allison turns 3!

allison is a lucky girl and for her 3rd birthday she had a couple of celebrations! on her actual birthday we went to dinner at texas roadhouse where she got to ride the saddle while they sang to her. she loved being the center of attention!

then we came home and opened a couple of presents and had some cupcakes.

 

the night before her birthday we decorated her door with stars and streamers. she was delighted and felt so special. logan even got in on the excitement!

then the weekend following her birthday we had a little family celebration and we invited one of her little friends and her sister to join us. allison wanted a pink princess cake and so this is what she got. not very fancy but she did get a lot of little princesses to play with afterwards.

once again our child was spoiled on their birthday. she received some books, dress-up clothes, and lots of baby supplies. she also received her very own princess bike! she loved it and especially liked the doll carrier in front!

in honor of allison's birthday i will list three things that i love about her:

1. i love how loving and helpful she is. she is always willing to give you a kiss or a hug or lend a helping hand. she will follow logan around and when we ask him to do something or pick up his toys she is always the first to offer to help!

2. allison loves to sing. she will go throughout the day singing a tune to who knows what! she is always singing or humming and is just generally happy.

3. allison is all girl! i love this about her. she has to wear a skirt or a dress EVERYDAY. and it doesn't hurt if it is a "spinny" skirt. she loves to dress up and play mom and put on pretend make-up. she loves to have her nails painted and is always trying to style her hair.

happy birthday allison! we are so happy to have you in our family and we love you!

hoppy easter

we had fun dyeing easter eggs as a family this year. the kids really got into it. of course we stripped them down because they were kind of messy when it came to dyeing the eggs.

here is the loot the kids got from the easter bunny!

of course we are so grateful for the true meaning of easter. we are grateful for our Savior's love and for the role His hand has in our lives.

take me out to the ball game...

 we decided to take advantage of family night and attend a local baseball game. the kids were really excited and i think we all had a good time. we made it to the 7th inning stretch before we all decided it was time to go.

we were in the front row above the dugouts. each of the kids got a baseball from one of the players and between the innings they would get on top of the dugouts and dance.  

caterpillars and butterflies

for logan's birthday he got a butterfly kit. this was such a good present because logan is totally into bugs right now. and let me tell you, it was about the coolest thing i've seen. we literally got to watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. we even witnessed some of the butterflies emerging from their cocoons. after all the butterflies hatched we kept them for a few days and fed them oranges and sugar water and then we let them go in our backyard. we will definitely be doing this again

pirate paarrrty

for logan's fifth birthday he wanted a pirate party. we decided that turning five was a pretty big deal so we let him have his first friend party. logan LOVES all his cousins and they were the first ones to make the list. since he has so many cousins and they all live close he actually only ended up with 3 friends! but we had to have a cut-off and i think 16 kids was plenty!

grandpa great dressed up as a pirate!

we planned several activities for the kids to keep them busy!

when they first came in they decorated pirate loot bags and pirate spy glasses 

there was lot of yummy pirate food to snack on like cannon balls (whoppers), fish and chips (potato chips and gold fish), pirate swords (licorice), and parrot food (popcorn). there was also dead man's punch if you were thirsty

of course no pirate party is complete without pirate games...

walk the plank

"x" marks the spot

peg leg race

and of course, sword fighting

then there was the pinata

and finally cake and presents

logan had an "x" marks the spot pirate map

i'm pretty sure that i was just as excited for this party as logan was. i started planning it a couple months before and then spent about 3 weeks getting everything together. i made the pirate map invitations, cut out and laminated the pirate hats, spray painted paper towel rolls for the spy glasses, made the "x" marks the spot game, and made name tags for all the goody bags. i also had fun coming up with decorations and food ideas. even though i had fun planning it...i am glad it is over!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN LOGAN!

march update

march was a busy month for...as is pretty much every other month...we packed in a lot of fun activities, including logan's fifth birthday-but that deserves a post of its own. here are a few snap shots of what we have been up to.

those darn leprechauns came and visited our house for st. patrick's day. we woke up to our house being turned upside down. they turned our furniture over, our pictures upside down, and opened all our cupboards. they even turned our milk green!

one saturday dan had the urge to go hiking. so we quickly packed up some water and snacks and headed out to the small mountains right by our house. we live so close to a national park/sanctuary that we really should take advantage of it more often. the kids had fun hiking and made it most of the way logan had fun looking for bugs and we kept them interested by playing eye spy. we made it up about half way and stop to admire the fantastic view.

when the monster truck show was in town they had a truck on display in town. dan was working but the kids and i went down to check it out with grandma and papa. we were all impressed with how big it was close up. we took lots of pictures, walked underneath, and then jumped on the jumping castle!

we also took a trip to the wildlife museum before our membership expired. it is a nice, cool, indoor activity to do with the kids. they enjoy looking at all the different animals. there are so many species that we always see something new every time we go. they even had a new display with mythical animals.

logan got this little chalkboard and chalk in a kids meal and was playing with it one day. he came up with this all on his own and was so proud of himself. i was proud of him too and thought it was very cute. "eye love you"

logans' 5th birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN!

for logan's birthday we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast complete with a candle. then we went to the store and bought some cupcakes to share with his preschool class..

for dinner we went to texas roadhouse and logan got to ride the saddle. he also got his own birthday treat. then he opened some small presents from us....his favorite-a "snorkful." he has been wanting one of these for a long time and can't wait to use it at the pool this summer. after dinner logan wanted to play games at monkey business. so we went there and played arcade games. it was a great compromise of good food and fun!

happy 5th birthday logan. i can't believe you are already five years old. where has the time gone? you are such a sweet little boy and we are so grateful you are in our family. for you birthday i will list five things that we love about you!

1. i love how passionate and excited you are about life. everything is new and exciting for you. you can take something so simple and be so excited about it. your passion is genuine and contagious and i hope it takes you far in life.

2. i love that you like to snuggle. mom and dad might be busy sometimes, but you are always willing to sit down and snuggle. you always offer hugs and kisses and i hope that never ends.

3. you are such a good brother (most of the time).  i know it can be hard to have a little sister....but you are generally really sweet to allison and willing to share with her.

4. you are also a very good friend. you are always excited to see you friends at school and all of your cousins. you always want to visit with them and genuinely enjoy being by them. you make others feel special by acknowledging them and befriending them.

5.i love how creative you are. you always want to keep everything and "recycle" it. you are always coming up with ideas of projects to do or things to make. don't ever give that up!

we love you so much logi bear!