Ashley's Surprise Birthday Party (11/09)

We surprised Ashley early for her birthday this year! Jenna made the beautiful and delicious cookies and cream cake. It was divine! The table looked so pretty that I had to take a picture!

A special thanks to Jenna and Casey for hosting the party.








We played some games.

The first game was to see who could blow the biggest balloon without popping it.










We had a 5 way tie - Casey, Jenna, Jason, Ashley, and Robert!












These were big balloons and took awhile to blow up.












Some of the balloons popped and startled many of us!












The next game was to see who could blow the biggest bubble with bubble gum. Robert did a great job and came in 2nd place.











This is Diana with the start of one of her many huge bubbles. (My timing with the camera was a little off or you would have seen the winning bubble here.)

Diana was declared the winner. She received a pack of gum as her prize.







The last game was to see who could be most creative with their balloons.

Jason was the #3 winner with his creation!










Nate was the winner of the game as determined by the other participants.















Robert was declared the #2 winner of the creative balloon category.


(Please don't overlook the picture here with my new grandson, Spencer.... More pictures of him to
follow!)






Weston was having a great time with all the balloons and chasing them around the floor. He wasn't too concerned about the loud popping noises either.










Then it was time for the birthday cake - Jenna's beautiful and delicious creation.













Paisley was a little intimidated by the popping balloons so she preferred to help blow out the candles with her mom. (Paisley is so cute.)











These gifts were ones I got for Ashley from her wish list on Amazon.












Weston was so cute that I just wanted to add his picture.












A Costco membership for Ashley from her parents.












More gifts..............













Jenna knows exactly what Ashley likes.....













Ashley was thrilled with the new cookbook from Jenna and Casey!

















Just a few extra shots of the guests...........













Everyone checking out their party favor bags that Charity helped put together!












It was fun to have Ashley's friends join the party....












One final shot of Weston as he was so active during the entire party and had a fabulous time. I had a great time and hope everyone else did also.













Happy Birthday to Ashley!

Happy Brithday to Nate! (2009)

Another year has come and gone.... Time for Nate's birthday again.

Misty made a delicious dinner - Shepherd's pie with salad and cake / ice cream for dessert. Misty makes a fantastic cake that is becoming my favorite too. Of course, the desired ice cream for Nate's birthday is cookies and cream.

I had to laugh at Adalei - she is closing her eyes because she doesn't want me to take the picture. She reminds me of her Aunt Charity! Of course, Adalei finds it quite fun and funny!



Just a cute shot of father and son! Nate is great at putting Elijah to sleep!


















The very delicious birthday cake with three candles in one row and two in the other! Happy birthday to Nate! Misty made homemade vanilla ice cream and put crushed Oreo cookies in it. (The ice cream is in the bowl by the cake.)












I got Nate this book - It is from the Made in Oregon store - stories, poems, recipes, etc. I also gave him some peanut M&M's. Seems like I may have given him something else but I can't remember what it was. (I sure am getting forgetful as it wasn't that long ago.)

Misty gave Nate peanut M&M's also....






Misty is so creative - she gave Nate this balloon for his birthday along with some other gifts. Adalei and Brielle were trying to pop the balloon to get the paper inside that said what the birthday gift was. Adalei tried to pinch the balloon and bite it. Then Brielle tried to pop it by sitting on it. None of these attempts were successful. Finally it was poked with something sharp and popped! The surprise gift was a shopping trip to purchase running clothes for the rainy weather.

Nate was very happy and enjoyed his birthday. He was excited to get the waffle bat and ball from Casey & Jenna!

Elijah's First Day at Home - Scripture Time!

I was so excited to see Adalei and Brielle dressed in their cute matching shirts and wanted to take a picture. There are lady bugs on the shirts. Adalei picked these out at the store.

I forgot that I had bought them and so I asked Adalei were they got their cute shirts. She said she got them when I bought my sweaters. Then I remembered that I had stopped at the outlets after her first dentist appointment because I wanted to get some sweater vests that were on sale. In checking out the clearance section, we found these cute shirts and some others. I let Adalei pick out which one she liked best. I was amazed that Adalei's memory was far better than mine!



A proud father holding his son........ Dad and little junior! :-) Elijah was so tiny and light - just like a little ball. Nate could hold him in one hand.

Nate and Misty are amazing. They got home from the hospital around 6 pm that night and by 8 pm they were having scripture time. I don't think they ever miss a day. When I babysit, we usually do an article of faith or two.....

I think they are on the second time reading the Book of Mormon with their family. I think Nate was 8 yrs old when he finished reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. I'm happy to see my son does much better than I did with scripture reading. I was fortunate if I got in one verse a day. This is a commandment that I struggled with doing as a family. It was easier to read on my own. I'm just grateful that my kids do better at this than I did.

Adalei's First Gymnastics Class - Last Day (10/09)

Since Misty just had the baby, I had the opportunity to take Adalei to her last gymnastics class.

Before we went inside the school, I thought a picture with this scarecrow would be cute. Adalei didn't know what a scarecrow was and I don't think I explained it very well either.


These pictures are self explanatory. Adalei had a great time with her session. She was the youngest and the shortest and the cutest in the class!

The lighting at this location was very poor and I didn't get my camera set just right. Hopefully you can see Adalei and not mind the poor quality of the pictures I took. These pictures are about the memories and not photography skills.....














































At the end of the class, she received a sticker for the session completion. Rather than put the sticker on her shirt, she wanted it on her pants. She's sure a cute little girl and I was very pleased to tell everyone there that I was her grandmother!

Newport, Oregon - A weekend at the beach house!

My friends (John and Troy, picture below) invited me to spend the second weekend in October with them at a beach house just north of Newport, Oregon. The beach house is right at the coast overlooking the beach. The view is awesome. When you walk in the house and look out the window, it seems like you are on a cruise ship because all you can see is the ocean water.

I've included some of my favorite pictures. I thought Jason, Ashley, Jenna, Casey and Charity would like to see these since we will be having our next family reunion there in June 2010.

I loved the sunsets best of all.

My Shrimp and Crab Louie (picture below)was so delicious! I'd love to go back again. I think the restaurant was named the Tidal Rave. A couple of the pictures here were taken from the restaurant as the restaurant is right on the coast also.





Don't miss the guy para-sailing in the picture further down. He was far away and I zoomed in as much as I could. He went under water right after I took this picture. It's the picture with what looks like a green kite. (At first we thought he was flying a kite.)

The clouds are interesting - wispy sometimes and just over the horizon in others. I liked watching the birds flying along the coast. They were flying north - I thought birds flew south for the winter?


I had a great weekend and enjoyed the relaxation I had there. It was hard to leave but I know I'll be returning in June, if not before.