FOUR!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHARY SCOTT!!!

I really can't believe he is four years old. That is an old kid. Not a baby anymore. FOUR! He is a fun, smart, funny, high energy kid. It is fun to be his mom...and a lot of work. :) Anyway, happy birthday Zachy Boy. I hope it was fun. Sorry your presents didn't get here in time. That's what we get for living across the border. You never know how long it will take!

We've been REALLY busy around here. Justin is studying for his BIG final exams to make him an official doctor, so the night before Zach's birthday I snuck out and picked up some decorations and stuff. He loves balloons and special things, so I knew he'd love streamers. When I put him to bed the night before his birthday he told me exactly what we needed to do when he walked down the next morning. "Mommy, you all hide and when I come downstairs yell SURPRISE!!" Okay Zach. Except I went to bed after midnight and was so tired so I didn't even get to see him come down. Bummer!

Yes. I staged these pictures...

"Surprise!" Sorry I wasn't there to hide and yell out to you...I was sleeping.

What I came down to when I could finally open my eyes. He was just patiently waiting for his doughnuts and presents and apparently Kate thought she was the birthday boy. :) This was the saddest. You know what is in those presents...3 shirts and a pack of Bubble Tape bubblegum. He is big into "How to Train Your Dragon" right now and I ordered him a few dragon toys off of Ebay but they didn't get here in time! I really thought I ordered them early enjoy. Over 2 weeks before! That is one thing that bugs me about not living in the states...dumb, but it does! I could have had them in 2 days if I lived down there. Anyway, luckily I bought those shirts the week before for him. But seriously...clothes? I even wrapped up a hat I found that I bought years ago and saved but accidentally showed to him the day before his birthday. Justin says he asked, "Daddy, why is my hat wrapped up on the table?" Ha ha! I felt bad! I just wanted him to be able to open something! I just love this picture of Kara. :)

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And I just love this picture of Zach. HA! This was too funny not to post.

So we were having his birthday party on Saturday. Yes, he is young, but we are moving and he really wanted to have a party so I thought, while he has friends, let's do it! We weren't having it until the weekend though when Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa could be there too. So I wasn't planning on making him a cake, but then his presents didn't get there, he didn't want to go to play group and it just seemed like a REALLY boring birthday, so I said, wanna make a cake? "Yes! A bunny cake!" What? A bunny cake? Sure, whatever. 2 round cakes and a few pretzels and chocolate balls later...

That's better. What a hunk. He makes a rabbit cake look good.

Me and my boy. :)

PARTY TIME!!

So here is another overboard party preparation. But I had my idea and had to carry it out and had fun doing it. Just wish I had some bigger markers to color it with. It took FOREVER!!! But yes, I drew this dragon from a picture I found online. This is the Monstrous Nightmare from How to Train Your Dragon, for those of you who didn't know. Although I am sure you all did. We played pin the flame on the dragon. Pretty fun.

But I realized I should have put the dragon a bit higher! Then everyone would have been spot on!

The Dragon Cake! Zach really wanted a blue dragon. I found this idea online and thought it was so cute! So we did it. All it takes is 2 round cakes. And a lot of frosting. The wings and tongues are fruit roll ups. And Kamry decorated the cupcakes. Good work Kams.

I love Jacob's "Smile" in this. :)

(the kid in the back middle of the picture)

All of Zach's buddies that we will be leaving behind soon. :( Makes me sad.

Aw, Avery. You are so cute. We will miss you neighbor!

I totally forgot to get a picture with just Zach and the dragon cake. Whoops. So this is the slayed dragon. De-eyeballed and everything.

Papa and Bama were here for Jace's baby blessing and so they were able to come to the party too. Thanks for coming!!

Warmer April Fools!

Zach celebrating that IT IS FINALLY WARM ENOUGH TO GO OUTSIDE! HALLELUJAH!!!

He came down from his "quiet time" and found me outside chipping ice trying to get rid of the HUGE ice/puddle in front of my house. He had redressed himself. He is really celebrating the sun in his too small tropical attire. Pretty sure they are size 2. :) He loves those shorts though.

This was taken March 30th. See how much more we have to melt? It has been 1 week positive temperatures of I can see 1.5 feet of grass around the edges now. Slowly but surely. My kids are LOVING the puddles and mud. Yuck.

Just another version of my hooded towels.

I'm pregnant with twins again.

APRIL FOOLS!!!! This April fools I was a lame brain. Or lazy. :) But it worked. I wrote down colors next to my entrees for dinner. Each person picked out a color and got whatever those chose in that order. It worked for Justin and Zach. I gave up on the girls. :) Zach always asks if we can pick crayons again at dinner.

Oh yeah, and I had Justin close his eyes and choose his utensils for the night from a bunch I had in my hand. This is what he picked...a baster! HA! The main course was spaghetti. Tee hee.

My Cousin Marc

So it just so happens that my cousin Marc was in Edmonton at a gymnastics competition 2 weekends ago! I got an email from my dad, and a few days later was able to get a hold of Marc. He stopped by for lunch for a bit on his way out of town. To me, this is BIG. I have 7 cousins total...I think. Can I tell you all of their names? Maybe 5 out of the 7! So sad, I know. Especially since most of you Albertans have 72 cousins that you see every year, and that is just one side! Anyway, it was really nice to be able to see him again. He lives in Vancouver and he came to a tournament I had in Bellingham, Washington when I played volleyball for BYU Hawaii, but that was 10 years ago! Anyway, it was good to catch up with him and we plan to all get together again before another decade passes!

And these girls are just cute. One morning I looked over and saw that they had grabbed their hats, put them on and started riding around the island in the kitchen.

Some old Lethbridge Stuff

You girls. Gross...they certainly feed off each other. And themselves apparently.

Driving home from Lethbridge.

St. Patrick's Day and Great Grandma French!

Of course we had green breakfast on St. Patrick's Day! Green pancakes, eggs, and milk! Zach still asks for green milk everyday.

And yes all of my kids were wearing some kind of green and yes I did chase Justin up the stairs as he quickly ran back to the room to get some green on.

Zach and Papa playing outside. This was after he shoveled our walks AND Jason and Kamry's walks. What a guy.

Grandpa made a snowman with the kids. The funniest thing was that it was in the middle of our shovelled path to the garage. :) I never moved it though because it made me smile each time I walked by it.

GALAXYLAND!

The kids waiting to get on the train at Galaxyland at the West Edmonton Mall.

The train...woo hoo... I mean. CHOO CHOO!

Grandma doing a photo shoot.

This was the best. We realized that Zach, and even the girls, were tall enough to go on this ride, so we did it! It was so fun to watch them experience new things. The girls were right on the line and I didn't know if they'd love it, but they did! Awesome. Makes me excited for Disneyland in December! (hopefully!)

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Off to a basketball game. Great Grandma French walked with Kara. The kids LOVED having her stay at our place. It was great.

Kate LOVES Dallin. After his basketball game we were going to leave but Kate really wanted to see Uncle Dallin and say hi. When he picked her up she just smiled and stared at him in awe. It was cute.