Easter & 31 on the 31st

Every so often my birthday happens to fall on Easter.  And this happened to happen this year {I wonder if anyone happens to be tired of me typing happen yet?} And I digress.

  I have been longing for this day for years. My golden birthday where my age and date line up.  Like since I was a kid longing.  Crazy right?  Well, by the time it came, I was much less muted with excitement and instead just looked forward to spending some good quality TLC with the family.  I had already gotten what I really really wanted: a fun girls weekend to NYC that included shopping, dining, entertainment, and lots of laughs.  Oh and my brand new pair of Toms were ordered off Amazon and being shipped to my house!

After another fun girls evening the night before my birthday, I really didn't expect anything on the actual date.  It was a great feeling to not have these impossible expectations that most likely would never be met.  It took the pressure off and I just had a fun day. 

The kids put out Easter baskets the night before that ended up being quite the patch job.  Apparently 99 cent buckets do NOT last more than a year, and so stretching to two years was a little much.  I seriously pulled out the packing tape and reattached half of the plastic on Eli and Robby's buckets.  Yikes.  Needless to say, they will all be ending up in the trash can this week.  No use saving them for a third appearance. 

Easter morning Maddie was the first to awake.  She ran in our room so excited to find out if the Easter bunny came.  We made her wait until 7am and then down she bounded to search for her basket.  Robby followed suit about thirty minutes later.  I have to admit, we were so tired that we didn't even bother climbing out of bed and taking the usual Easter morning pictures.  We were so lazy that finally we got up around 8am and then had to scramble to get ready for church.  Eli was plucked out of bed about 8:15am and barely found his basket before we left for church.  Maddie and Robby searched in vain for the parent Easter basket, but were unable to locate it.  The Easter bunny was really tricky this year and hid our basket in the ceiling of the kitchen (see pic below). Luckily Mom has really good eyes and found it after we got home.

Once again, I meant to take Sunday best Easter pictures.  Somehow we never really got around to it.  The best I got was a quick picture of Eli and Maddie at home right after church.  I think we may try to do a belated photo in a few weeks before church.  Maybe, maybe........

Doesn't he look handsome?  I sure think so.  Every time I look at this picture, I have to pinch myself in disbelief at how old he looks.  Since when did I let him grow up?  I am pretty sure he was instructed to never grow up.

Miss M in her Easter dress.  I am not really loving this picture, it seriously doesn't do this cute dress justice.  Maddie was upset that I didn't get her any frilly socks or new shoes for Easter.  Perhaps in the next few weeks this will happen.

After a fairly relaxing afternoon, we prepped ourselves and our food for a fun Easter dinner with our New Hampshire friend family. We had tons of yummy food that included funeral potatoes, Ham, Strawberry Avocado Salad, veggies, fruit, rolls and of course dessert.  Oh, the desserts we had.  My friend Steph made the most delicious homemade Cheesecake.  I NEED to get that recipe from her.  And my other sweet friend, Candace, made me my very own ice cream cake.  She knows that I'm not really a cake lover and so she specialized it just for me.  It was delicious as well.  I had a plate full of dessert that night and now need to go on a diet for a week straight to make up for it.

Later on that evening we did family presents and Skype sessions with each set of parents/family.  Robby and I had a little self photo session together as well.  I love that kid so much!

Maddie was super excited to show off her new gymnastics skills to the family and spent some time practicing before the skype sessions.  I am truly amazed how much she has improved over the past six months.  She is starting to really devote herself to this sport.  She practices constantly and talks about her goal of making the competitive team this fall. 

Oh the ice cream cake.  It was so amazing that it deserves a picture all by it's lonesome.  I will have to make one like this in the future!

