Happy Birthday Dallin

My baby boy turned 5 years old yesterday! I can't even believe it! He woke up and wanted Reese's Puffs for breakfast. We never buy them. (I did to wrap and give him for his birthday - but he didn't know it.) So he heads to the basement to see if there are any down there. When he came back up, there was a box of them on the table for him. He was very excited!


After breakfast we started making his cake and cupcakes for school.



As you can see - the cupcakes were a flop!


So I took part of his cake and sent it with him to school to share.

I had to pick him up from school early for his 5 year check up. I felt bad taking him on his birthday, but..... oh well. I guess I didn't feel bad enough! He didn't have to have shots, but they did a finger poke to get some blood to test it for iron and something else. Holy COW! You would have thought he had just gotten 2 broken legs and 2 broken arms!! He screamed SO loud and not just a short little scream - it was a long scream that turned into a howl!! He said it felt like a bullet. Like he would know how that felt.

I decided not to make another cake, since we really don't need that much cake around here. So it's just over a half of a cake. And it is YUMMY! It's a peanut butter cake with chocolate/cream cheese frosting. It tastes like a great big Reece's cup. mmmmmmmmm.....

I think we are into the screwy face phase.... Great.

Blowing out the candles...

I think Iron Man tastes pretty good or something!

Please excuse Maggie's lack of clothing... We are a little worried about her future career choice...

Then we were off to Chuck E. Cheese. We had some left over tokens from the last time we went and then Dallin got a birthday email giving him 20 free tokens... He loves this torpedo game. And he does really well at it.

Maggie likes to jump on this jump rope game. She doesn't do very well. At all. But she LOVES to jump jump jump....

Dallin got lots of Happy Birthday calls while we were there. He was a little distracted...

We had met our friends there and they had presents for Dallin and a belated one for Maggie. They got Maggie a beauty set. We opened the second we got home and she went right for the straightener. She knew exactly what to do with it!! That's my girl!

Dallin got enough tickets for this pirate stuff, a couple of snakes and some little geckos...

We had a pretty special fun day! We love you Dallin!!! Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we stayed at our friend's house. We tried to make plans to go to Bear Lake... that didn't work out. Then to Vernal... that didn't work out. So we just decided to spend the weekend at their house! It was so fun! We ate far too much food, stayed up way too late and played Rock Band and American Idol not nearly enough!

Friday night we got there, had dinner and played games. The kids ended up having a snuggle under the covers and watch a movie-fest.

Saturday we went to a dinosaur museum down south.

Creepy...

It was really neat to see all the dino bones.

There was also a 3-D movie about dinosaurs. It was really neat. But we all looked like total dorks!

Oh- That would be Brian checking out his hot wife with her totally cool shades on!

These bones are terrifying and were REALLY big! I can't imagine actually meeting one of these things with all their fat, skin and teeth!!!

Did you know there was a dinosaur named a Utahraptor??

I didn't.

I thought this was cool. It's actually a wall that is painted to look like it's a hall that curves. I thought it look realistic!

Sunday morning was all about Barney...

Game Cube....

And breakfast!

We were going to go to Temple Square. But it was snowing like crazy. We decided we didn't want to take the drive. So we played...

I acutally got a COMPLIMENT from Simon on American Idol!! I sang Islands in the Stream by Dolly and Kenny. I love that song!!!

By the time we got around to heading home there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. Our friends live down a dirt road that doesn't get plowed. We got stuck, of course. So Scott and Brian were pushing the van as I was driving.

Oops... Scott wasn't too pleased. There is a crack in the one on the other side too. Oh well - It was a great weekend!!!! Thanks guys!!

BTW, Lasca. Dallin wants us to move into your house so we can have your version of Lego Star Wars. He doesn't get that if you move you take your stuff with you!

Aunt Jeannette

She isn't actually my "Aunt" at all. She is my grandfather's first cousin and my grandmother's best friend. So my dad called her Aunt Jeannette and we call her our Great Aunt Jeannette.

While I was in Arkansas visiting my parents, my Aunt Jeannette died. Thus we took another road trip and drove up to Indiana to attend the viewing and funeral. I am glad for the timing to be quite honest. I love my Aunt Jeannette and found out SO many fun things about her that I never knew. She was 97/98 (I can't recall right this moment). She had lived quite the full life. And she was full of life until her life here ended.

