Mylo Turns 7

Mylo turned 7!  Its so crazy to think my little baby boy is getting so big.  He is as cute and funny as ever.  He opted for a bigger present and no party this year (again) and that was perfect in my book. 

He got an awesome Ninjago Lego Set and he was VERY PLEASED! 

Leah pretty much built it for him.  They both love to build Legos together and this was perfect.   We are still in our apt, but so close to moving to our house.  You can see all the boxes and suitcases behind them.  It was chaos for a few weeks in the apt :)

It has become tradition to have doughnuts on our birthdays, we all look forward to it!  Because all of our stuff was packed away, I mean I had 6 plates and utensils and two pans, we didn't have an actual cake.  So Mylo blew his CANDLE (yes, only one) SEVEN times :)

We sure love our smarty pants!  He continues to be funny, clever, a little stinker at times, but ALWAYS super cute!  His big brown eyes melt my heart and his beautiful full eyelashes make it hard to say "no" to him.  He is doing fantastic at school and has lots of great friends.  Im looking forward to seeing how he continues to grow.

Birthday Celebration

We told the kids we will have parties on even birthdays, however, on the even b-days they can choose if they want a party or a bigger present (Mylo choose a bigger present this year).  That being said, we celebrated Leah's 9th b-day by decorating her room with a string of balloons, she loved it! 

 She also got a 'feather' on her hair.  She has been wanting one for a long time and it was a perfect reason to do it.  You can see it on the picture below.  :)  She wanted Training Table for dinner and she also wanted to place the order.  Good times! 

Next time we will just go with her, by ourselves, the other kiddos where driving us nuts! :)

For her b-day cake she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and some fun candles.  She said she made a wish, but the little stinker never told me what her wish was ;)

Oh look, there's Otis!!!!  

Mylo was also at the festivities, but not pictured.  The next day we went shopping with her b-day money.  She got lots of stuff and she felt spoiled.  It was a great day for her. We are so very pleased with her and her desire to please us.  I hope that this year brings Leah all that she wished for and them some! 

Happy Day to Leah! 9!!!!

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! I say that almost for every birthday, but it really is crazy how fast time is flying by.  It seems like Leah was just baptized like a month ago.

This girl is a huge blessing in our home and family.  Its hard to express my feelings for this lovely child. She is full of life, spunk, love and a little bit of drama and sass sprinkled on top :)

Leah was a beautiful baby girl and, as the bias mother that I am, i think she is a gorgeous big girl.  Her eyes have always had a sparkle that just makes me smile (and scares me, for what those eyes might bring me in another seven years). 

Today is her birthday and all we want to do is make her feel special and loved.  Because, she is very special and very loved :)  Leah has been super fun lately.  I can see her grow by the minute.  Not only in height, but her maturity and personality.  She wants to know everything Dave and I are talking about and has an opinion AND an explanation for her point of view.  LOVE HER!

 She is happy and always willing to try something new that I have made (daring child ;)) She and I ate lots of caramel apples together and we loved it.  She is such a big helper and I can count on her to watch Otis while I make dinner, help Milli change in the mornings, makes beds (like a pro) and I can even count on her for an impromptu dance party in the kitchen.

As a side note on this year:  Leah has become some-what allergic to mosquito/spider bites.  The above picture was taken on day two of a really bad bug bite.  It was a tiny half inch bite, but in the morning it was hot and bigger.  During the day it got bigger and bigger and she was having a hard time moving her elbow comfortably.  She had to get an antibiotic shot to help her with the infection.  Poor girl! You could see her big bite through her sweater, as the sleeve was too tight on that area.  It took three days to get this thing to a "normal" size again.  I hope she doesn't get stung by a bee/wasp, makes me nervous for her, but don't tell her that :)

Today we celebrate her life and her wonderful part of our family.  Dave and I feel blessed to have her as one of our very own.  I am so looking forward to her continuing to grow.  All she wants to do is please us and be a big responsible girl.  She is well on her way there.

