Lego Birthday Party

Since the boys were little, we tried to alternate between a birthday party and a family vacation each year. Because Logan was getting baptized this year, even though we had a birthday party last year, we had another party this year since everyone was in town for the baptism. The boys settled on a Lego themed party. We invited friends from school, church and some neighbors to attend. They were especially to have their cousins from out of town there since they had come in for Logan's baptism. 

The weather was a tad warm but beautiful overall. We had a great turn out and had several activities planned for the kids. We started with Lego building, then had lunch and then some games before cake & ice cream and presents. The boys helped me to plan all of the games, which were Lego themed or included having to use Legos. We gave full size candy bars as prizes for those that won. 

The kids seemed to all have a great time and the boys ended the day with wonderful memories and some new awesome Lego sets. I would say it was a success! Happy 10th birthday, Lincoln and Happy 8th birthday, Logan!!

Logan and his friend Lincoln (they call him Lincoln 2.0)

We did some relay races with Legos on a spoon. 

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of lunch which included Jimmy John's sandwiches, chips, veggies and sodas. 

Auntie Calee helped me make the cakes. I made the side Legos with colored white chocolate and while buttercream frosting. 

Birthday boys!!

Lincoln with his best friend, Abraham. 

Caden

Lincoln

Shannon

Vance

Riley

Abraham

Danica

Lincoln and Abraham

Lily

Broc

Nathan

Birthday boys

Logan and Lincoln building Legos

Most of the kids that came to the party. 

Present time. 

Sadie and Sadie

Logan's birthday cake. 

Lincoln's birthday cake.

Logan and Lincoln

Both boys made out like bandits on the presents and scored some really cool toys. 

Logan's Baptism

I think that if someone chooses to get baptized it should be a very special day and experience for them. I tried very hard with the boys to make it really about them and what they wanted. Just as we did with Lincoln, we gave Logan the choice to be baptized wherever he wanted. Some places we talked about were the baptismal font, Hawaii in the ocean, CA like brother and Logan ultimately chose our backyard in the pool. Ricky and I were secretly hoping (and maybe pushed a time or two for Hawaii) but Logan stuck to his original choice of the pool.

We kept with my family tradition of being baptized on your 8th birthday. Luckily for us, his birthday fell on a Friday. Both a special day and place is not common practice for the church so both of those had to be approved by our Bishop. After waiting several weeks for his approval, we got the green light to proceed.

I had sat down with Logan and we talked through all of the parts of a baptismal program. He chose who he wanted to have fill each important spot. I gave him several ideas for types of desserts that we could have afterward and he chose to have a candy/dessert bar. He even chose to have white as the color (even though we threw in silver to help get more items). I thought surely he would want blue because that's his favorite color but he wanted while because it's more like a baptism. (That according to him.)

We were so blessed to have so much support for him. We had family come from CA, Utah and Idaho. We had ward members and non-members attend. Daddy baptized Logan and Uncle Spencer confirmed him. It was such a beautiful night and I know that Logan felt loved and supported.  We are so very proud of him!

Guests included: Grammy & Grandpa, Tutu's, Uncle Lee and Aunt Carol, Michaela & Jared, The Curtis family, the Updike's, the Fiamengo's, Aunt Dana with Caden, Vance and Danica, Auntie Calee with Annie and Oliver, Uncle Troy & Aunt Nancee with Erica, Sadie and Blake and uncle Spencer. Bishop Webster and brother Wirth.

It turned out to be a fun-filled weekend and the house was packed with family for several days. Most people from out of town came for the baptism and also stayed over night for the boys birthday party the following day.

(Mints, chocolate covered pretzels, kisses, vanilla cupcakes, rock candy, pina colada jelly beans, caramels, vanilla taffy, white chocolate rice krispies, air heads, gummy bears, white chocolate covered raisins, white chocolate covered caramel pretzels.

The outside of the programs.

Inside of the program.

Family dinner before friends and others joined us. Of course we had tacos.

Bam-Bam and her mom, Anna, joined us. 

Auntie Calee, Me, Auntie Michaela and Grammy

Annie and Oliver

This was Grandpa's last trip to our house. Brother Wirth conducted the meeting and Bishop presided over the meeting. 

Logan patiently waiting for Daddy while he helped wheel Grandpa around the house to the backyard. 

Special boy. 

Logan Spencer with his namesake, Uncle Spencer.

Uncle Spencer, Logan Spencer and Daddy

Logan's 8th Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 8! Logan is an incredible blessing to our family. He has such a great sense of humor and was born to entertain. He's tough but deep inside he is very sensitive and has a kind, loving heart. Logan is also a hard worker. He loves to help daddy do projects around the house, he loves to do labor intensive chores to earn money and his teacher loves that he helps put up the chairs at the end of class each day.

Logan also has his challenges and can keep us on our toes. School is not something Logan really enjoys. His favorite subjects are recess and P.E. He has to work really hard to practice reading and spelling but dad helps him and he's gotten a few really good spelling scores. He does love his teacher this year, which has helped him get through the school year.

