Bridget's 7th Birthday and Thanksgiving

This year, Bridget finally got to have her first friend birthday party, and she was so excited about it. I had planned to do one last year when she was in Kindergarten, but with a newborn, it was one more thing that I just couldn't take on.

Her actual birthday fell on Thanksgiving day this year, so she had her friend party the Saturday before, and then got to celebrate with family again on her birthday.

Like most little girls lately, she wanted a Frozen themed party. We chose to do the party at our house, playing games, eating cake and ice cream, and opening presents. Because it was her 7th birthday, I let her invite 7 friends. Sadly, only 3 of them came and only one parent actually bothered to RSVP saying their daughter couldn't come. I was pretty irritated by the poor turnout and rude parents that didn't RSVP because I had gone to a lot of work, but I guess that's what you get when your child attends a low-income school. Anyway, enough of my ranting. At least Bridget wasn't as disappointed as I was.

Here's a few pictures from the party:

We went to West Yellowstone to spend Thanksgiving with Nate's parents, and two of his siblings and their families. The girls couldn't wait to play in the snow and spend time with their cousins.

Grandpa plowed snow with his tractor into a hill for the kids to sled on.

The birthday girl 

Dayton wasn't a big fan of his first snow experience and only lasted a few minutes outside.

Bridget begged to open her presents on the morning of her birthday, so I told her should could either open all of them that morning or open one then, another later, and the others after that. She chose to open all of them that morning.

She loved all of her gifts, and was thrilled to get just what she asked for from Nate and me - a set of Frozen PJs that included a bath robe and a locket.

After a yummy Thanksgiving meal, we had pie as well as the pumpkin dessert I made and stuck a candle in so we could sing to Bridget.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday, Bridget!

Dayton's 1st Birthday

I can't believe our sweet boy is one already!

 

He was all smiles that morning.

Our dear friends Sandy and Bill (aka Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Bill) stopped by on their way out of town that morning.

We started off the party by letting Dayton open his presents. He did a pretty good job and Bridget and Felicity couldn't help but jump in and help him.

 

This airplane toy from Grandma and Grandpa was a big hit.

Then it was time to move on to cake and ice cream. Once again Bridget and Felicity were ready to step in and blow out the candle for him.

At first he wasn't too sure about the cake (pumpkin with cream cheese frosting)...

But within a few minutes he devoured it.

 

By the end, he was pretty tired and ready for a bath and his crib.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAYTON!

Felicity's 3rd Birthday

Personally, I love celebrating birthdays, so I do my best to make them a big deal. Felicity happened to be looking forward to hers for a few months now, so I was happy to make it a fun day for her.

Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year which also means it's General Conference. That made it a little more challenging since we couldn't go out to eat and had to plan things around Conference. But we did start the day off with our traditional birthday cake pancakes complete with candles.

I should also mention she was pretty sick with a nasty cold thanks to the RSV that ran through all three of our kids. It's no fun to be sick on your birthday, and we even had to take her to urgent care the night before because she had an ear infection.

We made the best of everything and had a few family members and neighbors over for cake and homemade ice cream that night. One of her presents was a scooter (the only request she made for a present).

She also got some jewelry since she's always borrowing/stealing Bridget's.

I had so much fun making her cake. It was certainly a labor of love, but it turned out better than I thought it would, and it was delicious. She still loves Curious George more than any other cartoon. I love the cheesy grin on her face in this picture.

 

And here's a video of the last half of the birthday song. It sometimes takes me a bit to remember how to take videos on our new camera which is why it's missing the beginning.

 

Her other gift was a swing set. Felicity loves to swing, and a couple of weeks before her birthday I asked our good friends and neighbors, Brian and RaeAnn, if they wouldn't mind helping us pick up a used swing set for her if I could find one we wanted on the local online classifieds. They were happy to help, and they absolutely love Felicity. Brian actually found this one for us for FREE, picked it up, hid it at their house, and then helped Nate assemble it a couple of days before her birthday. Both of the girls LOVE it and have spent hours on it already.

