If you invite them, they will come...

I'm a novice at hosting birthday parties for my kids.  Well, even less experienced than a novice. More like I've never done it before, ever. Birthdays up to this point for my kids have just consisted of doing some sort of fun activity chosen by the birthday child with a few close friends or family members. I've never hosted a bonafide birthday party with a fun theme, games, activities in my home.  Any time I drop Cade off to a birthday party to see a houseful of kids, I am half grateful for the opportunity Cade has for some fun with kids his own age, and half concerned about the mental health of the parents. Who would want over a dozen kids for 2 hours running crazy?  I LOVE kids, but that many under my supervision without their parents around to help? I always felt overwhelmed for the parents after dropping Cade off.

Cade's 6th birthday was approaching and after discussing for a few months (no exaggeration here) he decided he wanted to have a "home party" because he would be able to invite more friends, as opposed to a party where we went bowling or something of the like and could invite 2 or 3 friends.  Darn.

I picked a Saturday on the calendar and assumed about 10 days before the party I'd begin planning and inviting. I admit, I was dreading it a bit. It seemed so exhausting just thinking about it, but I promised myself I'd keep it simple, and eliminate as much unnecessary fluff as possible, as opposed to some birthday parties going on in Utah Valley. (wink, wink!)

Rarely do things go as planned around here, and even when we do plan it gets changed. Sure enough, Kyle announced to me he was going to be out of town the weekend we had chosen to celebrate Cade's "home birthday-party "complete-with-friends" style.  We decided to move it up a week giving me less time to get my act together. The next day we were leaving for Seattle, so there was no way I'd get invitations out before we left. They'd have to wait for Monday. And the party would be that Saturday.

For our FHE activity that Monday night we spent assembling Cade's invites and delivering them. Kyle was especially in favor of inviting not only kids from our neighborhood, but also kids from Cade's kindergarten class. And Cade was very adamant on inviting friends from his old neighborhood in Mayberry.   As we began putting names on invitations, the stack grew taller and taller and my anxiety level began to climb. Kyle didn't seem to notice and was focused on making sure Cade was thinking of everyone possible he wanted at his party.  I began to protest, but then I reminded myself, we were inviting kids about 5 days before the party. What were the chances that all 20 kids would really be there?  Saturdays are especially busy days and with little notice, I figured we'd be lucky if 6 or 7 showed up.  I asked for regrets only RSVPs and didn't get a single phone call, so that's when I got a little concerned...

Rightfully so!

I was blown away by the turnout.  Really, my heart was warmed that so many kids were able to come and celebrate our special day with Cade.

Melody, my faithful right hand woman came to my rescue and helped me finish up last minute preparations and answered the door (she could pass as me, right?!) while I attempted to paint over my blotchy, popped blood vessel covered face with foundation and make myself presentable. (the night before was a rough one)

We had a St. Patrick's themed party, complete with a scavenger hunt for treasures left behind by Lucky the Leprachaun. The kids had a blast. Or at least that is how I translated the shrieks, screams, giggles and running.  Hope I'm right.

Just after reading the letter from Lucky and passing out the scavenger hunt bags.

We found treasure!!

The children were quite attentive when it was time to read another clue. So cute!

The weather turned crummy on us, but we went ahead and played some relay race games outside despite the cold temperatures and soggy ground.

I did make an effort to not send home the kids high on sugar. We had a St. Patrick's inspired themed meal of mini bagels with green cream cheese, celery sticks, grapes and water. Mini cupcakes were served after we sang happy birthday and we attempted to end the party with a game of freeze dancing.  I pulled up some traditional Irish music and had the kids dance until I paused the music, at which point they were supposed to freeze. Simple, but it was a good way to calm everyone down and have the kids in a central location while their parents picked them up--- as opposed to running all over the house, which did happen anyway, but at least kept it to a minimum.

