Macey's 5th birthday.

(I am trying to get caught up, I think this is post 4 for tonight, so keep reading if you want to catch up on what I've been up to!)

Birthday girl before preschool. She wouldn't take the toothbrush out of her mouth.

To start, I've been very emotional about having a 5 year old. 4 was doable, but 5? It's so... old. And official. She starts kindergarten this year (and is already registered for it)!! Seriously, how did this happen? Did no one tell her she's not supposed to grow up?

Macey is my little sweetheart. She is very tender and likes to cuddle and spend time with you. The other day I had a headache and she came in my room at night (after I had put her to bed) almost in tears and said "Mommy, I'm just worried about your head-egg (how she says headache)". Awwww. Does that not melt your heart? She is a people pleaser and loves to help out. She is the best big sister for Collin, sometimes I think she should be his mom. ; ) She's always willing to help and is always up for a laugh or a good book or movie! A girl after my own heart. Macey has always entertained herself, she loves playing pretend and she loves anything girly. Since she has had a princess/fairy party (1), a care bear party (2), a-very-pregnant-mommy-who-dropped-the-ball-and-didn't-throw-a-party (3), and a princess party (4), we decided that since they had a new look (again), a My Little Pony party was in order. She's been into My Little Pony for a while now, and plays with her ponies everyday so I thought it was fitting.

I love throwing little kid parties. You can get away with doing the cheapest of cheap and they don't know the difference. I think starting in the next couple of years I'm going to have to start doing parties every other year or so. But for now, they are perfect. It's all in the details. Macey literally dreams of her parties. She actually drew me a picture of what she envisioned her party would look like. And I tried my darndest to make that happen. : )

My plans start way in advance, Macey's birthday is perfect. It's right after Valentine's Day but before Easter so I get to pick and choose the cutest things! This year I hit up the Valentine's Day clearance at Target and Dollar Tree's stuff and scored. The whole party cost me $35. For EVERYTHING. I was so excited when I found a rainbow pinata, that was the most expensive part of the party (at $9) but so worth it! Randy thinks I am i-n-s-a-n-e, but said he loved watching me "glow" while I was in my element getting her party ready. I love doing everything myself. Every year I say "I'm NEVER doing that again" because it's so much work, but all it takes is me seeing the smiles on the girls' faces and it's sooo worth it. One of my friend's told me her little girl came home and told her "best party EVER!" Haha. Yeah, that totally made my week.

Alright, enough of me talking. Here it is!

The set up. 

 

 

The cake. Ugh. I almost threw the towel in a half hour before the party was supposed to start because the fondant was not rolling right! It finally came together alright and was so cute! That is the hardest part of the party but it's worth it.

It was actually really good cake. Strawberry cake, vanilla frosting filling, strawberry icing on the outside and then marshmallow fondant.

I've never seen them be so still before. They are watching a new episode of My Little Pony.

It was so fun. We have a rule that you are allowed as many friends as years you are old, so it keeps it controllable. But, even with 6 kids I was SO EXHAUSTED afterward. Nothing a little Dr. Pepper couldn't fix, though. ; )

Toddler Logic.

The other day I let Collin outside to go play, he came in really muddy so I put him in the tub. I forgot to drain the tub when I took him out and was on to something else. 

Well like 2 hours later Collin comes up missing so I went to go find him. This is what I found.  

He probably was messing around in the bathroom and saw the water and got all excited. He stripped down, took off his diaper all by himself. I'm imagining he got in and found out that the water was super cold at that point... and well, as you can see, this is his solution. I love it! I was laughing so hard when I found him! He was totally shivering trying to get under his soaked blanky!

Those are crumbs of... something on his face. Ya never know what he is into.

Grandpa Larry's 75th birthday.

On February 20th Randy's dad turned 75. That was the same weekend I was in Logan for my sisters' getaway, so we had planned on Randy coming up after work on Friday and we would celebrate with them. Well, they took it a step (or 20) further and rented a "cabin" in Bear Lake for the family to enjoy for the weekend. I say "cabin" because it was really the nicest house I've ever been in. We all had our own HUGE rooms with flat screen tv's mounted in the wall and our own very nice private bath. It was amazing!!

Anyway, if you haven't noticed by now, birthdays are kind of my thing. I love to make the person feel special and loved on their big day. And 75, that's a huge milestone! I decided to do something big for Larry. He is such a softy and sweetheart, he is so sentimental and I love it. So I came up with the idea of doing "75 things we love about you" and getting 4-5 reasons from each person in the family about why we love Larry! I typed them up all nice and printed each reason with a number on it on a 3x5 card and then bound them with rings so he could flip them. It turned out so great, I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of it! Because SERIOUSLY, I will never do it again. ; ) My world was turned upside down while I was trying to get that project done, focus on school, pack for my sisters getaway, and take care of the kids and house. Good grief. I think I put in about 20 hours to make it. Larry, if you're reading... it was worth it. :D I knew Bonnie had the cake covered, but I decided to get some party accessories too. I just got the birthday blower things and some balloons. Y'know, stuff you hate at parties when you're old and hate noise. ; ) Oh yeah and I bought him a birthday hat. He wore it all night. Such a good sport, he is.

