Kalob's Birthday!

Kalob just turned 9 on Friday, April 24th! I took a homemade cookie cake that he had requested to school for his b-day treat. Then he had his best friend Luke come home with us after school. They did their favorite thing, play ball in the backyard. Then we went to the Pinewood derby where he won some awards. The fact that his bff, his grandpa and the rest of his family were there was really exciting for him. Doing well at the Pinewood Derby seriously made his day! After the derby we ordered pizza. Then Eric took Kalob and Luke to the church to play basketball against a few friends. The next day we went to one of his favorite restaurants, Red Robin. His grandpa Pruett and aunt Brittny came with. He got 3 gold dollar coins from grandpa which he thought was the coolest thing.

The family at Red Robbin. I was a little quick to snap the photo, but I couldn't stand trying to get everyone to look (I've been a bit impatient and irritable lately).

Kalob & aunt Brittny

We had them sing to him at Red Robbin. He was so embarrassed, but loved the ice cream!

Yummy Ice cream sundae!

Pinewood Derby

" '09 Allstar" (named after kalob's favorite Wii game, NCAA '09 Allplay).

Let the races begin! The Pinewood Derby was this last Friday which also happened to fall on Kalob's birthday. Eric called Kalob Tuesday night on his way home from work to ask him what he wanted his car to be like. Kalob was playing the Wii at the time and it inspired him to design his car like a Wii controller. They started working on it Wednesday and put the finishing touches on it Friday just before it was time to leave for the races.

When I was helping put some of the last touches on it I started to think that maybe he could actually win something for design. It looked pretty cool! I still kept remembering last year though, how horrible his car had done with speed (he came in last place) I kept saying to Eric not to get his hopes up about winning anything for speed. I didn't think they'd even come close. Funny thing happened, he came in 3rd place for speed! He also won 2nd place for design. The scouts got to vote on each other's cars this year to determine the winners of design. I thought that was a great idea to let them do it instead of the leaders. Anyway, much better than last year I have to say! It was cool that he got to win on his birthday. That made it even more special for him. Also, his best friend Luke and his grandpa Pruett were there. He loved that! It was an exciting night for him (and Eric). ;)

Weigh in

The races begin. This was Kalob's car against "Who cut the cheese" car, which won 2nd for speed & 3rd for design (the opposite of Kalob's)

Waiting at the end of the track.

Kenzie, Colton, & Beau would get so excited when Kalob's car would win a race.

This race was against "The Batmobile", the 1st place winner for speed & for design.

Receiving his awards

Funny thing, all 6 trophies went to 3 boys. They each won one for speed and one for design.

Camp Mabry

Colton is completely obsessed with anything and everything military/army/navy...you get the picture. He loves playing command & conquer computer games and red alert computer games. Anytime there's a show or movie on t.v. that has to do with wars or the army he begs me to record it. He even watches the really old movies (some in black & white) that are army/war movies, i.e. We Were Soldiers, etc.

A friend of ours knows about Colton's obsession and is in the military. He had given Colton an real military hat that Colton wears on a daily basis (he even wears it to bed occasionally). Anyway, he told us about this annual event going on at Camp Mabry this past Saturday. Of course Colton was so excited to go, so we all went together as a family. It was really cool. They had all kinds of activities for the kids to do. There was a helicopter show, and all kinds of tanks and artillery that you could go on and in. They had a reenactment of WWII that was pretty cool to watch. All of the artillery, weapons, and clothes were completely authentic from that war. We had to wear earplugs cause the guns and tanks were so loud. After the show was over they let the kids come out onto the field and collect the bullet casings. They were in heaven! It looked like an Easter egg hunt. Colton later told a friend that he got to see a "movie that was in real life". We also got to ride in an authentic WWII military jeep. The kids thought that part was a lot of fun. The day was smoldering hot and humid, but it made me appreciate the soldiers even more cause you know that's usually how they have to fight, in extreme weather conditions. Anyway, I'm so glad we went (even though I was sick with whatever my kids passed along to me). It was a great experience that I know they'll remember for a long time, especially Colton.

The battle starts. Here come the tanks!

Colton wanted to get the full effect, no earplugs for him. The look on his face was priceless as he watched this "real life movie".


Colton and Beau hunting for bullet casings


Kenzie's casings (notice her outfit, she totally picked it out herself. I thought it was totally appropriate)


There were army men, horses, tanks, and vehicles roaming around from different time periods.