I have to admit, it was a lot of fun having all those children over. Hearing the laughter of children is really one of the most beautiful and  gratifying sounds.  Yes, I was exhausted by the time the parents came to retrieve their kids and wanted to cry when I realized I had less than an hour before Kyle and I were heading to Salt Lake for a night out with Mitt Romney. I was so tired, although this was something I had been looking forward to for several weeks. Yes, I will likely re-think the number of friends we invite in the future. And we'll only let this happen every other year. At the end of the day, I couldn't imagine not inviting a single one of those adorable children. I guess you do have to be a little crazy to do this sort of thing, but it's not all that bad. :)

On Cade's real birthday, we let him open his presents from us (well, I just set them out on the front lawn and told him to come outside to see his surprises. It was such a beautiful day.) and had cake and ice cream.

 I can't believe my little man is this old.  Where does time go????

The good, the bad and the ugly: what inquiring minds wouldn't like to know about my pregnancy

I thought I was over half-way in my pregnancy, but last Friday the sweet nurse during my doctor's appointment told me I was 19 weeks. When did I start adding weeks that didn't pass? Wishful thinking, I suppose. But I swear I am 21 weeks now. I swear....

I didn't want to jinx it, but I have now gone 9 days without my spit cup. Spit cup you ask? Yes, spit cup. As in a cup that I carried with me everywhere because I salivated so much so that I needed a cup in which to spit. After the first few weeks of trying out a variety of solutions, I found the perfect cup at a 7-11 of all places. It was free. It was an opaque, durable hot chocolate cup complete with a top and straw. That worked the best. Opaque, so no one could see what was in the cup, a top-- so I couldn't see what was going into the cup, and the straw, to fool passerbys and others around me to think I was drinking rather than spitting. Though at some point most of my family and friends found out. I know, it's gross. What's really gross is when I carelessly set down my cup on the kitchen table at my sisters and failed to keep my eye on it. My poor nephew took a swig of it thinking it was something other than spit. Just thinking about that makes me want to puke. In any case, it was a lot of hassle making sure I had that cup all the time and I am really excited the salivating has subsided. Seriously. REALLY excited.

For those of you who have asked how my puking stats are, they are improving dramatically, though the nausea is still lingering. Sometimes I get carried away and get a little too brave and then later embarrass myself. Case in point: Last Saturday morning I was feeling nauseated, but was determined to cross some errands off my list. After all, it had been a day or so since I last threw up, I figured I was turning a corner. So I loaded Cade and Savvy in the car and off we went. We began crossing things off left and right. After the final store, not 3 seconds after I walked out the door and set foot on the parking lot cement, I began tossing my cookies for all to see. Of course being around NOON on a Saturday, you can imagine how many people were around. It was mortifying to say the least.

Another embarrassing side effect of my puking ways is my complexion. I pop a lot of blood vessels when I throw up and of course those blood vessels are on my face for all to admire. I wake up some mornings after a rough evening and look like I got in a fight. No amount of foundation can cover up the unsightly blotches. I keep telling myself this is teaching me some serious humility which is really good for me. Right?

I haven't taken a "bump" photo per se. But there's definitely a bump. It's been here a while. And it's only getting bigger. Awesome.

My legs are beginning to resemble a road map. Ewww! I've paid particular close attention to the billboard on I-15 reading "Love your legs, Love your life" for the vein specialists. I wonder how much it costs. Do you think it's painful to get rid of those varicose veins?

Say what?? Sunshine in Seattle?!

We went to Seattle a couple weeks ago for a quick weekend trip to visit my brother Austin and his family. Boy did we luck out with the weather!!!  We left a snow storm behind us in Utah and Seattle welcomed us with sunshine and spring-like temps. Right as we were leaving, the clouds and cold weather returned and upon our arrival to Utah, the snow had melted and sunshine was greeting us. Niiiice.

The kids had a blast together with Legos, digging in the dirt,

painting and crafting away in the basement,

playing at the park,

and building volcanoes.

We all quickly fell in love with Ruby, Austin and Lesley's adorable dog.  She was ever so patient with the kids and so very snuggly. As an added bonus, she doesn't shed any hair!

The only downside  of Ruby is that I was actually planning on naming our next girl Ruby, but after spending four days calling this four-legged creature with hair by the same name, and hearing my children screaming "Ruby Dubie Doooooo!" until they could holler no more, I am questioning myself. Can I name my daughter the same name as this dog?

