Weston's 9th Birthday

Weston turned 9 years old this year! His birthday was on a Thursday. I decided to make him a birthday breakfast since he's obsessed with bacon. I made bacon and eggs and almond poppyseed muffins with chocolate milk. He loved it. We let him open his presents that morning too. He was so excited to get several DS games and a DS accessories kit, a couple nice new shirts, a Lego set, and a basketball! 

He headed off to school happily. His birthday happened to be on the day that they had their read-a-thon. I brought him Carl's Jr. for lunch at school. That afternoon he played his new DS games with his friends. He had scouts that evening and took cookies to share. After scouts he came home and we had his birthday dinner, which was spaghetti with mizithra. I think he had a pretty awesome day.

Friday night was Weston's big birthday party. We went with a Nerf war party. We had it at the church and it was really fun and easy to put together. Ian designed his invitations. Mel and Brad came and helped us with the party. Thank you to Mel for her mad crepe paper skills! We got all set up and Ian brought the pizza and cake. Just in time for the kids to start showing up!

We started with food. The boys ate pizza and chips and grape Gatorade. When they were done eating we told them about the Nerf blow dart guns they were going to make. They spent a little time putting together their guns and decorating them with electrical tape. We made them all wear safety glasses too. Luckily they thought they were cool.

Ian started them off with target practice to get the hang of shooting their guns. We only gave each kid one dart so they had to go get it back before they could shoot again. After the boys were sufficiently warmed up we started the next game. 

The boys were divided up into two teams. There were chairs set up facing each other with Lego minifigures on them. The teams had to try to hit the other team's Lego guys off the chair. They couldn't take guns into the middle of the war zone. The boys were so funny at the beginning of the game. They started all chanting "World War 3! World War 3!" 8 and 9 year old boys are super weird.

When the war was over we collected all the dart guns and let Weston open his presents. He got lots of fun gifts and cash! My favorite moment at the party was when Weston finished opening his presents and his friends all mobbed him for a group hug. :)

After presents we did cake. The kids all thought Weston's Seahawks cake was the coolest. This was just a week before the Seahawks played in the Superbowl. I'm glad that we went with a big Sam's Club cake because there really wasn't much left at the end of the night. 

While the kids were eating cake Ian and Brad put up some cardboard box shelters. After cake we spent the rest of the party playing an all out Nerf war. The boys had a blast and it was pretty low key for me. Ian took over during the Nerf activities. The kids each got to take home their blow dart gun, their safety glasses and 3 darts. Such a fun, successful birthday party! I love my biggest boy Weston! Happy Happy Birthday dude!

January 2015

We carried on our New Year's tradition of a trip to the bookstore to pick out a new calendar this year. The kids had gotten Barnes and Noble gift cards from Grandma Denny and Papa for Christmas so it was an extra fun trip. They each got to pick something out and Ian and I found calendars for home and work. We went out to lunch after the bookstore at In N Out. I'm so glad my kids like it as much as I do. It's our compromise place to eat. No play place but food we all like.

We spent the rest of our New Year's day cleaning out the big boys' room. Every year on New Year's we switch who sleeps on top and bottom of their bunk bed. This year was particularly challenging to switch because Weston had SO much stuff taped up all around his (bottom) bed. He also had an incredible amount of books, general crap, and tons of trash shoved into the cubby next to the bottom bed. It took all day to get the bedding all washed and put back on and the cubby and under the bed cleaned out and vacuumed. There was literally a full trash bag by the time we were done. I can't believe how much of a mess Weston created. Wow. It sure felt good to get it all cleaned out and to start fresh.

The day after New Year's I got my hair done. I decided to chop it off and get a fresh short cut. I also did a dark red color. I love it so much and it felt so good to start off the new year with new hair!

I won four tickets to this cool arena show called Walking With Dinosaurs! We had seen the ads for it and thought how fun it would be to take Beckett since he loves dinosaurs so much, but the tickets were $45 and it wasn't something we wanted to spend that much money on. I entered a Facebook contest to win tickets and I won! So exciting! We decided I would take the three boys to the dinosaur show while Ian took Talia on a date. It was a fun night for everyone.

