Oh Ya! My Own Birthday Fun!

This is what my sister Britney (and fam) got me for my birthday.  Can you tell she knows me well?!  Oh ya!  Life is GOOOOOD!

     I felt very loved and spoiled this year.  Lots of phone calls, texts, FB wishes and gifts.  The kids, well the girls, made these cute cards. (And a friend from church brought over the beautiful tulips.)

     Brian spoiled me as usual with both V-day and B-day gifts and taking me out to eat.  He bought me some chocolate and a juicer (notice the reoccurring theme?)...which will hopefully help me balance out my chocolate addiction and get my veggies in each day. 

     Britney had her baby on my birthday.  So now I have a niece, Charlotte Ann, to share a special day with.  Isn't she just the cutest little thing ever?! 

          Also, this card from my parents cracked me up, so I had to include it!

All in all, the big Four-0 was wonderful!   Thanks friends and family!

Birthday Girl

     Aubrey turned the big 6 in January.  She had to wait a bit to have her friend party though because our weekends were booked with two Primary events, a temple trip, new house projects and a piano competition.  I am a "one big thing a weekend" kind of gal if I can help it, so we waited until the first weekend in February. 
    
     Aubrey invited 19 girls and her cousin Braddock. When he heard those numbers, he wasn't so sure he wanted to attend! We will give him 10 years on that one. Brinley and Parker helped organize and run the games (!) : Dance Freeze, Hot Potato, Duck Duck Goose, Musical Toys (instead of chairs). We borrowed a jumper from my cousin and ordered a cake from Sams Club. I bought lots of cute little girl lip glosses 1/2 off after Christmas for party favors, and we had a party. I think everyone had a wonderful time, and most importantly, the birthday girl was pleased with her celebration.

We never buy cakes.  We will make cute cupcakes or Brian will decorate a themed cake.  But this was so easy and not too expensive...we may never go back!  (Note to self, have them PRINT the birthday greetings for little ones who don't know cursive.  Aubrey is so proud of her reading abilities, and I failed her here!)
 

Brenlee, Aubrey and Landry ready to have some cake and ice cream.

Lft-rt: Lauron, (Parker photo bombing), Brenlee, Aub, Landry, Avery, Callie, Kate, Anayla, Molly and Dayna

Aub wasn't so sure about playing Duck, Duck Goose but some of her guests suggested it.  Everyone had fun. Hudson and Braddock were the funniest b/c they would go the wrong way, forget to sit down etc...   Brinley was a HUGE help and pretty much just took charge of games while I was visiting with parents, taking pictures or getting the food ready.  Love her!
 

Park was all about participating and being part of the action.  Tanner preferred to watch from a distance!  Maybe there were too many girls and they were too close to his age?  I don't think we even got a picture with him in it.

Aubrey was adorable oohing and awing over each present. 

She would hug each friend who after opening the gift. (Dayna and Callie from church.)

After an extended family party, a celebration at home on her actual birthday, and making cupcakes together to take to her classmates, I think we can finally call her birthday OVER for 2013.  Happy Birthday Aubrey Daubrey!

   

House Progress....Kinda

     We are taking one step forward and two steps back it seems with the house renovations.  It will start to get exciting and things will seem to be moving along and then bam...things come to a grinding halt: workers won't show, the furnace is condemned, a gas leak is found, permits weren't in order. 

     It is so frustrating and then exciting and then frustrating and then stressful and then exciting again.  It will be nice once the remodel (and move) are complete!  But, if these are our main problems, and they really are right now, then our life is pretty amazing.

The kitchen with the wall moved back.  I feel much less claustrophobic already!

This is almost shoulder high to me...they have removed a ton of tile, carpet, and cabinets already.  I am hoping this lovely pile of debris ruins the paint so much that they will offer to repaint the garage for free...and we will go with a lovely shade of WHITE.  (Because orange and turquoise walls, even in the garage, just aren't really me and Brian!)

We are at the texturing stage...exciting...except the city shut down production today b/c the contractor did not get a permit to move the kitchen wall.  Also, texturing is going very slowly b/c it is too cold in the house.  We don't have any heat b/c of the gas leak.  (No worries, we have a brand new furnace, ugh, so when things are up and going we should be fine in the heat department.)

The dining room, which we will make a playroom, with the wall moved to the window in order to make the kitchen bigger.

     On a brighter note, this week we did homework out in front of the house while we waited for the city gas guy to come inspect.  It was a beautiful day.  We had a blanket to lie on and after school snacks.  Brian was off work and joined us.   Brinley conquered the tree out front while Tanner and Aubrey ran around exploring.  Park missed out b/c he was at after school basketball.  It was exciting to get a glimpse of our little family and how things will be in our new neighborhood. 

Science Fair

     The Science Fair is OVER....yahoo!  This is Brinley's third time to participate so she did almost all of it by herself.  I helped set up her experiment and helped print a few things for her board.  However, she did the rest: picked the topic, did the research, wrote the paper, met all of the due dates etc....  So WONDERFUL that she is such an independent and dependable little thing!
      One kind of funny thing is her project included pinwheels.  She needed several to cut up and conduct her experiment...but it was January and there were none to be found.  If I had been a more involved parent (or she  less independent) to begin with, I would have known early November that she needed pinwheels.  I could have directed her to a different project or ordered some on the internet.  We almost had a huge problem on our hands.  EVERYTHING was done except the experiment, which she had to  finish over Christmas break.  Luckily Britney came to the rescue.  She had a stash leftover from Braddock's  party last year.  Phew!!  All in all, Brinley did a fantastic job of preparing and presenting her data.

      This was Parker's first year, and he did great.  The Science Fair really is so much work, and I was grateful Brian took on the task of helping Parker work on his project.  Parker (and Brian) did research and learned all about CO2 and why that makes sodas fizz and sometimes explode.  Ask Park and he can fill you in!  He got to do a lot of shaking and tapping on 7UP cans and then opening them up to see if they would spew.  He wrote a paper and made a board.  He presented his project several times to the judges and as you can see, he looked SHARP!!  (or "sick" as he would say.)



I got up at 6:30 am to find him already up, dressed in his suit and reading a book.  Crazy boy...he was excited.  We both heard throughout the day about how handsome he looked.  He knows how to get that extra attention!