Avery's Happy 5th Birthday

AVERY GRACE turned 5 today! 

We celebrated with a backyard birthday bash yesterday.

Complete with trampoline fun, magic tricks...

a slip n' slide...

a bubble machine...

swimming pool...

gifts...

a cake created by the birthday girl...

and a big blow up water slide,

 the afternoon was a smashing success!

Avery is our smiling sunshine.
She is often happy and always filled with lots of energy.
She has the desire to love and accept all different types of friends.
 She is comfortable and confident and has no problem
telling people exactly what she thinks.

We are so thankful for the life and excitement that this 5-year old has brought into our
home and we love her to pieces!

Air Show

On Saturday Cody, Brinley and Avery along with friend Andy and his son Ben headed to the  

Dayton Air Show

Cody and Andy were true father warriors spending 8 hours in 95 degree 

weather with extremely high humidity so that the children could enjoy this grand experience...

I get a feeling the Dads did too. 

The day was jam packed with overhead amusement, 

check out the schedule of events HERE.

I enjoyed a very relaxing day with Aspen void of the numerous sibling

rivalrly issues I deal with every other day. 

After teaching morning class at the gym I headed off with girlfriends for a 

delicious birthday lunch followed by frozen yogurt.

From 2 to 30!

This picture was taken during my 2 year old birthday celebration.

On Friday I celebrated my 30th!

My sister Kelty asked me the question:

"What have you accomplished in your life goals that you had hoped to accomplish by now? 

Anything that you have not?"

While there are many life goals I have yet to accomplish, 

as I reflect on where I am now I feel an overwhelming sense of wholeness, gratitude and joy. 

Certainly there are days of mothering and homemaking that seem long and 

can feel overbearing and at times quite underwhelming, 

yet I am at peace knowing that there is nothing I would rather be doing in life right now 

then raising our wee ones and experiencing the priceless sweet fulfillment 

that comes during the simple moments of each day.

PS- THIS is a fantastic webinar!

July Birthday #2

It seems as if I just finished making Brinley's party invites and now it's on to Avery's.

I embossed Brinley's invites with a simple silver string of flowers on lilac cardstock...

we went with a personality inspired look for Avery's invites as well.

A boy version was created for the "boy" invites.

Last week I made THIS granola recipe for the second time and it's delicious!

My only addition was 1/4-1/2 c. molasses, which makes it more chewy than crunchy.

Check out my cousin HERE!

Wish me LUCK

Yesterday after buying my 33245456 case of diapers for the bargain price of

$45

I decided enough was enough and today marks Aspen's journey into 

a life wearing panties.

Check out THIS great article!

Happy Birthday!

Our firstborn is 8 years old today!

It's been a celebration around here since her party last Wednesday night.

The 8th birthday is a biggie because Brinley will be baptized as a member of 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

This year she made and decorated her own cake!

The party dinner included tacos, Brinley's choice, birthday cake and gift opening.

Next we headed across town for roller skating.

It was a blast watching the girls gather more confidence after each tumble. 

Soon enough they were zooming around the rink.

Aspen has come to expect that she ought to be able to do 

everything that her older sisters do.

That night her desire to "zoom" around the rink created quite the lower back

workout for her father.

Brinley was greeted by the greatest birthday gift ever last night when she arrived 

home from Irish dance class. Screams of joy were heard loud and clear throughout the house when she opened her bedroom door to discover her new bike!

More important and much more noteworthy than any party or wonderful birthday gift is the lovely young lady that Brinley is becoming.

She is sensitive, thoughtful, caring and motherly.

She has a strong internal sense of right and wrong and chooses the right 

when others around her may be choosing the wrong.

She has a desire to please her parents and teachers.

Since I was diagnosed with placenta previa Brinley has been constantly stepping up
to help out and she is always reminding me of what I can and can not lift or do.  

This opportunity to observe her tender inner self has been one of the blessings
of this little bump in my pregnancy road.

This morning at 6:00am Cody took Brinley on a little date to the doughnut shop to pick out birthday doughnuts to share with the family.

For her birthday lunch Brinley agreed on the idea of making personal pizza's to eat picnic 

style during a backyard swimming session.

Is it just me or are they really adorable?

My pizza's took on a little different look with fresh mozzarella, homemade pesto made with basil from our garden, tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts.

Tonight we will end the festivities with only the most awesome 

 Mommy, Daddy, Daughter date.

This has been a "date night" with much preparation on the parental part. 

WHY?

THIS article will explain it perfectly. Wish us luck!

4th of July

Oh what can I say about the 4th of July....

I am ALWAYS homesick.

Nothing can compare to the grand festivities and parades which I grew 

accustomed to growing up in Provo, Utah.

Someday I am determined to get my family out to Utah for the 4th of July, 

until then our little local parade suits their childhood fancy.

We showed up to the parade route about 15 minutes before show time and sat with

the Drexel family.

The girls #1 objective was to get as much candy as possible. 

My #1 objective afterward was to create the candy limits, which of course was a tearful event. 

The candy is basically the highlight of the parade...except for this year when a float ran over a young women's foot/leg and Doctor Young rushed in to save the day!

That evening we joined with about 10 other families for a fun outdoor BBQ 

at our friends house. The food was honestly incredible, 

thanks to the master grill man Eric and his fresh herb marinade creation.

Aspen was quite proud of the dinner spot she scored!

After the BBQ we joined the Drexel and Barlow family at an event held on the sprawling lawn of the church were the girls attended VBS this summer.

The concert and giant blow up toys were fun, however, I think the glow sticks may have been more of a highlight for the kids than anything else.

Aspen was nervous about the big firework show, her very first, and sat in my 

lap hugging me tight before they began.

After the first couple she proudly exclaimed

"I'm not afraid of fireworks anymore, I like it a lot,"

over and over again.

Finally Stampin'

I recently created four sets of coordinating cards as a gift. 

It's been way too long since I last stamped!

 

Shout Out

Alert to parents:

Click HERE to visit my favorite online parenting resource!

This website is chock full of incredible tips, tricks and wisdom for those rearing children.

For a lifetime fee of $50 you will gain access to much more material than you are able to see when just visiting the site. I use this site weekly and swear by it. 

In fact, it has helped us a great deal as we have been preparing to have the 

"big talk" with our eldest.

The outstanding couple who created the site are coming out with a new book called:

I pre-ordered my copy for %33 off by going HERE.

I truly believe their statement about rescuing our children from the Entitlement Trap:

"Join a great Cause to save America Economically

--one child at a time!"

And this is why I feel compelled to blog about it. I am confident that amidst the moral decay and shifting value systems in America we can and must gird our loins as parents and raise a generation of children with good character, respect for others and proper priorities.

However, similar to any goal, we must have a vision of what we want for our children, a plan (blueprint) of how to achieve it and then take small but important action steps each and every day so that in time we will reach that goal. 

Books, similar to the one above, and resources like valuesparenting.com, have become an important part of the stepping stones in our action plan as we strive to achieve our parenting vision. I hope that you will also be able to find these resources useful!