Billy Bob's Birthday...Hot Diggity Dog

 I had a lot of fun decorating for his birthday this year.  The theme was obviously Mickey Mouse.

 Let me tell you Pinterest is the devil.  I've decided I'm not a "casual" pinner.  If I pin something I'm going to use it, and I don't need to need to do things.  So this birthday ended up being a little labor intensive, but I guess it was worth it.

 I saw this balloon in June when I was getting Brendon's balloons done for his birthday and I knew that I had to get this for Billy Bob.  He loved it and it lasted for longer than I expected since it had 3 boys playing with it.  I knew Billy was going to go through the roof when he saw it and he did.  Balloons are his favorite birthday thing.

 Brendon with Mickey.

 More fun stuff.

 This was an idea that I saw on pinterest.  Seriously I hand stitched 12 of these stupid things...but they were so cute and we still have some around the house.  The kids loved them. I did 4 of each.

 Mickey oreos...another idea from pinterest.  labor intensive...yes.  Worth the time and labor...yes! They were divine!

 Ben with Mickey

 Is it too much to ask to get a picture of the birthday boy with his cake...apparently!

 I guess if he wasn't crying and throwing a fit it wouldn't represent his true nature!

 My first time with a fondant cake...don't know if I'll do it again.  But I think it did turn out okay.

 Little Kasen trying to decide if he was going to like Mickey or be scared.

 Gracie was in love with Auntie Jill and Uncle Jason because they had the "goods"! They were loading her up on the oreos and she thought that was awesome, but she was still willing to share. 

 Billy loves to blow out his candles.

 He was so excited to get his piggy bank from his Grandma he didn't care about anything else.  He kept shaking it and saying "money, money".  And to top it off Grandma got him a yellow piggy, could life get better for him?  Not at this point!

Kasen and Miss Grace.  They aer so cute.  But they aren't really sure about each other yet.

California Love

So every year we look forward to our trip to California to go visit family, but this year we were extra excited because we knew we were going to Sea World.  The kids were excited, although, I don't think they could even imagine how much fun they were actually going to have.  It was awesome!

 After we got into the park we went to watch the killer whales in their tank.  We wanted to see their show first, everything else would come later.  We actually saw 2 Shamu shows.  One in the morning and one at night.  They were both good but the night one kicked butt!

 They couldn't believe how big they were.  National Geographic had nothing on this!

 Gracie was beside herself.  Poor thing probably had no idea what was really going on, and overall the was a trouper!

 Billy couldn't get enough of the "sharks"

 From the moment we stepped through the gate this boy was obsessed with us buying him a Shamu stuffed animal.  After a few hours Blake and I decided we did need to get each of the kids something as a memento.  We let them each pick a stuffed animal, which was such a relief to Brendon.  Even though by the time we decided to do this we were on the opposite side of the park from where they had the killer whale stuffed animals so he got his very last, he was sooooo worried we were going to forget.

 The dolphins were awesome.  Some people told us that the dolphin show wasn't very good, but it was!  Next to the Shamu shows the dolphin was the best.

 This is us waiting for the first Shamu show to start.  We wanted front row seats where we could get wet, and boy did we ever get wet.  Again, poor Gacie's just an innocent baby thrust along for the ride.  It kind of sucked because we had salt water drying on us the rest of the day.  I was ready for a shower by the end of the night.

 A really awesome picture I caught.

 Ben Ben totally ready for the day.

 Blake spun this thing so hard I think he broke it...literally.  We came back later that day and I swear it was the same tea cup thingy and it was out of order.  When I got in with him he made me pee my pants he was spinning that thing so fast.  It was awesome.  Ben is going to be a little dare devil like his Dad when it comes to things like roller coasters.

 Here's a picture of my two polar bears in their cave.  And it was freezing in there!

 First time I saw a real flamingo...have to say not as pink as I thought they'd be.  Seriously more of a salmon-y orange, I guess I should have expected that, but I didn't so I was a little disappointed.  Man do those garden flamingo's have things mixed up!  And if I remember right...they stank.

Well we also went to the beach while we were in California.  It was awesome.  Gracie loved it.  And I already knew that the boys would love it.  I was so proud of them playing in the sand and the water.  The beach was awesome!

 Isn't she adorable!

 Here's the big boys building a sand castle.  This is what going to the beach is really about, just ask Ben or Brendon.

 Billy Bob just wanted to play in the dry sand with a shovel and a pail.  Why am I not surprised?  Look at the stink eye in this picture! He had tons of fun.

 It took the kids a while but they finally got into the spirit of wave tag.  Sometimes the kids won and sometimes the waves one. 

Here's the boys enjoying some more sand time without their Dad.  Well  I didn't get any pictures of this but while we were at the beach we saw a few whales on their migration towards Alaska.  It was AWESOME!!!  You could just see them breaching in the water from the beach and luckily our Gadda Sue had her binoculars.  Blake and Jim walked the peer to see if they could get a better look and they said they did and they were huge.  All I could see was some idiot in like a rubber pontoon boat.  I couldn't help but think here pretty soon you're going to be a bath toy!

