Happy 18th Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl! 
On April 5th, 1999 at 10:16 PM, I became a Mother. It was one of those moments that took my breath away as I instantly fell in love with you.  In a blink of an eye, you grew up! Oh my heart is full of joy watching you transform into a beautiful, intelligent, and confident young lady. I'm honored to be your Mother. You are my radiant sunshine in my life.  I admire your courage, faith, patience, and kindness. You inspire me to become better each day! May your life be filled with many adventures, joy, love, and following your dreams. I love you! Happy Birthday, first born!

Credits: The template is by Rita from Coffee Shop Blog, Happy Kit (papers, elements, etc) is from various Lily Pad artists! The font was lucida calligraphy.

Baby Brother is One!

 12 Incredible Months, 2014!

 Credits: Template is by The Coffee Shoppe Blog, I used the Delilah Kit by Shabby Princess and grumble for the font.
Twelve Facts about Baby Brother
1.  He gives us the best hugs and makes us smile every day!

2.  He has four sharp teeth, two adorable ears, a big head full of mischief, and a wicked chest to navel scar to show off later in life.

3.  He had three surgeries this past year three hernia repairs at three months old, a diaphragmatic hernia repair at six months old, and a g-tube placement at ten months old. We are so blessed that he was very brave and strong!

4.  He loves story time, taking a bath, music, being outdoors, clapping, and stroller rides.

5.  He can be very stubborn during physical therapy, but we cannot blame him!

6.  He can pull himself up to stand, but no signs of crawling or walking yet.

7.  His favorite toy is the $2.99 stacking cups from Ikea.

8.  He loves to rub his face on soft cuddly stuffed animals and blankets.

9.  He loves to bite his sister's knees and shoulders, ouch!

10.  He loves his puppy Jagger and shares his food with him.

11.  He is very curious, detailed oriented, and smart.

12.He is finally babbling and I cried when he said "mama" for the first time!

Happy Birthday, Brother!

We celebrated little brother's 1st birthday on May 22, 2014 at home with our little family since he doesn't like to be around big crowds. I was too lazy to bake a cake or cupcakes since most of our household was sick this past week. Unfortunately, I caught the nasty cold going around on his special day!  As you can see, he made a big mess with the blue frosting and didn't eat much! He got more a kick out of eating Cheerios with blue frosting! We bought him a few toys to help with gross motor skills (his first car to scoot on and an activity table to help him stand up). We also got him some First Builders Mega Blocks, bubbles, rubber duckies for bath time, books, and Mr. Potato Head. He was very happy and loved his new toys! What an incredible blessing to have him in our lives today! We love him so much!
Bath Time is the Best with Silly Daddy!

Milestones: On May 23, 2014, He went to his 12 month old check up. Little bro weighs 18.1 pounds (6%), 29 inches long (18%), and 18.9 (93%) inches for head circumference! Wow, he had a big head for sure and is very smart!  The doctors are not concerned with his large head because it has been measuring big all along. I'm happy that our boy is definitely growing and we are finally doing something right to get him on the weight gain path! Woohooo, Go baby brother! Keep up the great work! The doctor and I would like him to see him at 15%-20% on the weight chart at his 18 month old check up. As for gross motor skills, he loves pulling to stand, can get in and out of sitting position very well, and is very close to crawling. I bet he will be crawling any day now and then we will work on walking skills! He is making such an improvement since receiving the g-tube!  I bet the extra nightly feedings via g-tube are making a huge difference since he being properly nourished by Boost Essentials!  

Our Beautiful Birthday Girls!

Big sister turned 15 years old on April 5, 2014.  I cannot believe around this time next year she will be driving and dating, ack! Where has the time gone? She is growing up to be an incredible beautiful young woman!  

For big sister's 15th birthday, her friends took her to Denny's for breakfast.  Then she went shopping with a friend to the mall with some birthday cash. Her young woman leaders decorated our front door and gave her a cupcake. She got clothes, a curling iron, Tarzan, bow, iTunes card, ear phones, candy, and body sprays. As a family, we went to Olive Garden for dinner and ate a High School Musical chocolate cake for dessert.  She was very embarrassed when the Olive Garden staff sang Happy Birthday to her.

Little sister turned 11 years old on April 15, 2014. I can hardly believe this is her last year of primary.  Next year she will be a young woman and in six grade, weep! She is becoming a gorgeous young woman! I love her smile and curly long hair!

