Happy 2nd Birthday Marrick Aaron!!!

Marrick Aaron! You are all grown up now!

What a handsome boy you are!

Happy Birthday Happy Boy!!! We love you Marrick Aaron! We cannot believe you are already 2!! Marrick is our funny boy. He loves trucks, animals, Alana, puppies, dirt, playing outside, cannies(candy), Going "bye bye," teasing Ammon, babies, balls and his binky and blanky.

Love you big boy!
No picture please, just tasting.
"Happy Birthday to you..."

Pagah is more excited about blowing the candles out than I am!!! Blow Pagah, Blow......
Mmmm.....Love it!Ammon loves birthdays! I can wait till July, I can wait till July....

Gotta love the cars that fit right into my hands. Oh yeah!

I love my new movie! I have never seen a kid so excited about a movie. He kept saying, "Puppies, puppies, puppies...." Thanks Joyce family!

Gramma, let me get a really goooood look...

Oh Gramma! Biting my Toes!!!

Isn't that the sweetest face? Looking at my baloons from Shiray! Thank you!!! I love them!

Mommy loves after her run. (just my exuse for how bad my hair is)

Daddy loves before work.
It was a great birthday, time for bed!

Just as long as I get my baloons too!
Goodnight sweet baby Marrick. We love you soooo.

Forgot the Hot water! Sorry!

Just thought I would let you all know...
I published a post a few weeks ago with a bread recipe on it, well I forgot the first ingredient, thanks to Jamie who tried the recipe and said, "Something is Wrong!" So, sorry, I guess people really do try what you suggest sometimes. I have edited the recipe and it is now correct with 2 cups of hot water. Remember, this one is yummy. :)

Happy 7th Birthday Alana Eden!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday Alana dear! Happy days will come to you all year! If I had a wish then it would be, a Happy, Happy Birthday to you from me!!!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Lani Baby! I love you Alana Eden! You have been such a joy in my life. You are my best girl and always will be. Happy Birthday! Wow! 7 years already. Love you Baby Girl!Yes, I got her a cowgirl suit. Isn't she cute though?!!Thank you Auntie Amber and Joyce family! I LOVE Rainbow, my new webkin!

Life can't get any better, can it?Hooray! New puppies Auntie Anna is the winner! Thank you for this awesome movie that our whole family loves. :)For Alana's birthday, I let her choose a couple friends to go to the movie BOLT with, then we had homemade pizza, decorated our own cupcakes and had ice cream. Everyone got to take home their own coloring book and crayons. It was an Alana kind of party for sure!!!Thanks for my presents!! I think Ammon is more excited! (Ammon is saying, Thanks auntie Amber for my new shirt and awesome box of cool clothes!)Her cupcake won't hold many more candles!Too much fun with good friends. All the adults at Lana's party. We sure had good pizza and good fun.

This is Emme, Sacha and Paul's little cutie that lives across the street.

Oh, Anna banana, it was so fun to have you here! Anna drove in from Arizona while her hubby was in a military training. Her sweet baby Bella is 12 weeks old and is cuter than the pictures if you can believe it! She is such a baby doll and loves her mama! She stayed for almost a week. We were sad to see her go. Ammon sure loved her. We walked over to Gramma Annie's today and Ammon said, "where is Auntie Anna's car?"

Don't I always have to throw in a picture of MAC?!! He said "mom, look at meeee!"

What a goose!

OK, so I started to sit down and blog this morning and heard, “Mom, is the toaster supposed to have smoke coming out of it?” Aahhh!!! NO! Sure enough, lot’s of smoke coming out of the toaster. Life has been crazy for me this last week. I helped my friend Shiray, who is a florist over Valentine's day. Roses and more roses! I was sure happy to see that my husband had brought me home some tulips, not roses. We did well though and sold a lot of roses. It was fun to see the faces on the girls we delivered to. Now I know how to do flowers. The kind of work I LOVE! Plus Alana's birthday and Anna was in town. Now, we can look forward to Marrick's birthday on Monday, 2 already!!!

Kids are funny things...

Thanks Amber for reminding me to blog!

Alana lost another tooth a few weeks ago and the tooth fairy came and brought her a dollar. The next day, this is what I found on her dresser: (should I title it "ring around the dollar" or "shrine to the dollar" or "The pet shops love money"? What is your vote?) She is so funny!Ok, here is Ammon's funny thing he did the other day. Our friends came over for a play date and their dad Chad picked them up to take them home. Chad is a Police man and had just come from work. Ammon just stared at him the whole time he was here. Chad gave Ammon 3 stickers. As soon as Chad left Ammon found black pants, a black shirt and turned it inside out and put two stickers on his shoulders, one on his chest and had his play gun in his pants. He kept saying, Chad is the best police man ever mom!Nothing better than eating icicles underneath the trampoline on a cold winter's day~ We love our Gramma Annie! We are happy to say that she has been getting a treatment for her pinched nerve and bulged disks in her back from Jake's brother in law Mike VanDyke. Mom has been a different woman this past week! She could not even barely walk or get up before. She is in a much better condition! Pray for her that this treatment really stays working for her!Ok, this picture is in ode to the many pizza, soup bowls, calzone and french bread meals we have had lately all because of Stephanie Johnson! Thank you. My mom went to her house in Arizona in December after Anna's baby was born and brought home this fabulous french bread recipe:

Stephanie's French Bread:
Yields 2 Loaves
Mix:
2 TBSP Yeast + dash of sugar with 1/2 cup warm water
Set aside
In Bosch or Kitchen Aid Mix:
(use regular mixer, not bread hook yet)
-2 Cups hot water... Sorry, forgot this step earlier!

-1/3 cup sugar
-1/3 cup oil
-1 TBSP salt
-Optional: add herbs (Italian seasoning, dried onions, basil, parsley, garlic powder)
Add:
3 Cups Flour
Mix well with beaters
Add:
Yeast, Mix well and Change to dough hook
Add:
3 Cups Flour
Mix 1-2 minutes, rest for 10
Repeat mix/rest 6 times
Use veg. oil to spread on counter to roll out the dough.
Roll into french bread loaves, pizza or whatever you want
Raise 1/2 hour to 1 hour.
Cook at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes
Enjoy!
It seems complicated, but it really is not. The mix/resting really makes the bread soft and moist for days! YUM~

SNOW and more SNOW!

This is our house about a week ago! SNOW, SNOW, SNOW! And we got more snow after I took these. Like another 2-4 inches. It seriously snowed for a week straight. We still have snow on the ground and some of the roads have some compacted snow still on them. Our neighbor does construction and had his back hoe from work, like the really big excavator ones. He plowed in front of our house so Aaron could park his car. I haven’t seen this much snow in Orem since 1996 when I moved here.

I think I have shoveled snow 5 times a day for a week now! Look at our backyard! Can you even find the picnic table? The swings were touching the snow!

Look how deep the snow is!

Alana is sledding with puppy Saphie in her coat! Crazy girl and poor dog!

Ammon trying to get up the neighbors great sledding hill

Our Saphie puppy. She gets too cold and needs a sweater!

Building a snowman with the neighbor girl Vivian. Too cute Marrick! I love the messy sgetti picts!

This is a cute video of Marrick in the snow. So much snow! Sorry Washburns, I think we stole it all, now you all have to come visit us in Utah!!! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our Christmas time started out with... SNOW! and lots of it!

Then we had to make our very excited call to Santa Clause!On Christmas Eve Grama Annie and Pagah came over for our yearly pageant. Pagah just had nose surgery and was a wonderful Joseph! I don't think he realized he had a towel on his head for awhile. Grama was hilarious as you can see from the video! Gotta love those two! They sure make our lives merry and bright! Ammon was a fierce wise man, Alana insisted on being the donkey and Marrick was the baby Jesus holder. We read the Christmas story, sang Christmas songs and then laughed and had a great time.

Dad read the kids the Night before Christmas, then off to bed.

Santa blessed us with all sorts of fun and even breakfast cereal!

Marrick decided all he needed was a sucker.Santa had to be very creative to fill Daddy's stocking. He had a HUGE Gatorade in the bottom!On Christmas Eve, Santa magically snuck into Alana's room and put a collar and bow on SaphieHe left a note that Alana read very carefully with Dad. We can keep her! Thanks Santa!Ammon's favorite... Lego's, thanks Nana and Pop pop! WOW!
Alana got the pony she was dreaming about!And Hot Wheels galore!Dad has to tell you all about each one.
The boys love trucks.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! We love you baby Jesus!