Josey's Birthday Party

I am SOOOOO glad that Josey's birthday party is over with! I love birthday's and I do enjoy getting ready for one but by the time it is over I am exhausted. Joseyln's is always the hardest for me because all our birthdays are clumped over three months or so and hers is last. I am always birthdayed out by the time hers comes around but we can't forget our little Josey! It went realy well and I think she was very pleased. Even though this morning we were butting heads about certain things. She wanted me to make full on constumes (turtle, flamingo, sun etc.) for this game we were playing (Dustin and I hate this game with a passion but you will hear more about that later). She was a little dissappointed when I told her no, but seriously? Josey wanted to pose the hula girl like this and then pose the same way for the picture. SOOOO cute!

Officialy my FAVORITE picture of Lilly. I love this picture.

Why do my kids always have to pose for everything, especially Maddy? This is always what I get.

I know it is really dark but if you blow it up you can see all the cute decorations we did. Josey wanted everyone to see the big Tiki thing on the window and this is the only picture I had.

Josey frosted the cupcakes herself and Maddy and her put the little umbrellas in.

At every party for about the past two years we pretty much play the same games because the girls love them and they seem to work out pretty well. We always play pin-the-something-on-the-something, in this case pin-the-coconut-on-the-palm tree. We also usually do an obstacle course that you can see later in the blog and then this game that we made up a couple years ago. It changes names and characters but pretty much stays the same. On a side note........Dustin and I HATE this game. You can see why in the very last video of the blog. It is a crowd pleaser though and every birthday the girls plan on playing it. So we have decided that we are going to MAKE them play it every year until they are out of the house to get some payback for making us play it now. I will explain the game a little later in the blog if anyone is curious as to why we hate it so much.

Do you like our nice soft grass? And if anyone is wondering why we still have two trampolines in our backyard, I will tell you the reason.....lazy.

Dustin is always in charge of the obstacle course and the pinata. This year his favorite part of his obstacle course was when he made the kids run over to a tree and wave a branch and say "Look I'm a tree" three times. It was pretty funny actually.
These were our party guests. I wish that I had taken a picture of them all dressed up in their little hula stuff but I just didn't have time trying to corale all the kids and keep them engaged until this point. They were getting ready for the pinata. I love my three girls in this picture. I am hoping I can crop everyone else out and keep the three of them because they all look so cute. No wierd smiles or poses for once. Maddy is a little iffy but still acceptable.

Dustin is always the hit of the party. I always plan everyones parties around daddy being there. He is really good with the kids and they always LOVE him. Here we were trying to fill up the last few minutes of the party and as you can see Dustin had them captivated and rolling on the floor telling them some silly ridiculous story. He is such a help at the birthday parties. I just tell him what I need him to do and miraculously he can always think of some game or some story on the spot that the kids just love. I really love that about him.
Okay the two videos below are of the obstacle course that Dustin found so funny and of why we hate that game we always play at every party. If anyone is interested here is the game. This time the girls named it Tiki tag. Dustin is the bad guy in some capacity (evil wizard, bad hula guy) whatever. Anyway the bad guy has taken something and hidden it all over the house. This time he hid the pieces of our little Hawaiian tiki that kept him away. So I have to make up an entire scavenger hunt around our house and each kid has a turn with a clue to find a piece of it and quickly return it to me. The bad guy doesn't want them to find it so he is trying to get them. He can't see very well but can hear really well. So the kids have to try and be as quiet as they can and as quick and sneaky as they can before he gets them. Well after they find what they are looking for it soon turns into a screamfest which is one of the reason we hate playing the game and why I put that video on here. The others reasons we hate playing the game ..............they're obvious are they not?jk It's just very involved and fairly time consuming and on Dustin's part he has to run around the house for like a half hour and pretend to be scary and get them. It's just exhausting honestly.

screaming!!!!!!!!!!!!

obstacle course

Thank you Grandma Beth!

Joselyn was beside herself tonight( when we finally got home from dinner at some friends house, which is why we weren't able to call and say thank you) with excitment at the package from Grandma Beth. She loved her presents and couldn't believe that you knew that she LOVED Ariel, bugs (on the wrapping paper) and polk-a-dots! What a good Grandma. We will be calling tomorrow to say thank you SOOOOOOO much!

Lilly just walked around collecting all the candy and taking it from person to person trying to find someone to give her some.

And Maddy found something to do with the box............we are making her sleep like this tonight.

Martha Stewart moment on a budget

Here are the skirts I made for Joselyns party, mom. I think they turned out pretty cute and I hope the kids like to wear them. Josey loves them though and is so excited to be a hula girl at her luau. I still think 12 skirts for 2 dollars is pretty good and the best part is that Joselyn had so much fun helping me make them. If you look close at Maddy skirt you can see her expert cutting skills. Let's Luau! Strike a pose
Maddy's tough picture

VACATION!!!!!

Man I love going somewhere other than my house for a while! It is always nice to return home though especially when you know it will ensure a good nights rest for EVERYONE. But we had so much fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa and really didn't want to come home this time. We went to Durkees lake with Grandma while daddy was helping Grandpa on the farm. We had so much fun swimming and building castles. Joselyn's kept getting knocked down by various little kids, it quite upsetting for her but Grandma always offered to help her rebuild it. We love Grandma! This picture is so funny because she kept trying to use her snorkel but you can see the problem going into the water with your snorkel in this direction. I promise she is not drowning.

