Quick Trip to Idaho

The birthday boy--Raymond is a pretty cute nephew.

A few weekends ago, the boys and I went to Idaho for my nephew's 1st birthday. I have made it to all the nieces and nephews one year old birthday parties on my side of the family. Randy opted out to work in the yard, but then it rained all weekend. So he got to relax. We had a lot of fun hanging out with my mom and dad, and then spending a lot of time with Raymond for his first birthday!

Raymond loves dogs! So my sister hosted a dog party! She made a dog cake, and had some games for the kids to play like pin the tail on the dog, obstacle course, and they were even able to adopt their own dog at the end. They all dressed up like dogs and I thought everyone was super cute! I have a ton of pictures, sorry ahead of time, but I couldn't narrow it down.

Pretty cool cake!

Steph and Raymond

Mark put his tail way over there.

Seth wasn't blindfolded, but he was sure the tail went here.

And Dax found a great spot for his tail.

The doggies

Dax was a very serious dog.

Seth loved jumping through the hoops.

Mark was very energetic as a dog.

Abby, Dax, and Mark kept howling--it was pretty funny.

Raymond was a good cake eater.

Seth loved running around being a dog, too!

Ninja Turtle Birthday Party

Dax wanted to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party. I sent Randy to pick up pizza halfway through the party and apparently I can't take pictures and run games at a party, but here are a few pictures. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun!

My favorite part of the party was when we turned them into turtles. They had to eat toxic ooze (green jello) and then they transformed into turtles. A few of the kids were a little hesitant about eating the sewer goo that Randy gave them. Ha ha!

TMNT cupcakes

We decided to hold the party outside at the last minute because it was so warm.

This was definitely the favorite game...the pizza relay.

Pin the mask on the turtle.

We had pizza for dinner because Ninja Turtles LOVE pizza.

Opening presents...Dax was spoiled.

The turtles: Kenadie, Luke, Blake, Liam, Dax, Daniel, Mark,  Alice, Amelia
In the front: Seth and Sophie.
Foster came late so he's not in this pic.

Dax's 5th Birthday

The Birthday Boy

On May 1st, Dax turned 5. He has been so excited for his birthday. Every day in April Dax would drag the chair over to the calendar that hangs on our fridge and count how many days were left until his birthday. The big day finally arrived and Randy and I decorated his door.

We have fun decorating doors for each birthday!

Dax had preschool on his birthday so we took some cupcakes into his class. He also took some extra time on his hair that day. He wanted it to look like Brother Hortin from church and honestly, I didn't know what Brother Hortin's hair looked like even though I served in nursery with him for 5 months, and he was Dax's nursery teacher before that. I guess I need to spend more time looking at men's hair. But we finally got it figured out after about 15 minutes in the bathroom.

Dax's favorite sport is basketball.

Please admire the fancy hair!

Dax wanted to go to Brick Oven for his birthday dinner. It is one of our favorite restaurants. We had a wonderful experience--everyone was overly nice. We weren't sure why, but we appreciated it. Dax got an ice cream sundae with a sucker on top. He didn't even touch the ice cream, but he was very excited for his sucker.

After dinner we opened presents and had cake. Dax is in love with the Miami Heat right now, especially Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, and Dwayne Wade. Okay, that's basically the whole team, but he and Mark pick two players each and play basketball ALL day long. They also play with the Utah Jazz players too. So we broke down and ordered him a Lebron James jersey. He was so excited!

Dax wanted to have a Ninja Turtles party with his friends, so I assumed that is what type of cake he would want. Well, I was wrong. He wanted a football field with the ball flying over it. I had to think for awhile on this one, but I was proud of the cake and how it turned out. As I was making it, Dax asked for it to be a BYU cake, so I added the Y at the end. I also don't want any hard core BYU fans getting mad at me because of the endzones. I know that one of them says Brigham Young and the other says Cougars, but I could barely fit Cougars, there was no way I was trying to write Brigham Young.

