Birthday Surprise

Getting to celebrate your birthday for the first time when you're 25 felt like being in an episode of the Outer Limits. Totally surreal! And I have to give a gigillian thumbs up to my very good friends for throwing me that surprise party last month. Ariella! Sara! THANKS! Ariella had the party at her house and Sara did a lot of prep. Sara and her friend made a gigantic 3-TIER CAKE! I couldn't believe my eyes. And the theme was pretty autumn as you can see from the pictures. The entire time I was thinking about how everyone gets one day out of the year to celebrate themselves and I missed out on that for 24 years. Wow I got jipped. But more than anything I felt absolutely and incredibly loved by my sisters who felt enough compassion to think they should throw me a party. You really didn't have to but I'm definitely glad you did! I'd put it #1 of my favorite days of this year but I think my baptismal day tops it. So then its #2! I love you guys!

Thanking Hubby for the messager, snuggie, and new phone.

So after my party I now look forward to all the birthdays that come. I may have missed 24 years but I have a lot more years than that to make up for it. Hurray!

Milestones That Make You Tear

Jude had his first day of preschool today! I was so excited for him but mostly couldn't really wrap my brain around how my son is actually big enough to go to school. How did four years pass by so quickly? It feels like I blinked and he just miraculously grew into a big boy. I took these pictures while he was waiting for his school bus. I was keeping my cool until I saw the bus coming around the bend and then all these emotions started rushing throughout my body. And for just a second I remembered those first day jitters I got when I started going to school. I couldn't help but think to myself, "What in the world is going on in that little brain of his? What does he really think about all this?" But then the bus pulled up, he climbed right in, picked a seat, and looked up at me with the biggest smile. He was set. He was ready and didn't look a bit worried or nervous. He's my little champ. My hero!

Cool Cars backpack he picked out. I can hardly stand buying Jude Cars stuff anymore but Jude still loves it as much as he did when the movie first came out.
He had enough humor in him to make a funny face at the camera.

This Past Week

For some reason my sentences are all out of wack in this post but you'll get it. This past week on Wednesday we had dinner for the elders. On Thursday we had dinner with the DeGuzmans at the pool and we got to witness Jude swim under water like a torpedo for the very first time-unassisted and untaught. Jude and I went to a Back to School Bash with Odenton Ward families on Friday. Brandon and I received our Patriarchal Blessings on Friday evening (the highlight of our week!-thanks Jonathan and Jasmin for watching Jude). Saturday Brandon volunteered at the Family History Center while I babysat the DeGuzman girls which flowed into a fun afternoon and evening with the Addingtons and DeGuzmans playing tennis(thank you Naika!), eating Thai food for the first time and playing Sing Star together. Then Sunday evening we were priveleged to have both the Fort Meade and Odenton Ward elders at our house. We are always glad to have them in our home and we are sad to see Elder Broadhead leaving. We wish him well!
The point of this post is to say that we love our fellow brothers and sisters! They brighten our days and serve as such good role models for us and everyone around them. We look forward to many more fun afternoons and outtings with our new friends! Here are some random pics of the week.

Baby Zara loved our gamer Rocker chair and rocked her happy self crazy.Left to right are Elders Baird, Broadhead, Christensen, and Crane.Encouraging craziness.

And here is a video of Kai, Zara and Jude rockin out to a Hello Kitty song.

Hurray for a busy but fun August!

Caught On Camera

My boy gets a little wild sometimes but at Kai's pool party he was pretty rough with the Addington boys (sorry Naika) and had fun doing it. I managed to get a clip of his mischievious behavior and when I showed him the video he simply just said yah that's me. Boys...sigh.

Brandon's Natural Rhythm

So right now I'm eating pico de gallo with tortilla chips and laughing at this video from our drive back from Williamsburg, VA and thought hey why not post it. It is so my Brandon. I awoke from a nap in the car to some strange tunes and knew it couldn't be playing on the radio. Maybe I thought it's coming from Brandon......

Grover's Alpine Express

So yesterday we took Jude to Busch Gardens for his birthday. I think we picked the one day of the summer that was windless so you can imagine that we had little to help us battle against the heat bearing down on us. Well I do have to give credit to that Pompeii water ride which cooled me off for a good hour. Unfortunately it also kept my shoes nice and squishy all day long.

So my favorite part of the day and without a doubt was Jude's favorite part was Grover's Alpine Express the kids rollercoaster in the Sesame Forest of Fun section of the park. However our pleasure over the same ride came from very different reasons. The seats on the rollercoaster were for two people only so Jude and Brandon sat on the same seat and I rode behind them. Even from behind him I got to see his expressions and I'll never forget it. The roller coaster was decently scary for a kid Jude's size and it was his first time so I thought this could go only one of two ways. He's either gonna pee his pants on the first drop or he's gonna freak out in a good, surprised, this is so cool kind of way. I laughed my head off when he did the latter and found myself so proud and emotional to see him have such a good time. So I loved it because he loved it and well he just loved it because it was fun. Then we checked out the his photo and didn't hesitate to get it because it is just so priceless. I didn't want to go through the trouble of scanning it so I just took a picture of the picture so it's a bit hazy but still so adorable. Happy 4th Birthday to my baby Jude who isn't very much of a baby boy anymore. Tear.

Wings of Fancy

Yesterday we went to the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit at the Brookside Gardens and took Kai and Zara with us. The kids loved it and as you could see from the video the butterflies liked Zara as much as she liked them.

Here are some pictures I could not help but post. First are some butterflies that weren't in such a hurry, camera shy or were dining.

A couple landed on Brandon. One of them just simply refused to get off for a while.

This green butterfly was quickly moving its wings but I got lucky when I snapped a picture of it at the right second(literally) when the wings were open. It's kind of camouflaged with the green leaves behind it but I still think it looks awesome.

We stopped to take pictures by this huge log. Yes....Brandon is a spider-monkey.

Jude surprisingly went all out for his pose. He started by lifting his t-shirt up then positioned his hands and leg like so. Yah Jude likes to show off his tummy a lot. I can't wait till he's a teenager trying to show off his abs to all the girls. That'll be fun.

And last I thought the children's wish area was too adorable! 'I wish there were more banana trees' is my favorite.