The Little Guy's Bday

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Holidays (including birthdays) are SO MUCH FUN with kids! As a parents, it's obviously not reasonable to be able to give your kids whatever they desire, and spend every waking moment playing with them or giving them your total, undivided attention. But on their birthday, you can get pretty close to that without feeling guilty that you're spoiling them or not getting any work done!



My favorite thing is going into their room singing the Happy Birthday song right after they wake up. I love seeing their face light up as they realize how important they are on this day. So we did that and opened a few presents before Marty went to work.

G&G J gave him a whole bunch of balls for his birthday. A perfect present, since right now he is all about throwing anything he can get his hands on (usually inappropriate things). He was having so much fun with them, so later in the day Brynn and I got the idea to gather up all the balls in the house and put him right into the middle of ball heaven!

We got the pool out, too! Not a day too soon, I was hot and cooling off in that nice little pool was just too much for me to resist.

Sloppy football cake (no judging! my first cake turned out to be a complete disaster and this is what I could save!)I bet you were just thinking, "Oh dear, no messy high chair pictures in the last few posts? Whatever shall I do?" Don't worry, I wouldn't let you down!

Uh, no thanks Brycer, you eat it.

I know, I'd be upset if I was that messy and had eaten that much cake, too.

Sigh, no more birthdays until September.

G&G Johnson!

Right after we got back from Utah, Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came to Arizona! It was a short trip, but SO great to see them!Bryce trying to sing the Little Green Frog song with Grandpa (hence the tongue sticking out of his mouth).

Absolute love.

And Bryce took 12 steps while they were here! Perfect timing!

Gila Temple Open House

We went to the Gila Valley Temple Open House last weekend. It is soooo beautiful, and was such a good experience to be there with the kids. Brynn walked around telling everyone who would so much as glance at her that she was getting married in the temple today. When people asked her who she was going to marry, she said either Pumba or Bryce-o-roni. Ever since then she's been praying about the temple and talking about how much she loved Moroni and the Jesus pictures and the special lights.

It was a LOT of driving for one day, but totally worth it!

Pooh Party

This was something else that we did in Utah, but I wanted to devote a whole post to it. Winnie the Pooh is the first novel that Brynn and I have read together. I have been thinking a lot about patterns of learning that I want to establish with my kids and I have wanted reading to be a huge part of growing up and life in general. I've read that it's never to young to read chapter books with your kids, so I started this one with Brynn a while ago. I thought she might be bored, so I told her if she'd read the whole thing with me, we could have a Winnie the Pooh party at the end. She wasn't bored though, she loved it! She was constantly asking me to read Pooh to her, which is the cutest book in the universe by the way, and I get choked up just reading it and talking about it, but more on that later. ANYWAY, she finished while we were in Utah, which was perfect because my mom is a Librarian and has resources.



We spent the morning at her library reading small Pooh books....

and exploring!

Balloons and ghosts are the most common things Brynn draws.
The rest of the party consisted of coloring Pooh,

stamping with Pooh stamps,

Pin the tail on the donkey (Eeyore),

(which Brynn rocked at)

Pudding painting Pooh,

And going on an Expedition (major Pooh fans will know it as an Expotition) to find the North Pole. A little game we made up that ended up being so much fun!

And for lunch? Why, honey of course!

I'm so proud of my girl, this is one of her first long-term goals and was such good bonding for the two of us. She picked up on a lot of the morals in the book, too. I'd be reading and she'd say things like, "Uh-oh, they should let Kanga play with them, huh?" or "They saved Piglet from the water, that's so nice!"

More traveling...

My cute parents decided that four and a half months was long enough to go without seeing their only grand kids and flew the kids and me out in April. I was nervous about the plane ride (being outnumbered for the first time on a plane), but it was great! Here are some random goings-on from the week.



Brynn is in a ballerina phase, so my mom got her old toe shoes out of the ceder chest to let Brynn play with them.

Here she is teaching Brynn the positions.

Love these proud expressions...

The Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point is the largest in the world (yeah, you heard me).

The Utah Raptor

Bryce learned to point that day!

Digging for bones.

Learning about erosion.

Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Oldham. My cousin Christy and I were the only two girl cousins. Every time we went to this house, the first place we would go was to the guest bedroom dresser to get out my grandma's costume jewelry. This was the first time Brynn got to play with it, and the first time in quite a while that I had seen it. It was everything it should have been. :)

Bryce bonding with Great Grandpa O. He just kept crawling over to him, it was the sweetest thing.

Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Peterson at Hearthstone Manor.

I can't believe what an angel Bryce was with all the great grandparents and how quickly he wrapped them all around his finger!
We got there on my Dad's birthday (April 5th), and here we are opening and playing with toys, AND playing with....

SNOW! April is a crazy month in Utah.

I heart this picture so much.

Speaking of the Grandparents of the Year award...

My mom built a snowman with Brynn,Got into a snowball fight,

And warmed her up with hot chocolate.

She wasn't the only one getting snuggles, though.

I often feel homesick and wish that I could just stop over at my parents' house for a quick visit whenever I felt like it, but spending an entire week there is pretty awesome, too.