Faith's 3rd Birthday

We got up early on the morning of Faith's birthday, otherwise known as the day after Christmas, so we could get to my parent's home in Colorado as early as possible to relax and celebrate Faith's birthday with the whole family!  I would really like to say that that was the plan in the beginning, but....not so much!  Our baby girl, decided she didn't want to sleep in her bed and would not be persuaded to stay put, so, knowing that we wanted to get somewhat of an early start, after about an hour of trying, we gave in and she snuggled in with us. 

But sleep, she did not, and sleep, I did not, Rob?  Sawing logs like Darth Vader in his mask next to her!  I seriously hate that he can sleep through ANYTHING!  I was kicked and smacked by a thrashing little girl all night and finally, after 20 minute intervals of sleep from 11pm - 4am, I woke Rob, who had been sleeping pretty soundly since 10 and asked if we could just get up and leave, he was more than happy.  I knew he would be, he's always trying to get me to leave earlier. 

I thought I would sleep on the road there, again, not so much!  We did, however get there fairly quickly, even despite running out of gas near Oakley, Kansas!  Yes, we ran out of gas, correction, MY HUSBAND, ran out of gas!  I handed him the AAA card and didn't say a word.  Thank goodness the battery did not die while we sat there waiting, so the kids could still watch their movie.  Luckily it only took 15 minutes or so for AAA to get there, so no big deal, really, and we arrived at my parents house about 1pm! 

While everyone else was arriving, I finally got a nap!  Nick and Stacey had similar luck to ours, a somewhat sleepless night, followed by car troubles, except, the engine, not gas, and they had to be towed and picked up, so, I decided running out of gas was okay in comparison! 

Finally all of us were all together (minus Jada, who was "working" in Hawaii for the week) at my parent's house in Golden, and ready to celebrate Faith's 3rd birthday!  For obvious reasons, to everyone, it needed to be a Dora the Explorer party!  I am somewhat strangely pleased to say that I have seen well over 100 Dora and Diego episodes/movies, and the proud owner of many of them.  While Faith was recovering from having her tonsils and adenoids removed in August, we watched A LOT of Dora, and it has stuck!  So, bring on the Dora toys, pillow person, blanket, play set and stuffed animals, plus even new Dora and Diego books!  And a beautiful handmade scarf from Aunt Stacey with the love of Uncle Nick, I'm sure!

She did her very best to blow out all of her candles on her Dora cake, but I should have thought to put them all together!  Because instead of her spitting on a small portion of the cake, she sprayed THE WHOLE THING!  It was hilarious, and no one seemed to mind, it was all eaten by the end of the week!

You really would think that all of the kids would have been exhausted from all the travel, nope!  Everyone ran around and played till very late!  It was THE BEST sound EVER!  A house FULL of family to enjoy!  A great start to our week!

My Thirty-Something Birthday

Growing up, your birthday is somewhat of a big event in life, and when you grow up it gets less and less that way.  For some, that is how they like it, for me? I have to admit that I miss the days when people made a big deal about me!  I kind of go from day to day, with no one noticing me (at least, it seems), so I kinda miss the days when I was a big deal, at least for one day. The thing that I miss the most about my birthday's as a child is that I shared them with my Grandma Kemper, she and I had the same birthday, and we celebrated every year (that I can remember), together! Since she passed over 20 years ago now, it's definitely different. 

So there are some things that you should know about December birthday babies;
1) NEVER wrap their birthday gift in Christmas paper, or anything that looks "Christmassy", unless you would like your birthday present in July wrapped the same!  Nope, not even then!  Just don't go there!
2) NEVER think you can get away with getting one gift for Christmas and birthday!  Combo presents are a NO-NO!

I'm not gonna lie, having your birthday in December, STINKS!  I very haphazardly gave birth to my last baby on the day after Christmas, right there we know God has a sense of humor! But, never fear, I am an expert at this, and I'm thinking 1/2 birthday party, you know, in June!  Because you know, no one is coming over the day after Christmas for a birthday party! 

As for me, turning thirty-something, all I wanted was a hot cup of coffee and to sleep in, not too much to ask...you'd think.  Well, it didn't happen, I have a non-coffee drinking husband that doesn't know how to work my coffee pot and the kids woke me up very early. 

My family is so important to me, and honestly, I hate that everyone is so busy!  I want all cell phones and computers to GO AWAY so I can just get some face time in with all of them!  On my birthday I got to spend two hours at lunch with  my sister on my birthday and I think we could have taken another!  We never get to spend that much un-interupted time together!  As my first friend ever, I love her company to this day!

