Thirty One

Maybe you haven't heard me say it enough yet, but I love birthdays. Not just mine. I love everyone's birthday!

They should be celebrated all day long. So that is what I did.

(But really, why would anyone not like their birthday? The opposite of loving that you were born and that you are still alive to experience life is like wishing you were dead right? And that is heartbreaking. So love your birthday okay? Whatever it takes to make that happen for you, do it.)

Anyways, I decided it would be the perfect day for a girls day at Lagoon since Frightmares was open, most of our husbands don't like roller coasters anyway and I haven't been on a roller coaster since 2011, before I had kids. Lucky for me Becca, Lindsay and Tyne were all able to come!

Fun fact: all 4 of our preschoolers are in the same preschool class together!

 As soon as they opened the gates at 10am we were there.

The weather forecast showed an 80% chance of rain. All day long. BUT actually the weather was perfect! It rained for maybe 30 minutes the whole day. So since the weather forecast scared away most of the crowds we got to nearly walk onto all the rides. After riding Wicked 3x in a row without even having to get out of our seats I lost count of how many times we rode each ride! The Rocket I know was 3. The workers remembered us when we'd go back to the rides though. We're like regulars now.

 Cannibal was our favorite though! One time around it got a little windy on Cannibal and the waterfall got blown into our faces, but it was so stinkin fun!

 We did 3 of the haunted houses, but the clown one (which was only 3 spiders scary) was pretty sweet so we went back through that one a second time. We had our formation down too. I was in front, then Becca holding onto me, then Tyne and Lindsay in the back of our sandwich. Worked Perfect.

We stayed clear until 10:30pm!

We talked, we laughed, I ate dippin dots and I can't believe we lasted over 12 hours.

 Friday night Ashley took me to Thai House to get Mango Curry and Mango Sticky Rice! Same place we went last year, that I have been craving to go back to ever since. So good!

Thank you Ashley!

Wednesday my mom came down and took us to Tucanos for our birthdays. #freebirthdaymeal

Also, I never knew that kids 6 and under eat free there! Best deal ever! We ended up running back in to get some passion fruit mousse before we left. We didn't use our free meals last year so it's been a couple years since we've had some.

Thank you mom!

Also, Kyle got up and made me breakfast before I went to Lagoon on Saturday. This is what we call a Chaz bagel. It's a mix of 2 Gandolfos breakfast sandwiches. Fried egg, turkey, swiss and avocado on a toasted bagel. So good!

 The week before that my dad took me to lunch at Costa Vida for my birthday (mom has been sick with pancreatitis again darn it).

 Thank you dad!

 The kids were asleep when I got home from Lagoon (obviously, cause it was almost midnight) so they sang and we ate cake Sunday morning. My favorite Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

The kids sang a version of Happy Birthday that is one of those songs that never ends, but I was loving that they just kept going!
Kyle knows how much I love experience gifts so next week he is taking me to see comedian, Drew Lynch! And for his birthday we are going to a Jazz game at the end of the month. Making memories together are the best kind of gift. Especially when quality time is your love language.

 Kyle let them pick out the card and draw on it. Again I am super impressed with the version of our family that Kasen drew. First time I've really seen his drawing look like people! And the part about hiking is so funny because Tai keeps telling us that next time she wants to hike the Y. Whenever we go somewhere she wants to know if we're going to hike the Y.

 Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! One of my brothers even remembered this year :) And a huge shout out to those images that were FRIENDS memes! Yaaassss!

My favorite was this list that my mom posted on Facebook for me though. Similar to what I did for Mother's and Father's Days this year.

In honor of your 31st Birthday, I am sharing 31 memories. Happy Birthday to my daughter and lots of love to you today and always.
31 memories with you:
1. The first moment I saw and held you. I cried with joy.
2. How you liked to rub strands of my hair between your fingers as you fell asleep when you were an infant. That habit transferred to the silk edges of your blankey.
3. Your favorite blankey and how I managed to buy the same blanket 3 different times before it went out of production and you held onto that last one until it was so worn. Then your excitement as a teen when you discovered that I had tucked it away for you.
4. Playing chase around the partition in the house when you were a toddler and hearing you squeal and laugh when I would backtrack and catch you.
5. Watching you line up all of your Dr. Suess books down the hall end to end, having me read each one to you, and then placing them back in the line.
6. Watching you meet your new brother and announcing to the nurse that he pooped in his first bath.
7. Letting me pick the gravel out of your ice cream cone after I dropped it on the ground and being ok to eat it.
8. Watching you learn to ride your new pink bike.
9. Holding my hand when you were 3 and we took a small plane from Maitland to Sydney that was more turbulent than I expected and telling me I would be ok.
10. Your excitement at announcing that we were expecting your little sister and getting to take her to school for show and tell.
11. The first time you tried making cookies by yourself and used 1 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
12. Getting rolls of film back during your early years as a budding photographer and seeing that most of the pictures were of Socks. That was back in the days before digital cameras.
13. Sitting for three hours at a time to braid your hair into corn rows.
14. Coming home from work to a spotless house.
15. Listening to you quote nearly every line from Emperor’s New Groove
16. Listening as you read Harry Potter books to us.
17. Teaching you to drive and watching you drive around the block over and over when we were visiting friends in a small town and I could see all around the block as you would make your way around.
18. Skiing
19. Karaoke on our cruises
20. Feeling safe enough to talk to me about sex when other friends didn’t dare ask such questions of their parents.
21. Crying and letting me hug and reassure you when you thought you were going to get fired barely 3 weeks into your first job because someone scammed you.
22. All of your graduations.
23. All of the fun vacations. Camping, Bryce Canyon, North Carolina (& listening to you sing banjolo at 1 am in a hotel room), Disney World, Tuachan, Vegas, Huntington Beach & Sea World, Caribbean cruise, Yellowstone, NYC & the Bahamas, Bear Lake,
24. All of the one-liners you come up with and your wit.
25. The time you tried talking me into just going through a red light that was taking forever to change, and then after it finally turned green seeing police lights come on and the car behind me get pulled over by the police car that was behind them. I can imagine what the conversation would have been like had I taken your advice and ended up being the one pulled over. “My daughter told me to”.
26. Game nights
27. Conquering my fears and going skydiving with you.
28. Spending time scrapbooking together.
29. When you rode the train to come to Sacramento to help me move back to Utah.
30. Seeing your face when I was able to come to the Temple to see you be married.
31. Watching you become a mother for the first time.

So that was my birthday. I am 31 years old.

September

 My Grandpa Ward turned 89 years old this month and the week that our young women's activity was cancelled I took the chance to go visit my grandparents in Aurora. I don't think I'd been since Thanksgiving 2 years ago so it was way overdue. Grandma Judy was already done bottling peaches when I got there, but she had made us a yummy peach dessert and they took us out to get burgers for lunch. Of course they loaded my car up with all sorts of fruit and vegetables when we left too. Being at their house just feels so great because of all the memories I have there, growing up with my cousins, sleeping over, watching old movies, Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas parties and four-wheeling. I miss those.

 Find ways to spend time with God every day and let Him remind you how much He cares.

 Last week our Friday adventure consisted of stopping by Nielsen Grove Park in Orem to feed the ducks. As soon as we got out of the car they started heading for us then followed Kasen all the way back to the pond. He was loving it! "Come on ducks! Come here ducks!"

His little elbows flapping when he walked around quacking with them was super cute too.

 Later in the car Tai was telling us her nose hurt and we finally figured out she was saying wood chip. She had pushed a wood chip up her nose! Luckily we were able to plug her one nose hole and get her to blow the wood chip out of the other hole. Last time it was a popcorn kernel...

 They pulled the tires off of Kasen's remote control car and now Tai wears them around on her arm and calls them her "super powers"

Whenever she starts running anywhere she always yells back, "Not fast as me!"

She has started saying "totally" ALL the time. "I'm totally done." "Kasen totally kicked me in the head." "I totally want you to sing now."

The other thing she says all day every day is, "I just love you" The just part really sells it.

 Their prayers are the best part of my days! Well, besides when they go to bed at night ;) In Kasen's prayers he's started saying that Jesus is a good guy and ever since I prayed for Kyle to feel calm and do well in his sergeants interview Kasen has also started praying that dad will be calm. That's all he includes though! Haha

I love that Kasen has his Jesus picture and his red power ranger tucked right in bed next to him. #priorities

 Whenever Kasen brushes his teeth now he says he wants to brush them like dad, which means that he wants to walk around the living room while he brushes his teeth!

And this is a picture of the "walking giraffe" that he painted. It makes me so happy.

 Kasen also drove a gold cart this week. Our neighbors invited the neighborhood over for scones and one of them brought their golf cart, but left the keys in. Kasen punched the gas and took all the kids for a short ride down the road.

Birthday Boy

 Happy THIRTY-FIRST Birthday to these twinners!

  There's just so much I love about Kyle that I'm so happy he was born. I love celebrating his birthday because I love that we are getting old together.

There have been a few times that he has let me photograph him for my college photography assignments and I am always especially grateful when I get to take his picture cause he hates it. Even though he is so gosh darn good looking. I mean, YUM.