For little sister's 11th birthday, we made her favorite dinner cheeseburger soup and a yummy cookie dough ice cream cake! She got some clothes, Crazyloom, shoes, candy, iTunes card, belts, pens, bows, Frozen, and Tear Up This Book (a fun tween activity book).  As a family, we watched Frozen with her. Later that week, she and her Daddy went to Nickelcade to play games etc as a late birthday activity!

They both had marvelous birthdays!

A Perfect 10 Owl Birthday Bash

 A Perfect 10 Owl Birthday Bash!

 As most people, we all live on a tight budget and don't have excess money to spend on a big birthday party. So for my daughter's birthday, I made a DIY owl themed girl birthday party using a lot free templates and  purchased a digital scrapping booking kit called Penelope kit by Shabby Princess.
The  Owl Birthday Invitation

Credits: For the party invitations, decorations, birthday banner, games, party favors, etc, I used paper and elements from the Penelope kit by Shabby Princess. I used font grumble font and FO-Giggles.
The Decorations and Food
The Light Pink and Chocolate Brown Party Supplies (plates, cups, napkins, plastic wear, and table cloth) are from Oriental Trading. The serving platters and flowers are from a local Dollar Store.  I designed food cards, a Happy Birthday banner, and misc decorations that I taped on a stick.  The silver buckets were filled with foam and blue and pink gems, which are from Walmart. The balloons are from a local party supply store.
The Food
The owl fruit platter contained an owl, which is made out of a pineapple, lemon slices eyes, grapes pupils, cantaloupe nose, and oranges as wings. We served grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and orange slices.  The owl cupcakes: I was inspired by One Charming Party by using Oreos and Reese's Pieces for the eyes and nose.  Owl finger foods were crackers, cheese, lunch meat, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and olives. We also served vanilla cookies, Oreos, and Reese's Pieces.
The Games and Craft

Stick the Owl in the Tree
Owl Word Scramble
Owl Bingo I used this --> Template
How Many Jelly Beans Are in the Jar? (the winner took the jelly beans home).
The Owl Craft

Supplies: scissors, Elmer's glue or glue sticks, craft feathers, pencils, colored construction paper, and googly eyes.  Directions With the desired colored construction paper, trace the owl body and beak from a free Template, draw feet, and use a stencil for the oval shape in the middle of the body. Cut them all out. Trace both hands for the wings and cut them out. Glue together the owl pieces. Stick or glue on googly eyes and feathers.
The Owl Mask Photo Booth

The Party Favors

"Owl Keep Your Place" Bookmarks are made by me using Shabby Princess's Penelope kit.
Owl Treat Bags Template (supplies: templates, brown lunch bag, glue, and scissors)
Cute Owl Necklaces from Oriental Trading
Candy-Sour Gummy Worms, Air Heads, and Ring Pops
Glow Sticks from the Dollar Store
 Owl Masks Idea Mine Template and Coolest Free Template
The Presents

The party was a total "Hoot"! Everyone was happy to celebrate little sister's big 10th birthday!

I'm old enough to have a 14 Year Old!

I cannot believe that my teenager daughter is 14 years old! On April 5th, 2013, we took her to Denny's for breakfast. So what did my 14 year old want for her birthday? The answer was obvious! A pink acoustic guitar, iPod earphones, flowers, sunglasses, clothes, purse, chick flicks, and Toy Story Dolls.

Later that same day, her friend came over with some birthday cupcakes. Then she went shopping with her friend and watched some movies at our house with two friends. We bought her a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Coldstone! Overall, I think she had a great day and felt loved by many friends and family members on Facebook who wished her Happy Birthday!

 

Family Hike and BBQ in Provo Canyon

June was an exciting month!  We celebrated John's 37th birthday and Father's Day!  We went on a family hike, swimming at the pool, John and big sis went to ward youth conference at Camp Williams and Heber Valley Girl's Camp while Little Sis and I went to a local Strawberry Days parade with some friends!  Lastly, our dog Jagger got a cute haircut!
I was playing around with Instagram while waiting for the parade to start.

On June 9, 2012, We went on the annual local family day breakfast and hike! Our nephews (Malcolm and Justin), nieces (Keli and Lauren) and grandnephew Tristan came along with us. The breakfast included fruit, donuts, scones, and juice.  They did a Smurf theme.  Little sis  made some blue play dough and played several games on the way up to the falls.   We won gift certificates to Chubby's and a Cookie Shop as well as got many coupons from many local food and entertainment sponsors! 

