Happy 2010

Welcome to our 2010 New Year's Eve Party!!

We started off the night of festivities by making some peach gelato. It had to have close supervision to make sure it was done correctly.

After our treat was underway, we headed downstairs to start making some noise.


Followed by some rousing games of Ants in the Pants and Fishing.


We had the traditional New Year's shots and toasts of sparkling cider (straight milk for Ethan).


Then had our countdown at 8:00 p.m.; actually, it was a count-up. We're working on numbers. Blew some more horns, made some more noise and shot off streamers. After the streamers, we of course put them on our heads for some lovely hair.

After all the fun, it was off to bed to get a great start on a new year.

Christmas 2009

This year we spent Christmas at my parent house. We had a big party on Christmas Eve. Everyone was able to make it, so the house was a little packed, but we all seemed to manage. We had a wonderful dinner and the grand kids burned off some energy afterwards by running up and down the hallway chasing each other until the Nativity began. The end of the game was a little abrupt for Ethan. He was still running up and down the hallway and hiding in my parents closet waiting for someone to find him while everyone else was watching the Nativity.

We were finally able to get him to join in. He didn't want to wear a costume, but still did a great job as a shepherd going to check out the baby Jesus.

Mary (Ava), an Angel (Jacie), Joseph (Curt Ryan) and a donkey (Seth). Joseph is always the one that rides the donkey in our Nativity.

Ethan checking out the baby in the manger.

After the Nativity we opened presents from the family names we drew, grandma and grandpa and the grand kids name drawing. The family presents were so fun this year. It had to be a home made gift. My mom and dad had our name. Ethan received a marble ramp made by my dad. I don't know who was more excited, me or Ethan. My parents also started a new tradition this year where they gave us money, including the grand kids, to use to help others in need. We then wrote a note about what we used the money for and put it in a box. My mom then read the notes and we were able to hear all the great things that were able to be done for others. was such a great blessing to have been able to help others. Thanks mom and dad for giving us this opportunity.

After all the presents were opened and the massive amount of paper was cleared away, everyone went home and we put Ethan to bed. My sister Krista and her husband Taylor also stayed the night at my parents and celebrated Christmas morning with us.

The next morning Ethan was the last one up at about 7:00 a.m. to open presents. Santa definitely found our little one. Ethan did pretty good opening presents. He tuckered out with about two left. He got a Thomas train track and some accessories, a hippo flashlight, a book and a shopping cart to go with the kitchen he received from Matt's parents.

We had breakfast at my parents, let Ethan nap then headed to Matt's parents for dinner before heading home. We had such a wonderful Christmas. I love being able to go up to Cache Valley to spend Christmas with family. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue to do so.

Ethan waiting for everyone to come and open presents. He was much more interested in the new Magnadoodle my parents had gotten the night before then the wrapped gifts.

Ethan with his new hippo flashlight. I didn't realize it made a lovely giggling sound every time you turned it on until we put batteries in it.

Ethan checking out his new shopping cart.

My little guy giving me a great smile in front of our little tree. Merry Christmas everyone!!

December 19, 2009: Brown Family Christmas Party

Ethan and I went up to the Brown Family Christmas Party this year. We haven't been for a few years since its so close to Christmas its hard to make two trips so close together, but I've been missing it so we went.

I thought Ethan would have a great time this year since his cousins, Curt Ryan and Ava would be there to play with. Unfortunately we had a bad start to the evening. Ethan fell asleep on the way over to the party. Since that was the only nap he had that day, my dad and I decided to drive around a bit more to give him some more sleep before the party. I think he must have had a bad dream/night terror since he woke up in the car screaming and crying. We headed back to my aunt's house and I was hoping that seeing everyone would distract him and calm him down. No luck. He was inconsolable for about an hour. After Ethan finally calmed down, he was a little touchy the rest of the evening.

Though we had a bad start, it was still a fun party. My Aunt Karma had made some fabulous candies, Krista brought some cute cherry chocolate mice. We had a great dinner of alfredo and lasagna along with various jellos and salads.

After dinner we played some reindeer games. We split up into three teams. Each team had a pair of nylons and balloons. We had to blow up the balloons and fit four balloons into each legs of the stocking. Then, someone from the team had to but the nylons on their head to become a lovely reindeer.

