The Par-tay

The morning of Blake's birthday, he woke up and was acting a little strange. He was quiet, he was laying down a lot and looked worried. I checked him for a fever and sure enough he was warm. I asked if he felt sick. With eyes wide, he said, "No." I said, "Blake, if you don't feel good we can do your party another day. Are you sure you are not sick?" He started crying, "I'm sick!" he said. Poor guy. He was afraid that if he admitted he was sick, his birthday wouldn't happen. But as soon as I told him we could do it another day, he fessed up. So he spent his actual birthday not feeling good. Then Dallin and Mom got it, and it was no fun. Finally, we were all better and could celebrate Blake's 5th birthday, 2 weeks later.
I saw a cute cake idea in a magazine, a ninja training camp. I thought it would be fun with Kung Fu Panda. With Blake's approval, that is what he got for his cake. It was really fun!



The awesome neighbor kids came. I love having great kids nearby for my kids to play with. We did Kung Fu Panda masks and Kung Fu Panda tattoos. We also did a bean bag toss.



The cute blondie next to Blake is Onyx. Apparently Blake and Onyx are engaged. They sure are cute together. :)





Birthday Party accomplished, Happy Birthday Blake!

Now I get to do it all over again for Kyle in 2 weeks. :)

5 Years Old

Here is Blake's 5 year old picture. Oh, he is getting so big!!!!

Blake is 5!

Oh Happy Birthday to my sweet Blake.

















Looking through these pictures made me a little sad. Blake was such a beautiful baby! And now he is getting so big! He is still just cuddly as can be and always has something nice to say. He tells me all the time, "You pretty mama, you a good cooker!" He also does happy thoughts for me at bedtime so I don't have nightmares. He tells me to close my eyes and "Think of flowers and butterflies, and a little lamb coming to sleep with you." And it works, I don't have nightmares. :) He does has a temper sometimes, but gets over things quickly. He is very smart and eager to go to school. Blake is very social. The first thing he does when he goes into a room full of people he doesn't know is wave at each person, quickly saying, "Hi, hi! I'm Blake."

Blake, we are blessed to have you in our home. You are so sweet and are always willing to give hugs and cuddles. Happy Birthday my affectionate little blue eyed boy! I love you love you love you!

Look Alikes

There seems to be no doubt that Dallin looks exactly like Brian. When Brian holds Dallin, he looks like a little mini me.



But I have wondered about Blake and Kyle, who looks more like Mom, or Dad.

I found this old baby picture of me, and for sure I think I look more like Blake as a baby.







Blake also looks a lot like my Dad, especially in the eyes.

Kyle does has my eye and hair color, but he still looks like a Schwab to me.



They sure are cute little boys!

We Love Sledding

The park across the street has small hills perfect for sledding.







Super fun!

Naughty

Hey Mom! Baby proof this!

Sunshine!

It's January and the weather has been so beautiful! Usually January is my least favorite month. It's cold, dark and there are no Christmas lights to lighten things up. But if January was always like this, it would be one of may favorites.

I took Blake and Dallin outside and we had a great time! Blake and I played hide and go seek.





and jumped on the trampoline:



Blake is super fun to play with.

Dallin was fun too, can't you just hear him saying "Ball" when you see this picture?



We also went to the park:



Kyle is getting older, and wants to be alone more. That is why he isn't in this post. Really, I never thought that would happen to Kyle. He has always wanted my time so much. It's a bit of a shock to see that he doesn't always want to play with me.
:( Oh well, we do other things together and we still talk every night. So I still have some Kyle time.

Having a yard is such an important part of these boys lives. They need outdoor activities. I love being outside with them. I know the snow will come and cover everything up, but it sure has been a great way to start January.

Wishful Thinking

When it comes to your kids, you always have in mind the way you think or want something to go. The way things actually go is usually different. You think of playing games together, everyone happy, smiling, and lots of I love you's flying around. You also think of going fun places together and everyone excited. Pretty soon, you realize that it is just wishful thinking and reality sets in. Going places with little people is so much work and it doesn't always result in smiling faces. You come to accept that games are frought with lots of tears and pouting because they didn't win, and the rivalry sets in. This year, I wanted a picture of all the boys in front of the tree with their Christmas Jammies on. Here is what I got:



I tried my best. But, well, this was it.

I settled for 2 out of 3.



We don't always have the best family home evenings, or the happiest game of candy land ever played, but they are still awesome. Even when they are throwing a tantrum.

I love my boys. And maybe next year, I will get all three of them smiling at me in front of the Christmas tree.

Upgrade

I love to read. Love it. Like most people, I don't get all the time I would like to just lounge and quietly enjoy a great book. So, as often as I can, I get a good book on CD and listen to it in the van. I don't necessarily trust much fiction to be appropriate for little ears so I usually stick with church books for that. The bonus is that it helps me teach relief society and it is spiritually uplifting to me.

Three months ago we sold our Honda Van and got the Dodge. I love this newer van but the one drawback has been that the CD player in it didn't work. I was kinda bummed. So for my birthday Brian got me a new one! It has an Ipod connector so that I can now listed to books on CD, without worrying about getting them back to the library on time. It is awesome!



I felt kinda guilty because it is really nice, but he told me that it was a black Friday special and he really did get a great deal on it. Then, as he pulled the dashboard apart to install it, he found $6! Then he pulled out the old factory CD player and he heard a metal rumbling sound in it. So he shook it, and coins started falling out. He shook it some more and about $1.50 in change came out of it. I guess the kids of the family who owned this before us do what kids do, which is put coins in the CD player. After Brian got all the change out, the old CD player started working! And I guess the factory one is worth more that what we paid for the new one. Even in used condition. So, I got a great upgrade! And now I can listed to my Ipod in the van. Bring on the Sheri Dew and John Bytheway!

Christmas!

Oh, I love the age my boys are. They are so much fun. Christmas was something they have been looking forward to and excited about for a while.

For Family Home Evening the week before we did a lesson about the meaning of Christmas, then played with Play-Doh. Can you tell what we made?


Then on Christmas Eve we had what is now pretty much a tradition. Everyone met at my house and we had a little nativity with the cousins.



What else could Blake be but a shepherd with his Lamb? It was chaotic and busy, but I loved every minute of it. It is so fun! These kids are each so special and I love them.

Since we each kind of do our own thing Christmas morning, we usually open the Grandma presents on Christmas Eve too. I love this face of Blake's, priceless!



Bummer of all, we ended up with a stomach bug. :( Dallin got it first, but of course it coincided with me trying to get him on milk. Every time I give him milk, he gets sick. So I figured it was the milk. Then, Blake got it, and I wanted to blame it on the two huge boxes of candy Aunt Dixie gave him, but I was a little suspicious. Then, I started not feeling so good Christmas Eve night. It was awful. Especially considering that Dallin, my usually good sleeper was awake from 1:00 until 4:30 am. Nobody slept that night. 7:30 am rolled around and we all got up excited anyway about presents. Here is what they woke up to! Lucky kids.




Maybe I don't get to do a lot of costly things with my boys during the year, but we always have a great Christmas. They will have great memories of this.

Anyway, the stomach bug was gone quickly. So my birthday was still fun. Tired as I was, we still took the sled out and put it to use right away.





The boys aren't the only ones who got spoiled, I did too. I certainly wasn't expecting it. But I got a beautiful new coat and an awesome printer/fax/copier among other things. Lucky me! Mostly, I am lucky to have my little family and home, and also to have my savior. He loves us all!

Merry Christmas!