Birthdays!

Well since I haven't posted since Chris's B-day I figured I had better get things pulled together. This is suppossed to be my subsitute for a journal or scrapbooking! So I can't let it go too or I'm doomed to forgeting my kids lives.

Cai's B-Day

Well Cai turned 7 in May. We took it a little easier this year and let him invite 4 friends to the funpark. I am embarrassed that I didn't get him a decent cake made, but I had just finished doing a wedding cake and was a little burned out and had very little time. In fact I can't even find a photo of the one I did make. Oh well at least he got a little cake and cupcakes for his B-Day party with his friends from Sam's Club. They had a wonderful time at the fun park. We bowled ate pizza and played lazer tag. They had a blast! Me, Chris, Cate and their uncle Nic even joined them in Lazer tag. It was pretty funny to watch Cate running around with a vest on as big as she was. But she caught on very quickly and did really good. It was Adults and Cate against the boys. That weekend his Grandma and Grandpa Guymon and Grandma and Grandpa Callister came up for his last soccer game, and then we all went to Pizza Plus, since the Grandparents HAVE to go there when they're up, and I don't blame them. We went home and opened presents. Had Cai's "Ghost Town" cake per his request. I had envisioned something more grand but it pretty much ended up being a big chocolate square with two skeleton men battling it out.

My Birthday!

Chris really surprised me for my birthday this year and arranged for a baby sitter to come. He had planned the whole evening and it was awesome. He made reservations at La Nonne for dinner which was excellent. The food and atmosphere really reminded me of Italy so it was fun to reminisce about that. Then we went to see "Angels and Demons" which was really fun to see an entire adult movie with no interuptions. It was also fun to watch them race around Rome and remember the sites we had seen. It was really a good movie. It makes me want to read the book again. I had already kind of given myself my birthday/mother's day/Anniversary gift when I got my ring in NZ. So I wasn't really expecting much but Chris let me get new dishes anyways. And considering what he got for father's day I didn't feel too badly about the splurge.

Cate's Birthday!

Yes this time of year is quite busy with Birthdays they come about every two weeks from the beginning of May to the end of June. So sorry for the monster post, I'm trying to catch up. Well the little princess wasnt quite old enough for a friends party so we went to Salt Lake to Chuck-E-Cheeses by her request. I't pretty sad when you're just excited at the end that all the tokens are gone, and then spend about an hour choosing their 5 cent prizes, Oh the choices! A sparkly comb, or a puzzle that will break in ten seconds flat? She had a great time, though and that's what matters. She had to stand in front of the stage to watch the silly animatronics people and dance to the music. She's got some great moves! We went over to Grandma Callisters to opend presents and have Cake and Ice Cream. She desperately wanted a purple Barbie cake, so I managed to get the cake baked, but not decorated when we left home. So we stopped at Walmart on the way home and I bought some ready-made frosting and decorated it in about 10 min. Grandma Callister didn't have any red so we ended up with a Cinderella blue instead, but Cate was a good sport. She got a "Baby Alive" and a bunch of baby stuff. And of course new clothes! She had a great B-Day, and I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that my baby is now 3 years old!

Cole's Birthday!

Well Cole is such a good sport. His Birthday is dead last and it gets a little difficult to wait that long, but he did great. He had his cousin Gavin and Collin up so we had a pirate birthday party. We were trying to get a bunch of stuff done on the yard before we left for Colorado, so yet again I rushed through getting a cake baked. I figured I would make his requested pirate ship one for his friends party that will be who knows when. We hoped we could have it when we returned from Colorado, but all kinds of unexpected events occured. Our trip was permanently postponed due to the death of my Hero "Uncle Dean." It really rocked our family to the core. In my mom's family Aunt Claudia and Uncle Dean were just the rock that the rest of the family relied upon. My mom lost her mom when she was just 16 years old, so my mom's oldest sister (Claudia) and her husband Uncle Dean were more like grandparents to us. So due to funerals and my sister from Colorado coming up here, we just stayed in Garden City and hung out with the family. It's not often that all of us get together since we're spread all over the place so it was great. But like most family get togethers we all get each other sick. My nephew started getting sick and later we discovered it was Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease, so Sunday morning Cole woke with a fever. We still aren't sure if he's got it so his Birthday party with friends is gonna be really late! Oh well better late than never. He had a good party with the cousins though. They all dressed up like pirates and we drank Shark's Blood punch and let the kids decorate their own chocolate cupcakes with pirate stuff and then had a treasure hunt. Coley was thrilled to get several lego sets and a new Wii game. The Wii has been "broken" for a while, so we "fixed" it and let them play. Cole also finally got his Easter bike replaced. He got a new one for Easter that broke almost immediately. We could not find a better bike in the entire valley, and believe me I looked. The construction was pretty shoddy and two screws stripped the threads in the handlebars making the bike useless. Fortunately they took it back but the only bikes around were the same brand or worse in Logan, so we finally took a risk on a motorcyle bike. It didn't get great reviews but we were desperate, and he is IN LOVE with it. He had been riding Cai's old one around since Easter, which had a crushed seat I ran over in the van. We managed to bend it back but the seat kept tilting back. It worked temporarily, though until we could replace the other one.