His favorite foods are pizza, scrambled eggs and hamburgers. His favorite places to ear are Red Robin, Barro's Pizza and McDonald's. He's quite a good eater and is willing to try new things. Logan is playing the piano and is very excited about getting to go to cub scouts with brother. He is a master on his Heely shoes. His favorite types of toys are cars, trash trucks, and airplanes. He loves to play Minecraft on his iPad and throw the football and play Legos with brother.

When Logan grows up, he would like to be a pilot or a train engineer. Logan's newest obsession is with money. He loves to learn about it, count it, collect it and spend it. He is very motivated by money - which I'm hoping will help drive him when he's older to get a good paying career! I love that he is always up for an adventure. He loves to travel and loves going to the movies. While he likes to play at home with his toys, he would much rather be out doing something in the backyard or going somewhere fun.

This birthday is a special one since it was also his baptism day! He is following in the tradition of Mommy's family, and just like Lincoln, he was baptized on his 8th birthday. At school they called his name for the birthdays at flag ceremony. Grandma Tutu and I also got to eat lunch with him at school. His lunch break is at 10:30 am so we actually took him his favorite breakfast...McDonald's Big Breakfast with pancakes. It was so fun to sit with him and his friends for lunch and help him feel extra special.

Since we had a ton of company at the house for his baptism, he didn't get to choose a dinner restaurant so we let him have a happy meal on the way home from school. That was his choice and it was his special day so who were we to say no to McDonald's twice in a day.

Happy Birthday, Logan! You are special and we love you with all our hearts!

Don't mind the scab above his lip - that's from a pretty good fall earlier in the week. 

October Misc.

October flew by and Halloween crept upon us like it always seems to do. There was lots of fun and activities that I capture a few pictures of.

This handsome dude got a haircut in time for school pictures. 

I was lucky enough to hang out with Logan for his classroom Halloween party. I love to watch him interact with the kids in class and meet his friends.

I was cleaning out an old scrapbook and came across this old ticket. Crazy to think that a one day ticket on a weekend not costs $124.00 each. 

In that same scrapbook I found this picture. It's my friends Jessica and Melanie with me and Batman. I remember this picture being taken. I was in middle school and this was at the Special Olympics we were helping with. 

Getting ready for the boys Lego birthday party. The boys helped me fill the goodie bags. 

Logan's class had crazy sock day. Logan's are the blue and white Mario Brothers socks in the bottom left corner of the picture. 

Logan's teacher snapped a few fun pictures on the class while they were getting their individual school pictures taken. 

Because my boys can pull off the In-N-Out look. So cute!

Logan is regularly eating a full hamburger with extra secret sauce and a milk shake. I see big food bills in my future!

Happy Halloween

This year we planned our annual Halloween costume picking family home evening trip. Dinner at Rubio's then over to Party City. After looking at all of the costumes, Logan decided that he wanted to be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man again. Lincoln went with the Master Chief from Halo...a video game character from a game he's never played but likes the toys from. We had two Halloween celebrations - Trunk-or-Treat at the church and trick-or-treating with some friends. The boys had a great time. Loved seeing costumes, collecting candy and giving out candy. I even got in on the action this year and dressed up as Waldo since we did it for a team costume competition at work. It paid off because my Phoenix team got an extra vacation day for winning!

Tutus arrived into town the day before Halloween to stay with us for a month so they got to go trick-or-treating with us. 

The kids don't wear costumes at their new school but they got plenty of treats anyway. 

School Pictures

I know I am not a perfect mother, although I try hard to do all the right things for my boys, create a happy childhood and teach them well. One of the things I have done that I hope they appreciate later in life is the fact that we've gotten every school picture taken each fall and spring. I have them all labeled with name, date and grade and put them in a photo album for safe keeping. It is so awesome to flip through that album and see how they have grown...every six months. It's amazing to see and it brings back a flood of memories with each picture. Can we just say, handsome!?! I don't know that these boys will ever know how much I love them and I'm so proud of the people they are...and who they are growing up to be.

 Lincoln - 5th grade

Logan - 2nd grade

Congratulations, Lincoln!

I am SO incredible proud of Lincoln. He was honored at Flag Ceremony for being on Principal's Pride for having straight A's. Even though for the most part school comes easy for him, Lincoln still takes it seriously, is very responsible to make sure his work is getting done and he works hard to maintain good grades. I feel like this is especially special because I know that he was very worried about what the curriculum would be at a new school and he's knocked it out the of the park. The teacher had nothing but wonderful outstanding things to say about him during parent teacher conference. We are so proud of you bubba!

In keeping with tradition, we went to Hayashi to celebrate Lincoln's straight A's. While Logan didn't get all A's, he has improved his grades and his overall attitude toward school and we are proud of what he's accomplished also. I love to celebrate as a family!