Jackson's 1st birthday (and Memorial weekend)

Our favorite little boy turned 1 this past Sunday, May 26th! It is so crazy to think that a whole year has gone by. He's not our little baby anymore. He's a big baby!

We spent the weekend with the Pendleton side of the family in Star Valley, WY. Justin's whole family was there. It was fun to see everyone and spend time with them. 

He wasn't super into his party hat. I was able to distract him enough to wear it for some of the time though!

He liked his cake. 

 

Blowing out his candle. He actually ate 2 cupcakes. One cupcake for the pics above before he went down for a nap and this one after to celebrate with everyone else. It was his birthday after all!

I love this picture. His face seems like it's saying, "Clothes? Thanks." Ha ha! Like a true boy I guess! Thanks grandma and grandpa for the cute outfits!

Here he is going inside the bag to get the presents out.

Great grandma and great grandpa Pendleton dropped by to drop off a card and gift. I love him smiling at grandpa in this picture. They were so cute to bring him a football. He LOVES balls! 

The boys took care of the dutch oven dinner. Chicken and potatoes. Yummy!

We had a sports themed party for Jackson. Don't look too close, but this was my best attempt at decorating these cupcakes to look like the different types of balls! I found the idea at bettycrocker.com.

I didn't take pictures of all the other party stuff, but I found this cupcake stand and all the other party stuff at the dollar store. I checked Zurcher's first, but all they had was individual sports themes. Not all sports combined. Dollar Tree had just what I was looking for! And you can't go wrong for a buck for each piece (plates, napkins, cups, banner, cupcake liners and cupcake stand).

We definitely had some ups and downs on the trip. Ali falling asleep on grandma Sunday afternoon was a good thing :) I'm not sure if she's ever fallen asleep on anyone before. Way to go grandma!

Taking rides on the razor and on grandma and grandpa's new bikes was also a highlight of the trip.

We had our own flag raising ceremony on Memorial Day. We put the flag up and said the pledge of allegiance! Look at these cute girls with their hands over their hearts. We also visited the graves in the Thayne cemetery.

The bad news was several people got sick by Sunday morning. Justin's brother Mark and his little boy had already been sick when they arrived, then Molly threw up Saturday night in her bed and on ours. Justin's mom was sick and a niece wasn't acting like herself either. Justin actually got sick yesterday and came home early from work, but so far no one else seems to be sick. Molly's seemed like a quick, fluke-type thing, luckily.

We tried to ride the neighbor's little ponies while there, but unfortunately that didn't work out either. 

The Pendleton Memorial golf tournament was a success. The boys had fun and we met them after in Jackson Hole. We ate dinner together and our little family attempted the alpine slides, but they weren't running yet :( boo!

Back to this cute boy. Jackson is such a happy boy. He is into checking everything out and is curious about everything. He loves to throw things and hit things (and pinch and bite!). He loves to point his finger at people and waits for them to point back and smiles. It is the cutest thing. That's his latest little game. He isn't walking yet, but he loves to push his hippo around and our little strollers and shopping cart. He likes to give mommy and daddy big open mouth kisses in the mornings. He will cuddle right into you at times when you hold him. He is not a picky eater and eats what we eat. I have just weaned him and now he's on whole milk. Hooray for that! Jackson, we love you so much! Thanks for all the joy you bring into our lives. We think he's perfect :)

12 month stats from today's checkup:
Length: 30.31 in. 68%
Weight: 20.17 lbs. 13%
Head: 18.3 in. 51%

Molly's Trio Spring Concert

Tonight was so much fun. Molly performed in her Spring Concert. I actually took this picture above of her class yesterday at rehearsal. She's on the far right. She's singing Zip a Dee Doo Dah.

All of the Trio girls!

Molly's class performing Hawaiian Hukilau.

Everyone with Miss Tricia! We are so sad that this is her last concert and she will no longer be teaching :( Molly has enjoyed it so much for the last 2 years. Her teacher, Tricia, grew up in the same neighborhood as me and I even took a little class from her when I was like 9 one summer. Tricia was probably in college? I'm not even sure, but Tricia is amazing and one of the sweetest people I know. I was so excited when I heard she had a little studio and we put Molly right in.

The concert was so, so cute! These girls are just adorable. Molly's class is the youngest and you just have to smile watching them sing and dance. So darling! I recorded all her numbers, so if I figure out how to put them here, I will ;)

Molly made sure we knew that we were to get her flowers after the concert. So we came through!

Molly holding her cute picture from Miss Tricia.

We did a fun hairdo for her to keep her hair out of her face! Found here.

