happy birthday, grandpa Bob!

 

Kyler's long awaited pet turtle, LSP (Lumpy Space Princess).

 

 All 3 of my kids are obsessed with mustaches

 Kyler and Lexi decided to have a pet race. Turtle vs gerbil...

 ...turtle won!

 My dad turned 58 last week! I made him his traditional cake. A nearly sugar free chocolate cake, filled and topped with homemade whipped cream, chocolate pudding, sliced bananas and almonds, cherries and drizzled with chocolate syrup.

 Happy birthday to a wonderful dad and grandpa!

 It's been a cold week here. Not Utah cold, but Oregon cold. We had freezing rain warnings. Here's a frozen spider web on our roses.

 Ari, Lexi and I had a girls night in while Kyler spent the night at a friend's. Love having girls!

Now just a few weeks until Jared's birthday!!

A day in the life of Arilyn Jade

As we all know, life passes way too quickly. With Kyler, I remember thinking how I'd always remember every detail. Well...I can remember a lot, like it was yesterday, but a lot gets forgotten. With Lexi I tried to write more down. With Ari, I try to capture as many moments as possible with photos. One day I decided to follow her with the camera for a few hours so we could always reflect on these moments.

 

Ari with her vivid imagination. She places books in a row each day and calls them her stairs. "I'm going upstairs!" as she walks the straight book path to and fro.

 

 

She is always eager to cook for us in her kitchen

 

 

Ever since I began taking her to the library for story time, she recreates puppet time

 

And, of course, story time. She has many of her books memorized, too, so she does a great job.

 

And a day in the life of Ari ALWAYS consists of dressing up at least once.

 

Some cooking in a fancy tutu...

 

A little posing...

 

And when she decided to assert her independence and go napless, she failed...

hand in hand with her baby Leah.

 

 

Kyler turns 11!!

Bubble Ari

 

 

 

Kyler asked for a photo of his dearly missed grandma for his birthday. I had a key chain made for him. He carries it everywhere.

 

 

Some of the gifts we got Kyler for his birthday

Mustache Lexi

 

 

 

 

Melanie made the trek from Seattle to stay with us a few days. What fun to ring in the new year with a great friend.

 

New Years morning--Kyler's birthday!

 

My Facebook status on Jan 1:

"Today my intuitive, intelligent, loyal, hilarious, witty, wise, new year's baby/mama's boy turns 11! This past year has been hard on us all, and I've seen his little heart break as he said his goodbyes to his grandma. I have witnessed his strength as he picked himself up, and comforted his sister as she cried in his arms. From his birth he has never ceased to amaze me in every way.
Happy birthday, sunshine. I love you so."

 

He loves his mustache card Jared found.

Lexi loves Kyler so much

My tradition of the special birthday breakfast. He asked for German style crepes, egg & bacon cups.

The spread:

Assembling his fruit filled crepe

Yum

The girls with Melanie

Saying goodbye

 

 

I made hot fudge brownie sundaes with Reese's cups for his birthday.

Mmm

Frozen roses from our garden

 

 

 

The Call of Duty inspired cake I made Kyler. He chose butter cream instead of fondant, which was quite the task. But he's worth it.

The cake was from scratch chocolate with mint filling. My goal is to do away with all boxed cake and brownie mixes.

His party was at the pool. Jared had a soccer game and had to leave shortly after the party began. So it was myself, about 15 boys, 4 girls, my dad and 2 parents. Phew...what a party!

 

 

 

 

Always the goober

 

His friends rocked his world!

The group!

 

 

 

An interview with an 11 year old:

name: Kyler

favorites

color: blue

holiday: Christmas

activity: soccer and Xbox

show: Regular Show

book: Firestorm

food: pasta

number: 8

song: Memories by Weezer

band: Weezer

video game: Assassin's Creed 3

board game: Clue

 What is your happiest memory? Streaking in front of Grandma Pam
Why do you like being a kid? Because you get taken care of by awesome parents.
One word to describe you would be __AWESOME
What advice would you give your parents? Give me money
If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? An owl, because they are awesome.
Tell about a funny time in your life. When Lexi ran in the living room as a 2 year old, said "mama I have to pee." We said "go" and she did...right there on the floor.
What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Joke around.
What do you love most about your sibling? They are funny and nice.
What was the nicest thing you did for someone? Used my own money to buy my family gifts.
What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? Going to college.
What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? pogo stick
What would be the ideal allowance? Tell me how you would use it. $5 a week...I'd use it for video games.

What was the biggest moment of this last year for you? Losing my grandma.

Tell me about her: My grandma Pam was nice, funny, stubborn, very generous, wise, smart, loving, encouraging and always there for me.
What do you think makes a person good-looking? hair
Name two things we should do as a family on the weekend. 1. Flash mob. 2. Chase cars dressed as Mario Bros characters.
What is the grossest thing you can think of? Pooping your pants in public {I knew I'd regret this one}

What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer

How many kids do you want? 3

Where do you want to live? Hawaii

Where do you want to go to college? MIT (Michigan Institute of Technology)

What kind of car do you want? Smart car

dogs or cats? cats

Your famous quote? "My beard says I'm strong enough to kill you but soft enough to regret doing it."

Most embarrassing moment? When I was caught Gangnam Styling at a public place.

Any last words? Thank you everyone for making my 11 years of life awesome!