Name Art

I've seen these in a couple of my friends' homes and loved them so I decided to try to make one myself. When we were still in Milwaukee Grant and I had a lunch date downtown so I took the opportunity to take pictures of things in the city that looked like the letters in our name. I finally got around to ordering it, so I thought I'd share the final product:



Pretty cool, huh? I'm so excited it turned out!

Dress-up Days

Cole came down the stairs one day in this "ninja" outfit he concocted:



Yes, that is black underwear on his head. I thought it was pretty smart of him to think of it though!

Claire then decided she needed to dress up silly, too, so she put on Ava's swim diapers:



Meanwhile, Ava had been getting into Mommy's makeup and smeared cover-up all over her face along with mascara. Here she's mad because Dad is wiping it off:



Never a dull moment! :)

Color Me Silly

Ava loves to color. I will walk into the kitchen and see her on the floor coloring almost everyday:





On this day, however, I realized she colored more than the book:





Luckily it was washable marker!

Finally Five

Cole has been counting down the days until his birthday for the past week. He couldn't wait! We threw a huge party with lots of friends. The theme, at Cole's request, was dragons so we made dragon shields and painted little dragon sculptures. Each kid got a sword, too, and then they went on a "dragon quest" to find hidden treasure, which were their goodie bags. It was tons of fun.







Grant reading the clues to the knights on their quest:











Ava couldn't stop painting her dragon, she was having so much fun. She probably painted for a good 45 minutes!





This is Cole's "Birthday Buddy," our friend Scott whose birthday was on the same day:



That night Cole wanted to go to Rainforest Cafe for his birthday dinner (I forgot my camera - I was so mad!). It was fun and the food was actually okay. They have a "thunderstorm" every 20 minutes or so inside the restaurant (lights go on and off and big booming thunder sounds echo everywhere) and each time Ava would say over and over "I'm not scared. I'm not scared" like she was convincing herself. It was adorable. The only sad part was that Cole was sick. I could tell he wasn't 100% himself towards the end of the party, but I was wondering if he was just exhausted from all of the excitement. By that night, though, I could tell it wasn't exhaustion and he really felt badly. He didn't even want dessert. Poor guy. He was sick on Christmas, too! He still said he had a great day, though.

Cole's favorite present, a safari sleeping bag from Grandma and Grandpa:

XOXOXO

Our friends, Tyson and Raschell, threw a Valentine's Day Prom at their house, making it the second prom I've been to in the last year. It was a blast. It was so much fun to dress up (and not 80's style) and hang out with friends.





Playing Rock Band (LOOOOVED IT!):





The ladies (betcha can't tell which ones are Mormon!):


The men:

A Very Merry Unbirthday

Ok, so Cole just had his 5th birthday last week and I realized I never blogged about Claire's, Ava's and my birthday which happened last year.  I feel obligated to do that before I blog about Cole's. So, this is going to be a very long post with lots of pictures. Get ready.

First, I turned 30 in 2008. AHHHH!!! Am I really that old? It was quite a bizarre feeling and still is, to tell you the truth. I mean, I still feel weird calling myself or my friends "women."  We're "girls," in between being old and young, right? Maybe not. I don't know if I'll ever feel much older than 25, but I'm at least logically trying to get used to the idea that I'm a full fledged adult (you'd think three kids, a mortgage and a minivan would've done that already!).

So, we had already moved from Milwaukee on my birthday and were on vacation in Utah at Grant's family's house. His family was very obliging and cooked a steak dinner (my favorite) for me with a death-by-chocolate type cake (also my favorite) for dessert. They aren't huge steak or chocolate fans, so it was very nice of them.

Singing "Yamo Molava" (I will not pretend to have any idea how to spell that), the Swedish Happy Birthday song:


Then, Grant threw a huge birthday bash for me the next night. It was so sweet of him. It was a flashback 80's Prom with an "Under the Sea" theme and he invited all of his family that lived in Utah. We all dressed up 80's style and danced, ate and karaoked all night. It was a blast. He also bought me a gorgeous ring and made a book with friends' and family's memories of me (thank you SO much to all of you who wrote an entry, it meant a lot). He is such a wonderful hubby.



