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This incredible woman with eight kids under the age of 11 made Master D his favorite picnic cake after calling me for the recipe. Love her and her beautiful family! He’s 21 now! and as he says “Old enough to … Continue reading
It wasn’t a big birthday, so we didn’t make it a big deal. I cooked a meal, baked a cake, hung some balloons, bought some socks and a belt and called it good. Oh yeah and promised to organize a few things. He claims it’s a perfect birthday. I’ve come up with “the interview” for my birthday blogs this year and I am excited to share the answers with you all. His employees took good care of him too.
He loves all the “hooplah”
Always wiling to carry someone on his shoulders when they need it.
No need to ask: Yes, I do realize every day just how truly blessed and “lucky” I am to be married to my B.
1. He is hilarious and makes me laugh at least once every day.
2. He is a right fighter – do not wrongly accuse him of anything because he will not let it go.
3. He has crazy endurance and can go and go and go – running, biking, playing…
4. He pays very close attention to his hygiene, hair, style etc.
5. His two different color eyes totally rock!
6. He works really hard at playing piano (and is getting good really fast) because he’s inspired by his 3 friends who are amazing on the piano.
7. He totally looks up to D.
8. He can sleep anywhere and just drops when he’s tired.
9. He has great insights into things beyond his years…like politics
10. He is obsessive about his grades and gets straight A’s, tormenting his teachers when they wrongly record something.
11. He loves salad
12. He’s B’s mini-me
1. She is happy 95% of the time…really!
2. She has the most infectious giggly laugh.
3. She doesn’t take any crap on the soccer field, even if the other girls are a foot taller (which many of them are)
4. She LOVES babies (and animals)
5. She really enjoys being helpful to me.
6. She is extremely observant to how everyone around her is feeling.
7. She can pretty much do anything she wants physically (gymnastics, dance, sprinting, soccer, surf..)
8. She will come to the aid of her brother whenever anyone (including us parents) she perceives is picking on him.
9. She loves hanging out with TT and all his buddies (I’m not sure I will love that in a couple years)
10. She loves loves loves loves her cousins and aunts.
11. She is a tough little cookie full of sass.
12. She’s my mini-me:)
11/2/13 Gastby Masquerade Ball. This was a girl ask guy dance & Lelu went with Tanner this time and 18 other kids including Chandler and two more boys from our old ward. Where else but UT would you see 20 kids ready for a dance and 40 parents in a backyard taking photos?
Lelu with two new girls (Megan and McKenna as opposed to Madison and Madison) as dates for the original three boys who travel together as a package. I think the 20’s was a good era to copy for a formal dance! Don’t they look cool?
11/7/13 Happy 12th birthday to my twins! I have a tradition of decorating the house with balloons and a banner for everyone’s birthday. When I went to Zurchers to get balloons I saw this one and thought a big balloon would be fun- not knowing how massive it was because it wasn’t blown up yet. They blew it up and this little old lady working there popped it. The whole store heard it and came up to see what happened and this poor little lady was traumatized with her voice shaking that it about knocked her to the ground. I told them they could just give me a refund but they hunted down another one. Getting it home was fun – I had to put it in my passenger front seat and it blocked my rearview mirror, my side mirror and the view from half my windshield. It was quite the hazard. But it was all worth it because they LOVE it!
B was out of town and the kids wanted to go to Joe’s Crab Shack. I think it’s all because they dress them up, make them stand on a chair and the whole staff sings to them. I don’t think we’ve ever gone there NOT on a birthday. I think Ari’s coconut bra is more like an 82 year old than a 12 year old….
Ari’s new beehive leader made her this cake to welcome her in. I love this kind of stuff – esp when we are the recipient! Why don’t the boys do stuff like this? haha On Sunday when they called them up to the stand to say they were moving out of primary and on to the youth program, I was really sad! The last time I felt like this was when I took Aub to sunbeams – it’s just so final of a milestone that all of my babies are now grown up. Woe is me…..We’re officially old parents!
