Happy first birthday, Lucy bug!

We decided to go with a lady bug/love bug theme for Lucy's first birthday party! The invites were lady bug ones, of course that said "Our little lovebug Lucy will soon be one! Come celebrate at her first birthday and have some fun!"

Here's the cake I made.  The cake iteself was Paula Dean's pound cake with buttercream frosting.  Then I covered it with fondant.  I didn't think the fondant was red enough, so I "painted it" with food coloring and a pastry brush.  That was a mistake, it totally looked worse.  But oh well!  The head was a cupcake I trimmed down and covered in black frosting.  Then I used mini marshmallows and squished them down to make the eyes, then piped a dot of black frosting out.  I did a bead border along the bottom of the cake.   

We decorated with black, white, red, pink, and green!  The decorations I didn't spend much time on, but that's okay.  Just enough so Lucy had fun looking at everything! 

Here's her birthday outfit.  I embroidered a lady bug and did an iron-on transfer that says "love bug" on a long-sleeved onsie.  I made a no-sew tutu out of black and red tulle and black ribbon with white polka dots.  I also made a birthday hat for her, which I forgot to have her wear at her party, oops!

Lucy getting ready for dinner, yum!   We ate pizza from Costco and Papa Johns, along with a spring mix mandarin salad, ice-berg salad with buttermilk ranch, and strawberry cool-whip salad. 


Happy birthday to me!  Lucy had a good time...most of the time!  She got pretty tired, since her nap schedule has been changing lately!

So during the party, she zonked out.  Lindsey put her right to sleep! 

The guests...we had friends and neighbors Peperli and Lily, my Uncle Dave and cousin Alex come. 

Then we had the Bowmans and the Gertschs. These guys go to school with Dave, so we all get together and hang out on the weekends.   

Playing games!  We played a few games for the adults.  One we had was where you try to come up with as many words as you can out of the word "Lovebug".  I was surprised how many some got!  Then we did a game that is like Scattergories.  I had "Ladybug" written down vertically on pieces of paper.  Then I had a cup with categories, and we picked out a category for each letter.  The goal was to try to get words no one else had.  We played a few rounds.  Everyone did pretty well!

Three crazy toddlers - Cal, Lucy and Boston.  They have a blast together! 

Present time, thanks everyone for the fun stuff! 

Lucy had plenty of good helpers to show her how to do it!

This is probably one of my favorite shots of her taken during her birthday!  I can't believe you're one, Luce!

Here is the cake and cupcakes!  For the cupcakes, I piped out "grass" with green frosting, then I used a heart gummy and black jellybean for the lady bug, and used black frosting to make the line down the lady bug and the dots on the backs.  The cupcakes were devils food with an oreo inside each one.  Mmmm...

Singing "happy birthday" to Lucy!  She loved the candle and was "singing" along with us all!

Her first licks, tasty!  We gave Lucy the head to eat, and I thought it was fun to have the black frosting because it really showed up in the pictures!

The kids enjoying some cake and ice-cream.  I really didn't take many pictures, I got to distracted doing other things!  So the ones I took weren't really that great.  So thanks to all who offered to take some pictures for us!

Lucy just kept eating and saying "mmmmmmmm" and nodding her head when we'd ask her how it was. 

She sat in her high chair forever devouering everything, she even was licking the plate!

And, the icing on the cake, literally.  Here's a little video of her enjoying her cake!

Finally, she finished!  Check out this hot little mess!  He he!  So cute!

Bath time!  It took several washes to get all of that frosting off!

The three amigos again.  Always up to no good!

Emma girl had a fun time too helping Lucy have a good birthday.  Love how she changes her outfits like 5 times a day?  She loves dressing up, but she doesn't love when I take her picture lately.  She's trying to avoid me in this pic. 

Before everyone left, we let them fill little jars with black, red, pink, and white candy.  This was what was left, mostly the black licorice stuff.  Ha, more for me! 

I just used clean baby food jars, hot glued ribbon on, punched out circles the size of the lid, and decorated them with lady bug stickers.  Emma helped me make them and do lots of the stuff for the party. 

We also did some fun activities with the kids, but I forgot to take pictures!  They all had bags to put their loot in.  They got their candy jars, punch balloons, crazy straws, and put the crafts they made in them. 

We made lady bug goggles.  Here's Emma showing how hers turned out.  I also had stuff to make another lady bug paper plate craft ready, but we just didn't have time. 

We were going to play musical leafs, like musical chairs, only with green leafs we cut out of construction paper.  But I totally forgot!  So our family played it lots on Lucy's real birthday!  We also played "Leaf, leaf, ladybug", just like "Duck, duck, goose". 

The aftermath of the party...  I think everyone had fun, I know our family did!

Lucy's actual birthday is the 19th of February, which was a Sunday.  Many wished her well at church.  Here's Lucy after we got home.  She's sporting the cute headband Maria made for her, it matched the dress I put on that day!

Climbing up the stairs, one of her favorite activities!

We had an "E-birthday party", so the grandparents back in Utah could help celebrate with her.  We sent them an invitation and then met on Skype.  We played the same word games we played at Lucy's party.  Lucy opened some presents so they could see her doing that.  

Then Lucy ate some cupcakes so they could see her eating the cake.  And I remembered to put her birthday hat on this time!  (:  You can see the computer in the foreground.  I think it was a fun way to let the grandparents in on the fun.  We all miss them so badly and know they miss us too!

It's my birthday today!  Hello!

Happy birthday, little Lucy bug!  I hope you had a good time celebrating!  I know I said it before, but it's unreal that you're already one!  Where does time go, anyway?  What a great year it's been!  You've been such a great addition to our family.  From the time we brought you home as a sweet tiny baby to now that you're starting to get into everything, it's all been great, and we're having such a great time watching you grow.  Can't wait to see what is in store in your future!  We all love you so much!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to you!  <3  XOXO  <3

We've been having a fun time getting ready for and celebrating Valentine's Day around here.  We made these little cupid's arrows for some neighbors and friends for Valentine's.  Thanks to Family Fun magazine for 99.9% of my creativity!  Lol!  JK, I can be creative, but it's fun to have some quick easy resources so I don't have to use my brain. 

We had so much fun sending out Valentine cards to family and friends.  Emma was so particular about which kind of Valentines we sent to whom.  It was fun watching her address most of them and sign her name on them as well.  She was a busy little girl!  And, we got some very fun cards and packages in the mail from some family and friends!  The kids (and me, too, I can't lie!) were so stoked to get some swag stuff from the grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins, and friends too!  Thanks to those of you who sent them, it was awesome!

For breakfast, I made Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  The kids were excited that the milk was pink!  It was the cupid's, I'm pretty sure they did it!  And, I'm going to share the recipe for the Belgian waffles.  They're super easy, but sooo darn good!  I'm not sure how good they are for your heart, but they sure taste mmm good!

Belgian Waffles

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1 c. heavy cream

4 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp. salt

Beat cake mix, cream, egg yolks, and salt for 2 minutes.  Beat egg whites until stiff and gently fold into batter.  Bake in waffle iron until golden brown.  



Little Lucy loved the waffles.  She loves everything, in fact.  There haven't been any foods she really hasn't liked. 

Lucy is a little sugar fiend.  She loves the stuff.  I can't blame her!  When her sucker was gone, she went around looking for more, and got fiesty when I'd take it away when she'd try to crawl around with a sucker in her mouth. 

 Cal always makes such funny faces!  It looks like he's eating something nasty in this picture, not a sucker!

Emma and Cal had so much fun at their school Valentine parties!  Emma loved writing up Valentine's for her class mates and stuffing them with suckers and gum.  She gave out Little Miss, Mister Men cards.  When she got home, she immediately wanted to check out all of the Valentines and candy she got.  Cal had a fun time at his preschool party as well! 

We always have a themed family Valentine Party.  We just found it was hard to find a babysitter for actual Valentine's Day, so we thought we'd make it a family affair every year, and then Dave and I can go do our own thing another time.  Emma wanted to do a heart-themed party this year.  So we did!  We had Chicken Sausage Creamy Baked Pasta for dinner.  I cut the sausage to look like hearts.  We had a spinach version for Lucy, Cal and I, and a non-green version for Dave and Em. 

We also had a Italian bread loaf ring in the shape of a heart.  Sorry, I'm definately not a culinary photographer, but you get the idea!  We also had salad, and "love potion" to drink. 

