Ava's 4th birthday- Tangled party

I can't believe my little Ava is 4 years old already! Her birthday was February 16th. She absolutely loved the Tangled movie so we decided to give her a Rapunzel party! I loved the movie too so I was pretty excited.

I wanted everything to have a Rapunzel theme!

The hair hanging down was my favorite! I did not realize how hard it would be to untangle two rolls of yarn and keep it together! The plan was to braid it but it was WAY harder than I thought. Se we just did the end! haha I think the kids still liked it though!

While we waited for everyone to get there we coloring Rapunzel coloring pages. And since Rapunzel spend so much time in her tower painting I thought everyone should get to paint their own canvas. Of course just on Ava's birthday it decided to be raining and super windy. So the girls painted on the porch. I put contact paper shapes and their first initial on the canvas so when they painted it would leave a little white!


After that they were ready for a snack so we made fruit towers and ate banana chocolate chip muffins.

Next we played pin the frying pan on Flynn! The girls were so funny and after everyone had a turn they wanted to play again!

Then we opened presents. Ava got so many fun things, she has the greatest friends! They loved standing right in front of her to see what she got.

Brinley made this for her. SO sweet!
Daddy and Dresden hanging out watching!

And our last activity was making charm necklaces. I printed out pictures from Rapunzel on shrink paper and the girls picked out which ones they wanted along with some beads.

The girls were being so silly and spent alot of time lifting each other up to reach the sign!

And we can't forget the cake. Eric made it all by himself and did a great job. Ava LOVED it! She thought it was pretty cool.

It was so fun having the day all about Ava! She loved all the attention too! Her friends were so nice. And what was going to be the best part of the party didn't happen because of the darn wind and rain. We bought these cool lanterns, like the ones in the movie, that we were going to let go. It would have been so fun to let them go for our little princess on her birthday! But we still had fun and I can't believe she is 4! We love you Ava!!

After her party we went to her favorite restaurant... Red Robin! We went with the Winwards and Kinghorns too. Ava LOVED when they sang to her and she got her own ice cream. I was sad I didn't have my camera but she was cute!

Then we came home and opened presents from all the grandmas and grandpas and a few cousins and us.

Dresden thought it was funny to hide in the paper and then jump out!

Eric and I got her a leapster! She loves it and it's been so good for her. They have some cute games. We are so thankful for all the wonderful presents she received!

Valentines Fun

While we were in Utah I thought I would try and get a few pictures of the kids for Valentines. They have a hard time holding still and there was no sun that day! Boo! These are the best ones though!






We had a great Valentines this year. It was Ava's first year giving Valentines to her friends at school. It was fun to sit down with her and write names and put together treats for her friends. I decided to make something different for her bestest friends! :)She loved filling the bottles with hearts and putting the stickers on.


After writing about 6 or 7 cards she got bored. I left her for second and came back to these. She started just writing them herself with random letters. Also she gets to choose her clothes when we are home! :) She likes to choose clothes that don't really fit her any more of course!

Ava was so excited to give us our Valentines present she made at school!

I was feeling crafty so I decided to make a "Love Tree" for our table.
It was so fun to make and the kids loved seeing their picture every time we sat down for a meal. I wrote little love notes to them on the back of their picture too.

The night before Valentines we decide to do something fun with the kids. We made heart shaped pizza's. Ava loves helping in the kitchen so she really enjoyed it. And Dresden loves to do whatever Ava does so he like it to. They were so yummy!

On Valentines day Ava was at school and Dresden decided not to take a nap so I thought I would make Eric some of his favorite cookies. Chocolate Rolo cookies! And apparently they are my favorite too because I think I ate most of them!

I didn't think it could get better than getting my new computer but it came pretty close! Eric got us tickets to see our first Vegas show... Le Reve! I was so excited, I heard that is one of the best. We had a cute girl from our ward watch the kids for us and we got to go out on Valentines night. I don't think we have ever gone any where on Valentines. It was absolutely AMAZING! It was done in a big round theater with water and awesome acrobatics! I was so happy we got to go. As we were waiting to walk out I snapped a few pictures. Beautiful!! Thank you Eric for the best Valentines to date!

7 year anniversary

Last Saturday Feb. 12th was our 7 year anniversary! For some reason that makes me feel old. It's been a wonderful 7 years. We have grown so much over the last 7 years, and really learned to depend on each other since we have lived away from family.

We were able to go to dinner at Hash House A Go Go. I was a little nervous when I saw the menu but it turned out to be so yummy! My favorite was our appetizers, fried green tomatoes! I had always wanted to try them. It was a great night out.

There was so much food! Not the greatest pictures, I was trying not to draw attention to us so I didn't use my flash.




The night before I was working on my computer and it randomly just died. It was charging but for some reason wasn't staying on. It's been a crappy computer for a long time and I have been wanting/needing a new one. So as I am complaining and ready to throw the computer out the window Eric walks in the garage and brings in this big white box. He pulls out a brand new mac desk top computer!!!! I couldn't believe the timing. He was planning on surprising me for our anniversary. What are the odds that my computer completely goes out the night before! I could not have been happier. The difference is amazing and I am obsessed with it. And so is Ava and Dresden. Ava loves watching Tangled trailers and Dresden loves watching Iron Man and Hulk clips. I love my hubby!



This is them playing on photobooth!

cutest boy ever

It was a long drive to Utah but some how the kids seemed a little less cranky than usual. After a while Ava was out and Dresden was just jabbering away being silly. If I tell him somethings funny or silly he loves to laugh or fake laugh. He was being to cute not to take some pictures. I don't think I've caught a picture of his dimple for a long time. I love to see my happy boy!

Sienna's 1st Birthday

We went up to Utah last weekend to celebrate my niece Sienna's first birthday! Normally we wouldn't travel just for a birthday but this was not your average first birthday party! Robyn is a master party planner and did the whole thing by herself. It's tradition in Samoan culture to have a BIG first birthday. It did not disappoint and we are so glad we got to be there. It was a luau/ Mickey Mouse carnival party. All the kids had a blast with the candy and games and of course the blow up castle. There was popcorn, cotton candy, and temporary tattoos. The food was great too.

This was so cute, one of my favorites!

The candy bar!



I also loved the center pieces! I'm sure they took lots of time to put them together and they looked great!

YUM!

Dresden could not stay away from the candy bar! Every time I looked over his little hand was in one of the jars.
A few of the birthday girl! Isn't she adorable?!


Ava loved playing the games. This is her at Donald's knock down. She is throwing bean bags to knock down cans!

Sienna and her mama and daddy!
Ava at the ring toss game.

Dresden knocking the cans down! He was so fun to watch.