You have to blow up this picture and check out Maddy's eyes....FREAKY! Has anyone else seen the freaky guinea pig eyes on you tube? It reminds me of that and makes me laugh.
Lilly wanted to help her sisters fill their buckets.
The second day we were in Murtaugh the girls yelled in the front door that there were kittens on the front step. We went out and sure enough there were 6 kittens and their mother hanging out on the front steps and in the bushes. The girls were in heaven. They were the perfect size for them to hold and old enough that they were semi-sturdy. They were the neighbors cats so they were VERY tame. We could not get the girls to do anything else ALL morning. We offered 4-wheeling, looking for snakes down by the river, etc. but there was no tearing them away. They were so cute. They have never really had a pet and Maddy was especially mad at me because I told her I was too allergic to ever have a kitty. She told me I should just go to the doctor and get some medicine. If only it were that easy!

Lilly was obsessed with the mommy cat. She wasn't all that interested in the kittens but just wanted to follow the mama around. It was the sweetest mellowist cat and pretty much let Lilly do what she wanted. Even when she was nusing her kittens she let Lilly sit next to her and pull on her and pet her. Lilly had to follow her into the bark chips to sit next to her......
then the cat started to get more comfortable.......
and so did Lilly! She had to lay down next to the cat when the mama cat laid down.


Check out Joselyn's shirt. I noticed in the picture that it is on backwards and the tag is sticking out! How cute.

I LOVE this picture. I think it is so cute of both of them. They really are little best friends.
My animal lover Maddy. She is just so sweet and absolutely loves animals.

Do you see how she is eyeing the mama cat out of the picture? No interest in the little one in her arms.
These pictures are from the cabin in Featherville. We spent a couple of days up there before heading home and it was really really fun. There is nothing like cooking hot dogs and smores over an open flame. Even if the fire is almost going to kill Lilly. Check out Dustin look he is ready to pounce as soon as needed! What a good Daddy.

Roastin' hot dogs
Okay so moving from Las Vegas has made my girls so interested in any little moving creature that is not a cockaroack (sp?). They were so fascinated with the chipmunks! We set out wome nuts on the fence and the chipmunks came and had a feast. The girls were so excited to watch them and we spent quite a while just watching them eat.
I told them that I would try and get a picture of one so they would have it. You HAVE to blow up this picture and see the evil Featherville chipmunk! It tried to attack we after this picture.



We spent a lot of time out playing in and by the river. If anyone hasn't noticed I take A LOT of pictures of the girls. Well Lilly has gotten the hang of this now and when she sees me with the camera and hear her name called this is the face she makes. It is hilarious.

Daddy took the girls down the river on the innertubes. They all had lots of fun.
Lilly LOVES swimming and just wanted to jump and kick all day.

I can't stop laughing when I look at this picture. This was over in the hot pots which my girls kept calling hot pockets. I don't know if we thought they were going to drown in five inches of water or what but at least they are safe in their life jackets! Don't they look thrilled. They were actually really tired.



This is the only picture of me on the roll, and boy it's a beauty! Grandma has a bunch more of me and if I ever die Dustin is going to have to get his hands on those to prove that I existed and I was actually participating with my girls. We got up early and took a hike before it got hot hence the reason I look so cute. We took the bug catchers and then happen to walk through a big field with TONS and TONS of grasshoppers in it. Dustin had Lilly on his back so it was up to me to catch some for the girls. And I pulled it off! Mommy was the hero for five minutes!

This picture is a little out of order but funny nevertheless. We thought it would be fun to take the blow up boat out to the lake and row around....... good in theory. The boat, being new, wouldn't entirely inflate in the heat and so I told Dustin I would stay on the shore and watch them. They would kinda float out a ways and then get blown back into the shore. It was a good idea but didn't really work out as planned and we were only there about fifteen minutes. The best part was driving home with an inflatable boat strapped to our roof. About halfway through, Dustin literally was holding onto the boat with one hand through the sunroof as the boat was flying over our car. It was really quite hilarious. And meeting grandma coming the other way down the road with Lilly and seeing her bewildered face was priceless. I think it might have worked out better if we had deflated the boat first.

It started to rain on us about half way through the hike. I love this picture because Lilly just tucked her little arms inside the backpack instead of getting raindrops on her arms. She is SO cute.
The girls with their grasshoppers. By the time we left they both had about six in each container. Which eventually got swapped out for lizards that daddy caught, trumped again.
Soon the novelty of mommy to the rescue wore off as we entered the deep dark woods. The girls kept getting really freaked out and we kept telling them that they were fine and that mommy and daddy would never let anything happen to them or take them anywhere dangerous. That is when they both start talking about how glad they are that daddy is there because daddy makes them feel safe.........WHAT ABOUT MOMMY?! They just adore their daddy and seriously I could get wheeled away in an ambulance to the hospital and they would not even notice.........WAIT that happened! (Does anyone else sense some bitterness here?) They were really cute though and Joselyn even had to stop to say a prayer to make sure we were safe.