Trekin' Along

Happy Mother's Day to me.  I'm so grateful to be blessed with three beautiful, wonderful children.  

I love them so much.  I hope to be worthy of them one day.

 Richard had been out of town and returned on his birthday (mid-April), 

so I wrapped a pregnancy test as one of his presents :)

Bring on #4!

 Here's one of our trips to the Seattle Temple.  Families are Forever!

 We love our Hobtons!  Ryan was getting baptized after we moved here to WA.  And we're thankful we didn't get transferred because then we were able to attend the temple sealing of their family the following year.  We love them so much and will miss them terribly when we move.

 Our final trek to Northwest Trek Animal Park!  We were glad we got to bring along our buddy Bennett.

I told my friend I would post how I made Richard's birthday ice cream cake.  Shown are the filling ingredients I used.  I didn't have any Crispy Rice cereal at the time I took the picture, so I don't have the crust ingredients shown.

I'm going to post and come back to add the cake info. in about an hour...

Only three months later...

Valentines Day!

Sisters... Best Friends

I had fun dressing up the kids and making festive food.  

(All of Wendell's shots were blurry- he was too excited to hold still.)

Other February Haps

My haircut

Had to post- just way too cute.

Painting in the kitchen.

 I'll try to post again sooner than later!!  Recipe for amazing ice cream cake (I made for Rich's birthday) to come.

To What Have We Been Up?

You Asked, We Answer:

Playing in the Backyard...

Wendell is holding two slugs.  He was cracking up, pretending to kiss them.  He and Isabelle both love bugs and exploring.

Cutting Hair...

Before

After

Isabelle and I had talked about her getting a haircut for a few months.  When the time finally came, she wasn't in the mood and wanted to keep playing.  I enticed her when I offered to let her wear some makeup! She was super excited after that.  Isabelle loves her new haircut!

Art...

Housework...

 Exercise...

Playing with Dad...

And Just Being Cute...

Isabelle's Fairy Birthday Party

The Invitation~

The actual invitations were peppered with tons of glittery fairy dust.

Adorable little friends!
I made a flower headband for each girl, and we had wings for them to pick out.  As an activity, we made wands.  Wendell loved his blue boy fairy wings and was definitely too busy racing around to have time for a wand.

The Food~

Fruit Wands, Gnome Mushrooms (cherry tomatoes on string cheese with green coconut for grass),
and Fairy Bread.

Barbie Fairy Cake~

This was my first time making a Barbie cake.  I'm proud of myself!
Throwing these parties probably does me more good than anyone else.  It feels really good to think about and work on something other than tending kids, cooking and cleaning.  I am not ashamed to admit I used cake box mixes (it took THREE!),  but I did make my own frosting for the first time.  

When I was in college, my would-be sister-in-law, Brittney, made me a Barbie cake!  (I think we had gone to a Halloween party, the reason for my black outfit.)  Richard had me reenact the pose of my frisky college days.  (Ha ha.)

Loads of Enjoyment~

We colored fairy pictures, played a musical chairs variation, they ran around and just had fun.

My Baby!

She is growing up so fast!  Happy Birthday, my little Belle.