Cash's Birthday

Cash turned 2 last November which means that he is actually almost 3 now, and I have not realized how much he has grown until just looking at these pictures. On his birthday, we had his little friend Booker over and had cake and presents. Everyone that knows Cash knows also that he loves balls, thus every present that he got was some type of ball. He was in heaven!

This is the first time that I have actually seen him open presents with interest.

These 3 boys could not wait to eat the oranges

Here he is, ball in hand, ready to blow out the candles.

I must not have taken any pictures of his breakfast in bed, but I'm sure it was adorable too!

Gus and Paul's Birthday Extravaganza

This year Gus turned 6 and Paul turned 30. They have the same birthday. Gus was a honeymoon baby, so I was really big and pregnant the first time we celebrated Paul's birthday as a married couple. The night before his birthday, I went to Savers and got him a bowling ball and a shirt that said, "world's greatest Dad" since I knew he was going to be a father soon. Well, on Paul's birthday, I woke up early, gave him his gifts, and then asked him to take me to the hospital. He put on his world's greatest dad shirt before we left, and he was wearing it when I gave birth to our first son. It was quite a day, and now they get to share it every year. This is Gus with his best friend Owen. Gus and Owen met in Mountainaire and had the same kindergarten teacher, and they were inseparable. They are enjoying the alien cup cakes that Gus and his brothers decorated themselves.

Paul got his own cake too.

Here is Gus and his beautiful cousin Kenzie digging in to the cupcakes

Their birthday is on February 12 so usually it is celebrated indoors, but this year it was the most beautiful day we could have imagined. Seriously, sunny, warm and a real treat in the middle of February.

Max is a killer when it comes to pinatas. Most of the time we are trying to get him to be more soft. This is the one time when he can let loose.

Here are the kids having lunch. Because Paul and Gus share the same birthday, it is usually a bigger affair because whole families come.

Here are Paul and Gus sharing their breakfast in bed together...with a little help from Max. Paul got these awesome one-piece pajamas from his sister Alison for Christmas. He looks totally hot in them. OW OW!

Max's birthday

These are pictures from way back in January, but I thought I would go through and blog each of my kids' birthdays this last year. For no particular reason, I decided to start with Max. We don't get to fancy with birthday parties around here, but we have a lot of fun. Max loves to help me in the kitchen. For some reason he has had a lot of interest in this area. It may be because he absolutely loves food. He always has. So, I decided to make him an apron for his birthday, then Grandpa Fox filled it with kitchen gadgets that Max couldn't wait to use.

Here are some of our friends that came. Owen, Macey and Booker. We love these little Mountainaire friends, and we have been missing them!

Here is Max trying to enjoy his personal breakfast in bed while his brother's beg for him to share.

This is the cake he wanted to make. It had real cars on it, so he had fun racing them carefully around the track.

There's nothing better than breakfast in bed!

You Scream! I Scream! We all scream for ice-cream!

My kids have been pining after some toys at the store, and I keep telling them that they have to save up their own money to buy toys. Well, it is pretty hard for a 6-year-old and a 4-year old to figure out a way to make money. So, we came up with a little summer business experiment where they helped me make home-made ice-cream sandwiches, and they sold them to the neighbors. The reason I wanted to make these ice-cream sandwiches was because I had a memory of a family in my neighborhood growing up who made home-made ice-cream sandwiches and sold them. Every time I would get an extra dollar, I would immediately take it to their house to buy one. It was the greatest summer treat I could think of. my dad would send me over to buy him one. I have been wanting to do this for a long time with my kids just because I have such fond memories of it. Over all, it was a success and my kids are $45 richer. They have now spent that money on a huge set of legos that we found on craigslist. Money well spent.

A beautiful girl

I just want to tell you a little bit about my fabulous little sister Jana. She is actually my sister-in-law, but she calls me her sister and I feel like that makes me pretty lucky. Jana participates in a lot of special olympics events that we attend throughout the year, but my personal favorite is the Cheerleading. Here is Jana with her mom. I just love her smile in this picture!

Here she is with her friends

This is Jana with her twin brother Kevin. I just love Kevin! He graduated from high school this year and will be heading off to college and a mission. I made him promise me that he will still be my friend even though he is going to be off to bigger and better things.