After we had dinner, we made these heart finger puppets out of fun foam, pom poms, googly eyes and markers.  The kids did a cute job.  Emma wanted to put girl hair on hers.  Cal did his smiley face all by his little self.  I think he did a pretty good job!  It's fun to see those little milestones, he's starting to get better with his motor control.  I was excited. 

They also made this little sign craft Grandma Di sent them in her package.  They knew the perfect place to hang it.  Good job, guys. 

Dave sent me flowers!  What a good husband, he never forgets to do something cute.  They were on our doorstep the weekend before Valentine's Day.  They came on a good day when I felt terrible from being sick.  I love daisies and it had a cute note with it, too.  It made me feel happy.  Thanks, hon!  I love you, too!  I gave Dave a personalized calendar I made online with our pictures with a "year full of dates" for Valentines Day.  I wrote down a list of date ideas and we're going to go through and write down the days we're going to do our monthly date (it used to be weekly and hopefully will again someday, but for now once a month is what works for us), and our temple trip.  Then I'll make the arrangements and hopefully we'll have a great year of dates!  We still haven't penciled them in, we need to do that. 

We played some games.  We played "You Melt My Heart".  I made some heart-shaped ice-cubes, and we had a contest to see who could melt the hearts the quickest.  Dave won!  But we all had fun. 

Here's a sweet Valentine Emma made for us!  I also found a valentine picture from her in my underwear drawer about a week ago from her.  It was so cute! 

We played another little game I made up.  We got a towel that had hearts on it, it was like "I have a little doggy", where you go around in a circle and touch everyone with the towel.  But we said instead, "I have a little heart and it won't beat for you, and it won't beat for you, but it will beat for you!"  When that person is tagged, they have to try to chase down the person before they get back into their spot.  Lucy kept trying to put the towel on her head and thought it was pretty funny!

Finally, we went on a heart scavengar hunt throughout the house.  The first clue was "Go to the place where we usually part, that's where you'll find your first heart."  And the clues led us all over from the mailbox to the stove and everywhere in between. 

At the end of the scavenger hunt were their prizes.  Cal got a WSU hat.  He said "YES!" and was so excited!  "A Washington State hat," he exclaimed.  He loves wearing Daddy's, but it's a bit too big.  This one's perfect for him.  He wanted to wear it to bed and wears it all of the time. 

Emma got a pretty new dress (she needed some new dresses for chuch).  She was happy, it is a good "spinning" dress (when she spins, it poofs out).  And it perfectly matches the new dress shoes she got for Christmas.  Score!

Lucy got a set of headbands and hair things.  Can never have enough of those!

I'm so grateful to be blessed by the love of so many!  I feel the love of my Savior and Heavenly Father each and every day in so many ways, and I'm so lucky to have their love.  It keeps me running when I would otherwise feel empty.  I'm grateful for the love of such a good, kind, fun husband.  I love him so very much and am so glad he's mine for always!  He always loves me for who I am, no matter what.  I'm grateful for the way my sweet kids love me.  Even when I was sick last weekend, I just couldn't take their whining and the many big messes they made that day, and my not feeling good anymore and I just started crying and went upstairs in my room.  They all came up (and Dave, too) and gave me hugs and kisses and told me it would be alright.  It made me feel better!  I'm grateful for the unconditional love of two great parents.  They've always been there for me and I love them so very much!  My in-laws are also fantastic and I love them, too!  They don't really express their love out loud, and don't do P.D.A.'s (public displays of affection, like hugs and stuff) much, probably because it's a family full of boys, but I know they love me.  My mother-in-law Sue has always hugged me and tells us she loves us, which I know has been a stretch for them, but I'm grateful they do love me as one of their own.  My siblings?  What can I say?  Could I have better brothers and sisters?  I think not!  I'm so happy they love me, especially after all of our adolescent fights over clothes or who was better at something.  Also my brother and sister-in-laws, they're the best as well!  They have loved me from the beginning, and I love them back.  Sweet hugs or nice words from my nieces and nephews, they're so full of love, and I love it!  And then, my good friends.  I am so blessed to really have the best friends ever!  My awesome besties who call me just to check up on us to make sure we're doing okay, who send nice notes in the mail, who do nice things for me just because.  So happy to have them, they make me feel loved for sure!  Happy Valentine's Day to you!  I love you all!