Go JOE!

Somewhere in the mix of baptisms, concerts, parents nights, mothers day, birthday parties, father's day, etc Steve and I also celebrate our birthdays. When we asked him what treat he wanted on his birthday Steve thought he'd be funny and said he wanted a GI Joe cake. To surprise him we made him one. I think it turned out pretty well!

A little lesson in birthday finance...

Since Bailey wanted nothing but an American Girls Doll for her birthday I had to gently explain to her that we had used most of her budget on her giant party. (and I spent A LOT of time explaining to her that even Santa might not have the budget for that as this was her back up plan!) So, together we came up with an alternate idea. She asked Steve and I and her grandparents to only give her money for her birthday - whatever amount they would have spent on her presents. Then, she will work hard, save her allowances and eventually earn the rest of the money to buy the doll herself. Whatever happens, by the time she gets it all saved it will be a good thing ... she'll either have her dream doll and really appreciate it... or if the doll is no longer a factor... she'll have had a good lesson in saving money and also have herself a nice little hunk of cash to keep saving! Smart girl!

A Really Great 8th Birthday Party!

We thought 8 was a great year to celebrate with friends. Bailey chose to have a garden themed party.

We made flower invitations for all her friends...

took flower cupcakes to school...

and decorated the house with hundreds of paper flowers.

When everyone arrived we had lunch...

and ate cake.

We also opened a lot of presents...

Decorated garden hats and flower pots...

planted flowers in our flower pots...

and played some fun garden and bug themed games.

Originally, the rule for sleepovers at our house was not until you're 8. Seems that was the original rule at several places since Bailey and a couple of her very best friends have been trying to plan sleepovers together now that they're all old enough. However, since the "original rule" was first discussed, Steve and I (and thankfully most of her friends parents as well) have decided against allowing sleepovers for our kids. We decided to let them have "late nights and/or early mornings" instead. Stay up late, watch movies, eat junk food and do all the girlish or boyish things a sleepover used to be for but then go home and sleep in your own bed. It worked out great!

Gee... it's great to finally be 8!!

Happy Birthday Jessica

I don't have any embarrassing photos to easy access, but maybe this works:

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday - We love you!

Happy Birthday Bailey Bean!

I can't believe Bailey is 8 years old today! We are so proud of her. She is such a smart, beautiful, genuine little girl who is always trying to do what is right and we are so blessed to have her as part of our family. We love you Bailey!

Emily lost her first tooth!

Emily was so excited to finally lose her first tooth. Funny thing - we didn't even know it was loose until the day before it came out. We were all watching her top front teeth and never thought to check the bottom ones. She was so excited and is so cute with her little lisp. Congrats Em!

Welcome Cocoa

The girls have been working hard to earn a hamster and they finally got her. She's a black teddy bear and we named her Cocoa. We'll see if we can't get a better picture of her.

Conference and Easter Weekends

Just some random pictures of Coloring Eggs and Easter Morning. Trust me, this is the only time you will see photos us us hunting Easter Eggs in our church clothes! We normally do the bunny thing on Friday night to reserve Sunday for the real Easter stuff. However, this year we totally forgot about it all until about 5pm on Friday evening - just 15 minutes before Steve and I were due to leave. SO - we had to make a few hurried phone calls to the Bunny and his people and get ourselves on the list for his Saturday night rounds. Won't happen again!



Steve is a BIG fan of egg coloring!





Unlike Easter weekend which was super rainy and freezing, conference weekend was absolutely perfect! We spent some time at the lakeon Saturday, had a party with friends (while the men were at priesthood) and mostly just enjoyed watching conference and soaking up the sun.


Although we don't really force our children to cut the grass with childproof scissors and a small bucket, and despite the look on her face, Emily really likes to do this! I thought this picture was just too funny!

Kaden spent some time during the priesthood session working in the Feffeld's garden.

He also thought the super friendly ducks at the lake were awesome. I had to take him away because he was so excited all the fishermen were getting annoyed. Apparently they're all too cool enjoy some time with the ducks.