Mama is AWAY

Well this is my first post for the weekend full of fun.  Hailey is off on her girls weekend in Cali and here I am holding down the fort.  Max and Ady are both sick, I have to speak in sacrament on Sunday and teach Sunday school, and all the while need to make sure these kids love their time with Daddy, and take care of them all.  For you moms this may seem like any other day/weekend.  For me, I am looking at it as a FUN CHALLENGE.  Im making popcorn at the moment and the kids are relaxing and watching NEMO.  Stay tuned

Fairy Party

Today we celebrated Ady's 4th birthday with a Fairy themed get together. Every year previous Adyson's party has been with her friends and their families. So, this year we thought she was old enough to host just her little girlfriends. They were so cute. She invited 5 of her little friends, we kept the list smaller since I planned to make tutu's and wings for each of the guests. 

Before the party we took each girl, her own set of homemade fairy wings and matching tutu. They all got to be different colors of fairies and Ady was a rainbow of all of their colors. They looked adorable. We also hired a face painter/balloon artist to give the girls fairy faces and balloon wands. Darling.

The fairies...

Adyson (the multi colored fairy)

Karlee (the yellow fairy)

Hannah (the pink fairy)

Lexus (the peach fairy)

Savannah (the green fairy)

Cecily (the rose fairy)

Ady had plenty of help opening her gifts.

The kids loved watching their butterfly and sparkle wands folded by the ballon artist

Check out the real birthday girl and the balloon version

After the face painting and balloons the girls fancied up their place mats, with jewels and stickers and glitter for their fairy lunch.

And lastly there was cake....

We moved upstairs after lunch for some super yummy cake and Ady-fairy berry juice

{look close at the picture on the Jones soda wrapper}

Thanks for coming you cute little ladies!

Ady's Day

Ady Bug,

I have so many favorite memories of you, but truly the first or most memorable one that comes to my mind is the day you were born.  You will always be my "first" and the experience of your birth was truly life changing.  I remember it very well, from your purple color, to your cries, to your eyes and yes, even your weird looking head.  It turns out your head was just perfect, but I didn't know that at the time.  I can't even begin to explain what a father feels when he sees he little princess born.  Everything just stopped and you were all that mattered.  Just ask your mom, for everything to stop in my world is very hard, but that day and at that time it did.  You are a precious gift and I love you very much.

In addition to your birth some other great memories I have with you are:

your first steps,

driving you to school and talking all the way there

playing on the beach

watching you get all dressed up in your dresses

listening to your conversations

I could go on and on.  

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and want you to know how much I love you.

Love Dad

Ady Rose,

Happy 4th Birthday my little princess buggy bug! Do you know how much I love you? You are my best little girlfriend, and my big helper, and the best protective older sister to max, that we could ever ask for. I have so many favorite memories of you. Your birth, as your dad said was amazing and life changing. From the moment you were born, you were such a sweet content baby. We took you everywhere, you went out of town with us all the time, and whenever people would give the the look on a airplane like "oh no, I hope that baby dosent cry", I would say to them "Don't worry, she travels great, you wont even know she is here". It made for an easy transition into parenthood. I used to love when you would take naps on your daddy's chest, and fall asleep in your saucer. I remember one night thinking you looked so cute, so I had an impromptu photo session with you on my bed,  only to review the pics and find you were, cross eyed, blinking or yawning in all of them and I still thought you looked perfect. I love everything about you and we are so proud of you.

I love your giggley smiles

and your prancing run

and when you say "oh no mommy, I'll take care of you" whenever I complain of a headache or anything

I love watching you cook with daddy

and be the sweet big sister to little Max.

You are so special Ady, and I love you so much.

Mommy

Sunnybrook.

We just returned from a wonderful 5 days in Kent Ohio at the Kandell Compound, for our annual 4th of July celebration with Eric's family. I have so so so many pictures and so much going on the next couple of days that I am just posting the pics I took of Eric's parents lovely home and yard for now. I am sure you will see why our kids think Ohio is heaven. Yard like this do not exist in Utah. {None of the color in the photos has been enhanced, it is really that green}

Our kids love feeding the donkeys Gladie and Gabe everyday. max will even eat the food along with them {cringe}

This is my favorite of all of Sue's planters, {and their are lots} one of the planters is Eric's shoe from when we was just a toddler and the other is his worn out shoe he wore home from him mission to Chile. Awesome idea, isn't it?

And this isn't even all of it, I didnt document the berry bushes, the kids love to pick and eat from, the woods {where the Kandell's legendary "killdozer" supposedly lives, or the pool. 

We love Ohio... and I will post the pics from the trip as soon as Ady's birthday (tomorrow) and her Fairy Party (Wednesday) are behind us.

Balboa Park Family Pics (3rd and final San Diego shoot)

Silver Strand Beach (2nd San Diego Shoot)