Charlie's Disney Cars 4th Birthday Party

To celebrate his birthday this year, Charlie had a little friends party at our house. It was just me and Trevor against nine 3- and 4-year-olds. At first I wondered if I was crazy for attempting such a feat, but it turned out really fun! Everyone played and listened well and things never got out of hand.

Additionally, I purchased all of the decor and also bought a store made cake this year, and it was WONDERFUL. Like, zero stress. Except for the moment an hour before the party when Trevor went to pick up the cake and they had--ahem--supposedly lost the order slip and never made his cake. Say WHAT? ... Luckily we ended up getting a free cake, but unluckily it didn't look exactly like the one I ordered (read: pick up a pre-made cake and put Cars toys on top and write on it). Oh well, the only thing that really matters is that Charlie didn't know the difference and he LOVED the cake. He was so excited to dig into it, and he didn't leave its side until the party started. Ha!

Here's a couple pictures of the decor. When I asked Charlie what kind of birthday party he wanted, the first thing he always said was "balloons and cake!" so I made sure those things were present and accounted for. :)

When all the tiny sized party guests had arrived, I let them play with the toys and watch Cars 2 for a few minutes. Then, we played Pin the Teeth on Mater. I let Charlie (being the birthday boy and all) go first. I put the paper blindfold/mask on him and told him to stick his teeth on the poster somewhere. He kept turning his head back and forth and up and down and before I realized what he was doing, he had put his sticker almost perfectly where it was supposed to go. That's when I realized he was looking through the cracks around the mask! Cheater!! Haha... I let it slide since anything goes on your birthday, but I told the rest of the kids that they couldn't peek and I tried to prevent them from seeing. It was such a fun game and some of the kids thought it was super silly. {$6 at Partyland. Can't beat that!}

Next, we trekked downstairs to hit the birthday cake shaped piñata (I didn't have enough time to order a Cars one... oops!) filled with candy and trinkets. Each of the kids took a turn. They got two hits per turn. We soon realized that their weak little arms weren't going to do much damage. Haha! Some kids did hit harder than others, and his little friend Austin (who also happens to be a 3rd child) hit so hard that he knocked it off the string and we couldn't tie it back up. At this point, we let him try to beat it on the ground (see picture below... so funny!) and when that didn't work, Trevor resorted to ripping it open and throwing all the candy up in the air. It worked, and all the excited kids ran and started filling their loot bags. :)

Run run run and get all the treats!

Here's that amazing picture of Austin taking names with the piñata. And then a picture of my sweet Charlie and his birthday cake. He (finally) was a pro at blowing out his candles! Getting sung to and blowing out candles on a birthday cake is probably his favorite thing in the entire world. He was in birthday heaven.

Here's everybody enjoying their cake and ice cream (except Kellen, the little neighbor two houses down who just really wanted to play with toys the whole time... like, I couldn't even get him to eat cake... what!?!) Starting with Charlie and going clockwise we have Chloe, Austin, Alyson, Aunika, Cohen, Oliver, phantom Kellen, and Elena!

After cake (and a good round of "let's clean everybody's face off") we opened presents! Charlie was slightly more interested in his bag of candy and party favors than his gifts, so we had to help him focus a little bit.

Kids live for presents, do they not!?

And sometimes even Dads are impressed by the toys! ;)

Overall, it was an hour and a half of high-energy fun! Charlie had a blast, and I just can't believe that my oldest baby is 4! Sometimes it seems like it's flown by... other times it seems like it's taken forever to get here. Either way though, I just love this silly, crazy, sweet boy and all of his quirks (like collecting everything currently important to him in one container and lugging it around the house... see photo for details hahaha). And finally, here's the invite Charlie personally delivered to all of his friends. I let him run up and knock on each of their doors and hand it to them. <3

Love you, Birthday Boy!

