1/30/12

Being 9 is Oh so Fine!

Today Brody turned 9.
After a fun filled weekend at the cabin, we kept that party going as we celebrated his actual Birthday.  The morning started off with breakfast in bed.  On the menu:  Waffles, Sausage, and Orange Julius.  
 Up next it was lunch at the school with the birthday boy who is waaaaay to embarrassed to have his picture taken but not too embarrassed to have me bring him Mattas.  Can't believe this kid isn't sick of hanging out with these 2 after being with them all weekend!:)
Then it was off to Cheesecake Factory for dinner with just Brody, Jeremy and I. For dessert Brody ordered the Strawberry Shortcake.  Let's just say it was AMAZING!
 I think Jeremy and I ate most of the birthday dessert.
SEE!?!?
 Finally it was time to get a birthday gift.  Since we didn't know what to get this cute 9 year old, we took him to Chandler Mall to pick out his own gift. Would it be a Lego?
Or something from the Apple Store?
Brody picked a IPOD NANO for his 9th birthday present.  He has already stored some cool songs on it and can wear it like a watch to school.  This thing is waaaaay cool!  So happy he chose something other then a Lego!  Happy 9th Birthday Brody.  Hope your 9th year is a great one!

1/29/12

Party In The Pines!

Saturday while at the cabin, we spent the day celebrating Brody's 9th Birthday.  The day started off with a scavenger hunt in the snow.  Since we are no longer able to take kids on quads, we had to do the hunt in our cars.  The rules of the game were:  Everyone had to be in the picture next to the item that was on the list and you had to be back by the given time.  Mara and I took the big boys (Brody, Case, Hunter, Mason and Hayden), while Jeremy and Ted took the little boys (Ledger and Ethan.) We had a blast finding the things on our list.  
Can you guess which team won?  I'll give you a hint...it's the team holding up the #1 fingers!
Who are these cute loosers?  
Case is actually not supposed to be in the picture but thinks he's super funny these days.
 
 Here we are getting our picture taken next to "someone shoveling snow."
Here are the little boys next to "someone on a quad or ranger."
 Here are the winners again next to "a snowman."
 This was about as close as we could get to "a U of A license plate."
 Both teams made it back just in time.  Here we are reviewing the pictures taken by each team so we could determine who won.  Did I mention it was us?!
 The rest of the day was spent playing hide and seek, WII, pool, and 3DS.
After dinner that night, we went on a second scavenger hunt in the cabin.  The kids had to listen to the poems and figure out what rooms they needed to go to.  In each room there was a little party favor treasure.  Of course all the lights in the cabin were out and the kids had flashlights on their heads.
Looking through the party bags and ready for cake.
 Sugar brought an ice cream cake from Cold Stone all the way up to the cabin.
Brody was so happy to have a cake with his name on it.  Love the way Miss B. is looking at the cake in this picture.  She is a sugar maniac!

After cake and ice cream, we headed outside for fireworks and sparklers.
What 9 year old boy doesn't like fire?
 After cake and ice cream it was on to balloons because every party needs balloons right?
 Oh did I mention that this party had 150 balloons?  AWESOME!
 Nothing like jumping off the couch onto a mound of balloons.
 One of the things the kids got in their bags were glow sticks.  We turned off all the lights and had a dance par-tay with the glow sticks. So funny to watch 9 year old boys dance.
WOW! What a fun night in the mountains!  We threw the kids in bed at about 10:00 and Jeremy and I stayed up trying to figure out how we can slow down time...and help Brody to understand how important having good friend is.  Enough said!
 Sunday was our last day at the cabin.  With no sleep all weekend and some other situations, Jeremy and I were, for once in our life, ready to get back home.  We really learned a lot this weekend, about ourselves, our kids and their friends. Let's just say we are freaking out at what is to come! WHEW!  We took the kids for one last sledding trip over to White Mountain.  This kids were crazy...See below picts!
Case is just a total crazy man on the mountain.  The higher the jump, the better.
Hayden had some big jumps too.
Mason is just so small that even the smallest hill throws him all over!
Brody was a maniac today.
Miss B. couldn't get enough of sledding.  She only wanted to go with Daddy though.
Check out Case.  CRAZY!!
 Hunter...that had to have hurt coming down!
 Brody was all good until this jump...
 And then he hurt his leg and we were done.  Since I am not strong enough to carry my now 9 year old, I literally dragged him across the snow.  Kinda funny!
When we came home, we went on a colored ice cube hunt in the snow. (although this picture has no snow in it, there was snow on the golf course) This year, we put money in the frozen ice cubes.  You should have sent the kids hunting for them in the snow.  HILARIOUS!

