Hear ye, Hear ye...Princess Lydia turn 4!!!

Well little miss Lydia turned 4 on Saturday! I don't know what is going on with blogspot but all of my pics are out of order and turned kind of crazy so bear with me! She woke up to her room being decorated and she was absolutely thrilled. We spent all day preparing for the party and the darling little girls got there at 3:00. We started the party off with a princess fashion show, where the girls got to strut their stuff down the pink carpet! 

Then we went downstairs and played on the bounce house and the girls got their finger nails and toe nails painted (thanks to the mom's that stuck around and helped me...I don't think Chris would've been much help.) 

Then the special guest arrived...Princess Amerah! Lydia has talked non-stop about having a princess party. We we got Princess Amerah to come and all I can say was it was AWESOME!!! The girls were seriously enthralled and she was so darling with them. She brought a book about her for Lydia and they learned about princess etiquette and how to dance like a princess and they even got to decorate princess crowns. Lydia was in HEAVEN and I was grateful to have her basically do the party so I didn't have to! 

After Princess Amerah left we opened presents and had cake and ice cream! It was such a fun little party, Lydia had 14 of her princess friends over and they were all so darling. Audrey (i.e. Minnie Mouse) had a complete melt down half way through the party so luckily she took a nap.) Lydia got such nice things from all of her friends and she had so much fun! 

Then on Sunday we had my family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. That is when Lydia got to open her presents from Chris and I (yes we are mean we made her wait an entire day.) When Chris picked her up from primary she told everyone as she was leaving "it was my birthday and now I get to go home and open all of my presents...YEAH!!!!) I was laughing she was so excited! 

I sort of can't believe that she is 4...I know I say that all the time but I really can't. It feels like yesterday we were living at the farm, I was riding around on a riding lawn mower to try to get her to come a little earlier and here we are 4 years later. I can not even express how much I love Lydia. I feel so lucky to have her for a daughter, she brings so much joy into our life. It is sort of a ritual every night as we are falling asleep in bed we recap all the cute things our kids have done, it makes me grateful to have them in my life and it also helps to remind me to enjoy it now, it wasn't but yesterday we were talking about how Lydia said "dada" for the first time. Now she is a dancing maching, playing soccer, taking art classes, loves her friends, and loves pre-school. Before I know it she will be talking about boys and driving cars and all that fun stuff....I just want to enjoy it all right now just like she is at 4 yrs old. 

 My little goobers! 

 Princess Amerah showing her book...it is really her in the book and it is seriously DARLING!!!

 All the girls posing like a princess...too cute! (not sure why this photo won't go straight...I tried several times.) 

 Blowing Kisses

 Silly Faces

 The girls decorating their crowns! 

 Lydia with Princess Amerah 

 The girls were all too cute...they kept hugging her, they didn't want her to go away! 

 Princess Lydia blowing out the candles! 

 Princess Lydia Turned 4...YEAH!!!

 The Princess Fashion Show down the pink carpet! 

 Don't ask me where Lydia got her cute dance pink carpet moves! 

 The girls were all so darling...they were completely enthralled! 

 Princess Amerah was so cute with the girls, and seriously stayed in character the entire time! 

 The party food...all for pink princesses! 

 Princess Minnie...before her meltdown that led to her nap! 

 The cake...I was so grateful to my friend Jeni who watched my kids so I could make this kid free and to my friend Emily who let me use her cake decorating tools to make it. I think it turned out pretty good, their are definitely some serious imperfections but hey it tasted really good and that's the most important part right? Ha ha ha! 

 The girls getting ready to make their debut's down the pink carpet! 

 The party favor's

 Lydia the morning of her birthday...I was running the SL 1/2 marathon that morning but Chris said she came in to wake him up and said "Daddy, Daddy....WAKE UP, it's my birthday! I am so EXCITED!!!" 

 Checking out her b-day decorations! 

 The Birthday Girl 

 Little sis having to check it out too...of course! 

 Love this little girl and her crazy bed head! 

 My little Belle

Happy, Happy Birthday Lyd...we LOVE you!!! 

Sunday we did a little party for her with my parents, she was so excited to get to open presents two days in a row. 

Spring Break Vegas Style!

For spring break we planned a trip to Las Vegas to visit and stay with Chris' brother and sister-in-law Jared and Stacey! We drove through the night Thursday night fighting horrible winds the entire way and got into Vegas around 11:30 (Vegas time.)