The WWII jeep we rode in.

More April events

Event #3...

Easter 2006


Easter 2007

EASTER
We had done our egg coloring and candy egg hunt on Saturday, the day before, so that we could keep Sunday a more reverent day to focus more on Christ. This was something I had done growing up and had grown to appreciate. I'm determined to keep it as a tradition in my little family. I'm so sad cause I didn't even take a single picture of any of it! We did take some movies thanks to Eric remembering. I've been so bad about taking pictures and movies the past couple of years, so hopefully blogging will help me get better at it. Here's some pictures that my friend, Lanae, took of our kids last year though. They were so cute and I never even really shared them with anyone, so I'm going to take the opportunity right now.

Easter Sunday started off quite nicely. The kids were all waking up in good helpful moods. Beau had been practicing his talk with Eric for like an hour and had a lot of it memorized so that he could say it on his own. He was excited about doing it and so were we cause he sounded so cute while he was practicing. When it came time to go to primary he seemed a bit tired, but he didn't really say anything about it. He had been up the night before tossing and turning ALL night long in our bed! And Thursday night he had a small fever and finally told me (after having to ask him several times if anything was wrong) that his throat was hurting. Anyway, since I'm in the primary I happened to be sitting right behind him and noticed his head fall slowly to the side. He had totally fallen asleep. Suddenly his head jerked up and the startled look on his face almost made me cry. I was so glad I was there to comfort him. He just looked so disoriented. I had him come sit next to me and lay his head down. He was back out in a split second. He pretty much stayed asleep for the next 7 hours! My parents and Eric were starting to get worried about him (I wasn't too worried for some reason ??), so we finally got him to wake up by telling him he could drive the car if he got up. I've never seen any of my kids wake up so fast. He literally popped off the couch and said, "let's go"! Before that we had tried EVERYTHING to get him to wake up. We were bribing him with cinnamon rolls and all kinds of treats, but to no avail. His eyes would pry open and shut the next instant. It was really sad looking. He looked like how I imagine I probably looked at the beginning of this pregnancy. Anyway, he seemed fine after that though. All in all it was a nice day. We ate dinner at my parents house with them and my sister, Brittny. Then later had our "scripture egg hunt" which the kids seemed to enjoy (surprisingly even though there was no candy involved). We started a little tradition back in 2003 taking a casual family picture (nothing fancy), but I was so tired that day that I blew it off. I'm already kind of regretting it. Oh well. I feel like a slacker this year with holidays! Since we didn't take one this year I thought I'd post some previous years. It was pretty funny to see how we've all changed over the last few years.

Easter 2003


Easter 2004


Easter 2005


Easter 2006


Easter 2007


Easter 2008 (no pic either)
Guess I was a slacker last year too!

I can't believe I'm actually doing it!

So I've been wanting to start posting on my blog forever now, but keep letting the "moments" I want to post pass by. I decided I wouldn't put it off any longer and to just dive into it. I thought I'd start with a couple of memorable events that have happened this month. Starting with....

EVENT #1...

My favorite man in the world's birthday!

It was on the 3rd of this month. I feel so bad 'cause I was so busy with my calling at church (2nd counselor in the Primary presidency, we had a quarterly activity March 28th) and with planning my friend's baby shower (it was April 4th) that I totally overlooked his birthday until the last minute. We ended up just looking for a new washer/dryer and for DVD players for our new (used) car. I was a bit surprised when he said that's what he wanted to go do. We must have pretty exciting lives when that's all we can think of on the fly to go do for our date! I didn't mind though. I love just hanging out with him and talking. We also went to eat at Chuys. They have the best queso that we absolutely LOVE there. When we were finishing up our meal Eric leaned over and told me to look at the rice on his plate. There, barely visible at first glance, was a inch long course black hair! For some reason we both just burst out laughing. It was so gross! We weren't really going to say anything to the waitress, but I couldn't help myself. We were laughing and really nice about it. We even told her that she really didn't need to worry or do anything about it, but she went and got the manager anyway. We ended up getting half our meal for free and our appetizer for free (since our waitress had forgotten to tell them to make it until we reminded her). It ended up being a memorable birthday dinner for sure. After almost 11 years of marriage we still have fun just being around each other. :) I'm so grateful for that and for the man that he is! He takes such good care of us. I know the kids appreciate him so much, actually, I think they might even love him the most out of the two of us, seriously. Anyway, HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, ERIC!! I love you!!!