What we've been up to besides Birthdays:

Soccer!

Came and went rather quickly. Although both the boys played this year many of the games got canceled due to the rain. Cole who had begged to play since last year suddenly ran out of enthusiasm at the first practice. It didn't take long for him to get into it again, and I think he really had fun. He was more familiar with it than Cai was so he ended up being a pretty good player. Cai improved greatly this year. His endurance was a lot better and he understood the game much better this time. He took the ball all the way down the field several times but didn't ever get a goal. It's so funny to watch at that age. It seems they just kick it right to the goalie cuz that seems to be what they should do. I guess strategy will be the focus next year.

Cole's Preschool Graduation:

Cole is moving on to kindergarten next year so this will be his last year at Billye Sue's. He is so excited. And I must say so am I. It was a little rough when Cai went into first grade. They are so close and Cole got pretty stir crazy. Not to mention the fact that Cate will now be in preschool leaving me with four entire hours a week to myself. I am making a vow to spend it painting!

We had a friend of mine from high school come stay the weekend with us. It was fun to spend some time with her family. We went to the Zoo and they had the "Friends of Willow Park Zoo" kids Fair so that was fun there was crafts and games for the kids, and then that evening we went to the Demolition Derby at the Fair grounds. My kids just love them. They had a great time and we watched a car get flipped over right in front of us. They couldn't stop talking about it. It was really fun to catch up and spend time getting to know each other again.

Cai had his first year of Baseball this year also. He is really into it more so than any other sport he has tried before. He used to complain about soccer and basketball, but he is really loving baseball. He is doing really well too, he played first base for a few games and his coach has even been pitching to him. Hopefully his interest isn't short lived.

Chris and I have been working our butts off to get the backyard gazebo and patio done. We had to get that done before we can get the rest of the yard tilled up and ready for grass. It is so nice to have a place to put the grill for now and enjoy the waterfall! I think our neighbors have gotten more out of it than we have up to this point. I can't wait to get things put back together back there. We are probably going to wait on the deck and driveway to the back garage until next year. We ended up getting a new hot tub for a great price for Chris' father's day present. Bullfrog had a factory direct tent sale at the Lee's in Logan. We really needed to get that first before we build the deck. We had a pad poured underneath the covered area in back and then we'll build a deck around it so that it is sunken in. The kids are having a ball. I thik they're in there about 3 times a day along with all their friends. But they haven't asked to go to the aquatic center once this summer!

Then at long last I finally finished the tile in the downstairs bathroom and the glass tile and hearthstones around the fireplace in the family room! Now I just have to paint it. Although I did finally get the walls in the dining room and the walls down to the basement all touched up. It made such a difference, I can't believe it took me so long. Now next on the project list is getting the game room/downstairs kitchen decorated. I have been searching for inspiration forever, and finally found what I had been looking for. We wanted it to look kinda retro urban loungeish. Which sounds a little odd but I really have it all figured out in my head. The real challenge is finding art deco decor to match, but I finally found the perfect prints for the walls! They're vintage 30's jazz club posters. They have female lounge singers on the front advertising different Jazzclubs in New York and Chicago. Just picture a look like the movie/musical Chicago. Chris LOVES that show, and I knew these were perfect for the theme we were going for. I just can't believe I found them. They even have a rusty orange color that matches the stained concrete down there to a "T." Then we want to make a lamp to go over the future pool table (now air hockey table) that looks like these lamps that were all over the set of the last Norah Jones concert we went to. They look like huge drum lamp shades with different colored pendant things that hang around the drum. So they'll be reds and oranges. I love it when plans I've had in my head for years begin to materialize.