Easter - a little late I know.

 Fin's First Easter! Thought it would be important enough to add to my blog. Of course he is way too young to understand what Easter is all about, but he still got the way cute outfit, a dragon Easter basket and Elmo eggs (empty).

He was really excited and wouldn't really hold still. The Easter bunny had to make sure that the eggs were hidden higher then he could reach since he would surly eat the chocolate or swallow the coins. After Sacrament meeting we headed down to spend Easter with the Ford family. They have an epic Easter egg hunt (with a little help from Pete) and there are usually some really tough eggs to find and really awesome prizes.

I love this shot of Cadence - so exultant in her find.

 Fin mostly ate grass, he did go after a few eggs that were on the ground, because they were shiny and pretty.

Here he is in his new hat from Grandma Ford, he also scored a cool ride on Dragon stick.

 

We decorated eggs the day before - Pete and Cadence did the dying of hard boil eggs and Cadence and I decorated plastic eggs. Cadence made this whole Hunger Games set complete with Capitol spectators. The day after, we made purple peep crispy treats!

Run Disney

I have been sort of absent form my blog for quite some time, mostly because of this little man. Whew forgot how much time is taken up by, feedings, baths and just playing around with him. Its really hard when he goes down for a nap, I try to shove all the things I need to do/ want to do. He sleeps for two two hour naps and I try to shove; dishes, laundry, cleaning up the house, sewing, gardening, exercising and showering, then if I am lucky and still have time I read. So yea blogging tends to fall below my radar.

So yea, exercising the other big thing in my life that is taking up my time, thoughts and anxiety.... Pete and I signed up for the Disneyland half marathon that is over the Labor Day weekend. I have not run since I was in high school and had to. I am a great walker, and I like to bike and do aerobics, but really I am a homebody that likes to spend her time doing crafts and reading so this is huge for me. I started on this to get rid of the baby weight, and then the cupcake weight as I call it since I was pretty overweight when I got pregnant. When I started I could barely run a 16 minute mile, and now I am up to a 12 minute mile, and I can keep it up for about 3-4 miles. This is huge for me. Unfortunately my goal is a 10 minute mile and a half is for over 13 miles, in comes the anxiety! But hopefully I will be able to accomplish my goals, there is a little light in there, it does seem to be getting easier. I picked the Disneyland half marathon (mostly because my sister was signing up for it already) but Pete has been trying forever to get me interested in running and has always promised me whatever I want if I would just start, so I went with the most expensive run I could find, and we will get a family trip to Disneyland to boot!

neighbors

We get deer in herds, almost everyday. Very neat to see them up so close.

I have also seen a cougar, bald eagles and a raccoon. Pete has seen a fox, and we see badger prints. Yet to be seen is a bear, moose (we have seen one far away on the mtn.) and I would like to see the badger, maybe a wolverine would be cool.

Hunger Games Birthday Party

Okay, so the girl is absolutely obsessed with the trilogy The Hunger Games right now. She read them last year, but decided to read them again when she saw the movie preview. So in trying to come up with a party idea for her 11th birthday we landed on The Hunger Games. So first the invitation which I included a little typed summary of the book, good thing since only one other girl had read them. (oh well)

Front door welcoming them to district 12.

I decorated the inside with balloons and then hung silver parachutes from the ceiling with bread and chocolate tied to them. The chocolate is not really from the book, but they were prizes that the girls could claim later. I had a poster board with all of their names written down, so each phase of the party was a competition of sorts with one final victor.

This was the first time I have made a pinata, and I think it turned out quite well. Cadence helped make it and we made it after the tracker jacker nest that Katniss drops on a tribute, killing her when it splits open and the trackers attack. I made a few fake looking bees to really show that it is supposed to be a wasps nest of sorts. The candy inside was wrapped in yellow to look like the tracker jackers upon explosion.

Of course we had to have hot chocolate, not just because it was cold outside, but because Katniss loves the hot beverage in the book. (and by the way those are gingerbread marshmallows, not dog treats!)

The centerpiece was a cornucopia filled with burnt bread. I had to borrow the cornucopia, so I could not paint it gold. And of course the burnt bread represents the bread Peeta burns when they are 11 to help her when she is starving. If it had been spring or summer, I would have covered my buffet with dandelions as well.

Cadence helped me make a Boston cream cake from scratch, it was really not too pretty, but it tasted awesome.

Also on the buffet were poisonous berries (chocolate covered blueberries) crackers, dried meat, and not pictured we had strawberries, puffed corn, district 12 drop biscuits, half moon rolls with black seeds, liver filled puff pastry (really pepperoni and cheese croissants) and Mr. Mellarks cookies.

Also I had to make the goat cheese and apple tarts that they talked about, they were so good (even if only one child ate them). I would make these again in an instant.

First the girls had capitol makeovers. Aunt Emily came to help with the hair dos, I had cheap colored hair clip ins and loads of funky colored makeup and glitter powder.

Then they had a scavenger hunt for survival gear, we had about a foot of snow outside so we opted for the hunt to be in the basement. The girls started with camo bags and had to find whistles, compasses and other survival things.

Then they tried their had at painting wooden animals, not quite the camouflage from the book, but still fun, and it took a really long time. The girls voted on the best. Also they took a quiz on which plants are edible and which are poisonous, and played some other athletic games to simulate the training. I had a knot tying craft, but we ran out of time.

Pinatas, always a little crazy, took about 10 girls before that nest split.

Then we blew out the candles, and had some cake and opened presents. We are super grateful to those friends from Salt Lake that traveled all the way up to Heber to celebrate with us!

Happy 6 months

I can't believe that our little man is now 6 months old! he has officially been with us for half a year. We are still in disbelief that we have another child, I guess that's what waiting 10 years will do. We can not get enough of his smiles and giggles, he smiles so wide with his whole mouth open, showing off all those dimples. He is a fussy baby and wants to be held all the time, which was great for him during Christmas with all the family around eager to hold him. He is getting used to the new house, terrorizing the dog now, and wrapping us all around his finger. He is trying to crawl, he gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth and then lays down, he does scoot and roll, and can usually get to where he is aiming. As soon as he crawls, I think we will be in trouble since is so wiggly! The boy never holds still!

Beautiful photo shoot

Yea for Highlite Photography! Love these photos!

And how did I get such a gorgeous girl?

Thought that I would share a few pics of the kid (the older one that is). Cadence started 5th grade this week (gasp so old!). This is a result of sucky year round school that she has to start in the summer - Pete did not understand why she had skinny jeans on under her skirt - by this stage I am not even fazed by this kid.

The week before she enjoyed circus camp - no trapeze - but some tight wire and ball balancing and juggling.

She learned a little double dutch - all in all a fun week for Cadence, and some good indoor exercise since it is so hot outside.

And finally - this is how I am getting dinner made some nights! - Maybe a ten year gap wasn't so silly.....