Wyatt is 4 Years Old!

(Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page so as not hear conflicting songs while viewing Wyatt's birthday movie)

Today Wyatt did as he pleased, including:

• Wearing his Mario costume all day long
• Opening his presents BEFORE his cake ( a good 6 hours before his cake)
• Eating candy for every meal
• Crying in Primary because he didn't want to color
• Jumping on the bed with Calvin for most of the day
• Letting Calvin open, but not keep one of his presents
• Living in a Costco box as a puppy
• Taking his fork to the whole cake rather than just a piece

Wyatt, you are a darling gem. You are happy and sweet (about 99% of the time). We love that you are always willing to laugh and that you like to just steady chill. Thank you so much for the life that you bring to our family. You still love Hulk and puppies, especially Rico. Thank you for handing out the challenge for a three-layer-birthday-cake-in-blue-brown-and-green-with-a-wiener-dog-on-top-and-Hulk -riding-on-top-of-him. And though I failed miserably, thank you for not caring even a little and saying, "mmm....yea.....this tastes pretty good." You are a tough cookie and almost never cry when you get hurt. You have inherited your Daddy's strength. You are sweet to Cyrus and can make him laugh so well. I am glad that you have decided to just hang with me this year instead of going to Mother's Day Out. I love having you to hang with all day long. We will continue to do our thing: watch cartoons, read books, visit Goodwill, and make "special lunches." You are the best.

Love,

Your Mutha and Your Fawthu

P.S. I'm thinking this movie will probably get a couple of awards this year. I'm waiting for: Best Actor in a Short Film, Best Director of a Short Film, and Best Film (all Acadamy Awards, you know)

Public Apology to My Family Concerning Dinner

Family, loved ones:

I apologize for "The Pot Pie Debacle" on Tuesday night. Never again will I deviate from this recipe due to missing ingredients and general laziness. I will always remember that we like more crust and less filling. Calvin, I want to specifically apologize for the "yucky smell" emitted from the pot pie. I now realize that adults have a more accurately honed nose than children. I will certainly commit this to memory and never subject you to it again. Wyatt, you must forgive me that I did not cut out a puppy shape from the crust to release the steam - - - my most sincere regret. Cyrus, you are lucky that you couldn't choke this down. It might have ruined your perceptions of table food. And last, but not least, Noah, thanks for being the Pot Pie Hero. You took it like a man. I hope, dear family, that the Krispy Kreme donuts made up for Tuesday's indiscretion. It certainly made me feel better.

{This Picture of Cutie Should Aleviate Any Hard Feelings}

More of The Haps

Calvin - He has been really enjoying school lately. He has found his comfort level and made some friends, namely Joseph and Ty. I actually heard him say to me, "I really like school," which is music to my ears. He is a diligent worker and eager to do his homework. Calvin has also been loving Super Smash Brothers lately. His favorite characters are: Toon Link, Sonic, and, as always, Yoshi. It has been Balloon Fiesta week, and we went early one morning to see a hot air balloon at his school. It was a lot of fun, but let's be honest, here: had there not been breakfast burritos and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, we might not have made it. There have been hundreds of balloons in the sky for weeks. One almost landed on our house!! How lucky is that.

Wyatt - He is my little buddy right now. We cross paths nearly every minute daily. He is quite the daydreamy helper. He is super great at squirting any kind of cleaning product for me. He is also the best cartoon watcher that I know. He loves Tom and Jerry, and so do I! If it weren't for that silly cat and mouse I might never make it to the treadmill. He has made a new friend named Sadie. They are great little buddies in primary. I overheard her consoling him last Sunday when i could not deliver with a pack of fruit snacks.
Cyrus - Poor Cutie had a rough last week, and we are happy that he is much better. He had 2 trips to the emergency room, one ambulance ride, and a two night stay at the hospital. All because of a nasty case of croup. I have learned that if you want to get in to be seen immediately at the ER just say, "Someone please help me, my baby is turning blue." The above picture is during one of our nights there. What an exhausting week! Aside from the croup, he has been much the same - - - wandering around the house doing adorable little things with his pudgy hands. He loved his birthday and his cake, which he smeared from one end of the table to the other. I was lucky because he requested my favorite cake - - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. What a guy.

Noah - One word: DROID. If you don't know what a Droid is, then you are not fit to read this blog. It has become his constant companion and quite the diversion. Above you can see him toying with the Droid. Besides the phone, he has been busy bringing home the bacon. He brings it, and I cook it. That's the deal we've made. He is still waiting for his practice to open, so he has been working temporarily at another location. He has also been busy tying knots. Literally, tying knots as he is now the assistant scout master at church. And I don't know what it is about the Boy Scout uniform, but I think he is the cat's meow in it. It must be the patches. Maybe it's the promise of being loyal, trustworthy, honest, etc. I don't know.
Katie - See if you can spot me in this picture. Yes, you were right. I am the girl in the pink shorts. I have been busy running around. Literally. I tried to smoke some housewife with a gimpy run in this 5K, but it turns out she was a sleeper champion. Yep, she beat me. Then there was that old lady that looked like I could have taken her out in .5 seconds, but she smoked me too. Oh, well. Maybe I'll enter a Kid's Fun Run next and see if there is some unassuming 3rd grader I can take on. You know, you gotta feel good about yourself. Aside from trying to beat anybody, I have been busy doing just what Mom's in the fall do: baking pumpkin bread, muffins, wheat bread and trying to find a way to decorate the outside of my house creepily without getting in trouble with the HOA.

How Can I Take Them Seriously?

"Go to time out. You will stay in time out until you guys can learn to stop fighting," says Mom.

Or until you can learn some su-weet headstand tricks. Then I will let you guys out. If you can somehow do some awesome headspinny/breakdancy moves then I won't even make you go at all.

