Festival of Trees

On Friday the 5th we went to the Festival of Trees with some friends from our ward. I always love to see the creative things people come up with! The tree toppers this year were so cool! They looked kinda like things were exploding out the top of the tree!

Star Wars + 6 Boys = A Whole Lotta Crazy

Marshall had his first ever friends party on December 6th. It was a blast!

The Vaders were set on the table with care
in hopes that the partiers soon would be there.
Okay, that's as far as the poem goes.

The boys had fun putting together a Darth craft. Then one of them started gluing the Star Wars confetti on the masks and they all wanted to. It was so cute how they decorated them.

They played "Pin the Controls on Darth Vader," the picture behind Marshall. Then they opened presents and among them was a Darth Vader costume from Grammy.

Getting all six to hold still for a picture!

The birthday boy blowing out the candles!
After the cake was eaten the boys played with Marshall's new toys.

I used to swear I'd never do a "pre-fab" birthday party for my kids. But after having a baby I just wasn't up to coming up with all the stuff for a party on my own. Now, I absolutely swear by it! Marshall loved it, it was so easy, and all his buddies had fun.

It was such a chore getting everything we needed from the party store. I guess they've discontinued the old Star Wars party stuff so they can get the Clone Wars stuff. So I had to go to 2 party store locations and had a third store in Bountiful send the invites to a closer store. Then, there was the cake. Oh my! The cake! I called all the grocery stores to see if they had the cake. Finally I went to an Albertsons that could do it. On Thursday (the party was Saturday) they called and told me they didn't have the cake toppers and couldn't make it!!! Ahhhh! I was pissed! So after calling 5 MORE Albertsons I found one that had exactly one set of cake toppers left and they were MINE! Until I saw the cake with my own eyes I didn't trust that they really had the toppers. Luckily everything went off without a hitch! I couldn't have wished for a better party for Marshall. It was so much fun!

My Baby Turned 4

I can't believe my baby boy is 4! I know he's not "the" baby, but he'll always be MY baby! I can't believe it's been four years already. He is getting so big and grown-up. I love him so much!

First thing in the morning he got to open his presents. I HATED being made to wait all day, so my kids will get to open theirs bright and early! I wish I would have insisted on matching PJs the night before. Oh well.

Good Morning, Birthday Boy!!!

Being the Toy Snob that I am, I stew over what to get him all year long. So, imagine my excitement as he opened his presents. He got a couple small, little things. And one BIG GIANT thing.

A Knight Floor Puzzle that is about as big as Marshall!

An Advent Calendar. How perfect is it that his birthday is right on the first?


And then...

Inside this box are...

Dragons, Knights, Horses, and a Catapult! All the fixings for a....

CASTLE!!!

He was soooo excited when he saw his new castle!!! This was by far my favorite moment of the day! And to think...I was thisclose to not getting it for him! Sooooo glad I did!!!! He played with it all morning.

For Breakfast I got him donuts and chocolate milk. The milk was a big hit but the donuts were unpalatable to him. He took one teensy weensy bite and spit it out! Who knew? I've never heard of kid not liking donuts.

My mom got off work early and came to hang out with Marshall and play with his new toys. She got him a tabletop fuseball set, a robot memory game, and a race track.

Marshall got a super cool Darda race track from Grammy! He looooved playing with it all afternoon! He thought it was especially cool when Dad got home from work and showed him a different configuration and all the cool tricks he learned when he was a kid with his Darda set.

He needed a break from all those presents so he came to be my helper in the kitchen. When I asked him what he wanted for his special birthday dinner he told me chicken nuggets. My first inclination was to scratch that idea and make a nice meal for him. Then I realized HELLO!!! it's HIS birthday, I should let him decide what's "nice" and "special" to him. So, chicken nuggets it was!

Marshall helped me make his cake in the afternoon.

It was his birthday so of course he got to lick the spoon and the bowl all by himself. I even put a little extra batter in the bowl for him!

When John got home we ate dinner and then played with his new toys. John's parents came over with a fun birthday surprise, too. Then we had his cake he helped make and his favorite ice cream, vanilla. My family has it's own special birthday song that we sang to him too. I love it because it's not the traditional birthday song so he can feel special and know it's different when we sing it.

A proud 4 year old as we sing the traditional Marshall Family Birthday Song.

A proud 4 year old shows off his new digits!

We had such a fun day. I love coming up with our own family traditions and way of doing things. I love you Marshy-poo! You'll always be my baby, no matter how big you get.

