The Boys' Birthdays

 So it's only been three months since we celebrated the boys' birthdays, (Carter, May 14th and Gavin, May 20th) but it would be criminal not to blog about them.  Just as a preface, yes, there are like four times as many pictures of Carter's birthday than Gavin's, but that is only because is was a "friend party" year for Carter...his FIRST party, to be a little more specific, and he requested a Pirate Party.  It was SO RIDICULOUSLY FUN planning this thing, but boy was I tired when it was over.

Here are a few of the details.  :)

Above: Gavin and Greyson enjoying some of the snacks.

Below:  The battle; most of Carter and Michael's teammates defected to the other side, so I was forced to join in the fun.  :)

 Below:  Walking the plank.

The pinyata - full of Salt Water taffy all the way from California because I couldn't find it ANYWHERE in our area...THANKS MOM for sending all of that!  We sure enjoyed it.  :)

Below:  Opening presents with friends.  Ok, so this is one of the prime reasons I LOATH friend parties.  I have been to A LOT of birthdays where the kids act like rotten brats and don't say "thank you" or just chucks the gifts aside that were less than stellar in their opinion.  Rude, rude, rude.  We're all glad you were born, but that doesn't give you the right to be a jerk.  No way.  So, I made it very clear to Carter than he be gracious and grateful to each of his friends for each of their gifts.  He did pretty well, and it's a good thing too, cuz I would have been mortified. 

After all the friends left, the kids put on pirate tatoos...I totally thought I had purchased stickers...darn it.  I'll have to check better next time I guess. :)

And that evening, we celebrated as a family.

 Carter is NOT a fan of cake, so we just had ice cream cones.  I was certainly not complaining.  I got out of making a cake for cryin' out loud!  

Happy 5th birthday Carter!  You are getting so big!!!  We LOVE you!

 6 days later, Gavin turned THREE!

This little guy has changed SO MUCH in the last year.  When he turned 2, he was barely uttering 30 words and was super low maintenance...now, he is a constant stream of words and rather lengthy, high vocab sentences, and quite frankly, is anything but low maintenance.  He is a stubborn little dude with insurmountable energy.  Man I envy that.

 He requested taquitos, NOT the homemade ones.  He specifically wanted the ones from the freezer section, with a jar of store bought salsa, chips and fruit.  It doesn't get much easier than that.  AND, to top it off, he wanted to choose a cake from the store.  AWESOME!  I totally got off the hook this year.  Hey, he was happy (and so was I).

 A few weeks prior when he and I were out birthday shopping for Carter, he spotted some toy yard tools and told me over and Over and OVER again that he wanted a blower and an edger for his birthday.  That's pretty much all he talked about from then until his birthday.  And, that lucky little dude, got what he wanted. He's completely obsessed with yard work...in fact, the lawn mower he received for his birthday last year from Nona and Papa is still one of his favorite toys. 

Blowin' out his candles.

We sure love you Gavin!  Hope you had a fabulous 3rd birthday!!!

Semi Annual Blog Post

I've decided that blogging has just become a last priority for me these days...which is unfortunate because I am even WORSE at keeping a personal journal.  How will my posterity ever know that I did ANYTHING with my life???

Sigh.

Anyway, I have an overload of pictures for you, and I will try to keep my narratives brief.  The pictures are the best part anyway, right?

Back in February, Jemma's school held a Booster-thon...(when I was in elementary school, it was called a jog-a-thon...I kept calling it that and Jemma was quick to correct me.)  Her school made a super huge deal of it and Jemma kept coming home pestering me to get people to pledge her.  I can NOT stand fundraisers.  They drive me crazy.  I would rather make a donation and call it good rather than ask people to give my child money so she can get some crummy prize.  She ended up with just us pledging her $0.50 a lap.  I know. I'm cheap.

The boys and I went to cheer her on and she did great!  I think she ran 26 laps. 