Number SIX: Robby through the Years

I got kind of teary as I looked back through pictures of the last six years of my oldest son's life.  So far, I have experienced the hardest, most emotional, best, most hilarious, tearful, exhilarating, rewarding experiences of my own life during this time.  I have grown as a Mother in ways I could have never imagined. Robby has taught me how to unconditionally love another human being and we have become closer than I ever thought we would be.  He is the first to give me a hug when he sees me and the last to request kisses at bedtime.  I love how at the bus stop he will miss his turn at being first if I am not standing right there to hug and kiss him goodbye.  He is always excited to see me and continually reminds how much he loves me.  He may not have the easiest time in social situations but to me he is number one in love.  He is sometimes not pleased about following certain rules but he is never sassy.

At six years old, some of his favorites are monster trucks, legos, hot wheels, electronic games on the kindle, Disney Junior on the computer, basketball, skiing, pretending, reading Magic Treehouse books with Mom, and treats at bedtime.  He is great at cleaning his room, making his bed, dressing himself in Sunday clothes, vacuuming, and washing dishes.  He hates cleaning the bathrooms!

Robby's favorite color is red (again), he is starting to read small books and getting so good at it.  He probably has over 100 sight words down----we have kind of let those take a back seat and have been focusing more on reading books, he still needs to work on his penmanship but that will be something to work on this Spring.  He is very good at math.  He is already starting to do subtraction at home and has gotten very good at addition.  He loves to count and could probably go up to 300 or so if I let him.

He has been taking basketball lessons on Saturday mornings and ski lessons Wednesday after school.  I am so proud of how hard he has been working at listening.  He gets a little distracted sometimes at basketball with all the children running around, but can now dribble a ball one handed with each hand.  He is learning how to pass and make a shot!  He can't wait until next year when he can join a team and play in actual games.  With skiing, he has now been down a lift several times and gets so excited about doing things like this.  He has gotten much more proficient at snow plowing and turning.  We are all excited for Winter break in a few weeks when we can practice a bit more as a family.

February 3, 2007: His Birthday!

September 2007: 7 months old

February 3, 2008: 1 years old

June 2007: 16 months old

February 3, 2009: 2 years old

Summer 2009: 2.5 years old

March 2010: 3 years old

Summer 2010: 3.5 years old

Early Spring 2011: 4 years old

Summer 2011: 4.5 years old

February 2012: 5 years old

October 2012: 5.5 years old

February 3, 2013: 6 years old

Happy birthday Bubba!  We love you so much and are so glad that Heavenly Father chose to send you to our family.  You have such a special place in our family and we love how hard you are working at choosing the right.  We love how you like to wear your CTR ring to remind you to "choose the right"

Robert's nicknames thus far:

Rubba

Rubba Dubba

Rubba (s)

Rob

Robby-most popular

Bubba (s)

Brother

Bro

Little Buddy

Bubba Louie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKY!!

It seems like we have been friends forever yet also like we just met. Becky transferred from Mesa to Highland part way through high school. Although we didn't officially become friends until the end of our Junior year of high school, we have shared so many fun and unforgettable times together that it seems like she will forever be my friend from childhood. She has always been someone that I can count on, whether it was to make me laugh after a bad break up, listen while I vent about my arguments with parents, or to simply go and splurge on ice cream with, she has been there for me. She is the one who has helped get me through some of the toughest times of my life. I seriously don't know what I would have done without her. We stuck together as we maneuvered from high school friends to college friends. We even seemed to date only guys that were good friends for several years as well!

When we were younger we even jokingly made a promise that we would live next door to each other and raise our kids together. I am still trying to convince her of the fabulous qualities of Cortina--the neighborhood that we live in! We have indeed shared many laughs together and at one point had bundles of inside jokes between the two of us. (With each pregnancy I seem to get dumber, so now I seem to have forgotten a lot of those inside jokes :) I can remember our fun games of "perdittle" in the car, our counting game at graduation, going to breakfast instead of seminary and how we will always laugh when it comes to breakfast burritos. Thanks for all the fun times in the past Becky and I am excited to see our boys get to be friends and share their own memories as well! Also thanks for all the late night talks, crying sessions, as well as happy moments!