Well, I think I can... the whole dog thing needs some time to wear off though.  Ruby is my Great Grandmother's name, who I have very fond memories of. She was a sweet Swedish woman who was an amazing cook. I really appreciate the foresight my father had in asking her to show him how to make Krumkake.

We have them for Christmas on occasion (we need to do that again, Dad!) and it is a fun way to honor our Scandinavian heritage. I'm like 25% Scandinavian, but somehow I tend to favor that long, lost Cherokee Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother more. Go figure. Anyway, Kyle says our girl has to be spunky and have a certain personality in order to take on the name of Ruby (which my Great Grandma certainly was). I agree with him. Savannah could definitely qualify for a Ruby. :)

In any case, the jury is still out!  Until then, we'll think fondly upon the delicious food we were fed, the fun we had, and try and forget about the dog's name.

Finn Garcia, age 3.5 -- the spitting image of my brother!

Savannah Lee, 3 years old

Eli Stryder--- 5.5 years old

Cade-- almost 6!

Compliments of the chef-- Austin. This crab was delicious!

Lets get a closer shot of that dinner. It was YUMMMMMMMMY!

We're Having A . . .

Allow me to introduce you to Jennie.We only lived together for one semester at BYU, but it was a really, really fun semester together.  Jennie is a wonderful combination of organized, dependable, laid-back, fun-loving, athletic, go-with-the-flow, opinionated, and smart.  She kept her side of our room meticulous, but she had this way about her that didn't make me feel like I was ruining her life if  I left for class before making my bed and picking up my clothes off the floor.

The first time I met Jennie was in the middle of the night my first day back to Provo a few days before school started.  I didn't have a key and after climbing the balcony and not having any luck with the sliding door being open, I jumped down and went to the front door to ring the doorbell.  Even though it was LATE she was a good sport about it and didn't give me any dirty looks or snarky remarks for waking her. I walked into our room and was impressed she had her side totally organized and the walls were neatly decked out with favorite sports player jerseys and other memorabilia. This girl really liked sports.

One of my favorite memories of Jennie and I's semester together was the night we played a little trick on our downstairs neighbor.  Her missionary had just come back and we knew she had a date that night with him.  Later in the evening, we noticed them standing outside in the parking lot just below our balcony. Really, that's all they were doing--- just  standing really close to each other and looking at each other. Perhaps a little talking happened, we couldn't hear much....but they looked really, REALLY awkward.  We decided to ramp up the awkwardness of the moment. (Yes, weren't we nice?!) We took Jennie's boom box and army crawled to the balcony so as not to be seen. We switched on the boom box, selected the song, and turned up the volume. Soon, the awkward couple was being serenaded by "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid soundtrack.  Whatever moment the awkwardness was about to seize into, it was quickly magnified by a factor of 10 thanks to Sebastian's voice booming into the parking lot. The couple looked around, perhaps trying to figure out where it was coming from, nervously giggled, talked a bit more and then left.  No smooch. That I could tell anyway.

We never heard much about that date, other than, "it didn't work out between them."  Hope we didn't ruin their moment. :)

So, fast forward a few years...er, uh, 7 and here we have Jennie working as an ultrasound technician right here in Utah County! After graduating from BYU, she did more schooling and is now a bonafide baby gender determiner on the Ultrasound Machine.  Well, of course she can do a lot more than that, but you know... She has been able to determine the sex of a baby as early as 11.5 weeks!  Yes, she is good. What I love about Jennie is that she is THOROUGH. She will not let you walk out of the room until she is 100% sure. And, she won't tell you what she thinks you are having until she is 100% sure. My other ultrasound technicians and doctors don't take near the time Jennie does to be sure. It was a good thing Jennie told me she was positive Savvy was a girl, because my doctors gave me a 60/40 that she was a girl. Hard to plan with that unsure 40% you know?

