A Tonka Truck Party

For Hyrum's first birthday I got really excited about doing a boy theme. We had a Tonka Truck party and it was a lot of fun. Hyrum was given everything a little boy needed. Everyone was so generous with their gifts. We have such wonderful family and friends...What a blessing!


This was our spread. We had little sticks (pretzles), dirty logs (carmel and chocolate dipped pretzles), wheels (chocolate doughnuts), dirt & rocks (oreo truffles), dirt pudding (chocolate pudding with cookie crumbs and gummy worms), chocolate dipped oreos, and the Truck Cake. I thought the whole set up looked great. Hyrum loves chocolate and went for the doughnut wheels right away.

We did the family tradition of "Silly, Silly" and each of the young girls took turns bopping Hyurm on the head with his gifts. Jadyn made his wishes for him. Hyrum was good about it.


He had lots of help looking at his new toys.

The only glitch of the evening was when he tried to grab his birthday candle instead of blow it out. He cried and we had to run his little fingers under water. I have never had a kid that tried to grab the lit candle before. That was a first for me and I felt like a horrible mom. Oh well. He recovered well and had a fun party anyway.

You can't have a first birthday without making a mess of your cake, right? Hyrum did a decent job. He preferred anything chocolate to his birthday cake, but still had fun making a mess.

Happy Birthday, Little Man! I can't believe that you are already ONE! Where did the time go?

Grandma's Surprise Gift

The day after Hyrum's birthday, Grandma called and asked if the kids might be interested in a train ride at the park. Of course, my kids LOVE that sort of thing and it was a great surprise.

With the exception of loosing one of Jenna's flip-flops on our second train ride, (I tell you, Jenna looses more shoes than any other kid I have ever known) everyone had so much fun on the little train. They waved to people and got really excited to see all of the ducks. When we asked Hyrum, 'What does a duck say?' his immediate response was, "Rrrrrrr!" By the end of the night he was saying something closer to "Quack, quack."

Hyrum was not a big fan of riding the horses on the carousel, but he did like sitting and waving at Grandma as we went around and around. Once he got off, he loved waving and yelling, "Hi-ah!" at his sisters and Mom.

Thanks, Grandma for such a fun day at the park! I feel like my kids are especially blessed with wonderful grandparents. I am grateful for the days when we all just get to play together and create a bunch of memories. The kids were thrilled to ride the rides and see the ducks. It was a perfect way to celebrate Hyrum's birthday. As we drove home Jadyn remarked,

"It is so good that Hyrum had a birthday so that Grandma could take us to ride the carousel and the train at the park. Will Jenna's birthday be next week?"

A Celebration of Hyrum

It is hard to believe that my son is turning 1 today. Hyrum is a wonderful boy with a huge grin and the sweetest disposition. I was looking through his photos this last week. I had forgotten how dark he was (for one of my babies) when he was first born. He has always been a handsome kid. Here is a backwards glance at Hyrums first year…

Welcome baby Hyrum! Your sisters were so excited to come and meet you. They came with Grandma and brought a balloon and some little gifts for you. You didn't mind that they poked and loved you to pieces.

A few days old.

A few weeks old.

3 Months old.

Hyrum's first Christmas.

Six months old.

Do you think it is hard to be the only boy?

Could he be the cutest little messmaker, ever?

At the park on his birthday. I was laughing at him. He was so excited to walk and climb. He would randomly scream for kicks. He also would "roar" at everyone he saw.

Your birthday was a fun day. You actually had fun just playing all day with your sisters and your mom. Thanks for bringing so much joy to our lives! I hope that you always know how much you are loved.

Pictures

I rarely take my kids to get pictures, so this was a real treat for me. We did these photos back in August and I am just getting around to sharing them! I am always the one behind the camera - I'm never just trying to get the kids to laugh or watch and it is even more rare for me to be in a few of them. I took my kids over to Still Life Studios (Jared's partner company) and Dani captured the little personalities of my children beautifully. I love every single picture! I know that I am biased, but WOW! I have some cute kids! Here are a few of my favorites.

'Tis the season to get those family pictures done - I recommend Matt and his team to anyone looking for great photos! I LOVE my pictures!

What's Up?