Sweet Cyrus Turns 1!

Could it be??? Has it really only been one year since this little darling became a part of our lives??? Just a mere 365 days is all we have known him, but we like him enough to keep him.

Here are a few things you should know about the birthday boy:

• He has been nicknamed, "Cutie" by his older brothers. There is even talk that he is "the cutest Bandito," which is quite the honor.


• He loves to explore and man is he curious, curious, curious. He wants to get into everything, and if he is somewhere that he has never been before all he wants to do is get down and look around.


• His favorite toys include: a toothbrush, a wet washcloth fresh from the bath, a calculator, the curtains, and ink pens that you must click. I know you might be thinking that we should buy him toys, but why when he is so happy with junk from around the house?


• Cyrus will immediately start to shake his head back and forth if you sing Popcorn Popping because he can't wait for the "It wasn't really so . . . " line.


• His best friend in the morning is Calvin, and his best friend when Calvin is at school is Wyatt.


• He likes to have his back scratched and will sit very still if you do.


• Cyrus started walking at 9 1/2 months and is sure to fly any moment

Dear Cyrus,

You have brought such sweet happiness into our lives. We have all enjoyed watching you reach each milestone. I will never forget the day you arrived. I will never forget when I started to have labor pains in the middle of the night that your Dad said (while still mostly asleep), "Take a few Tylenol and go back to sleep." Too bad those don't work with contractions.

It's so funny how you don't realize you were missing someone until they arrive. It was that way with you. You made us feel more completed that we had felt before. You made our hearts grow even bigger than they had been. And now I think of you just as I do your brothers: don't grow at all. Not even a little bit. Just stay right where you are.

I love the aggressive manner in which you took down your birthday cupcake. May all one year olds aspire to your hungry determination. I love your little chipmunk teeth and open mouth kisses. I love your fine, poky red hair and bow-legged walk. I love crawling into your room after your nap to surprise you and find you sitting up and smiling from ear to ear. I love that your started to hum such happy tunes so quietly in the car the other day. I love that you screech when Wyatt tries to take your toy because, you know, you gotta stick up for yourself.

We love you, Cutie.

A Second Birthday Cake

One of the best things about our visit with the Seares was the little party that we had for Calvin's birthday. Being as it was not yet his birthday and that he didn't have any friends yet in Albuquerque, we were happy to celebrate with his best friend, Ian.

I, too, was happy to have Susie's help in putting together a swanky cake. If you don't know Susie, you might want to know that she is many things (funny, loyal, cute dresser, generally awesome). But she excels in cakes and particularly fondant. So, the night that we ditched our kids on them, she not only babysat, but also made me fondant as well. The next day she colored the stuff for me, and we hammered out what I think was a pretty su-weet Mario cake.

The boys loved it, and I even think they are in the middle of yelling, "Mario."

For the actually day of Calvin's birthday he requested another cake, but this time he wanted DONKEY KONG STANDING ON TOP OF HIS OWN FACE. Yes, that is exactly what he wanted. And not wanting to disappoint my own son and drunk with arrogance from my successful Mario cake, I set out to make DONKEY KONG STANDING ON TOP OF HIS OWN FACE. You can see from this first smug picture that I knew this cake was going to be a home run. In fact, just one minute earlier, I told Noah to get the camera and take a picture of me frosting the cake because I knew it looked good and I wanted to brag in a future blog post.

See the smug spreading????

Well, to level with you, I should have had Susie help me with this cake, too because it is now in the runnings for it's own spot on Cake Wrecks.

Here you can see where the fondant hit the fan and I just decided to slap it on any ole' way I could. Then it looked so ugly I threw some stripe things on to cover the gaping holes.

Poor DK. He doesn't even know that in just a moment he will be standing on his own face.

At least Calvin didn't mind. That is what really matters. And it did taste pretty good.

Now I just have to start prepping for Wyatt's birthday cake. He has requested Hulk riding on a wiener dog.

One. Fun. Trip.

A few weeks ago we went to see our good friends, the Seares and The Ortons. We had such a great time reuniting and picking up where we left off. We arrived at the Seares very late at night and put our kids down in the same room as their kids. They woke and instantly began to strategize about Mario and Super Smash Brothers all while their parents begged them to go back to sleep and be quite.

Ha. Ha. No luck.

I need to report a few changes in the Seare household: Lucia is now as big as Susie and very sweet, Taylor has an iphone and likes to go hunting waaayyyyy early in the morning, Susie buys large carrots in bulk from Costco and peels them and leaves them in the fridge for her family to eat as they please (I decided to try this one at my house and it's going over quite well), Ian has a new pair of velcro tennis shoes, and Colton is very much the same.

Other than that we found them just as we left them in New York. Thanks for letting us crash at your place. It was awesome to see you guys again. I think my kids felt like their dreams came true.

During our visit we caught up with the Ortons, Kelly and Dave. We go back so far. Back to the days of Ricks College. That's pre-BYU Idaho, folks. We ditched our kids on the kind Seares and met them for dinner. AND HAD THE BEST TIME.

I think that I must have laughed the entire time. In fact, the next day my stomach was sore from laughing so hard.

I need to report a few changes with the Ortons in case you are not up on their blog: Kelly is now jump roping. And competitively. She is on a team that criss-crosses the globe doing hours of shows. She's pretty much the Shaquille O'Neal of jump rope. Just sayin'. Dave is a NASCAR racer and darn good too. He is going to retire soon, and Kelly is throwing him a retirement party at Mandalay Bay. Good luck getting into that party - - - it's E-X-C-L-U-S-I-V-E. Not even Big Bird could get in.

Anyhoo. We must see you again soon, Ortons and Seares. Thanks for the great trip!