A few nights after Kyle's smashing Napoleon Dynamite party, we took the kids with us to meet her at the hospital to find out the news. Talking the night before in bed Kyle said to me, "I really, really hope this is a boy. If it's a boy, then I'd be totally satisfied and we can stop having kids.  If it's a girl, I'm going to want to try for another boy....and man, I'd hate to put us through another pregnancy."  Isn't he funny?   


I myself really didn't have an opinion. Cade really wanted a boy, Savvy wanted a girl. I just wanted  a baby. Now, I would be really happy if Jennie discovered a second baby growing inside of me. :)

The day of, Cade pulled me aside and said, "It's okay if we have a boy or a girl, because boys are cool and girls are so sweet and beautiful."  It was a tender little moment. He has been smitten by my little niece Bailey and always talks about how cute she is.  I breathed a sigh of relief knowing Cade would be okay either way.

Or so I thought.
Once Jennie was sure, she told us we were having a girl.

Cade began sobbing. Savvy shrieked with joy. I was shocked. I'm not sure why.  Just knowing the gender of our next child was shocking. Hard to explain. We spent the next few minutes trying to console Cade while Jennie got some great shots of the hands, feet and such.   We headed to Five Guys for a burger to celebrate and capped the evening off with ice cream from Farrs (in a meager attempt to stop Cade's tears). The ice cream was amazing. Go to Farrs.

Cade soon forgot about his worries once he was able to fully engage Jennie in a lengthy discussion about Mario Kart. It was so cute. He invited her over to play but it was getting late, so Jennie kindly took a rain check. :)

So, yup, the boys will be outnumbered and we are having a girl!  I'm excited, but it still hasn't sunk in I don't think, even though it's been a few weeks now. I wonder if this one will favor Kyle or me...neither or both. Will she look like Cade or Savvy?  It's fun to think about, but I've really just been racking my brain on where to put the baby.  Upstairs? Downstairs? In our closet until I'm ready to part with her? Do I put Cade and Savvy together and her in her own room?  Share the girls?  Share Cade and the baby? Separate all the kids into their own rooms? I think I favor that idea the most-- My kids go to bed better in their own space.

Oh well. Just petty details. So far things are looking good and I go in on Friday for another check up. :)

Spring Cleaning, an old man, and Napoleon Dynamite

Kyle announced to me this evening before heading out to his soccer game that we are officially private and said I could start blogging. I guess he assumed I wasn't going to blog until we went private.  For me, after he made the announcement, it was just a nice excuse to take a break from the blogosphere for a while (don't kid yourself, I read all your blogs.) and do some Spring Cleaning.

I've mapped out a plan, and I've figured in 3 weeks, even with bad, sick days (yes, I have good ones!) I will be able to have covered each room, each drawer, each closet, and each bin (oh my gosh, I am now realizing the enormity of this project. AH!)  and have cleaned up, cleared out and unpacked the house.

This will allow me to move on to phase two, which will be purchasing furniture. I want to be cautious about my purchases. The pieces I want to buy have to fulfill a modest list of qualifications in order for them to enter my home. Would you like to hear about this list? No?  Well, here they are in case you change your mind. :)


Timeless - I want this stuff to last me forever in the style department.
High quality -- needs to be well-built in order to last me forever in the durability department
Good price -- I'd like to not pay an arm and a leg for furniture. We've saved our dollars for a lot of years and have gone without  furniture in order to be able to purchase it when we had the home and the stability (knock on wood!). I think we are officially here. Regardless of savings, I still am a hound for a good deal.  Second-hand is a welcomed way to go. I'm still quite a novice when it comes to furniture, so the few times I have gone furniture shopping, I had to put my eyes back into their sockets because the price tag shocked me.
Be Functional -- I want the pieces to not only look good in the space, but serve a purpose. If not, it's just taking up space for the sake of filling up a room. I want each room in my home to fulfill a specific purpose while at the same time, be able to change with our family and be rearranged depending on our needs and wants. So while a piece may be perfect for one room or space, I want it to be perfect for a number of spaces in the home, should things get changed up, which they inevitably will over the years.

So now that I've put you to sleep, here's the real fun.

Kyle turned 30!!!

