fives

Kade

Ky

I just wanted to send a huge birthday shout-out to the two most awesome, funny, smart, cute, best-buddy boys in the whole world. Today my boys turned 5!! I can't even believe it. We spent the day playing with their new Christmas presents, watching Toy Story 3, going to Chuck E. Cheese and having chocolate waffles and ice cream for dessert. Here are some of my favorite things about Ky and Kade right now:

Ky:
Ky is reading so well. He can pick up a book and read most of it. He also writes very well and loves to write notes and cards to everyone and only occasionally asks for help spelling a word. He still shares everything with Kade, and if Kade is crying about something he wants, Ky will almost always give Kade what he wants. Ky is so funny. He loves to tell jokes, but even more than that are just the funny things he says. He quotes movies and song lyrics at just the right time to make everyone laugh.
Kade:
As always, Kade is so expressive. His eyebrows are almost always raised, either in excitement or from being upset. He's also constantly expressing his love for each member of our family. He likes to tell us that he loves us more than _____________ (fill in the blank). It's fun to hear what he comes up with that he loves us more than. Winter is hard on Kade because he still has a deep love for sports. He wishes he could be outside playing football or going golfing with dad. He makes up for not being able to play sports outside by watching sports with Bart.

The two of them are inseparable. The worst thing I can threaten them with as punishment is to split them up and make them play in separate rooms--and I only make that threat when they are fighting. They always try to make their brother's time outs more enjoyable by bringing them toys (which is of course prohibited). Even if one of them gets in trouble for hurting his brother, the one that got hurt always tries to get their brother out of a punishment. Luckily they usually play super well together, so this rarely happens.

They are both really into Star Wars right now. They also went through some serious Iron Man and War Machine, and Transformers phases this year too. Ever since they started 4 year old kindergarten in September, they have both decided that they love to color. Actually, I guess it would be more accurate to say that they like to draw, because they rarely want to color out of a coloring book, but like to create their own pictures on a blank sheet of paper.

They recently discovered the show Backyardigans, and have been watching a lot of it lately. They also like to play video games. Their favorites include Little Big Planet, Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, and Lego Harry Potter (although they got the Toy Story video game for their birthday today, so we'll have to see if that becomes a new favorite).

I am so lucky to be Kade and Ky's mom. They are seriously the best kids a parent could hope for. They are such good boys--full of energy, but so good. They are fun, happy, and full of love. Happy Birthday Kade & Ky!! I hope it's the best!

crazy snow storm

It's been a few weeks now since we had this crazy snow storm. There was a lot of snow, and even more wind. Because of all the wind, there were some huge drifts of snow. I could see patches of my grass in places, and other places the snow drifts were 3-4 feet deep. The funniest thing I think was that the wind blew the snow through the screens on our windows and made it so we could hardly see out the window at all. This was just the first big snow storm of the season and I'm sure we'll have more.

This is what our sliding glass door looked like in the morning. See how the snow goes all the way up to the top on one side? Crazy.

singing christmas songs!

Here are some fun videos of the boys singing Christmas songs. The first one is what they performed at the Christmas party at church, and the other two are from their preschool winter program. Enjoy!

jonathan and katherine's wedding day

My little brother Jonathan married his sweetheart Katherine on November 20th in the Draper temple. We were lucky enough to be there to help them celebrate this special day. It was so neat being in the sealing room with lots of my family members watching them be sealed.
Outside the temple afterwards, we tried to take pictures, but it was soooo windy and cold, so pictures didn't last very long. But I think I got a few good ones anyway. Katherine's dad is a photographer and was their official photographer, but I wanted to take some too, so I tagged along behind him to capture a few moments.

Doesn't my mom look pretty in this picture (and wind-blown, and happy)

Our family

I love how happy my brother looks in this shot

Isn't my new sister-in-law gorgeous?! Yep, she is.

Glad they can be silly together

My amazing mother made the cake, and did the flowers, in addition to planning and throwing the entire reception. Her talent never ceases to amaze me.

Ky chilling at the reception with his uncle Daniel-my older brother

Silly Kade

Right after the bride and groom cut the cake and fed each other a bite, Ky jumped right in to get a bite himself. It's a good thing his uncle loves him enough to interrupt this moment. Silly boy!

The whole day was just beautiful, and we are so glad we got to be there. Congrats Jonathan and Katherine!

eclipse movie release party

Saturday I hosted a fun little Eclipse movie party. I used a few ideas from my Twilight party, and a few new ideas. Because I had been in Utah for two weeks a week before this party, I had planned on keeping things really low key. That didn't work. I guess I can't throw a party "low key." That's okay because it turned out great and everyone had a great time (I think).

These little party favors were kinda last minute, but I love how they turned out. Eclipse ornaments for all the guests to take home and hang on their tree, plus a little chocolate because no party favor is complete without chocolate.

I covered the drink glasses with blood (aka red corn syrup). I loved how it looked with the frothy white pina colada drink inside-I just forgot to take a picture of it.

