Home Sweet Home

She's home! It feels so good to have Cami back home. She brought each of us a little gift from Hawaii and we loved hearing stories, watching videos, and looking at pictures. I'm glad she had so much fun, but I'm more glad I have my little girl back safe n sound w/ sun-made highlights in her hair and a new swim suit tan line ;).Here are some pictures we got via cell phone from my parents during the week: (We requested daily pictures and phone calls from them ;).Hula dancingThey had their fair share of snow cones. Perfect for warm days :)They even got an upclose encounter with some sea turtles!They lived in the water while in HawaiiOn Alex's birthday they sang happy birthday and ate snow cones in honor of Alex ;)When Cami came home she was surprised at how much bigger my belly has been getting. I've been telling myself to get a picture of it for documentation, so Jeremy snapped a shot of the budda belly. I'm getting big fast... bigger than I normally do, or at least that's what I feel like ;). The joys of pregnancy. 15 more weeks left and probably double the size.. yikes! ;)

Alex's Big Day

Yep, Alex turned 6 :). This kid can melt my heart ya' know. On Cami's 7th birthday, Grandma Elli had made her a beautiful birthday cake that Alex helped make. And his birthday wishes some day were for Grandma Elli to do the same for him. So that's just what she did. When we told Alex Grandma booked a flight just to be here for his birthday, he knew this was the best present of all! She got here the day before his birthday, and the moment he stepped in the door and saw Grandma Elli here, he went straight to the kitchen and got ready to make his cake with Grandma :). The cutest part was, was that he had already drawn out how he wanted his cake. Haha, I really wish I got a picture of it, but I had thrown it away before I thought to do that.

Alex and Grandma getting the fondant ready... his favorite part :).We also thought to make a classroom birthday treat for school. And since he is SO into pokemon these days, we made pokemon balls out of rice krispie treats.After Alex went to bed, we set out some decorations and posters Grandma printed out for him to put all over the ways... pokemon oriented of course ;).Putting the cake together... well the first layer. Now it was midnight when we got started on putting the cake together. But alas, my tiredness set in and Gail insisted on us going to sleep. She stayed up until 3 am so Alex could see it in the morning! Bless her heart! Jer and I tried to convince her to just finish it tomorrow morning, but she wanted (and knew Alex would love), to see the finale once he woke up. He was pretty excited.She had this little note for Alex when he woke up.He LOVED his cake! A pokemon battle arena w/ stadium seating and an audience to cheer the pokemon on... it was awesome!Grandma Elli always gets my kids the cutest clothes, so we had him open up some birthday clothes before he went to school. Haha, he felt pretty cool in his new stuff.Oh, and he had me take a picture of him in front of one of his birthday pictures Grandma printed off for him. ;)I had asked Alex if he just wanted to take the pokemon balls in his back pack to school and hand out when it was time... but he wanted me there. So at lunch time, Carson and I came to visit Alex at school.I had not thought of bringing something for Carson to eat, dumb of me, but Alex willingly shared. Then he handed out his goodies after they sang Happy Birthday to him. I had to laugh because once the kids got the balls, they started rolling them and bouncing them... lol, the substitute teacher was looking a little stressed when all the pokemon balls were coming to action. Haha, whoops! (Maybe just cupcakes next time;).Later that night we invited family and his old friend Olivia to Chucky Cheese that night for cake and games. A child's dream, "Where a Kid can be a Kid!" I'm kicking myself because I didn't get a proper picture with all the kiddos and family around him....

Time for cake and presents :)Haha, of course he wants the middleGail was trying to get a few shots with me in it with Alex and finally told me what she was trying to do and was feeling unsuccessful... lol, so I gave her my best ;)Haha, well maybe this is better ;) Alex, loved all his toys. I love watching Alex open his presents, because he doesn't rush through them all. He opens it and carefully exams each one wishing he could use it right there and then.Oh we were at Chucky Cheese way too late, we were even the last one's out of the place. Alex and the kids had so much fun though. He used most of his coins on this one arcade unit. Oh the thrills :) Happy Birthday Alex, we sure love you!

