Papa's Happy Birthday

Papa had a birthday!! We went to SLC Sunday to celebrate. I offered to make a dessert of his choice. Of course he picked something I'd never made before, German Chocolate Cake! I went to Pinterest and found something tasty looking and gave it a whirl. It sure looked pretty! I will tell you a secret...MY cake is from a box! The frosting was from scratch...HERE's the recipe. **Bakers Note** I only did 2/3 cup sugar in frosting, then added a little brown sugar as well. Definitely give the syrup time to thicken while cooking....like 12-15 minutes once boiling. BE PATIENT it will happen!**

 Love the candles, Mom! 55+1 :)

 Papa's gift from all of us was a "Little Giant" ladder.....Jet photobombed!

 Where's Momma Max...oh, that's right. With the babies. Always. 

 I guess the cake wasn't so bad! I must have been nervous for no reason. :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Fire Station Field Trip

After being in bed for a couple days with stomach flu, Emri and I were excited to get out of the house for a firld trip. Emri and her little friend Ryder heading in to the station.

Checking out the inside of the firetruck... 

 Jet decided to be brave and go in too...

 Seeing the gear the firemen wear...

 Plugging her ears when the sirens went off.

 The Little Fish classes. Emri is bottom row, third from the right.

SNOW DAY(s)

 On Jan 10-12 we got slammed with a snow storm. It really didn't stop for about 36 hours. I believe Davis County got the worst of it...all the schools around here were shut down, even Weber State. 

 Brett worked Friday, so I spent a while outside with the kids shoveling while they played....

Jet spends most of his time eating the snow. 

 Saturday I let Brett do all the heavy shoveling. We had SO MUCH SNOW! It's as tall as the kids!

 Jet was in heaven watching our neighbor snow-blow his driveway. Much more entertaining than dad and a shovel.

Who needs a sledding hill when you can go on your own driveway? Emri was a very nice sis to lug Jet up the driveway!

 The snow was fun for the first two days....but the COLD, COLD temps are really getting to me! I think I need to move south...or at least have a winter home elsewhere!  :)

Jet @ 23 Months

WHAT?! It blows my mind to type that! How is time going by so fast? (Now only if winter could also speed by)!

I love this... he actually has a neck :) 

Jet is a silly, almost 2 year old. He definitely finds himself in a lot more trouble than Emri did at this age (or any age up till this point). I really can't take my eyes off of the boy!

 Snuggles for Great Grandpa Brklacich

At 23 Months, Jet:

• LOVES to color on EVERYTHING: walls, clothes, books, tables, iPads, beds, and occasionally paper.
• is always undressing himself. He always wants to run around in his onesie.
• has quite the devilish little laugh!
• is a TERRIBLE eater. He's pretty picky at breakfast and lunch and usually refuses to eat all together at dinner. What is up with that?! I usually keep his dinner plate out and get a couple bites in him just before bed, but not much more.
• got his 13th chomper this month! Tooth #R came in 1-6-2013.
• Has added Papa, "buh-bo" (dumbo, he loves that book), "yu-tee" (yucky) to his vocab.
• Has discovered toe lint and likes to take off everyone's socks to check for it!

bEsTiEs ReUnItEd

Remember back in the day when it was just the 6 of us?!

 We could come and go as we pleased...

There were always new adventures...

...and ways to entertain ourselves....

And we for sure always were acting like proper...

...mature, grown-ups?!

 Those were good ol' days! :)

********

Well, things are a little different these days... 4+ years later!

Now we leave it up to our children (all 5 of them) to entertain us...

We pose them for crazy pictures.... 

 We get our kicks out of snugglin' these new little beans....

 And take awkward living room photos (yes, I saw that star on Landon's head before I snapped the pic), because we aren't in any cool new place....but the friendships are still, and will always be, the same!

 Love you guys....even though theres a billion miles between us! So glad to see you all over Christmas!

Partied HARD! Adios 2012

This is our 2nd year in a row spending NYE in Nibley, Utah with Ryan and Jaimi's fam....guess it's a tradition now! We started our night with Chinese takeout. The kids had their "midnight" around 8:30 (we set the clocks ahead) w/ hats, noisemakers, confetti poppers, and snaps on the front porch (one of which was thrown INTO MY MOUTH while i was taking pictures and snapped on my tooth...weirdest feeling ever)!!

Emri LOVES to be with her cousins and disappears when we're there. Jet was a little more clingy that night...probably because the last time we were at the house we left all the kids w/ babysitters! :)

Top: Noah & Brystun

Bottom: Sawyer, Emri, Kenya, Jet, Mac

 After the kids went to bed the grown-ups had fondue and games. We played Telestrations, which is becoming my new favorite group game. HILARIOUS!

 About 15 minutes before midnight Jet did what I assumed he'd do. He woke up. You could say he just wanted to see the NYE ball drop at midnight, but I say he just doesn't like to sleep anywhere but his own bed as of the last few months. On Christmas night at my parents he was up from about 1am-6am.... So, NYE he celebrated midnight with us, deliriously wandered around the house gathering all of Sawyer's "Lightening McQueen" toys, whined, snuggled (even with Jaimilyn), cried, then I put him to bed around 1am. We climbed in bed just before 2am and that's when I heard him awake again. :( I think he stirs, knows he's not at home, then can't settle back down. I made him lay in bed in Kenya's room w/ me and after about 2 hours, of being up, rolling around in bed, I put him back in his porta-crib (for like the 4th time) and left. It took him some time to get to sleep but around 4am i finally climbed back in bed and didn't hear him again till 7:30 am. Wow, I really hadn't planned on being up all night! We party hard! That stinker!! I would think that taking him other places regularly would help, but it hasn't....and it takes me too long to recover from all-nighters than it once did!! So, I guess we're homebound??

 On New Year's Day the boys stayed home with the kiddos and watched football. Jaimilyn, her sister Kendra, and I went shopping, to lunch and got icecream. A good way to start the new year!!

 HAPPY 2013!!