Birthdays Part 2

Two weeks after Rachel's birthday party, we were having another one - Jenna turned 9. I can't believe it! I remember when I first met Kasey - Jenna seemed so little. Now she's almost in double digits!



We got her a bean bag chair for her birthday. Except for the part where it was too small, I think she liked it a lot! We have to send it back for another one, which has been a nightmare in and of itself, but that is a story for another day!

Luckily Jenna's expectations for her cakes have remained low!! She actually saw a cake in an advertisement and said that's what she wanted - luckily it was one I thought I could copy. Also luckily for me, Jenna's birthday is always near Easter time so there are a few fun things out to decorate cakes with.

Happy Birthday Jenna. You are turning in beautiful young girl! I'm proud to be your step-mom!!

Birthdays

I decided to forget about talking about Christmas (it was a good one!) and to just catch up where we are now...sort of. One day I'll be better about keeping this updated, but I guess that day is not today, and probably not tomorrow either!!

Rachel turned 2 at the end of March, and we decided to take her to Chuck E Cheese for her birthday. To say that she LOVED it would be a gross understatement! She loved the rides, couldn't have cared less about the pizza, and was mesmerized by the puppet show for about 5 minutes! It was a lot of fun to watch her.









We went home to open her presents, and she really couldn't have cared less about them. It was disappointing for me as a mom, but I guess she was alright with it! The only thing she got really excited about was her new BYU shirt. As soon as she saw it she put it right on before she would open any other presents.








Then we had cake. I had wanted to do a flower cake, but couldn't find any flowers I liked, and since I'm not a cake decorator, I had to go to Plan B, which was the ever popular Princess cake. Hopefully she will continue to have low expectations for her cakes as she gets older!!









All in all it was a great day, and I can't believe my little girl is two already! It doesn't seem like she should be that old. She is a sweet, kind, loving, beautiful little girl, and I'm so glad I'm her Mom!

Megan's First Thanksgiving

Megan had her first Thanksgiving - she didn't really care about it! But Rachel made up for Megan's lack of enthusiasm by PIGGING out!! That girl can put down food like no one I've ever seen! And she is such a small little girl - I don't know how she does it. We had a great Thanksgiving at Lori's house (Kasey's sister). And we got up the next morning for Black Friday shopping! This has become Kasey's favorite new tradition. We introduced Kasey's dad and sister to Black Friday at Walmart - what a madhouse! We saw one person taken away in handcuffs and I thought the people behind us in line would be next...we made it out without a scratch and most of what we wanted, and a great laugh about how crazy people are (including us!) A good time was had by all!!

Where's Kasey?

Kasey is in the Stake YM Presidency. They had a "Where's Waldo" activity and they had a bunch of stake leaders disguise themselves and then the kids had to go find them in the stores. This was Kasey's disguise. Rachel wouldn't even go near him until we all convinced her it was OK!!

Let's just say that I sympathized with Rachel, and I was super glad it was just a disguise!! Please don't let this ever become a reality!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year, especially taking Rachel trick-or-treating for the first time. On the Friday before Halloween we went to Kasey's work party after the kids Halloween parade at school. True to form, they had all kinds of crazy things in the building! There was a waterfall, a Legend of Sleepy Hollow bridge (complete with a headless horseman at the end), a slide down the stairs (which Mom and Rachel did together and had a ball!), an Ice World, an Abominable Snowman, and I could go on and on. We look forward to Halloween every year just to see what Adobe will come up with!

This year we had a cowgirl (Hailey), a smurf (Spencer), a cheerleader (Jenna), a cow (Rachel), and a flower (Megan). Mom and Dad were party poopers and didn't dress up.



Here we all are waiting to get into Dad's work. Spencer told us he was feeling a little blue today....funny kid!

I don't know why this picture won't turn the way it is supposed too, but here is Megan in her little flower costume. She wasn't a big fan of the hood, but I think she looks really cute.

Rachel trick-or-treating for the very first time. We went to our good neighbors, the Paulson's, for her very first house. She likes to go knock on their door all the time to say hi anyway, so why not do it on a day when you can get candy?! She had a great time trick-or-treating and we had a great time watching her do it. Too bad it was pouring rain so we only went to a few houses!

Rachel showing off all of her loot! For a few days before Halloween I had been telling her she was going to be a cow, and she was going to look so cute. Then I would ask her what a cow says, she would say "moo", and we both thought it was a lot of fun. Well, when Kasey got her into her costume to go trick-or-treating, he said "Rachel, what are you?" Rachel replied "Cute!" I was laughing so hard! She definitely is cute!!

Jenna the Cheerleader

Jenna has been doing a cheerleading activity with Orem city for the last 6 weeks. She has LOVED it!! She is the quintessential cheerleader - always posing, making up random cheers for anything and everything! It's been fun to watch her have so much fun.

Everyone else is done kicking and cheering - but not Jenna. She kicks and yells and does cartwheels until the bitter end, usually when all of the other girls have left to go get a drink!

This is me sneaking in behind the professional photographer to get my own shot because I'm too cheap to pay for my own!!

Pictures of Megan

Here are a few pictures of Megan when she was about 3 weeks old. It's obvious that I'm an amateur photographer, so they aren't that great - but it's what we have!!




I was trying to get a picture for her birth announcement. I don't think she was in the mood for that, and she wasn't quite sure what she thought about laying on satin!

She liked this minkie blanket a lot better!!




And this is when she was pretty much done with the whole thing!! Not that I can really blame her! I have to say - she is a great baby. She rarely cries, she is very patient even when Rachel is mauling her. I've been very blessed to have easy, great babies! We are loving having Megan in our family. She is so much fun and is adding so much to our happy home.