hawaiian luau

dan's parents had their 40th wedding anniversary on march 27th. we decided to have a surprise party for them and went with a luau theme. we told them that logan had a play at preschool. they came to our house to meet us and...SURPRISE! i'm pretty sure they had no idea even though it was spring break and i lied through my teeth countless times to cover.

we all pitched in and got them a canvas print of our most recent family picture. it turned out really pretty and i think it looks great in their house! we also made a video of pictures from over the past several years. i think it was successful because there were tears in almost every one's eyes.

we had hawaiian haystacks for dinner and the cake was a wal-mart special. it went great with our decor and turned out so cute.

here is a group shot of all the kids, grandkids, grandparents, and great grandparents! i think everyone had a great time!

monkey business

our awesome friends took us to monkey business for logan's birthday. we had never been before so it was fun to go. we had yummy pizza and then we played some arcade games.

after dinner we went back to their house and they had a little party all set up for him. there were balloons, streamers, and an awesome giant dinosaur cookie!

they got logan this fun shark shirt with matching shorts. they also got allison the cutest little rainbow dress! (can you say spoiled?) we had so much fun celebrating logan's birthday with our awesome friends!

dinosaur party

for his birthday this year, logan wanted to have a dinosaur party. i was happy for this because that is pretty simple. we got a cake from wally world which was wonderful because usually i spend all day slaving over making a cake. there is usually some last minute disaster that takes a miracle to redeem--so this year we chose another route. logan was so excited to pick out his cake. he chose a white cake with green frosting and a volcano. he especially liked the brown "dinosaur poop."

logan was adorned with way more presents than a 4 year should probably get--but we're not complaining. he got a bug kit, a backyardigains movie, and a remote control grave digger from grandma and papa. he got a remote control jeep from grandma bonna and dave. he got some hot wheels motorcycles from uncle rob and aunt shelly and he got a monkey game and a toy gun game from his cousins. if you asked him what he wanted to for his birthday he would say a "motorcycle trol-remote" (remote-control)...so i think a combination of these things satisfied that request!

he was also one super lucky boy and got a new shark bike from mommy and daddy and granno and al. logan got a 12 inch bike for christmas 2 years ago and a couple of months ago he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. his old bike is a little too small for him and a 16 inch is still too big for him. we were able to find a 14 inch which seems to be just the right size. so we thought a cool shark bike would be perfect for him! he loves it and took right off on it!

overall is was a great party! i think logan got everything he wanted and had fun at his dinosaur party. thanks everyone for making this little birthday boy so happy!

happy birthday logan

logan turns four today. i am sure i will say this every year, but i can't believe i have a four year old. he has been so excited for his birthday to come and started counting down about a month ago.

we went to krispy kreme and got his free dozen doughnuts for his birthday. he was excited to have a special treat for breakfast!

he got an awesome glow in the dark dinosaur shirt for his dinosaur party (more to come on that).

for his actual birthday day, we went to the local stuffed animal museum. logan loved going to the museum and looking at all the different animals.

after the museum we went to a nearby park and had a nice picnic lunch.

for a celebratory dinner we went to cici's where the kids enjoyed yummy pizza and fake mustaches.

logan is growing up to be such a great kid. we love having him in our family. he is a very inquisitive child, always asking how things work and where they come from. he loves being in primary and says the sweetest prayers. he is a wonderful big brother. sometimes he and allison fight, but he is quick to apologize and almost always willing to share. he is a good helper most of the time and is getting better at wanting to please us. he loves dinosaurs, bugs, monster trucks, and the color green. some funny things he says are: i'm going to sneak you, just for case, and i love you like a super hero.

happy dirtday logan!

we love you!

alli's first pony tail

allison's hair is finally getting long enough to pull back into a pony tail. she looked so cute and grown up but it didn't last too long until she pulled it out!

christmas in a nut shell

since our camera is lost/missing our pictures of christmas are limited. we were lucky to borrow a camera from dan's brother and sister-in law so we do have some documentation that christmas actually happened...

this was the first, and luckily only, casualty of christmas.

we took the kids to the mall to see santa. logan was excited to see him and so was allison until she had to get too close to him. so we put her on this little stool that was off to the side but then she just looked like the outcast child. oh well, it was the best we could do.

we went to visit grandma and grandpa great to see their christmas lights. grandpa great had a beautiful display and the kids enjoyed drinking sparkling cider and eating cookies.

we spent christmas at home with just the four of us. the kids had fun opening their presents. alli finally got the hang of opening the presents but then she would want to spend all her time with one present and not want to move on.

logan, on the other hand, ripped through his presents and could hardly wait to get to the next one. logan was so excited for santa to come bring him presents. he finally understood the concept of christmas and that santa was bringing toys to his house.

here are the kids with all their loot. the favorites for logan were his monster truck, his zhu zhu pets, and his spongebob calendar.

alli's favorites were her dollhouse, her zhu zhu pets and her dress up clothes.

we had a great christmas spending time with family and friends!

so i was going to post our christmas card letter for 2010 but blogger won't let me copy/paste it into the post. dumb. so sorry...i guess you all don't get a year-end recap. i know, so sad.