I wish I could say that I made these cookies, but I did not. My very talented friend Brittney made them. Can you even believe the detail on each cookie, taken from the various Twilight book covers? Amazing. Before I ate mine, I thought, "These look too cute to eat." Then I ate it and thought, "I'm sure glad I decided to eat that, because it was delicious!"

We had a great time eating, talking and watching the movie. I can't wait for the Breaking Dawn party, (which won't be for another year and a halfish).

we're back!

We got back last weekend from a two week vacation to Utah. We were there for my brother Jonathan's wedding and Thanksgiving. We had a fun, very busy time between prepping for the wedding, throwing a bridal shower and attending a second one, to entertaining Kade and Ky, to planning and throwing Thanksgiving. We didn't get to visit with many friends, but we made sure we ate at Cafe Rio and Carrabba's.
I'll post more about the wedding when I have a chance to go through the pictures, but I did want to share this picture of the funnest thing I've ever seen at an airport.
When were were in Minneapolis for a long layover, the boys and I found this cool wall. There were three of these umbrellas, each made up of lots of little umbrellas. When you moved in front of them, they scattered like fallen leaves blowing in the wind, then they would move back to the original spot. We played with this wall for nearly 30 minutes, and the boys kept asking me if we could make one of those walls at our house. They were so disappointed when we flew home that our layover was not in Minneapolis.

trick-or-treat!

I know this is a week late, but I think that's pretty good considering how busy October and November have been.

We had a fun Halloween this year! A few days before, I made this fun lunch for Kade & Ky. We had mummy dogs, monster faces, and tator tots dipped in blood. However, they each only ate one bite of their mummy dog. Sometimes I wonder why I go to the trouble to make things like this fun, when they would have been happier with a pb&j. Oh well.
On Saturday evening, we went to the ward trunk-or-treat. It was extra fun because Bret, Charise, and Cooper were with us. I think the boys had a great time and they got lots of candy, even if it was too crowded and chaotic for me. I didn't get to talk to a single person at the party, except for Greta, but that's only because our cars were parked next to each other.

War Machine and Iron Man in the costume parade.

Cooper as Buzz Lightyear-too cute!

War Machine and Iron Man had their costumes picked out months in advance. I couldn't believe that I was letting my kids wear store-bought, jumpsuit costumes for Halloween. But, to add that special, homemade something extra, we made repulsors for their hands with gloves and little lights. They looked super cool in the dark!

If you remember the fake War Machine costume that Ky used to wear all the time, then you'll notice that this actual War Machine costume is a huge improvement. I'm not embarrassed to let him wear this one out of the house.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween like we did. Oh and P.S. don't tell my boys that they missed Trick-or-Treating because Halloween was on Sunday, because I don't think they even knew they missed it. They had so much fun at the trunk-or-treat, and we were too busy at Bart's surprise party on Halloween night for them to notice they were missing out on something.

the big 3-0!

Last week, my amazing hubby turned the big 3-0! We've been having so much fun celebrating his birthday for over a week. We started the celebrations with a party with some friends the Friday before his birthday. I had so much fun planning and decorating for his party.

I printed out a bunch of pictures of Bart when he was younger and tied them to the glasses so everyone could keep track of which glass was theirs.

We ate food based on Bart's favorite snacks: Twizzlers, peanut butter M&Ms, salt and pepper chips, peanut butter and chocolate popcorn, black-bottom cupcakes, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with caramel bits. It was all so yummy!
Then, we played games from the show Minute to Win It.

Ky showed everyone how to do it!

This balloon game was super hard. I think we needed a bigger room with no ceiling fan to get in the way. But, doesn't Bart look cute trying? I think so.

Me and my sweetie at the party. He looks good for 30!

His actual birthday was on Wednesday. We had his annual birthday lasagna, and cheesecake. This year's cheesecake had a fudgy layer, topped with a creamy cheesecake topped with peanut butter ganache, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter cups. Yum!

Friday night, his brother Bret and his family came up and surprised him at his clinic. They stayed through Sunday and we had a lot of fun with them too.

Then, last night we had a surprise party for him at his parents house in Appleton. His sister Sadie planned the whole thing and we had a lot of fun. We almost weren't able to get him down there, but we did.

I think he looks a little worried about blowing out all 30 candles!

We also celebrated my nephew Cooper's birthday at the party since he turns two tomorrow. He was the first one to hit the Spiderman pinata.

Here he is enjoying his birthday cake. Yum!

It was so fun celebrating Bart's birthday, and I feel so lucky to be his wife. Happy Birthday Bart!

enjoying the fall

We've been doing our best to take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather here. We've been playing outside, roasting marshmallows in our backyard, visiting the pumpkin patch, and getting ready for Halloween.

I wanted to post a bunch of pictures from our recent adventures. I had to find a good location for a family portrait session I did last week. So, I dragged my boys out scouting locations. Here are some of the pictures I got of them.

My favorite part about this next picture is how the sunlight accentuates the puff of hair on the back of Ky's hair. Don't worry, he got a haircut the next day.

Here are some silly pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch.