six is super

the halloween posting will have to wait a day or two, because what happened the day after halloween is really what the big news is around here...

ethan tanner turned SIX!

it's a good thing too because, he says he has been "waiting and waiting and waiting" for it to be his birthday and it's finally here. phew.

the morning celebrations were pretty low-key since everyone has left for work or school by the time he wakes up. he was so excited for it to be his birthday that i put a candle in a donut and sang to him to try to distract him from the empty house.

luckily, he loved it.

he's such an easy going kid.

it was a great day!
some of the highlights were:

being sung to in kindergarten and getting to wear a birthday crown.
handing out his all-time favorite treat, reese's peanut butter cups to his class
the dairy queen ice cream cake he's been ogling for months now

french toast breakfast for dinner
all the phone calls and visits from friends and family
presents! i loved catching his reaction on film.

and hearing him say,
"this is the best. birthday. EVEEEERRRR!"

which is good, because the night before he was a little sad about not being five any more.
silly boy.
six is super!

happy birthday little e.
so so glad you finally came!

sweet sixteen weekend

two fridays ago, on the fourteenth, 

this little baby girl...

and this little one year old girl...

and this little two year old girl...

and this little four year old girl...

and this little five year old girl...

turned into a big sixteen year old girl!

really?

yes really.

i know.

i can't believe it either.

but it happened.

because fridays are so crazy around this place, and no one in the family, including the birthday girl herself, would be able to attend our traditional birthday family dinner, she opted for a saturday morning french toast kind of party with everyone in attendance.

(it's not fair that she is so cute, even in the morning without getting ready.)

most of her presents started with the words "justin bieber", as in: justin bieber perfume (it actually smells surprisingly lovely), justin bieber posters - which we will post later after we've found room on her walls for them, and maybe her favorite present of the day...

 a justin bieber tshirt!

in case it's not already clear, allie is a huge j.b. fan. HUGE.
and while sixteen may not be the average age of a girl with bieber fever (more like 12), that doesn't bother her in the slightest. she's loved him from the beginning and doesn't care that it isn't a super popular way to be in high school. i love this about her, she is not a fair weather fan. everyone knows of her love for j.b., even ethan knew a card with justin bieber on it would be a hit, all without any help or prompting from me.

 (justin on the front wearing purple, his trade mark color, and allie in yellow with pink hair. 

i can translate ethan writing, it says: justin loves you allie. i love you too. ethan)

needless to say, i think this card was her second favorite present!

later on saturday her big birthday plans were to go get a pedicure with her BFF, lauren, but when we went to pick her up, there was something in the backyard that lauren was dying to show her....

SURPRISE!

lauren, with a little help from her cute parents, threw a fantastic sweet sixteen party for allie that she never saw coming! it's possible i'll go straight to hell for all the lies i had to tell her over the last few weeks and especially on saturday, but they worked because she never had a clue about any of the preparations and was genuinely surprised to see so many friends in lauren's back yard. it was awesome.

the girls ate and played games and roasted smores by the fire pit, ate cupcakes, laughed their heads off and then snuggled up in blankets to watch a movie outside in the backyard. allie was so touched, she's pretty much been smiling for the the last two weeks over it.


it was a great thing for her to feel so loved and so special on her big day! 


my thoughts on having a sixteen year daughter are complicated. i admire her strength and her love of others and her strong testimony of our Savior's love. i worry about falling short on being the mother she needs - its often hard to balance when to push and when to step back and let her figure it out. some times i feel like i can't keep up with the hormones and drama of being sixteen! but more often than that i feel so proud of all the good things that she's choosing for herself and excited for her future that looks so bright. 


love. this. girl.

happy happy birthday allie !

 sixteen is going to rock.

(p.s. allie, i did this whole post in purple in honor of your beloved j.b.)

star wars nerds, ur, i mean, fans.

ok so, obviously, i'm struggling a little bit with keeping this blog current. i can't believe we're into the last week of october already. the idea of trying to catch up makes me want to dive into a vat of ice cream, so today, i'm just jumping in with some randomness. jumping into my blog that is, not ice cream.

the other day, i looked out the window to this scene in the back yard. proving, once again, that big boys are really just little boys on the inside. they never really grow up no matter how much hair is on their legs.

the best part, besides the fact that they are still in their pajamas, is that they mean it. light saber battles are not for the faint of heart at our house. they have had the bruises to prove it, and it's not a coincidence they're fighting outside instead of in. there's less chance of any dry wall damage if the battle stays outdoors. light sabers, and the desire to use them like a jedi, are a big deal around here because my boys, all of them, are such big star wars fans.