 Toward the end she got tired and decided to walk with the Vice Principle and her friend Aubrey.  :)

March was a busy month...we even celebrated Easter! I'm always a little sad when Easter falls in the month of March instead of April.  It's like April is getting jipped out of its ONE holiday!  Oh well.

My friend Karrissa organized an Easter Egg Hunt at a park for a bunch of friends.  The kids had tons of fun and even the weather was cooperative!  :)

Here are most of the kids that attended.

 We dyed eggs the Friday before Easter.  If the kids didn't LOVE this tradition, I would bypass it cuz I can't STAND the smell of boiled eggs and dislike eating them even more!

It's a messy business, but the kids LOVE it!

We were fortunate enough to have some of our favorite friends, the Skinner Family, come visit for Easter weekend.  We had so much fun that I totally spaced taking any decent pictures, and the ones I did snap didn't even really turn out!  Sheesh!

Kristina and I went and got pedicures on Saturday, then took the kids to play at a park while the boys talked Optometry and Brandon gave Shawn a tour of the Optometry Clinic he works at.

Sunday morning the kids woke up to find the Easter Bunny had visited!  I think the Easter Bunny out-did him/herself.  There was a ridiculous number of eggs full of treats and fun toys.  Too fun!

 Here are most of the kids (I cannot believe I never got a snap of Kennedy, the Skinner's darling baby girl!) chowing down on their Easter goodies...for breakfast!  Don't worry, we had a second breakfast a little later; french toast with buttermilk syrup, bacon and juice.  Mmmmm.

After church, we managed to get a quick snap of both our families...of course separately.  Lame.   In our defense, I had my tripod out there ready to get a group shot, but our photo shoot got rained out by a sudden downpour. (ps. Carter refused to smile and Gavin, bless his heart, just doesn't know how to fake a smile.) 

We had a ham dinner with the Skinner's and the Rich's and all in all just enjoyed a beautiful Easter Sunday with people we love!

I am so thankful for this holiday and the opportunity it provides for me and my family to reflect on the merciful Atonement of our Savior and of his miraculous Resurrection.  I know He lives and that I will someday have the opportunity to be with Him again.

In April, Carter's school took a field trip to a local strawberry farm.  It was SO FUN!  They had the biggest, juiciest, most delicious Strawberries I think I have EVER had.  It was hard not to eat them all up in one day!

 The boys had a great time and I am planning to go back next year to do it again, field trip or no field trip!  :)

I also had a birthday...kind of a milestone birthday of sorts...I turned the BIG 3-0.  Yikes.  I'm feeling old.  But you know what, I'm really ok with turning 30 because now when people look at me with my three kids (and protruding pregnant belly) and say things like "Gosh, you look so young!  How can you have three, almost four children?"  I can respond with, "I'm actually, older than I look...I'm THIRTY!" :)  I had a great birthday.  The kids were on Spring Break and fed me breakfast in bed, all on their own!  Eggo-waffles with orange juice and strawberries.  SOOO CUTE!  I got a sitter for a few hours in the afternoon so I could meet Brandon for lunch and do a little shopping.  Then we went out to dinner and came home for cake and icecream, after which Brandon helped me re-pot my hydrangea bushes...I got some nice big/tall pots to put them in on either side of the front door.  :)

Thanks everyone for making my birthday special!

 And no post would be complete without showing you a project...I have completed several, but only had a picture of one on my camera, so here you go; a floating shelf.  It looks really little in this picture cuz the wall is so massive, but in real life, it actually fits the space quite well.  And, btw, I should tell you that little green chair was a birthday gift from Brandon.  Love it!

And here's a cute picture of Carter. :)

Phew!  

Well, until next time! (Probably 6 months from now.  Ha ha ha!)

Holy Hannah Catch-Up

 I have a pretty darn good excuse...again...for falling so far behind on the blogging thing; pretty sure our desktop has a virus and won't let us on the internet anymore, and our laptop battery completely died and wouldn't turn on.  So, we just replaced the laptop battery and we are back in business!

Jemma turns 7!