Christmas Festivities 2014

Our Christmas festivities started this year with our tradition of going to see the lights on Temple Square with Trev's family the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful (not too cold at all!) and the crowds were huge, as usual. Our little family split off from the rest so we didn't have to slowly muddle through the crowds just to keep up with everyone else. It was a lot of fun! :) 

On Black Friday, I got a good deal on a new 9 foot Christmas tree that was delivered to us in the first week of December. Once it arrived, I started a decorating frenzy! :) Here's a picture I snapped the first night the tree was up, decorated, and lit. Charlie was smitten by it, and has been obsessed with touching, playing with, and moving around the lower ornaments every day since. I had to let go the control of "perfectly placed" ornaments pretty quickly. Haha.

Trevor and I worked together the weekend after Thanksgiving and got our Christmas lights put up on our house! We were so glad we did, too, because it got pretty cold a couple days later and stayed that way. Being up on the roof is definitely adventurous and slightly terrifying. Actually, going up and down an old rickety ladder is the really terrifying part. We won't talk about the one time the ladder slipped a bit while I was on it and I saw my life flash before my eyes .  .   .   But regardless, I have to say the end result was worth risking my life! (Pardon the grainy iPhone photo)

Here's a "finished" picture of most of the Christmas decor in my living room, complete with handmade wood crafts and the brand new canvas print of our family that I got for our mantel! <3

Friday, December 19th was our ward's Christmas party! We had cookies and hot chocolate and Santa even showed up to tell jokes, sing songs, and take pictures with the kids. I was MORE than pleased with how our picture turned out. I loved that neither kid was afraid of him: Charlie was enamored by his candy cane and Delilah by Santa's beard. Haha!

We also did some pre-Christmas goodie making. Charlie, Trevor, and I all dipped pretzels one afternoon while Delilah was napping. I even made a batch of homemade fool's toffee to pass out to neighbors with our annual Christmas card (photo courtesy of the ever-talented Meghan Sonnenberg!):

My ceramic nativity was finally completed this year with the addition of the camels! 1000 thanks to my amazing, talented, and loving parents for all the hard work and care they put into finding and painting these pieces so I can own a beautiful piece of family tradition forever! <3

Delilah has been rolling and scooting around a bit. Once, I caught her under the tree, mesmerized by the sparkling lights. Christmas is truly magical at any age!

I dressed up little D in a cute little cream dress and an oversized red bow for church the week of Christmas. She looked SO cute that I had to snap a picture. :)

Then, later in the week on Christmas Eve, we went to Trevor's parents' house as is customary. We had a grand time eating taco salad and way too many treats, spending time with loved ones, and opening up gifts! At the end of the night, we snapped a photo of all the cousins (minus the Andersons who stay in Las Vegas for Christmas) in their new Christmas jammies! :) It's really hard to get 6 young, tired kids to all look and smile in the same direction. Haha!

Charlie fell asleep on the way home and we tucked him snug into his bed before Santa Claus came down the chimney and left heaps of toys and treats for us:

Here's my Charlie's excited Christmas morning face. This moment makes me so SO happy.

We spent the morning exploring Santa's gifts, opening the gifts under the tree, and making an absolute wreck of our living room with all our new goodies! :)

Santa left a yo-yo in Charlie's stocking and Trevor showed him some tricks! He thought it was great! And Trevor had a pretty good time brushing up some of his old rusty yo-yo tricks as well. ;)

Delilah was there, too, happily bouncing away in her jumperoo. Santa brought her this cute new red leather hair bow:

More pics of my Christmas morning kiddos! If you look closely enough, you can see the hint of leftover chocolate around Charlie's mouth.

I love that they love each other, and that Charlie will go over and make sure Delilah is having fun!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I got this year was this new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag from my Mom. Love love love! I feel so stylish carrying it! 

Our first real snow of the season came on Christmas morning. We had a gloriously white Christmas, and it wasn't too cold to go out and play in it... so we did! Charlie was in heaven, of course. We had a snowball fight and I even showed him how to make his first ever snow angels. 

