Birthday party

I have felt like there hasn't been much to blog about lately.  Then I realized I never posted any pictures from Eliza's birthday party.  This was her first "friend" party.  Eleven 5 year olds made for a fun time...   They were actually really good.  We ate pizza, popped popcorn, and watched Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension.  Not sure we're going to do a friend party every year but she was SO excited for it and we had a really fun time!

Happy Birthday!

Eliza turned FIVE today!  Every day this girl makes me laugh and makes me so incredibly grateful that she is my daughter.  One of the things she wanted for her birthday was breakfast in bed.  I'm not sure where she even heard of that but she came and woke me up in the morning, and asked me for scrambled eggs and a waffle.  Then she went back to bed and waited for me to bring it in.  Matt and I cracked up about it.

Her presents this year were so much fun for me to find.  When I was about 8 or 9 I had these dolls called Hot Looks.  They were only around for a couple of years in the 80s and then they stopped making them.  My parents had hung on to a bunch of my stuff and have been bringing me boxes to store here since we have a basement now to keep things like that.  In one of these boxes were my old Hot Looks dolls and Eliza loved them.  She played with them all the time.  I had a couple of outfits but not much else left from so many years ago.  So I went on ebay and found another doll along with a bunch of clothes and accessories.  After I got that I decided that she was going to need a place to keep everything.  Barbie closets are too small for these dolls so I got on ebay again and found an old doll closet from the 50s that was the perfect size.  So after a paint job, some details, and some hangers, here are Eliza's birthday presents from me!

Before

Amazing what a little paint can do!

All done!

Her new doll!  All the clothes and hair and accessories are so 80s.  It's awesome.  But all that stuff is coming back in fashion!

Matt had the day off and dropped her off at preschool which she thought was pretty cool.  He picked her up and surprised her with flowers.  So sweet!  Eliza was so funny in the morning.  She said, "Mom, I'm so lucky on my birthday because I get to go to preschool!"

Her preschool birthday crown

We met for dinner with both sets of grandparents.  Also David, Michael, and Jared came which made her extra happy!

Presents from Grandma Carrolyn

So cute!  Cousin Michael got her a present!

Veggietales DVDs from my mom.  She LOVES these movies.

Then our camera batteries died.  Grandma Carrolyn also got her a Barbie which she was just in heaven over.  I almost forgot to say the best part for Eliza was meeting her new baby cousin before dinner.  Jenna was born yesterday and Eliza was beyond excited to meet her.  She is such a sweet little baby.  Congrats Dave and Amanda!

Eliza is such a joy and makes our family so happy.  She is a sweet, smart girl.  She loves school and reading.  She loves her brother (deep down :))  and tries to make him happy.  She loves primary and learning new songs.  She is a very curious girl and is constantly asking me questions about anything and everything.  She loves Angry Birds and is way better than Matt or I at it.  She can be very dramatic and sassy but thankfully she is still sweet most of the time.  We are thankful every day that she is in our family and for the wonderful little girl she is.  Love you Zi!

Halloween!

Halloween is so fun with kids but it's exhausting!  It's like a week (or more) of parties.  

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos in their costumes...

We got a couple more uses out of our decorated basement with some family parties.

We also went to the Crazy Corn Maze and let the kids ride the ponies afterwards.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Halloween Party!

We serioulsy LOVE our neighborhood. When we moved in we were surprised at how many fun traditions there are. Among other things, every year a different couple hosts a Halloween party. No kids invited. I am not the entertaining type at all. Really. It stresses me out and I get all weird about things. BUT we also have very persuasive neighbors. :) We got talking about how our home is one of the only ones in the neighborhood that still has an unfinished basement. I would have never thought of having a party down there but I was told it would be great. So after a little coaxing and a promise that I would have help decorating, we agreed to host this year.

Our own decorations consist of a few pumpkins and I think a couple of other crafty looking items. Nothing that would work for a party. Our wonderful neighbors Mike and Janai let us borrow their AWESOME decorations for the party. And Jocelyn the amazing decorator helped us put it all together. I actually feel like I hardly did anything. I just followed her around and handed her tape when she needed it.

We had the party on Saturday and it was so much fun!! Everyone brought a treat to share and we played games, visited and just had a great time. Not only was Jocelyn the decorator, she was also the photographer. I stole these pictures from her, hope she doesn't mind!

Considering we're not going to be finishing our basement any time soon, we may as well just leave it all up for next year! It was the least stressful party ever! Thank you everyone for coming, it was a blast!

One more of us so you can see my awesome leggins, leg warmers, and jelly shoes! I miss the 80s.

October 14th

Are we the most boring couple or what? First of all, I didn't even realize we had been married 7 years. I thought it was 8. And second, Matt was in a different state for our anniversary. Oh well, we've never been the type of couple that has to do something big and exciting for our anniversary. We had a really fun get away to Park City last year. This year, I hung out and had some much needed "me time" once the kids were in bed. Well, that's what I did at night. During the day I had to take Jackson back to the hospital for more x-rays on his foot. After he got his cast off he was perfectly fine. Then out of nowhere he started limping again. I still don't know what was wrong, the x-rays were clear and now he's walking normal again. Fun times, let me tell you. Matt spent the night in a motel somewhere in Colorado.

But we did finally at least acknowledge it yesterday. My mom and dad watched the kids and we used a gift certificate that we have had for 2 years! No expiration on it, thank goodness. We ate at Christopher's downtown. The food was good but the peace and quite was WONDERFUL!

I brought our camera because usually couples take pictures of each other celebrating their anniversary, right? I forgot all about it. So we have no anniversary pictures but we had a nice, quiet dinner and that's all we really wanted. :)

We've had a great 7 years! I feel lucky to have Matt. He's a wonderful husband and dad. We'll have to see how exciting we can make our 8th anniversary....shouldn't be hard to top!