Happy 12th Birthday Chay

He's officially a "preteen" now.

With Doug, Judy, Alana, Erika, Jamie and Jenelle here for the weekend, we decided to celebrate Chay's birthday on Saturday so it would be more of a celebration.

Earlier in the day Chay had a soccer game and had his personal cheerleaders on the sideline. Chay's comment was "they were distracting" but, he said this with a huge smile so I know that he loved every minute of it. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but I know there were at least 2 there so I hope someone will share some of those pictures with me.

Chay requested an Ice Cream Cake for his birthday cake and this was my attempt at filling his request.

What a GREAT group of 'kids'.

Little did Chay know that he had candles that relit after he blew them out. He had wanted those for Blade's cake but I couldn't find them then. BUT Nicole spotted them for Chay and....

...they were a HIT!

After seeing Doug's blog on the Tim Tam Slam, we were excited to experience the 'Tim Tam Slam' ourselves (or Slim Slam Tam as I called it once. And as Erika mentioned, she used sugar free hot chocolate so hers was the 'Slim Slam').

Chay enjoyed it so much that he had three Tim Tam Slams!


Chay LOVED his gift from the Takahashis!
He wore it that night as a sleep shirt.


Since we did the cake on Saturday, we didn't have a cake to celebrate on Sunday for Chay's birthday but he did receive his birthday gift!


Chay's birthday gift was a group effort involving Grandma and Grandpa, Memema and Papa, Nicole, Blade, Dave and me. He got an IPOD!
I had no idea what the new IPODs could do, it's definitely not 'Nicole's IPOD' from years ago...
He showed me how he could write with it.


He is very excited with his gift!
Nicole helped him set it up and the two of them experimented with it, okay Chay did most of the experimenting and used it until he had to recharge it.


Happy Birthday Chay!

It was a fun week end with Doug and the rest of the gang! It was too short though. I love having Doug visit and with Alana at BYU, we've been fortunate to have many visits from Doug and Judy! Now that Alana's plans do not involve BYU next semester, I don't know how we will adjust to seeing them less frequently.

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.