Happy Birthday Alina

Alina turned 2 on Friday! I can hardly believe my baby is so big. She is talking in sentences and I really miss not being able to understand her chatter. She is so much fun.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday. All week long I kept telling her it was her birthday week and she would get presents and cake and ice cream soon. On her acutally birthday when she woke up I told her again she'd get presents and cake in 2 more days and she got so mad. I think she was sick and tired of hearing about cake and presents and never getting them. My sister Shannon went to the store and bought her a dress and shoes and a small cake just for her so she wouldn't have to wait. She was in heaven!

I kept asking her what kind of cake she wanted and she was changing her mind everyday. Then one night she was reading a book to herself and it was about frogs. Since her favorite color is green it makes sense that she chose a green frog for her cake. She says frog a lot like my nephew Riley used to say truck. It sounds like a 4 letter swear word. You can imagine how it sounded when she kept saying "frog" over and over again when she saw her cake. Kids, you gotta love em.

She of course got spoiled rotten for her birthday. She received a grocery cart with nice wooden food that can't break, a dress, new shirts and pants, a new playhouse, a bubble blower from Cayden (he wanted it back right after she opened it), a baby doll that gets chicken pox, and a sand and water table. She was very happy.

Playhouse

We finally finished it! We were going to wait until Sunday to surprise the kids, but when we finished it Saturday night we just couldn't wait. They were a little confused because they'd helped paint it so they knew what it looked like already. I told them it was their new playhouse and they didn't believe us until they got inside.

We painted a superman logo, flowers, hearts and their names on the walls. We have glow in the dark paint and chalkboard paint. It even has a doorbell and carpet. We brought out their stuffed animals and sleeping bags for the top floor. We'll bring back their toy kitchen from Idaho so they can have it downstairs. They loved it. This was by far the coolest thing Cam and I could've ever given them. This is so much better than a plastic playhouse! They even ate their breakfast in it yesterday.

Greta made all of us come inside and then she said, "How about we play house and pretend you are different people." That is just what we did. Her favorite part is the doorbell, she loves to come and answer the door. Austin says all he needs now is a sink and toilet. He's already ready to move out. Alina loves to turn the lights on and off and drives Austin and Greta crazy doing so.

Lofty 2.0: "The Box"

"The Box" is code for playhouse. Here's the story.........

I have been looking for a playhouse for my kids on and off for a year. Now that we are back in Utah I have Toys R Us and Kid to Kid and thought for sure I could find one. I can, but they cost so much money and they are so small. So I've been looking on KSL.com for used ones, but every time one is posted it's sold immediately. Well 2 days ago I happened to be looking right at the same moment as someone listed a playhouse, so I called immediately and me and my 2 brothers drove down to check it out. I was so disappointed, it was so small that even Greta and Alina would be cramped in there together. I was getting pretty frustrated because I really wanted to find one for Alina's 2nd year birthday this weekend.

My brother Shane always comes up with crazy ideas that we usually end up doing, well his crazy idea that day was to build a playhouse. So we went to Lowe's and priced it and sure enough I was going to have a playhouse for the kids that is much more spacious and costs less. When Shane and Cameron build something together they get a little crazy. For those of you who know about "Lofty" you'll understand. This started out as a 8 ft by 4 ft 1 level playhouse, but they have decided to make it 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide with 2 floors and a trapdoor. I finally had to stop them when they wanted to run electricity through it. I think they're going to like it more than the kids, they are already planning their first night to sleep in it.

The kids have no idea that it's going to be a playhouse for them. They just think Uncle Shane and Dad are building a box. They are going to be so surprised. I can't wait to see their faces!

Divas

When we took Austin school shopping we just couldn't come home empty handed for the girls so we brought them a present. Can you tell what it was from the picture?! As you can see they had so much fun. They wear them all the time. Alina is always trying to dress up, she accessorizes like nobody. She loves sunglasses, necklaces, rings and her favorite, shoes! She will take all the shirts from the laundry and wrap them over her head until she falls over and she never tires of it. My sister shannon has a lot of accessories and Alina is in Heaven. If she's quiet and nowhere to be seen she's usually up in Aunt Shan's room decked out in everything she could find. Having little girls is so much fun!

First Day of School

Austin is old enough to be in school and we can hardly believe it. He started on August 1st and could hardly wait. A week before school started I went to the elementary to see about getting him registered and didn't realize that they are on year round, I'm glad I didn't wait any longer! Cam and I took him school shopping and he had so much fun. He kept singing "Happy Birthday to me" down the aisles. He thought it was just so cool that he got to pick out new clothes. We ended the evening with shakes at Arctic Circle.
We went to see his classroom 3 times before school started, he was just so excited and the countdown to his first day was just killing him. He was so ready for school. Once he started he was a little disappointed because they sat on the floor a lot and didn't do much homework. His teacher is great and very organized and good with the kids. I get to be a volunteer there once a week.
Austin loves homework, he practices his letters and numbers all day long. When he had his test on his skills with his teacher she asked him to count and he got all the way to 100 and she finally asked him to stop. She was very impressed saying that most kids can only count to 25 at his age. Austin then whispered in my ear, "she doesn't know that I can really count to 1000." He has also been put in the highest reading class. School is a bit boring for him, but he's made friends and can't wait to go every day. He didn't even cry when we dropped him off. His teacher even had to make him turn around to wave at us. He was just ready.