Happy Birthday Kaya!!!!!

We recently celebrated Kaya's Birth-DAY!! First, she was treated to a yummy breakfast at IHOP with the family & Uncle Nick.
In the afternoon, Kaya had a small "friend" party with 4 other girls. Kaya's only birthday party request was to have a dog pinata. So I went with a dog theme. I found most of the supplies in the $1 section at Target and the Dollar Store. The girl's LOVED it!!!Each girl got a dog to take home. They decorated the dogs with ribbon and made them a collar with beads. (That doubled as a bracelet for the girls). I found some cute dog food dishes that we used to put the beads in and later used to eat our cake and ice cream!We played Pin the Tail on the Doggie (Thanks to Uncle Nick's super talented art skills).
We played dance freeze to "Who Let the Dogs Out". The girls LOVED this activity.
We decorated dog bone shaped sugar cookies.Of course there was presents. Kaya was spoiled by her family and friends!!
The girls had fun whacking the pinata. Unfotuneately the head came off after the 3rd whack. So we duck taped him back together to give everyone a chance.We finished up with cake and ice cream. I baked the cake and Aaron made homemade mint chip ice cream. YUMMY!! We finished our party with about 10 minutes to spare. It couldn't have turned out better. I found these little bags 3/$1 at Target. I put in a pair of socks with pink dog paws on them, a sheet of dog stickers, and pack of Scooby Doo fruit snacks. The girls took home their decorated dogs, their dog dish, decorated cookies, and candy from the pinata.
After some party recovery, I took Kaya to get her birthday pictures done. We only do this once a year and they turned out very nice. We picked some dinner up on the way home and had a quiet evening playing with her new toys and watching her new Barbie movie. Thanks to everyone who made Kaya's birthday special. She is one very LUCKY and LOVED little girl!!

Anniversary Trip

Aaron & I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Portland, Oregon. My parents came to our house to watch the kids while we enjoyed 4 days of rest and relaxation. We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast and enjoyed driving all over seeing the sights of Oregon. It was beautiful, lush, and green. We would love to take the family back some day! Here is only a small sample of the pictures we took:

The beautiful bed and breakfast we stayed at.We visited the Portland, Oregon LDS Temple.No trip is complete without a little Geocaching. This happens to be the place where the very FIRST geocache was placed over 10 years ago. This is like the Holy Grail to geocachers!Christmas Tree FarmsA view of the Columbia River Gorge.We saw miles and miles of beautiful scenery and lots of amazing waterfalls.We stopped at the historic Mount Hood Railroad. This was as close as we made it to Mt. Hood. Still about 1 hour and 45 minutes away. It looked pretty amazing...from the airplane!We stopped at an art gallery of Pacific Northwest Art. I wish we would have taken pictures of some of the strangest people people we have EVER seen. This sign was painted on the side of a building. A trip to Portland would not be complete without a visit to Voodoo Donuts. Yes...we waited in line for 55 minutes to buy the yummiest - most sinful donuts ever!!The Oregon CoastHaystack Rock in Cannon Beach.
Our last stop before heading home was the International Rose Garden. Wow!! I was in HEAVEN!!

Catching Up

Aaron got free tickets to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game. It was a fun, FREE, family outing. The lady next to us caught a foul ball and gave it to Logan. Grammie Serr came to visit over Memorial Day weekend and we drove out to Heber to see Thomas the Tank Engine. We took a ride on the train and got to do all the fun activities. The kid's LOVED it!!Mother's Day - All dressed up and ready for church.Emily broke her arm. She actually had a buckle fracture in her radius bone. She fell off the couch and landed on her arm. They put this cute pink cast on....until it fell off. Now she has a full cast that goes up to her shoulder. Thankfully the cast comes off in just a few days.Logan finished his year of Joy School. (YAY for ME!!!) We had a fun and busy year but I'm glad to be done. Logan will go to regular preschool in the Fall.Kaya has officially completed Kindergarten. This was her teacher Mrs. Holt. Kaya had a super year and Mrs. Holt was absolutely wonderful. It's amazing how much Kaya has grown throughout the school year.I have the opportunity to do the flowers for 2 weddings in July. I'm really excited. I made a bouquet for one of the girls who had bridal photos taken. It turned out really pretty.

A Proud Mom Moment

Logan asked me today if he could try riding the "little" bike without training wheels. Sure...why not? I wasn't expecting anything magical but Logan did it on the first try!! Wow!! Logan will be 4 in a couple of months. I was shocked. Here's a short clip of him riding his bigger bike. His legs are still a little short and he needs help getting started but I'm sure he'll have it down in no time.



Kaya decided that she wasn't going to be out done. We tried several times last year to take off the training wheels with NO success. I just figured it would happen when she was ready. All it took was seeing Logan riding without training wheels. I had her try on the small bike first and she took off on the first try. NO CRYING!!!!! After a few runs on the small bike I took the training wheels off her bike. Wow!! Not only can she ride the bike without training wheels, she can start and stop. She's still a little wobbly and needs more practice but I'm really proud of her. Kaya will be 6 in a couple of weeks. She also recently learned to pump on the swing by herself. (Thanks go Daddy for that one) Here's a little clip of Kaya: