Luke goes from 5 to 6...

...overnight. The years just fly by. Luke is a great brother and Steve and I love him immensely. We had a lot of fun celebrating his sixth birthday together. The kids were still anxious to repeat the waffles breakfast we had done for our family birthday party just a couple weeks before so that is what Luke chose for his birthday breakfast. This time we wrote out a number 6 with the whipped cream instead of 10 (although it won't be long before we're doing that for him too...yikes.).

Before Steve left for work we gave Luke one of his gifts, a fun Lego set he had wanted. I love that both our boys are very fond of legos. They are getting so good at putting them together on their own even. Luke also received a new video game he had been hoping for. 

Luke was generous enough to let his older (and VERY anxious) brother assemble his new Lego ship. 

 Luke also received a new bike. He was VERY overdue in getting a new bike but we just couldn't bring ourselves to get it before his birthday. At the rate this kid grows we knew we had to hold out for a milestone in hopes that we could catch him at a plateau? Alright, maybe we're (and by we I mean Steve...haha, love you, hon!) just logical about it.

Luke wanted to hit up Chuck E Cheese's (NOT my favorite place on earth) for his birthday. We spent a couple hours there and I think everyone had fun. Then we headed to Souplantation (his pick) for dinner.

We celebrated with the family the following Sunday with pizza dinner and cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Luke Daniel! We hope your wishes for this year come true.

10 year milestone

Our 10th anniversary was so fun! We celebrated with our kids on the actual date of our anniversary by having a family birthday party. Tke kids and I made a special waffle breakfast and after Steve headed off to work we went out for some fun. First off a stop at the temple. I had this idea of peacefully walking around and talking about the temple and each of my kids would be so touched by the Spirit their testimonies would immediately be founded in its importance. Ha! But it was nice nonetheless...after I recovered from being looked at like I was a looney tune and I cooled off from being frustrated. Next stop was the Irvine Spectrum for a ride on the ferris wheel and some lunch. When Steve got home we headed out for some family bowling (got to love a two and a half year old trying to bowl!) and dinner out. Happy birthday to our family!

That weekend Steve and I caught a boat ride to Catalina to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We had convinced two of our favorite people to join us, Allen and Anna (since their anniversary is just a few shorts weeks after). What a boat ride it was! Everyone around us began vomiting and the four of us were doing our best to NOT join in the fun. Thankfully the weekend got better from there.

Steve and I on Avalon beach (someone has GOT to teach me how to pose for a picture...yikes!) 

We checked into our cute hotel, saw a movie (the not so romantic Planet of the Apes, that's what you get when there is only one theater on the island with ONE movie playing a month), had some tasty dinner and enjoyed time without our lovely babies.

The next day Allen, Anna and I went on a zipline tour of Catalina. I was pretty bummed that Steve didn't get to go but it was the funnest thing I've done in a looooong time AFTER I got over my fear of plummeting to my death. I was so glad to have Anna and Allen there with me.

When the three of us were done with that we decided to rent tandem bikes and ride around the island. Then someone suggested, don't know who... (ahem, me), that we ride UPHILL to the botanical gardens. Wow, that was a bad idea. But everyone played along and the ride down hill was superb.

I love my Steverino! At times we are polar opposites. He is so logical and I am so emotional. His engineering mind helps keep me grounded. When we were married 10 years ago I could not imagine what 10 years together was going to feel like and I am so glad I know. My marriage to him has been the best decision I made. I love the life we are continually trying to create together, as frustrating and patience-testing it can be sometimes (for loads of reasons, not just each other), and the children we have added to our family. I am SUCH a lucky girl.

Once Upon A Time...

Sadie turned three! A few weeks before her birthday I was driving in the car with Sadie and she began telling me what she was going to do for her birthday. She had the theme picked out...princess! I did my best to make her dreams come true.

I found this cute cardboard castle on Amazon. We all, kids and adults alike, enjoyed coloring it in and going in and out.

 I tried to get the kids to play a game. It was a version of pin the tail on the donkey but with princesses and castles. This group wasn't really interested in being blindfolded, or really interested in the game.

So I scrapped the other game and just went with the flow, free play it is!

We had tasty cupcakes and crown shaped pb&j sandwiches.

Grandma & Grandpa even called to sing her Happy Birthday, all the way from Sweden! 

Sadie now has a dress for each of her favorite princesses; Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Belle. She's absolutely adorable in them!

The food table!

Our knight in shining armor, Evan!

Princesses Amerie and Eva, we loved partying with you!

Sadie also celebrated her birthday in our Wednesday class. I made chocolate popcorn and oreos that were a big hit at snack time. Miss Jeanette let her get up on the table as we sang Happy Birthday to her and she was so cute being so timid yet proud.

Sadie is such a marvelous addition to our family. We love her girlish ways. Sadie is often mistaken for being older than her age because of her height and stature. She is fond of princesses and singing. She loves her brothers and cousins bunches. I can't believe my baby girl is three years old! Make it stop, make all the growing up stop.

Summer Fun - Sleep Overs

Another favorite summer memory are the sleep overs we did with our cousins in Oceanside. Anna and I switched having each other's oldest kids sleep over for a weekend. Needless to say, the boys all had a FANTASTIC time.

At our house we made churros for breakfast one morning and ate them in the back yard. Boys will be boys and the churros became guns...of course.

 When Anna had my boys she took them all (5 boys!) on base. My boys, especially Ethan, absolutely love all things military and having the chance to get on some real life military tanks sends them over the moon!

They also got to play with their cousin's cool Xbox games with the new Kinect. I heard rave reviews and I'm still hoping to get us one too. Video games are undeniably an integral part of our play so I love it when I can find ways to make it more active and less sedentary.

I took the kids to the beach when I had the cousins over (I think Anna did it too on her turn) and we rolled around in the sand and surf...some of us more than others! Thankgoodness for baby powder.

We jumped on our new trampoline.

Went to the park to fly in the swings.



And accessorized ourselves with colorful necklaces.

And I must not forget the bubble wars!

We love having Rasmussen cousins so close by and are going to miss them when they move one day. Wish we could gather ALL the Rasmussens more often.

Summer Stuff

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

Summer 2011 is a fond memory now that we are in the thick of Fall soccer, school, and choir. We had a great time though. Just not having a schedule was the highlight of most days. We enjoyed having time at home to do some experiments and play. One of our favorites were the marshmallow art and vinegar blasts.

We had different sizes of marshmallows and the kids tried building people or structures by just licking the marshmallows. Then they decided to add toothpicks. I think the licking was the favorite part!

When they were done building they were allowed to eat one of their masterpieces before we through everything else away.

 Of course, I couldn't pass up another activity to do with my kids that involved twinkies and cupcakes! One of our favorite movies this summer was Despicable Me so we made some minnion cupcakes one day. The eyes were made with smartie candies. Mmm...I have a weird love of twinkies.

Lots of park days!

Then the vinegar blasts! I was too lazy to make a big volcano so we pulled out our glasses and had fun anyway. We colored the vinegar orange and added our baking soda to watch the reaction take place right in front of our eyes. It was magical. Over and over we added baking soda and watched the vinegar take flight and shoot right out of the glass. Thank goodness for paper plates to contain the mess!

I miss our summer days.

Road Trippin’

I have this weird love of Utah. I have really great memories (and some not so hot ones too) from my BYU days. I love being around all the Mormons and not feeling like a complete weirdo for having more than one child. I love how nice the people are, how family oriented most of the state is, and the mountains. I always forget how much I love hiking until I’m back in Utah. I was pretty outdoorsy when I lived in Utah, I miss that. So it didn’t take much arm twisting when Anna talked to me about carpooling for a trip in early June. We piled our kids in my car and off we went! Anna was a fantastic co-pilot. We both understand what its like to be the co-pilot (the constant snack hand outs, the movie changes, the  activity dispersmenting (is that a word?) etc.). She was really easy to travel with.

We split the drive into 2 days, stopping in Las Vegas to spend the night at Anna’s parents house. Thank you Christensens! The second day was our 6 hour drive and I have to admit that when kids fall asleep there is a certain peace that swells within my heart. Aren’t they angels? hehe…

Anna headed off to her brother’s house and I went to my friend’s, Mari and Josh. Ethan and Luke became best buds with Mari’s nephews (who conveniently live downstairs) Tyler and Travis. We went to the Bean Museum and checked out the cool animal displays. The kids got to pet a snake and check out some aligator hides. Capturing a picture where everyone stays still for longer than a second and looks into the camera was near to impossible. Sorry Luke!


Lunch at BYU’s duck pond proved to be prophecy fulfilled when Luke fell and scraped his leg. I had to take a picture and text it to Steve. Poor Luke, it was a nasty scrape.

Josh and Mari had a cool tire swing in their back yard. Ethan and Sadie loved taking turns on it.

We went on a hike up Provo Canyon on Saturday morning.

I actually got Sadie to wear her sunglasses for a little while.

Then the boys found walking sticks and even Sadie had to have one. They did pretty well on the hike, I was impressed.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our trip short when my boys got a nasty stomach bug and were throwing up. I got afraid I might catch it and not be able to drive home and then miss Steve’s birthday. And I don’t like being in someone else’s house with sick kids, especially since I wasn’t sure if this was contagious. We now think that maybe our kids get altitude sickness. Anyone know anything about that? So I headed home. We didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to or go to Temple Square like I wanted to but oh well. Maybe I’ll get enough courage to try again soon. The drive home wasn’t as bad as I expected. Thankfully no one puked but California definitely needs to make the drive between state line and Barstow more than two lanes! The traffic is ridiculous!