Outer Space Birthday Party!

Jackson loves outer space and rockets so we decided to have an outer space party. Now I want you all to know that I had been sick for a full week and a half with the flu and felt miserable so the party decorations and games were NOT up to my standards... I actually cancelled the party once because I was too sick... So this was the best we could do!



We had Jackson and his 5 little cousins that live close by come to my parents house and we invited all his uncles and aunts and grandparents as well.

This is my mom and Jackson making space helmets-


His cousin Blake in his helmet and showing his rocket ship.

Savannah in her gear. We made the rockets by putting paint inside an empty 2 liter bottle and put about 4 marbles in it and closed the lid. The kids then shook them up to swirl paint around in them, they were really pretty and the kids loved making them.

Jackson and Justin

His cousins, Aysa, Brinlee, and Caden

Luke shaking his rocket up

Taking a spin in the "Anti Gravity Machine" we spun the kids around until dizzy then made them fly their rocket across the room. This was so stinkin Hilarious!!!

Then the big finale was when the kids went on an alien hunt with dart guns and found this scary alien lurking in the house... (Kevin) Luke who is 2, was so scared he was screaming and using his guns like his life depended on it... This was also stinkin hilarious...

He is kind of creepy......

Although we didn't get to do as much as I would have like to do it was still very fun.

Jackson turns 3!

My little boy turned 3 on November 23rd... Wow time has flown by.



He started the day at about 6:30 AM (which if you know me is SUPER EARLY, we normally aren't up before 8:30) he woke up crying with a HUGE fever.... me and Jackson caught the flu for his birthday... It was kind of miserable but we tried to make it fun...



The hallway to Jackson's room. Me and Kevin wanted it to be a lot of fun and a big surprise when he woke up... 75 balloons later and tons of streamers- I think we accomplished our mission.

Lunch with my parents at The Pirate Island Pizza Place

His favorite game from mom and dad- Hungary Hungary Hippos...

Opening more presents

He isn't a baby anymore which makes me so sad but I also love the new big boy I have!

New Moon

So last night was our Bunco night and it happened to be on the premiere day of the New Moon movie so we partied and went to the movie. I was the host this month and so me and my sis-in-law Lanie (also in our group) planned a Night full of twilight fun... Thank you Lanie for your beautiful home you let us use!

Our Group
The "Blood" punch... Yes those are IV bags draining into the punch bowl...

During Bunco, with Edward and Jacob watching

Party bags for everyone full of twilight stuff and treats for the movie- which 16 of us went to after bunco.

The men....

Bunco Prizes, I made almost all of the stuff this month...

The drinks in the party bags, What's your favorite blood type???

Cupcakes, made by my brother Chris, (married to Lanie) They were so good! Red Velvet for Fang fans, and Toasted coconut for fur fans...

That was such a fun night! We loved the movie and had a wonderful night! Thank you Chris and Lanie for all your work! We'll do it all over again this summer for Eclipse!

From the mouth of babes...

So Kevin turned the big 27 last sunday! (whoot whoot!) Me and Jackson gave him The Beatle's Rockband game and made him a card, I wrote my thing to him and had Jackson "write" a message to him ( just scribbles). When he was done writing I asked him to translate for me and so I said,

Jackson what does this say?

He told me- "it says: Be Confident, and be yourself..."

Where he learned this- I have no clue! It must have been on a show he watched, but I thought that was such a wise and sweet thing to say to his daddy!

He is constantly cracking me up- The other day he came up to me and said "you are daddy's princess mom, and I am his prince..." So sweet.

He also has this little puppy that he sleeps with every night and is constantly getting into trouble with that he named Cubby or Cub-a-roo (yes, the dog has a nickname too). SO the otherday I was on the toilet going pee and Jackson and Cubby came in and ambushed me with a big pirate sword and Jackson said "Mom, I am going to hit you" and I said "No, you stinker- we don't hit people with swords" and then he proceeded to hit me with the sword (yes, I am still on the potty with my pants down) then he said very gleefully in a gruff pirate voice, "We did it cubby, we got her!!!" and Cubby let out a great cheer "ruff a rooooooo!!!!" and the twosome ran off... I was laughing so hard...

Anyway just some funny things he has done lately...

Rejuvenating my spirits

A few weeks ago we went camping with the Colyar family up in the Uintas to a stunning place named Soapstone. My in-laws have a nice trailer with a bathroom and heat so it made it super comfortable. The weekend was so relaxing and breathtakingly beautiful. I grew up in Seattle surrounded by forests and really miss the smell of the rain and the green lush wilderness. That weekend I felt right back at home. The first night we went on a ride in the evening and it was so green it made me ache for Seattle... and then it started to lightly rain and I seriously was in heaven... it was wonderful.

Jackson and "Grandma Sheriff" he can't say Cheryl so it comes out Sheriff...

Kevin's oldest brother Craig

Craig and Kristi's little girl Savannah after falling in the nasty mud, her parents weren't very happy- it was pretty gross stuff...

The group taking off again

Jackson and Savannah riding with uncle Craig, he was the designated driver for all the kids.

Jackson LOVED going on rides and wearing the cool helmet

Kevin and Jackson riding on Danny's 4-wheeler (Thank you Danny and Jess for letting us ride Junior)

Jackson and Grandpa Mont

Babies Galore....