While John's parents were in town, we went up to South Fork Canyon during the evening of June 9, 2012.  We invited several family members!  South Fork has always been our favorite spot that is perfect for grilling meats, lounging under shade, watching the children play in the cold stream, and playing either football or Frisbee. During this trip to the canyon, we celebrated John's 37th birthday!  We had everyone bring their own meats and a side dish to share.  I made potato salad, snickers apple salad, and marinated a couple different chickens.  Then I made an incredible Texas Ranch Cake for the birthday guy!  We had a wonderful time visiting all our family members!

 Jagger got a groovy haircut!  We took him to a local groomer and requested it short. She did a poodle/bichon frise style and tied a purple bandanna around his neck. When we picked him up, we could hardly recognize him!  He is very happy and cool with a new summer hair do!  

April 2012 Summary

April blew by quick due to us being extremely busy in our household.  We had a couple birthdays, Easter, spring break, my dad from Vermont came to visit us, accomplished a lot of yard work, new church callings (hubby is a scout master assistant and second counselor to the young men while I teach 5-6 year old primary children), and our puppy Jagger kept me on my toes since he acts like a toddler eating/chewing everything in sight and occasionally has potty accidents in the house.

Big sister turned 13 years old on April 5th and had a birthday party with some friends!  I cannot believe that she is officially a teenager!

Her birthday theme was her favorite colors Orange, Purple, and Blue!

 The kids played the following games: darts with balloons on sheet rock, Goldfish catch, cartoon couples match game, truth and dare, bubble gum relay, etc. They ate pizza, bread sticks, cake, and ice cream.  The teenangers  appeared very happy and entertained.  Big sis even made a groovy play list on her iPod, which they jammed to during the party.

Our beautiful little sister turned nine years old on April 15th! She requested a very rich chocolate Reese's peanut butter cup cake.  We bought moose tracks ice cream, devil's food cake mix, chocolate frosting.  I did two round cakes and put ice cream in between the cakes. Then frosted it and crumbled Reese's cups all over... We stored it in the freezer.  YUM!  She loved her girly presents a pink fuzzy blanket, a purple kick ball, sock monkey slippers, fairy dolls, Strawberry Shortcake play set, and a purple Lego set.

Little Sis read to Grandpa Coleman while he was in town.  He visited for a couple days during the third week of April.  We had a lovely BBQ with my sister's family on a Sunday evening and hung out.  On another day, he and I went to my mother's grave and had lunch together.  Then we ate enchiladas at my place for dinner one evening and my sister stopped by after work.  It was a great experience for my girls to be reconnected with him since it has been over six years since he last came out.

Big Sis reading to Grandpa!

 Yard work and gardening is a lot of work!  I have already spent many hours weeding, ack! We trimmed rose bushes, thinned fruit trees, fertilized the lawn, chopped limps off our out of control English walnut tree, planted seedlings and flowers!  I absolutely love having a greenhouse!  It has been cool this spring and my plants survived thankfully.  I hope we have a successful harvest in the next couple months! 

I adore my little "puff ball" or "toasted marshmallow" bichon frise/poodle puppy! Jagger makes me laugh and smile everyday!  I enjoy taking him on walks, car rides, kissing him, and cuddling him. He is entertaining when he chases his tail, plays with his favorite squeaky lady bug toy by pushing it on our legs while we walk, and prances when he moves around the house.  He definitively has "The Moves Like Jagger!" John and I are determined to learn how to groom him (nails, haircut, etc) since taking him to the groomers costs a lot of bling bling! Isn't he the cutest puppy ever??? XOXOX

Ack, Nearly 40 Years Old!!!

On June 10th was my hubby's big 36th birthday! Since we love to try new recipes, you maybe wondering what was on the Birthday boy's menu... Well, we made something delicious of course such as two types of skewers, a fruit salad, and coconut lime rice!

 

Herb Sirloin Beef and Italian Vegetable Skewers

Ingredients:

1 pound of beef sirloin 

2 green peppers

1 white onion

1 package of extra large mushrooms

1 bottle of Italian Dressing

Desired amount of rosemary, black pepper, and tarragon seasoning. 

