Happy Birthday to Me!

This year I celebrated my 29th birthday. How do I feel about this dreaded number? It actually doesn't bother me at all. I'm not worried about turning 30 because I realize that it isn't that old! It's funny that we spend the first part of our lives wishing we were older and the majority of our lives wishing we were younger instead of enjoying and embracing the age that we are. For now, age is only a number and I am loving whatever age I am. I love my life and my family and I look forward to our next adventure.

This year, I had a two part celebration. The first was a family party on Sunday night. This was especially neat because my cousin Steven was in town and we don't get to see him very often. We had my favorite food and favorite cake and my favorite people (I missed all my family who was to far to come :)). What is not to love! I will also always remember this day because this is the day they announced that we had finally got Bin Laden.

The next day was my actual birthday. The kids and I played in the morning and Aaron came home fairly early from work to celebrate with me. He got me lots of little kitchen gadgets that I had been saying I wanted and some great gift cards. We went to my favorite restaurant, Islands, and made for a great end to my birthday. It was a mellow day and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

One of the presents my mom got me was this caddy to hold all my party utensils for eating, the sign I made with Krystle on one of our craft nights. I love it!



Kaylynn being her adorable self!



I was actually holding the camera for this picture, can you say she already knows how to pose.



Just another cute photo



Jaclyn and Krystle got creative with my candles. I think they may have used more than 29 candles, lets count and see :)



Aaron and I on my actual birthday.



Beautiful flowers, he surprised me with.



At our Favorite Restaurant.

Happy Easter

This year we spent Easter with Dan, Krystle, and Luke. We have early church this year, so we decided we would do lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt after. We decorated our eggs as soon as they came over, which the boys always have a blast doing. The boys are really funny together and they are so fun to watch. After decorating eggs, we had lunch and miraculously the Easter bunny came and went :). He was so fast that we didn't even see him! Then we released the kids to find their eggs and their basket. Kaylynn even had a few eggs of her own to find. The kids were so cute. It was a fun mellow Easter. The boys had the most fun with their eggs and candy and just playing for hours.

This was also the first time we gave Kaylynn watermelon. Of course she loved it and ate it right up. Although I think she had more fun squishing it between her fingers and rubbing it in her hair. I was glad that I had stripped her before giving the watermelon to her. She was covered from head to toe so we just threw her in the clean kitchen sink to rinse her off. She totally loved that too. Just a funny happening that's worth remembering.

On a side note, the dress Kaylynn is wearing was made by my mom and I. It is such a cute pattern and I loved that I made it with my mom. I wanted to learn how to sew clothing so this was one of my first classes with my mom. The lace we used on the bottom actually came from Aaron's Grandma Margaret.

Photo Op

Kaylynn is just so darling that sometimes I just have to take pictures of her. In this picture she is 11 months old and just learning to walk. She just looked so cute, I couldn't help myself. How could you not smile at this face.

Boulder City Train Rides

Ashton has always loved trains. Living in San Diego, you are constantly driving over railroads and seeing trains passing by. Unfortunately, here in Vegas, we don't have that. So we had to do some research and luckily found a train ride that we could take Ashton on. We had to drive across town to Boulder City to get to the train, but Ashton was so excited it made it worth the drive! They had a museum section where several trains were on display. The neatest one was the mail train. It was amazing that people even got letters back then. After we walked around, we hopped on the train for a 30 minute ride into the desert. The kids loved it and we made a day out of it. We stopped at this great little pizza place for dinner and drove around the historic part of Boulder City. This is definitely something we will have to take him back to do again.

*There is a short video of clip of Ashton telling us what we are doing. He cracks me up! So excited and so cute.

Baby Kyle

Another fun March event was welcoming baby Kyle into the family. I originally had planned on waiting till the end of April to come see him, but I couldn't help myself and the kids and I took off for a trip to see him within the first week of him being born. How could we stay away from such an adorable baby! He was so handsome and so small. After my 8 lb 9 oz angel came out, little 6+ lb Kyle seemed so small. It was a really nice visit with my sister. The kids all played and we got to relax holding our little ones. We were so happy to make the trip to see him. Jayne and Ashton had a blast playing in the water in the backyard. It was only march, but it was beautiful and hot they had a blast, which is all that really matters. It was a great trip, and we loved meeting our new nephew/cousin :).

* Yes Ashton is in his underwear! Who knew it was going to be hot while we were in town, it was still technically winter!

**The brown quilt Kyle is wrapped in was made by my mom. She did a fantastic job, it turned out beautiful.