Jeff's 40th birthday

My sweet husband turned 40 this weekend. His birthday is actually the day after Connor's. It makes for a very busy two days, especially when it falls on a weekend like it did this year.
We had a little open house for friends and family to come and help us celebrate.
Here is his cake...not exactly what I had pictured when I ordered it, but it works.


We had some cute friends bring him some funny gifts...
prunes, memory magnifiers (M&M's in a pill jar) and some magnifying glasses. I find it ironic he has the crutches in this picture! HAHAHA

Another friend brought some prune juice and All Bran...
A friend Jeff plays racquetball with brought some racquetballs - hoping for him to retain his youthful abilities???

Connor's Birthday Part 2

After Connor had his room surprise I had a few errands to run. Jeff decided to come with me. It was 'interesting' walking around Sam's with him on the motorized shopping cart...he will be on crutches until mid-October.
We always let our birthday person choose what they want for dinner...Connor chose Cafe Rio! We picked that up on the way home as well. After dinner, he was wanting to open his presents. Since we had DVR'd the BYU game and we wanted to watch in peace; we figured the only way we'd get it was by letting him open his gifts!

So here they are:



not quite sure what the idea is on these poses!

swim suit





this is a hoodie that I guess is soft????

i tunes gift cards...he just bought an 80 gig I-pod...

Connor's Birthday-Part 1

Connor had a friend over Friday night before his birthday. Everyone was minding their own business when Sierra happened to walk by the living room window and see about 15 girls walking toward our house. She immediately told Connor and his friend Josh- the boys took off chasing the girls. After seeing what they were up to, Connor warned them not to come back. A little while later, they returned. Only to be soaked with the hose by my son and well, my other son -Josh! After being sufficiently soaked, most went home. There were a few that came back to complete the job they started...this time Connor and Josh left them alone to complete their task... they did watch though.
The front...

A closer view of the porch...

The mail box...

Connor is obviously turning 15...

The side yard

My planter

Luckily there wasn't too much toilet paper...the sprinklers had come on in the morning and soaked it all.

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On Connors actual birthday...

Jeff and Connor went shooting first thing in the morning. They went with a friend who has a 9mm and an assault rifle. Connor thought it was sooooo cool!
They got home just in time to leave for American Fork. Connor had a soccer game! After the game we surprised him and his team with soccer cupcakes...they all sang Happy Birthday...let's just say it's a good thing they can play soccer!


While we were gone this is what happened (all had been cleared with Jeff and I before we left)...in fact we left Sierra and Cheyenne here to let her in.

This is Connor's "friend" Kalli...who decided it would be fun to decorate his room for his birthday. As you will notice, Connor's room is camo...that is his closet with the camo leaf netting instead of the closet doors...


Kalli and Connor-sortof






She did a great job...check this out!

cupcakes on the bed in the shape of 15...there isn't a picture of his dart board, but she put all the darts on the 15 space!

his nightstand-she's cute huh?

the floor was covered in candy and balloons

a balloon bouquet

his bed

the ceiling

his doorway
I didn't know Cheyenne had taken the pictures during the decorating process...she told me she had to so she could prove it was Kalli that had done it!
Here are the couple I took before he came in the house-I made him clean up the toilet paper so I could have time to take a few quick pictures...hehehehe!

Coming in his room-that's candy all over the floor!

his bed-candy on there too!

the floor...there were tons of balloons that had candy and notes in the!

a corner of his room with candy all over on his shelves and trophy shelf...basically everywhere!

Connor was totally surprised and I think it made his day! The best part was the next morning when he went to get his church shoes on...they were full of candy as well! He checked and all his shoes had candy in them! :0 I heard that was Kalli's mom's idea...he couldn't believe it! Let's just say he has enough Starbursts and Now and Laters to last quite a while...even for a 15 year old boy!

My New Front Door

We put in a new front door a couple years ago, but I never got around to painting it. I painted it this last week and this is how it turned out. It is painted to match the brick, which you can't really see...it is also the same color as my living room accent wall.

Maren's house and Sleepy Spidey

In our house it is rare to find the cushions actually on the couch...Maren is always building and/or jumping on them...here is a house her sister helped her to make.


Joran had had enough this night...he was so tired he couldn't even make it all the way up to his room.

He managed to get his kitty and keep a hold of his toy though.

Chocolate Kids and Prom Dress

Jeff and I were attending a potluck BBQ for the ward he is over for High Council. I decided to make mint brownies...(Worldwide Ward Cookbook :) ). Joran and Maren wanted to help...they did the clean-up can you tell?
Maren wears chocolate well...

Joran is still handsome, even in chocolate

I think they like it...

Still licking...


Cheyenne attended Young Women's one night and this is how she came home...

They were split into groups and given some "supplies" and a catagory...theirs was formal wear...so here she is all dressed up for the prom...couldn't get any cheaper than a garbage bag...if this were only the trend for the next few years!

A Trip to the Zoo

Thursday was the first full day of school for the elementary kids. After the rough start I decided to do something fun with the little ones who aren't in school yet. I had bought a year pass to the zoo back in July with the intent of using it soon...well, I'm not pushing Jeff around in a wheelchair! I decided it would be easier to just take the little ones until Jeff could walk on his own.
We started at the monkey house...this little guy was right in front of us...then proceeded to grab the fence with his tail and hang upside down...Joran and Maren just squealed...then he moved off down the fence...I'm not very "quick draw" with the camera...



We then went to see the elephants. One of the elephants just had a baby so they were in isolation for a couple more weeks. There was one in the exhibit...he was close to the fence eating. Maren just sat and watched him. When I asked her if we were ready to move on this is what she said, "But I love him!" Needless to say we watched him eat for a little longer.

Next to the elephant exhibit, there is this gigantic elephant...out of the truck comes all sorts of noises and it even blows water...Maren was scared of all of this, so we had to hurry and take the picture before it started again.


Next we visited the rhinos...they were also eating. They had a window we could look through and watch, but it didn't photograph well, so we went for the next best thing.


We saw others animals along our way, but the next funny thing happened at the giraffes. We watched these outside for a few minutes and then went inside. There was a baby giraffe in with two other giraffes. The baby would walk right up to the fence and look right at you. The mommy giraffe went to the bathroom right in front of Maren...all she said was uh-oh. I told her someone would come in and clean it up. That night as I was laying next to her before bed we were talking about the zoo and all the animals we had seen. I asked her about the giraffes...she told me they were messy and someone had to clean up their grapes...it took me a minute to put together that she was talking about the mommy pooping (I have to give it to her -it looked like purple grapes!). I still smile about that one and we did clarify that mommy giraffes don't poop grapes...


After coming up the hill, they were ready for lunch. We had our picnic next to the animal carousel. It worked for good bribery in eating their food before going for a ride. Maren chose the babylion ( the three new tiger cubs were out, but were sleeping in some bushes so we couldn't see them)

Joran chose the lemur that we saw jumping all over.


Off to the gorilla and ape exhibits. It seemed to be nap time here so once again we settled for the statue. Our zoo visit wouldn't be complete without a picture next to the measuring gorillas...



To finish off our trip we had to get our picture with our heads in the lion fountain...Maren reached up to touch it's teeth just as I was taking the picture.




On the way out Joran and Maren cooled off in the water ball...


It was a fun, quick trip for us...had to be home when the bus arrived! We're going back in a couple weeks to visit again...maybe it will have cooled off some by then!