Every year I think, "This year is going to be a great birthday!"  But most years, not so much, and it passes, I think as an adult maybe I need to look at the year more as a whole, ask myself, "What am I going to do this year that makes a difference?", or in retrospect, "What did I do this past year that made a difference?".  I'm not talking about doing something so people will notice me, but I recently heard that people do not fear death, they fear that the world will go on and no one will notice their absence from it.  I believe this to be very true.

In the evening Rob took me to see the newest Twilight movie, and to dinner, our date was cut short by a vomiting baby and half the kids were up to greet us at home, so not much of the evening went as planned.  It is definitely the era that we live in now that I was so excited to see over 100 birthday wishes from Facebook friends that night before bed and that I only received one card via "Snail Mail", but is it also interesting that they one that meant the most was the physical card?  I think so, apparently I'm am old...fashioned!!!!

 

Zachary Turns 2!

Well, a far cry from Keith big 1-4 was Zachary's second! Lions and tigers and bears! What a great time we had! Cake and ice cream and lots of little people running all over! I have to say, the volume was about the same though! It rained, so everyone was inside and that was fine, the playroom saw some action, that's for sure! Hot Dogs and Cheetos for dinner (Zach's favorite-next to Mexican food!), and a lion cake, made by Mommy with another favorite -ice cream! Presents seemed boring when the first thing to open was a card, then he figured it out and what fun that it really was! He had to have a Razor Scooter! So Mommy and Daddy got him one of his very own!

Keith's Surprise War

This year the kids went on vacation with Nana and Papa to San Diego for a week they did awesome things like a hot air balloon ride, Lego Land, and Sea World, just to name a few! They had a great time and bonus, we planned a surprise party for Keith's 14 the day after they got back! It worked out perfectly, he was very surprised! We had a war theme-water war-that is! What a great time everyone had with that! Not even poor little Zachary was safe!

Girls are not off limits either!

The pictures speak a thousand words! Pretty much everyone ended up at some point in the kid's pool! NO ONE was dry 30 minutes in! Keith, begged for a tattoo, but received 14 year old gifts like gift cards to Best Buy and the long-awaited PSP! Happy 14th Keith,
We love you!

Grace's Ninth

Grace turned 9 ("FINALLY"-she'd tell you!). We had, at her request, quite a little luau. Complete with the limbo! The little girl in the picture behind Grace won, she went sooo low!

For the party I even found little straws with umbrellas on them to drink our punch with. Grace chose the menu this year, it included a mandarin orange cake with a whipped cream and crushed pineapple icing-YUM! She chose a rainbow sherbet, and of course, Hawaiian Punch. My Mom and Dad came dressed appropriately, I love this picture of them!

The guests all posed for their pictures, I really liked this one of Grace. This year was the first that Grace actually requested clothes for gifts, she's never cared about them before, I guess that just a sign she's growing up! She got some adorable, very grow-up looking outfits that she has worn just about every day since! Polly Pockets were expected, and she was not disappointed! She also spent her birthday money on another Polly Pocket set. She's quite the collector.


She had a great time celebrating her birthday this year with friends and family, I'd say she was princess for the day, but she's the princess everyday around here!

Ethan Turned 6!

With a crazy year of growing up, Ethan turned 6! April the 25th, and he was lavished the great deal of love he deserved! He took his first boat ride, went to Disney World, started Kindergarten, home schooling, lost his first tooth, learned to "break dance"(seriously, you gotta see that!), started reading and writing, and he didn't break one bone this year! The party at our place consisted of a few friends and a lot of fun! Ethan REALLY loves Monster Trucks right now, so that was the obvious theme. He also LOVES bottled root beer, it is a really big deal to go to a restaurant that serves it, he requests them anytime we are going out to dinner, so we had to have that too! IBC Root Beers all around! Did you know that the bottles make you burp more? Well, now I do! I laughed so hard at these pictures, the kids had a great time! Rob taught them how to make music with their bottles, this was a great party trick. Check out those party hats, aren't those hysterical, they are supposed to look like trucker hats. What was in the party favor bags? Monster Truck Tattoos! Yep, we red-necked it up that day, true Kansas style!

What did he get for his birthday? Monster Trucks, of course, what did he spend his birthday money on? Monster Trucks, of course! We have a very sufficient supply of Monster Trucks around our house now!! Probably the big deal this year was his new bike, no training wheels!
This was the first time we had a "smallish" party. I usually do the huge blow-out , 30 people minimum there, but this time I let Ethan just invite a few close friends, and his cousins, and it really went well, they really had a good time.