Charlotte's Birthday Party

I love parties. I love throwing parties. I love making all the goodies that go along. And I absolutely love how special it makes my kids feel. So yes, I might be a little over the top. And yes, I probably put too much time and effort into a single event. But, my kids will look back at this and see some physical evidence that I do care enough to do all that for them. There, now you can look at the rest of the blog and not judge me. :]

We combined a going away party for with Charlotte's party, that way we could invite more of our friends, even if they didn't have kids.


Michael's sister, Brenda, and her husband Gavin came for the weekend. Michael's parents also came early, around lunch time or so. That meant I had tons of helpers! Thank goodness for that.

I had my very own balloon blower uppers. 

Craig served as a baby entertainer. 

And Charlotte wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and help too! She loves sweeping and carrying the broom all around. 

The theme was elephants. The cake was divine. I made cupcakes, my great grandma's chocolate recipe. And the actual cake was 3 layers. The bottom two were from scratch vanilla with cream cheese fruit dip and blueberry pie filling between layers. The top layer, Charlotte's cake, was banana bread, since bananas are her absolute favorite. I iced the bottom with white chocolate buttercream and the top with cool whip (less sugar but still enough fun for her birthday). Then I topped all that with some baby carnations. It turned out fantastic! It was incredibly difficult to frost the cake the way I did, but the results were worth it. We also had white chocolate dipped Oreos, fruit pizzas, soft sugar cookies, cake balls dipped in raspberry dark chocolate, and a snack tray with pepperoni, ham, cheese, and crackers. I did apple juice boxes for the kiddos and a variety of specialty sodas for the big kids.

Some finishing ribbons on the top tier. This is the cool whip portion, which looked a lot more white than the buttercream. 

Kitchen counter display. The baby food jars in front are filled with M & M's and are party favors. 

The final product! I don't think this cake could have turned out any better! 

My (almost) famous soft sugar cookies. I used an icing recipe that hardens like royal icing but tastes delicious! 

You gotta have chocolate covered Oreos!

I found a fun website that all sorts of birthday printables. Pink, grey, and elephants, it was meant to be!

The kitchen table display. And that's my friend Jennifer. :]

This is probably my second favorite decoration (my favorite is the elephant and streamer banner hung above the couch). The tulle in the background is actually a tutu that Charlotte wore on the actual day of her birthday. 

Here are those cute juice boxes! And as favors for the kids, we had a puppy adoption. 

 We had a blast! Tons of people showed up. Almost all the food got eaten. Charlotte loved her presents! She received books, stuffed animals, clothes, toys, and a rocking horse from her mom and dad. That was her favorite, thank goodness! As a parent I always try and guess what my kids would like the most and what would actually maintain their attention for a long period of time. I hope I'm not alone in this. And this task is especially hard for the younger ones who can't voice what they really want. Well sure enough a horse did the trick!

We blew up almost 70 balloons. They were everywhere. Ivan thought it was so cool to frizz Charlotte's hair like this!

There's that cute banner in the background! And I made a photo collage in the shape of a "1" with only pictures of Charlotte. That was so fun to see tons of pictures of her throughout her first year. 

Cake time!

She didn't really understand that there was cake under all the cool whip. She just kept licking off the icing without taking any cake. Then she started playing it like a drum. 

So I snuck in there with a fork and pried off a piece of cake for her to eat. That's one big bite!

I think she likes it!

That's her signing "all done."

While opening presents, Charlotte just kept going back to the horse and playing with its mouth. 

Not quite sure what to think of that puppy, although she did sleep with it that night. 

Shortly after this was taken, Charlotte put her feet on the back of the horse and stood up on it while rocking it. Quite the show girl already! Notice the change in hairbows? A friend gave Charlotte that beautiful new feather one and it was the exact color of her outfit. It must be fate!

Charlotte is ONE

Today is all about my favorite little girl. Charlotte is one year old today. I cannot believe how fast it has gone by.

All about Charlotte:

she loves snuggles with Momma
peek-a-boo is her favorite
cows are her favorite animals
she loves books
her favorite food is anything Ivan is eating
she absolutely adores her big brother
she's a climber
she loves the swings at the park
'moo' was her first word (and only)

We got a free photo shoot from our favorite, and only, photographer. So we went there for pictures for her one year. She didn't smile a single time. Not once.