We love you, Leah!!!!!!  You are the best big sister we could have ever ask for for your siblings.  Thank you for being our perfect girl :) LOVE YOU!!!!

side note: these pics were taken with my iphone4.  I have been slacking on the picture taking lately :)

Mylo Turns SIX!

We had a great day celebrating Mylo!  He has been melting our hearts from the very first time we saw him.  When he was born I remember thinking I had never seen such a beautiful baby.  I fell in love the second I was able to see his cute little face.  Now, six years later, his cute little face still melts my heart and I can't help but look at those big brown eyes and almost  give in to whatever he wants.  :)

This year we gave Mylo the choice of having a party or just a family fun filled day and he would get a nicer present.  I know, a little mean, but really I didn't have energy to throw a party and still keep my house clean for the just-in-case-someone-wants-to-come-see-it phase that I thought we would have been in.  I have always said Mylo is a smart kid and he proved that to me once again when he chose to just have a family fun filled day.  (love him for that)

 

I got so lazy this year I didn't even think to make a cake!  Poor Kid!  We just bought some gelatto and added candles to it.  We didn't even use plates we just all dig it... its great!  Plus, he was really SO happy, and that's all that matters :) 

 

He got slightly spoiled with his presents.  He got a BIG Ninjago Lego Se(Thx mom and dad) , Three Star Wars Lego sets (Thx Abuela) and a Big Star Wars Lego Set (Thx Al and Diann).  He has been playing with the Legos ALL the time and sharing with Leah.  I love Legos!

 Mylo is a truly a JOY to have in our home.  We adore him!!!!!

Our Milli Turns THREE!!!!

Milli turned three on Sunday {tear running down my face}  I can't believe that three years a go we were staring at a little red faces WHITE baby with loads of SUPER light hair.  It is no surprise that we were very SURPRISED by her appearance.  It is how ever NO surprise that she is all we could have dreamed of and then some.  We love our sassy princess to pieces!!!!

Monday we had a very little get together.  It was perfect!  She was happy and that is all we could ask for.  We had cake and ice cream at the park with some of the family and Milli's favorite friends.  She got spoiled with princess dress up stuff and a cute little "Sasha" dog.  She has been wearing her new dress up stuff day AND night (no joke)!

 Picture OVERLOAD below:

 

Our Princess!!!  Literally :)  She couldn't be happier, and we couldn't either :) 

We love our white girl!!!!

Big Al Turns 71!!! (picture overload)

Al turned 71yrs young last Sunday.  On Saturday they, Diane and Al, had a VERY fun party planned at a "bowling alley."  It was a blast!!!!!  Most of Al's kids were there and most of Diane's family as well.  The kids bowled like there was not tomorrow and so did some of the adults, which resulted in some very sore arms the following day :)

Al and Diane.... 

 Most of the grandkids.  Note Milli, not wanting to be in the picture, at all! 

Bowling pics form the rear... the best "form" goes to Dave Pearce, seen bottom left. 

left to right: Me, Bob, Dave T., Jake, Abuela, Sean and Dave P.  

Bowling pics from the front.  

Again, I think best bowling face goes to Dave Pearce or Al.  LOVE IT!!!

left to right: Sean & Alex, Dave T., Sarah, Todd (Diane's son, he is just awesome! and a new grandpa!!!), Todd and Mackay, Sean M. & Chole, Karalee & Alex, Gary, Me, Gary (again), Birthday Boy and Dave P.

Cutie Pies.  I just love these two!!!

Max, Megs and Jake.  Max was so funny this evening.  He was singing Beiber (sp? don't even care to look it up) and was actually pretty good and was cute to take our jokes.  These "older" cousins are super cute with the younger ones.  I love Jake's crazy face in this picture too.  

Maddie and Leah.  Later in the evening they were playing bar tenders with Jake.  

Lots of opened soda cans, ooooops!  But they had fun.  :) 

Emily with her chubbers, Riley.  He is a cute "little" tank! 

My cutie pie, Otapotamous and Abuela.