We got cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy after. Molly's choice. It was a really fun night! Molly did such a good job. Her solo was all on key and we could hear the words and everything :) I really loved the Teddy Bear Picnic. So cute! That's all I can say. The whole thing was cute and fun. I loved it! Great job Molly!

Girls dresses (or jumpers)

You may remember in this post how I showed you some strips of fabric I had shown together. Well, here's what I made! I used a pattern called Jelly Roll Jumper by Susan Carbine Johnson to make these cute jumpers for my girls. My mom bought the jelly roll with these fabric strips and the pattern. Over a year later I pulled it out and decided I wanted to make them for the girls!

This first one belongs to Alison. I am in love with all the bold and bright colors. So fun!

Here's the back with the sash.

Here is Molly's. The fabric is called heirloom by Joel Dewberry.

The back of Molly's. The nice thing was that I sewed all the strips together first. Then I just cut them to the measurements for each and went from there.

After all the strips were sewn, I realized we weren't smart enough to buy the coordinating fabric for the bodice, straps and border. Duh! That's a no no with fabric because it doesn't stay in the store forever. So if you wait a long time it could be gone and you're out of luck.

Well I was finishing my Easter table runner and could not believe my eyes when I saw three bolts of this fabric on the clearance rack! All at 50% off! So fi you see the purple and pink fabric on Molly's and the pink and white on Ali's, that's the fabric I'm talking about. Plus the green print on the straps. Anyway, it was my lucky day and totally meant to be! I'm still so happy thinking about my luck! Ha, I'm a fabric nerd I guess ;)

Didn't they turn out cute? They haven't worn them yet, but I think they will on Sunday so I will take some pics of them actually wearing them and report back :)

Just for fun, here's a look at the little fairy garden my mom did with my girls. She had a kit that she bought last year from some garden center.

The girls are so excited about it and think it's the coolest thing ever.

I'm not really a huge fairy fan, but I have to admit that it's pretty cute myself!

And last, but definitely not least, we are happy again because we have a swing set in the backyard! Thanks mom and dad for getting a new one! My kids are in heaven. There are some perks to still living with my parents ;) although we are really, really, hoping that our time here is coming to an end...?? We are still waiting on hearing back on a job for Justin. He has a strong lead, but we are waiting for the guy to give the ultimate yes or no. Should be any day.

Spring soccer

 Molly got this awesome medal after her last soccer game this past weekend.

 She was sooo excited!

She did a great job. She has a great leg and can kick the ball hard and far if she wants. She does tend to get distracted while out on the field, and she tends to like to run in the back of the pack. But, if she wants to, she can kick goals! She is so funny. She isn't really aggressive and doesn't like the idea of taking the ball from other girls. But if she gets to do the kick off or throw in, then sometimes she'll score off of that.

We didn't choose to sign her up again. She has enjoyed it I think, but she isn't over the top excited about going. Plus, we still are a bit unsure of our future and where we will be (still hoping to MOVE one of these days) so that was another factor. But there's always another time to try! She is only 5 :) It's been fun for her to experience it though!

Her spring singing and dance recital is this Wednesday night and her teacher is not going to be teaching anymore :( sad day! But she would have had the summer off anyway. She has one more month of school. Her preschool teacher likes to do more of a year round schedule, so her last day is June 27th, which is her graduation lunch.

Yesterday morning she said a prayer and said, "....and I'm grateful for my medal for being the greatest soccer girl EVER!..."

Here's another funny story about Molly from this morning.

A man was smoking in the car in front of us. Molly was so disgusted with him. She yells out, "That guy is smoking! Smoking is so bad for you! People, listen to me. Smoking is bad for you! You should go talk to Jesus. If you don't know about Jesus, go to the temple. Or you can go to church. Those are your choices!"
I was dying laughing. Love this girl.

Mother's Day 2013

I hope all you moms had a great Mother's Day yesterday. I did! Justin watched the kids on Saturday for me to go to lunch with my sister and mom. After we did some shopping and had a fun time. Justin had the house all clean for me when I got back and some gorgeous bright pink roses.

Molly got me a cute gift from preschool. It's a shopping list to put on the fridge. Oh and I forgot the girls got me some yummy chocolate dipped strawberries! Delicious!

I helped the girls make cards for grandma. It was kind of last minute, but they were so excited and had so much fun making them.

Presenting their cards to grandma.

Me and my mom with the kiddos.

After we made cards for grandma, the girls decided that they needed cards for themselves. They were so proud of their cards.

My cute boy.

He's getting so big! Look at those teeth. He now has 8!

In a couple of weeks he will be 1. It went by way too fast.


Also, Happy 8th Anniversary to my sweetheart today :) I love you Justin! We are planning on dinner and some shopping tonight. Should be fun.