HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!!!

Ok so it is not quite Lucas's birthday but since we are going to be traveling home on his REAL birthday next week we had a big party with all our friends here! It was so much fun! We have really made some fun friends and have been so blessed this summer! So I stayed up super late yesterday to finish this cake and i LOVED it! and then I had to ruin it by writing on it :) jk i still thought it turned out pretty good for an amateur. Anyways here are a few pics from the party.

Evie pretending to be the "cake monster"!!!!

El Cake-ito :) Almost done!!!!

The finished product!!!

All the friends singing happy birthday! (ok not all we had like 15 more people there but these are all the really important ones jk :))

Lots of candle blowing help! and it was very needed :) everyone got a little "piece" of lucas on their cupcake he he!

My baby boy! you are (almost) 3!

You have been such a light in our lives!

You always have such a happy smile and a big hug for everyone!

You are such a blessing and a joy!

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to me!

You are so good and brave!

You are so kind to your sister and so loving to all those around you!

You are so good at sharing (most the time)!

I am so proud to call you my son and I LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!

Boys......Need I Say More?

This last week we had the sales reps from Jacksonville FL combine with our office. They just so happened to bring with them........wives and children!!!!!! HOORAY!!! Friends!!!! It has been such a great week! The kids have made some fun friends and I did not realize how much I missed adult interaction and conversation!!! Heaven on earth I tell you what!!!!

So here is my memorable moment for the year....... and just for fun I am going to tell this in story format, so here goes........

Dread filled my heart! Lucas had a bright yellow soft air gun pellet shoved deep in his ear canal. I didn't know what to do! My friend Kirsten handed me some tweezers. "Work!" I prayed, " Please please please work!!" Nothing! The pellet was the exact size of his ear canal and I was only pushing it deeper! Kirsten handed me a baby snot sucker. Maybe I could suck it out. Nope. ARG! I was getting flustered! What was I going to do?! We didn't have insurance! I couldn't take him to the ER! To expensive! I would have to figure something else out. I frantically called my mom! "What do I do?!" " I don't know! Let me know how it turns out!" Thanks mom! :os I head to WalGreens where they have a clinic where they do shots and general health checks. Evie says a prayer on the way and I call Jason's dad. If anyone can give a good creative solution, it is him! "Man I wish you were here! I love a challenge! Try hydrogen peroxide. Maybe it will bubble up behind and push it out." " Great idea! I will try that if the doctor can't pull it out! It is really sealed in there though! I don't know if it would be able to get behind!" He mentionssomething about a straw but I am concentrating on getting Lucas checked in and keeping his little fingers out of his ear so I am not paying much attention " Ha ha yeah! Maybe I could just suck it out with a straw!" Half joking cause I didn't hear what he really said. "That might work! Try it if the hydrogen peroxide doesn't work!" " Thanks! I will call you if I need more ideas!"

The doctor at Walgreens is no help and doesn't charge me. Good and bad!! Back to the car. On the way home what I said jokingly about sucking it out with a straw keeps tickling the back of my mind. What if.....could that possibly work?! Home at last, I check my utensil drawer. One last yellow bendy straw. I grab the hydrogen peroxide, just in case. Turn on a movie for child distraction, lay him on the couch put the straw in and suck. No suction! Moving it around a little and pulling his ear open a little more I try again......better! I actually get some suction. I suck for about 5 seconds and look in. Its closer to the surface! Again! and again!!! Ta Da!!! All of the sudden its out!! Say a thank you prayer!! and cry! I ask Lucas, " Are you ever ever going to put ANYTHING in your ears ever again?!" and his eyes get big and he shakes his head "No mommy!".

The End!!

Thank heavens for the blessing of the Holy Ghost!! I NEVER ever would have come up with an idea like that on my own!

HAPPY EXPLOSIVE'S DAY!!!

Happy 4th of July 2 days late! :) I am so grateful for the opportunity to live in this great country and for the many freedoms we have been blessed with! I am so in awe of those who are willing to give it all for their country! Thank you so much to all those who have served to protect my rights and freedoms! I am so PROUD to be an American!!