It was a nice relaxing weekend where we played lots of NERTZ- a family favorite, Phase 10, and dominoes. After we had cake and ice cream Larry talked to us about his memories. It was so cool watching the grandkids just drink it all in. I was, too. He has lived such an interesting life and is one of the best men I know! We love you Grandpa Larry!

Faces have been smudged to protect the innocent. ;) Mariah may or may not have threatened me with my life if I posted this picture of her! She was pulling a funny face. :) Let the record show the Dr. Pepper's in the room. We like to stay up LATE and play.

Beautiful living room!

Macey all ready to go sledding!

My favorite picture of Larry ever. This is so him. Such the entertainer!

He was supposed to blow out his candles but instead put a balloon on top of the fire and it burst the balloon and blew the candles out for him! It was hilarious.

Playin' some games.

Sisters' getaway.

I've always had a good relationship with my sisters. I think we've always been close and have had functional relationships. But over the past few years our relationships have grown. We've needed each other. It's hard to describe, and really, not something you can describe. My sisters have helped fill an incredible void I've felt in my life since my Mom passed away. There is no replacing her, but my sisters have helped me cope. I think I have leaned on them more than I've realized because I find myself yearning for this weekend. I just need it. Not even for the getaway, just to be around them. They know exactly what I am feeling. They feel it, too. We grieve the same. None of us live close so we never get the opportunity to just hang out whenever we want. So, we make it happen, once a year.

This year we heard Brian Regan -our favorite comedian ever- was coming to Logan so we decided to hit him up! Seriously, if you've never heard of him, google him. Watch and listen. You can thank me later. ; ) I'm not usually a big fan of comedians, they're either dirty or just stupid, so when my brother introduced me to that which is Brian Regan I was skeptical to say the least. It took about 30 seconds for me to be rolling on the floor in laughter, watching one of his dvd's. He is always hilarious, his jokes don't miss.

I was lucky that he was coming to Logan because that just so happens to be where my in-laws live! They make the perfect babysitters! : ) They were good sports and let me dump the kids off on them so Randy didn't have to take any work off.

So I dropped the kids off and my sisters came and picked me up. We had booked the new Marriott in town (for $45 a night! Priceline, people!) so we went to check in, got changed, and went to a temple session together. That was the first time we've all been in a session together since I received my endowments over 6 years ago. I won't lie, it was more emotional than I thought it would be- looking down the row at us in white. I teared up right away, it was so special being there with them. That is a tradition I would love to carry on with our sister getaways.

In front of the Logan temple.

After the temple we went and ate at the Coppermill, where I'm pretty sure our waiter just told the back to keep on cookin' them rolls.... this table'll eat 'em all up! : ) It hit the spot(s), to say the least. All on my gut. That night we went and soaked in the hot tub. Ahhhhh, it was so nice.

The next day was spent shopping. All. Day. Long. My feet were on fire! Us Judy girls don't mess around. We ate lunch at my favorite, The Old Grist Mill and sat in our booth for like 2 hours gabbing and laughing away. We knew it was time to go when the old man in the next booth over started turning sideways and was acting really interested in our conversation. Sorry dude, this is girl talk. ; ) Then came more shopping and unstoppable laughing. We ate dinner at Cafe Rio and then headed back to the hotel to get all gussied up for Brian Regan. His show didn't start until 10:30 pm! That is LATE for us old farts! I didn't know how I was going to stay up. Dr. Pepper, of course, came to the rescue.

FINALLY it was time to head over to the show. We parked in the back of the building and about died when we saw Brian Regan's BUS parked right there... and it was RUNNING! We just had to take a picture in front of it! I'm not kidding, this picture is blurry because right as Natalie clicked the picture the DOOR OPENED on the bus! You should have seen Nat's face. She was ghost white, mouth open, silver dollar sized eyes, frozen. .... and then walks out Brian Regan's bus driver, chuckling at us. HAHA. That was a dirty trick! I thought we were going to get to meet him! The show did not disappoint. He was hilarious, as always. I loved his new material!

Brian Regan's bus and "concert sign" (inside joke)

YAY-YUH!

 

 

He looked sharp!

The next morning we parted ways. There was a storm coming so everyone wanted to get an early start on it. To say it was fun was an understatement. It was just something I needed, and it did not disappoint! My sister's teenaged daughter told her that when we get together we act like teenagers. HAHA. Kayla, you have no idea. ; )