We also had some Christmas trivia and pictionary games. Even though Ethan had a rough time at the start, sorry everyone, we had fun at the party. I'm glad we came up.

Our fabulous gingerbread house we made while up at grandma's.

Thanksgiving 2009

Matt actually got to celebrate Thanksgiving with us this year. Yay, it's been about three years since he's been able to have Thanksgiving with us. Smashburger was closed, apparently burgers aren't as hot as a turkey meal at a restaurant. Lucky us.

We went up to Matt's parents this year to have a great dinner. Matt's sister Erica came, his grandma and grandpa Nielsen, Aunt Kristie and family as well as his grandma Stephens. We had a wonderful turkey dinner, well everyone else had turkey. Matt is allergic, so we brought some ham for us instead. Afterwards, we all went out to Newton for some traditional Thanksgiving Day shooting.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bird Halloween Party

My mom held her Halloween/Birthday party again this year. I love this new tradition. We all get to dress up and have a fun Halloween dinner and play games. This year Matt and I (okay, I made Matt agree) decided to be Ghostbusters and Ethan was Slimer. Let me just give a big "Thanks" to my mom who made the body of the Slimer costume and helped me figure out his hat. Though he ended up looking more like a green pepper from "Veggie Tales," I think everyone got who he was supposed to be.

My brother Kirk dressed up using tattoo sleeves, his wife Heather was a nurse, Seth was a rapper, Dakota a groovy gal and Hannah and Jacie were witches. Justin, Shelly and Ava were the Scooby Doo gang. Justin was Shaggy, Shelly Velma and Ava was a course a cute Scooby Doo.

Jaime came as a fabulous Cruella Deville, Phil a cowboy, Curt Ryan a pumpkin and little Caycee a pink leopard.

Krista, Taylor and Trigger were Little Bo-Peep, Little Boy Blue and a sheep. Check out Krista's blog, House of Payne if you want to see costume pictures.

For dinner we had wonderful onion rings, monster toes (homemade corn dogs), a barf salad (pistachio salad), a graveyard dip and ghoulish punch.

After dinner my parents gave each family a big pumpkin they had grown in their patch to carve. Then the carnival games began. We had bobbing for apples, bean bag toss, a straw blowing contest, and my favorite, the donut eating contest. Ethan was so cute he loved the doughnut contest. I was surprised he got it. He would lay down on the ground with Curt Ryan and Ava to eat his doughnut. He quickly figured out that wasn't going to work then got up and grabbed his doughnut.




Afterwards, my parents had set up a spook alley in the basement for the little kids. Complete with strobe lights, scary sounds, skeletons, spiders, mist and black lights. Ethan loved it and wanted to keep going through again and again.


Thanks Krista and Mom for taking pictures. Our camera is not working.

Pumpkin Carving

Matt and Ethan carving pumpkins for the first time. Ethan was so excited.

Easter 2009

I was so excited for Ethan to go to an egg hunt this year. We decided to go up to the egg hunt in Newton since there would be less of a crowd and also Ethan would get to play with his cousins, CRC and Ava. It was such a fun egg hunt. There weren't that many kids in Ethan's age group so he had plenty of candy and eggs to choose from. He was so cute to watch walking around picking up his candy and putting it in his ducky basket.

Later in the day I had Ethan hunt for his Easter eggs at my parents. He was kind of done egg hunting by then, until he found out his eggs were filled with his favorite treat, yogurt covered puffs.

Valentine's Weekend

Ethan and I decided to go up and visit Grandma and Grandpa Bird over Valentine's Day weekend while Matt was working. It was a fun sleepover party with Curt Ryan and Ava as well. Ethan had such a great time playing with his cousins. He just thought that he was so big. Grandma had some fun balloons and Valentine's cupcakes for the kids. Thanks for the great V-Day.

Ethan playing with the big kids. He crawled in the middle of the play
mat and just plopped down.

Ethan playing at the big table. I couldn't believe he sat on that chair
and played for about 10 min.

The kids with their Valentine's cupcakes, which of course had to have candles.

Ethan with Grandma and Grandpa.