Caleb's Golden Birthday

Well, I remember my own golden birthday like it was yesterday. I turned 11 on the 11th of July back in 1995. I remember my biggest want at that time, was to become a movie star and ride around in a limo. So for my golden birthday party, my mom threw me this amazing Hollywood themed party. I had about 8 friends over (and my little sister) and we played some kind of movie star games, dressed up in these gowns that my mom probably bought at Goodwill that week, and had a grand time. (Yes, I was 11…not 5. I still liked playing dress up and I still do. haha) But really the whole icing on the cake (the figurative cake - I had a real cake too, probably with real icing) was that I had BEGGED my mom to rent a limo to drive around me and my friends for an hour or so and take them all home from the party in. She had repeatedly said "no." It was like $100 or something crazy to rent the limo for an hour and she was totally not budging on the idea. So I was bummed, but I had accepted it by the time my party day had arrived. So imagine my surprise, when right at the end of the party, my friends start FREAKING out and telling me to go outside! There it was - a white stretch limo - my dream had come true. We all piled in there with our long, Goodwill gowns and treat bags in hand (yes, I know, still 11… haha) and drove around town for about an hour and then started dropping off the girls at their houses. It was probably one of the best days of my life. (Or at least that's how I remember it.) So OF COURSE I wanted my little Caleb's Golden birthday to have the same effect on him!

Did it? I don't know, probably not. haha But I think it was a really fun day! Caleb kind of has this Eyore complex. He gets in these "Nobody likes me… my life is so horrible…" moods. There were a couple of points during the day where I wanted to just shake him and be like, "This is your Golden Birthday! Have fun, dang it!" Most of the time he did, but Josh said there was one point where all eight little boys went running scared out of the playhouse because Caleb was having a "I am missing a Power Rangers Card!" meltdown. haha I was out getting the pizza and missed that. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday (Friday, June 6th) was his actual birthday. We went to Kiwi Loco for some frozen yogurt and to McDonald's for dinner. He got his presents from our family (two Power Rangers toys that he had pointed out on Amazon one day) and also a couple of Transformers that he really liked from my dad that came in the mail. So he had a good day and was anxiously counting down the hours until his party. (He had also been counting down the days for about the past month.)

This morning, we started by picking up his friend, Brayden Calkins, and then picking up Cash (Josh's cousin's little boy, so maybe Caleb's second cousin?) to go to Flips Gymnastic's Center. Diane (Josh's mom) came down from Ashton and brought with her Orrin and Asher (two more cousins) and then Heather brought Berrick and Wilder. Then Bryan brought Brennan and Janelle brought Carter and Tyson, so it was quite amazing that Caleb actually had ever single boy cousin on Josh's side at his birthday party! They all went crazy playing at Flips for about two hours in the foam pit, trampolines, slides, etc.

Once it was about 12:30, we all headed back to Rexburg to our house and I went and got pizza (missed the meltdown) and we had the DQ ice cream cake already in the freezer ready to go. Caleb had requested ice cream cake this year! He picked out one with lots of forest animals on it. Then everyone played at our house for a while and we wrapped it up about 2:00. It was a pretty long birthday extravaganza in my opinion!

Then Caleb and I went to Idaho Falls, where he was planning to pick out a present at Toys R Us from my mom. Let me tell you…. that boy…. he gets his crazy indecisive nature from me. I swear we were in that store for over an hour as he picked up 30 different toys and thought them over before putting them back. Finally, after losing most of my sanity and still needing to go to Winco, I suggested that we go home and he thinks it all over for a few days and then I can order whatever he decides from Amazon.

So he ended up leaving the store with just a canister of Spiderman silly string! haha I am sure he will think of something to spend that money on that is just burning a hole in his pocket! ;)

Some fun facts about Caleb: He wears a size 8 clothes, size 1 shoe. He probably weighs about 70 pounds (yes, about as much, maybe a little more than Gabe) and he has a lovable/hilarious/moody and sensitive personality, depending what time of day it is. ;) He loves Power Rangers, Superheros, Transformers, BeyBlades, Legos, playing with water guns, being with his friends, riding his bike (which he needs a bigger one right now…) and snuggling every night before bed with me. He actually makes me promise when I leave the room (after the first snuggle and tuck in) that I will return to check on him and snuggle him some more, even if he is sleeping. Every night. He may be big, but he's still my baby boy. ;)

Here are some pictures of us at Kiwi Loco on Friday and a couple on Saturday (yes I just realized he wore the same thing two days in a row…) and I need to still download the ones of his with the cake and all of his cousins! I am having camera issues. I can't find my cord. So all of these were taken on my iPhone!

Random Favorite Pics

I just have a few pics that I need to post - no real theme here, just like them all! ;) These are all Spring 2014 (May or June)

Last day of School

The boys are officially done with second grade and kindergarten! :( Gabe had a great year with Miss Baird and really improved his reading from first grade. Caleb has a really fun year with Mrs. Jensen and Mrs. Snedaker. I hope he can make the transition to a full day of school next year! I am most worried about him waking up and getting ready that early! Here is a picture of them on the last day! (This was at 8 am so Caleb wasn't quite dressed for the day yet… I think he slept in that.)