He had been out of town for the week leading up to his birthday and I was having a hard time deciding what to do about celebrating. I wanted to have a party-- your husband can't turn 30 and you not throw a party. Well, you can, actually and there's nothing wrong with it. But I had been feeling like such a frump and dump of a wife and wanted to at the very least celebrate the 30 wonderful, mischievious, adventurous, hard-working, fun loving years of my husband and host a little gathering.   The tricky thing was deciding, do I make it a surprise-- and if so, when do I do it and how do I pull it off?

In the end, I finally decided to let him in on my idea. That helped out a lot.

Kyle did happen to fly home on his actual birthday, so my big surprise to him was a clean house.  I'm serious.  The poor guy hadn't seen the floor of our closet in weeks. Laundry baskets full of clothes were begging to be folded for weeks.  Now, I admit, I was thinking, "If I went away for a few days, what would I want to come home to?"  Of course, a clean house. I doubt a year ago that wouldn't be an ideal gift for Kyle, but trust me, after living in the home he's been living in the last couple of months, I don't doubt it was a welcome change, albeit lacking romance, thrills or adventure.

I did throw a little romance in and called in a favor to my sister (again) and asked if she and her hubs could watch our kids overnight.

When Kyle got home, I let him crash on the bed (he woke up at 4 something I think to get to the airport) but before that, eat some leftovers. It was a miracle there were leftovers to be had in the refrigerator. That was my first week back cooking, so he really lucked out.  We packed our little overnight bags and dropped the kids off.  Since then, Cade mentions quite regularly that if I were to ever give him away, to please let him go to Tyler's house. Sometimes he asks to be given away to stay there. I've decided rather than be jealous, I'm glad my sister's is a place he loves more than home with me. Hehe.

We drove to this darling bed and breakfast in Midway. The scenery was amazing. Freshly fallen snow out in the middle of seemingly nowhere. It was quiet. In fact, I think that was the tagline of the place. Come and enjoy the Quiet. Sadly, we took zero pictures but we have great memories and that's what counts. Right?  I have never stayed in a bed a breakfast and I am now wondering why on earth I haven't.  When we were showed our room, there was a cute little sign with our name on it. I thought it was so adorable. Dang. Again, no camera.

We headed to Park City for dinner where we indulged in Ruth's Chris' amazing steak. Sadly, there was no room for dessert.  One of our servers was a man from the Philippines who sent money to his wife and children still living in his home country. He hadn't seen them in 3 years, and wouldn't see them for probably another two.  It was heartwarming to see the great love this man had for his family, and the sacrifice he was willing to make for them to give them a better life. At the same time, it was heart breaking. Stories like that cause me to really count my blessings.

The following morning after a delicious night's sleep (I am a sucker for sleeping in) we were served a most amazing breakfast. I was delighted to see three glasses filled to the top of milk, orange juice, and cranberry juice at each of our settings. Ew, no, not mixed. Each beverage in their own glass. It was a small gesture, but I got rather excited about it.  The French Toast was incredible, and I left very happy that morning.

We spent the day meandering through the outlet mall, eating lunch, and going to the theater to watch The Blind Side.  Good flick. I cried (you may know by now that doesn't necessarily really mean a whole lot) but I wouldn't have called it a great movie.  I was a bit disappointed in the dialogue. I thought it could have been less predictable (the dialogue, not the plot). You know, more substance?

It was a lovely little getaway.  We were happy to pick up the chilluns and take them back to the house to show Daddy our little surprise:

Balloons filled with 30 reasons why we love him.

-- Of course there was time for plenty of wrestling...

And this is a shot of our present to Kyle, not a bum shot of Savvy. He wants to hang it in the office. It's a beautiful depiction of the hardships so many endured before us to settle the West and restore the gospel; and a solemn reminder of how much we have to be grateful for today.

----

Next came the birthday par-tay.  Our week was booked, so we celebrated it a week after Kyle's actual birthday. Nobody's counting, right?  We decided to do it Napoleon Dynamite style-- costume required. No, we weren't mean if friends showed up not looking like a Preston, Idahoan. :)

The Food:
( i didn't take this shot until there was just one tot left. Those tots were hot!)

