HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!

Look at the happy 4 year old.  He sure has a cheesy grin.  Grant was so excited for his birthday this year that he convinced us to celebrate a day early.  Actually, we celebrated a day early because Daddy had to stay late for meetings after work.  We all had a good time.  I even decorated, but you can't see any of the streamers and balloons in the pictures.   

This is Grant's race car cake.  It turned out really cute!!  Its my best so far.


I was really happy to get Grant some things I knew he wanted.  He got two Transformers, Optimus Prime and Ratchet.  He loves them and I hate them more every day.  Dave pointed out that we should have thought about how our lives would change before we got him the Transformers.  I must say, now that its been a few days, I can transform them in 30 seconds or less.
Hey dad look at this!
Wow, it's Optimus!
He's been wanting some "Crocs", so I got him a cheap imitation.  I think he was happy to get them, don't you think?
A few months ago all I heard about was Cars and I got a few gifts for him.  Naturally, he had to start a new fad with Transformers.
Grant started watching Transformer episodes when we checked out a dvd from the library.  Now we can watch them whenever we want.  What was I thinking?  My life will never be the same.

Happy Mothers Day

What more could a mom ask for...  

Ashlyn
Grant
Happy loving children

Well, since you asked, a mom can ask for a lot of things.  Of course, there are lots of things to get without asking.  Dave was really good to me and made me breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He also changed all the stinky diapers for the day and brushed Grant and Ashlyn's teeth giving me a night off.  These are all great gifts.  The other thing I got was a new vacuum.  Dave doesn't like me to tell anyone I got a new vacuum, but I don't care.  Its what I wanted.  I vacuum much more often than I did before I got my new dyson.  I did have to buy it myself, but I found a great deal I couldn't pass up ($80 off and an $80 gift card too).  I couldn't wait long enough for Dave to get it.  

Do you like Grant's hair cut?  He had me spike it for church.  Its quite a different look than the one he sported on my birthday.

Upside down birthday cake

I wish I had taken a picture of this before I cleaned most of it up.  Grant was trying to get some cake and dropped the pyrex pan on the floor.  It shattered.  Cake and frosting went everywhere, not to mention the glass that went flying.  We had been wondering how we would eat the cake before it went bad.  Problem solved.

MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

I had a great birthday surprise.  In addition to the lovely cake decorated with candles and the very practical presents (see the shovel), Dave made me a delicious dinner.  The night before, I came home from a long day at work to a candle light dinner.  Dave made me an Indian dish that was sooo good. The kids were already in bed and after dinner we watched a movie (a rare treat).  What a nice birthday!!!  

Back to the flowers

You may have wondered about the flowers I posted last week.  No, they are not from my yard. Yes, they are from Hobby Lobby.  I have started a new and very simple project.  Hair clips!  Please notice how cute my model is.  She knows just how to pose for the camera.

These are a few that I have made.  Each pair takes about one minute to make and they are very affordable (price per pair).  

Originally, I posted the pictures for my sister to see because its easier for me to post on a blog than email them.  I wanted to erase the post once she saw them, but a comment was made before I could do that.  So, now you get to see the finished product.  This is something we are going to do for our Wilcox family reunion this summer when we go to Idaho.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Colored eggs!  This is one of my favorite Easter traditions.  Ashlyn and Grant had lots of fun.  They wanted to plop the eggs into the colored water rather than carefully lower them.  Grant was using crayons to draw pictures on them.  He didn't quite understand the concept of using a white crayon and kept using blue and green.  I think our eggs turned out quite nice!

Here is an example of the nests I made.  This is something my mom used to make for us.  We would usually get a cadbury egg  as a child.  One year Jesse ate everyone's cadbury eggs before we had the chance.  We weren't very happy because that was the coveted item each year.  It seems like he was a little sick after eating all those eggs.  If my memory is wrong, I hope he was sick.  In our nests this year we just had small little eggs (jellybeans, robin eggs, etc.). 
The Easter egg hunt begins...




This is a real nest that Grant found a couple eggs in.

Grant and Ashlyn both found Easter baskets in the house.  In them were the silly bunny ears.  We all had to take turns wearing them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

Here we are on our hot date for Dave's birthday.  The kids were at a friends and we did everything that Dave wanted to do.  That means we went to his favorite restaurant Cantina Laredo.  Being the wonderful photographer I am I forgot to have my camera out at the right times and missed most of the action.
This is the remains of hot fudge from a delicious brownie.  It came to the table with sparks flying(there was a sparkler in it).  It sure was good!
This is Dave analyzing his leftovers.  I'm not sure what was so interesting about them.
Last on our evening out we went to the movies!  This is a real treat for us because we never go.  We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  (Yes, this is the cheap theater).   We really liked the movie and recommend it to all.  

Dave really wanted a strawberry rhubarb pie, but here in Texas they are very hard to come by.  Back in Utah I'd go to Denny's and pick one up.  Here I called Denny's and the girl didn't even know what rhubarb was.  Needless to say, he didn't get any pie.  I drew him a picture,  but it didn't taste very good.  I even tried to find rhubarb in the stores, but it wasn't in stock yet at the only store I found to carry it.  Maybe he'll get it for Father's Day if he's lucky.  

FLOWERS!

Disney on Ice

Awhile ago we bought tickets to go see Disney on Ice.  I remember going to see a show in Salt Lake as a child and thought the kids would like it.  I have no memories about what I saw except a big building.  I bet it will be the same for Grant and Ashlyn.  

We went to Fort Worth for an afternoon of excitement.  We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy of course.  In addition there were scenes from The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan.  Grant said he liked Peter Pan the best.  Its the only one that had anyone fly in it.  Our poor deprived kids haven't even seen any of those movies.  

I found it really difficult to get a good picture because of the lights.  It was always dark and my subjects wouldn't hold still while I snapped the shot.

You might think we do lots of fun things, but believe it or not we haven't left Texas since last June.  We are looking forward to a fun filled time this summer when we travel to Utah, Idaho and Oregon to see our families.