Milli was so good all night.  She was just pleased as could be playing with balloons and "coloring" on the bowling score sheet.  Plus, she was just so happy.  LOVE HER!!!!! 

This was such a fun party!  We all really enjoyed it!!! But of course, the best part was celebrating Al.  It was his b-day after all and we love him.  :)  He is a sweet grandpa.... Happy Day to Al!!!!

Happy Day to Dave!!!!

Today was Dave's b-day and we had a great time celebrating as a family.  We all feel very blessed to have him.  He does A TON for us all the time.  Just to name a few things, I rarely have to unload the dishwasher, I rarely get up with the kids or even feed them breakfast, because he does it!  I love it :)  Its like a treat every day, whats not to love?

For his special day I asked him what he wanted for dinner and I was a little aprehensive with his request.... He wanted me to make Chicken Tikka Masala.  Its an Indian dish that he gets once a week.  He just loves it!  I researched a bunch of recipes and made the one that looked and sounded easy and tasty.  It was OK.  I may make it again with some tweeking. 

As for the special day cake he asked for a yellow cake with lots of fresh whipped cream frosting.  I was succesfull with this one :)  It was very yummy and way to big! 

As for presents, well this is the hardest part of any party for me.  I am not a good gift giver.  Plus Dave would like things that are very expensive, like a new fancy lens for his camera.  I wouldn't know where to begin and what he already has.  So, I opted for a gift that we he really wanted.... a new set of NICE knives.  He was very surprised and he said that now he can start cooking!  Hahahahaaaa!  Whoever belivies that is crazy!!!!  But I might just hold him to it :) 

It was great to spend a day just focusing on making Dave happy.  He deserves it!  We love him!! We are SO lucky to have him!!! 

We love our Boo!

A LITTLE bit of a Funny Story:  I have called Dave, "Boo" for a while now (1yr or more).  This nickname started when he was on one of his trips.  He and his buddy were renting a car in Florida.  It was an African American Lady who was helping them.  She kept on calling his buddy "Boo" through the whole renting process.  They got a kick out of it.  So for that whole trip they called each other and everyone else "Boo."  Sure enough he brought that nickname home with him and it has stuck.  Here's where the story gets a little funny.  I have been known to ask the kids something like, "who let you watch TV?!?"  to which Leah will quickly reply, "Boo, said we could!"  Or she will often say "mom, where's 'Boo'?" I can't help but giggle when she refers to her dad as "Boo," it just cracks me up! 

Leah is EIGHT!!!!!

Leah turned EIGHT on Tuesday!!! I just can't believe how much life changed eight years ago.  She has brought so much happiness and drama to our life, we could not do with out her!!!! 

We had a friend party on Saturday.  She wanted a Big Top Cupcake, Oreo Balls, Carmel Apples and Chocolate Covered Pretzels.  I did just that!  It was a lot of fun to have Leah's friends over to celebrate!

We played Twister and it proved to be too easy for the girls.  So we moved on to Leah's favorite part of the party.... a scavenger hunt.  This was not easy task and it didn't last as long as I had wished.

I had ten clues to lead them to the treasure.  Every clue rhymed and they had to complete a task before being able to open the clue.  One of the "tasks" was to give Leah a group hug, I think Leah really liked it :)

The clues took them in and out of the house.  The treasure was a bunch of beads for the girls to make their own bracelets.  They had  a good time doing that.  It was fun to see how creative the girls could be.

Once finished making their bracelets they played games.  

Then presents and cake.

 

Although Leah has a friends party, it was simply not enough :)  We celebrate on her actual b-day. 

Dave and Leah got doughnuts and we all had a very healthy breakfast ;)

Later than night we went out to dinner to Firehouse, 

we won't be going there again for several reasons. 

 When we got back home Leah got to go with Abuela to get a gelato and pick out a new and fancy CTR ring.  I asked Leah to be very polite and she said "Of course mom! I am 8!" I will make sure she remembers that. 

I know she had a great day, but she is really looking forward to November 6th when she will be getting baptized. 



ps.  She LOVES her scriptures and has been taking care of them and reading them, which is the most important part.