 

Happy birthday to our favorite 3-year-old in the whole world!

We love you, Felicity!

Nate's Birthday

Another year has come and gone for Nate. Even though birthdays aren't a big deal to him, he obliges me and lets me try to make it somewhat special for him. Sadly, he was unable to take the day off from work or even work from home, so it was more his kind of celebration than mine.

I spent the afternoon making his cake (German chocolate) and was grateful both Dayton and Felicity took good naps at the same time making it much easier for me.

That blanket he is holding has Dayton in it even though you can't see him at all.

We didn't go out to eat because I didn't want to take Dayton out to a restaurant, so we got takeout from Zupas. I should also mention that some people Nate works for took him out to lunch at a hibachi house, so he got a really nice lunch too.

Because I am the giver of practical gifts, Nate got a new desk chair for his birthday. With as much as he works from home, it was time for a new, comfortable chair since our old one was one we purchased when we got married over 7 years ago. It was far from comfortable anymore.

Happy birthday, Nate!

4th of July

When it comes to holidays, two things stand out for me as far as making them special - family and food. Most of the day we spent together as just our little family of four, and overall we had a great holiday.

We started off the day with a festive breakfast - pancakes with fat free vanilla yogurt topped with blueberries and strawberries. Yum!

That afternoon, I had to make dessert to take to the family BBQ we were going to later. Being the cake lover that I am, I opted to go with a beautiful and delicious bundt cake and then made some homemade ice cream to go with it. Sadly, I didn't take a picture once we cut into it, but it was red, white, and blue on the inside as well.

While I was busy slaving away inside, Nate took the girls outside to enjoy the new pool we got. They love the water, and had a blast.

That evening we headed over to my Aunt Jennine's for a BBQ with several members of my extended family. We had a great time visiting, eating, and ended the evening with fireworks.

Father's Day

Our Father's Day celebration this year was simple but nice. Amidst all the church meetings we were able to enjoy a nice breakfast and lunch/dinner together as a family. And since special occasions give me the opportunity to try yet another new cake recipe, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I did give the option of pie since he's more of a pie than cake person, but he also loves the pineapple and coconut combination so I went with cake. It ended up being a good choice, and we all enjoyed it for several days.

Pina Colada Cake

A moist and delicious coconut cake with pineapple filling and a coconut cream cheese frosting

Nate didn't get to open up an actual gift this year because he took forever making up his mind about what he wanted. I presented him with 3 very good options, but he didn't actually decide until Father's Day. Two-and-a-half weeks later, it arrived - a video baby monitor that we can view either on the computer or our phones. He's been in technology heaven ever since with his new gadget, and we both enjoy taking peeks at Felicity in her bed.

At this point, it would seem appropriate to have a picture of Nate with the girls, but since remembering to take pictures is not one of my strong points this post will have to do without one.

Nate is a wonderful father, and I'm so grateful for all of the help he constantly gives me with the girls. Happy Father's Day!

7th Anniversary

This year we decided to celebrate our anniversary without our children by going on a real date - and not just any date. We left them overnight! This was a first for us, and especially me. Since Bridget was born 5.5 years ago, I've never been away from my kids at night. Nate's been away on a couple of business trips before, but for me it was a new experience. Even when Felicity was born, I had her brought into my hospital room to eat during the one night I was there. 

Needless to say, it was nice to have a little time away from our kids. Nate's parents came down for a couple of days and watched them for us which was great. Our girls love all the time they can get with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday night we headed to Salt Lake and went to dinner at The Garden Restaurant. The food was really good, and since the weather was perfect, we walked through the City Creek Center afterward. We also got some dessert at Kneaders and took it back to our hotel. We decided to splurge and stay the the Grand America, which was fun too.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel before heading back to pick our girls up so Nate's parents could do the errands and things they needed to that day. It would have been nice to have a little more time away, but it was also nice to be home with the girls again. It's amazing how much I always miss them even when I'm only away from them for a few hours.

The view of downtown SLC from our hotel room balcony.