December 15, 2012

We had a simple celebration with just our family this year.  She requested Hawaiian Haystacks for her birthday dinner with a chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream for dessert.  Her big gift was a new 20 in. bike.  This baby is big enough for me to ride around!  We played boola-boola (aka "hot and cold") for her to find it...we originally had it in the attic, but ended up re-placing it in the guest bathroom.  :)

Seven Facts About Jemma:  

She loves all things girly; accessories, make-up, sparkles/glitter and pink.

Her favorite movie is pretty much ANY movie, but she says she likes the Barbie movies most.

She loves to play games with her family and has recently learned Skippo.

Her favorite thing about school is recess.

She is a good little singer and likes to get her groove on.  ;)

She tells me one of her favorite places to visit is the Library because it is quiet and peaceful there.  (We might be lacking in those two things at home because we have a couple of rowdy boys!)

Her favorite dessert is chocolate ice cream.

We LOVE you Jemma!!!

Brandon turns 30!

December 24, 2012

 Look at all those CANDLES!  Just kidding.  Thirty really isn't that old...Brandon just thinks so (and I will too in a few more months :/ ). 

Brandon requested Bow Tie Pasta with rolls, steamed green beans and strawberries for his birthday dinner and a chocolate cream pie...and chocolate ice cream (of course) for dessert.  

We celebrated a day early so it could be ALL about him.  :)

Just a few things we love about this man:

He is a hard worker.

He knows how to goof off and have FUN.

He is unselfish.

He is an outstanding example.

He makes a killer smoothie.  :)

He makes us laugh and keeps things from getting dull at the Reed residence.

He is a good listener.

He is unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and lives it.

He makes us want to be better.

And...

we have NO DOUBT that he loves us back!

Happy 30th Birthday Brandon!

Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas Eve at home...for the first time EVER since Brandon and I were married.  We read the Christmas story from the scriptures, the kids acted out the Nativity, then we opened new pj's, took quick baths and built our forts/hiding places to watch Santa from the next morning.  I don't know why I didn't photograph the kids in their hiding spots!

I did get the kids to pose for me in their new jammies...

...and when I say pose, I mean they really "posed".

Silly kids.  :)

Christmas
This was also our first Christmas at home.  The morning was quite nice...to wake up in our own beds and then stay in our pajamas playing with new toys and snacking on stocking goods was pretty awesome.  I really was fine, until we face timed with family...then I lost it.  Things felt entirely too quiet and I wanted in on the game playing, carol singing, chit-chatting, baking, cooking, NOISY Christmas we've become accustomed to.  Sigh.
It's a good thing we had the Bair family to help keep us busy that afternoon.  We went and saw a movie at the $2 theater...practically had the whole place to ourselves...then had Christmas dinner at our place and topped it off with games.

But before I get too far ahead of myself...

Santa brought Jemma a doll house for her little dolls, Carter a new bike,

and Gavin a race track.

A few more present opening pics:

 New Years Eve

Our former next-door-neighbors and some of our dearest family friends live just 6 hours from us!!!  So, lucky us, we got to spend all of New Years Eve with them!!!  We met in Charleston, South Carolina and spent the day exploring Charles Town Landing.

This place was awesome and the company was even better, so it made for a perfect day!

Here are an array of photos for the day.  The kids played great all day long, Brandon and Shawn got to chat about optometry for hours and Kristina and I talked about everything else under the sun...man I miss sharing a wall with you guys!  

In the stalks...

On the ship...

I want to live here!!!

...minus the gators in the backyard...

There were so many things to see and do there.  It was AWESOME, but the best thing I saw all day was this gal!

Spending the day with Kristina and her family made it feel like we still shared a wall and I could peek through her kitchen window to see what magnificent sewing project she was working on, or peek over the back fence to be inspired by her thrift re-makes.  The good ol' days!  Meeting up with them was the best way to finish out 2012!

So, there are some of the highlights from the end of LAST YEAR.  Still can't believe 2012 is OVER and we're already a month into the new year.  Time moves too fast.