Grant and Kerstin (his sister) bought all the sea decor and set up the lovely picture backdrop.



This is Grant's immediate family (with a couple of spouses and a boyfriend mixed in). I love Kerstin's hair (she's in the middle with the turquoise dress on). It looks like a dead animal.



Groovin' on the family's deck:



Next was Claire's birthday.  We had an early celebration while we were still on vacation at my parents house.



She wanted to have an under the sea theme, too, so we used the sea decor from my birthday party and brought some stuff out from my parents sea-themed bathroom.























Claire's real birthday was right after we'd moved to Phoenix and during the first week of school (they start early in Phoenix).  We had a little birthday party for her at Sweet 'n Sassy. I asked the moms of two girls in Claire's primary class if they could come and also one girl from Claire's class whose mom I happened to meet. Claire now knows these girls pretty well, but at the time she had just barely met them. You can see that didn't bother them, though. They all had a great time getting all dolled up!





















We opened presents at an ice cream store afterwards. It was lots of fun and I was so glad Claire already had made some new friends!

Even though it's past the real date, I still need to say what I love about this little girl and how deeply grateful I am that she was born into our family.  Claire is growing up to be such an angel.  She is sweet and kind and very obedient.  I love how much she wants to do what is right.  I love when she gives me hugs and tells me she loves me.  I love her beautiful eyes and her tiny little body.  I love that she's a math whiz.  I love when she wants to play with me.  I also love what a tender heart she is developing.  She decided to take a dance class that she wasn't really interested in because the fee would go towards helping a little girl in our church who has cancer.  She also teared up when I was reading Puff the Magic Dragon, but just didn't tell me.  She's a private girl who is a hard worker and somewhat of a perfectionist.  She loves to write stories (they're really funny, too!) and she loves to stay up when she's supposed to be asleep drawing and coloring and writing.  I love this little girl and I love being her mom and her friend.

Lastly, Ava turned two in November. We went to Red Robin (the kids favorite restaurant for some unknown reason) to celebrate. Of course, Ava had to wear Cole's Iron Man t-shirt, ruining any images I had of pictures of her in a cute birthday outfit.

This is what a two-year-old looks like trying to chew a gum ball:

Everyone singing Happy Birthday:



When we came home we had cake and opened presents. I had to put a "Bo Bo" (dog) on the cake since Ava loves them.









Blowing out the candles:











Of course, Ava was more interested in the balloons than the actual presents. Notice Claire behind her though, who decided that since Ava didn't seem to care about them, maybe they could be hers!

I am so glad this little girl is in our family.  She is hilarious.  I can't necessarily articulate why, but ask anyone who knows her.  They'll all say the same.  There's something about her that makes you laugh.  I love her little walk.  It almost looks like an ape walk, but with a cute little girl twist to it.  She loves to be silly.  She is also very energetic and loves to wrestle or sword fight with Dad and Cole.  In fact, she's kind of the little bully in our family, always hurting her brother or sister (or parents!) in an attempt to play fight or get a reaction.  She's also learning how to push her older siblings buttons in order to gain some semblance of power.  She can be feisty and spunky and silly and snugly all at the same time.  I love her little giggle.  I think it's the cutest laugh I've ever heard.  I love hearing her copy everything her older brother and sister say.  I love that she says "Where's my daddy?" and "My daddy's coming!" about 500 times a day because she misses him.  I love her spunkiness and her sweetness.  On the days when she's being a pill and I think I can't take anymore of her she'll come up and give me kisses or bring me a drink because she heard me say I'm thirsty or go find the wipes to clean up a spill she made.  I constantly am underestimating how much she understands.  She's got quite the little personality inside of her and I love seeing more and more of it come out.  She's my little peanut.