Build-A-Bear! Woo Hoo!

While we were in Texas, we were able to go to my niece, Lucy's, birthday party at:

Build-A-Bear!!!

This was Caroline's first Build-A-Bear experience and it was definately a big hit!

Here are the girls anxiously waiting to pick out their animals. Don't be fooled by Caroline's reverent pose - she was ALL over the place! We constantly had to wrangle her back to the group, because she was SO excited!


The happy Birthday Girl!


If you've never been, Build-A-Bear is a pretty cool place. They picked out a bear (or bunny or sheep or unicorn - they have everything!) then they each got a little red heart to make a wish and kiss and put inside their bear. They stuffed their bears, and washed their bears, and clothed their bears, and named their bears and even got a "birth certificate" for them!


This is one happy customer!
Caroline named her bear "Coco" and she loves him!

Since Caroline has turned 3, she has been to several birthday parties and I've learned a few things. I always thought that parties at home were the least expensive and therefore the more practical choice. But now that I'm a mommy of a toddler and have both been to and given birthday parties of all kinds, I think I've changed my position! A good home birthday party for several young children requires A LOT of planning and preparation and money too. I'm more than willing to pay someone else to plan, set-up, entertain, and clean-up for a kid's party!

Surprise, Joleen!

We surprised Joleen for her birthday this year with a little get-together at their new house!

Joleen and her adorable Tinkerbelle cake!


The kids enjoying their cake in the backyard.

Emily here is the other birthday girl. You see, Joleen's (and Nana's too!) b-day is one day before Emily's and we actually threw the party on Emily's birthday, just because it worked out better for most people's schedule! What a good sport she is!

I still love the people in Germantown ward and always enjoy it when I get to hang out with them.

Happy Birthday Joleen, Nana, and Emily!

Finger Lickin' Good

What to do when your husband is not fond of spaghetti,

BUT

Your darling daughter likes it this much:

Our trip to Texas

We just got back from our week-long trip to the Houston area to visit my sister's family. We left Monday and then Karen and her husband, Jason, left that Thursday to go to Salt Lake for Jason's mission reunion while we stayed with their 4 kids! It was a fun, busy week!

We've been talking about this trip for quite a while and Caroline was super excited to go see her "Texas cousins". The Saturday before we left we started getting things ready and saw Caroline had started packing her own suitcase! She packed her play dishes and dress up shoes and zipped it up and rolled it out to the car! It was so cute, but I had to explain that there woud be pleanty of toys at her cousin's house to play with, so all she needed to pack was her clothes.

We went south through Mississippi, and west through Louisianna to get there. This picture is of a friend Caroline met at a Louisianna gas station!

Caroline had a lot of fun playing at their house. Any place with a sand box and a trampoline is an automatic hit! Emily is 11 and was so great about playing with the two younger girls - Caroline and 5 year old Lucy.

I love this picture of Lucy. She's usually a pretty serious little kid, but this is a face of pure glee from Uncle Dave's tickling!

Making cupcakes with Aunt Karen for Lucy's b-day party. (More on Lucy's party at Build-A-Bear to come!)

The kids all slept in the same room for most of the week which meant many late nights!

They have a greyhound named Bullet that became Dave's new buddy. Caroline loved him too, but I'm not so sure he was as fond of her as he was of Dave!

There was a very cool park in their town the kids called the "train park". We went 3 times that week! Here's Lucy, Randy, and Emily. Caroline is in the background somewhere pouting because she didn't get icecream from the icecream man!

Dave and Randy enjoying a game of tennis.

We had some activities to keep the kids interested during conference. It worked great!...for about 20 minutes.

We had a good time getting to know Karen's family. I also learned how difficult it is to be a mom of 5 kids! And it was only for a few days! I was nervous that I would forget to pick someone up from school, or I'd lose one at the park (which I did, but it's ok - it was mine!!!) I don't know how my mom handled 8! Dave reminded me that it's not normal to go from one child to five - that they're usually added one or two at a time giving the family time to learn and adapt. That made it seem more possible, but still, managing so many different schedules and personalities is quite a task! It makes me feel so spoiled and lazy being a mom of just one. So kudos to all of you with two or more children! You are my hero!

9:30 pm Sunday Night

Arizona

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My trip went very well. It was hard and weird to be without Dave and Caroline for 6 days, but I'm still so glad I went!

I got motion sickness on the way there which was the total pits. Then, my mom picked me up and when I got out of the car I stepped on a cactus. Seriously. I had to pull the needles out. It was as if the cactus was saying, "Welcome back to the desert - honey! Ha Ha!" It hurt. really, very bad for many hours. I think barrell cacti (yes, the plural form of cactus is cacti for you non-southwesterners) has some sort of poison bacteria or something covering their spines because it swelled up and woke me with extreme shooting pains throughout the night until I snuck downstairs in the dark of the night and stole some Ibprofen from my brother, Dave's, medicine cabinet. (that was for you, Heather:) Jerk cactus.

Anyway, from here on out I'll just give you a brief re-cap so not to bore you with my trip details.

Friday: Out for Breakfast AND lunch with family (so spoiled) Grandma's viewing was very nice - good to see people I hadn't seen in so long, then a nice visit with my Sis-in-laws who are so cool.

Saturday: Funeral was nice - I cried more than I expected despite my best efforts. Grandma had the prettiest casket I've ever seen. Lots of pictures after. Later, Grandpa pulled out all of her old jewelry (which was a LOT!) for all of us to look at and take a piece or two home with - very cool. Pizza and games at Joe's with all my siblings! Fun! If you haven't played the game "Things" you should. ("You are SO goodlooking!")

Sunday: Church with Dave and Heather. Visit with family who had to leave the next day. Hear some great stories from Dad and Grandpa.

Monday and Tuesday: are kind of a blur! Took grandpa to a Dr. appt. Took my nephew Randy to the Zoo (let me tell you - spring is in the air at Reid Zoo!) Visited with friends - Adrian (and cute baby Hayley!) and Emily. Babysat my totally cool nieces - I love you girls!

Wednesday: Packed. went to park with mom and nephews. Got on a plane. Watched "Quantam of Solace". Got on another plane. Sat on the plane. Waited on the plane. Came home.

Whew!

I missed my kid and my man like crazy, but it was a good visit! Next time, I'll bring my sweethearts along and make a longer visit!

To My Family: Thank you for everything. I Love you all so very much. I couldn't ask for a better family. Brothers - you married awesome girls and Sisters- you married amazing men. I miss you. I hope to see you again soon! Dave says he wishes he could've been there and he misses and loves you too!