B got home so the real family partying continued. Of course, they each like different cakes so we had a full key lime cheesecake and a full picnic cake. And they picked two totally different home cooked dinners so we had an eclectic buffet on Sunday dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and Michele’s lettuce wraps (my girls are totally wowed by her cooking as am I after making this recipe that calls for 27 ingredients) We invited the J&C fam and then their two bff families for cake and we still didn’t eat all that cake.
11/16/13 Just when you think the party is over – think again! Indoor skydiving, surfing & pizza. And the birthday is finally partied out! Ready for take-off L-R Back row Mr. T (being cool) Caden, Aubrey Front Row: Wyatt, Chase, Ari, Sierra, McKinley We adore these kids!
TT flying
Check out their shoes – Converse are the THING!
November may kill me from exhaustion, school is in crunch time, I should be writing a paper or TWO right now and Thanksgiving (that I am hosting – can’t wait to see Aub, Michelle & Maruan) is this week. One day at a time, one post at a time, one word about Plato at a time….repeat
I am a month behind. Such is life. The last three weeks I’ve been in dodgeball match with lemons being pelted at my head. This is the truth about blogs and my blog is no different really: They just don’t tell the “whole truth”. How can they? I love my life overall, that is true! But I am not immune to the downs, I am working on being resilient – but that is another blog for another day, when I am actually caught up. If ever. But if I am going to leave a written legacy for my children about my perspective on our life – I want to remember the positive. The ego LOVES the negative and happily replays those stories over and over especially when a lemon comes hurtling at your face – that lemon carries the weight of all the past and it hurts more than it should. And as such (that’s for you, B) I am sick to death of lemonade and therefore I will be creating quite a compost heap.
Lelu turned SIXTEEN! And it was a big deal. I wasn’t writing my blog when Aub turned 16, but we went to Hawaii for her birthday and then Master D had the big limo party. I’ve set myself up for creating big events. But Lelu is different and this was a challenge. She didn’t want a big party, or a surprise party (heaven forbid), or a limo and school had just started so we couldn’t go on a big trip. She is my most frugal child (B’s prodigy) and so I had to get creative:
First stop – hair being done at 7 am – yes SEVEN AM for the drivers license photo.
8:00 am DMV then home to get SS card we forgot – back to DMV – late to school and breakfast through the drive thru because she had a test. (This is a photo of an instagram screen. I lost the original photo of this on my old phone and for technical reasons that I have no patience to figure out, cropping out the instagram part is not taking)
Friends decorated her locker and the hallways
40 of them distributed around the hallways – that the administration decided needed to be taken down. Alta didn’t have that stupid policy – what the heck is wrong with party poopers in the schools??
Since I got a new car (that B surprised me with for my bday – and will get brownie points for a lifetime) Lelu gets to drive the pilot – which I decorated and left in the parking lot at school.
B and Jeff bright and early went to the round-a-bout in Draper and put up a banner which I “accidentally” went the wrong way to the DMV with her in the car for her to see. She didn’t kill me.
Lelu’s dinner request…..Michelle S recipe for chicken lime tacos – mmmm
After football & soccer practice The family celebrated with at home dinner and strawberry shortcake including J, C, Landon & Wyatt
Final fun….one short night between tennis, soccer, volleyball games and practices – I took Britney, Madison, Madelyn, Aubrey and Lelu to stay in a hotel in Park City – they got their own room to hang out in with mom across the hall enjoying my own book and more sleep.
Was it as awesome as Aub and Master D? I think she thought so. Phew Good thing I have four years to plan for the twins!
If I posted separately about everything we were up to the last month, I’d have at least five more posts and probably bore most people to death. So in the same manner as my previous quickcast – Here’s our top news stories:
05/23/13 Ari had her spring dance recital – which I missed again. Boy, that makes me seem like I get ‘bad mom of the year’ award. We were flying home that night. Once again, trip planned before the recital was planned…
05/31/13 I went to visit Aub in Portland for two days and failed again to take any photos. Continue reading
The last birthday of Aub’s that we didn’t get to celebrate with her was in Germany eight years ago. Geez EIGHT?? years? Until this year:( Anyway, It reminded me that I sent her favorite enchilada recipe to her incredible host mother Anne Simon and she attempted Continue reading