this summer when we went to orlando there was some kind of nerd, i mean, star wars convention going on at the disney studios park. there were tons of extra star wars characters walking around the park, and my boys were in heaven. and i'm not kidding, when jango phett walked by, the look on taylor's face told me it was maybe his best day ever.
who the heck is jango phett you ask?
exactly.
they're nerds.
nerds who want to use the force so dang bad.
and i love it.

birthday love

here's my first part of a september re-cap...

september is a big deal around here because rich and i both celebrate our birthdays within a couple of days of each other. first rich, then me. but i'm the photographer so we usually only have photos of him. :)

we always have a date somewhere in the middle of our special days to celebrate, and i love sharing that with him. this year, the date was just us, which it usually isn't, and while it's always fun to have a group date, it was lovely hanging out just the two of us. 

somehow, we always end up going to the restaurant that i want to go to. i always try to persuade rich to choose his favorite place, but he's too much of a gentleman. we ate at happy sumo, because somehow my birthday always makes me crave sushi. (i crave it all the other days of the year too, but whatever.) 

the thing i took away from birthdays this year is just how much LOVE we have in our lives. everyone was so thoughtful and went the extra mile to make us both feel special and loved. and it worked! there was something kind of big going on every day for a full week - a birthday WEEK. it was a big deal. and a lot of fun. and humbling because i really just feel so blessed.
we have the best friends and family.

have i written out the thank you notes? 

no i have not. i need to get on that. 

tomorrow.

right after i post the second series of september happenings.

seventeen years

the first week of the school year always brings one very important event,

taylor-bing's birthday!

this year is extra special since he is also celebrating his last year of high school.

we celebrated with taco salad and lemon cupcakes, his requests.
i found these super cute candles that i thought were so great.

that is, until we lighted them and they were pretty much melted before taylor could make a wish!

so funny!

i had a ton of fun shopping for t this year because there wasn't a main gift that he wanted and so i was able to accumulate a few smaller things which were totally taylor. i love giving gifts that fit the receiver perfectly.

the biggest hit was a spock bauble-head. its sort of an inside joke about the SBO's theme for the high school his year, "live long and conquer" (instead of spock's traditional phrase "live long and prosper"). his reaction was perfection.

but he also loved the captain america shirt we purchased sneakily during our trip to orlando. it was especially sweet because he went crazy over it in orlando when he saw it, but didn't have enough of his own money to purchase it. :) i love surprises.

and a giant orange watch

(seriously, you could deflect bullets "wonder woman style" with this thing)

and my favorite thing that he actually asked for, a good old fashioned pair of ray-bans.

taylor has excellent taste. later on, i taught him how to "pop" his polo collar so he looked like a true 80's boy, but i missed a photo of it, bummer. i must have been too busy laughing.

so...SEVENTEEN is a big deal.

at least HIS seventeenth year will be.
a lot is going to happen before he turns eighteen next year - including graduating from high school and starting college. it's also going to be a year of a lot of learning and growth with all of his student government responsibilities. two days after his birthday, he was introduced and sworn in as an officer at the back to school assembly.

it was such a proud mom moment for me to see his name come up on the screen and see his little video clip and then later, standing on stage with the other officers getting sworn in. i'll admit to being a tiny bit misty-eyed, i'm such a softy. he was proud too, i could tell. and he should be. he's such a good kid. i mean, man.

on sunday, he received his patriarchal blessing, it was a very spiritual experience, one i am sure he'll never forget. no surprise to me, heavenly father has a lot in store for this sweet boy. it made me remember that a loooong time ago, my own patriarchal blessing promised me a righteous posterity that would bring great joy to my life. check.

(with brother ostler the stake patriarch)

love you t-bill.

you are awesome-spice.

live long and conquer man.

i already know you will.

blink

this happens every year.

one day we are celebrating the last weeks of school with a million spring-time activities...

choir concerts

spencer sang a solo

 (no pic of allie singing?)

dance recital - beautiful dance, terrible pic

pre-school field trip

and graduation

jr.high graduation

 and lots of great lacrosse

 (this next one is of of him shooting an actual goal even though it's hard to tell)

not to mention, the musicals, which i already documented, final projects, AP and other end of year tests, and even, a new job. 

spring is busy, and by the last day of school, we are all jumping for joy.

literally.

because by then, we most definitely need the break.

and then,

(this is the part that happens every year...)

i blink too quickly.

and the next thing i know,

i'm making breakfast,

packing lunches

and taking first day of school photos.

and even though, it's going to be a BIG, awesome, exciting year for each one of the kids, 

i just can't believe that

 summer is over.

 wow.