Meeting Sadie

A couple weeks ago, I made the solo trip up to Canada to meet my newest niece Sadie Joy. She is a real cutie and it was so fun to hold a newborn again. I had planned on making the trip with Brielle- but at the airport we were informed she now needed a passport (there is a new rule as of June 1st but nobody told me) so poor Kevin had to scramble to be a full time dad and work while I was gone. He pulled it off with ease, I'm sure :) He is the best husband ever! Somehow, I also left my camera behind with my baby Brielle, but luckily Julie took some pictures on Sadies blessing day that I am "borrowing" so I can document that my trip did in fact happen :) I also was lucky to find time to make a cake for Sadie- you can check it out on my cake blog.

Me and my mom (the greatest mom a girl could ever ask for)

Me and Sadie (don't you love the bow)

The grigor boys and girl!
It absolutely broke my heart to not be able to bring my kids to come play with their cousins- especially Brayden. He idolizes his cousins. Just a few months though and we will see them again.

Me, Julie, Mom and Sadie

It was a really special trip. It's fun to move away and live in new places, but there really is No Place Like Home!

Do not leave unattended

Apparently we had a bit of a miscommunication.
I said "ice cream" and somehow she heard "hat"

Really I was in the kitchen the whole time- just putting stuff away so I didn't notice that she wasn't exactly eating her McDonalds carmel sundae (a post flu shot treat).

Classic Brayden Quote

To Makenna while we were in the car:

"You know when you go in grade one, your teacher will just give you one warning, then yell at you and pull your card- thats what happens starting in grade one...
that's when the sadness begins."

Makenna is 5!

It's a big year for Makenna- turning 5 - going to school all day and then playing outside all afternoon with the big kids. I can't believe how grown up she is. Her birthday was on Thursday and we celebrated with presents in the morning, a McDonalds lunch with mom at school, cupcakes with her class, and then after school it was off to the Amazing Pizza Machine for our traditional family celebration. We even got Uncle Scott to come along too.Here's Makenna with her Disney pass and swim cover up from Grandma and Grandpa.

And her she is with her "Littlest Pet Shoppe" paraphnalia from Brayden and Mom and Dad.

And with her new princess book with a few monetary suprises from Oma and Opa.

Brayden "won" this princess pillow from a game at the Pizza Machine and Makenna was quite pleased to receive it. She's actually sleeping on it as I type this.

Here's the other two enjoying their prizes from the Amazing Pizza Machine. In case you can't tell those are pink plastic fangs in Brielle's mouth. Normally a toddler her age might not be to keen on such a thing but if her siblings are doing it then don't even try to stop her- she wants to do it too. (I think the drool makes her look just that much more vampirish- dont you?)

These were the cupcakes we made for school. Makenna helped to make them including the cutting out of the hearts. When I asked her what kind of a party she wanted this year, she said a "heart party." I was expecting something like Dora or Princess or something a bit more common but the heart thing was so easy I certainly couldn't complain.

And then on to Saturdays PARTY!
We had pizza cut out like hearts for lunch- with grapes and Kool-Aid (a birthday only beverage).No shortage of Personality Here.

Then on to the Pinata (as a sidenote Makenna's mouth is blue from a ring pop she had been eating). Since both Kevin and I were holding up the rope the pinata was on- we have no pictures except this one. Before the party Makenna asked me if she could use the pinata for her horse after the party. I told her after we used it, it would be broken- to which she replied "So I should pretend like I want to kill my horse"

----hmmm, I am not so sure about the whole pinata idea anymore... next time I will pick a star or a ball or something less animal...

And then on to cake. Always a hit.
After cake there was present opening and then that was it. Out of all my parties ever done this was by far the least stressful. Usually I overplan and have to cram everything in. This year I took the "underachiever" route and it was pretty enjoyable. It helped having Brielle asleep most of the party, a wonderful helping husband, Brayden away at a different birthday party, and a few wondefully well behaved girls.
Happy Birthday Makenna
We love you so so soooooooooo much!

A New Tradition

In an effort to further prove his BYU devotion, Kevin started a new tradition. Every game day our breakfast shall be...

"Cougar Cakes"

In case you can't tell it's a blueberry pancake with Reddi Whip.

First Game of the Season

This year we continued our tradition and had the Thomas's join us for BYU's first big game of the year. BYU sure didn't disappoint- they beat Oklahoma 14-13 which was a huge upset! At our house though it was quite a great time! Go BYU!
Here are some video clips of the customary pre game pinata. I notice that mostly I focus on Brielle. While all of the kids are all equally cute and camera worthy- I think this may have been Brielle's first real pinata experience so I tried to capture it as best I could. Unfortunately I turned the camera the wrong way so once again just turn your head while watching and you'll be just fine!

A Fun Saturday Morning

We took the kids to do one of those free Home Depot workshops. They really enjoy those. This time they were building a bean bag toss.

After the Home Depot we were off to Menards to buy some shelving when we drove by an orchard we never knew about before. They had a sign saying the apples were ready for picking so we stopped in and picked a big bag of apples. It was fun and they were delicious. It was not neccesarily economical. I think it worked out to being about $1.50 a pound (we really stuffed our bag) but I guess we were paying for the experience- not to mention the freshness. We love picking fruit- it is always a hit with the kids. Makenna told me it was the best day of her life. Unfortunately my camera died after I took only one picture. We'll have to go back another day to recapture the memories and of course the apples...

Melissa's Consumer Reviews

So recently Brayden saved and saved to buy the Webkinz pet of the month. I took him to the mall where he picked out his treasured pet and we rushed home so he could log it in. This was two days before August. Neither he nor I realized that we had to log it in on the actual month. We thought you should just get the "loot bag" when it was "the month"- but when it was August and he didn't have it I called Webkinz. Long story short- they won't make any exceptions. Really it would cost them nothing to give his virtual pet it's virtual loot bag but apparently making their loyal 7 year old customers happy is just not important to them.

Another company with terrible customer service- Travelocity- don't book with them! My parents purchased flights with them that the airline would not honor when they got to the airport. They had to repurchase tickets the day of- at the airport and they have never gotten their money back from Travelocity- unbelievable!

So those are my bad list companies. My awards for recent good customer service go to
1. Landsend (who are always so helpful when I call or return and they give you your money back when their products you've purchased go on sale- when you call them that is :)
2. Costco (who were so helpful loading my new chairs in my van when I was by myself and who take back anything anytime!)

Zoo Day 2009

Last Saturday was the annual ConAgra Employee Family Picnic at the zoo. It was a great time as usual, but we sadly missed Brayden who stayed behind with friends to play at his flag football game.

We had a nice up close and personal encounter with this gorilla, which most of us thought was quite neat. Brielle, however, was staring at him when he slowly turned his head to look right at her. This apparently scared her causing a significant amount of screaming, then crying, then hugging.

It was a great day- good food, friends, animals, activites and of course kids!