Yep! Over the last week Hyrum has taken the leap from walking along the furniture or with assistance to walking all by himself! He can even walk in footie pjs! (I would probably slip, fall, and basically kill myself if I had to walk around in footie pjs...) He looks so proud of himself and even cheers for himself when we are not paying attention to tell him that he did a great job walking. Hyrum can walk and he is going places! Even though I wasn't ready for him to walk yet (I can barely keep up with him as he crawls), we are all so proud of him! That is the biggest news of recent days. We do have a few other things that made today's news...

Hyrum seems to always be sticking out his little tounge. I think it is adorable. It is always to one side or the other. I just had to include a photo of his "normal" face.

Jadyn was really cute one afternoon when she started teaching Jenna and Hyrum how to lasso Rocky (Hyrum's little rocking horse). She told me, "Mom, I am a good Cowboy. I can ride a horse, catch him with my rope, and do it all really fast."

I asked her if she was sure she was a Cowboy. To this she responded,

"I think I am a Princess Cowboy-Girl, but princesses ride funny, so I'll be a Cowboy-Girl when I ride." What a hoot.

Just for kicks and giggles I had to throw in a photo of Hyrum in a cowboy hat. He looks awesome in hats. I wish he would keep them on for longer than a few seconds!


That is all we have for today. Fun, fun!

At the Playground

This is going to be a long post. Mostly becuase I have been thinking a lot about not missing these precious moments and days with my 3 young children. (That is a hard thing to do when most days I am busy from dawn til night just trying to keep up with the little munchkins.) Since I haven't taken as many photos (with my little digital camera broken) I took a bunch of my kids when we went to the park at sunset on September 20th. I tried to capture them as I hope to remember them at this age...full of life, bubbling over with laughter and energy, and just being themselves.

Jenna is a Monkey and The Story of the Bugs

My little wisp of a girl, Jenna is a monkey. She can climb anything. She is fast and fearless. If I blink she is on top of something or climbing anything that she can. The first set of pictures are of her being a monkey.

The Story of the Bugs. I am sure that she will be so embarrassed over this story when she is older, but I had to add it. (After all she is a 2 year old that is potty trained that chooses to wear diapers and pull ups because she is lazy.) We had been playing at the park for almost an hour when Jenna started yelling for me, "Mom! Mom! The bugs are getting me! Mom!"

As I ran closer to her, I saw about 6 - 8 flies buzzing around her. She was swatting at them and getting really agitated. She was yelling, "Shoo Fly, don't bother me! Mom! They are not listening! The bugs are getting me! Mom! Come help me!"

When I was only a few steps from her I realized why the flies were so persistent. Jenna smelled riper than any bit of old garbage at the park. She had used her diaper (instead of telling me that she needed to use the toilet) and that little girl had a stench that almost made my eyes water. It was bad, and she was dealing with the flies as a result of the smell.

We ended our park trip and headed home to throw all the kids in the tub...especially the extra ripe one. Jadyn didn't even want to be by her as we went home. She was pretty stinky.

Jadyn Loves the Spotlight

Anytime I have out the camera or the video camera, Jadyn jumps in front of the camera all of the time. Sometimes I have to chase her away so I can get a few shots of her siblings. She really likes to be photographed and she always is yelling, "Mom, come over here and take a picture of me doing ____!" (Whatever she is doing at the time.) The playground is no exception. As soon as the camera came out, she was jumping in front of her siblings and trying to get my attention. She giggles the entire time. What a funny kid.

Hyrum is a big boy

It is hard for me to believe that my baby is growing up so quickly. He is at home playing outside. He loves to get dirty. He loves to chase his sisters around. He is curious and has to check everything out himself. While I was snapping pictures, I stood there almost too surprised to take pictures when I saw him (fortunately I kept my wits about me enough to grab a few photos ). Hyrum was climbing up the slide. Why not? He'd seen Jenna do it, and off he was. I was shocked that he made it all the way to the top all by himself. Afterwards, he turned back for just a fleeting moment and grinned as if to say, "That wasn't so hard. See Mom, I made that look easy." Then he was off and playing again. He gets bigger and smarter every single day. I wish there was a slow down button. I hoped he would be content to be a baby just a bit longer.

We had a good time at the park. I love my little kids. I know years from now I'll look back and wish I could have frozen days like this - when my kids were so silly and carefree. I laugh all day long at the funny things that they say and do - sometimes I almost cry because of all of the chaos in my life, but I choose to laugh instead. Since I can't really freeze time, I can freeze a few moments. That is why I take pictures. That is why I keep journals. This is what it is all about.