Happy Birthday Carson!!!

Wow.....what a fun day!!! I can't believe my little guy is 4 years old today!!! We had such a fun time celebrating his Birthday this year. Yesterday, my mom came down and took Carson to Build A Bear at the Gateway. They had a great time all by themselves. That's right just him and Grandma....but I did ask my mom to take the small camera and take pictures so I could see what they did. But yes, it was hard to let them go and do that without me, but I knew it was important for them to have one on one time, since that doesn't happen a lot. It was fun to download the pictures of their trip...Here is Carson at Build A Bear.
Carson got to put the heart in the dog...and he even put in a sound, so every time you squeeze it's paw, it barks!

He picked out a cute fireman's outfit for his dog, and then once they got him dressed, my mom spotted a cute soccer outfit that he also ended up getting for his dog.

I had a ton more pictures from their trip to Build A Bear, but since this post already has a millions pictures, I had to narrow it down to just a few. But I had pictures of him washing his dog, naming his dog on the computer (He named his dog Bobby Bennett), and buying his dog and putting it in the house. So the funniest thing about this dog, is that it is the exact same dog that Carson picked out when we went to Disneyland last summer. My mom and I about died when we realized it was the same dog!! It was funny! Carson is happy about it, cause now he has twin brothers!!

Once they got back from their Build A Bear trip, Nick came home from work early so we could all head to Lagoon and play. While Nick and Kaylee saved us seats at the Monkey Show, Carson and Grandma rode on one of Carson's favorite rides, the Jumping Dragon. Carson loves to try and hold his hands up the WHOLE time!

Then we saw the Monkey Show that they are doing this week at Lagoon. It was pretty funny, but very crowded, and we had a stupid tree in our way for most of it. But the kids loved it!! Kaylee was so cute about clapping during the show!

Before we left they kids had to cool off in the fountain...with grandma!! :)

Uncle Chris even met us at Lagoon and we rode on lots of rides including the Rattlesnake Rapids and the log ride, which soaked me and my mom!! Again, I am so glad we have our season passes!!

This morning, I woke up singing Happy Birthday to Carson, and he thought that was great! I love singing that to him, because he gets the biggest grin on his face! He loves that song, whether it is for him or someone else! We made Birthday Pancakes this morning, which means they are BLUE pancakes with Sprinkles in them, topped with candles!! (And of course strawberry jam and whipped cream! YUM!)

We had invited some of the neighborhood friends and cousins a birthday party for him today. For the past 6 months, since Kaylee's birthday, Carson has talked about having a Tractor Cake for his birthday. I am so lucky to have a talented mother in law who is a fabulous cake maker, and of course offered to make the tractor cake for his party. So....she made the cake and it was the best tractor cake she had made ever! But....sadly this cake didn't survive the two hour car ride from Holden to Woods Cross....and this is what it looked like when they arrived...

Even with cake falling over, you can see just how cute the cake was!! It still tasted great!! Karen was so nice that she went to Costco and bought a balloon cake that Carson picked out, to make sure we had cake for the party! But we ended up eating both cakes since one was chocolate and the other white. I didn't hear anyone complain! :)

For his party, we decided to have the kids play in the water, open presents and eat cake and ice cream. Pretty simple, but very fun! We borrowed the big water slide from our friends, filled up a few pools and had water balloons. The kids loved it!!! Here are some of the pictures from the party.

Carson got a lot of neat presents! I think he got quite spoiled from his friends and family! It was fun to see him open his presents this year with out hardly any help! He is just getting so big!

There were 10 little boys, 2 little girls, and a teenager that played in the water today! It was a blast!! The little boys played so well together, and even when there were collisions, bonks, and water splashing, I didn't hear them complain, cry, or whine! They were just fantastic!

Sorry for all the pictures, but the boys were just so cute, I had to share!!! Carson was so nice to come and sit by me for a minute during the party while I ate cake. But before long, he was off again playing.

Kaylee was an angel....since she slept for most of the party. But woke up in time to enjoy some cake....or at least the spoon....

But it didn't take her long to get on her swimsuit and join in on the action!

Our cousin Jamie and her cute little girl Kylee came to the party today too. They live in California, so it was so fun to have them come. Kylee loved the water and enjoyed grandma Karen's bracelets and Leah's shoes!! She is such a girlie girl!

