Family Reunion and My Birthday

The weekend of the 7th-10th of June we travelled out to Myton for the Richens Reunion.  I went out early enough to go to a Relief Society Activity with my mom (Hey I lived in that ward for just short of 2 months).  It was called "how to be an 8 cow wife."  Mom requested that I bring my 8 cow necklace that Les gave me a few months ago.

On to the Family Reunion.  For the past few years we have been having the reunion at the old family farm.  Not the happiest place on earth but I must say it has gotten a whole lot better.  There is actually grass there now.  Also now that we have the reunion in June rather than the end of July or first of August it is a lot cooler there.  My grandfather's family was in charge this year.  Here are pictures of some of the things we did while we were there.

Mom set up and ran the "Space Derby."  Everyone had a great time racing the planes.  She was kept really busy.

 You can't tell but that is Emma going down the water slide.  She waited along time to be able to go down.  She went down twice and then was done.  She was COLD!

 This is Khloe going down the water slide.  She had wanted to go down as much as Emma but then almost didn't go.  She kept giving me this look of torture as she approached it.  I finally told her that she didn't have to go down at all.  That apparently made up her mind.  So she went down once and only once.

 Les in line waiting for lunch.

 Jacob chillin out at his first reunion with his dad.

 The kids loved this little bounce house.  By the time I got this picture . . . .

 Sammi was out cold in Grandma's arms.

The three girls on a swing.

Then for my birthday it was a day devoted to me.  Les made me breakfast in bed.  We ran a few errands.  Then we got ready for what I really wanted to do . . .

SWIMMING!!!

 Les worked with the girls on their back floats,

Getting them comfortable on their bellies,

                                                

 and on kicking their legs to move through the water.

 Part of our group playing together in the water.

Les wanted to get something nice for me.  He started out looking at getting me another telephoto lens.  I talked him into getting me this instead . . . .

 A camera bag that will hold my camera and all my lenses. Look at all that space!  I love it!

 The inner part comes out so I can just take the part holding my camera and lenses.

I had originally wanted a much smaller bag.  This one is the size of a regular backpack.  I decided on this one because I can carry my laptop in the back.  How sweet is that!

Later that night we played singstar on the PS3.  I love that game.  Mostly when I get to watch others battle it out.  I had a great birthday and I got to spend it with people I love.  Who could ask for anything more than that.

My next post will be about today - - - Father's Day! 

Early Birthday Present!

I know my birthday isn't for another month (just under) but my loving husband felt that I had suffered enough.  So he allowed me to get my birthday present early.  I am so grateful! 

Here is a picture of my present:

New shoes!  So here is the story about the shoes.  My previous pair of shoes I have been wearing for the last 5 or so years.  This winter the sole of one shoe cracked open.  It didn't bother me too much because I have nice boots that I wear in the snow.  But as the weather warmed up the boots were too warm to wear.  If you haven't heard the news we are flooding in Logan.  There is water everywhere!  I have had many occurances where my one sock would be soaked through after a few minutes outside.  I started looking for shoes in late March/early April.  I was looking for a specific style.  I found some but I didn't want to pay $75 for them.  I could not find them anywhere else.  Enter Les - he took pitty on me and my one wet foot.  He took the product number off my old shoes and did an internet seach.  He found shoes similar to what I previously had and what I was looking for.  He ordered them and they arrived on our front porch in 2 days.  I now have nice dry feet because my wonderful husband found me shoes that I like for a much cheaper price.   I love him and I love these shoes (they are sketchers!)

March 2011 Birthday Parties!

So in the last post I told about previous birthday parties we have had.  In this post there will be pictures of just this years celebrations.  Starting with pictures from March 12th in Myton.  We had the party at the Myton church house following Khloe's blessing.  We had a lot of yummy food and great company.  A special thanks to my parents without whom we couldn't have pulled it all together.

 Emma opening presents.

 Khloe opening presents.

 Samantha opening presents.

 The cupcakes I made (yes that includes the toppers).

 Each of the kids got a ring pop for coming.  By the time I got the camera out for this picture Sammi was the only one with one that was willing to hold still long enough for a picture.
Now onto the party on March 19th in Logan.  We had it at our neighborhood clubhouse.  I had hoped it would be less stressful but it wasn't.  The power went out for a few hours before the party.  We weren't sure if we would get the food cooked before our guests arrived.  Thankfully, it did come on and only set us back by an hour.

 Gifts and dessert!

 Yummy food!

 A cute neighbor boy who came to the party.

 The cupcakes!

 Emma with her cupcake.

 Samantha's cupcake.

 Khloe with her cupcake.

 Opening presents!

 Emma showing off the bracelet her Aunt Sabrina made for her.

 Sammi's bracelet.

Khloe's bracelet.

A big thank you to all those who came and celebrated with us.  We love you and are grateful that we have you in our lives.  

The Three Birthday Girls!