Directions:

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Cut the vegetables into uniformed sizes around 1 inch squared or cubed pieces. A useful tip when you have meat and vegetables about the same size, you will have even cooking. In a large bowl, soak vegetables in Italian Dressing.  Season the meat with the herbs.  Place skewers through meat and vegetables.  Bake for 15 minutes turning at least once or until desired doneness.  We still had some pink in the middle of the sirloin. 

Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on pages 46 and 117.  Our thoughts about this recipe: Wow, what a kid friendly recipe!  Even my picky eater loved this dish!  We enjoyed dipping the pineapple and bacon-wrapped chicken pieces in the extra teriyaki sauce!  We will be making this dish a lot in our household!  Next time we will marinate the chicken in the teriyaki sauce for a few hours before cooking. 

 Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on page 203. Our thoughts about the recipe: We added a little zesty twist by adding some fresh lime juice, lime wedges, and a little half and half.  The kids gobbled this dish up! We loved the creamy richness of the coconut milk flavor, YUM.

Birthday cakes can be so over rated in our household sometimes! Since my husband is a huge fan of sherbet, I was inspired by Make and Takes to make this fabulous watermelon pie instead of birthday cake!  We made it a little different than the website by just layering the sherbet on top of each other.  It was very easy to make and turned out very well!  What a fun and refreshing summer treat!

As you can tell, he loved his watermelon pie!!!

I made a "reel" cool fishing birthday card and bookmarks for my hubby!!

The Fishin' Birthday Card!

The front of the card says the following: "Happy Birthday Fishin' Fool.  The catch of the day of all the fish in the sea we are so glad we caught you!"

The front and inside of the card looks like this from left to right:

On the left inside of the card says: "Reel Women Fish" and on the right says: "We hope your birthday is fin-tastic!"  I left plenty of space on the bottom for us to write birthday wishes to him!  I used some brown twine to make fishing line on the front of the card and a small sewing button as embellishments.  The card turned out cute if I say so myself!  

The Fishin' Bookmarks

Card and Bookmark Credits: The paper and elements are all by Kaye Winiecki @ The Lily Pad  I used the following fonts: CK Fun and Segoe Print.

In the evening of his birthday, we went on a family outing to Highland Glen Park.  John was able to enjoy a little fishing time on the pond even though he didn't catch anything. The girls feed some ducks and played on the playground. John seemed very content spending time with us, eating good food, and looking at his new home-made bookmarks/birthday card!  What a great day well spent!!!!  I love you, babe! XOXO

Butterfly 8th Birthday Party

This year I got very creative and frugal by making my youngest daughter's birthday party invitations, Happy Birthday banner, decorations, games, crafts, cupcakes, cake, etc.  The birthday party was big sister's words "epic"! 

 

The Birthday Invitation
Credits: An Affair to Remember and the Blossom collection (butterfly) by Shabby Princess and love you like a sister font.

The Beautiful Birthday Girl

She is wearing a darling butterfly and flower dress with white leggings!

Thank you, Mindi for the pink birthday Barbie!

The Party Guests!

You gotta have a silly picture too!

The Decorations:
Butterfly and Flower Happy Birthday Banner 


Garland Strands
They were hung below cupboards and over the windows in the living room.

Supplies:

Card-stock, scrapbook supplies (I used the Blossom collection by Shabby Princess), brown twine, embellishments from scrapbook kit, acrylic gems, stencil lettering, ribbons, glue gun, glue sticks, scissors, modge podge and a paint brush.

Instructions:  Measure out 4" X 4" block squares on your patterned paper.  Use a stencil to trace the letters and cut them out. Paste the letters on a small block piece with a glue stick and then paste it on the large square.  I glued on some acrylic gems on some of the flowers and butterflies. Then, I applied modge podge on the letters, blocks, rainbows, butterflies, and flowers.  Allow them to dry.  Next, punch out two holes on each side of the paper things using the hole punch.  Push the twine through the paper pieces and tie each end making a small loop. Tie pretty ribbon between the paper!

Paper Flower Sticks

I was inspired by Kylie who posted a hybrid paper craft at Shabby Princess' Blog to make these gorgeous paper flower decorations. 

Supplies:

Card stock paper, digital scrapbook supplies, acrylic gems, green craft popsicle sticks, bamboo sticks

Instructions:

Measure four pieces of paper to size of 4"X4". For the paper flowers, fold the 4"X4" paper like you are making a paper fan.  Then fold it in half.  For the flower you need four pieces of paper you can do the same color or mix it up with other designed paper.  Use the glue gun to glue the pieces together.  Glue the acrylic gem in the middle and glue the bamboo stick to the flower.