She's adorable anyway. I made the blue and white dress she's wearing in the last pictures. I just love those blue eyes!

Have I mentioned...

We're moving!

Yay!

I am so excited to move that I've packed almost all my house. And I started packing a while ago. We have filled up our shed with tons and tons of boxes. I took the pictures off the wall a couple days after I found out we were moving. I figure if this place feels less like home, then where we're going will seem more normal to us. And I can always bring a picture or two to put up in our new place. It's a little frustrating to know so early that we're moving and that it's not just happening already. A big reason why I'm packing so much so early is because of our housing situation. We're moving into a one bedroom house and can only bring with us what we can fit in the car. So we'll have just the bare minimum. I think it'll be easier to adjust to that while we're still in a familiar setting and then the minimum will be familiar already when we get there. Make sense? Works in my head. And I want to have most of the packing done early so I can have plenty of time to get all the silly cleaning done.

As I'm packing, I cannot believe how many toys the kids have! I've had their toys on a rotation for some time now. It's been working really well for us. I pack up a big box of toys and they don't get played with for a month or so. Then when the toys they do play with get boring, I pack those up and get out the ones that have been stored. It's pretty great really. It keeps me from buying new toys, it keeps the toys fresh and actually entertaining, and it means there are less toys accessible to make my house dirty. I will definitely be doing this again when we get back to Rexburg.

Then there's all the clothes. I have keep most of the kids' clothes so that I can reuse them if or when we have another baby and to share with Brenda. I was organizing them one day and realized I have given away most of the 0-3 months size baby boy clothes. So if any of you that are reading this happen to have some of my boy clothes in that size, I wouldn't mind having them back. Sorry if that sounds rude.

Then I can't figure out what to do with all our really big picture frames. I eventually decided to wrap them up in blankets and tape the blankets together. That way there's a consolidated packet of frames but then I'm not wasting a huge box. And our food storage! Man, I wish I'd had a little more time to use that stuff up. We're going to bring some of it with us to cut down on cost, and use what needs to be eaten according to best by dates. But the rest is going into storage. And that makes me nervous. I don't want mice in there and I feel food would be a good way to encourage them to make a home there. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

In all the time we've spent in this house, I don't think I've ever taken any pictures of it. I have been so happy here. It's a modest home, that's for sure. But it's been my home. I have brought both my babies back from the hospital to this house. I've had many birthday, Christmas, and whatever occasion parties here. We've had countless cookouts, trampoline parties, and play dates here. We've painted, remodeled, and updated this place to be our own. I'm glad to say I've lived here. I'm also glad to say I'm not coming back to live here when we get back to Rexburg. And I'm even more glad to say I'll never live here again. Leaving this house means this part of my life is over. We're moving on. And even though we'll be coming back to Rexburg, living somewhere else will help it feel transient, temporary, and will help encourage us to find a place to call home... somewhere not in Rexburg.

My kitchen. This has been my most favorite kitchen of all time. It's huge! Gas stove, huge microwave, tons of cabinets, and even more counter space! We replaced the kitchen faucet and painted it. I love the farm theme for kitchens.

Our living room. The kitchen bar opens right up to it. We have a gas fireplace in the corner. It never actually gets used cuz the kids play on it. Except when the power goes out in the middle of winter, then we invite the neighborhood and we're warm and cozy and cooking eggs! I love the color scheme and the rug that ties it all together. One day I'm gonna refinish that entertainment center to be a dark chestnut or something. 

This picture shows my gallery wall. Michael bought those frames for me for Christmas and promptly helped me hang them all. Love it! And I'm so glad my favorite things from this room are ours to keep. 

Our super long hallway! Oh how the kids love, LOVE running up and down the hallway. Pretty sure it started with Ellie Romero. :)

The kids' room. Big enough for both cribs and tons of toys. 

Should have gotten a picture of the closet. It's big enough to fit another whole crib in there! We put our food storage, extra clothes, extra toys, a chest freezer, and a ton other stuff in there. 

Our bedroom. We painted it colonnial woodland gray. I got those curtains from Ikea, friggin love Ikea. Michael's mom made that quilt for us. It's my favorite. My dad painted that painting with the trees and river. Love it! 