This year for Carson's birthday, Nick and I gave Carson a battery. Not just any battery, but a battery for a Hotwheels 4wheeler. Now this fourwheeler has a story behind it. A few weeks ago Nick was headed to work at 4 in the morning, and it was trash day. So on his way out of the neighborhood he noticed some wheels sticking out of a someones garbage can. So he stopped and looked and saw that there was a whole hotwheels 4wheeler in the garbage. So of course, Nick being the thrifty person he is, stole the 4wheeler out of the garbage can to see if it was something he could fix and make run again. And sure enough....he did!!! So after cleaning it up, making a new pedal for it, and fixing some wiring....all it needed was a battery. But those aren't a cheap item you just pick up on your next grocery trip....so we decided we would by a battery for Carson's birthday....and he has had a blast on it all afternoon!! It might not look brand new, but it runs great!!!

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes, presents, and help with the party!!! I know Carson had a wonderful day and I can't wait to see what this next year brings!!!

Weekend Getaway

On Friday we got a crazy hair to do something different for the weekend....so we made a last minute decision to head north and play. We hurried and packed, put the kids in the van, and took off. I grabbed a snack bag of mini oreos to munch on for the drive, which Kaylee enjoyed very much. She got cookies all over her one hand and face, and luckily no where else! Her oreo face was hilarious!!

We first started out by going to Willard Bay. We have some good friends that Nick knows from High School, and the husband is the Park Ranger for the Willard Bay State Park. So after visiting with them for a bit, we headed into the park and played in the water and on the beach for a bit. We had a blast!! The water was warm and calm. We had taken a blow up little boat toy that the kids played with. Even though it wasn't a real boat, it still made it really fun.

After playing in the water for a bit, we sat on the shore and just played in the sand. This is the first time we have taken the kids to a BEACH. It was something fun and different for us to do as a family.

Once again....Kaylee and her oreo face....yum!!!

We can't wait to go back to the BEACH! Other than all the sand that we took home with us, it was a super fun activity! After Willard Bay, we headed to Tremonton and stayed the night with my family. We played outside, jumped on the trampoline, ate ice cream, and watched a movie. I got up early on Saturday to go swim with my dad, but when we got to the pool, it was closed! We were both a bit disappointed we weren't going to be able to workout, so we went home and had yummy pancakes!!! Then we headed North again up to Idaho Falls, where Nick's cousin Allison was getting married. The kids did okay on the trip up, with a bit of whining towards the end, since they were getting hungry. We were so relieved when we finally made it there and they could get out of the van and just play. They had so much fun at the Temple walking around and playing.

Kaylee was so friendly with everyone and was not shy one bit!! And they were in such a good mood the whole time at the temple.

Carson probably spent 20 minutes playing with this water fountain.....

The beautiful Bride and handsome Groom....

I thought this picture of Grandpa Pace was just adorable and wanted to share!!!

After the wedding, the kids fell asleep as soon as we left the temple. They slept for about 20 minutes, and then Carson woke up and started whining as we were driving home, which woke Kaylee up and so they BOTH started to cry, and continued to whine and cry until we got to Tremonton. It made for a LONG drive! We stopped long enough in Tremonton to eat dinner and stretch our legs, then got back in the van to drive the rest of the way home. We got home last night around 9, and cleaned out the van, unpacked the bags, and put the kids to bed. What a long day! But overall it was such a fun weekend to just getaway from our normal routine and just have fun visiting family and playing with our kids. Hopefully as our kids get older, they will be better at traveling in the van, which will make it even more pleasant to go on road trips and do fun things! We have a family reunion in Boise coming up and I hope we can survive the trip up there, because I know we are going to have a blast!!!

Why I blog...

I blog for 3 reasons.....

Her....
Him....

And this....a blog book.

When I started a blog, I didn't have any intentions or goals to achieve, it just seemed like fun. But a few months ago, I was able to create a 200 page book from our blog. What a fantastic idea of being able to download your blog entries into a program and create a book so easily! I had started to do a scrapbook for each of my kids but that didn't last very long, and I try and journal, but since there are no pictures, that is kinda boring. So the idea of a blog book is very appealing to me and since I like to blog and it is so easy, it just makes sense to have a book of my blog. I plan on doing one for each year of our blog. So this book contains only the entries from 2008. It makes it seem very worth it to spend the time blogging, when I know I will have a book to pass on to my children to help them remember what life was like growing up! Here are some more pictures of my book.

You get to change the layout for each page if you want, change the background, font, and text size. You can get a hard back book or soft cover, which I did since it was cheaper. This size is a 7x7, but you can get larger sizes, including 12x12. It did take some time putting it together, but compared to scrapbooking from scratch, it makes it super easy! I used the website blurb.com, but if any of you have a better source to create an even better blog book, please let me know.

I know that my posts may not always be the most entertaining, funny, or exciting, but I don't blog to satisfy other people to get the most comments, I blog because that is how I journal for my family.