Riley is 3

Riley's birthday was a great celebration made even better with family who came down to visit us! On Riley's birthday I took her out to lunch to her favorite place to eat, Del Taco; she loves their burritos! After lunch we went to get out nails done. She loved this! She thought it was so cool to pick out her own polish color and all the special attention from the ladies at the salon.
                   

Later in the day, after dad got home from work, Riley opened presents from mom and dad. She got an art easel with markers, Anna and Elsa Barbie dolls, a Minnie Mouse play hair dresser kit, and makeup (clear gloss, some brushes, and blush)!

After she opened presents we took Riley to the mall to get her ears pierced (thanks Dad and Lucinda for the earrings)! Riley was super excited and not nervous at all, at least until the two girls had their piercing guns ready to fire. She only cried for a minute and then again when looking in the mirror to see her earrings. After the piercing we took the kids to get frozen yogurt!

Cute Brothers who came to hug her immediately after!

The following day we got the house all decorated for a Frozen themed party and awaited the arrival of Grammy Bo, Pappy, Aunt Megan, Uncle Kris, Navy and Baby Jensen. We invited a couple of Riley's friends to join us but only 1 was able to come. That was okay, because there was still a lot of excitement and fun to be had all around! We made marshmallow snowmen, played pin the nose on Olaf, had a snowball toss, and per request of the Birthday Girl, had an egg hunt!

Do you want to build a Snowman? 

 

Even Kam took a turn

 

 

More Presents!

After playing games and opening presents, we sand and Riley blew out her candles. Then we ate a yummy dinner of "We Finish Each Other's SANDWICHES" (sandwich fixings), "Olaf NOSES" (carrots) and "Melted Snow DIP" (ranch dip), "Sven's Antlers" (pretzels), "Hans' Frozen Heats" (white chocolate dipped strawberries), "Oaken's YOO-HOO" (Yoo-Hoo drink), "Elsa's Frozen PUNCH" (blue raspberry lemon-lime aid), and "Coronation Day Cupcakes."

It was so fun to make this day special for our little princess girl. She is A LOT of work but she is also silly, smart, loves to sing, is a daddy's girl, and gives the best hugs! Happy Birthday Riley Roo; we love you!

Thirty Six

Birthdays are just not as fun when you get older. Thankfully, I have a great kids and Kam who made my day special. Kam made me a special treat for dinner, crepes! He also got stuff to make my favorite desert, strawberry shortcake, YUM! We also went bowling with the kids to celebrate. It was so fun! 

Braden is getting really good even if he does
once in a while bounce his ball off the bumpers.  

Kam beat us all!

The best part of my whole day was the card that Kam gave me. He always writes me cards and notes for special days and this one was made even more special with the gift enclosed inside. The gift was a simple king sized candy bar. Not only was it my favorite candy bar, but it was a token of how much he loves me. My Gramma Dee always gave us $5 and a candy bar for our birthdays. The cards were always filled with the most beautiful sentiments of love and often stated that the gift given was not much with the wish that she could do more but that it came with more love than we could possibly know. This candy bar that Kam included in my card was the perfect gift and meant so very much to me.

A Christmas Surprise

Two days before Christmas Kam's work called to let him know that he could have the Monday after Christmas off which meant we didn't have to wait until Tuesday to head north so we decided to surprise our family and headed north on Christmas day.
Before leaving though we had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas morning together as a family. On Christmas Eve be baked lots of yummy treats and had a special dinner followed by the kids participating in acting out the Nativity and giving our gifts to Jesus. The kids were super excited for Santa to come and all went to be quickly and early. On Christmas morning the kids woke early, or at least the boys did, we had to wait for Riley to wake up before heading down to see all the magical surprises left by Santa.

Riley asked for a Puppy...Santa did a good job getting a very well behaved one.

She also got Daisy, Donald and Pluto plushes and a tent!

The boys got remote control Cars

After opening gifts from Santa and stockings we ate breakfast and then FaceTimed Kam's parents so the kids could open presents from them. After that, we opened gifts from Mom and Dad and each other and then loaded up the car and headed north. We arrived on Kam's parents doorstep at 8:30 that evening and the look on Keven's face was absolutely priceless.
The next morning we went to my sister Megan's house to surprise them and my mom.

I could not keep the boys inside once we arrived in Utah. They have missed the snow so much. It's crazy to think that we haven't played in or seen snow in four years!

After church on Sunday we drove up to Bear Lake where we spent the week at the condo. We had so much fun playing with our family and riding on the snowmobile. The best part was being pulled on the toboggan behind either the snowmobile or the truck.

These girls had the best time together!

They also got in a lot of trouble with
some baby powder and a water bottle.

While at the condo we celebrated Carter's birthday and rang in the new year together.

We didn't have any candles so Carter just
pretended to blow them out to make his wish.

Aunt Megan pushed his face in.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving 2015

This year for Thanksgiving we spent the day in St. George at my Dad and Lucinda's house. Lucinda went all out making the most beautiful and tasty dinner. After begging she finally consented, letting me make a butternut squash soup. Lucinda's mom helped with the dinner and joined us for dinner. Lucinda's Aunt Mary also joined us. We had a really great time and loved being able to relax and enjoy being with some of our family.