Birthday Party

I am so glad that my parents were here to celebrate Riley's birthday with us!  On the day of her birthday we took her out to dinner at Red Robin's. She liked it when the server's came to sing the birthday song to her, and all the kids loved getting balloons.

When we got home from dinner, she opened some of her gifts. Cooper and Ryan had fun helping her out. She got a Tinkerbell movie, and some cute clothes from Grandma, and Ryan gave her a Hello Kitty diary.

Here's Cooper with Mei. He loves to carry her around! She is so patient with him, haha. :)

On Friday we had Riley's birthday party at the clubhouse. The kids had fun decorating before the party started!

Riley wanted to draw kitty's on all the balloons. She spent about 20 minutes drawing pictures on as many balloons and she could. She did a great job!

Here's Cooper and Ryan "helping"

 

Riley and Rylee :) They are so cute. I love all of her friends!

Riley had a great time at her party! After the girls at some pizza they played Bingo. Then we brought out the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Riley. She was excited to blow out the candles. After everyone ate their cupcakes we played "kitty, kitty, dog". It's a game that Riley and my Mom made up...it's like "Duck, Duck, Goose", but cuter, haha :)  I think this was the girls favorite part! They were all laughing and having fun. It was cute to watch. After that game Riley opened her gifts from her sweet friends and then we brought out a pinata. Riley had a little meltdown near the end of the party, but all in all I think she had a fun birthday!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! I love you so much and I feel so blessed to be your mommy. Thank you for making the past six years so wonderful!

Bike Parade

Just a few pics from the bike parade a few weeks ago. The kids had a lot of fun!

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On Friday I had my 29th birthday. I had fun spending the day with the kids, and then Casey took me to PF Changs for dinner. It was so good! They had so many yummy looking vegetarian dishes, I want to go back so I can try them all! We got the vegetarian lettuce wraps for starters (soooo good!)  and then Casey got the Mongolian Beef and I got the Ma Po Tofu. I think PF Changs is my new favorite place to eat! :)

For my gift, Casey got me the sweetest little bengal kitty named Mei. I love her (and so does Riley!). She is such a fun little kitty. I had such a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Casey!! :)

We celebrated Casey's birthday this past weekend! The kids were so excited for his birthday. They had fun making cards and helping me pick out Daddy's gift. The day before we celebrated his birthday, I took Ryan with me to pick up Casey's gift. I told Ryan not to tell Daddy because it was going to be a surprise. Soon after Casey got home from work I heard Ryan say, "I got you a game for your birthday, but I can't tell you because it is a surprise!". It was really cute, haha :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Later that day we took Casey out to lunch and then we just relaxed the rest of the day! Here are a few pics!

I love this one! :)

Preschool!

Ryan had his first day of preschool on Thursday. He had so much fun! He is excited to go again on Tuesday.

Getting  ready to walk down to his class.

Practicing writing his name.

After school he walked home with his friend Nahoa.

They are so cute! They both had such a fun time on their first day of school.

Cooper slept the whole time Ryan was at school and so I enjoyed a couple hours of quiet time. When Ryan got home he let Cooper wear his backpack for a little while.

I can't believe I have two kids in school! It's crazy how fast they grow up!

The Gardens

A couple of days ago I took the boys to the Lauritzen Gardens while Riley was at school. Ryan and Cooper both had a fun time. Ryan really likes watching the trains, and Cooper had fun walking around and exploring.

It has been nice spending time with my boys during the day, but it's still kind of strange going places without Riley! I miss her, but I know she is having a great time at school.

Cooper and Riley

Riley just finished her first week of Kindergarten and she is loving it! I think it's been a bigger adjustment for me than it is for her. I really miss her during the day! I thought she'd be tired after spending all day at school, but right when she gets home she starts asking me if she can go to her friends house to play. That girl has so much energy! I have some pictures from her first day of school that I'll put up soon. For now I wanted to post these pics of Riley and Cooper from the other day.

Cooper loves being outside!

My little sweetheart!

Cooper just makes me smile every time I look at him.

Swimming!

Ok, so I am WAY behind on my blogging! I still have so many pictures I wanted to share from our Utah/Colorado trip last month but I have been super busy with my Lily Puff Designs blog. I have been doing a total makeover on that blog and it is taking up a lot of time! I finally finished my new header a few days ago. You should check it out and tell me what you think! I am going to start offering custom blog designs in September so I'm getting excited to get my little business going!

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It was pretty hot in Utah and so the kids spent a lot of time swimming in my parent's backyard. I think Riley could have stayed out there all day if we let her! Ryan and Cooper had a really fun time, too.

Here's Cooper getting ready for some serious swim time :)

He didn't play as long as the other kids but he sure had a fun time!

They love playing with their cousins!

He liked playing with the cup but he kept on trying to drink the water, haha.

I love my little water babies!

Ginny

This is Ginny. She was our first family pet. In May 2009 we received a letter from Village Green telling us that we could no longer keep her in our townhouse. For six months I tried to find a way to keep her, but we ended up having to find a new home for her. On January 1st of this year she left us to live with her new family. The couple seemed really nice and they sent me a text two weeks later saying that they were loving Ginny. Everything seemed okay. I sent a few emails over the months asking how she was doing, but I never got a response. Then last week I was thinking about Ginny and decided to send another email, hoping I would get a response.

Here is the email I sent:

Hello! I was just wondering how Ginny was doing! Do you think you'd be able to send any pics? If not that's okay. I hope she is loving her new home and thanks again for adopting her!



They didn't write back right away so I wasn't expecting to hear from them, but a few days later they sent me this response:

She got really sick about a month later and died.


That's it. That's all they said. No explanation, nothing. I couldn't believe what I was reading. How could a perfectly healthy kitty just die a month after they took her? I cried and cried. I felt so guilty for not trying harder to keep her. I still feel guilty. I wish I would have done more to keep her with our family. I'm really sad and heartbroken but I'm sure I'll start feeling better over time.

I was looking at some old pictures and videos, and this one made me smile. Ginny would always try to jump onto the ledge of the window but she never could. She couldn't even jump onto the couch, haha. And Ryan is pretty adorable in this video. He kept saying that "voldemort" was out in the forest and then he would get this scared look on his face. Anyways, here's the video:

Here's more of Ryan's scared look...it's pretty dang cute, haha:

Utah Birthdays

Birthday boys!

I love this picture of Grandpa with all his grandbabies.

I need to write more about our Utah trip before I forget everything! This week has just been so crazy and I haven't had much time to do it. Tomorrow should be a good day to get some blogging done :)