Dax's Brick Oven Treat!

We love Brick Oven!

Go Heat!

We are happy boys! Do you like Seth copying Mark?

I loved that the three of them were having so much fun together. 

Dax watched me finish his cake and decided where the football should go.
I had to be high enough to look like it was going through the goal posts.

Since Dax turned 5 this year, I am going to share 5 things that I love about Dax.

1. Dax is definitely the sweetest child in our family. He is kind and caring. He thinks of others feelings first and goes out of his way to share with his brothers.

2. Dax is funny. He is silly a lot of the time and I mostly love it. :) I am grateful that he can make us laugh and have fun.

3. Dax is helpful. He loves to help with any job. He loves to weed, mow the lawn, cook, wash the dishes, take out the garbage, sweep, mop, and much more. He is always excited to help mom and dad get their chores done. I hope that this lasts forever.

4. Dax has a strong testimony. Some weeks I have to fight him to get his church clothes on, but he is the first person to suggest saying a prayer when we need help with something. Last week Dax was sick and fell asleep on my bed. When he woke up, he looked and felt much better. Dax told me that he had said a prayer that he could feel better (he also prayed for Seth's hurt finger--see #1) and HE DID feel better because Heavenly Father heard his prayer.

5. Dax is independent. This was the hardest quality for me to come to love about Dax. I had to let go and stop hovering. But now I am glad that Dax is willing to try new things easily and he explores and adventures everywhere.

Happy Birthday Dax!

It's Soccer Time Again!

It's begun! Mark and Dax both started soccer last Saturday. They were so excited. They love playing soccer and they both played really well. Dax's game was first and he had a slow start because he was tired and hadn't eaten anything. I wasn't starving him, he had just chosen not to eat breakfast or a snack. But he kicked into gear and ended up scoring 4 goals.

This is how Dax warms up.

Dax gets pretty intense.

Nice face Dax! 

Seth has to be in a picture if the camera is out of my purse.

Mark's game was later in the afternoon and his team played very well. They dominated and had the ball on their half of the field most of the game. Mark scored two goals which is really difficult in his league. Now that he is older, they have a goalie and positions, and it makes it a little more challenging to score. We were proud of how well he played.

The next 6 weeks will be filled with busy Saturdays. And it won't stop when soccer ends because then baseball starts.

Mark's face gets so red when he runs.

Mark hustling all over the field.

Seth found a great chair.

I love how happy he looks here with his teammates.

Happy 60th Birthday Grandpa!

My dad and I don't take too many pictures together anymore.

My dad hit the big 60 this year. So all of my sisters (minus one on a mission) came up and spent the weekend my dad. We had a lot of fun! We began the day by mini golfing. My dad is a serious golfer, so we wanted to do something involving golf and we knew we wouldn't do well on a real fairway. The mini golf course was super tiny. It could probably fit in my living room, but it actually made everything more exciting. All of the grandkids were contained in one spot and everyone could hang out together instead of little groups going off to golf. We also played a few arcade games and earned enough tickets for the kids to get some treats.

Dax hits pretty hard.

Seth was in love with this Tonka truck ride.

Mark was very serious about his shots.

Seth loves to be a big boy.

My dad and Randy got pretty competitive.

We love minigolfing!

Later that evening we began the night with h'orderves, had a big dinner, and a few of my dad's favorite desserts. My dad's dad who has been in the hospital for the last few months because of back surgery and some complications afterward, was able to come over for the party. We were all glad to see him.   We also took a grandkid picture. All 10 of my parents' grandchildren were at the party, so we figured we needed to get a good picture. We had them spell the word GRANDPA.

My mom and Seth

All the grandkids with grandma and grandpa!

Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Daniels

I made this awesome sign of pictures from my dad's life.

My sister snapped this picture of Seth.
It's so cute! My dad is photo bombing.

Here's the Grandpa picture inside....

....Then we tried outside.

I thought this picture was pretty precious of Seth and Audrey.
They have to hold both hands.