A Thanksgiving Tradition

I know I'm a little behind on posting this, but I have a valid excuse (the baby)! Plus, I've been so busy editing and posting my friends' pictures for my photography blog. Better late than never though.

I haven't spent a Thanksgiving with the Marshall side of my family (my dad's) since I was a sophomore in high school (9 years)! So when we were invited up to my Aunt's in Heber, I jumped at the chance. I love my dad's family!!! We spent our summers together at Aspen Grove Family Camp and Island Park Reservoir so we're all so close to each other. We always have so much fun getting together to do our little traditions.

We had such a fun time this year. The Richards have a tradition of writing what they're thankful for all day on strips of paper and collecting them in a bowl. After dinner they read them outloud. Some are funny, some are thoughtful, and some are complete jokes but it brings meaning to the holiday. After pie comes my favorite of all---GINGERBREAD HOUSES!!! We've been making these so long I've run out of ideas. Nevertheless it is always fun to see what everyone comes up with as we get in the mood by listening to Christmas tunes. After we're all done we line them up on the table for judging. This is where the real creativity comes in! The "adults" aka Grandma and Aunt Alecia give the "kids" aka us, the cousins, original awards to go with our original houses. It is always fun to see what they come up with. This year mine won Best Teeter Totter House because my roof would NOT stay up! Needless to say it didn't even make it home. There's always next year. Finally we all stand behind our creations, point to ours, and shoot a picture.

I had so much fun being with my family this year! Richards- Thanks for such a great time and making us feel welcome!

Here's what I'm thankful for: my 3 boys!!!

Marshall and Aunt Alecia mixing up the icing, yum!

Marshall and my cousin's sons played ball in the garage while we decorated the houses.

John hung out with Coen while I decorated the house.
John took over the decorating while I went to nurse Coen. When I came back it had collapsed!The Gingerbread Line-up
My Teeter Totter House, how sad =(
"Point and Shoot" picture

A Birthday Tribute

December 1, 2004
Birthday

December 2005
1 Year Old

December 2006
2 Years OldDecember 2007
3 Years Old

November Update

Being a Toy Snob has it's perks. Like for example a big, huge package showed up on our doorstep last week with this life-size construction toy in it. So, my two super heroes turned it into a playhouse, aka: castle, which took up about 1/4 of our free floor space in our living room. The perk here is that this set retails for $350 and I got it FREE! All I have to do is a review for it on my blog.

We got to see Twilight last Thursday at 8:00pm. For those of you who don't know, that was BEFORE it was released for the midnight showing! Being a Contacts employee sure pays off! They do a film festival twice a year, so we also took Marshall to Wall-E last time they had it. We got 4 tickets, free large popcorn and a $20 giftcard (we're saving ours for a free date night). The movie was entertaining, but lacked in some areas. John was a little lost and didn't like it and having not read the books I can see why. I did think the baseball scene was AMAZING! It made me want to play baseball (as a vampire).

Ooh, and as you can see, I chopped my hair. Big mistake. I like the color though. And, the bangs look better than they do in that picture. Women who just had babies shouldn't be allowed to cut their hair! What was I thinking?! At least it's better than the time I did this after Marshall was born...Here's who you really wanted to see...

Coen is a great baby! From what we guesstimate he weighs about 10 or 11 pounds now. He still seems so tiny to us but he's finally plumping up those sweet cheecks and thighs. He's totally balding, mostly on his sides. He's also got some sweet baby acne and cradle cap going on. He smiled at me for the first time a couple days ago.

I'm doing great. My incision wasn't healing last week at my appointment, so my doctor had to cauterize it. It hurt really bad so when he suggested it again today at my 6 week check-up I told him no thanks, I'd let it heal on it's own even if it does take a little longer. Other than that, I'm all better!

Coen loves his bathtime. Sometimes he is so calmed by it I think he's almost asleep.

Marshall is doing so well with Coen. It's a lot easier than I thought it would be. He's tender and loving towards him and so helpful for me. He helps bring me things like a burpcloth or binky and when the binky falls out he replaces it gently in Coen's mouth. He comes over to see if Coen is awake or asleep while I'm "nurse-feeding," his word for nursing/breastfeeding. Marshall is also really good at holding him, supervised of course. He likes to rub his head gently, too.

This is a look we often see on Marshall's face these days. It's his "bad guy" look, whether from Star Wars or some other super hero.