Jana is such a ham. She just loves posing for these kinds of pictures. But seriously, being around these people is really such a blessing. During the opportunities I have had to be in Jana's classroom, I have learned a lot about just loving people without holding back or judging. Those kids know a lot more about it than we do. I feel like we are all so guarded, always worrying about what we look like or what people think of us. These kids just are who they are, and they love you for who you are.

I am really glad that my kids have their aunt Jana

Dot

I just really don't feel like I've done Dot justice on this blog of mine. Here she is, almost a year old, and there is hardly a thing about her. Well, I just want to say, that when she was born, I used to jokingly say that she was our favorite child. Well, now that she has been around a while I just have to say that she is definitely our favorite child! I mean doesn't she just melt your heart?

O.K. in all honesty, I love all my children the same, but can I at least say that she is my favorite one to dress up?

Dot has a cousin named Adalyn that is a couple of weeks older than her, and it has been so fun to see them grow together. I just think they are both such beautiful babies! It was also a lot of fun being pregnant with Kelianne because we lived so close. I like to think that they were friends in heaven wishing eachother off as they came down. Here are the girls camping together last Easter

Only a Child...

I decided to start collecting pictures of children doing things that only a child could do...I mean the kinds of things that make you giggle when you see, but if you saw an adult doing the exact same thing, you would be really scared!

Picture 1
Cash eating an ice cream cone, swinging on a swing...with no pants on

3,542 miles of smiles

Here is our family just after embarking on a 3,542 mile road trip. Here's how it went:
stop one: SLC Utah
Stop two: Kalispell Montana
Stop three: Calgary Canada
Stop four: Grand Junction Colorado
Stop Five: Flagstaff Arizona
Stop Six: Phoenix
It took almost 3 weeks, and we loved every minute!

Our first stop was in Salt Lake City Utah where we visited my sister Kary and her family. I was lame and forgot to take a lot of pictures there. We also got together with my whole Jeppson side of the family and the Gustafson side of the family. We took a lot of picutres on this day when we went to Lagoon. I used to go to Lagoon all the time when I was little , so it was amazing taking my kids there. It was magical all over again. As you can see, Dot loved it.

Here are my little men enjoying a ride together.

Obviously, the little kids got very tuckered out. This is my niece Aleah at about 4 o'clock.

Here are my beautiful nieces Linsdey, Lauren and Abby with our beautiful cousin Sierra all about to ride the egg drop!

I though Cash and Aleah looked so cute together in this little car...like they were on a date

I love rides, even if they are the ones that usually make people sick. I don't seem to have that problem. So Paul made me go on the twisty rides, and I didn't mind a bit!

I totally did not know that Les was in this picture

Cash was so tired, he just crashed on the couch. Looks comfortable right?

On our way up to Montana we stopped at a dairy in Idaho Falls called Reed's Dairy. We had heard several times of a delicious concoction they make called a brown cow. This is where they take their unbelievably rich chocolate milk and pour it over their insanely creamy ice-cream like a root bear float...but much much better. We ate them there, and then we packed their ice cream in a cooler with some dry ice accompanied by 4 half-gallons of chocolate milk, and we took brown cows to Montana and Canada where we proceeded to eat them every night of our trip.

Here are the kids in front of the dairy cows

that same day, we went to the outer edge of Yellowstone park and visited Cave Falls where we were able to get out and do a little hike. We did our best not to be eaten by misquitos

There was only one other person there, and we got him to take our picture

BRRRRRR!

After we bought the shaggin wagon, the upholstery started to hang down off the cieling, so we bought this funky fabric, and reupholstered it with the help of our neighbor, who knows how to do those kinds of things. We love it, and I even made some throw pillows to match, which really came in handy on the road!

Here we are at the Neilson's cabin at Ashley lake...one of my favorite places on earth. The water was freezing, so Paul and I were the only ones that went wake boarding or wake surfing. So that meant we got as much time as we wanted!

But afterward, we got to sit in the hot tub

The kids absolutely loved the tube rides. I have never seen them smile so big!

Gus, Max and Holli went by themselves

I asked Holli to give me a pouty face, and this is what I got. Love it!

Here is Paul looking all studly in his wet suit

Max, Gus, Cash and Holli all did this easy ski. I can't believe how big these kids are gettting. It is so fun watching them do these things

Gus loved playing dress up with his cousin Holli...they have girls, we have boys and this is what happens when they come together
Here is Dot crawling under the chairs at Jeff and Jocelyn's house. I think she looks adorable