30 again!

On Sunday Nate celebrated his 2nd 30th birthday!  I can't believe how old he is!!!!  Gees!!!  HA! jk.  It was Sunday, so it was tricky to really make it his day, I still haven't even been able to take him out like I wanted to, but it was a fun day.  We surprised him with Breakfast and presents in bed.  Kelly's was first.  About two weeks ago Kelly started working on her present and it was really something.  She made this elaborate coupon book with cute little coupons of things Kelly would do for him.  He seemed pretty excited about the "free massage" and "do your hair" ones.  I personally look forward to the "organize your dresser".  Then she had a box that she cut a hole in the top for him to put the coupons in when he wants to redeem them.  She's so creative and did it ALL on her own.  She kept telling me how much she likes MAKING gifts rather than buying them.  And I agree.  So much thought and effort.  The rest of us had gifts that all went with his big one.  A tuner, strap, picks, and free restrings.  We went out on a limb this year and got Nate a guitar.  Funny that a month ago I thought he knew how to play a guitar!  I got the idea to get him one as we were driving home from buying his Father's Day gifts, and then shortly after that learned that he knew how to play a bass, but not a regular guitar (who knew they were that different?).  So then I decided that would be a stupid idea and put it out of my mind.  Well, then about a week before his birthday he said something about wishing he could sit in his room and play a guitar like Steve does, and then I knew we had to still get that for him!  Whether he can play it or not :)  So Steve helped me find the perfect deal guitar.  I think he likes it, he's been going online to get some free lessons.  HOpefully he can learn and enjoy it.  I'm happy to have one in our home.  I hope all of our kids learn how to play eventually.  In Primary they did an extra birthday song for Nate since he was out with the baby when they did the first one, they wanted to make him feel special.  And at home we had some family over (nothing special) for some cake and ice cream.  I hope Nate knows that I love him.  Happy birthday Babe!!! 

Erika was mesmerized by ALL the candles.... and Luke and Brad were good helpers at blowing them all out.  HOpefully Nate made a good wish.

I don't know why I put this on here.... but for some reason I want to remember how cute he looks when he's mad and crying.  I think he was afraid I wasn't going to give him some cake and ice cream because I was moving them all away from his little sampling fingers.

Kelly made him a little "birthday bowtie" to wear :) She's so thoughtful.

"look at me, standing up to the coffee table, growing up SO FAST, huh mom!"

He LOOKS like he knows how to play! 

soon enough....

Pioneer Day Celebrations

In Bountiful we do our celebratin' on the 23rd.  For the last month or so the girls have looked forward to, practiced for, and talked about the Bountiful Parade.  They were SO excited for it.  Mainly because the girls were invited to be in it with the Stake float.  They got to dress up in European clothes and walk in the parade.  Kelly wasn't really old enough, you were suppsoed to be 8, but they let her come as long as she had an adult with her.  So Nate joined them.  They have a lot of fun stories about walking in the parade.  Nate says that the girls looked like a couple of pros, waving and walking like they're all that and a bag of chips (might have been all the practicing!!  Seriously, Kelly would get Noah and walk around the yard, waving and walking.... makes me chuckle, what a cute little girl)  They were so nice to save their yummiest treats for the boys and made sure to pass them out to them when they got to us in the parade.  I got to watch the parade from a comfy camp chair and my cute boys and baby girl.  We were supposed to have lots of family with us, but all but my Dad ditched out on us!!!  Luckily he came though.  He was funny company for the first quarter of the parade.  He held Erika, took pictures and ragged on all the dorky parade stuff with me :).... Parades really aren't my favorite, but I HATE missing them.... why is that?  My Dad hates them.  He was so nice to sacrifice to come down and see the girls, which unfortunately, he traded me the camera for Erika right as Nate and the girls were coming down the road, and since Erika got fussy being handed off, he walked away to calm her down.... and in the process, missed the girls completely!  It makes me laugh, but how lame for him.  He left as soon as Nate and the girls got back to us after finishing.... there was still 3/4 of the parade left to go.  The boys of course go ONLY for the candy.  They couldn't care less about anything else.  I did see a small grin when they high-fived the Ninja Turtle, but seriously, it wouldn't be worth it without the candy.  In fact the first little while, there was very little candy being thrown out.  They totally kept looking back at me like, "is this how it's going to be the whole time??  cuz I'm not going to just stand here for nothing".  They looked so cute though, holding their little white trash Walmart bags like a couple of little Trick-or-Treaters.  They did end up getting quite a stash!!!  Even some for the girls too, since they were so worried about missing out on the candy.  Noah sat in his stroller for the WHOLE THING.  I kept asking him if he wanted to go get candy, but no, he didn't want to.  He might have gotten up a little near the end, to grab a candy here and there, but he would go sit down to eat it and really, just sat there most of the time.  I couldn't believe it.  Erika was NOT a fan of the parade.  There just wasn't enough attention on her for her liking I'm afraid. 