Green

Okay I don't really have time to do tons of pictures especially if blogger is going to take forever uploading them, but I had to share these.  I'm so proud of my husband for what he's done and I want everyone to see.
BEFORE:

 This is when we first planted our grass in the back yard.  We did plant it in early spring, probably a little too early but it had been so warm we decided ohhh, what the heck.  Sometimes it seems like it would come up and thicken over night and sometimes we would think is it ever going to get better. Well it did!


AFTER:

This is the same spot, just taken from the side instead of in front.  Ta Da!  Well it did take a few months, but doesn't it look great.  We were so pessimistic because we could never get grass to grow in our back yard at our old house.  We were worried we just had the brownest thumbs ever! But maybe our thumbs are changing colors?  He mowed it right before I took the picture so you can kind of see the mow lines.

This is the other side of our back yard.  I know it still has a few spots it needs to fill in, and we did go back and plant an area that we didn't originally plant, which you can't see in either of these pictures, but I think it has come a long ways this summer.  It is pretty thick, but still has some weeds that need choked out, but I figure by next summer it should be awesome.  Blake said he wished our front yard looked like our back. I told him I know, but it's all about the water bill right now, we have everything to plant it, but I don't think we could afford our water bill being double what it is right now...maybe someday.  But yeah, Blake has done a great job in our back yard and I'm proud of him.  He likes to just sit on our back porch and look at it.  He's so funny!  Thanks Babe, we love our yard!

May 2012

Okay so summer has basically come and gone. I know it's only the first, well almost the second of August but the kids will be back to school in no time flat, which just makes me want to cry! I haven't done a post in a while and I know because it's only way late at night that I have time to do them and it's either sleep, or blog, and I'm sorry but sleep normally wins! Well it doesn't pay off because now I'm going through my pictures to see what I need to blog and I swear I have like 100 pictures that I want to post! So I will take it a little at a time and I might have to finish the blog later. But I only have a few days to get it all done before we leave on our "vacation" to Cali so here's starting I guess!

 We are starting off with Easter...I know I'm LAME!  But I will try to be better and not get so far behind.

 I love that Ben is waving in this picture...too cute.  Also funny that I got a picture with the kids this time and that Blake is the one taking it.  I think because he had to work so we probably were dressed up and he wasn't.

 What can I say.  This is Bill Bob to the "T". If you look closely you can see his smile.

 Gracie was so cute, as normal.

 What a handsome young man.  Boy is he ever just getting big.  He was so mad that I bought him a purple shirt because you know purple is a girl color.  But he gets tan and he looks so good in it!

Brendon is looking pretty sharp in this picture as well.  He was pretty excited almost enough to forget that he had to wear church clothes.  He hates wearing his church clothes!

Ok, and now it's time for some randomness:

 Another pictue of Billy falling asleep in an uncomfortable position!

 Gracie winning the war against food!  She is such a stinker when it comes to eating.  The little poop has got food on my face from raspberry-ing me more than my three boys did combined!  And look at her smile the little devil, she's proud of it.

 I just love her in this little yellow dress.

I love how she crawls. It's so funny to watch, but she doesn't like to crawl on her knees, I think it hurts them and she's to dainty to have hurt knees.

Well now we are on to Brendon's pre-school graduation/program.

I love our pre-school that we send our kids to.  I wish they could be my kids teachers' for their whole lives but unfortunately they can't.

 This picture is hazy but you get the drift....he was excited.  If you don't believe me, look below.

He was so cute.  I couldn't believe how excited he got.  He usually gets really nervous when he gets up in front of people.  In fact the frist time he had to give a scripture in primary Blake's mom tried to help him and he got up there, said one word, looked at her and said "I can't do this" got himself down and went back and sat with his class.  He has had one failed talk that I ended up giving and just like last month, meaning July, he finally gave a talk.  I told him if he gave his talk that I would take him to IFA and get him this swan toy that he was dieing to have.  It worked!

Here's half of his class.

Ok so here's Brendon with his teacher's Mr. and Mrs. Young. That are so awesome, have I mentioned that? I love them and they have no idea what's coming their way in a few years when they get the Billy Bob!

Alright on to some more randomness below.

Ben played t-ball this year for the first time and he loved it.  I think we will definitely have to do this next year, but I think he'll be in coach pitch.

 He looked so handsome in his uniform and we only bought the one picture of him and him with his team.  But his single photo came out soooo good.

 Alright here's some crazy pictures of the beast!

 Look at the Devil in those eyes! He is so irritating he's cute.

 And then there's the Gracie girl that is such a good cute little thing.  I love that I can put her hair up in a little pony.  I actually got some pig tails on top of her head the other day.  Don't worry I have pictures of those, but I'm trying to stay in chronological order here. But look at that face under here, isn't that enough to warm your heart!

 Well I was going to post some more...but I'm giving in to sleep since the last five pictures that I was trying to upload are taking FOREVER.  Oh well.  So here's a start to getting caught up any ways.  At least I have all my pictures picked out and on my computer in a file so I know what I'm going to blog about! Hey I have to make small steps and have encouragement!