You Say Its Your Birthday...and other long-awaited events

The much talked about event for the past 3 months has finally taken place.  Miranda finally had her first friend birthday party.  With her birthday being on Christmas day, it takes some planning to make a birthday party  happen three weeks before the blessed event so that friends can actually attend.  She chose a Scooby Doo theme, which I slightly encouraged over princesses so that the boys attending would want to participate.  After our gourmet, Hot & Ready pizzas...

 ...we made Scooby Doo treat bags...

 

 

Miranda wanted to play pin the head on Daphne...

we modified that slightly to be "Pin the Headband on Daphne."

 

We also played "Throw the Scooby Snacks in Scooby's Mouth,", did a treasure hunt and had a candy tower (kind of like a pinata).

 

 

And yes, we got a bounce house.  I went back and forth on this for some time.  I thought it was silly and over-indulgent to get a bounce house, but I decided to do it anyway.  I did it more for Steve and me than I did for Miranda.  My thought was, "if all else fails, they can go jump for the 2 hours."

The party was a smashing success and I'm glad its over:)

 

 

 

Another long awaited event...Miranda had her first dance recital on Saturday.  Her ballet/tap class danced to "Me and My Teddy Bear" at their Christmas recital.  For over a year now she has been saying she wantes to dance on a stage.  So, here she is folks...okay she's not exactly dancing in this picture, but she did dance.

 

In other news, Mitchell does not like Santa Clause.

 

 

Suzie and Michael were in town last weekend for work/Christmas party 

so we got to see them and had a yummy brunch at Crackers & Co.

 

 

Yo ho, yo ho!

So...since Miranda wanted to be Izzy (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

this year, we went with a pirate theme.

Adorable though it was, Mitchell did not enjoy wearing his hat

 

 

 

My little buccaneers!

 

 

 Happy Halloween!

Introducing...

Introducing...San Diego!

 Steve had a conference in San Diego last week so we decided to all take a vacation. 

 

 

 While Steve was busy learning about...well...who knows what, the kids and I spent time hanging out at the beach,

 

 

hanging out with the surfers,

 

 running around,

 

 

 digging and getting dirty.  We also did a little shopping, of course.  Well, since we didn't pack any shirts for Miranda, we had to.

 

 

 Tuesday, the Stimpsons met us and we all stayed at this cute little house.

 

 Bedtime was exciting!

 

 

 Chillin' with Shamu at Sea World

 

 

Nevermind Shamu, Julia said the best part of Sea World was buying a stuffed animal.  Here they are all holding hands.

At the beach, Collin surrounded the hole they were digging with sea weed to protect it from the waves...nice.

 

 Here's what Miranda liked best about the SD Zoo (above).

 Trip to SD Zoo's Safari Park...close encounter with a Lion.

Some highlights from the trip:
Date and Cactus Milkshakes in Dateland, AZ
Buying new shoes and boots (for Karen)
Eating at the Fish Market (restaurant)
Trying out tons of balsalmic vinegar and oil flavors at the oil & vinegar shop
The Dolphin Show at Sea World
Mitchell and Meghan eating ramen noodles at every meal
The African Tram at Safari Park
Playing Imagine Iff with Suzie & Michael
Mitchell giving Elmo high-5 at Sea World
Goat cheese, spinich and mushroom pizza
The kids playing and playing and playing

So glad we got to get away and to spend time with S&M before their big move!

Happy One Year Little Monkey!

I can't believe Mitchell is 1 year old already!  Since we have lots of girly paraphernalia at our house, we decided it was time to get some boy toys.  Here he is opening his new TOOL BENCH.

He hasn't gotten the concept of crawling through his new tunnel yet.

 I couldn't decide what kind of cake to make him.  He isn't really into anything specific yet, except toilet paper, the garbage can and cupboards.  He also likes to head-butt and play steamroller.  I decided a monkey fit his personality.

Diving in...

Enjoying!

Happy Birthday little Monkey!

Happy Easter!

Here are our cute Easter kids as we were rushing out the door for church

Heart & Sole Run

Our family participated in the Goodyear Heart & Sole run on Saturday. Steve and kids ran/rode in the mile fun-run. It was Miranda's first ever race. She had seen Steve run in a turkey trot on Thanksgiving and had a few practice runs leading up to it so she was very excited. Here she is with her ribbon for finishing.

I ran the 5K. My goals were to run the whole way and to run it in under 36 minutes. You can see my approximate time on the clock below. Hooray for me! Never mind that there were 60ish-year-olds that were running at my pace; I was still pretty happy.

Helmet, decorated.

Mitchell has been wearing his helmet for about 2 months now and we finally got it decorated. There is a place here in Phoenix that does signs for cars, businesses, etc. and they also do helmets (for free). You tell them the design you want and a mere 7 weeks later, they put it on for you. Here he is--a mini-Steve in his little button-down shirt. Doesn't he look like a fierce cougar?

"I must be moving at all times"

This boy cannot sit still...ever!

LOVE!

I took this picture a few weeks ago and every time I look at it, I just love it. It was a beautiful Arizona January day at the park with cool mountains in the background (I know they don't quite compare with Utah mountains, but cool none-the-less), plus these are two of my favorite people...

Dad is definitely Miranda's favorite! Whether it is buckling her in the car seat, pushing her in the shopping cart or putting her to bed, Dad is always the person of choice. She even says she is going to marry Dad when she gets big.