Happy Birthday, Brenna - 1 year!

August 1 (she was born on her due date)
Brenna was far from shy or dainty when it was cake time. She was in it with both hands and loving it. Grandma Bitter made her a doll cake from angel food. I made an ice cream carmel dessert for the grownups. After the parties for the boys (see below) I took it easy for her party.


Notice my darling boys with their delicious . . . yogurt??? Yes, they were not allowed to have any dessert for a few weeks; not even for the party. Gasp!! But that is another story...

Pirate Party

Ryan really wanted a pirate birthday party and I had seen a great cake on Christy's website that gave me some ideas. We had a treasure hunt, a gold coin search, face painting, and they made their pirate hats. It was more work than I have ever put into a party but it was so fun to see the kids get excited.
Plus I'm am pretty proud of my cakes. I know they don't touch yours, Loralee, but they're about as fancy as they'll get for me



I used Charleston Chews for the fish in the water and rolos,whoppers, and chews on the ships. Notice the 5 candles in the "oars" and the blue happy birthday wrapping paper for the water? Grandma Bitter picked that out.



Pirate Brenna with a little feather



Captain Ryan

Happy Birthday, Ryan - 5!!

OK, so you're seeing the trend. =) May 29 Here is Ryan, bright and early on his birthday morning. We've decided to start the tradition of breakfast in bed with a small gift on their birthdays. (Kevin missed out this year since we hadn't started it yet, whoops, but he was oblivious to it.) Ryan was really surprised since we had never done that before. I just love this kid!

Happy Birthday Kevin - 3!

Ok so his birthday was April 27 but I finally got the pictures off our now dead camera so I thought I better start updating.

We had a "Cars" themed party since it was Kevin's favorite movie. He was a cutie and had a great time. I love that his smiles are still so genuine! I've started attempting to actually make the cakes so that's been interesting. hehe

Nighttime surprise!

I had sat down and was looking over all of your blogs and loving 'em. In walks Ryan. It's almost 11 and I'm used to the kids waking up at night and they always seem drawn to use the bathroom with the light on. Hence my room/bathroom was the target. He walks by and I think nothing more. Then I realize that the sound of peeing was very loud. Jeff is on the other computer and gets my attention. We look over at Ryan and instead of making it into our commode room he had pulled out the bottom drawer in our bathroom and was peeing in it!! And boy did he go! Jeff and I were laughing so hard that I didn't get to Ryan before he finished.
Poor Ryan was still asleep and quite confused so I just sent him back to bed and cleaned up. Luckily the bottom drawer was filled with bottles and items that rinse off. haha

One more story on Ryan. We've talked about gravity and planets in the past. We've also talked about listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Yes, 2 very distinct topics.

Ryan says "Mom, how do we get the things from Jesus?"

Me: "What things?"

Ryan: "The things that Jesus wants us to know and has the Holy Ghost tell us."

Me: "Oh yeah, when the Holy Ghost is whispering to us?"

Ryan: "Yeah. Oh I know, He uses gravity! The things he needs to tell us can fall down to us with gravity."

haha I just love how he tries to put things together

Why does unpacking take so long!

So, we've back over 2 weeks now and i'm still not all unpacked. The garage has boxes everywhere, mostly filled with stuff that I think "where did I have this before and do I really have to bring it back in." My mom's been up here for a few weeks and she's helped play with the kids while I try to finish. She left today wondering if anything really got done. Everyday we clean out 10 boxes and the next morning I pulled in 10 more.

We finally got an awning put over out back yard which has been nice for the kids. It was too hot before because it's all cemented and just cooked anyone outside. We were borrowing a shed from Jeff's parents that we kept in the back but emptied that out so the kids would have more room to play. So now we have Christmas, Halloween, and camping all over the family room and I really wonder how I'm going to get the house back in order.

And to top it all off, I get to deal with morning sickness. Yes, you heard right. Our fun, little, SURPRISE is due Feb 7 2009.
You know it's bad when you go in for your first 10 week exam and the nurse is just laughing at you when you have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 10 month old. So I will officially be one of THOSE moms with kids 18 months apart. I now know why Heavenly Father sent me an easy baby like Brenna, or I would be in danger of losing my mind. Course, I just need to wait for her to be 18 months and then we'll see how easy she stays. hahah ahahahahahahaha ok, get it under control.

We moved back

After 5 months of lots of looks but no offers on our house, we've decided to move back home. We did the big move this weekend and I'm still trying to unpack my kitchen. It's always nice to be home but we are grateful to Grandma and Grandpa Bitter for sharing their home with us. Maybe we'll try again next year. ha The plus side is that my house is TOTALLY cleaned and de-junked and I'm being careful about what I bring back in the house.