The big 3

Brooklyn turned three in January! I was just going to do a little tiny birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's with her cousins, but at the last minute I thought it would be more fun to do an easy little Frozen themed party at the park. All I can say is, always go with the Chuck E. Cheese idea! And I guess I can also say, Pinterest kind of sucks because everything looks so easy but IT IS NOT! It turned out fun and cute and they were happy, so I guess it was worth it.

I made zucchini muffins with snow on the top, snowman mini pizzas, Frozen punch, ritz crackers with snowflake cheeses and frozen play dough for party favors.

And I made this horrific cake

It was supposed to look like this

But I tried to find the characters to put on the cake, and it would have cost me 40 bones! I love you Brooklyn, but Jeez, I couldn't do it. 

The cake was semi OK until about an hour after Tice and I put the candy mountains on it. They were so thick and heavy that they were causing major erosion in the cake. About 30 minutes into the party, the cake was pretty much cut 1/3rd of the way down due to the mountains. 

#pintrestfail1

Also, my sweet sister Tice made the cute ice cube jellos. She went to the store twice and couldn't find blue jello. So she had to dye the jello, but what colors make blue? Its a primary color, so basically nothing makes a great blue so she tried food coloring, mixing with other colors, etc. And then when the jello was done, it was totally sticking to the dish, so the cubes weren't as thick.

#pintrestfail2

Seriously, Chuck E. Cheese, people.

I have to say that the weather was amazing! The kids had a ball. They made snowmen

And played "pin the carrot on the Olaf." We couldn't find Brooklyn when it was her turn, so we turned around, and her hand was in the cake! That cake just didn't have a chance.

The kids played on the playground until it was time for cake. They didn't seem to mind the crumbly heaps I gave them.

She opened presents and got a bunch of awesome things! A Frozen doll and a bike horn from her cousins, a fun game from Claire, A Frozen book and play make up from the Taylor's, and a cute Minnie mouse bike helmet and a stinking cute dress from my mom and dad. Oh and we bought her a balance bike! She hates it. But we are making her try!

It was a lot of fun!

This is her actual birthday, the next day.

We had pancakes for dinner and stuck her candles in them because Heaven knows I wasn't going to make another cake!!!

Oh Brooklyn, how we love you!

You are my snuggle buddy. You will always snuggle and let me maul you for a long time. We have a thing we do with each other that we call "face snuggling" where we just rub eachother's faces with our own face... uh it sounds weird, but its cute OK

You are a total Mama's girl. You tell me you love me everyday. The other day you said, "mama, I love you, you're not stupid." Such a sweetie!

You sure know how to work it with people. No matter who they are, you will wrap anyone around your fingers.

You love to pretend SO much. That is all you would do all day long if you could. We will be in the bathroom getting ready, and you will pretend that the big brush is the daddy and the little comb is the mommy. You pretend with rocks, batteries, kitchen utensils, you name it.

You love Avery (most of the time).

You are very stubborn and hard headed. You aren't afraid to go and get whatever you want, even if that means climbing to the top of the pantry to get chocolate only to come down to a very angry mom. 

You have the curviest cutest little body. I want to eat your thighs. We think you are gonna be a really good athlete.

You love milk, but it has to be warm, in a baba with a lid.

You are on track to be a vegan. You love veggies, rice, quinoa (we call fung fung) and fish. The other day we were eating spaghetti, and broccoli and you wanted more broccoli, we had to actually tell you to eat your noodles first.

You are excited to have a little sister, you tell me all the time that you are going to rock her when she comes out. That will be fun :)

You have a very good memory. You will remember the most random things that we tell you.

You love music, especially pop music. You sing "roar" and "firework". You know who Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding and Beyonce are.

You know all of your letters and what they say. You aren't too interested in writing them though. You can spell your name. 

You have the longest eye lashes and your hair is still curly. We haven't cut it yet because I don't want the curl to go away, so its really long, especially when we straighten it. Its not all the same length so it looks funny when we do straighten it.

Just like the rest of the country's little girls, you are obsessed with the movie Frozen and will sing the songs all day long.

You toot like a man. No joke.

Your nick name is Mae Mae

You are stubborn and will throw tantrums if you don't get your way

Man we love you!!!! Happy Birthday little girl!

Blah!!!

When I was in college, my room mate, Erin and I came up with a way to deal with our frustrations in life. One of us would sit on the bed with a paper and pencil, and the frustrated one would spout off everything they were frustrated about. We could say anything in the world and the other one would not say a thing, she would only write it down. After the vent was over, the paper would be read by the scribe. Can I tell you, this saves money on therapy, It really works!!! So right now, that is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be my own scribe and just flat out whine and cry for a minute. Here I go.

I'm frustrated because....

I live in a small town.

 I don't think I'm small town material.

I'm a free bird and sometimes I feel so caged.

 I want to go places. 

I want something to do.

