a trip to Prescott and a happy birthday to grandma

My mom celebrated another year!

We decided to travel up to Prescott to wish her a happy birthday. All the grand kids that currently live in the US gathered around her.

We ate lunch and played in the park nestled in the trees. The old piles of snow was the first time some of my kids had ever seen real snow I think!

We stopped by the courthouse to find grandpa Alvin Allen’s name on the WW2 memorial.

Then grabbed a birthday treat for everyone at a local bakery.

We be lookin’ so good...

We sang happy birthday back at her apartment. Layla took the only pictures we got since in my lap was a newly jealous 3 year old.




I’m so grateful for a mom who taught me to put the Lord first, who made a lot of sacrifices to raise and mother us, who taught me to respect myself and be independent, who found joy in the small things in life, who treats each person she talks to with value and love, and who loves each of my children. Happy birthday, mom/grandma!

E’s birthday

Happy birthday to the greatest man I know!

Eric is at the end of his thirties now and I think his wisdom and strength surpasses his age. He is my rock and my refuge, that's for sure. So grateful for every year he has spent on this earth and that he spends with our family.

His birthday comes at such a crazy time--right after Christmas and Kacin's birthday. Unfortunately, this year by the time we reached his birthday it was day 5 of celebrations and I was tired. We tried so hard to let him know how much we love him, though.

Eric and I went on a beautiful, long bike ride together.

He took most of the kids with him and went around to all the restaurants that give birthday rewards and they came home with a big spread. We divided everything up to get an awesome sampling for lunch.

His birthday "cake" request is always the same every year--pumpkin pie. I think we need to buy some new candles soon. The best we could do was 3 for 30 and 3+6 for 9. Ha!

It feels lame that these were the only pictures I took that evening (again, tired...).

But the lack of pictures is not reflective of the love we all have for this hardworking, loving, playful, involved, thoughtful, fun, smart, loyal, faithful man! 

We love you, E! Happy birthday!

16th birthday

Happy 16th birthday to this amazing guy!!

Kacin is fun-loving, easygoing, loyal, resilient, strong, hard working, clever, sweet, loving, kind, patient, competitive, and an all around amazing human being!


Definitely a bit of a goofball. haha. And we love him for it.

I can't believe he is 16! Except I can. Because he is so ready. He is ready to drive and to date and embrace the world as a sixteen year old.

On the day of his birthday we took him and his friend (one of the few who weren't quarantined because of coronavirus) out to eat at Red Robin. His only request was bottomless fries. And that's what he got. Six baskets of fries!


And a birthday ice cream sunday to top it off.

He spent the rest of the day doing something he loves but that rarely ever happens in our home--watching football.

It must have been a really exciting game because all three of the football watchers fell sound asleep.

The girls helped me decorate a birthday cake for him after dinner.


And we opened his presents.

It was a simple, relaxing 16th birthday.

It's always tricky celebrating a birthday the day after Christmas. Which is why we got smart and planned a birthday surprise the week before!

We had Jacqui ask him to babysit to get him out of the house. Then all the teens showed up just before he got home. 

Surprise!!!

I thought for sure he had an idea that something was in the works. Since text messages were going around the week before his party, I was sure someone would accidentally say something. But he was oblivious to our plans, thank goodness, so we got a true surprise out of him. 


He does not like being the center of attention these days, but we needed a day to show him how cool we think he is.


Kyler made sure he felt like a king. ha!

They lifted him up in his chair as everyone sang to him.




Happy birthday, Kacin!!

We played a game of pass the parcel. In case you haven't played before, I set the game up by wrapping a bag of candy in a box in multiple layers of wrapping paper. On each layer was written a note with a task to perform. When the music came on, the parcel was passed around the group. When it stopped the person who had it had to open it and do whatever it said to do. There were things like sing rudolph the red nosed reindeer, get kacin to smile without touching him, catch popcorn in your mouth, etc.

This one was to give Kacin a santa beard with whipped cream.

These guys had to dance to a song.

Thank goodness they got some help with their dance moves.




While they gathered around the firepit outside, Kyler presented Kacin with a gift that he had been working hard on--a dating guide. He wrote out ten rules of dating and then listed a bunch of fun dating ideas. It was so great to watch him present the book and read the rules to everyone! Kacin and Kyler will be a fun pair to go on dates with that's for sure. 

In our family, we decided that before you get your driver's license you must participate in serving other people. Kyler had decided to join a club at school that works with kids at special needs (he is two years strong being a part of that group and has had some awesome experiences.) Kacin wasn't sure what he wanted to do. And when you wait until the last minute it gets kind of tricky to make it all happen. But on the eleventh hour, this guy served a lot of different people to show that service is part of who he is. He organized two trips to serve at feed my starving children, wrote letters to missionaries, used his own money and collected money from family to buy 10 pairs of shoes for specific boys at child crisis center, served with the salvation army to pass out toy donations, helped out at a church activity, made food bags with Layla and passed them out to homeless people on the street corners, and served our family in small ways, too. I'm so glad he had these varied experiences to give a little of himself to those around him!

So a few days after the holidays, we took him down for his road test and he passed!! We now officially have another driver in the house. So proud and excited for him!

Happy birthday to you, Kacin!! Love you so much.

Seventeen!

The world is a better place because this kid came into it seventeen years ago.

I was  excited when Kyler asked me to be in a picture with him during family pictures. It was his idea to high five right on the sun. Taking the picture was fun. Seeing the picture reminds me what a force for good and a light Kyler is. 

With everything inside of me, I know that Kyler has an unstoppable power to do good and lift those around him. He is a force of creativity, wisdom, and love. He makes my mama heart proud.

His birthday came the day before Thanksgiving this year. I think it worked out though that even though most people were busy with family and holiday plans, because our schools were out that day we were able to celebrate him in some fun ways.

Layla kicked the morning off with Kyler's very special happy birthday sign.

I loved her list of things Kyler loves: his family, saved by the bell, star wars, he likes to right (write), video games, his birthday, wrestling, soccer, country music, reading books, playing games, trucks, and teasing his sister all the time. That pretty much sums Kyler up.


We had a group of his friends over for a birthday breakfast.

After breakfast, we introduced them to the Flour Game.

You place a penny at the bottom of a small bowl or cup. Then you pack flour into the bowl. You place a plate on top of the bowl and then flip it over to have a perfect stack of flour with a penny on top. You take turns using a knife to cute straight down into the flour. The person who makes the penny fall when they cut has to retrieve the penny without using their hands.


We played a few rounds.

Then we got Kyler outside and the boys tried to dump flour on him. They mostly missed.

So Halle took it into her own hands to cover the birthday boy in a layer of white.






Then they all turned on Saved by the Bell episodes (I seriously love that Kyler and a few of his friends love that show as much as I did as a kid) before starting to watch the reboot of the show.


Once his friends left, we gave Kyler our presents to him.

Then we went to my sister's house for cake since she shares the same birthday as Kyler, only 23 years apart.




Kyler made this collage to post on instagram to #givethanks for his brothers, but I think it is very fitting to insert this here.


Kyler got a bunch of shoutouts on instagram. I just loved seeing the pictures they posted of him.

We had every intention to get Kyler the costco cake he requested on his birthday, but the day was full so instead we celebrated again a few days later. 

We got creative to get 17 on that cake since we didn't have enough candles. 8+6+3=17

I'm so glad we got to celebrate Kyler. We love him so much!! As a leader, example, and friend, he is an important part of our family.