That evening, Trevor's parents and brother Trent stopped in to say hello. We had planned to make a turkey dinner for our little family, and invited them to stay and dine with us! Trevor was in charge of prepping the turkey before sticking it in the oven. He put a delicious herb butter under the skin and on top of the turkey, and stuck part of an onion inside. The turkey turned out moist and totally delicious. I'm not usually a big turkey fan, but I really liked this one! Yum! We also made mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It was so much fun to have an impromptu family dinner! We MAY have to make a turkey every Christmas... a new tradition?!? We shall see! :)

Overall, Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! It was nice to be able to relax at home and just enjoy a peaceful day together. I am grateful for the true reason we celebrate this time of year: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given us everything we have. I hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours!

A Fruity Little Halloween

We had a fun-filled Halloween this year! More than anyone else, I know Charlie totally loved it. He hasn't stopped talking about "trick-or-treating" or going to "Meghan's house" for over two weeks now. I first found Delilah's costume, the little strawberry, at Costco for pretty cheap and knew I had to buy it. Then, trying to figure out a common theme, I convinced Charlie it would be pretty fun to be a banana and ordered his costume off Amazon.com. The first time he put it on I almost fell over laughing at how dorky/awesome/adorable he looked. And that's how this year's "fruity" Halloween theme came about. Trev and I are mainly just fuddy duddies and didn't dress up. Or maybe we're dressed up as good-looking parents in their late 20s. I'll let you decide ;)

As far as pumpkin carving goes, we didn't do it this year. Instead, I found these awesome sticky face-making kits at Target and Charlie and I just decorated our pumpkins a day or so before Halloween. It's totally a win-win-win situation. Win because I didn't have to spend 1-2 hours scooping and carving pumpkins (I've decided I'm really not a fan), win because the pumpkins turned out super cute, and win because our pumpkins are still in great shape halfway through November!

This is also the first holiday since having our new fireplace where I've taken time to decorate my mantel. I'm very happy with the results, especially the dried tree branch that's hanging out in my glass vase. I had taken the kids to the park one day earlier in October, and a couple of older kids from the neighborhood accidentally broke the branch off of an aspen tree nearby. Instead of just leaving it there to wilt away, I decided it would be a fabulous idea to take it home, let it dry out, and use it for decor! After spending 20 minutes cutting off all the little dried leaves, I was in love with the finished product!

And here's the decor on my porch. We decided to keep it simple, but the light-up witch and spider on the pillar are this year's new decor additions. Also, we left out a bucket of candy since we went to Springville for trick-or-treating. I left a sign that said "Please take ONE! (We are watching you!)" and I think it actually worked because we still had about 1/4 of the candy left in the bucket when we got home! Haha!

The week before Halloween, our ward at church had a Halloween get-together where we got to enjoy a chili and cornbread dinner followed by a trunk-or-treat. I signed up to hand out candy, but didn't have time to decorate the trunk beforehand. The whole night was a blur. By the time we got our food after talking and waiting in line, I barely had time to eat before rushing out to the car. The trunk-or-treaters had already started before I even had my trunk open. It was a mad rush to try to get some decor put up and open my bags of candy. Basically it was craziness and next year I'm not volunteering to hand out candy if it's optional. Haha ;) I didn't get any pictures of that night, but Charlie and Delilah had their same costumes as on Halloween night.

And now here are all the quick iPhone photos I snapped when we went trick-or-treating in Springville on Halloween. The weather was so nice! It got just a bit chilly near the end as the sun started going down and the wind picked up. I wish it were that pleasant every year! Also...I'm just loving my cute little strawberry girl! Charlie really hated having to stick his face through the hole of his banana outfit, so we just pulled the face hole all the way over his head and called him a "partially-peeled" banana for the rest of the night. :)

He was so excited to get his candy at every house! And also to show Grandma his spoils. Even though he walked the whole time, he could barely keep up with his speedy older cousins. By the time we walked around a block or two, he was asking when we could go back to Aunt Meghan's house. I think his poor little legs were done!

We finally arrived back at Aunt Meghan's house where we got to enjoy our candy and some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (We also had some delicious soup before going out to trick-or-treat.)

Delilah got to spend some quality time with Grandpa and Grandma. Look at that adorable strawberry bum! Haha!

And we changed Charlie into his skeleton PJs (from last year!) and let him sort his candy and eat a little, too! No wonder he hasn't stopped talking about it... Halloween is a little kid's dream come true!