Happy Birthday Justin!

The b-day boy with all his gifts! Thank you for everything family!

Justin's birthday was Monday, March 24th and he managed to get home in time to celebrate it with the Carter's and Aubrey. His grandparents who live about 20 minutes away were also able to come up and celebrate. I know that birthdays are not that big of deal when we get older, so I was very happy to have a few kids who think that birthday time means party time.

Preston and Madison were so excited all day planning this party for Justin. They picked out some special presents and helped us decorate with balloons. They decided to play a game with balloons where we all tried to sit on them and pop them. Preston and Maddy hid so they could jump out and "surprise" Justin when he came home. Maddy even wrote a play called "The Royal Family" to be performed in his honor. We didn't practice before hand, so it was a little unorganized, but she was a very cute director/star of the play. Izzy got so excited about the play that she kept running around and screaming. It was very cute. Justin was such a great sport to go along with all the games and make it fun for the kids. Kids really can turn a small event into something magically and special. Thank you Preston and Maddy for making Justin's birthday celebration a blast!

Justin's grandparents got him this tree. We are sooooo excited to plant it. Thanks Gran and Grampy!!

The party people.

The no-so-creative, but very good tasting cake. I did make a killer dinner, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Fun Family Fotos

Amy has a extremely nice digital camera and took some very cute pictures of Izzy in the Easter dress my mom sent her. Here are some of my favorites.

An Eventful Easter

My sister, Amy drove down from Baltimore for the weekend. Aubrey extended her trip to Maryland and drove down with her and the kids. It was sooooooo fun having them here. I loved seeing Maddy (age 5 1/2) and Preston (3 1/2). It was also fun to play with Jackson (11 months). Our primary had a very fun Easter activity on Saturday, so we all went. Surprisingly enough, Izzy was very good at finding the eggs and putting them in her basket. In fact she is now obsessed with all the Easter eggs still hanging out in our house and tries to open them to find candy.

The kids were very cute on Sunday and got all dressed up so nice for church.

Yummy Easter Treats

My friend Becca and I made these really good Easter nests and they turned out so cute! We had never made them before and we were very proud.

Here is the recipe in case you want to try it out!

Ingredients needed:

• 1 cup chocolate chips


• 1 cup butterscotch chips


• 2 T creamy peanut butter


• 4 cups chow mein noodles (we added a little extra)


• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Melt chips together (on the stove or in the microwave) and add peanut butter. Continue to stir until creamy.
2. Add chow mein noodles stirring until completely coated.
3. Spray muffin tins (we used large and mini tins - both worked well)
4. Spoon generous amount of mixture into each cup creating a well in the center as you go.
5. Immediately place jelly beans, M&M's or other candy in well (we used Cadbury Eggs - YUM!)
6. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour or until chocolate has hardened.
7. Remove form tins and serve (the nests pop out really easy if you get a knife or something to loosen one part of the curve).

This is Gretta proudly displaying our master pieces.

March Madness

I looooove March Madness! It all started my freshman year at Utah State. Our floor in Snow Hall had a competition with our filled out brackets. I think whoever won got a pizza or something. I really had no clue about any of the teams playing and I received help filling out my bracket from a more knowledgeable source (as did some of my room mates). I did however make a few choices of my own and to my amazement, ended up winning the pizza! I always look forward to some awesome basketball games during the big tournament. Last year Justin and I filled out our brackets and he ended up killing me! If anyone has good suggestions, HELP ME OUT (that means you Jensa :)... )!

I was really disappointed when USU lost to Boise State and didn't end up making it. Hopefully they do better next year.

Anyway, here's a link if you want to fill out your own bracket. Good Luck!

http://msn.foxsports.com/id/3461072_37_94.pdf

Leap Day Baby

Congrats to my sister, Amber, who lives in South Weber, UT. She was blessed with a beautiful little boy on February 29. I think it's pretty cool that we have a baby in our family with such a unique birth day. He was 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. They named him Jordan. He has an older brother, Logan, who is 3 1/2 years old. Amber is doing so well and she came home after one night in the hospital. Congratulations Amber, Brian, and Logan! Welcome to the family baby Jordan!