Just another Thursday night.

Tonight started out not so great. Not bad, but not great. I had wanted to go to dinner with some girl friends, but Ryan had meetings. (As usual!) I thought about going to my moms since that is what I normally do when he has his meetings but my dad has surgery tomorrow (hernia), so their home teachers were coming over to give him a blessing and I didn't want my kids there bothering them during that. Sooo.... now what?! Well I thought I "might-as-well" go work in the yard. I let the kids run wild and play as they wished while I was working. It was all going so well, until suddenly my mischievous son shows up (he had ran inside), with a bucket of water. This can't be good. Of course he promises that he won't squirt anyone. And of course, I believe him. (I'm such a sucker!) Gavin came over to play a little before the water appearance, and all was well. Then suddenly, what was "I just want to show Gavin how my new water shooter works", turns into a water fight between the kids. I didn't think it was warm enough out to be shooting each other in the face with freezing cold water, but what do I know. I'm not exactly the one having fun as I rake the yard. It was really cute to watch them run around and shoot each other. It was even better when Ryan got home and Cammie and I just kept saying don't shoot Dad. Needless to say, Dad's suit got a good washing. Well at least we save money on dry cleaning. At one point Gavin ran home and got his water gun, game on!!! Then it seemed the kids just fought over who got the gun (mostly because if you were holding the gun, you weren't getting shot in the face.) It was a lot of fun. The cutest part of all of it was when Peyton fell over asleep just watching us in the yard. She can sleep anywhere, and does.

Celebrations!! (And a New Cake)

On Saturday, it was Braxton's 4th birthday. I can't believe he is already four. We had a primary activity that morning and then Ryan and I took him to his first movie in a real theater. He has never been to a movie before. It was a lot of fun. He was so worried that he was going to get sprayed in the face with water because in Sea World we went to a 4D Elmo movie and he got sprayed. We saw Monsters vs Aliens. He really liked it and I didn't think it was that bad either. That night we started on Braxton's Buzz Lightyear cake.On Sunday, it was Mother's Day (of course) but it was also my niece's (Madison's) and my brother (Joe's) birthday. So we went to my parents house to celebrate. It was a lot of fun. The kids fought as usual while the parents talked. (And I got a nap-- Happy Mother's Day to me :)
That night when we got home we finished making Braxton's cake. It was fun to see it come together.


On Monday night we celebrated Braxton's birthday. We went to the park and had dinner and opened presents but we never even ate the cake. :(

People kept coming by to see our cake. Then at one point some lady told her husband that he HAD to come see "this cake". It was an awkward experience. As he invaded Braxton's birthday party. Welcome....I guess.

Braxton had so much fun playing with all of his cousins and presents.

Braxton's Pre-Birthday Party

Last night, we had a small birthday party for Braxton. Ryan's parents won't be able to attend his real party so we had a party for him that they could come to and give him his presents. It was so fun! I can't tell you how relaxed it was. I think all birthday parties should consist of only a few people at a time. We had dinner. (I made a roast, it was the first time I have ever made a roast. Luckily it turned out to be really good.) We then did present time. I was ASTONISHED at how polite Braxton was. Turns out Ryan had a talk with him before they got here about how he needs to say thank you. Of course, he wouldn't have been that polite without someone telling him first. Shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. He "surprisingly" got a few gifts from Disneyland. He also got a Mickey Mouse baseball, so obviously the next thing we did was play baseball outside. He was hitting the ball really well. It was fun to go outside and play with him and watch his grandpa play baseball with his only grandson. I really enjoyed it and can't wait for his real party. It'll be chaos but it'll be so much fun and worth every minute of it, as always. We then came back in for "cake" and popsicles. I loved his mini cake. It was the perfect size and I love oreo cakesters so it was delish!!
He hasn't stopped playing with his new toys yet today. He wants nothing to do with the old ones. It's fabulous. I'm excited for even more new toys.