The Folks!

My Brother-in-law shocked and wowed us all with his AMAZING three piece suit and glasses. My sister Melody scored big at Savers. The suit fit him perfectly.  He was a great Napoleon.

Meet my sister. She was Trish. She even brought Kyle a present of the pencil drawing her husband did of her. :)

Twin Kips! So cute. Pre and Post- shaved mustache. :)

Summer Wheatley (my little sis) and me-- LaFawnDuh!  

Deb and Kip!

Soul mates!

THE FUN!

In the spirit of Pedro winning student body president and all, we only thought it appropriate to whack a pinata.

The pinata hitters (except Julia never got the chance because Kristin broke 'em).  We scored big on Twinkies,  mini candy bars and some $$.  okay, nothing major. Just 30 dollars in ones. Still, don't you wish you were there?!

The CAKE!  I picked out the tackiest birthday cake I could find and finished it off with some Mexican flags and an Idaho flag. 

I'm pretty sure all of Kyle's wildest dreams came true, but just in case, I blew out the other candle and made that wish for him. 

The End.

Stay tuned for....
* We took a weekend trip to Seattle to visit my brother's family. Good times.
* Cade turned 6. Yes, I am devastated.
* I am chomping at the bit regarding politics right now. I have a lot of opinions, questions, and fears regarding the current "law" that was just passed regarding health care.
* I am realizing I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things going on in my midst. Makes me wish I was at BYU standing on the soap box.  Or had my own radio show.

Going Private

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My big boy

We hit another milestone in our family this week, though I'm a little unsure how I feel about it.

When I picked Cade up from school on Friday he told me while demonstrating, that one of his bottom teeth was very loose. I shrieked with excitement for his sake, but at that very same moment I wanted to cry for my sake. Why do I do that? I feel as though every milestone in my children's lives are more grains of sand slipping through my hour glass. I really should be excited about this...right?

We came home and Cade proudly announced to his Daddy the good news. Kyle mentioned pliers. I thought he was out of his mind and just trying to scare the daylights out of our 5 year-old. Cade quickly took to the idea and tried to understand what exactly those pliers would do. We encouraged him to keep wiggling his tooth (or as he referred to it as "opening and shutting it) and when it was ready, we'd use the pliers to pull the tooth out.

During dinner that evening Cade was pretty annoyed with his loose tooth and it prevented him from being able to chew. He soon became really, really annoyed. So annoyed that he'd make this shrieking/growling noise after about every bite. I finally cut his dinner into teeny pieces and told him to just use his back teeth. Dinner was a lot more pleasant for him after that.

The next morning Cade begged Kyle to use the pliers and pull it out. Kyle told him we should wait a few more days until it got loose enough. Cade was so upset by this and begged Kyle with tears streaming down his cheeks to pull it out. Kyle and I later had a good laugh about this because we thought it should be the other way around-- Cade begging with tears for us not to yank his tooth out with pliers. As it turned out, the tooth was more than ready and it came out with little effort.

Cade was on cloud nine and we soon made the telephone rounds to report the exciting news that he lost his first tooth. Or as he said, "I lost my very tooth! And I'm not even six yet!"

Cute.

Savannah was really adorable about it all and was just as excited as Cade was about it. She's a great little cheerleader, that girl. No jealousy or disappointment that the moment didn't revolve around her--- just pure joy and elation that her big brother passed another milestone in his life. I could learn a lot from her if I let myself.

When evening came closer, Cade kept asking to go to bed. He couldn't wait to fall asleep so the tooth fairy could come visit. He wrote her a letter and left it under his pillow with the tooth. We'll have to upload the video of him reading it. It's pretty awesome.

This morning Cade ran into our room, excited to report he got a dollar bill from the tooth fairy. It was a very good morning for our little Cade. And I guess when they are happy, we are happy, right?

_____

My handsome boy just 6 days before! It's a little fuzzy but it's last shot of his mouth full of baby teeth.

Nursing the bleeding mouth. He's quite happy about it all.

Ta da!