blessing day

Here are a few pictures from Natalie's blessing day on Sunday. Natalie was looking cute, of course.Natalie with her Aunt Tino.
She spent some time talking to her Great-Grandma Colton.
We even got a family picture. (Yea!)

Here's how we all felt after everyone left our house, but Ian was the first to crash. (He never does this.)
Thank you to everyone who helped make this a special day for our family!

dig it

Finally, some really nice weather! I was digging out some new flower beds and Cali and Ian were my helpers, and good helpers too.

Kimi's contribution was to come over and ask me if I was tired of all that back-breaking work and to inform me that what I needed was the "awesome auger." Christine already knows this, but Kimi can quote infomercials to you; it's just one of her many talents. She was busy giving Mrs. Frog (our garden statue) a makeover in her makeup trailer.
I went back out to finish the job the next day and gave Ian freedom to play in the dirt. That was a first for him. He decided to shove the dirt into the holes on his sandals.
Now we just need to get back out there and plant something. Yea, Spring!

what 500 looks like

You can't see it all here, but a new box of q-tips has just covered the floors of the rooms upstairs. I was feeding Natalie in my bedroom and didn't know what these two were up to until Kimi came in and threw some up in the air like confetti. One box goes a long way.

easter sunday best

It is a dream of mine to have my children all dressed up and looking sweet for the camera in the same frame. I tried again and it is still a dream of mine.

Natalie wasn't so happy about the sun. Ian just doesn't know about smiling and holding still for more than 1 nanosecond. Here he is walking away.

Thank you, Cali and Kimi, for humoring me.

I did get some of the littlest lady once we were inside.

She knows she's a pretty girl.
Sorry to brag, but I think my kids are pretty cute.

come listen to the prophet's voice

Were you guys listening as carefully as Cali was during conference?

She didn't want to miss a word. Especially a few key words.
Here's why:
I wish I could say it was the love of the word that I have instilled in her, but I think it was more the reward that Grandma Colton had offered for people to pick a treat when they heard a word off a list she came up with. That got Cali's attention.

egg-stra fun

Ah, the smell of boiled eggs and vinegar. I saw an idea for sticking foil star stickers on the eggs and then peeling them off after you dye them. It turned out to be pretty cute. It also took the girls longer to go through all the eggs so that was a bonus. (We did this while Ian was taking a nap because he believes eggs to be balls and that could be bad for obvious reasons.)

Smile! (They were too busy for me to take more pictures so this is what I got.)

game boy

I don't know if it is because we talk about football games, soccer games, basketball games, or what, but two days ago Ian woke up with some kind of game switch flipped in his talking. He has begun talking a lot more (finally) though when he is excited it is mostly gibberish. Anyways, most things he labels end with game now. I am "mama-game." We change his "diaper-game." He drinks his "water-game." He reads a book about a "kitty-game." You name it, it's a game. It probably only will last another day or two, these things usually do. Ian has been so funny lately. I believe he is starting to pay us back for not giving him away in the first two years.

terrific two

Here are a few moments from Ian's birthday.

He still doesn't like to rip the paper off of presents, but his sisters were happy to help. We got him a golf set so I could have my kitchen spoons back.
When I saw this at the store I knew it had been waiting for me. Especially when I saw it was on clearance. Its his "football bike." By the way, the way Ian says "football" sort-of sounds like "poopball." That's really not relevant, I just think its funny.
After blowing out the candles on his cake, (I made a post about the cake below) he was ready to eat. Scott grabbed it just in time.

That's definitely my boy.

icing on the cake

Okay, so its not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but for some reason I am more proud of this than any wedding cake I've ever made. Here's how we did it.

I made a banana cake. For the recipe head over to our food blog. After baking the cake and making the frosting (some plain, some chocolate) I got my helpers and we layered the cakes.Then we measured 2 inches in the center of the cakes and cut it out. This is what we were left with.
Then we took a break to eat some of the cake we just cut out. If you're pressed for time I guess you could skip this step. (if you are that pressed for time maybe you should prioritize)

We frosted the cake with chocolate frosting.
Last, I piped the lacing and other white stripes onto the cake. Here is my very high-tech decorators bag. This was the final product. Ian loved it and Scott wanted to know why I have never made him one.

Flashback Friday: that's my boy

Here's a glimpse at what happened two years ago today:Here's the family. (Kimi was looking a little rock-starish, I must say.)Happy Birthday, Ian!