My Aunt Jeannette was so spunky. Always had a twinkle in her eye. You never quite knew what you would get with her. One of the stories that we heard was that when she was 5 she ran away from home. She didn't run away from home because she was naughty or unhappy. She ran away from home and ran TO the school house so that she could attend school. She wanted to learn. Now in 1916 I guess it wasn't typical that the little girls got much in the way of education. But she had so much enthusiasm and I am sure there was nothing they could do to get her out of the schoolhouse that they let her stay.

(Please excuse the pictures. They are pictures of pictures from a photo album)

Another story I heard was that when she was about the age in this picture she decided she didn't like her given name which was Jenny. Apparently mules were named Jenny and she didn't want to be associated with mules. So her parents allowed her to legally change her name at the age of 12-ish.

She was single for a lot of her life. She worked for the newspaper of this little village she grew up in and then moved to Indianapolis to work for the paper there.

She then met and married the love of her life. She got married when she was 40. Then at 42 she had her twins. Doesn't she look absolutely beautiful??

And that hot lady next to her is my Gramma Alice.

This is the morning after the wedding...

This is actually the only time I ever remember seeing her nails done...

These folks are her parents...

This is her dad in his 20s....

Whenever I think about my Aunt Jeannette I think of spunk and life. I think of her beautiful cracked laugh. I think about playing Euchre in her tiny house in Indy that she lived in since the twins were babies. I think about living life to its fullest and enjoying every bit as much as you can.

**Edit: Scott just reminded me of her cat. I have absolutely no idea what this cat's name was originally... but she always called him DC. I just called him DC as well and then one day it came up what DC meant?? Damn Cat. She called him DC for short.**

One thing that we noticed during the viewing is her beautiful dress. Then as we were watching the video of their wedding my sister in law wondered if it was the same dress. I went to Jeannette's daughter in law and asked her. She smiled and said that Jeannette always said she wanted to be buried in her wedding dress. And if it didn't fit then they better just split the damn thing up the back.

That is SO Aunt Jeannette....

I will miss her terribly.

My Homies

I just couldn't resist. I am getting ready to make dinner and put a movie on for the kids. I come into the living room and see this....

My homies!

Maggie's First Hair Cut

Maggie is almost 2 1/2. She has NEVER had a hair cut. Since she simply HATES getting her hair brushed I decided it needed to be shorter. I always forget that hair shrinks up when it dries... and it will shrink up because it's curly too. SO - Maggie has a bit of a bob now...

To begin with:

After:

All her hair:

Saved for posterity:

I know I should have waited for my friend Lasca to cut her hair... but I was really frustrated this morning... And I figured if Jason Bourne could cut hair in the Bourne Identity then SURELY I could do it too!!!

Not so much! Lasca will need to fix this...

She is still my beautiful baby girl!!! Sorry, baby!

How do you know it's cold?

We got to Indiana from Arkansas on Friday night for a viewing. My sister in law made a pot of chili in the crock pot so we could just eat and go. After we ate she put the crock pot on the back porch. After church today she brought it inside so we could heat some up for lunch.

She couldn't get the lid off. It was frozen to the crock. We had a good laugh... It's not even 30 and it's 2 in the afternoon. UGH!

Field Trip in Arkansas

Near my parent's house in Arkansas is Natural Falls State Park. It is the site of the movie Where the Red Fern Grows. I am sure it is absolutely beautiful in the spring, summer and fall. But we are here in the winter and it just isn't that beautiful. But there is a gorgeous waterfall!

Dallin, Maggie and I took a little walk to the falls. It was really neat. And just enough walking for a 2 and 4 year old. I was beginning to have stomach pains though. There were lots of places to fall off of and with Maggie who has a bit of a wild hair - it's just a little hard to keep track of her sometime.

This is an underneath shot of where we were standing at first. I have a terrible fear of heights and it was killing me to be standing up there...

Pose for me kids!

Geeez mom! Are you done yet!

We are outta here!!

How does he find a gun in EVERYTHING?? Even a hershey bar I bought him on the road...