Valentines Day

 We dont make too big a deal about Valentines day at our house. But it is still a fun occasion to make/eat goodies and to tell each other we love one another. Cadence made a Valentines in-box for her class and decorated it with some Star Wars Valentines that she drew herself, she amazes me like that.

 Then we made fortune cookies dipped in chocolate with valentine fortunes inside. I made a whole batch for Pete to take to his work and share, and then made a second batch for Cadence to share with friends at school. She is not allowed though to bring homemade treats to class, so these were just for special friends. I wanted it to be a surprise for Pete, but he accidently found out, so we dipped them in chocolate all together and Fin enjoyed the sprinkles.

 I used Paula Deen's recipe from here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fortune-cookies-recipe/index.html with a little modification - I changed the almond extract to vanilla and added the zest from one orange. - Very yummy and heartfelt.

Cousin Time!

 The Harrs came to visit the last week of June (late post sorry) and we always love visits from cousins. Fin especially loves kids and couldn't wait to get his hands on some boys to play with. Cadence loves it because that usually means that she gets to go different places that we normally don't. First off has to be a trip to Classic Skating and Bounce houses. This place has it all, and although it was a little too big for fin, he still loved it.

We also visited the Thanksgiving Point animal farm, fin loves animals and wanted to spend so much time with the animals.

Carver loved the pony ride, Cadence not so much, she was a little too big for this sort of thing, but it was for 11 and under so she qualified. (I decided not to include the picture of her on the pony with the not so amused look on her face.)

I couldn't get the kids to hold still for a picture, oh well.

We also went to Seven Peaks water park, and a fun little hike in our neighborhood, I just didn't have a camera.

The Harr boys love Cadence, even first thing in the morning when she is too tired to respond. Fin loved the Harr boys and wanted to hug and wrestle with them, however Duncan didn't seem, to be much for the touching. Fin would throw his arms around him and hug tight as he could, and Duncan would just throw his arms up in the air with a very worried uncomfortable expression.

Lake Powell with the Ford Family

 This was my first time visiting Lake Powell, and I have to say the scenery is pretty awe inspiring. We stayed outside of Bullfrog (about 10 miles) in a mobile home, it was a little cramped, but the location was pretty great for four wheeling. We got the best of both worlds!



Four Wheeling! This boy is growing up to love four wheelers. He giggles and talks when he is on it and does what we call the happy dance. (whenever he is happy is does this funny little shifting of his body back and forth, pretty cute.)

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Gibsons on their boat with Cadence and Molly hiding their faces. When do kids start hiding from cameras?

Pretty much wearing a life jacket sucks when you are a baby. Fin was not happy with this arrangement, but he dealt with it and even fell asleep in it a few times.

This was Fin's happy place, he screamed if we took him out of the water, even if he was shivering. He didn't even want to be in his float out deeper, he wanted to be splashing in the lake all by himself. Fin kept rushing straight into the lake until he was too deep and would face plant in the water, be rescued by an adult, and then do it all over again, he was never deterred by the mouth full of water.

Lake Powell is hot! So very hot, you have to be applying sunscreen almost every hour. Some were not so lucky to escape getting sunburned. Here Betty is taking a very proactive stance with the sunscreen. 

The Gibsons had these awesome plastic kayaks and Cadence and Molly loved paddling around in the little cove that we were camped at. Actually the Gibsons camped out on the beach every night and Cadence stayed with them, and stayed an extra two days.

Tubing! So much fun and apparently Cadence is quite the little daredevil (takes after her father that way). She was such an extreme tuber that she became kind of the trip joke what with her bathing suit bottoms flying off all the time. (unfortunately I did not get a picture of her bare bum swimming for her shorts.)

Pete, for some reason, loves to catch lizards and toads and such and here was one of his captives. This lizard was so fast, and had quite impressive markings. I had no idea lizards came in such varieties of colors.

Little Man's First Birthday

Our little man turned one. I know it is a cliche, but man time flies by so fast. I can't even believe we have had this little guy in our lives for a whole year. We wanted to celebrate his birthday - without going to over board, but I think I have a little protege in the girl. She immediately wanted to know what the theme was and wanted to plan games. I kept telling her over and over again that this was not a regular party - he is only one. But I thought it turned out cute to make the theme be "Little man" since that is what we call him.

 I had homemade mustache banners above the doors so the adults would have something fun to do - try and name the famous mustache. I thought it turned out pretty good, I even added a picture of grandpa in the mix.

 Birthday balloon wreath I made (super easy). This way we can get it out for every ones birthday.

 Besides the homemade cupcakes, I made birthday cake rice crispies (actually cake flavored - what did I do before pinterest?)

 Auntie Lana having fun with the  stick on mustaches, we had a lot of fun with these.

 And Cadence made mustache straws for people to drink with.

 Daddy bought Fin an adorable circus tent from ikea - that the cousins immediately ran into and started wrestling.

 Cadence made a pin the mustache on Fin game for the cousins to play, as well as a tie toss game.

 We also had finger mustache tattoos, but cadence skipped the finger and went straight for the face.

 Fin would not taste his cupcake, not one bite touched his lips, he smashed it up good, but wouldn't eat it.

But it didn't take him long to figure out this present thing.

Mom's favorite present was a handmade quilt by grammy for his room.

Mother's Day 2012

 Clay and Broderick were able to visit for Mother's Day, and I was able to host in our new house.

 The guests included; Grammy and Grandpa, Grandma Lucy, Adam and his family and Clay and Broderick.

 I made grilled chicken with strawberry salsa, homemade Parmesan bread sticks, grilled asparagus and a cream cheese pound cake with berries and whipped cream.

 Fin really took to Broderick, he really loves kids! He needs a little bit more warming up to other people, really going through that attachment phase.

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!