Talk about timing things out well.  All three of our girls have birthdays in March!  I really can't take all the credit for all the birthdays (Khloe's) but I can try.  Just a few years ago when I was pregnant with Sammi I knew that her birthday was going to be close to Emma's but I wanted a way to keep their birthdays special to each of them.  Les on the other hand wanted to throw one big party and be done with it.  It wasn't until after Khloe came along that he started seeing things my way.  So this year to help keep things special and exciting we are doing little family celebrations on their actual birthdays but as for parties we would do that for all three.  After past years of making a big deal out of birthdays I decided I didn't need the extra stress.  So this year I was only going to do one birthday party.  I hear some of you out there thinking that I should have started this with the very first birthday.  Let me review the past for a moment. 
Emma's first birthday was on Easter.  That alone begged for a big celebration not to mention it was the first birthday of my first child!  Emma's second birthday was suppose to be smaller.  However, between his family and mine a lot people decided to come.  Then Les got it into his head that we needed a big project for the party guests to do.  At almost 9 months pregnant I did NOT have the energy to do it so it was left to him.  His project was making Sponge Bob Square Pants out of actual dish cleaning sponges.  They turned out amazing and everyone loved them.  As for last year . . . well we were trying to get custody of Khloe and got visitation with her the day before her birthday so we had a small party at Les' parents house.  Then since it looked like we might get her DCFS wanted us to do a few overnighters so we planned a party for the girls here in Logan.  Neither of our parents could make it so we planned to do just a small party for the girls on Easter in Myton.  Three days before that party we were in court and to our surprise (we had majorly lost hope by this time) we were granted our request to get Khloe into our home so the party became a bigger deal.
So after all of that I really did try to go smaller this year.  What is it that they say about best of intentions?  We set the date and reserved the clubhouse.  While I expected this one party to be well attended it was because we were going to combined it with Khloe's baby blessing.  When we called our parents to let them know what we had planned we found out that Les' parents most likely wouldn't be able to make it and mine wouldn't make it for sure.  That set in motion a major change of plans.  We really wanted family at the blessing for Khloe so we set it up so that we could do the blessing in Myton with a small party out there for those who couldn't make it here.  A couple of weeks before either of the parties it looked like more people were going to make it to the one in Myton.  I told Les we should just cancel the one up here.  We almost did except Les' sister wasn't going to stay for the party in Myton and still wanted the one in Logan.  Also for the first time we had planned to invite kids from our neighborhood and our ward.  So I couldn't cancel it. This post is getting too long to talk about the parties so I will do a post for just them.
Khloe got a chocolate cake with a choclate pudding filling and cream cheese frosting.  It was kind of plain so I cut up some bananas to garnish the cake.  Oh my was it delicious!  I was a bit rushed since we had gone to a wedding in Salt Lake earlier in the day so I didn't get a picture of it.  Emma's birthday is tomorrow and I have made a strawberry cake (let me add right here that the cakes are only 3 inches across and 2 and a half inches deep which makes them perfect for our small family) for her cake.  I haven't decorated it yet since it is in the freezer preparing for me to split it in half for a filling (I have strawberry filling ready and waiting).  Emma has requested pretty flowers for her cake.  As for Sammi I took the left over batter from the other cakes I made to make her cake.  It is chocolate and strawberry swirled together.  I don't know how I am going to decorate it yet but something will come to me.  As for leftovers since Sammi's birthday is the day after Emma's that leaves us with a lot of cake.  I will be sharing with our neighbors and perhaps the ladies I go to for Visiting Teaching.  That way I won't have to eat it all myself.  I do want to lose a little weight before summer.  *Added Note* Emma got a strawberry cake/strawberry filling with Vanilla frosting and (since she asked) pink flowers that I made all over it.  Samantha got the chocolate and strawberry cake with choclate pudding and vanilla frosting.  I made the bottom half of her cake basket weave (to look like a basket) and a bunch of violets coming out of it.  I may not do that again or at least for a long time.  I had forgotten how much time it takes.
I want my children to know that I love them and that I am pleased with how well they are growing and developing.  Happy Birthday Emma (March 23, 2007), Khloe (March 5, 2008), and Samantha (March 24, 2009).

Mother's Day, Les' Birthday and Camping

First of all I don't know what blogger did but they changed the way you put pics on here. At first I liked it cause I can add more than one photo at a time. But then as I was trying to manipulate the pics I realized I lost that ability.  I would like that back.  So sorry things look weird on here cause I can't change it.  It bugs me so I am still messing with it.

Mother's Day was fantastic!  Mom and Dad where up here visiting because Daniel graduated with his Master's Degree that weekend.  Everyone came to church with us.  Then "The Men" cooked dinner.  They made deep fried shrimp, steamed broccoli, and eclairs.  It was nice.  The kids loved that they could go outside to eat.  It was great to spend Mother's day with my Mom.  I love you Mom.

After we ate Les and I loaded the kids in the car and headed to Myton for visitation and a Family Team Meeting.

I told Les a while back that if he didn't want me buying him a present he needed to come up with something for me to do for him on his birthday. His reply, "Make Lasagna for my birthday dinner." So that is what I did. I made two cake pans of my homemade Lasagna,  two large garlic breads (one with cheese melted on top), and a pasta salad.   Les added in his own touch by getting rainbow sherbet and sprite for the drink. We were in Myton on Les' birthday because Khole was visiting with her mom. So I invited over some family to share it with us. My sister Jen came with her family, my sister-in-law Julie came with her kids, and Les' parents where there (we had it at my parents' house so they were there).   After the kids played for a while I brought out the cakes (Yes I said CAKES, as in 2).  They were chocolate.  I cut them in half and put a raspberry filling in the middle.  One cake had chocolate frosting and the other one had coconut pecan (per Les' instructions).  It was served up with mint chocolate ice cream (another item from the Les' favorites list).  Sorry no pictures.  I had my hands busy what with the cooking and serving.  I was so tired by the time I went to bed.   It was a great day, good food, and great company.

Now for the Camping.  We took the girls camping Friday to Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend.  Daniel and Jana invited us to go up with them.  It wasn't suppose to rain until after we went to bed.  It was raining when we got there.  It rained while we set up camp, and it rained while dinner was prepared, cooked, and eaten.  Then the sun came out.  It didn't last long.  It rained most of the night.  However the rain held off  until after we took down tents and got the cars packed.

The  food is what I like about camping.  We had Hobo dinners with peach cobbler.  For breakfast we had pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon.  We had sandwiches planned for lunch but it started to hail so we decided to go home to eat.

We were camped near the river.  The kids loved the "waterfalls" which were really rapids.  It was cute.

Enjoy the pictures of the kids.