Zoo Trip

We took a quick trip to the Idaho Falls zoo and I took a couple pictures and one was in the same spot as last year about this time. Just thought it would be fun to compare! ;) Gabe and Caleb seem to have switched places though….

Selfies and Random pics

I really just wanted an excuse to post some of these pictures…. (and not all of them are selfies… just funny pictures…)

Pinewood Derby and Mother's Day

Okay, I am getting caught up here! I just wrote about March and April and we are only halfway through May! But so far in May, we had the Pinewood Derby and Mother's Day - which is TODAY!

For those of you who may not know (who am I kidding, I am basically just blogging for my own journaling purposes at this point!) the Pinewood Derby is a little thing the boys do in Cub Scouts. Each boy is given basically a block of wood and four wheels and told to make a car out of it. Luckily, Gabe actually has a dad that knows how to do that (I would be clueless…. the wheels would be taped onto a painted block….) So the first thing they did was cut it down to the shape of a little race car. Then Josh cut a little square out of the top that was just big enough for a little lego driver to sit in! It was so cute. He even picked on that was wearing a little helmet. Then, I helped Gabe paint it (that is my ability level.) It was pretty cool looking.
The night of the race, they had this guy come and bring this super fancy track that actually had a computers hooked up to it and a camera and it would tell you your exact time on each race! It was so amazing. People out here definitely go a little crazy to be that into Pinewood Derby. I guess this guy actually has this little side business where churches pay him to come and run the whole show. He was worth it though! He did an AMAZING job! There was music and everything! I think they ran about 10 races each kid - four cars at a time - and then took each score and averaged them out for their overall score.
When it was all done and all scores were tallied, Gabe ended up taking second place overall. It was actually kind of confusing for him though because when they were announcing the winners, they started with "Third place goes to…." then "Second…" then "First…. (Gabe)" then "Grand Prize!!!" But I don't really think Gabe grasped the concept of the grand prize actually being the best and only heard the part about him winning "First prize!" That night when we got home, he was like, "I am not really sure how I won because that other boy's car beat me almost every time!" haha I had to kindly explain that actually, that boy did win by just a little bit. That the grand prize actually meant he did the best. Gabe was still happy even with "second" though! haha

Then today was Mother's Day!!! It was a great day, even though Josh had to go to work tonight at 9:00 pm, at least he was home all day. My day started with actually sleeping in until 10 am!!! (I really can't remember the last time I have slept that late.) Then Josh made french toast for breakfast and we all got ready for church. Caleb was assigned to give his very first talk in Primary today, so we had written that last night and he practiced it a couple of times this morning. He had asked me over and over, "You will come up and help me right?" and I had said, "Yes, I will" but then when it came time to actually read his talk, HE DID SOOO GOOD! He didn't even need my help at all! He read every single word of it all by himself. It was such a proud mama moment. I just stood there and held up the pictures of the different prophets as he talked. It even had long words in it like "obedient" and "listening"! I walked out of there wanting to be like, "Everyone - my kindergartner is A GENIUS!!!" haha But I didn't. The kids also sang in the sacrament meeting, which was very cute.
Then tonight Josh made dinner and we just hung out, I called my mom, and Josh had to get to work. The craziest thing was, he got me a KitchenAid! Those things are stinkin' expensive and I really don't know how much I will use it! I had kind of said I wanted one recently, but I didn't think he'd really go out and buy one! So I am not sure what to do about that. Mom says I will break his heart if I return it. haha I don't want to do that! I am just not sure i can justify keeping a $225 mixer that I may not really use. So! We'll see if 20 years from now, when I am reading this, if I still have that KitchenAid on my counter! haha Maybe I will look back and say "I used that to start my bread-making business and used it every day!!!" haha or maybe not, it may not last another day in my kitchen. Time will tell! ;)

That's all for now! I have some serious picture organizing to do! The crappy thing is, we probably take even more pictures now than we ever used to, but between Josh's phone, my phone, the iPad, and the old camera, I NEVER know where anything is!!! I need to organize them and get some printed. I used to be so good about that! But I have been so busy with my Etsy shop (side note - yes it's going very well! ;) that I don't have much time for that anymore!

I will try though! It's on my to-do list (along with twenty other things!!!) ;)

Avery's Easter Photo Session

I asked the boys if they wanted to come to Idaho Falls and have pictures taken with Avery. You can see from the photos below what their response was….
Here is my little princess, age 21 months, dressed in her new Easter dress! Her hair is so long now I can actually put it all up!
She wasn't too smiley this day (even though the poor photographer girl tried EVERYTHING - the more she tried, the more Avery gave her this "You're crazy" look.") But at least she didn't cry either! ;)