time when I did the same thing. Four years and 10 months ago, I decided that we might as well get rid of or give away all our baby and toddler supplies because we definitely didn't them anymore... except for the crib which I couldn't bare to give a way. And then we all know how that played out... If I had known then that all I had to do was get rid of those supplies so that in the near future I would be needing them, I would have done that 7 years prior to when I did...

Since it was the beginning of Spring Break and we ended up NOT going away for the break, we did something we haven't done for 4 years and 7 months. I know the exact time not because I'm have a great mind for dates, but because it was the place Nicole wanted to go for her birthday and the day that Dave and I found out we were pregnant with Blade (we didn't share the news with Nicole and Chay until the day AFTER Nicole's birthday).

We went to the Mayan in Sandy

It was like being on vacation because as we walked to our table we walked through hallways that could have been the line to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. It was so well done that Blade found it a little scary. But once at the table he enjoyed watching the cliff divers...and just the water/waterfalls.

Grandma knows how much the boys like chocolate Easter bunnies and always makes sure that they get one.

Chay likes his to be a "solid" chocolate bunny.

...and like the majority of the population, they do eat the ears FIRST...

And Chay made sure that while Alana was here, we played at least ONE game. (Nicole accused me of "cheating" and taking a picture so that I could see her cards...I wasn't playing)

It's a tradition that we do an Easter Egg hunt IN the house each year. It's amazing to me that although it would seem like it would be difficult to hide eggs in our home, the kids have a difficult time finding all their eggs. The "adults" had the responsibility of hiding eggs for one particular "child". Alana did a great job hiding Blade's, Dave hide Nicole's so well that she couldn't find them all without playing the "hot/cold" game along with it (...Dave's memory is going, like mine, because the next day, Chay found one of Nicole's eggs), and I did Chay's (he also needed to play the hot/cold game...).

Chay wanted to make a cake and it became a nice group activity. Nicole decided that the bunny needed color on its' mouth...the sweet bunny became scary bunny.

A Week in Review...

Chay received coupons for free bowling and HAD to invite a friend to go bowling last Saturday! I told him that Blade would have to join them and he was okay with that.

We took advantage of everything we could, the bumpers and this "aid" for Blade.

...pretty good form...
The interesting thing is that after a few balls, I told Chay that he needed to keep his eye on where he wanted the ball to go. Well, he tried that and he was getting strikes and spares...and then said to me, "why are you always right?" (I'm not always right but it's nice to hear once in a while from my own child).

On Sunday we received "The Easter Story" in Primary. I love this activity which teaches about Easter with 12 surprises in each egg.

We went through the Easter Story as soon as we got home...

and Chay and Blade enjoyed the bag of chocolates that also came with it. The chocolates came from "V Chocolates" and so the chocolate was VERY good (we're lucky to have "V" in our Ward!).

Blade has wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's every time he sees the commercial and Dave and I told him that when he can go to school two times in a row being happy (and not crying and saying I don't want to go to school), we will take him. This week he did that and made sure he told me that multiple times! So, on Thursday, we headed south (the closest on to us is 100 blocks away) and went to Chuck E Cheese's. Dave mistakenly called it it "Chuck E Cheese" and Blade became very animated and corrected him telling him "NOT Chuck E Cheese, Chuck E Cheese's!.

Chay attacked the pizza!

...okay, so it's alittle greasy...

Of course I was able to find a great coupon and so for a decent price we had pizza, drinks and 160 tokens to play games and ride things. Chay found a game similar to the one my cousin Wayne runs at the fair (very addictive game) and Chay discovered that the game gave out a lot of tickets. Chay overheard one mom tell her son "follow that boy and play the games he's playing". After Chay played, that machine was busy the rest of the evening.

The tickets were just flying in the counter.

...that's alot of tickets....
...and it took just as long to pick the prizes as it did to use them up, if not longer...
Blade loved this "monster truck" and had to ride it more than once. It would rise up and tip and bounce around.

Conference Weekend

We met Candi and Alana (and friends) after they attended the morning session for General Conference and enjoyed a meal at Cafe Rio. As soon as Nicole got home from Lacrosse practise we let her change and then took off to Cafe Rio. Nicole and Blade saved us a table and then what did I do? I forgot to order her salad...oops! I did remember Chay's and Blade's food though. So Nicole placed a take out order and in 10 minutes I walked around the corner and picked it up. It was like she wasn't meant to have the steak salad because this time a steak burrito was made instead of the salad but, I waited while they corrected the order.

From the way people were dressed, I would safely say that alot of people came to eat at Cafe Rio after attending Conference.
Then we went home to enjy the afternoon session at home.

They sure so look like sisters don't they?

We watched a couple of movies while Blade patiently waited, and then he played the Wii with Candi.

It was fun for everyone...

The next morning we had pineapple with our breakfast and Blade made sure that he got his share. Poor guy, afterwards his tongue was sore.

Not only did my brother Doug find a new tradition for Conference, so did we!
We played bingo listening and waiting for certain words to be spoken by the prophets, and the girls colored the ties worn by the prophets and took notes.

Chay won the bingo during the morning session and then the girls took it more seriously during the afternoon session. Chay did win the bingo again.

This worked out great. As Chay said himself, this is the first time he has listened so long during Conference...and that was after the first hour.

During the 2 hour break between sessions, Alana and Nicole had a cooking show demonstrating making Nanaimo Bars. Hopefully we will see that on Alana's blog...
But after the afternoon session we did Ukranian eggs, something that Chay has wanted to do for weeks now. Every since he did it for the first time a few years ago, he looks forward to this but we missed last year. My sister Sheila has provided all the supplies for me and for that I am thankful! If it weren't for my sisters, I would be missing out on alot of things in life.
Unfortunately for Chay, he did get a bad burn on his finger, it'll leave a nice scar.

We discovered that Candi may be part Ukranian because dang, her egg was impressive. AND when we started she told us she had never done these before...I know my instructions weren't THAT great.

Nicole got the hang of it also.
It was surprising how many eggs we cracked. We started out with two cartons of 18 and ended up with 20 eggs. I still need to varnish the eggs but, check out these sisters...

Well, we delivered Candi and Alana safely back to Provo. We sure did have a fun week end with them and are glad that their plans changed and enabled them to spend the night with us. Family is wonderful and the time spent with them is priceless and so memorable. My kids have so much fun with their cousins and are excited the entire time! Blade has more energy than ever when extended family is around...there's no energy being sucked from his body...

Congratulations Candi on graduating from nursing!