Bama's Birthday!

Happy birthday, Bama! Bryce doesn't say "grandma" so he calls Tammy "Bama(w)." Tammy wanted to do something fun for her birthday so we went to do Whirly Ball and Laser Tag last night. We put the kids to bed, left the house in the charge of a couple teens from the ward and high-tailed it outta there!  We had a lot of fun playing Laser Tag (I won one and Colton won the next!) and then we played Whirly Ball. We found out the moderator attended an LDS ward in Frisco and he gave us several extra minutes of game time which we thoroughly enjoyed. :) After playing, we stopped at Cold Stone for a yummy sweet treat. We had cake tonight though. Tammy had a baby shower cake that wasn't picked up, so she brought that home as her birthday cake tonight. It was still delicious. :) The kids are always crazy about cake, no matter what flavor or color it is. I grabbed all the pictures in this post from Liz. Thanks Liz!

 Me, Tammy, Jenna, Jon, Austin, Liz, Colton and Mitchell - waiting for our turn to Laser Tag!

Mom really got into her waffle cup. :D

 Me, Mitchell, Jenna and Jon enjoying our Cold Stone ice cream

  Austin was definitely rethinking his ice cream choice, lol!

Happy birthday, Bama!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

One of the fridges at the shop broke, so Mom brought home one of the spare cakes as a birthday cake. We had Austin and Liz and Jon and Jenna and all the kids over for yummy cake and Mom's favorite dinner - Hawaiian Haystacks! That was always her choice for dinner growing up. :) It's pork, gravy, crushed pineapple, chinese noodles, sliced almonds, coconut shavings, cherries and sliced green onions over a bed of rice. Yum! We're so glad we get to spend so much time with this fantastic lady! We love you, Grandma!!!

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Fire Engine Surprise

As I was putting the boys to bed tonight, we heard a loud siren and the boys dashed out of bed to find a fire engine right across the street. The neighbors had a false CO2 alarm but the neighborhood kids were thrilled with the entertainment. Derek and Bryce insisted on walking across the street (even though it was starting to sprinkle and the wind was pretty stiff) to see the firetruck. The firemen came out after checking the house and took some time to answer the boys' questions. Derek was fascinated with the silver bell on the front fender of the fire truck. One of the firemen took him over to the truck and showed him how to ring the bell. He was so excited! Bryce loved the "monster truck" tires and the reflective strips on the fireman's jacket. He tried to ask questions, but I couldn't even understand what he was asking, and the fireman wasn't faring much better. Another fireman gave the boys fire department badge stickers and they insisted on wearing them to bed tonight. I love being part of an awesome community!

They totally want to be firefighters now. :)

WIPEOUT!!!!

Mitchell and I have been looking forward to this run for about a month now. I found an advertisement for the run on facebook and, since this is one of our favorite reality TV shows, I suggested it to Mitchell, who thought it was a great idea. Turns out Amy and Danny were already on board and Liz and Austin were game, too. Today was supposed to be rainy, but we were really blessed because it was only cloudy for our run. Our slot was 1 pm, but we didn't get through the chute until closer to 1:30 because they were only letting groups of about 50 or 75 start in staggered groups. I was so glad I bought a waterproof camera case so I could use my camera during the run! (UPDATE: There were only a couple usable pictures of any of us from the professional photographers. It was ridiculous. So glad I brought my camera.) Turns out that, between my camera and mom's phone, we got some AWESOME footage and pictures. Most of mom's videos are sideways, but I'm working on fixing that. I had about six weeks to prepare for the run and I'm so grateful I took it seriously. I wasn't able to run very far, but I made it through the whole run and had a blast with family. :) We can't wait to do this again next year!!

Austin is a photo-bomb master

 Danny, Amy, Mitchell, me, Liz and Austin

 We have so much fun!

WIPEOUT! Livin' the dream! 

We had to dance and make stank-face while we waited for our group to start

 Gonna have some fun!

Who says bouncy houses are only for kids? :D

The tallest guys take on the tallest walls

My ridiculous wipeout on the sweeper arm

Oakley was so good for Aunt Val. :)

Austin takes on the Big Balls!

Battle wound! Way to take one for the team, babe. Apparently the Big Balls bite.

 I love my honey!

 Foamy Fun!

 All hail the Foam King!

 I consider this the best photo of the day. :D

Mitchell gets some serious air and I'm ejected from my tube

 Danny and Amy are so cute!

 Running the final stretch!

Stretching in the front, party in the back

 Success!

 We dominated that run and had so much fun!

WE DID IT!!!

Bedheads

Well, the last few weeks have been marvelous! For some reason, Derek and Bryce have been sleeping in til 7 in the morning! In order to catch a few more Zzzs myself, I've let Derek and Bryce watch and episode or two of Wild Kratts, Thomas the Tank Engine or something like that until Clara wakes up. This morning, Derek begged me to let Clara watch Wild Kratts with them because "she never gets to, Mom! It's her favorite!" Haha. Right. But it certainly made for an adorable photo op. These kids really are so sweet. :)

 Three little bedheads, sitting on the couch!

Derek is so sweet and tender with Clara, and she wants to do exactly what her big brothers are doing.

St Patrick's Day

You bet your boots I'm teaching my kids about their Irish heritage, particularly on St. Patrick's Day! ;) We all wore green and listened to Celtic music. Derek likes anything with a good beat and Bryce and Clara hopped right along with him. I really hope at least one of them shows some interest in Irish dancing. That would be awesome. Derek likes to play with the Lite Brite that Tammy got him for his birthday. He's particularly in love with the car picture and usually lights this one up every time he plays with it. Anytime he does something he's pleased with, he asks me to "take me a picture" of it. I'm always happy to oblige. :)

It's only half-finished now, but he sure loves puzzles and art, so this Lite Brite is perfect. Thanks Grandma!