He's quite the outdoors man and sports enthusiast. His hobbies include:

Snowmobiling,

Golfing,

Hunting,

Playing basketball every Wednesday night,

Cheering for the Jazz, the Utes, and the Packers,

Fishing,

Slalom skiing,

Freeze drying all the food,

Bowling with his cherry scented bowling ball,

trying really hard not to spend all the money he would like to,

eating all things peanut butter
And sitting straight up in bed to creepily talk in his sleep.

His favorite restaurant is Buffalo Wild Wings.

His favorite color is Red.

His favorite animal is Elk.

He loves being a Police Officer and at work his nickname is FETCH, which is hilarious and also kinda neat.

He also just got called to be the Ward Clerk in our ward, which makes him a lot busier. And makes it a lot harder to find time to sleep on Sunday between his graveyard shifts, but he's amazing anyways!

 Like I said, extremely good looking.
And his sarcastic sense of humor is at the top of the list as well. We laugh at the meme that says "If I get murdered it will be because I said the perfect thing to someone with no sense of humor." So true.

Kyle is always there to keep me honest whenever I want to switch theaters at the double feature drive in movie and gives me dirty looks when I sneak my own treats from home into the other movie theaters. He shops for most of my clothes because I never know what to buy too. What would I do without him?!

Also a one in a million dad to Kasen and Tai. They run around the house chasing each other and squealing and getting thrown on the couch and hit with pillows and "fighting" and getting tickled on a near daily basis. Kasen gets every one of his haircuts from Kyle and Kyle is very good at combing Tai's hair like a boy too. He's always the first to check on them if they cry in the night.

I asked Kasen what he loves about dad and he said, "He puts bad guys in jail."

I asked Tai what she loves about dad and she said, "I love we hike to the G."

 These are the homemade Reeses peanut butter cups he made us the other week for a little treat. And his freeze dried skittles!

He's just the best and I'm so glad that he's my best friend that I get to hang out and laugh with and snuggle on the couch to watch FRIENDS with and do all the things with. I love you forever.

Happy Birthday Kyle!

The Fair and Other Fun

Melanie invited us to go with her to the Utah State Fair again this year. Fourth year in a row now and this year was Tai's year to really love seeing all the animals.

She tried real hard to drag me back to the rides, but we didn't do any of those. I will have to take her on a Ferris wheel soon though.

 

 

The first animals we saw were the pigs and I could not get Tai to pet one. Even though she STILL talks all about her piggy birthday party. After we saw the pigs though she was all about petting the rest of the animals.

Grandma Mel even showed them that they could feed the sheep.

I love how excited Kasen was to stand in front of this fan!

And this kid, he was so proud of those pigs and was sure that I was trying to take his portrait. He kept looking at me, all smiles ready for me to take his picture when really I just wanted him to get the heck out of the way.

We walked through the Little Hands on the Farm again this year and they got to milk a cow, brush the sheep, gather chicken eggs, pick apples, gather vegetables, ride a tractor etc.

At the end the kids all got a dollar for their store to buy one treat. Well, I was helping Tai and was not aware that Kasen looted the store and took as many treats as his arms could carry. He got a granola bar, an apple and 2 little cereal boxes. My bad...

We learned our lesson about how expensive food at the fair is so this year we stopped at Wingers with Kyley and Jordan on the way home.

 Cozette dyed my hair for me again this month! Even darker, per Kyle's request. My hair color is now 2 shades away from black, but I like it dark.

Nefertity Martinez Dickson, Daphne LeBaron, Me, Whitney Poast Breinholt, Kristina Coil McNeill, Jenny Hunter Moreira

 I also hosted a Brasil Campinas Mission, Sisters reunion! I had hoped more of us would have come, but I had 3 of my 8 companions there at least. It was so fun to catch up and talk about the mission and Brasil and the people. Even though I'm too embarrassed to even try speaking Portuguese anymore.

We all pitched in to have a yummy Brazilian meal together though. That was delicious. I made stroganof and we had rice, pao de quejo, passa tempos, guarana, and suco de laranja e acerola (my all time favorite juice). Later we did a Skype call with President and Sister Tanner in California.

It was such a great night.

And today Kasen was in his first little primary program in Sacrament meeting at church!

My parents all came to watch him, but he didn't sing very much. He did some awesome finger goggles while he was standing up there though.

I love that they didn't have the kids just read written parts during the program. The few kids that had parts came up and just spoke their own words about their favorite story of Jesus or about their baptism. I loved that they bore their personal testimonies!

It's why I love hearing Kasen pray all by himself. Their simple testimonies are powerful.