My Birthday

 Sunday was my birthday.  Adam let me sleep in.  When I woke up, Xavier had a lego message for me and Damon had made me a card.  We pretty much bummed all morning and got ready for church.  Nothing too exciting since it was Sunday and all.  I did get a nice little gift from the Young Women and my dad and sister both called and sang to me.  Adam made dinner that night so I didn't have to do a thing!

I didn't take any pictures on Monday, but we had a little BBQ with just family for my birthday.  Adam grilled burgers and brats.  Karen brought a yummy cake from Coldstone.  And my visiting teachers came by with awesome cupcakes.  I also got a surprise that morning, a friend of mine brought over an amazing homemade cinnamon roll that I devoured for breakfast.  We still have a ton of food in our house from the weekend, which is why I'm wearing yoga pants today.  I hope to fit into real pants next week.


This picture has nothing to do with my birthday but he's so cute I had to post it.  He was playing dog. 

Pinned It & Made It

I am starting to think that I might be the only one that makes things from Pinterest so I decided to do a weekly post (when I remember) to post the new things we tried in thanks to Pinterest.

Here are the ones for this week.

This week we tried this yummy dish, Quinoa Black Bean Burrito Bowl.  Unfortunately I didn't have quinoa like I thought I did so we had it with brown rice.  Still very yummy but I plan on making it again the right way. 


The other recipe was from Pioneer Woman, Drip Beef Sandwiches.  The link shows two recipes but I wimped out and made the nonspicy one.   They were super yummy and the boys loved having the leftovers for lunch. 





Our other little addition we started a few weeks ago but it took us a little while to get all the supplies we needed.  We made a similar bench to this:




Ours is smaller and it was my Mother's day gift. Here's ours:

I have no words for Aiden, but at least you can see the size of it.  We need to get more pillows but I haven't found any that I like yet. 





Thanks Pinterest!

Flinthills Discovery Center

Thursday was the first day of summer vacation so I took the boys to the new museum in town.  they loved the train the most.  We stood here for 20 minutes.  

Upstairs is the kids play area.  It has a little climbing thing, a large litebright, a large mr potato head, and arts and crafts tables.  They even have little trains to play with which made Aiden and Grayson very happy. 

Outside are fountains that the boys love running around in.  I think its their favorite part, which is good since its the free part that we can do all the time. 

Grayson playing trains at the Discovery Center, if you listen real close you can hear him say, ""All Aboard, choo choo."

Damon catching the water in his mouth.  He had one timed out perfectly but the fountains change to whatever music is playing so he had to redo it.  

Field Day

Adam and I were both able to go to the boys field days for a little bit on Monday.  They always have a good time racing their friends and goofing off.

Measuring Up!

One of the first things I ever pinned on Pinterest was this:

I thought it was so cute and such a good idea to keep track of the boys heights.  However, it seemed a little pricey for a piece of wood! (around $60-$120) No offense, but I would rather do something like that myself, so I did!

Here's my version and it cost me $3!

Some of the boys measurements over the years, each one has their own color.  I just need to get it hung up and add Grayson to it.

I must admit the only reason it cost me $3 was because I had everything for it but the vinyl numbers.  A friend had the extra scrap of wood and we had the stain and paint to do the lines.  I could have painted the numbers on to make it totally free but the vinyl numbers made it so fast and easy to make.  It took me an hour total, minus dry time. 

Piano Recital

Damon and Xavier had a piano recital Friday night.  The boys did great and even had their songs memorized.  Grandma & Grandpa Little and Great Grandma were also able to come and watch too.

I love that there are refreshments at this one!  I made sugar cookies.  I really wanted to make notes but I didn't have the cookie cutter I thought I did, so I had to draw them on instead.  I love making sugar cookies!

Mother's Day Weekend

Yes, I'm that high maintenance that I demand a weekend and not just a day!

Saturday night we went to Brookville Hotel in Abilene for dinner with Adam's parents and grandma.  If only the potatoes were real, it would be the perfect place.  

 Grayson wasn't enjoying dinner.  

He was a tad sick and tired so everything came with a whine. 

 After we sat outside to do presents and let the boys run around. 

 My awesome Marci watched the boys a month ago for about 14 hours.  (She's really really awesome.) Anywho, she had the three boys paint picture frames.  I thought they would make the perfect Mother's day gifts for the boys grandmas.  (Don't look Lois.)

Sunday morning, I was able to sleep in a bit.  But still got up to early for the boys to bring me breakfast in bed.  So I had to crawl back in and await my meal.  Xavier's teacher helped put together a bag for all the kids mom with a cute poem and an apple, muffin and granola bar for breakfast.  It was pretty cute and he was very excited to give it to me.
I also got some other sweet homemade notes, pictures and a cute magnet clip that Aiden made in school.

I always try to get a picture with my boys on Mother's day, every year it gets more challenging.  The many shots Adam took were just too awesome not to share. 

Aiden making a face, Grayson pouting.  I have no words for Damon and Xavier.

Adam was trying to get Grayson to smile, instead he had all the boys laughing, and still no smile from Grayson

Better, if you ignore Aiden.

 And let me just say, one of the best parts of working in Young Women's is getting gifts.  The presidency made these cute necklaces of the temples and I got one too!  Yea!

We were able to attend the Cultural Celebration in Kansas City on Saturday.  It was a special event held in honor of the  Kansas City Temple Dedication that took place on Sunday.  President Monson was in attendance so I snapped a couple of blurry pics of him. 

All of the youth in the temple district performed several dance combinations.  I think there was about 3200 participating.

 

These next pictures are of our youth and 2 other stakes.

As we were leaving we noticed all the security guys swarming around.  So we realized this must be the exit plan for President Monson.  We decided to stay around to see him, expecting him to just walk from the building to the car.  Had I known that he would pick our little spot to stop at I would have got my nice camera out of the bag but I was scared I was going to miss him by going and getting it. 

Anyway, he walked over to the group we were in and talked to the kids, wiggled his ears and pointed out the different country flags that were on his tie.  There was a boy who could also wiggle his ears so Pres Monson pulled him beside him and had someone take their picture together.