May & June 2012

 Nate & I were feeling a little "Wicked" that night in May.....

 That is such a fun show!! The funny thing about it was that I bought tickets for Nate for Christmas as a surprise and he apparently had the same idea and bought tickets for me as a surprise.  Great minds think a like.  It wasn't hard to sell our extra pair of tickets once we found out, though.  This was my second time going and Nate's first.  He wasn't disappointed.

 

 

 

 Cutest little bumble bee around...

 

 Future rock star!  Man, Colton looks like such a big kid here.

 

 

 

 What's more fun than running in the sprinklers in the summer?

 

 ... and mowing a lawn with daddy?

 ... and soccer camp? :)

 Lexi and Tyler both improved a lot with this soccer camp.  They had many collegiate players as coaches.  I was really impressed with how they ran it.

 

 

Nate's parents and our niece Kennedy were able to come out and visit for a few days when Nathan was called as bishop (leader of our congregation at church).  It was really great to have them here.  McKinley took to Kenneddy quite nicely!

 

 

A friend at church came up with the brilliant idea to have a daddy-daughter ball in June.  Lexi was so excited to dress up in her fanciest dress and go on a date with dad!

On my birthday, another generous friend offered to watch our kids so Nate and I could go out.  While we were out, our friend had the kids "help" her make a cupcake bouquet for me.  So sweet!!  As you can see they were A LOT of help :)

 

 

This summer we decided to become members at a community pool instead of doing swim lessons for the kids.  It has been so great!  There's a full size pool and a little kiddie pool.  All the kids have gotten sooo much better at/ more comfortable with swimming.  It's been a fun family activity , especially when we grilled up something yummy and had dinner there.  It's been really nice that we have some friends that were also members so the kids always had someone to play with.  I think we made a great decision.

Colton-ator has turned 4!!

 Mr. C has turned 4 and he also got to have a party with friends this year.  I bet you have no idea what his theme was...it's really subtle :) 

Colton never ceases to amaze me.  He's such a strong, manly-boy, but he's my biggest cuddle bug.  He's very tender- hearted and continues to have such a great attitude when it comes to his dietary restrictions.  Possibly my favorite thing about Colton is his awesome sense of humor.  He truly cracks us all up, he's like a miniature Chris Farley (with much better moral character) in his mannerisms etc.

 With gluten-free cake, so far it seems you're a little limited in size and shape.  It's much denser, so you can usually only get one small round or maybe a small square pan, but for a spiderman head it worked great!

 I made some regular cupcakes for those that might not be brave enough to try the GF cake.

 Had to transform the house with a few spider webs etc.

 We played a musical chairs type game with a spiderweb spray-painted on the lawn

 Watch out!  Colton's got a weapon (everything is a weapon to Colton) and he let loose.

 

 

 The loot :)

 He thoroughly enjoyed all the great gifts his friends gave him!

 Here's the quieter, just-family celebration:

 

 These two really are great buddies.  They love to play together and apparently don't mind snuggling either.  These pictures melt my heart a little....

Happy Birthday McKinley! & other events of April 2012

 Ms. Cutie-Pants is 2!! (has been for a while now)

For McKinley's cake, I decided to make a cake looking like her favorite thing to cuddle...her "wuh-wuh".  It was convenient that I had some left over black and white fondant in the freezer from Lexi's birthday cake ;)

 I was able to whip this one out quickly as well.  Far from perfect, but I'm getting better.

 

Present time!

 

This is her "stink" face.  We sure love this little girl and all her many expressions.  She's spunky!!  She's a smart little cookie and brings us all so much joy.  I love how she says "I wanna hold you"  when she wants me to pick her up.  Her favorite show is Dora (ai-yai-yai), so you can often hear her say (or yell) "Wiper, no WIPING!!!"  (instead of "Swiper , no swiping").  She does it complete with hand gestures and she often does it towards strangers.  You can imagine the reactions we get - priceless!

 

 

Happy Easter!  The Saturday morning baskets (Easter Bunny always delivers by Sat. morning in our house).

 Now for the egg hunt...

 The joy of confetti eggs.

 

 

In April,  I went out of town for a few days to Arizona for my cousin's wedding.  While I was gone Daddy kept the kids busy with lots of fun activities, like hiking and picnics &

  dinners of champions :) Hey, they're not complaining.  Good job, daddy!

At the beginning of the year, Tyler started a break dance class that was so much fun to watch.  He really did improve a lot.  Here's the beginning of a back spin.

 

Here's the cool pose when they're done with their routine.  Don't mess with these guys!

Lexi is 9!! Nathan is ....??

 I might be 6 months late, but I'm finally getting around to posting about some special birthdays.  Here's Ms. Lexi on her 9th b-day. 

 This year she got to have a party with friends and she wanted to do a music theme.  So I played with fondant once again (although I don't have a great relationship with it) to try to make a music note cake.   It ended up cooperating quite nicely- yay! 

 Piggin' out on pizza at her pajama dance party.

 All the girls playing "Just Dance" on the Wii - so cute!

 I guess she was excited about that present

 Hooray!

 What's a party without a little twister?

 

 

A few days later, it was Nathan's turn to be birthday boy.  Although not as much "hoop-la", he's still just as special!

 

 What's a birthday without .....pants??!!

 Daddy's ice cream cake, I guess McKinley wasn't fond of it.

Here's the annual school art show that impresses me every year.  I wish you could have seen what some of the older grades did.  Wow!  Lexi's picture is the one in the middle with the sidewalk.

 

Tyler's picture is the top middle

 

This was one of Tyler's writing examples that was hanging on the wall from the beginning of the year.  I think it's funny because he doesn't have a cat or a dirt bike.  And he doesn't actually even like cats either.  Haha :)

 

 Lexi joined the school choir this year.  They only had one performance and they were joined with all the other elementary school choirs  and one middle school choir in the district. 

 Can you tell Lexi's choir did a pirate song? :)

 The lovely singer!