So I thought that all the animals were supposed to have babies in the springtime? Well this year the Hogle Zoo decided to have all the babies in the Fall. We decided to go as a family and meet the new baby Elephant on her first day out in the public eye.

Me and my baby

Isn't this the cutest little baby ever?

There was also 2 baby tigers, a snow leopard cub, a baby crocodile, and some baby monkeys. It was such a cute zoo trip!

Jackson yelling "Yee Haw!"

Extreme Home Makeover Long Beach Style

A few weeks ago we were in California babysitting 3 of the 5 kids for my sister Angie while she and her husband went to Puerto Rico for 8 days. She lives in a smaller house with 5 kids and has had a few extremely hard blows from this bad economy, so as a surprise we decided to do an extreme home makeover for her. I collected money from my super amazing family and we all started planning... When I dropped her off at the airport all of our family descended, many came from Utah and my brother Matt came from central Cali. This is what happened...

(Me and Kevin had to finish up by ourselves and watch the kids things didn't exactly get all done. We finished most stuff but didn't get things up on the walls or finish the decorating.)

The Start... Contemplating how we start this.




The counter before:

Demolition Starts!!!! Caleb her 2 year old, kept coming in and yelling "What are you doing to my house???" or "Holy Mess!!!"

The tile countertops were a HUGE project.

That tile was stuck down with like an inch of concrete and a big metal netting.

This is what I like to call "The Wall paper from HE**!!!" man this was the worst... It seriously had 12 layers to the dumb thing... so glad it's done!

This is my dad, my bro Chris, My sis in law Melissa, and Kevin

My bro Matt contemplating why we did this.....

Jackson in his prime.....

Chelsea (Angie's youngest) the working girl

California doesn't have child labor laws do they?

The kids trying to stay out of the way

A whole day of unsupervised play resulted in this......

Mommy Aliyah (my niece)

Fixing the stoppers in the bathroom sink

Starting to paint

Cutting the hole for the sink in the new counter

Sanding the new chairs and table

My sister Lisa who flew out from Herriman to help for a few days

Chris priming the table and chairs and cabinets

Our Happy worker

Putting in a new shelf under the sink, since the old one had broken

fixing the wall and ceiling...

Super Painting Guy! My favorite super hero

Movie night for the kids when it was just me and Kevin. We were busy painting the kitchen and came in to discover that Chelsea had opened a whole container of puffs and dumped it all over and was eating them off the floor. She was so happy with herself... man it was so hard to get stuff done with these 4 small guys- Morgan was the oldest and she is 5.

The fixed ceiling!!! Yea! Like 5 years ago the ceiling collaped in and hadn't been fixed... This was a much needed fix.

putting newly painted and finished cabinets back on! New counters, new sink, and a new faucet- the old one wouldn't stay on by itself...

After everyone else went home we had a huge heat wave... it was over 100 degrees in the house! UNBEARABLE! We basically worked nude... All the baking chocolate and chocolate chips melted sitting in the family room! Now that is HOT!

New counter and painted cabinets

It looks so good!!!

Counter

There will be a tile border around the top of the counter backsplash

The entry way

The dresser is an old one we completely re-painted and put new handles on.

The new rug

The new chair- picture taken about 30 minutes after they got home

The new curtains and curtain rod

Angie wandering around in shock talking to mom

What we did:

took down wall paper in kitchen

Re-painted- entry way, living/ dining area, bathroom, kitchen

Painted trim work white (paint donated by Chris and LAnie)

Repaired walls in Kitchen and re texturized entire wall

Repaired ceiling in dining room from leak (thanks dad)

new counter tops (donated by Becca and Erin) georgeous!!!

re-painted dresser in entry and put new hardware on (looks amazing!)

Hung curtains in family room (donated by angie's debit card (lol))

Curtain rods and accesories and area rug (donated by Lisa and Brian)

Soon to be wood flooring (donated by Lisa and Brian)

New faucet (donated by Chris and Lanie)

New sink (Donated by matt and Melissa)

Curtains for entry and kitchen (Donated by steph and Kevin)

Tile for backsplash (Donated by steph and Kevin)

Pictures of all the kids framed and a wall plaque (Donated by steph and Kevin)

new molding around front door

new arm chair (mom and dad)

accesories (mom, steph, and lisa)

New chairs and bench (donated by lisa and brian)

new shelf under sink (dad, matt, and chris)

new base board in kitchen (mom and dad)

new light switch covers (lisa)

I think that is just about everything..... WOW!!! All that accomplished minus the floor in 7 days! I can't even believe all that we finished... Thank you Thank you Thank you to all of you for helping make this happen for two people who we all love so much and who we all felt like deserved this. I was originally only planning on me and Kevin doing this project and it being just a small living room makeover and I was so thrilled and over whelmed when all of you wanted to do it with me. I love you all for all the money and hard work we did... Chris, matt, dad, lisa, mom, melissa, and Kevin- you guys were amazing and worked so dang hard!!! We could not have done this without you... We have such an amazing family!

This is a link to the video we took of Angie and Dave walking in- they were totally shocked- we kept it all a HUGE SECRET!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pu0WM75qLo

Angie is getting a new couch and just got the new hardwood floors in last night!

This was one of the funnest things I have been able to do, it was a lot of extremely hard work but it was all worth it, I love my sister a lot and I know this will make her life easier having all this work done for her.