BIRTHDAYS

The week of many birthday festivities. Luke celebrated turning the terrible TWO by having three terrific b-day parties! Back in Utah and back in October ...we are still catching up on the Utah pictures.
Almost everyone in Dave's family shares a birthday. Dave and Danny have the same birthday (exactly 2 years apart) and Luke and Jade (a few more years apart). The brothers and Luke blowing out their candles at the Owen's. *These 2 pictures stolen from the Jordan & Camilla blog. Thanks guys!

Good morning. Hooray for you, says Elmo! Opening up some presents on his real birthday.This was kind of last minute but lots o' fun. We all went to Thanksgiving Point on Lukey's B-day. Thank you mom!

Hi Shawn Bradley. Thanks for taking a picture with my husband and son while I was so embarrassed and trying to hide behind the camera. You were really extra nice and held my son for a long time after and told me to tell my dad "howdy!" Do you think he would care that he is on our blog? He is so huge.

Luke did this about one hundred times. He loved it so much!

I think that Luke had the best birthday ... probably one of his top three!


After T. point we went back to my mom's and made homemade pizza's. Luke's favorite dinner...pizza with sauce only.


Bye cuzies! Thanks for a fun day.

Party 3 at my dad and Angie's house. Nate, Luke and Anthony.

Angie, me, Maxer's and Amy.

Loved being in Utah for Luke and Dave's birthday's. Everyone was so nice and made the b-days very special! Oh, what about Dave's birthday? Not one picture taken. He opted to stay for the Utah game on Saturday and drive home on Sunday (his B-day). What a good sport.

The tag

Tagged by Sammy and maybe Lisa. This is a month late and a dollar short but oh well it is a Friday night and Dave is studying the night away so I am bored. This is the six random or quirky things about myself. Here goes:

1. I am a re arranger. I am ALWAYS rearranging things around the house. I move pictures, paintings, furniture, everything. Dave has just accepted this about me and has stopped complaining if I ever ask him to help move the furniture. But I always say, it is better than me buying new things! Instead of making purchases when you have no mullah, you just do a little rearranging and it feels new. There is my tip of the day.

2. This is definitely quirky. Maybe a little creepy but I like to do my make-up on only one side of my face to see how different I look. Kind of like a before and after thing. I do it maybe once a week. Side one with no make-up and side two with. It is fun. Dave can never guess which side is with make-up. I don't get how could you get that wrong? I never know if it is a compliment or insult. One time I accidentally left the house this way. People at Target probably thought I was a freak.

3. Speaking of freaks, I am a germ freak as well. My hate towards germs has been well documented on this blog but really I hate them! I am a LOT better than I used to be. When Luke was a newborn I drove myself nuts thinking about germs but with a toddler they are inevitable. I mostly hate touching what other people touch like handles, doors, gas pump, signing those magnetic credit card things. I used to always put hand sanitizer on after the sacrament was passed. Oops, that secret it out. I always clorox the grocery cart, I never touch elevator buttons, I bring my own pen and a change of clothes to doctor appointments and the thought of going to a video arcade makes me shudder.

4. One of my very first crushes that I can remember was in first grade. His name was George. He had blue eyes and white blond hair and he was Australian. It was when we were living in Greece and we went to an English speaking Swiss school (random) together. Someone told me during an assembly that he liked me and I was smitten from then on. He gave me a barbie for my birthday!

5. I do like desserts but I would way rather eat seconds of my meal than a dessert any day. I HATE ordering dessert at restaurants. It bugs for some reason. All that waiting and restaurants are always freezing.

6. I am the very worst when it comes to finding my way around. I have no sense of direction. When I first got my license I would end up in the most random places and it was right before the cell phone time so I would drive for hours and hours getting home from new places. One time I stormed in the house late one night getting mad at the dumb train. My family was dying because there is not a train even close to where we lived. Moving to Arizona same thing. Hours of driving in the wrong direction, one thousand u-turns and grumpy phone calls to Dave for help. Next move I am good to go with our brand new Garmin. Hip hip.

I tag whoever hasn't been tagged, which may be no one, but I love reading people's random facts!

What we miss about SLC...

{OUR FRIENDS}

I loved going out to many lunches and dinners, cabin party at Eliza's, Kate's B-day bash with a real live pony (dang my camera for hiding), planning and finally having Mary's shower, forgetting how old I am when we get together (16 or 26), chatting until midnight every time we get together and thinking that it is only 9 at the latest while the kids are getting so grumpy, catching up, LOVING and helping with each other's kids, forgetting that Addie has baby Rich because he doesn't make a peep, always forgetting that Lize hasn't been married for the past 7 years, wondering where Cara's design skills and beautiful beach chateau came from and so on and so on. To sum it up I love friendships that have lasted 10+ years and how fun and comfortable it always is! Oh, and Dave misses everyone equally. I am serious.



Wally, Rex, Luke and Kate relaxing at the cabin.