The Party Games

We played the following games: musical chairs, cocoon toilet paper wrap,

 stick the dot on the butterfly, bug bingo, and a balloon game.

Musical Chairs

Cocoon Toilet Paper Wrap

Divide the kids into two teams.  The quickest team to unroll the toilet paper wins!
Stick the dot on the butterfly!

As you can see, it was hand drawn and colored with markers.  I traced some circles from a template for the dots!

Bug Bingo

I printed out the bug bingo game templates from Family Crafts  and hand wrote several different bugs such as the following: ant, bee,beetle, butterfly, caterpillar, centipede, cicada, cockroach, cricket, dragonfly, firefly, flea, fly, grasshopper, horsefly, ladybug, mosquito, moth, praying mantis, spider, stick bug, stink bug, termite, wasp, and worm. For the markers, we used colored torn paper. We played two rounds!
Balloon Game

Divide the kids into two teams. The kids had to pop the balloons to find letters contained inside.  The first team that successfully spelled the birthday girl's name won!
The Recycled Party Crafts


Toilet Roll Butterfly

Supplies 
Empty toilet rolls, googly eyes, card-stock paper, butterfly template, scotch tape, pipe cleaners, scissors, hot glue gun, craft glue or glue stick, hole punch, and markers.
Instructions: Wrap some card-stock paper around the toilet roll and tape the end. Cut out butterfly template.  Hot glue the butterfly wings to the toilet roll.  Rip up scrap pieces of paper and glue them on with craft glue or glue stick. Punch a hole on the top of the toilet roll and push a pipe cleaner through.  Twist the pipe cleaner and bend the antenna to your desired look. Glue googly eyes and draw a mouth with a marker.
Egg Carton Caterpillar

Supplies:

Egg carton, googly eyes, rainbow pom poms, green paint, paint brush, pipe cleaners, scissors, craft glue, hot glue gun, markers, and hole punch.

Instructions: Cut the egg carton in half using a knife or scissors.  Make sure the carton is flat and you may need to cut it down.  Paint the egg carton ( I used some metallic green to achieve the silky green look).  Use a hole punch on the sides of the four middle cartons.  Make sure you punch both sides and push through pipe cleaners for the caterpillar legs.  Glue on antenna, colored pom poms, eyes, nose and draw a mouth with a marker.
The Party Food
We served pizza, pretzels, pastel M&M's, celery, carrots, ranch dip, white cranberry peach with seven up, home made from scratch chocolate butterfly cupcakes, and a butterfly cake (no cake mix)!

Butterfly Cupcake idea was inspired by Martha Stewart.  

Mine didn't turn out as cute as hers but you can see that they do appear to be like butterflies!  I used pastel M&M's and pretzels for the butterfly.

The butterfly Cake

Chocolate Devil's Food Cake

1/2 c hot water

1- 1/2 tsp. soda

1/2 c. cocoa

2/3 c. butter

1 -3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. milk with small amount of vinegar

2-1/2 c. flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix hot water, soda, and cocoa and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric hand mixer then add eggs.  Next add vanilla and salt. Mix the chocolate mixture in with the rest of the ingredients.  Add milk and flour alternately a little at a time mixing well.  Bake for 30 minutes or until tooth pick is clean.

Make a Wish, Sweet Girl!

The Party Bag

I used some leftover birthday balloon bags from my oldest daughter's birthday party a couple years ago.  We ordered a couple things from the Oriental Trading a while ago before I decided to do a butterfly theme (air planes, balls, and a package of random toys) and picked up some candy from the dollar store.  My mother in-law gave me some beautiful butterfly hair clips to give to the girls, which she got from Japan while serving a mission there.  The girls absolutely loved them!

Little sister was spoiled today with a loot of fun presents from her friends!  We got her Tangled, which she watched right after the last party guest left our house!   Last weekend she got an early birthday present from my mom and Uncle Nate.  They gave me money to get her ears pierced!  She was so excited to show everyone her sparkly ears!   As for her lovely butterfly party, Little Sissy said, "This was the best birthday ever!"  Yay! I am so happy it was a successful 8th birthday party!  We are looking forward to her baptism day in a couple weeks!