 I'm frustrated because it takes weeks, sometimes months to get projects done because I have to drive an hour away to get what I need, and sometimes I don't know what I need. 

Sometimes I wish I could just go to Target after Travis got home from work, and I can't, and that makes me frustrated. 

I'm frustrated because when I have to go to Costco, I have to pack 5 coolers, buy a huge thing of ice and then sweat my guts out loading up all my food so it doesn't get rancid on my drive home.

 I get frustrated because I love frozen berries, and even though I throw the berries on ice, they thaw out on the ride home, and then they are all mushed together and I have to throw the bag on the ground in order to break up the huge clumps of ice berries. 

I'm frustrated because I feel like I'm the only mom in Globe who wants to get out with her kids.

 I feel like I'm so annoying to everyone because I'm always texting people to go to the park or come for a play date, etc. 

It takes a lot of energy and I don't feel like others need it like I do. What do they do all day to not go insane? Am I week because I can't hack it?

I'm frustrated because Jaun Pablo on the Bachelor kisses nasty. 

All you can see is his tongue and hear his lips smacking.

 I really liked him, but now I kind of feel like he is slimy. 

So now I can't decide if I want him to end up with the ho who I don't like very much, or if I want to cheer for a really nice and cute girl to win.

I'm frustrated because Travis has been getting home from work really late lately. 

I really get mad because I don't want to be that family who doesn't sit down and eat dinner together. 

I'm frustrated because I don't have the same mojo I used to have as a mother. 

I don't plan cute and special things as much as I used to.

I'm frustrated because the kitchen timer is going off letting me know the muffins I am cooking are done, but I'm on a role and don't want to stop.

I'm frustrated because all Brooklyn wants to do is pretend. I will make the nastiest messiest slime and play with her, I will do any craft in the world, I will bake the messiest recipe with her, but i HATE pretending. 

She is bossy and won't let me take the pretend play in a direction that makes sense, so I sit there and try to go with it and I have no idea where its going. 

I would rather clean diarrhea off the ground.

I'm frustrated because Avery misses Adelyn so much. She always talks about losing a best friend, and it hurts me.

 She hasn't found a best friend here yet.

I'm frustrated because the scorpions are starting to come out again.

I'm frustrated because I want a yard for my kids to run around in with soft grass and a swing set.

 Our yard is huge, but everything is dead and we have a ton of work to do, but again, it takes forever to get anything done in a small town! And Arizona grass isn't very soft, plus there is the scorpion factor.

I'm frustrated because I'm trying to make my house a home and I don't know what room to do next. So I'm sort of doing all the rooms at once, but that makes it so I'm not doing any of the rooms because I can't get anything done.

I'm anxious because this baby is coming before we know it, and we haven't bought one thing. Her room is nowhere ready and I have no idea what I need.

I'm frustrated because the U.S.A isn't doing that great in the olympics and I don't feel that into it and I miss my regular scheduled programs, which really makes me mad because I never wanted to turn into that person. I usually love events like the olympics.

I'm frustrated because I want my kids to see their dad more. 

I'm frustrated because I finally just got an Iphone and I can't decide if I should save my battery and turn off the Wifi which will suck up my data or if I should keep the Wifi button on all day and sacrifice the battery life during the day.

I'm frustrated because I have the nursery calling at church and I'm so sick of being around children, and I don't feel like I know anyone.

I'm frustrated because I miss the YMCA so bad it hurts. 

I think the small town would be doable if I could only transplant the Parkville YMCA here, I promise I would never ever complain again.

I'm frustrated because I have always wanted to go and get my nursing degree. There is a junior college here that has a program, and its almost too perfect of an opportunity to do it, but I'm feeling mommy guilt thinking about not being around my kids as much. I don't know what to do.

And done.

OK, can I just tell you that that felt great! If you read this, I don't need advice or reassurance. I just needed to vent and now I'm going to move on with my life and still be frustrated but try to make the best out of it. 

Thanks for listening. I miss you Erin (and that it frustrating as well).

Gilbert Temple

We are so lucky that in the past two years we were able to live in two areas where they have opened new temples.

We went to the KC temple open house a couple of years ago, and now the Gilbert temple open house.

We took our kids and went into the most exquisite temple I have ever seen, which is saying a lot because most temples are exquisite. There was something different about this one and we loved it!

Brooklyn told me that she wanted to get married in this temple. I asked her who she wanted to marry, and she said, "Brayden." I told her that she couldn't marry her cousin so then she said, "OK, then I will marry Jack." She is weird.

Avery couldn't contain herself. If you go to the Gilbert temple and see finger prints all over the doors and windows, it was probably Avery. She was so excited and wanted to see every nook and cranny. She didn't really get the concept of "staying on the plastic carpet vs the new fresh white carpet." I had to keep a firm grip on that girl!

We love this temple and are so happy we are within an hour of it.