Sunday was our actual anniversary, so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try one of the many cake recipes I've been wanting to try. This one is called Pumpkin Dream Cake and is a pumpkin cake with cinnamon maple cream cheese frosting. It was very moist, a little more dense then I prefer, but delicious.

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend. Happy 7th Anniversary to us!

Felicity's 2nd Birthday Celebration

With Felicity's birthday falling on the Saturday of General Conference this year, it made finding time to celebrate a little tricky. Lucky for her, the celebration ended up lasting 3 days. We wanted to do something fun and decided to the girls might like going on pony rides. Last summer, Nate helped some friends of his when they moved into a home about 10 minutes from ours. These friends happen to own a very gentle pony named Buddy and told Nate would should bring our girls over to ride him sometime. After coordinating with them and planning around the weather, we took them to ride Buddy on Thursday evening. Both of the girls loved it, and had a good time. Watching Felicity ride was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She was fearless and would giggle anytime he started trotting very fast. They also had a swing set, and Felicity loves to swing so she was in heaven.

Look at that smile - that's how much she loves to swing.

With the weekend being busy with General Conference and a belated Easter dinner the day after her birthday, we opted to celebrate with presents, cake, ice cream, and family on Friday evening.

Opening presents. Some of them are a little blurry because she was so excited she hardly stopped moving. She got lots of fun things - puzzles, a book, clothes, baby and toy car seat, shopping cart, and the green wagon she and Bridget are sitting in.

Felicity loves fish, so she got a fish cupcake cake for her birthday.

She loved having everyone sing to her and blowing her candle out so much that we had to relight it and sing to her a second time so she could do it again.

And last of all, on her actual birthday we celebrated with birthday cake pancakes before spending the rest of the day watching General Conference. She loved being sung to again and blowing out more candles.

 We love you Felicity! Happy birthday!

And here's her stats from her check-up at the doctor:

Height: 35.5 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 27 lbs. (55th percentile)

Head: 18.5 inches (40th percentile)

Bridget's 5th Birthday

Bridget's birthday celebration actually ended up being a two-day event this year because Nate had to work on her birthday. On Monday, she started off the celebration at preschool where she got to be the teacher's helper for the day and took cupcakes to share with her class. Later that day I took Bridget and Felicity to go play in the bounce houses at a nearby fun center. Then Bridget got to go to the doctor for her check-up and 3 shots. She was kind of scared but ended up laughing while she was getting the shots. We told her if she was good about getting her shots then we would go play games at Chuck E Cheese afterwards.

Having a good time at Chuck E Cheese

On the morning of her actual birthday, we started off the day with some birthday cake pancakes. I also let her open a present at breakfast and another a lunch. When Nate got home from work, we met Megan for dinner at Bridget's favorite place (and mine too) - Cafe Zupas. Then we came back to our house for cake, ice cream, and a few more presents.



Birthday Cake Pancakes

Present opening

The Tinkerbell Cake - a layer of chocolate and a layer of white cake with butter cream frosting

Wearing her new Rapunzel pajamas from Aunt Megan



At the end of the day Bridget said multiple times that it was the best birthday ever! I'm glad she had fun  because we love her so much and wanted to make it a special day for her.

Nate's Birthday

That's right. Nate turned the big 35 and was so excited about it. (Okay, not really. But I always enjoy celebrating a birthday - even when it's not my own).

With his birthday falling on a Sunday this year, we got to celebrate for a couple of days. On Saturday night we headed to one of his favorite restaurants (Pepperbelly's) for dinner. Megan, Brant, & Kirstin even joined us. We were having so much fun, we forgot to take any pictures.

On Sunday, my Aunt Jennine had us over for dinner and we brought the birthday cake and homemade ice cream for dessert.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

This may sound weird but Nate didn't get to open any actual presents on his birthday. We decided to get the new Kindle Fire as a birthday present to both of us since we ended up returning the TV I got for my birthday and the monthly date nights only seem to have happened once. Since the Kindle Fire doesn't come out until mid November, we'll both have to wait just a little longer for a "birthday" present.