shut the door, liv is four!

 This cutie-pie is four already?!  How can it be?  In case you are wondering, here is what 'four' looks like on Liv:

I'm so grateful for this sweet girl.  I could've never imagined how much joy she would bring into my life!

I knew her birthday would be a busy day, so I made sure I was ahead of the game and doing things in advance.  Let's face it, I am getting too old for procrastination!  I can't handle the stress of it.  Anyway, Liv wanted a 'Princess' party, but I wanted to do something that would be fun for both boys and girls.  We settled on an 'Under the Sea' theme:

I searched for some ideas online and then added some ideas of my own for her cake.  The good news is that her cake was completely finished and in the fridge over 24 hours before the party!

 While the boys were camping I made lots of tissue paper fish and other simple decorations for Liv's party.  Decorating always takes more time that I think it will.  I hung a bunch of blue balloons from the ceiling in our front hallway and also put paper fish on the windows at our front door.  Liv was really excited about everything.

I can thank Pinterest for this blue jello ocean idea.  Liv loves mandarin oranges and I thought they'd make cute boats:

I froze ice into fish shapes to go in the blue Hawaiian Punch (getting a little too into the theme here, I admit):

I had prepared three different crafts to do, but we only got to one, which was fine.  The kids enjoyed playing with toys, doing "pin the tail on the mermaid,"  and some games and music with Rob.  He had the kids all dancing while he turned "The Wheels on the Bus" into "The Fish in the Ocean." The kids got to make up the different verses and it was a big hit (thanks Rob!):

I forgot to get out my nice camera (dang it!  I'm so bad at that now).  So blurry phone shots will have to do. I love Tosh in the background of this next one.  So cute:

The party was fairly simple, yet exhausting.  After the kids left, we opened family gifts.  Hewitt helping Liv out with some tape:

Happy Birthday, Livvy!  We love our sweet and silly girl :)

fathers and sons; mothers and daughters

Our 'playing outdoors' days are numbered, I believe.  It's really heating up and we've tried to take advantage of playing at the park while we still can.  I got a kick out of Liv's outfit at the park one day last week.  Those red boots don't look like the best climbing shoes...

But they sure are cute!

The boys went on the Father's and Son's Campout the second weekend in May.  Liv and I invited some friends over for dinner and to swim, but Liv woke up on Friday with a fever and cough.  Boo!

With our plans canceled, Liv got some extra rest (and Netflix time).  Poor, sick (and darling) girl:

I thought I'd get some good work done in a quiet house (rare and odd) without my boys (Liv went to bed for the night on Friday around 6pm!).  I started working on transcribing my mom's memorial service and going through some of her things to finally begin a memoir about her life (something I really want to do).  To be honest, this is much more difficult than I thought it would be.  I guess it's still 'too soon' because I was so sad all weekend and missing my mom like crazy.  Late on Friday night I listened to a recording of my boys interviewing my parents about their lives (recorded in March 2011--just before my mom was diagnosed with cancer) and just sobbed, even though it was so sweet to hear us laughing together.

I found this photo of my mom from high school that I don't remember ever seeing before (Love the hair and clip-on earrings.  I think my niece McKaylynn looks so much like her!):

While going through my mom's things, Liv discovered her hot rollers and we tried them out on Saturday afternoon.  Liv was feeling MUCH better as you can tell here:

Liv is starting to draw and I believe this is her first person.  It is so cute!

Rob actually remembered to take a couple (literally) of photos while camping!  The boys had a terrific time, as usual.  After cleaning up camp on Saturday morning, they went on a four-mile hike with some friends.  They had a blast and didn't get home until after 4:00pm.

Our friend Abbi sent us a "Flat Abbi" to have some adventures with, and she went camping with the boys (ha!).  This photo of Tosh makes me laugh:

 I barely saw Burke after camping--he headed straight up to shower.  We were all seated for dinner and called several times for him to join us.  We finally went upstairs to discover him under his covers and fast asleep!  I figured he was reading (which he was for a bit).  Would you believe that this kid went to bed around 4:30PM and didn't wake up until almost 8:00AM on Sunday morning!  He totally skipped dinner and everything.  That's one tired boy!

