Ssssuch a good time!

Today was Kennie's birthday party.  Kennie's actual birithday is April 24th, but that was the worst day of my antibiotics from my bone infection, so I spent the majority of the day laying on the floor in the bathroom.  I didn't have energy to do much.  I wasn't able to get his invites out in time for a party around his birthday, so we fit it in today.  He choose a while back to do a reptile party and I was stumped when I tried to figure out what to do.  We finally decided to do Reptile Jeopardy since most of the kids were going to be older.  Take a look at how it went?

The food table.  We enjoyed Swamp Juice (limeade, sprite & lime sorbet), Frogs in Dirt (like dirt in worms only frogs), Snake Sandwich (french bread sandwich), Snake Eyes (green grapes), Red Gecko Eggs (strawberries), Red Iguana Tail (watermelon), Red Racer Scales (Nacho Cheese Doritos), Orange Belly Newt Fingers (Cheetos), and awesome cupcakes.

Closer picture of my spectacular cupcakes.

Kids (and Aaron) enjoying the food.

Jeopardy!  (This took so much of my time.  Seriously stressed myself out.  If you would like to do reptile jeopardy, let me know and I'll send you my file.  It'll cut out a bunch of work for you!)

I love his face in this picture.  He was planning on using his money from Grandma & Grandpa Burnside to buy him a tennis racket so he could play with Justin!  Love it!!

Blowing out his candles.  He took his wishing seriously!!

Pinata.  He LOVED beating his from up!!  (Do you know how hard it is to find a reptile pinata.  Just saying!  Thankfully I found this frog!!)

All in all, it was a very successful party!!  Happy Birthday my Tween Boy!!

Justin Loves Football!! Happy 9th!

Justin turns 9 today.  He was super excited to have his birthday on a Saturday so his party could be on a Saturday.  (Mom - not so much.  I have 3 birthday parties for my kids on 3 consecutive Saturdays!!)

Justin Choose a Seahawks Football Party

The Party Landscape

The Food.  We had Quarterback Cupcakes, Game Day Nachos, Goal Time Pizza, First Down Fruit and Half Time Hot dogs   I wrapped the green utensils in a Seahawks Napkin and then tied a football paper around it.  

Close-up of the Quarterback Cupcakes and treat bags.  (I amazed myself here folks!)

This picture is a bunch of burping boys who kind-of ate their food.

First game we played.  Football corn hole.  Is there such a thing?

Next came the pinata.  Everyone got 2 turns then we let Justin beat the crap out of it.  He sure had fun!

We had one happy birthday boy.  I am a miracle worker today in his eyes!!  I had a lot of fun.  1 down 2 to go.  Happy Birthday to my cuddly, sweet and super hard working 9 year old!!

Pinewood Derby 2013

The Pinewood Derby was held March 5th.  The boys were pretty proud of their cars but they didn't perform as well as they would have hoped.  Maybe we will do better next year.

Kennie & the violin!

One of the programs at the boys school is the music program.  During the coarse of the year, the 5th grade classes get a chance to play the flute, violin and the drums.  Here is Kennie's violin performance.  So far he has done the flute and the violin.  His favorite one was the flute.  We're hoping he can get into the music program at the middle school where he starts in fall.  YIKES!!  I am going to have a middle schooler.  I'm not old enough for that yet!

I've been terrible!

I have been terrible at keeping the blog updated.  Things have been super crazy around here.  I didn't realize how much Aaron was gone when we were in Idaho because we were surrounded by so many people that stepped in to help out.  We don't really have that here so I notice every minute that he is gone.  It's been a hard adjustment for me.  We had lots of visitors in March so I have quite a bit to catch up on!  I'll do my best during Spring break to catch up!!  If you are reading this - thank you for being there for us.  If you have thought about visiting - just give us a holler!!

 

Update

So, I guess I should do an update.  We all survived the holidays!  We traveled to Utah to enjoy Christmas with the families.  It's the first time since Justin was 1.  Originally, Aaron was on 24 hour call starting Christmas even through New Years Eve. That was changed so Aaron was able to be with us for the first week.  We enjoyed our time with family and love that the kids were able to make memories with the cousins and good friends while we were there.  We weren't able to see everyone, but did enjoy those we were able to see!

We got together with a few of Aaron's friends from High School.  We laughed quite a bit.  Brian is Aaron's best friend and we haven't seen him since his wedding in February 2006.  It was great to see Brian and Amy as well as Alicia, Brett & Debbie, Sarah and Becky.  A little bit of food and a lot of catching up happened!

We decided to hit Temple Square with some good friends.  First we did dinner and catch-up at Melissa's house and then Sharon, mom & Dad and our family headed to Temple Square.  It was cold and Aaron and the boys spent the entire day on the mountain skiing.  I don't think they even thawed out before braving the cold.  We lasted about a half an hour, but glad that we were able to see the beauty that they call Christmas at Temple Square!

New Year's Eve we spent at my Mom & Dad's.  We spent a good majority of the night watching slides on the wall from when my dad was a baby.  Old school, right?  The kids had a blast though.  We played our new favorite game "Telestrations" until 2 minutes before midnight when we rushed to get the bubbly ready.  We barely made it.  The kids loved it!  We slept in until almost 10 the next morning.  Enjoyed Grandpa's famous omelets and then went about our crazy day!!

Happy 2013!!

Books for 2013

To go along with my 2013, I will be reading a handful of books.  They will include:

Women of the Book of Mormon
Mary the Mother of Jesus
The Continuous Atonement
Christs Gifts to Women
The Miracle of Forgiveness

Do you have any other must reads that will correlate with Mercy/Forgiveness?

2013 Theme

My 2013 Theme has been decided.  I'll try and keep the blog updated with my monthly quotes.  I am really enjoying all the prep for this one!!  It's been a while since I was this excited!!

If you are ever interested in any of the images, please e-mail me and I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of the images. They are great quality and I have them printed at Costco and frame them.  I make them in my digital scrapbooking software   

Nana & Papa Wixom

Being in the military and only passing through every few years makes it hard to keep in contact with all the family and friends we have.  Facebook, blogs and texting definetly make it a bit easier, but there is nothing better than just plain getting together fun!  We decided it would be better do get together at a resteraunt, so we met Bret & Terri {Aunt & Uncle}, Zach & Becca {Cousin & his wife} and Nana & Papa at Johnny Carino's.  Good food {that I didn't have to make or clean up}, good company and good clean fun!! 

 

 

Dinner!

 

 

Zach & Becca {Good Clean Fun!}

 

 

Nana & Papa with the kids!

 

 

Group Shot!

 

 

Zach {can you tell the kids loved him?}

 

 

Our famiy with Bret, Terri, Zach & Becca

 

 

All the adults {We'll count Zach as an adult in this one because he was on his best behaviour!}

 

It's wierd seeing my younger cousins all growing up {and having kids of their own}.  I feel so old!!  Thanks Zach!  :)  It was great to see you guys!