14! The twins are 14!!!

We had an awesome day filled with fun activities and celebrations for Owen and Troy's birthday. Krispy Kreme was the first priority, and then we came home for games (chess, Pokemon, and Wii). We went on a desert adventure walk, and then the boys went with Mark to go disc golfing.  I finished up the cakes, and then we had dinner, presents, and cake(s).

All in all, an amazing day to celebrate my two favorite fourteen year olds in the world!
I love you Owen and Troy!

He's got braces!  Looking good, Owen!

Checking out the donuts!

Desert adventure walk:

Presents:

This year we made a family goal to only give one store-bought present at each birthday.  

All other presents must be food related OR homemade.  

It's already a challenge.  

3-D printer pen!!!

Easel

Perplexus (perplexi?) from PoppaKeith and Jeanene

YAY!!!

Shirts from Leslie (she spray painted their desired themes on shirts!)  

She's cool!  They are happy!

Stilts from Dad.  Yes, he made them.  He painted them.  

There's a cheetah pair of stilts, and a giraffe pair.  

They are already doing well with them!  

Cakes!  Owen wanted a lemon PacMan cake...

Troy wanted a chocolate kitkat/M&M cake...

My babies, 

14 years ago........... through today!

Two more teenagers

How is this happening??!??!?
They are growing up so fast.  Here are some fun things they've enjoyed this past year...

Troy loves taking pictures…  

Spring is offering him lots of opportunities!

Troy loves all kinds of puzzles especially Sudoku & Rubik's Cube (under 1:45, that is ONE MINUTE AND FORTY-FIVE SECONDS!!!)

Owen loves to build, fix broken things around the house (always plenty to do), and work with his hands in wood-burning and etching.  

They both love to draw, read, and play with their younger siblings.  They also love to "hang out" with the youth in our ward and are making some great friends.  

Owen loves creating things with food

Owen also loves creating with Legos

Owen and Troy love to go to the temple

They humor me with the silly things we do to get free donuts 

(free dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme if you dressed like a pirate… on pirate day! 

We "earned" dozens of donuts that day!)

They are both learning how to ride a unicycle!  Almost there!

THE BIRTHDAY

We had a quick Krispy Kreme donut breakfast followed by some time at the arcades 

(I mean the dentist office that masquerades as an arcade). 

They loved eating ice cream right after getting their fluoride treatments…  

This dentist office is pretty smart in keeping their customers!

We came home and watched a conference talk by Elder Holland, 

and then enjoyed a day off of school.  

The kids played with legos and balloons, 

played Super Mario Bros. and Wii Sports, 

went to the library, opened presents, 

had bacon crusted pizza from Little Caesars, 

and we sang quickly to the Owen and Troy 

before they all left for a combined activity at church. 

Phew. 

Happy Birthday Owen and Troy!

Opening presents 

Lemon cream cheese cake and Oreo ice cream cake

Evelyn is 7!

She is adorable.  And all girl.  We have had a lot of fun the past couple of days celebrating her birthday...
Krispy Kreme, family games, presents, phone calls, spaghetti and meatballs (finally something besides pizza on a birthday!), caramel apple frosted white chocolate cake... surprising delicious... and a mom/daughter date today to IHOP and Baskin Robbins to claim her free food!  Yay and yum!

Happy zoo day to you

For Jeanene's birthday we took a trip to the National Zoo. We saw a numerous amount of animals and enjoyed a yummy banana cake.  It was very hot but we all had fun!

Reuben and Evelyn helping Poppa Keith not get lost

Cute 99 day old leopard

Fighting for the water bottles

"Phew! I'm pooped!"

Gideon after his nap

Reuben: "MINGOS!!!"

We saw some lovebirds...

"What is that?"

The elephants entertained us

"Yuck, I think I just swallowed a fly!"

"You're next."

"Look at that human..... What do you think he's doing?"

Happy birthday Jeanene, we all love you!