Josh's Birthday!!!

Josh turned 29 today! Yea! I decided to do a countdown for his birthday. It started just a week before the big day. I would put up a sign on the garage man door into the house and it would have some sort of a rhyme (lame) to hint towards what the surprise was for that day. I ended up taking a picture of them all. Usually, it was last minute and some of them are so stupid, it's not even funny. Ok, a lot of them are inside jokes that hardly anyone would get, so I'm sure you'll read these and not remotely understand what they really mean. I had fun doing it.

DAY 1

Sweet & Sour Chicken from Lucky China, his favorite Chinese restaurant.

Day 2

Strawberry and blueberry flavored syrups. They are his favorite.

Day 3

His favorite sandwich of all time.
The Italian Night Club from Jimmy John's.

Day 4

A big pack of Dr. Pepper.
(Chloee put this one on the door too. She told me that it was her "little note" to dad.)

Day 5

Lindt chocolate, Extra Dark. Some of this favorite chocolate.

Day 6

Almond Joys and Mounds mini candy bars.

Day 7

Toblerone.


Me and the girls decorated for dad's big day.

Of course, the girls loved the balloons all too much. I think half of them were popped before Josh even got home from work.

We had fun decorating the house. How could the girls not absolutely love it, they love being destructive. They kept unraveling the crepe paper all over the house, popping balloons and ripping the Happy Birthday signs. I swear, what one doesn't think of, the other one will.

See what I mean...

"What? Me, I'm so innocent!"

"Hmmm... I wonder if I unload this whole cupboard, if I can somehow convince mom that it was Chloee. Of course I can, I'll just make the sad face at her and then point to Chloee. Mwahahaha!!!"

Josh opening his presents. Chloee helped me wrap them.

Josh changed Jobs about a month ago. He now designs things for John Deere among other things. I thought this tractor was very fitting. It took forever, I think about 2 hours and my hands still hurt from holding the stupid bag of frosting while trying to concentrate on doing the frosting right.

Chloee's favorite part of birthdays is the cake. She is obsessed with the candles and the "fire". Ok, no one can be as obsessed as Amy's son, Kennet, but she comes in a close second.

He seriously blew out 29 candles with ease. Awesome Job, Josh!

Dad loves his girls!!!

Halle enjoyed her cake all too well. I just love that little face!

Josh's driver's license had to be renewed today. He left work a little early to do that. Amy was at my mom's on Sunday and slept there. She stopped by on her way home and helped take care of the kids while I finished the cake. She was a great help, especially when the frosting bag exploded and there was black frosting all over the cake and I swear I was going to start crying. I made her pull it off cause I was ready to puke thinking that the cake was ruined. She did a fine job of reviving it. We all went out to IHOP for dinner and laughed so hard about Josh's instant potatoes and Amy's hollandaise sauce that was from a packet. Oh, we didn't feel so hot when we left. For every entree you buy, the kids get a little entree free. It was fun but that IHOP was a total hole.

When Lightning Strikes

I meant to put this post up yesterday. Tuesday night was the worst thunder and lightning storm I have ever experienced. First, let me just say that I absolutely HATE thunder and lightning. It makes Josh sleep deeper, he thinks it's soothing. Go figure that one out.

It started at about 3 am. It woke me up when the thunder cracked right above our house. It actually rattled the house a bit and my neighbor said the same thing. The thunder and lightning were simultaneous so I knew it was right above us. It didn't stop the rest of the night. There I am in bed, curled up to Josh, crying like a baby and he's sound asleep, just snoring away.

There were car alarms going off, police sirens and fire trucks all night. It must have started a fire, but I still don't know where. It started out with no rain or anything, which was weird. I went to look out the window and just has I lifted the blinds up, a bolt of lighting hit and lit up everything, it freaked me out and I started to scream. What are the chances?

Around 6 am it was still going like crazy but had been able to doze off for a bit, I woke up and Josh had left for work. I was freaking out! I am such a wuss, I went in and grabbed Chloee when we had this conversation:

Me: "Chloee will you come in my bed and lay by me?"

Chloee: "But I'm warm!"

Me: "Please, Mommy is scared and I need you to protect me!"

We move into my bed at this point.

Chloee: "Why are you scared Mommy?"

Me: "I just don't like the thunder and lightning."