My three little leprechauns!

Bryce loves his big brother!

Derek and Bryce are totally best friends. :D

How do you make potato soup even more Irish? Dye it green. :)

Whovians!

Sister Hixon is going home with honor this week but I really, really hope we three stay in touch. I'm glad we get to keep Sister Baker for a while longer. :D Hopefully the new sister is a Whovian too, but nobody can replace this. Love these girls!

Sister (Chloe) Baker, Sister (Madeline) Hixon, me

Potty Training Cuteness!

Bryce has been potty training since the end of January, but he's really started to get the hang of it. He'll tell me he needs to "poop" and that generally means he needs to go potty. He gets upset when he wets his pants, mostly because Mitchell has occasionally put him in the shower to rinse him off when he poops his pants. Bryce can't tell the difference, I guess. Bryce absolutely insists that his pants and underwear be completely off because he's very particular about the way he sits on the toilet. Still working on the skills to keep those pants on. So proud of my big boy! He's really doing very, very well. Yay Brycie Bryce!

Everyone needs a tasteful potty picture. :) He loves his "Hiccup" shirt.

Brushing teeth and washing hands with Dad

Austin, Liz and the kids were over tonight and poor Emeri wasn't feeling well, so Austin did what any Daddy does and cuddled his little girl so she could sleep tight. Adorable. :D

Austin's Birthday Party

Austin is one step closer to 30, lol! He and Liz invited the Rossi, Wortham, and Tillman families from the ward to come celebrate with the family at Tammy's house. Everyone brought their favorite pizza and Tammy brought two cakes - Austin's choice of chocolate madness and an extra vanilla with lemon mousse filling. Love both of those!! Best of all, she brought home cheesecake and stuff to make homemade whipped cream. YUM! We had a blast talking and admiring the adorable little Charlie Rossi. She's so cute and chubby and Mitchell couldn't resist holding her. He misses baby Derek, baby Bryce and baby Clara. He's always the first to lament that the kids don't look like babies anymore. :) Happy birthday, Austin!

Of course, all the kids mob Uncle Austin as we get ready to light the chocolate madness cake!

Oakley is losing some of her stranger danger and is letting Hillary Wortham cuddle her. Look at those baby blues!

Love my Clara girl!

Happy birthday! Back Row: Mitchell, baby Charlie, Jake and Hillary Wortham, Oakley, Brandon Tillman, Liz, Cambrie Rossi, Saydie Tillman, Mike Rossi, Jon. Front Row: Tammy, Clara, me, Nathan, Andrew, Emeri, Austin, Bryce, Isaac, Katelyn, Derek, Gracie, Jenna. Colton is taking the picture. :)

Frontier Park

We probably jumped the gun a little bit this morning. Derek, Bryce, Clara and I were excited to celebrate warmer weather this morning, so I dressed them slightly warmer than I thought necessary, texted Liz to meet at the park and set off. Low and behold, the windchill factor made every inch of those long sleeves necessary. Still, the kids had a blast and Liz and I were thankful for the jackets we grabbed at the last second. :)

Trying to balance the weight evenly, but Bryce decided to abandon ship at the last second. 

Sweet brother and sister moment! These two are adorable and didn't mind sharing the swing at all. In fact, at one point during one of my many periodic locator scans of the park, I almost panicked because I couldn't find Bryce... who was sitting very quietly in the swing I was pushing. *facepalm*

Isaac was so excited to be at the park!

Silly Sweeties

The kids have been so patient cooped up most of the last two weeks, but today was the day of FREEDOM! Derek and Bryce practically flew out of the backdoor and insisted on eating lunch outside as well. Clara moved back and forth between the backyard and the kitchen with me. I threw up the windows to air out the house and that's where this all started. Bryce wandered over to investigate the Clara noises coming through the window and Derek came over when he heard them giggling. Then they figured out they could make Clara really laugh when they pressed their faces against the mesh.

She sure loves her silly brothers!

My three treasures!

Bryce always watches Derek...

...and then the little parrot, well, parrots!

Real Snow

We were all SO thrilled to wake up to a few inches of powder this morning. Derek finally gets his snowman! While Bryce and Clara were napping,  Derek and I went outside to build a proper snowman. Derek quickly threw himself down in the snow on the driveway and made a snow angel. I didn't even know that he knew what a snow angel was! I tried to get him to help me build the bottom ball for the snowman but the lure of the neighborhood kids playing nearby was too strong. Eventually, the whole pack of them went into the backyard to play for a bit while I was left to build the snowman. It took me a while to remember how to pack the snow into a ball and roll it around to make it grow. The neighbor kids went home for lunch and Derek went inside to get warm and watch a movie, but I kept working at it because I decided I wanted to try something different - painted snowmen! I started to show symptoms of snow blindness from when I was out with the kids earlier, so I put on sunglasses. I just forgot about the possibility of sunburn. My face is getting redder even as I type, so I know it's going to be rosy red in the morning. :S I got Derek's attention when I went inside to mix the food dye and water in a squirt bottle and he decided to come out and help me. We turned our snowman into Raphael, the red ninja turtle! Bad guys, beware!

He sure doesn't mind getting messy

Real Derek and Snow-Derek

He's trying to roll down the driveway

Derek went to town with the green spray

Derek wanted sunglasses like mine, so I gave him a pair of 3D glasses from the movie theater. He didn't want to wear them for long.

Ta-da! Our neighbor thought Rafael was pretty cool and so did Derek. Totally worth the sunburn to see that smile!