Rachel's 3rd Birthday!

Rachel had a really fun 3rd birthday!  She helped me make her cake, chocolate with peanut butter frosting, decorated with, at her request, Snow White, the Prince, and all 7 Dwarves!  It was a really hard picture to do, so it didn't turn out as well as ones I've done in the past, but it tasted good!  I made homemade vanilla bean ice cream to go with the cake, too!  We also had Papa Murphy's Hawaiian pizza for dinner (which she also requested) and grandparents came to eat with us.  Rachel got lots of fun presents, and also got to watch "Tangled" with her grandparents, and then we did fireworks in the driveway!

Rachel's Sheet cake - had to make it big to fit all the stuff!

Rachel got lots of great presents!

Rachel in her new Snow White dress, holding her new Snow White doll and horse!

Basement!!

We finished our basement, effectively doubling the size of our house!  It's not decorated yet and we have minimal furniture, but it's so awesome!

During Construction - "Before"

This will be the kids' homework area.  It's wired up for computers.

Our new sectional and entertainment center at one end of the family room.

The kids' playroom!

A guest bedroom.

The exercise room

Lizzy Plays Mary Had a Little Lamb

Lizzy's been taking piano lessons for about 4 months now, and she's doing so great!

CSA Veggies!

We got our first batch of CSA veggies last week, and the girls were totally thrilled to see fresh peas!  They set right to work shelling them into a pan - it took them a good 45 minutes to shell them all!  We ate them with dinner, and they were delicious!

4th of July!

We had a really fun 4th of July this year!  The girls and I drove up to Hyrum (near Logan) and went to Jason's sister's house.  She lives right on main street, and so we can sit on her lawn for the Hyrum 4th of July parade!  The girls loved seeing the "princesses" on their floats, and the cowgirls and cowboys on their horses.  They also loved the candy that was thrown from the floats!  Afterward, we had a BBQ with Jason's family.  Typically, I forgot to bring our camera, and so there are no pictures!!!  Darn it!  When Jason got home from work that evening, we took the kids out on the driveway and did little fireworks and sparklers with them.  We were also able to watch the neighbor's big fireworks, now that they are legal!  It was lots of fun, and the girls thought it was great.  It was especially cute to see Natalie - she LOVED the bright flashing fireworks that Jason set off in the driveway!  I DID get pictures from that:

Lizzy's making a silly face! 

Rachel's excited for the fireworks to begin! 

Rachel with a sparkler!

Lizzy's writing shapes in the air with her sparkler!

A video of the kids watching one of the fireworks! I only got the littlest package, so they wouldn't be too scary.  I remember not liking the 4th of July for many years when I was young, because it was too scary!

Some pictures!

Mommy's "Birthday"

My birthday is on December 27th, which is a really bad day to have a birthday. I didn't mind it when I was a kid, but that was before I had to do the Gale Family Christmas eve dinner on the 24th, Christmas breakfast with my own little family, then Christmas dinner with my mom and sisters on the 25th, followed by Day-after-Christmas with my dad and step-mom on the 26th, then at last my birthday on the 27th.  It has become too much hauling kids around, eating rich food, cooking rich food, and cleaning up everything.  So, for a couple of years, Jason and I have talked about celebrating my birthday on my half-birthday, June 27 instead.  On June 26, he reminded me of that plan, and so last minute we decided to do it.  We went out to the pie for pizza and I made creme brulee!  It was really fun and so much more relaxing than celebrating it at the actual time.  Jason and the kids got me a large bamboo butcher block cutting board, and an mp3 connector device so I can use my ipod in my minivan!