The boys and I went up to Salt Lake early and ate dinner in the food court at the Gateway. Davin and I had Subway (it's Davin's favorite place to eat) and Weston and Beckett had McDonald's. Everyone had plenty to eat. Davin actually was feeling pretty sick when we finished dinner. Poor kid just ate too much too fast. We walked slowly over to the Energy Solutions Arena for the show and had to check the stroller before we found our seats.

We had awesome seats! And there was no one in front of us for most of the show. We had to wait about 20 minutes before the show started, but it was fine. The boys were awesome. I love them. The show itself was really cool. A little different than I was expecting. Instead of a story it was more like a really amazing school assembly about the earth and creatures during the time of the dinosaurs. There was a paleontologist narrator and then these giant dinosaurs would come out and wander around and fight. Beckett was riveted. He sat on my lap the whole time and was quiet. He got scared at the very end when the T-Rex roared really loud several times and when the comet hit the earth with a loud noise and bright lights.

While we were at Walking With Dinosaurs Ian and Talia were out on a date. Talia chose to go to McDonald's for dinner and then go bowling. She and her daddy had a fun time. They finished up their date at the Thanksgiving Point Deli ice cream shop. Talia got a little sundae and felt really special. She is still talking about their "trip." Ian said she was really sweet and cute that night.

The second weekend in January was the Verite holiday party. They have done it in January for the past couple of years. This year it was at a restaurant downtown called Bombara. Our group was in a really pretty conference type room and we all ate together at one giant long table. It was a fun night visiting with Ian's colleagues and friends and eating good food. While we were driving home Ian's car hit 100,000 miles! Kinda cool!

Weston started Jr. Jazz basketball through Lehi City at the beginning of the month. It's a fun program and he loves it! He is playing on a team with his friends, Grant and Arron. I really like the way the program is set up to teach the kids how to play the sport. They go on Saturdays for an hour. The first 20 minutes is practice time then they play a game for the rest of the hour. The refs are pretty good and they always explain to the player why they blew the whistle and what they did wrong. Weston is having a great time! He scored his first two baskets during the game against the team with kids from our ward on it. So exciting!

The other big thing in January was Weston's 9th birthday! He had a very fun day starting with a birthday breakfast and presents and finishing up with scouts. He had a Nerf war party the next day with all of his friends. I'll post separately about his birthday and his party.

On Saturday after Weston's birthday Ian took the big boys down to Provo to a BYU basketball game. Weston got a free ticket from his Jr. Jazz packet and could get two additional tickets for only $5. They were on the very back row but they loved it!

Other random fun this month:
An evening trip to the new children's museum where Ian and Davin built Weston into this Lego fort.

An impromptu family date night for ice cream at Thanksgiving Point. The fire is always an exciting thing for some reason. :)

We got to hang out with Auntie Mel and Wilson a few times. Wilson is getting so big and fun. Talia still asks to hold him every time we see them, but that just means he sits in between her legs for about 30 seconds. He really loves his cousin Talia though and she always plays nicely with him.

There were lots of slow mornings at home with my two littles. We snuggle and watch shows then I usually exercise and shower. A lot of times I see a Beckett hanging out waiting for me when I step out of the shower. Occasionally I set him up with the ipad on my bed so I don't have company during my shower. :)

We snuck in another Farm Country trip on another unseasonably warm winter day. Beckett won't go on pony rides anymore, but he is quite patient while Talia does hers.

The boys went with Dad for a dude's night playing laser tag at Trafalga. It's a favorite thing to do.

And we can't forget about evenings at home! Talia and Beckett both love baths. Talia will shower sometimes, but she usually chooses a bath. And Beckett would take a bath twice a day if I would let him!

I love this picture of Talia so much. She's such a funny girl. She loves that she gets to wear her brother's underwear!

One night after baths I was folding laundry on my bed. The kids entertained themselves until I was done and it was time to go to bed by giving "rides" on Tal's blanket. Weston is such a good sport to pull them around! I really lucked out on the kid draw. They are the best. Love them SO much!