Mary's girly shower at Cara's. I love mini anything so I was so pleased that we could finally use my mini foods theme. Everyone made great mini's. We had spinach salad in mini parmesan cheese cups, mini chicken pockets, mini cheesecakes, mini cookies, etc.


Cara, Kate, Liza, Rex, Addie, Rich, me.

Guest of honor Mary holding Camden Richards, Sammy, Tiff and Stace.

The last of the partyers.

What we miss about SLC...

{OUR FAMILY}

We had the best 5 weeks in Utah last month. Thanks to our parents for letting us take over their houses and for cleaning and cooking for us. Thanks to all the aunts, uncles and cousins for all of the fun activities. Thanks to the grands and great -grandparents for babysitting. Thanks to Jordan and Camilla for all of the fun late nights of talking and watching fun high school t.v. shows (xoxo). Thanks to everyone for entertaining us nonstop the whole time! We miss the fam!

Loving life with his cousin Will.

Ella and Sam- the long lost cuzies that moved back to Utah (sniff sniff).

Amy, Dave and the big 24 year old. Nate's B-day dinner at Cucina Toscano. FYI - my very favorite Italian restaurant.

Jared, my mom and moi.

Barbara's big Birthday brunch at Little America. Pretty impressive with almost all of the grandkids.




Dave, Stan and baby Henry. This baby goes to sleep smiling, wakes up smiling and maybe even cries while smiling. He is on my Christmas list this year.

Wow! Another B-day. Baby Boo turned 1! I love first birthday parties. The baby never really enjoys them all that much but my little cousin is so cute and it was a super fun party.

Wee! Loving the Jack's new slide.



Ella and Anthony. I wonder if she knows that this is her uncle? I like this picture because it captures Ella's flirty side. I totally think that she is a flirt and she seems to have a thing for uncles! (Dave, you might be out of the picture)!

Classic Grandma Dena is babysitting picture. I am sure there are many pics like this of me when I was little and Grandma Dena was tending. Movie of your choice playing, a bowl of buttered noodles on a little tv tray, and having every need met. She is the best!



We really miss cousin playdates!


And how could you not miss this face?

My new favorite holiday

Halloween is so much more fun when you have kids to dress up, tote around, and get free candy for you. We went to Dave's school for the mega Halloween festivities. They had bounce houses, lots of games, trick-or-treating and more. I forgot the camera but nice little Kelly took some funny ones of Luke going down the slide. After the partay we went treating around our 'hood and I am pretty sure that Luke thought he died and went to heaven!

Major Cheeese!

No, not Dave's costume. He just didn't change out of those nasty scrubs when he got home.

TwiCk-oR-TWeAt!





Tyler the mime, filling us up on treats in half of his Mickey costume.

His treats that he is about to shovel into his mouth!



Happy Halloween 2008!

Who is getting excited for HALLOWEEN ?!
This little cowboy is! The countdown is on. Luke has been loving his Woody costume (gotta love the hand-me-downs, thanks Jack's and Mort's) and is dying for the bag of candy. We had a fun kids party at the library and at our ward's trunk-or-treat and now we are ready for the official trick-or-treating. Bring it on.

*please excuse the blurry photos. A certain two year old always seems to get a hold of the camera and leave fun fingerprints on the lens.

BIRTHDAY BOYS

It's Birthday week for Dave and Luke. These two have been BFF since the very beginning. I don't know if it is a daddy's boy thing, a birthday thing, or because Dave was the one that delivered (actually caught) him. But, either way they are in love and inseperable. So in honor of Lavid/Duke... Happy B-day's!

An Adoption Story

This is one of the greatest families in the world, Jeff and Jaimi and their cutest daughter Summer. Jeff is going to school with Dave in Arizona and they are eager to adopt again. They are amazing and wonderful parents and friends. Here is what they have to say:
"We feel that it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to find our next child. As families blessed by adoption will attest, the way the Lord leads these children to their families varies and we feel that we cannot close our minds to resources available to us. That is where we need your help. We ask that with your awareness of our search for our child(ren) that you will share our desire with others. We are asking you to forward this email to the contacts in your address book in case that is the pathway our next child will be connected with us. Another helpful resource would be including links to our adoption profile and our adoption blog on your own blogs.We begin this process again with humility as we recognize the eternal ramifications of adoption. We have an absolute testimony that adoption is a miracle and give thanks for the miracle of Summer in our lives. We are so excited for our next little miracle. We thank each of you for the love and support you have given us through the years as our family has grown from 2 to 3 and as we pray for number 4. With love, Jeff and Jaimi" (Thanks to Lisa Owens for letting me plagerize her perfect wording on the following)
Blessed is the child that is placed in the arms of this wonderful family. Maybe you know someone who is searching for a loving home for a precious baby and would benefit from hearing about our friends. If there is anyone who you think might be interested, let them know and forward their story. The following links help you get to know them better:
Here is the link to their adoption profile:
http://www.providentliving.org/ses/birthmother/viewsingleprofile/0,12272,2133-1-10271-1-1,00.html
Here is their adoption blog: http://onepotatotwopotatothreepotatofour.blogspot.com/