EVENT #2...

Baby shower for my good friend, Lanae.

When it comes to planning parties I can't help but go a little overboard, okay a lot overboard. Eric never gets why I put so much time (and sometimes money) into my kids' birthday parties and holiday parties for them. I can easily devote hours upon hours to finding and/or making just the right items, decor, games, prizes, etc. for their parties. I try to explain to him how it's one of my only creative outlets as a busy mom of 4 kids! Plus, they appreciate it so much, or at least they will when their older, right?! ;) It's just too much fun to pass up. Anyway, my other friend, Lyndsee, and I put together Lanae's shower. I think Lyndsee thought I was a bit crazy half of the time, but she was really good about letting me do my thing. This was the first time I've ever planned and hosted a baby shower before, so I was a little nervous at first. I wanted it to be perfect for Lanae and for it to make her feel like the awesome woman and mother she is. Hopefully, I achieved that at least a little. Here are some pics of the shower that I stole off of Lanae's blog, actually I think I might just steal some of the descriptions too (thanks, Lanae!). ;)

This is the walkway up to the front door. Lanae and I made these for her daughter's birthday tea party last year. I think they add just the right touch when you want to have that whimsical feel. The theme or feel we were going for was a mommy & baby bird/garden theme with bright springy colors with lots of bright flowers.

Here is when you first walked in to my house; with the present table, and the party favor table. We made these cute little flower hair-things and wrapped them around little boxes filled with robin eggs.

I had looked everywhere for some little birds like these and could not find anything! Lanae is like me when it comes to party planning, so she totally understood my dismay when I couldn't find the perfect birds. She ended up making these adorable birds out of felt the night before the shower. She had planned on using them for her daughter's room afterwards (which happens to be birds and birdhouses). It worked out perfectly! I was so happy when I saw them. They were exactly what I was looking for. They actually are just like the birds that were on the invitations. Speaking of the invitations, here they are below. Oh, also, I had planned on growing wheat grass to stick them in, but totally forgot until it was too late! I was so sad! Oh well, this grass worked just as well I guess.

Since you can't really read it, it says:
Please join us for a
Baby Shower Luncheon
Honoring
Lanae Monson
She will soon add a little Birdie to her Nest.
On Saturday, April 4th
beginning at 1 o'clock pm
at the Mott Residence
If you want to help the parents to be
instead of a gift, a package of
diapers will bring them Glee!

Lanae's sister made these adorable invitations and then sent them out. Seriously, the picture does not do them justice. They were the cutest invitations ever! Notice the cute little bird paper along the top. It went perfectly with the bird/garden theme.

Views of decorations. I had wanted to make some pompom things to hang around, but I thought they'd be hard to make and expensive to buy. But Lanae ended up finding instructions on how to make them. We made a few of them together and then I ended up making 10 more later. It was actually really fun making them. I love that Lanae had a great variety of cute maternity photos that I was able to use as part of the decor. On the clothes line I was going to have 2 vintage pillowcase dresses on it that I was to make for Lanae, but I ran out of time, so she had to get them after instead. I ended up just using my samples of the dresses, pantaloons, and diaper covers I used to make and sell.

The food table. I used some birds and birdhouses from Lanae's daughter's room to put around with the food and throughout the rest of the rooms. I'm so glad she had so many things I could use.

This is the game table. We played three games. We tried to keep them simple and quick. The first was they would get a clothespin pinned on them when they first arrived. They couldn't say "cute" or "awww" or they would get it taken away. The person with the most at the end of the shower would win the prize. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It made me realize how much I saw "awww"! The second game was we had little plastic babies frozen in ice cubes. The first person to have their baby melted out of the ice cube, or their "water break", won the prize. The last game was we melted 6 different candy bars in a diaper for each and they had to guess which diaper was what candy bar. I couldn't get over how much the candy bars seriously looked like real baby poop! It was so gross, but so hilarious. The person with the most right would win.

Since this was a mostly bring diapers instead of gifts shower, I had to make some diaper cakes. I love making them. They're so easy and make such fun decorations.

Then Lanae opened her gifts. That's the part I always love! :)

I had so much fun putting this shower together with two of my dearest friends. I'm so glad to have them both in my life!