We woke up early the next morning and headed to "Baby Stacks" for breakfast. Umm can I just say it was SSSSOOOO yummy, I am glad we don't have one in SLC because I am pretty sure that I would eat red velvet pancakes for every meal til the day I die. Not to mention my omlett was AMAZING. Unfortunately we went back for naps for the kids and Audrey threw up. No fever and acting normal we went about our day and just wrote it off to motion sickness. We then got all ready and headed to Lake Mead for a very cool bike ride along the old rail road. It is so cool because you can see the amazing view of the lake on one side and you go through all these cool old rail-road tunnels. You end up at the dam and we got to see the new bridge (it is the one from "Transformer's") Seriously it should be one of the wonder's of the world, it is amazing and seriously AWE inspiring honestly. It was a great bike ride and fun to see a different part of Vegas. Afterwards we headed back for a BBQ in Jared and Stacey's newly landscaped back-yard. I am telling ya I could live in Vegas (except for June and July) it was so warm and sunny it was so nice to just sit in their back yard and just soak up the sun and catch up. That night we played some "Hand and Foot" and headed to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up and Stacey had made some delicious muffins (which Lydia probably ate 15 no joke every time I looked up Lydia had taken another muffin and was eating away.) I then got a really good run in, not sure if it was the weather or what but it was such a great run and I felt really good too, which always makes it better! After we headed to the park for an Easter Egg hunt with some families in Jared and Stacey's ward. The kids loved it and Lydia was pretty stoked about all the candy she got. Carter and Audrey seemed more interested in either kicking or throwing the eggs but hey we have the pictures to prove how stinking cute they were doing it. Then we headed to the out-let's. I have to say the Vegas outlet's are the BEST! Unfortunately we didn't find as much as we had hoped but it was still fun to be in the warmth while shopping. Then we hit up Costco which who are we kidding we are totally OBSESSED obviously if we go even on vacation. Then that evening we got a sitter put the kids down and headed out for a night kid free. We went to a really yummy restaurant called "Presidio" My salad was so yummy and the artichoke dip was amazing! After we got the chocolate cake from claim jumper and went crazy!

Sunday we woke up early and unfortunately whatever Audrey had she had now passed onto me. But we were so lucky we got to go to church with Jared and Stacey. Stacey is the choir director for her ward and seriously we were so impressed. The choir sounded AMAZING, you can tell that she knows her stuff because it was mo-tab style and I am not even exaggerating. After we headed back to their house for some lunch and got ready to hit the road.

Unfortunately Audrey got sick again, I was sick and the drive home was a NIGHTMARE. We stopped in Mesquite, Cedar, Beaver and finally we got to Fillmore and I couldn't take it any longer. The smell was horrible and I was so sick to my stomach. I talked Chris into pulling over and getting a Hotel. Yes it was that bad we were 2 hrs. from home and it was only 4:00 p.m. but I couldn't take it any longer. So we swam, Chris took Lydia to dinner while Audrey and I layed on the bed and ate ice chips for a few hours. It also gave me a chance to wash all the throw up clothes of Audrey's and her car seat cover which STUNK so stinking bad. Chris took the carseat base to a carwash and cleaned the heck out of that thing. We layed around for a few hours and by about 11:00p.m. it was clear we weren't going to get a good night sleep at the hotel so we packed back up and headed home! I was SO sick the whole ride but I am so glad we didn't wait until the morning. Lydia woke up sick as well which meant we would've been dealing with me, Audrey and Lydia all sick in our car...not fun!

Anyways we made it home safe and sound and other then a horrible drive home we had such a great weekend. It is always so much fun getting to spend time with Jared and Stacey especially in Vegas on their home turf! They are always so hospitable and make us feel so welcome. Thanks you guys for putting us up and dealing with some sickies while we were there!

Auds on the hunt

Lyds loving all her eggs!

Jared, Stacey and Carter (I took 3 pictures and this was the only pic where I could see Carter but I feel bad he is sort of hiding Stae)

Our Fam...we are pretty pale (ha ha ha!)

Checking out her loot with daddy!

Auds liked the playground more then anything...too cute!

Carter and Audrey hanging out Easter Sunday...don't they look so stinking cute? Audrey and Carter are only 11 days apart so they are destined to be little buddies!

Lydia doing her princess walk...not sure where she learned that (not from me I promise!)

Some seriously cute Easter Sunday kiddlo's!

Of course I didn't have my camera for the other stuff so I will have to steal some of Stacey's pics that she took!

Museum Playdate

My good friend Emily planned a fun play date at the Utah Museum of Natural History! If you haven't been to this museum it is well worth the trip. My kids LOVE this place. It was fun to have other kids with us (it slowed Lydia down a little bit...so we weren't running through the entire museum like usual.) And I liked being able to chat with friends along the way!

Little Auddy

Liddy playing in the cute little interactive river

I love the glass floors throughout the museum...so cool!

The kids playing in the sand box!

The Dino excavation site

The Pergola

Ever since we put in our patio (last summer) Chris has been dying to build a pergola for it. Well this past weekend seemed as good a time as any. So with the help of his brothers (Justin and Darin...we OWE you big time!) They built the LARGEST, most MASSIVE, HUGEST, GINORMOUS pergola I have ever seen. I seriously laughed when they got the first posts in because they were twice the size of a telephone pole...once it was all put together I have to say it looked AWESOME!!! So I will from now on trust Chris and his vision. Now we are looking forward to enjoying some shade in our back-yard (once it is all finished...we just got the bones done we still have quite a bit to add, but we are on our way:)

They dug 4 feet down so the posts would be SUPER secure!

Yes those are 12X12 and were both 15 feet tall this is after they have been buried 4 feet down so it doesn't quite give them justice!

The boys working!

The (almost) final product

Looks pretty sturdy huh:)

The window well cover is coming shortly!