Sunday after church Rob started working on recording a 'Family Rap.'  He had the boys write their parts and eventually got us all to record something.  We had a fun time, as these pictures will show:

I wanted to get some photos of Liv on her final day of being three years old, so we went outside to check out the yard.  It was sorta bright out there!

Liv picked some flowers off a Lantana bush, smelled them, and then sneezed!  I caught her just before sneezing and Liv has laughed and laughed about this photo!  It's hilarious!  I guess she's allergic?

 Gathering flowers for her mommy:

Now for a few funnies I don't want to forget...

Liv:  "Can I marry Hewitt?  But I kissed him!"

Liv (pointing to a little kid riding a two-wheeler):  "Look!  He doesn't have potty-training wheels on his bike!"

We recently got a Kindle (Fire, I think?) and Liv calls it the "Kimball" and it sounds like Tosh is saying "Ken Doll" as in Barbie's boyfriends.  Makes me laugh every time.

fourteen years later...

Goodbye, Spring.  Summer has arrived.  It's warmed up to the point that even I have started swimming some (usually right after I've gone running and I'm really hot).  It's a bit chilly getting in, but if you keep moving then the water is warm enough :).

I've sort of felt bad that the weather here has been so lovely and there is snow where our friends and family live...

Then it was over 100 degrees on Monday and I felt like crying because it was still only April!

I took Tosh and Hewitt to get their hair cut last week.  It just had to be done.  Tosh LOVED having his hair washed and asked if he could have that done every week.  So cute.  Liv acted like the "pro" since she had just had her hair cut the week before.  She kept telling the boys where to sit, what they were doing, etc.  So funny.

Hewitt wasn't thrilled about his haircut (he likes it long over his ears), but Rob and I like it so much!  I think it will be so much cooler for summer too.

Our 14th anniversary was on the 24th.  It's always fun to look back at photos:

 I sure treasure this one with our parents outside of the Mount Timpanogos Temple:

We've had this big collage of "greatest hits" hanging in our room for a while.  Some of the photos had fallen down and Rob and I have talked about fixing it for several months.  As a little surprise I added some new photos to our collection and fixed it up so it looked nice again.  I knew he would appreciate that my "gift" to him cost only $0.77.  Well, I also made fresh strawberry shortcake (and we went out for dinner on Friday night to celebrate).

 Frugality + Food = Way to Rob's heart! 

Some cute photos of the kids swimming:

Rob and Hewitt took apart our old TV/DVR combo (this is what we took with us when we lived in Tennessee for the summer of 2004).  The kids had lots of fun creating their own shows:

Our family was asked to do a musical number at the Stake Primary Leadership training for all primary workers Sunday evening.  We did "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" with Rob on guitar.   I knew Tosh would be a bit of a 'wild card' but he sang the entire thing (Liv sat with a friend).  Tosh was QUITE hyper before the meeting started and was running around the cultural hall a bit and then ran up on the stage after getting a drink.  During the song, he started laughing at something and pointed it out to Hewitt, but kept singing.  I wouldn't call us the "VonTrapps" yet, but it went OK and was probably a good reminder to the teachers of what primary kids are all about.  I held on to Tosh the entire time we sang and escorted him outside before he could get away from me.  Oh, these boys!  How I love them.

Hewitt has been working hard to finish his 'Wolf' requirements for cub scouts.  He has only ONE thing left to do!  I just had to share some of the answers he wrote in his book.

(Only Hewitt!)

For FHE on Monday we visited some historic and government buildings in Chandler (one of Hewitt's Wolf requirements).  We played Frisbee at a park downtown and checked out some cool buildings:

 (Burke is on his tiptoes to look as tall as possible next to Hewitt)

Notice Hewitt's mis-matched flip flops?  Classic Hewitt.

Only four more weeks of school and until Rob's 8-week sabbatical!