The original plans I had for the 4th fell through and I really didn't want to take the kids any place super busy alone!! But I (wo)manned up and went out anyway and I am so so glad I did!! I had such a great time with the kids! They were super good and so much fun to be with! We went to Franklin TN, supposedly the "Beverly Hills" of the Nashville area (fyi Miley Cyrus and her family used to attend the firework show there when they lived in TN ooooooh). Anyway they had a super fun street fair there! Tons of stuff to do and see, live music, and lots of yummy eats!! Here is a little photo montage of our day and a few random extras :)

Evie the fashionista!! Jason brought the kids home popcorn from Transformers and Evie immediately thought skirt!! I never would have imagined!! :)

The Cone of Shame! This will make sense to those of you who have seen Disney Pixars UP! Everyone else...you are missing out so just go see the movie already!!!!

Lucas having his face painted at the fair! He was so good and held so still and the results were so worth the wait!!!

Dunnuh dunnuh dunnuh dunnuh BATMAN!!!!

My beautiful angel face!! Can you believe this is my baby!? She is growing up way to fast!

The kids had a ton of fun at the petting zoo! Can you believe the size of that pig?!

This goat had crazy horns! They grew twisted together! Weird!

Evie's favorite to feed was the donkey! It followed her all around!

A very sleepy happy smudgy Batman on the way home :) Looks a little more like the Joker now haha

So my computer is being weird and won't let me comment under some of the pics but oh well! :) The picture above this is the Fabulous Hudson Hornet! When Lucas saw this car he about died! "Mom its Doc Hudson!! Mom Mom Mom!!!! Doc Hudson!!" (Doc Hudson is a character in the movie CARS btw) So of course we had to take a picture with "Doc Hudson"

The gorgeous Nashville TN temple! I wanted to take some pics of the kids on the grounds but it was all gated and locked up! :( Maybe next time!

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free genealogy - Free family tree

This is seriously so crazy!!! I have had people tell me that Evie looks like Shirley Temple, but until I did this I didn't realize how very very similar they are!! Kind of fun!

Randomness

I really don't have a lot to say today. Just a few pictures and one silly story. So here are the pictures......

A small sample of the wonderful variety of ENORMOUS bugs we have been so fortunate as to encounter here in Nashville, and no thats NOT a spider thank goodness!!!

The bird aviary at the zoo.

Feeding the birds nectar.

Evie actually let me braid all of her hair in small braids and when we took it out the next morning it was SO cute!! Unfortunately she wouldn't let me take an "after" photo. Stinker!!

She has an endless supply of silly faces :) ok maybe she has an endless supply of THIS silly face :)

We LOVE the park up the street called Red Caboose Park and they have family concerts every Friday night during the summer. This one was fun cause the guy sang kids songs. He really encouraged the kids to get up in front of the stage and jump around, dance, and sing with him! It was fun! The kids loved it AND best of all.....They completely wore themselves out and crasahed HARD when we got home!!! YAY!!! Smart mommy :)

Are we having fun yet?

Rolling down the hill during the rolly polly potato bug song!

More hill rolling. It was hard to get them to stop once they got going :)

This song entitled "Sing Loud, Jump Hi, Dream Big!" had the kids going mosh pit style with this guy in front of the stage. The whole time I was having visions of Evie 12 years from now at some wild concert thinking "hey this is cool! i've done this before! no sweat!" or something like that! what am i teaching my children?!?!!

The beginning of the afore mentioned song. Evie and Lucas are on the left edge of the group, I zoom in on them kind of after a minute. Alas these are my video recording skills haha, or should I say the lack thereof :)

Now for the quick funny story! Lucas is getting in a HORRIBLE habit called "nose picking major" habit. Drives me NUTS!!! Anyway on Sunday we pull in from church, Jason goes around to get Lucas out, and Lucas has both hands going up both nostrils!! I mean the kid is diggin for gold in his BRAIN!!! Anyway Jason swats his hands away and says "thats really gross bud" as he pulls him out of the car and sets him on the sidewalk. Lucas turns around and says" No Dad! I like to eat them!! Boogers are my FAVORITE!" Shoves his fingers BACK up his nose and turns around and walks away!! I was almost on the pavement in my Sunday dress I was laughing so hard!! Well I don't know what the plan is to get him to stop, or even if I have one, but at least I got one good laugh from the disgusting-ness that is called nose picking :) Even my dad laughed when I told him that, and thats saying something, cause he doesn't laugh at the silly "kid" stories I call to tell him :) Either that or he is going deaf and can't hear me very well jk dad :)