"If you build it..."

When we found out Addy was coming to our family, we decided that it was time to finish our basement so we would have room for all of the people that want to come visit us. Sure enough, "If you build it, they will come!"
Our first visitors were cousin Tabitha and Aunt Heather. We liked having them a lot. (Apparently we never took a picture of Aunt Heather though!)
Emily like having another girl cousin around who didn't mind being told what to do. (That is, as long as Emily let HER have the stroller!)
Addy liked that Tabitha would read books to her.
Share with her.
And not complain when Addy tried to eat the books.
Our next visitors were Grandma and Grandpa!
We always like it when they come because we get to do lots of fun stuff and learn lots of intriguing things!
We tried to feed the ducks at the pond. But apparently they weren't hungry!
We did however learn that "pokieness" might be inherited! Right Kira?! (Thankfully so is being a patient Grandpa!)
We went to see the "I Spy" exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art, where we learned that the Emperor's New Clothes is not just a fairy tale!
We also went to the Bean Museum where they have lots of animals. Emily refused to go near any of them, especially the bears! This is why I'm pretty sure Cole chose the bear to get his picture taken with, just to irritate his sister!
Kira, on the other hand, is used to seeing dead animals all over her house, so she wasn't afraid!
We did manage to talk Emily into touching the animal skins. (I think that's because she didn't know the small squares actually came from animals!)
And most of all, when Grandma and Grandpa visit, Addy gets to hang out with her Grandpa. One of her favorite people in the whole wide world! (I'm pretty sure the smarties he kept slipping her helped their relationship a lot!)
You too are welcome to come stay with us and enjoy the fun times! (Well most of you anyway!)

More Birthday Fun

After his party was over, Cole still had to open his presents from us. Two things that I found funny as he was doing it.
First of all, should a 5 year old be able to tell what the present is by the shape? He looked at this package and could tell right away that it was a Wii game! I'm going to have to start disguising his presents apparently!
A few months ago, we got a twin bed and played musical beds, shifting everyone around. Cole moved to the twin bed, Emily moved to Cole's toddler bed, and Addy moved into the crib. However, we didn't really have any good kid-friendly sheets, so I decided to get Cole some Star Wars sheets for his birthday. After I finally got them washed and on the bed, he laid down on his bed, threw his non-Star Wars blanket off and declared that he was only having a Star Wars room now.
Even after all of this, Cole's birthday wasn't complete. In our pre-party planning, Cole informed me that while he was having a soccer ball cake for his birthday party, he wanted basketball cupcakes for the "family party". Since my parents were coming out, we saved the family party until they got here a few days later.
Cousins and might-as-well-be-cousins came to the party.
Grandma made Cole some Army guy outfits for him and his buddy to wear. Cole was so excited he put it on right away. (He also wore the other one to bed that night. I finally had to take them away so they could be washed!)
Emily didn't want to be left out (as usual)!
Then came the cupcakes. As I was frosting them, Cole informed me that he did not want pink basketballs. (Do those look pink to you?!?!!?!? Me neither!) So, I had to make the few that I had left blue basketballs just so he would eat them!
Apparently they tasted ok though! He didn't seem to leave many scraps.
I think we might be done with Cole's birthday now! At least until next year.

It's Birthday Time!

Happy 5th Birthday Cole!
Ok, I have been a little slow posting these pictures. The anticipation of the birthday, then the birthday, then more of the birthday, and then even more birthday required a little bit of recovery time and lots of time to download all of the pictures. But, I think I am recovered. (At least for a few days until Emily's birthday preparation starts!!)
After weeks of discussing what exactly he wanted to do and what kind of cake he wanted (which changed quite a few times), we had everything settled and planned. He wanted a soccer ball cake and a sports themed party. (He didn't really care about the theme, but I kept suggesting sports things and he kept agreeing!)
We started with a rousing game of the Sports Edition of "Don't Eat Pete". I was a little skeptical about the game, but Katie insisted that kids loved it, and sure enough they did.
Then, we moved to a sports obstacle course, where they had to shoot a basket, hit a ball, throw a football through a hoop, and dribble a soccer ball.
Then it was time for pizza and Gatorade. (We had to have a sports themed meal also!)
As they were finishing eating, a special visitor appeared. (Chad had called me the day before and told me that he had arranged for a special visitor to come to the party. So all of my careful planning had to be adjusted and all of my neat ideas had just been trumped! But, looking at Cole's face when his special visitor showed up made it all ok!)

Cosmo was lots of fun. He wrestled with Cole, threw a ball with the kids, and then tried to beat the record in the obstacle course. (Emily and another girl at the party did not think Cosmo was fun. Because they were scared of him, they ran inside and locked all of the doors to the house!)
Finally, Cosmo signed everything from papers to shorts before rushing off to his next event.
After Cosmo left, we decided it was time to open presents.
Then, we broke out the cake and ice cream. (When they are already hyper from Cosmo and presents, why not pump them with sugar!)
Finally, we ended the party with a pinata that Chad got from a Mexican store. (This was actually the second pinata that Chad picked out. The first one was a Spiderman pinata, but because I had convinced Cole that we should do a sports theme, he had decided that he wanted a ball pinata. Cole's face fell as soon as Chad showed him the Spiderman one! Chad, being the nice dad that he is, immediately told Cole that he would take the Spiderman one back and exchange it for a sports one. Cole spent the whole next day asking me if I thought his Dad was going to be able to find a sports one. Thankfully he did!) We found out the cheaper pinatas from the grocery store might be a better choice because the thing was so hard to break that Chad finally had to use a metal bat to break it open. At least that meant every kid got several swings!
Even Addy got a swing!
The big slugger!The mad rush for the candy.
And the Pinata Joker?
Enjoy being 5 Cole!

Easter Treats

By the time Chad and I woke up on Easter morning, I'm pretty sure that Cole and Emily had checked out everything in their Easter Baskets and found most of the hidden eggs.
But the poor kids couldn't touch any of it until Chad talked to them about what Easter is really about!
They were actually surprisingly attentive. (Maybe because they already knew what was in their baskets anyway!)
Then finally, they got to dig in!
"Anakin Skywalker! I wonder how many stores the Easter Bunny had to search to find him."
"I have no idea what a kite is, but it has Barbie on it, so I like it!"
"Am I really going to get to eat this ring pop or is it a cruel trick?"
Once they had emptied their baskets, they were off to find the no longer hidden Easter eggs.



Once all of the fun stuff was over, it was time to get dressed for church.
Yes, she is as impish as she looks here! Cute, but trouble!
Also cute, but not quite as impish...yet!
And here is Cole's Easter outfit. Oh wait, this is his every day his Mom will let him wear it outfit! (He didn't want to wear the cute plaid shorts that I wanted him to wear!)
At Grandma's house they got to do another Easter Egg Hunt! What lucky kids! They are off again.
Emily liked to come show us every egg she found!
Addy didn't have to move to find the eggs. The eggs found her!