Friday, April 25, 2014

FIVE!

Our Teague-y boy turned 5!  How is this possible?  He was only 2 months old when we moved from Taiwan and now he's a big school kid!  He didn't have school on his birthday though as it was Easter Monday.  It was so nice having everyone home to celebrate with him!

He is such a fun guy and I had to add this shot to show his black and white socks and that his pants are on backwards, ha!  He loved wearing his birthday hat all day.  Hiram tried to snag it from him at one point and Teague asked him, "Is it your birthday or mine, Hiram?"  Len and I laughed so hard!

Originally, I was going to have a friends party for him, but after our trip to Las Vegas, Easter weekend, and being 8 months pregnant, I just couldn't do it.  He was perfectly happy to have a family party (the benefit of having lots of siblings), so we hung up balloons.

Opened his big present...

a new mini-tramp...

jump for joy, this boy can tell the monkey inside of him not to jump on the couch anymore, ha!

We had cake.
(Yes, sadly it was store bought.  Does it look familiar?  Hiram's was the exact same, but in chocolate.  Hiram's birthday was at the beginning of my pregnancy when I was so sick and Teague's is at the end when I am so huge.  Next year will be better boys!)

Again, Teague didn't care, he was just thrilled to have cake!

With all of the snow (finally) melted, we went over to the park for some Nerf wars.

Kaleb and Noé shot them all over the park and spent a lot of time retrieving the bullets.  The little boys soon lost interest with that and wanted to play on the playground equipment.

Hiram was so happy that he could climb up the big slide all by himself and slide down.
(Every time he did, I had a mini heart attack, as it just has a steep ladder to climb up and the shoes he was wearing were 2 sizes too big.  Thank goodness he never fell while climbing up, but he did fall every time he landed, he thought that was part of the fun!)

I love this pic of Teague and Gavin on the teeter-totter.  Teague is laughing so hard, because I was teasing him about his pants falling down.  He is so skinny, he constantly has to pull his pants up around his waist- and that's after I've cinched all the inside elastic and buttons!

On Tuesday the treats continued with brownie bites for his class mates.

It's always so fun for me to go into the school.

Teague has 4 teachers!  His EA, ECE, his favorite Mrs. N, and his student teacher.  Since the advent of full-day kindergarten the kindergarten classes have doubled in their size.  Yes, I think it's good to have 4 teachers taking care of 29 kids!!

He came home with another birthday hat and a big sticker.  This darling boy enjoyed his 5th birthday celebrations and I hope he enjoys this new year just as much!

Easter Sunday

We got all dressed up in our Sunday best for a wonderful church service.

We had to throw in a silly picture too.
(Not sure what gang signs Gavin and Noé are throwing, ha!)

After church our sweet friends came over for dinner.  Rita is a rockstar!  She is a single mother of 3 who works 3 jobs and she wanted to make dinner for us (what?) and she made us a feast!

All we made were the potatoes and deviled eggs, she made everything else- turkey, stuffing, the most amazing brussel sprouts, corn & peas, carrots, salad, and rolls.  Everything was so good, that dinner was pretty quiet as we were all too busy stuffing our faces.

Kaleb made us each his new specialty drink- Orange Sunrise.  Just add Orange juice, Sprite, and Grenadine, yum!

For dessert, Rita made 3 homemade pies- Banana cream, Pumpkin, and Chocolate mousse.  Did I mention that she is a rockstar?

Afterwards we had the kids go on an Easter egg hunt.  We hid 80 eggs, but they were all too fast for me to get any action shots.  Here's all the cute kiddos together though.  Silly Talia can do awesome cross-eyes and Ruby just ate a black jelly bean, they're so cute!

Later that night, Hiram didn't want to go to bed so his daddy snuggled him to sleep.  We had a wonderful Easter!

Easter Saturday

The Easter Bunny came and the kids were so excited to see that he filled their baskets with Cookies & cream white chocolate bunnies; Peeps; Reese's pieces carrots; Cadbury cream eggs and caramel eggs; Reese eggs; Twix eggs; and Jelly beans!





Teague and Hiram are too little to hold their baskets on their laps- the handles cover their faces.

Next up was coloring Easter eggs.
(Notice how the snow is all melted in the backyard?  I wanted an Easter miracle to have all of the snow melted on our land.  I got my wish!  I may have helped by pouring hot water on the last 3 patches we had, ha ha!)

We tried a "marble" effect, but I don't think we'll be trying it again in the near future.  They just made the eggs greasy.  Thank goodness they still made tasty deviled eggs!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Surprise Shower

So I thought something might be up when Poppa came home with all of these gorgeous flowers.

Yep, my sneak of a mom threw a surprise baby shower for me.  (Of course, on the only day I didn't do my hair on my trip, ha!).  We ate yummy chicken salad croissant sandwiches with chips & dip, followed by my favorite- Marie Callender's pies.

Baby girl got spoiled with the cutest clothes ever!

Mandy facetimed Erika so she could be a part of it.  Wish you were there Eri!  Aunt Connie was out of town too, but also sent gifts.

Thanks Devin & Kris,

Mom & Aunt Linda,

Aunt Debbi, & Aunt Susie,

Mandy, & Lynn,
(I want to be thin and blonde again!)

and Erika & Aunt Connie!
Baby girl and I really appreciate your love and generosity!

Becky & Leslie weren't able to make it to the shower, so they took me out to dinner the next night and spoiled baby girl with more cute clothes!  I need to go buy lots of thank you cards!

Lynn & Scott's Wedding

Mr. & Mrs. Mellin had an absolutely beautiful wedding on April 12, 2014.  Of course, this post has tons of pics to record it!

Here are some shots when we were getting ready at the Golf Club. 
Mom (Aunt Debbi) and Daughter.

Aunt Connie and Rachel.

Erika, Amanda, Mom, and Me.
All 3 of the feisty Barlow sisters and their 5 daughters were in attendance.

My beautiful cousin!  I was almost 5 when she was born and for another 4 years we were the only grandkids in the family.  I still remember driving from Idaho to California after she was born.

My handsome little Ring Bearer.

With his cute "Here comes the Bride" sign (which he didn't wear in the end, darn!).  He did carry the cute ring box though.

With the pretty flower girls.

Having a chat with the bride.

She's so pretty!

Lynn and Scott's colors were blue and green, so the bridesmaids wore blue dresses and carried these gorgeous green & white bouquets.

Lynn's bouquet was made out of brooches.  Many were sentimental, including Granny's bling name tag front and center.  We love and miss you Wanda!
 
Lynn's parents are divorced and she was raised by her mom.  I think it was very sweet that she had her dad AND mom walk her down the aisle.

Waiting to become Mr. & Mrs.!

The sweet smooch!

The groom's fam.

The bride's dad's fam.
I can't wait to see the professional pics (especially so I can steal the pic of the bride's mom's fam that I'm in and the wedding party that Teague is in).
 
Around our table at the reception-
Mom & Poppa,

Teague & me,

Mandy & Coleman,

Jared & Erika,
 
Kris & Devin.

At the table next to us was Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Susie, & Connor,

Rachel & Brad,
and Uncle Steve & Aunt Connie, their nephew & niece, and Aunt Debbi.

All the girl cousins!

Teague fell asleep during dinner,

and missed out on the delicious cake, and dancing the night away.

Scott & Lynn- we wish you a lifetime of joy, beauty, laughter, and love!