Three Birthdays to celebrate! Let's Partah

On December 21st, we had a family dinner to celebrate first Ethan's 16th on the 23rd, then Baylee's 1st on the 24th, and Jason's 33rd on the 26th.

The day before, on Saturday, Dan and I experimented on the cakes. Pictures will follow. We actually had some fun being creative. I always like to make my boys a theme type cake for their special day. . . no matter how old they are. So in October, I usually do something gross for Halloween on Danton's birthday In March, I ended up doing something around the Easter theme. So had to come up with a Christmas theme for Ethan. Dan says next year, we are going to mix up all the seasonal themes and it'd be a surprise as to what cake will be coming their way.

Isn't Baylee ADORABLE! ! One year older and wiser too.

The Cup Cake cake was huge. It took two cake mixes.

"The Three Stooges"

"Cup Cake"cake made/designed by Dan

"Christmas Tree" cake made by Jan

We had a lovely dinner. Dan baked some ham, we made some funeral potatoes, Waldorf salad, Grandma's yummy rolls and of course CAKE. Brady asked who had died? ? ? Ham and funeral potatoes

Dana's special fleece blanket that she gives everyone for their brithdays. This one is for Ethan.

Perfect Stocking Stuffer

Christmas Devotional

I love this picture of the SL temple. I borrowed from my niece Ashley's blog. Hope you don't mind. It was perfect for this post.

Sunday, Ethan, Brady, Jess and I went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. Thanks to Jess for scoring the tickets yet again this year. You go girl. Your methods will remain our little secret.

It was such a nice evening. The inside of the conference center was beautiful. Seeing the Prophets and his two counselors is always a special experience. The audience always stands as the First Presidency leaves and I think that's my favorite part, I love to watch and see what they do. They usually turn and wave. Pres. Hinckley would turn and wave his cane. Pres. Uchtdorf turned and blew kisses. I loved it. It gave me chills. We are so blessed to have a Prophet of God on the earth today, as well as his wonderful counselors.

After the devotional, we walked around Temple Square. Jess took a lot of pictures. I need one for this blog. . . hint, hint. The lights were gorgeous as always. There was a sweet spirit there.

Ethan drove me to and from Brigham City and he did a mighty fine job. . . a little heavy on the petal. Only 14 more days, and he'll be "sweet sixteen".

Can you see who I see?

Christmas Photo Shoot

The Runt

It's a Beautiful World

Today, our baby boy opened his eyes. He's the only one with vision thus far. What do you suppose he's thinking about this beautiful world. "Bright Lights"?

Luke named him Liken

Puppies First visit at the Vet

Tail Docking Time for the Balls Puppies

The mini pin breed must have their tails docked and should have their ears cropped, but we'll let the new owners under take that expense. I asked the vet if he would show us the tails so I could get a picture for "The Blog". You should have seen the look on his face. Docked tails are blog worthy.

NOTE: The range in tail sizes. We have two adorably chubby girl pups, two sweet medium sized boy and girl pups, and a tiny, widdle runt. Can you tell which tail goes with which puppy?

I will get pictures of the puppies with their little nubbins of a tail. They also had their dew claws removed but that wasn't picture worthy.

Ethan is holding his favorite puppy. He nicknamed her "The Bear", as she is the biggest of the litter. She weighs 272 grams and our runt weighs 130 grams. Ethan marked her belly with a permanent marker, so he would always know who his girl is.







Luke is holding one of the medium sized babies and he affectionately named him (our only male), Liken. The trip to the vet will be long lasting in my mind. They were running an hour late, and I enjoyed every non-sensical word that flowed, ever-so freely from the boy's mouths. Non stop verbiage. Comical at times, wearing on my one last nerve at others. It was fun having the boys come with me. They were so tender and loving. I really like Luke, he's a great kid. He wants this puppy so bad that he handed me a one dollar bill to reserve him. "A whole dollar", I exclaimed, "Wow, that's way too much money".

Do you ever wish you were me? Even for only a moment in time.

Antenna Festivus

Perhaps a small, yet tasteful holiday wreath or red Rudolph nose on the front grill? It's all about bring joy to others. Thanks for all your grand ideas.

Deck My Bug With Christmas Crap

I decided to decorate my bug. All bugs come with a small built in vase by the steering wheel for, of course, flowers. Thus my Christmas bouquet. A Christmas tree bulb is daintily, dangling from the rear view mirror. I asked Dan if it looked a bit white trash-ish? He agreed but said it fit my sparkling, festive personality. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. Merry Christmas all! !

Ethan gets his driver's license on Dec. 23rd. I can't wait for him to drive my festive bug, full of teenage boys, singing, "Jingle Bells, Batman smells. Robin laid an egg", down the streets of the big city.

Let the Festivities Begin! !

More Puppy Nonsense

Cricket has to be with her puppies at all times. There's no fooling her. All five pups are in Ethan's hands

They've got Cricket's markings. The brown eye brows, the brown around the nose. Give em a week and their eyes will be open. That's when the chaos will begin.

Emily Ashcroft is holding "Big Mama", the largest puppy



Marcie is holding the "Runt". Big Mama is twice her size. When the pups are nursing, I pull the chubby ones off and hook up my little Runt. It doesn't take long for the big gals to nose their way back to the prim spigots!