1/27/12

2, 4, 6, 8...

...SOMEONE'S TURNING 9!

On Monday, Brody will be turning 9.  Hard to believe! This is the last week I will be able to tell people that my kids are 2, 4, 6, and 8.  Pretty soon I will tell the strangers who ask, that my kids are 3, 5, 7, and 9.  To celebrate, we headed up to the cabin with 2 of Brody's school friends, Mason and Hunter. All Brody wanted to do was sled and play in the snow for his birthday.  Perfect...makes it easy for me!  We arrived at the cabin Thursday night.  We ate Mexican food, and played for a few hours before heading to bed.  Friday morning the kids woke up at 4:45 and were giggling in the top bunk bed while playing their Nintendo DSI's.  We ate breakfast and headed to the golf course for a morning of sledding.

The birthday boy with Hunter and Mason.  Miss you Jackson!
 Loading up in the back of Sugar's car to go sledding.
Ledger looooves sledding!
 Dad and Miss B. flying down the icy hill.
 CRASH!!
 Case catching air on his sled!

This afternoon Jeremy built snow bunkers for the boys to have a snowball fight.
It was the Dad's against the boys.  Ted, Mara, Ethan and Hayden showed up and more fun began.

Very brave Hunter!

Nice throw Mason!

  Only one snowball injury today...Brody got tagged in the eye by Jeremy.
NICE JOB DAD!

Here is what dinner looked like tonight.
Tomorrow will be another fun filled crazy day at the cabin.  Stay tuned for what exciting adventure is next.


1/25/12

MONSTER!


That's the name Brody chose for this years Pinewood Derby car. 
He and Jeremy have been working for a solid week on making it perfect for this year's Pinewood Derby.  They built a test track in the warehouse for him and Jackson to test the cars on.  
They forgot to go to basketball practice one night because they were so excited the night of weigh-in's.
These boys researched and designed the perfect car.
Monster proved to be the perfect name for this car.
Pit passes are a must for Pinewood Derby. 

So are Pit Crew shirts.
Yes we all wore these to support Brody and Monster.
We think Pinewood Derby is a fun activity for the family.

And there off.... That's Monster on the left.  Brody's car actually won every race tonight.

The excitement of Pinewood Derby is hard to contain!

Ledger and Case were at the finish one waiting for the results of each race.

Miss B. was there to cheer on big brother Brody.
Love this boy and all his hard work.
These 2 worked so hard this year on Pinewood Derby.  How lucky is Brody to have a 
Dad who is as excited about the race as he is.
Thank goodness Sugar was there!

Here we are...so excited for Brody!
The Cub Scouts showing off their pit passes.
The Mountain Vista Ward Pinewood Derby contestants.

The Pinewood Derby Winners.
1st Place:  Brody
2nd Place:  Wyatt
3rd Place:  Logan

Jeremy and I were really proud of Brody tonight.  He and Jeremy made 2 cars this year to see which would be the fastest.  The week before the Derby, his friend Mason didn't have a car.  Brody offered to let Mason have his purple car, the car that was the fastest on the test track Jeremy built.  He was OK with the fact that Mason would probably win the race (or at least Monster).  Come race night, Mason forgot about the Derby and showed up 5 minutes before it was over.  The purple car Brody built actually took 2nd place but since Mason didn't actually build the car and he wasn't there to race it, they gave 2nd place to the next car in line (which I really did think was fair). Although  Monster ended up beating the purple car the night of the race, Brody was willing to let Mason have it knowing that there was a chance it would win the race.  
Way To Go Brody!