Direct bathroom access from our room. One of my favorite features. Don't know why I don't have any pictures of the bathroom. We just remodeled it. It has 2 sinks and a separate shower and tub. That's also where the washer and dryer are located. We put new faucets in the sink and a new shower head in. We resurfaced the bathtub. It had this green linoleum tile, the same as the floor, and I thought that was too much green. So we peeled the tiles off and put beadboard up. That got painted white and we painted the cabinets white too. 

Found that frame and picture of the Tetons and Jenny Lake at the DI for $5. Michael got a killer deal on that dresser. It has a mirror that matches and another armoire that matches. And he found another set that came with these ones. So 4 dressers, 2 different sets, all for $75! Whoa! So we sold the other set for $75 and kept these ones. 

Never ending winter

Sometimes I feel like Rexburg only has 2 seasons. Winter and road construction. In place of spring we have winter. In the place of fall... we have winter. And when it's actually supposed to be winter, oh boy is it winter. -20 is a little too cold for me. Especially when we found out Michael got the job! Yay! Many of you may know, but Michael is only a semester away from graduating with his bachelor's. This is pretty exciting. Especially considering we've been going to school off and on since 2008, we've gotten married and had 2  kids, and 2 of his siblings have gone on to get post graduate degrees. So finally the end is in sight! So what do we do? We postpone graduation of course. Ha! Most of the job openings for the career Michael is looking into open up in May or June. This means him graduating in July would do us no good. Even more no good because we would be paying out of pocket for tuition and be stuck in Rexburg that much longer. One of Michael's teachers suggested applying for an internship with Deseret Ranch in Florida. They have a wildlife internship where Michael could get real experience in his field and have pretty good references to draw from. It is also a paid internship with free housing. Sounds better and better by the minute. So he applied. His teacher gave him a good reference. Michael did outstanding in the phone interview. And he got it! Yay! We will be moving to St. Cloud, Florida at the end of the semester.

Now I can't stop checking the weather difference between here and there. Oh boy, that does me no good when it's 70 there and snowing here. After complaining this much about the winter, I actually don't normally mind the snow and the cold. I like being bundled and cuddling on the couch under blankets. I like building snowmen. I think the snow is absolutely beautiful. But now I seem to be associating the weather with this terrible feeling I have. I feel like I'm stuck. We've been in Rexburg for 4 years and we're still not done with school. I'm trapped in this college town even though I'm not in college. I'm cut off from the student body because I am not a member of it. So here I am, in a college town, not a college student, and I just plain feel out of place. Whatever close friends I've had have moved on with their lives. The people I graduated with have long been gone. And here I am, left alone. It makes me really sad. I feel completely isolated. And the snow makes me feel even more isolated because I can't just go for a walk outside with my kids. I can't just leave the door open for the neighbor kids to wander in and out. I can't go to the park because of the knee deep snow or the 10 degree temperature. I'm ready to move on with my life.

That being said, Michael and I debated for a long time whether or not I was going to go with him to Florida. The housing is a one bedroom house and bringing 2 kids with us sounds a little miserable. I'm really glad I decided to go! So we're selling our house and taking with us what we can fit in the car. Oh yea, the car. We're going to sell the Passat and buy something that will fit more stuff in it. Something SUV ish.

A lot has happened lately, so here's a catch up for what you missed.

We went sledding this day, sorry no pictures of that. But it was crazy windy!

Ivan's best friend Ember.

If you can't go outside, play in the sink!

Ivan loves his dinosaurs. He started making the dinosaurs eat his gummies. Then he yelled at the dinosaurs for not sharing. 

Weird snow stuff this year. 

Ivan's first day of Toddler Lab! Toddler Lab is a program set up by BYU-I that is like a montessori program. Students who are studying to be teachers get the chance to take on 2 toddlers and work with them an hour and fifteen minutes a day on a goal they've set with the parents. Ivan's goal was to become more sociable. He loves his teacher Miss Rebecca. 

A better picture of the frost. 

Funny faces at Loni's baby shower. 

Ball pit!

Ivan is a busy body. He needs stuff to do all the time. So I found a foam block and golf tees. Gave him a hammer and he went right at it. 

Little Miss will not be ignored. 

I love this snowsuit! Thanks Kristen! 

More sledding. Who needs sled dogs when you have kids? Ha!