2 different Climates

Even though the ice was horrendous and a pain to chip off your car and drive in... Alex and his cousin Kenzie still found a way to make the best of it. Sledding! I felt so bad for Kenzie though, she biffed it on one ride and scraped up her face on the ice, poor girl! But they were able to enjoy some fun for about an hour before the unpleasant incident. Alex has thoroughly enjoyed no school these past couple of days, and was hoping for a delay today, haha. :)Cami on the other hand has only had to deal with the cruddy weather for one day. Because she is soaking up the sun in Hawaii! My parents took the 3 older grand-girls on a special special trip. I keep telling Cami she is being spoiled ;)... she loves it. :) They almost didn't make their flight because of road closures on that first day of icy rain... but with chains on and several hours on the road... they made it to Portland the night before their flight. This is the girls trying on their snorkel gear: Left to Right- Tate, Cami, and Kate. They are beaming and I love it. :)The girls sharing a bed in the hotel the night before getting on the airplane to Hawaii. (These are pictures from my parent's phone, so some of them are a little blurry).
They are finally there! We have been talking to Cami every night and get a few pictures here and there. Alex loves talking to Cami about all the things she's seeing and doing. It was hard for him at first w/the fact that she was going to Hawaii and not him. But with the daily phone calls, he's soaking it up like he's there with her. I love seeing that connection between the two. Listening to Alex tell Cami he misses her and loves her and Cami saying the same thing... I love it. Not having your sibling around daily sometimes makes you realize how much you actually do love them.In Hawaii at Costco... haha, kind of makes me laugh. But apparently, my dad says they make a Hawaiin dog there that's delish! Cheap meals are awesome!Cami is loving the experience and we are so happy for her. What a treat! She knows it, and I keep reminding her, this is something special. :) She is special.
Her trip has just started and she gets to be there for a week! So more fun pictures to come :).

Finally...

Can I say that? Finally! We've been anxiously waiting for some snow to come our way. Cami was so excited she was up by 6:45 because she heard last night that there might be snow. She was hoping for some kind of school delay, but not this time. Darn it! Cami and Alex will have to wait til after school to dive into the snow. But Carson and I didn't want to wait that long. I told myself I should get out there too, at least for 15 minutes. Plus, Carson wasn't sure how to play in the snow since he's had little experience that he can remember... so I showed him how :). After awhile we decided it was time for some hot cocoa... Mmmm-Mm! He doesn't drink much of the hot chocolate, but he sure loves those mallows we put on top ;).As I was finishing up, I noticed the marshmallows formed a C at the bottom. I started to laugh and showed Carson... "Look, C for Carson!" He got a kick out of that:). Life is far from perfect, but it does have it's perfect moments. That's what I live for.

When he cooks

I've said it once, and I'll say it again... I love it when Jeremy cooks. He goes all out and tries the things I would never do... haha, like homemade egg rolls. He carefully plans, researches, and compares recipies. Then like magic, whips it all together! And 99% of the time, it's soooo good. One motivation for the egg roll excitement was because we got a fry daddy for Christmas, and of course, he is the first to try it out. :)
They were so good, that I naturally ate one too many. Plus food almost always tastes better when someone else cooks it ;0). Next, homemade donuts!

Z's bday

Another year, another birthday for my brother Zack. This year Kori made a delicious birthday breakfast, French Toast Creme Brulee! Divine! Then drove to the bottom of Badger Mountain and hiked the 2 mile switch back trail up to the top. Every kid made it without a single whine! I was worried about the two youngest Carson and William being only 3 and 2, but they were awesome. Plus, Tyler brought the stoller and muscled it out up the trail when one of them was feeling tired. It was a fun 2 hours :). At the TOP... we made it :).The boys went shooting later that day and tried out Zack's new target toys. Then after dinner we had cake. Making sure he blew them out before the neices did ;).We had a fun day with Zack and family. Happy Birthday Zack, we love you!