April Fools!

This is what a lot of our friends woke up to find in their yards this morning!  I had a good time last night, with the help of an accomplice who shall remain nameless, setting up for sale signs, for rent signs, and bank repo signs.  It was pretty funny!  

April Fools!

Lazy days of Lego Building

Today, Alex brought me his Legos he got for his birthday and asked me if I would help him build the semi truck, trailer, and helicopter.  So, we sat down, me in my jammies, Alex in his underwear and started building.  We first separated all the pieces into blues, whites, grays, etc.  Once that was done, we opened the manual and started building.  I was amazed at how well Alex could build Legos.  He built it all on his own.  I was just there to help him find the needed pieces.  What a great lazy morning!  

Here's to 13 wonderful years and eternity

13 years ago, Aaron and I went to the Salt Lake Temple to be married for time and all eternity.  Although I loved him then, it's hard to comprehend the love I feel for him now.  He truly is my best friend and the one I want to be with forever.

Since we will be camping on our actual anniversary, we celebrated our anniversary a week before.  Aaron took me to The Roof for dinner and let me pick out the movie we went to.  When we got to The Roof he had arranged to have a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me at our table.  Total surprise!  They were beautiful and even had some of the same flowers that were in my wedding bouquet.  We sat in the beautiful view of the temple while we ate and ate and ate.  Aaron even let me steal bites of his yummy dessert - something I am notorious for but he doesn't mind, I think.  When we were beyond full, we headed over to the movie theater to catch a movie.  It was a great evening!  I always love spending time with Aaron.  He is a great guy, husband, father, and friend.  I am so blessed to be his wife.  Here's to 13 years and an eternity with the one I love.

 Then (1998)

Now (2011)

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex was one lucky 5 year old.  He got to spend his birthday in Disneyland.  He was so excited!  We got him a button that said "It's my birthday" and every employee at Disneyland would wish him Happy Birthday when they saw his button.  At first he couldn't figure out how they all knew it was his birthday, but he soon learned that it was because of his button.  We decorated the condo the night before his birthday so when he woke up, he was excited to see the birthday banner and balloons.  We also took him to RaceMakerz to build a remote control car.  This place was so super fun!  It is from the makers of Build-a-Bear and basically you get to go in, choose whatever car you want, pick out tires, rims, and any other accessories you want on your car.  Alex, Adam, and Abbi all had a blast building their cars and driving them all over downtown Disney.

I think Alex had a blast on his birthday!  What a lucky little boy getting to spend it in Disneyland with his family.

Building his awesome car with Daddy

Alex,

You are my little buddy and I love spending all day with you.  I am excited for you to go to Kindergarten this year although I will totally miss you during the day.  I love your little laugh and happy attitude.  You are such a little prankster right now.  You love to "trick" people and I love hearing you giggle when you know you actually "tricked" us.  Right now, you love riding your bike, building forts, playing with friends, watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and "Handy Manny" on TV, and eating In-n-Out hamburgers.  Thanks for being my little buddy!  Happy Birthday Alex!

Love,
Mom

DisneyLand - March 2011

Although, I had just returned from my girls trip to DisneyLand 2 weeks ago, I packed my bags again to spend 8 more days in sunny Anaheim, CA and Disneyland with my family.  I must say, going to Disney with my girlfriends and then with kids made it seem like 2 totally different vacations.  I love seeing the excitement in my children's eyes as we walk through Disneyland and ride the rides.  I love seeing Alex still get excited about seeing the characters and waving to them to get their attention.  I loved taking Abbi and Alex on Tower of Terror for the first time and having Alex tell "I am never going on that ride again."  And I loved spending 8 full days with Aaron, my kids, and my parents.  We had a lot of fun at Disney and we even made it to the beach.  The water was freezing but we had fun digging in the sand and running in the surf.  And, we even got to help a Master Lego Builder build an 8 ft Yoda out of Legos at a new store that was opening up the Costa Mesa Mall.

Off we Go!

On the tram to Disneyland... I'm So excited!

Alex was so excited to see Mater and Lightening

Midway Mania - oh it's on!

Happy Birthday to Alex!

Forget the rides, let's go to the Lego Store and build.

Talkin to Grandma Marshall for Alex's birthday!

Her face says it all - she had a blast!

Made remote control cars at RideMakerz - so much fun!

Great day at the beach!

mmmm.... Churros!

We even learned how to draw Pluto and Minnie

Here is all of our artwork:

The Incredibles!

Hard at work building Legos for the 8ft Yoda

This is the small version... ours will be 8 ft tall.

Grandma is auditioning for a job with the Miner 49ers in Disneyland

Scout Cake Auction

Our cub scout pack did an awesome activity for pack meeting this month.  We had a cake auction!  Each boy was asked to bring a cake that they made to be auctioned off with the points they had been earning since the beginning of the year.  They all came with some amazing cakes.  I was truly amazed!  I even got into the spirit of it and made this:

I was pretty proud of myself.  This was the first 2-layer cake I had ever made.  I baked it, carved it, dirty iced it, and decorated it.  (I think I have been watching too much "Cake Boss.")  I just hoped it tasted good.

It was so fun watching the boys bid on their favorite cakes.  They were even given bidding paddles.  Everyone had a great time and was able to go home with a cake.  Here are some of my favorites:

This one was funny because as I was trying to be all "Barker's Beauty" and show off the cake, the first two cupcakes slid off the board and landed on the floor.  I was fired!