Several years after high school, we both got married and began our lives with our wonderful husbands. Although we saw much less of each other, we still remained close friends. Then three years ago, Becky and Jeff moved to Midlothian, Texas to begin Chiropractic school. I was so sad to see her leave Arizona. We still have talked on the phone and gotten together as time permits when she came into town. But it almost seemed as though I had lost my friend due to the distance between us. I am so excited to say that she is BACK! They just moved back home a few weeks ago and I am so happy to have her back close to home. Even though we are both busy with kids and families it is nice to start planning outings together!

I hope you have a killer 26 birthday Becky and these pictures are to remember some of the fun memories from our younger years! (there are quite a few: I had so many to choose from and had a difficult time narrowing them down)

Tiffany, Becky, Jamie, Taya, Jen, and April all soaking wet!
The lunch crew our senior year of high school (Steph can you see yourself in the back?!)
We were seriously so HOT with no makeup right?
Becky, Steph, Kelli and Tiff
The Senior girls TP job on the school the end of our senior year!
We almost fell over right after this picture because we were laughing so hard!

Right before a dance!
Graduation here we come: we stayed up SOOO late the night before graduation and my little bro even let us all take a turn shaving part of his head that night. I think he just loved having all these high school girls giving him the attention!!

Calling from the cabin: Shhhh.....I will never tell the reason behind this picture :)
Charlie's Angels: Becky, Carli, Tiffany at the cabin
Ohhh the memories! Kelli, Becky, Tiffany, Steph, Angelee, Lori, and Katie

This was seriously our favorite pose in our pictures. We have so many of these together, I just picked one!

Happy Birthday Jesse

I just wanted to wish my sweetheart a Happy 29th Birthday! Enjoy it while it lasts honey...because it is your last birthday in your 20's! :)

I am seriously so grateful for my sweet husband, I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else. I originally started this post out with the idea that I would find some pictures from when he was a boy...but a few hours later I couldn't seem to find those pictures anywhere. These will have to do for now... This was taken the summer we were dating. Jesse is wearing an ice pack after dislocating his shoulder in my parents swimming pool. He even managed a tiny smile for the camera, despite the pain he was in.
One of my favorites taken with Maddie the summer before her first birthday.
Taken when Jesse and I went to Nauvoo, Illinois.
I hope you had a great birthday.....

Madison's Birthday Party

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY MADISON!!!

For Maddie's birthday "cake" I made yummy pink cupcakes! All the little girls wanted to come sit right by the cupcakes and began making claims on which one belonged to each of them! Madison absolutely loved the attention she got when everyone sang happy birthday and even clapped at the end of the song, she then leaned forward and blew out her candles all by herself. She also LOVES frosting. She kept licking the frosting off of the cupcakes and then trying to give away all of her frosting-less (is that a word?) cupcakes to the younger, unsuspecting kids!

We sure loved having a bounce house for Maddie's special day and all the kids had a blast climbing in it as well (Thanks Bryn for letting us borrow it)

Thanks Jesse for cooking all the yummy food on the grill! Thanks Martineau's for the fun mask..... Maddie thinks it's so funny to run around the house with it on or to put it over her brother's face as well!

This is the ONLY picture we have of our sweet Robby. He is being held by our friend, Beth Greenwald. He slept through almost the entire birthday party and had just woken up in the picture.

Madison had lots of her friends that were more than willing to help with opening her presents (and thank goodness because to be perfectly honest, after opening up her cowboy boots she was tired of looking at presents and was on the run again :)

We had such a blast celebrating Madison's second birthday and look forward to many more to come! Thanks to everyone who came... we were so glad you could all make it! One of Madison's favorite presents are her new PINK cowboy boots, thanks Aunt Esther and Aunt Abby!

It's really not fair that almost all of our pictures on our blog are of Madison. I thought I would include this fun picture of Robert's first playdate with his friend Talan. Aww... aren't they too cute (I mean handsome :)