Happy Birthday to Me

Thank you to all of you who sent me birthday wishes yesterday! I had a great day and felt super loved and super spoiled (my favorite feelings!). I woke up to a decorated room (thank you Adia), had yummy omelets for breakfast (thank you Adia), saw Kaden poop in the tub and I didn't have to clean it (thank you Kyle), went out to lunch and was surprised to see family waiting for me inside (thank you Lauren, mom and dad), went to the zoo, had a great time (thank you all who were with me), went to old Sac, walked around, had a nice dinner (thank you mom and dad) and the day ended perfect - falling asleep with my head on my favorite persons lap (thank you Kyle) while he watched a movie (thank you Netflix).

Kyle started off the day throwing kids really high and making all of us laugh. I would show you the other pictures but somebody might call CPS and that wouldn't be good!

Here we are at the zoo

Beautiful flowers = picture time for 2 of my BEAUTIFUL GIRLS!!!


Lauren and Avery were hardly in sight all day... they had a great time and the only times i saw them were when they waited by these silly boards for the me to get a shot of them.

It was so crazy to run into my dads long lost twin at the zoo...


Kenyon was in heaven - dirt, animals and candy!


Kaden and daddy goofing off on the spider web.



My lovely parents who not only surprised me with a visit but got me a cricut (a big paper cutting toy) to play with as well.

The kids were all trying to climb this huge tree when I told them whoever gets the highest wins a kiss from mom...

and Kyle jumps up, climbs WAY too high and lost the prize for scaring me!

We went to dinner in Old Sacramento at a Joe's Crab Shack

And finished off the day browsing cute little shops but being good and not buying anything!

Christ Has Risen!!!!

If ever there was a reason to celebrate it is now, in this season, for this reason -

CHRIST HAS RISEN!

Here are some pictures of how our family has been celebrating our risen KING!

Dying eggs with friends...

Eating candy with friends (and without)...

Making "Thank you for the cross" cakes with friends on Good Friday...

Going to a church party to celebrate with our church family...

This little candy monster kept finding chocolate and even when she said she hadn't had any - her tongue told us the truth.

Watching friends from church get baptized...

Spending time with family having a yummy Easter dinner...

Notice where Kenyon is - he cuddled and climbed on Ty all day. It was a super special treat to have Uncle Ty with us for Easter as well as our Petersen cousins (and their parents).
Finding our Resurrection eggs that the bad guys stole so we wouldn't talk about Jesus... but they didn't win - we found every egg and celebrated the truth about Easter.

Going to church...

When I think about what Christ did for us and that he truly conquered death and has promised us a new life with him I am overwhelmed by how rich those words are and how hard it is to live in that reality every day. I so appreciated our pastor sharing these words from Paul in regards to the resurrection of Christ... "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

And this picture has nothing to do with Easter but I just had to show it because the teeter totter is Kaden's newest love... the boy is truly a thrill seeker and scares me!

San Jose Trip

We just got back from a short trip to San Jose where a few fun things happened. Most importantly while we were there we celebrated Super T Day! March 23rd is the day Tristan was born. We went to his favorite place and celebrated his life that we are all so glad to have been a part of. We have missed him so much! Knowing he was such an awesome kid with such a giving heart we knew he would have wanted us to have a blast on his special day - and so we did! Thank you Lord that we will be with him again soon - I seriously can not wait to worship Jesus, with Tristan, in heaven! I talked to my brother a few days before T's birthday and although he is hurting and misses T terribly he couldn't help but giggle over the fact that having a bunch of little ones around helps keep smiles on everyones faces. The little ones have such strong faith and they get a bit annoyed by the tears for the brother who is in "the best place ever". Here are some pictures of our birthday party for T - a true holiday in our family (Kyle stayed home from work and Lauren even got to skip school!).

Another highlight of my trip was seeing my good friends Tiffany and Kristen. I miss both of them so much and it was really nice to be with the girls! Tiffany has 2 precious kiddos and although they are both adorable her daughter Mia stole my heart - she is the funniest little girl full of smiles and such a delight to be around! I hope Tiffany believed me when I told her what a good mom she is and how impressed I am with the little girl and boy that she is doing such a great job mommying!

And here is Kristen's little girl, Taylor, so cute and so glad I finally got to hold her! Kristen lives down South now so I rarely get to see her. Where did the days go when she practicaly lived with me - miss you! Oh and thanks for making my dad feel like a king by loving his horses - he can't wait until you come back (and neither can I).

And last but so not least was the birthday party for Brooke. She called me about a month ago and asked me to do a party for her. So we did a Fairy party with the family...

She wanted me to teach them how to do cookies...

For lunch we had flower sandwiches, fairy fizz (punch), fruit wands and more...


After lunch they all went to the fairy make over station and did themselves up so pretty - or at least they thought so!

Here is all the beautiful fairy's and one little boy who just couldn't stand missing out on the action!

And this is how you would look at your party if your annoying little sister (notice Erin's guilty face in the corner) blew out your birthday candles for you! Of course we had to re light them and try again (which then put Adison in tears because she didn't get a turn either).

Being at a fairy party can get rough on a boy so he decided to ditch the girls and climb on dad.

And a quick shot of the BABY boy who had a great time too... how is it possible he will be 1 in less than a month??? NO!

Random Shots...

It seems lately we have too much going on all the time for each post to be about one thing. So here is a few of my random shots from the last week.

Beautiful Avery about to leave for a friends tea party...


Crazy Kaden strapped down so Adia could clean the school room...

Just a funny moment of school that I had to capture a shot of... normally this would be absolutely against the rules but I allowed it as long as Adison didn't talk, Adia stayed facing the wall and Avery only looked at Kaden when he reached through her chair to pester her. I was surprised it actually lasted about 15 minutes... Kenyon must have been in the bathroom but you can see he was doing stamping next to Adison.

2 pretty girls wanting me to capture the love...
Nature boy on a nature walk - gathering supplies to build his nest...

Dumb boy - rocking in his brothers swing that he place above the monkey bars. I always try to get a picture before they get in HUGE trouble. I assume that someday this will be really funny to me...

Oh and if you only knew how much time I spent looking at this miserable face in this position lately you would either feel sorry for me or think I'm retarded for forcing her to potty train when she so doesn't want to.

Backyard fun...