TWO years old!!

 Last night we started the Birthday celebrations for Naters! (Scott has to work ALL day today, so we ate the Mickey Mouse cookies and cupcakes last night!)

 Nathan LOVES Mickey Mouse! Like LOVES him! I found these adorable, and easy, Mickey cookies and cupcakes on Pinterest a while back and I knew they'd be perfect for Nathan's party!

 Today, the 29th, is his real TWO year birthday! WOWZA! My sweet baby doll is already 2? Time flies! We walked around the yard snapping some cute birthday shots. He's not much of a smiler, but loves looking at his picture after I take one.

Happy, happy birthday to my little man, Nathan! I hope you have a wonderful day!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Aaronic Priesthood

 On Will's Birthday night he received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a very special evening and we had many wonderful friends and family in attendance!

The brethren that stood in were Scott, Harley, the Bishop, Ben, Chris, Dave, Jordan and Jackson. THANK you all for being great examples to Will and sharing with us this special event. Also to other family and friends who were in attendance. (Mom, Bill, Bubbles, Angie, Kelsey, Colten, Tricia, Nicole and the 10 Deacons in Will's class!!)

Will wanted fresh strawberry cupcakes. I made a test run earlier in the week and they came out great! They really were terrific cupcakes! Happy birthday Will! I am so proud of you for being worthy and having a desire for the priesthood!! 

Strawberry Cupcakes

2 3/4 C flour

1/2 C cake flour

1 T baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 C. Butter (room temp)

2 1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 large eggs and 1 egg white

1 C milk

2 C finely chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 350*. Sift together both flours, baking powder and salt.

Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. until fluffy. Add whole eggs and white one at a time. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk. Fold in chopped strawberries. Cook 25-30 minutes. Let completely cool.

For the frosting I made a cream cheese frosting but I added finely chopped strawberries to that too. Will didn't want fluffy frosting, so I made it a little different. They turned out great!!

10 years old!!

 Happy, Happy Birthday Jackson!! His birthday was on Saturday and it sure was a fun-filled day!! In the morning we had a special breakfast, opened presents and went to basketball practice. During the breaks from basketball we did a little geocaching. Went to a special lunch and got a dip cone.

 After lunch we headed on a family hike to Donut Falls. It was a beautiful day and it was fun spending the entire day with the family!

 All the big boys and Scott climbed all the way to the top! (Brigham, Gavin and Jackson's first time!!) It's so beautiful up there.

 Here is a shot of all the boys climbing to the falls. Steep and slippery, but really fun!!

After, we headed home ate his favorite dinner and watched the BYU vs. U game. That was a terrible game!! But it was fun watching it as a family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!

Boden Family

While in Santa Barbara over the summer I was able to take family portraits of the Boden and Mann family. Here are a few of the Boden's. Such a good-looking family! Such a wonderful, fun family!
Love you guys!!

Fat Cats party

 After the meet, after snow cones, after running errands...We headed to Fat Cats to celebrate Will's 12th birthday. He invited a couple of friends and we also met Grandma and Grandpa there. We had the whole place to ourselves! We played a ton of games and collected tickets to exchange for small dumb toys. They boys loved it!

 

After all the playing we ate pizza and salads on the back patio! A very fun evening with family and friends!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!

Last time this season!

 One of our favorite snow cone stands is officially closed for the season, but right before it shut down we took Nana and Papa there for a treat! Will got his for free because it was his birthday!!

 We all enjoyed the cool treat.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!

Cross Country Meet

 Will is on the Evergreen Cross Country team and had his first meet on the 8th, his birthday!! My mom and Bill flew in earlier that morning and they were there for this special event. It was a mile and a half run. He placed 90th out of 130 7th, 8th and 9th graders.

 We were all very proud of him! Here are 2 of his friends from school and the ward. One lives across the street and the other right next door!

Great job Will! And Happy Birthday!!

Quotes

 Have you been on Pinterest? Oh my! It's the most wonderful (time-sucking) site ever! It gives you all these great ideas of decorating, recipes, pictures, books, quotes....I've been collecting some of my favorite inspirational quotes for a while and FINALLY got busy and printed them up. The above one Scott and I have been working on for sometime. A couple of my friends had one like this, but with a few different words. We finally chose those words that describe our family perfectly. I love the way it came out! The quotes below I found off of Pinterest. LOVE THEM ALL!!

I made the above one on a little scrap piece of wood (3x6)and it sits on my desk next to all my material.

 This is 8" tall over our french doors in the master bedroom.

 I've had this photograph of our dear Prophet for sometime and wasn't sure how or where to use it. Then I came across this wonderful quote from him. LOVE how it turned out!

Can't see this as easily and it's missing a dot over the "i". UGH! I'm glad I own my own plotter (vinyl machine). We have been talking a lot with the boys about doing hard things and why we do them. This will be a subtle reminder!