Birthday Palooza(s)

Wowzers, what a weekend. Did we ever party! It all started off with a bang on Friday with Jaxon's birthday. This kid was all sorts of stoked to be three (and so am I, good bye 2!). He woke up to the living room all decked out with balloons along the banister and on the walls and book shelf and a "happy birthday" sign. Magical to say the least. He was so excited all day for his party that night when all the family was going to be there. I put him and Sammi down for naps so I could get some work done (like the cake, but that's no biggie for a birthday is it?) and periodically I would here from Jaxon's room "Mom, I'm awake. I'm ready to get up and have my birthday party". I repeatedly told him that he was not, but he stayed in his room like a good boy. Jaxon loved having everybody over for presents and cake and ice cream. He can put on quite the show when he wants to. We can't believe that Jaxon is three now, it seems like it wasn't that long ago that get was bruising my ribs from the inside with his constant movement (a testament of things yet to come). But it also feels like he has always been a part of our lives. We love him so much and he makes our lives so happy - plus he says some hilarious stuff which makes us laugh!

We are all singing Jaxon "Happy Birthday" plus we had Katie on the phone, which was fun.

Jaxon on his new "motor bike" and his woody costume, which he looks so great in! Liam especially loved it!

Next was little Sammi's birthday. It was officially Monday, but we celebrated it on Sunday because Riley was going out of town early Monday morning. We all congregated at Grandma and Grandpa's for the celebration. Sammi wasn't so much into opening her presents, so I had a great time opening them for her! She kept on looking for the presents that were already opened because she wanted to play with them instead of opening more presents. She loves all the soft, cuddly and shiny new things she got! When we brought the cake out and set it in front of her, she couldn't wait to dive in and waiting through the traditional singing of "happy birthday" was a little too much for her. She wanted that cake! So I stripped her down and gave her a piece which she promptly mashed and threw everywhere...and then she ate all my ice cream. So all in all she had a great birthday, too! Sammi is everything we wanted in a little girl and more. She's so sweet and such an easy keeper, but she's got some spunk to her too...I wonder where she got that from? We've loved having her this year and seeing her grow and learn and laugh. She brings a lot of love into our home and we are excited to see more of the beautiful girl that she will continue to be.

Here's Sammi girl getting excited that we would put so much sugar in such close proximity.

"Now where's the ice cream?"

Thanks to all who came and ate some cake with us and celebrated like crazy. We love having you all in our kids lives - and they sure love it too! And to all those who are close enough to us to come and visit, please do...I still have tons of cupcakes!

The first of the birthday cake...

So October in our family is the month of birthday-walla-palooza-cele-ganza-bration time. The entrance of little Annie Hegsted on the 5th got us all in the mood for the slew of birthdays that were to come. Yesterday was Liam's 2nd birthday, and boy does that kid know how to party! He started off by giving every one of his cousins (that were present anyway) a present - what a guy! (by the way, Kenzie, giving all the kids a ring pop to keep them entertained was genius and worked brilliantly) Then the opening of presents ensued with appropriate "oohs" and "aahs" and reverenced "wow's" given by Liam. His cake was pretty much amazing, a tractor to make the calmest of two year olds get all worked up. So here's to you Liam - we're so glad that you are our "Cousin Memur"!

Our sojourn to California

How lucky we are that Riley has the job that he does. Because he has to do firesides all over the United States, he just happened to have to do a fireside in my old home-town, Vi-smell-ya. I mean, Visalia. So, there was no way that I was going to let him go without me and the kids...and no way that my parents would let him stay at their place without the grandkids (to heck with me). So for an awesome week, we were able to stay with my parents and play...oh, and Riley did do some work.

The first major thing that we did was go to King's Canyon and Sequioa National Parks. It was sooooo beautiful up there and we loved spending the day there. We were able to eat lunch at the camp ground that my family used to always camp at and see some big ole whompin' trees. There was three forest fires going on in the Sequioa's, so we didn't stay long there, but it was still a ton of fun.

We also went to the zoo in Fresno. It is the perfect size; only takes a couple of hours to go through but has some of the bigger animals that we don't have at the zoo in Idaho Falls. We even got to feed a giraffe - a totally awesome experience and well worth the 2 bucks it cost!

We also went swimming and tried to spend as much time outside as we could. It was great! Riley tried to perfect his dive, I really think he's almost there. Watch out Yo Min, or whoever that really famous Chinese diver was.

We also went bowling, had a picnic, and just took it easy. It was a blast and we were sad to see our trip come to an end, but it's good to be back home where we can be with even more of our family. We are excited to go back at Christmas and be with the whole gang. Hopefully by then our children would have recovered from the excitement!