Mercedes turning 1

A little late post about Mercedes' birthday.  But I thought a few of you out there might like to see some pictures.  Mercedes' birthday was a cold and windy day.  We thought it was going to clear off and be nice, but it was only like that for a few minutes.  We had a lovely time with family and friends and we enjoyed seeing our little girl's fascination with new things.

My dad was able to come out for the big day.  We bought 10 Dominos pizza for the party and it was gone in like 5 minutes.  It was really yummy though.

We always love to see the Blair family and were really glad they could make it to see us.

The last few remaining slices were quickly stolen.  I was taking pictures when they got out the pizza, so when I got there I had the choice of like two pieces.  If anyone is looking through these pictures and doesn't know who someone is, don't worry - I don't either.  There were a few people who showed up that weren't invited, but the more the merrier I guess.

Stash of presents.

The only reason those tablecloths are down right now is because people are holding them down.  I'm surprised we aren't seeing some lift off of the plates.  It was really windy.

I love everyone's "chewing" faces.

These two love Mercedes and she always loved them.  We are sad we don't live close anymore.

Tyson was always able to get Mercedes happy, even when she was being a Mommy's girl.

The first present to be opened.  Peter and Ashley gave her this cute bug activity book thing.  Well, you'll all be interested to know that my children have actually not really gotten to play with their birthday presents...another sad moment in my life.  With the craziness of the flood when we got here and moving and still not being in our own place all of their things are packed away in some box.  Lincoln has gotten used to the answer he gets when he asks where such and such is...in a box.

Costco cake - pretty good, but I miss the days when you could get something other than white cake, white frosting, white filling or chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate filling.  Only two options these days.

She just went right for the cake.  Just smashed it right into her mouth.  It was pretty cute.

Never letting go of that yummy thing.

Brody Blair was really good at keeping the little ones entertained.  He is such a great kid.

It's so funny at birthday parties when your trying to keep all the other kids from "helping" open the birthday presents and the birthday child just wants to play with the one that was just opened.

She got a lot of great gifts and we can't wait to actually use them.  Hopefully here in the next 2-3 weeks.  I'm crossing my fingers.

She didn't know about that balloon on her wrist.

Popcorn Day 2011

Here are some more of the fun happenings of Popcorn Day.

Our niece, Gracee, was a candidate for the 'Little Miss Popcorn Queen'.  She looked so beautiful in her pink dress and curly hair.

There was a face painting booth done by the high school cheerleaders...so maybe not the best quality but the kids loved it.  Ian started out with two footballs and then somewhere along the day he became Batman.

Hailee with butterflies and Emma with hearts.

Lincoln's football.  No I did not let Cedes have any, Lincoln got it everywhere enough for me.

There were some fun free blow up toys for the kids. Brody and Dylan tried to run and place the stick farther than the other.

Brody showing off his gladiator skills.

Sitting around waiting for someone or something, who knows.

Dylan was in the Kiddie parade, but I didn't really get a good pic of him.

Candy from the big parade.

Linc loved this part of running for the candy.  He told me later "Mom, I was busy.  I went like this (spinning) and then this (spinning the other way)."  It was so funny.

Sharing with his sister.  He is such a good brother.  He always makes sure that he says good night to her before she goes to bed with a hug and a kiss.

Chilling with my dad, talking about something (probably to do with the repairs on the house we are going to do soon.)

First Place...in my opinion!

Yesterday in the little town we live in we had a celebration called "Popcorn Day".  It's named after the popcorn plant we have here in town.   Anyway, it is a day filled with street vendors, a parade, dances for teens, there also used to be things like a tractor pull, little kid games that my parents seemed to run every year (like water balloon tossing, frog jump contest, bubblegum blowing, etc.) and other various things.  This year we decided, well I did I guess, to enter Mercedes into the Baby Contest.  There were different age groups that I'm not entirely aware of, but in my very unbiased opinion she should have won first place in any category.  It was just an excuse for me to dress her up a little and it was fun to see the other kids out there. Now before you go a little weird on me, no I am not the Toddlers and Tiaras type of mom, okay!

 My little princess.

 The kids in her age group.  The one sitting on the lap of the lady with a pink shirt was the winner.  Mercedes was in a 3 way tie for 2nd place.  My dad was thinking that they probably should have stopped being worried about feelings and just made a decision.  I happen to agree.  I will always think my daughter is the prettiest thing around, no matter what others try to say to me.

So freaking cute!

Okay I am here...

I don't know why it has been so absolutely hard for me to blog lately.  Every time I think about doing it I just think, yech.  So, I've been on a blogging hiatus.  Our lives have been pretty crazy in the last few months.  My kids both had birthdays.  Mercedes turned one.  Yes I have a zillion pictures, and no I'm not sure if I'll go back and post them or not.  Lincoln turned three.  Wow how time has flown.  We also packed up our lives in Utah and moved to Iowa.  Because of some flooding and other crazy situations, most of our stuff is actually still packed up in boxes.  It has been a crazy summer.  But something I wanted to blog about real quick is my little boy's first day of school.  Lincoln started preschool this year and he LOVES it.  He's been talking about school ever since last winter when we would go pick up Todd at BYU.  Linc thought he should be going to school and I thought about it for awhile and decided that it would be a great opportunity for him.  I am a firm believer that each child is different and therefore has different needs.  Lincoln loves his little school time and I love hearing about his day each time I pick him up.  He talks about it for hours.  He only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-11:30, but he would much rather go everyday, all day.  I don't think I would like that very much.  But it is fun to see his excitement.  Well enjoy a few pictures of him, I didn't actually get him in the school (my mom did though so I'll get some of those eventually.) I think part of this blogging thing has been the feeling that I have to post about everything that has happened to us, so I'm trying to get myself away from that attitude.