Chloee: (as she pats my head and speaks to me in a tone that you speak to your child in when they are scared) "Oh, it's going to be alright, don't you worry!"

Talk about a total pride hit! Oh well!

Later on in the day at about noon, lightning hit a transformer in Layton and knocked out a lot of power. Luckily, we weren't one of them but my friend that lives in Clinton lost her power. She came and hung out with us for a little bit of it and it wasn't expected to come back on until around 6 pm sometime.

What is going on with this CRAZY Utah weather?
It's almost May for crying out loud!!!

MINUTE TO WIN IT!!!

Most of you who read my blog, have an invite to read my sister's blog as well. I figured that I'd get my "Minute to win it" post up as well. My family likes to watch this show. For those of you who don't know what it is, you have to do certain things within 1 minute to win money and move up to a million dollars.

Some of the things are really hilarious. Ok, most of them are. Well, we did a tournament but the only one I got pictures of was of me and Amy doing the Oreo contest. You have to start with an Oreo on your forehead and then get it down your face and into your mouth without using your hands. In the actual show, you have to do 3 in a minute. We were lucky if we got one in our mouth. I was the first one to do it though. Yeah!!! Here are some pictures. Josh was having all too much fun just snapping pictures of me and Amy acting like idiots.

Let me just say that it was late and me and Amy get really weird. When the 4 of us (Me, Josh, Amy & Micheal) used to get together all the time, once it hit about midnight, me and Amy would do things that made our husbands laugh in absolute shame of us.

This night was no different...

This is known as one of our "victory dances".

I tripped on something and fell...

I'm laughing so hard, I'm trying not to pee my pants...

I was finally able to get up and Josh snapped an oh-so-awesome shot of me!

Amy is totally going to beat me for this picture. I had to put it on here. You can see where she's drooling from the Oreo after she finally got it into her mouth! Oh, that's classic!

GOOD TIMES!!!

SUN... glasses & burns

Last week we went to the park over here by my house and played some softball. That's a post all on its own to come. Well, we all got sunburned. It didn't even feel that hot outside at all. I didn't think we'd get burned, I was wrong.

Halle in her ever so cool shades.

I loved this picture, she's totally leaning back and giggling. It's so hilarious, almost like maybe you could imagine her doing her sinister laugh because she's got some evil plan stirring up in that little brain of hers.

What a sinister look! She's a sneaky one, that Hals!

She won't ever keep sunglasses on, so of course I had to take a million pictures of it.

You can kind of see her sunburn in these pictures but this last one really shows it...

Just had to give you a hard time, Ames!

The Exercise Queen

The other day I was working out to a Jillian Michaels DVD. Chloee wanted to do weights with me. She is so cute. I was doing 5 lbs and she wanted the 3 lbs. I know heavy for a kid but she was totally whooping my butt. Sadly, I am not joking. Notice how her tongue is sticking out as she works through the pain... ah!

I was such a wuss and started to die with the 5 pounders so I gave her this infant formula bottle that we got from the hospital so that I could use the 3 pound weights. She says to me, "Mom, give me the 5 pound weights, I'm not even getting a workout with this bottle, maybe you should use it!" Any amount of dignity I did have, was completely smothered by my "Hulk" of a daughter.

Yeah, at least I can admit that I am a total loser and that my daughter put me to shame. It was so cute to see her with these weights. She actually finished the DVD and I bowed out after about 30 minutes. Ahwww, the energy and strength of a 3 year old. Wow, I'm such a wuss!

The NCAA Basketball Champion

Every year my dad has everyone in the family fill out a paper for the March Madness NCAA championships. Whoever wins, gets $5. It's all for fun and the best part about it is that 99% of the years the "sports fanatics" never win. So hilarious and this year was no different.

1st: ME - Score 720
2nd: A TIE between Mom & Matt - Score 670
3rd: Dad - Score 550
4th: Annie - Score 520
5th: Josh - Score 510
6th: Jordan - Score 480
7th: Marcus - Score 410

(Amy was in Hawaii when we all filled out our papers. Not that it matters, she would have lost anyway, I would have retained my winning spot either way.)

Me, overly ecstatic that I won! I never win!

Yeah, I don't know what I was doing in this picture.
I blame Amy for taking it.

I used the winnings on me and the girls for lunch the next day at McDonald's. We shared a 20 piece of chicken nuggets. I swear their chicken nuggets are the only thing that all of us agree on.