This part really seemed crazy to me.  The police all lined up on the street on their bikes, and then one of them came CRUISING down the road going REALLLY fast to make lots of noise.  It was INSANE!!  I seriously don't see how they can think that's okay with all the kids around. 

After the parade, Grandpa met us at Carl's Jr. for some yummy dinner.  I thought it was a stretch thinking the kids would want to play on the playground there and that they would be too worn out, but I couldn' have been more wrong.  They just kept going!  After that we made our way up the hill to catch the end of the fireworks show.  We watched most of it as we drove up there and then found a parking lot to just double park in and watched the last of it out the car windows.  I still feel bad that we didn't do more to see fireworks this year, but what can ya do I guess.  What we did see was pretty cool.  Erika liked the fireworks less than she liked the parade.

The next day, we watched some of the Days of '47 Parade on tv, then went down to the Handcart Days Carnival at the park.  It's so fun to go to these places with kids!!!  They had a blast.  They all got to go on a couple of rides, did the fishing pond, had some snow cones and hot dogs, corn on the cob and scones..... And then had the most fun just playing on the little zip line thing on the playground.  Nate was actually the entertainment there, pushing everyone on the thing.  We joked about him taking tickets while he did that, and I cringed worrying about who was going to fall down, break an arm and then sue us.  :)  No one was hurt though. 

The girls went on the bungee thing again and still looked like they were scared for their lives :)  At least this time they weren't nervous in line.... we're making progress :)

Noah slept for the first half, in the stroller, so when he woke up we let he and Luke go on the swings together even though Luke had had his turn.  They looked ADORABLE together!!!  I love it when they lift up their arms "NO HANDS!!" they just look so brave :) and cute. 

Brad and Noah both got little dolphin squirt guns at the fish pond.  I never would have guessed that those could be SO COOL!!!  They didn't put them down for a couple of days.  It was fun that Noah even knew what to do with them :)

We were all very tired after the carnival and rather than scout out another fireworks display to make up for the night before, we went home and had a movie night.  I thought the kids would care, but they of course didn't.  Toby Tyler and Old Yeller..... good times.  Erika fell asleep on me in the weirdest position which NEVER happens!  Course she was already mostly asleep when I put her there.... but still, miraculous!  Fun day!

Summer Rain

Strangely enough, everytime I pull into the driveway I think 'I should roll the windows up in case it rains' and everytime, I do, and it never rains.  Well, on Wednesday (7/21/10) it happened again, 'I should roll up the windows in case it rains' only this time, I answered it with 'nah.  It never rains.' and I left them down.  Well, wouldn't ya know it, a couple hours later, CRASH!!!!!  I heard thunder.  It's all good, we got out there soon enough that it wasn't flooded or anything ;), but I just thought it was crazy that the ONE TIME I don't roll them up, it rains.  Maybe it's just a good way to guarantee me some of this awesome Summer rain that I love SO MUCH!!  We all (grandpa too!) went outside and played in the rain a little.  The kids like it when we time them running down to the gutter and see how fast they can do it.  And then showing us how wet they are afterward.  Lots of fun.  Noah even went down and played in the gutter a little with Kelly and Charity's friend Kiara.  I got some really awesome pictures of Steve while we were out on the porch, I'm going to see what I can do with them to make them look even cooler and then I will post them :)

Kelly's so fun!

The night before, while they were waiting to go to the party, Kelly and Noah asked if they could use the chalk.  And for some reason I thought they meant AT THE PARK, but no, when we got upstairs to leave we saw a magnificent chalk masterpiece covering Grandpa's porch.  Well, last year, I remembered him getting really annoyed with the chalk on the porch (since the rain/snow/whatever doesn't touch his porch, it never gets washed off and just ends up looking junky), so I flipped out.  Anyway.  This is Kelly cleaning it off.  I wanted to mention how adorable she looked when Grandpa came out and said in his fake mad voice, "WHO DREW ALL OVER MY PORCH!?"  And she just put her hands on her hips, smiled with pride, and a touch of innocence, and said, "I did :)".  Classic.  Grandpa couldn't be mad at her.  One of the many good things about being cute, little, and female :)  Grandpa is wrapped around her little tiny finger.