My Birthday's done, but I guess I can still keep posting...

What's that I hear?

(this is a picture of Archie's cute little ear freckle he's had since he was born....LOVE IT!)

It was Valentine's Day?

(My first silhouette machine project was to decorate the window)

Archie is so happy about that!

(notice the cute little teeth. He has 4 now)

The Hynes family made Owl cookies for friends...

Thus facilitating Archie's first Oreo experience.

(It was quite messy)

Elliott had a school Valentine's Day party.

(Complete with orange smiles)

We decorated cookies with the neighbor kids.

They were beautiful AND yummy.

(there were also some secret decoder valentines messages...very fun)

The Birthday Wrap-up

My birthday week wasn't all about me you know...there was so much amazing stuff going on, it will take another post to catch you all up. First of all, I have to say how much I love my family. I love Mike's and my little family, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my family that raised me. My parents are the greatest two people in the world, and spending time with my family spending time with my family is one of my favorite things to do, ever.

One of those moments:

Aunt Heather spending some quality time at the piano.

Little Kason. He is such an independent little man! He is so young, but still insists on feeling himself, and it is so cute.

Elliott and Karver were again inseperable, and Elliott liked showing him how to jump on the tramp.

And helping him tie his shoes.

Papa captured this picture of Archie while he was watching him for me.

This one too. I love seeing how Papa sees Archie.

A little moment Uncle Jason captured. Archie, Aunt Heather loves you!

Ok, I'll admit, I'm not the only one who loves my parents.

This week was officially sponsored by our smart phones, and more specifically, the game Words With Friends. It's like the game of Scrabble, but you play it one turn at a time on your phone, over vast distances! Or, while sitting across the couch from each other...whichever!

The kids had other things to do to keep themselves happy.

Elliott bought some speed stacking cups, and they kept him happy. It doesn't take much.

My birthday was pretty perfect, but when combined with all this family time, it is one for the record books!

What a Birthday!

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!

My parents just happened to schedule a Boise visit over my birthday weekend, which was enough incentive to get my sister Ruth and her family up here too! Combine them with Emily and Heather's family, and you have the makings of the best birthday gathering ever!

We had so much fun, and it will take several posts to catch up, but I have to start somewhere, so I'll start with MY BIRTHDAY! A very good place to start, if I do say so myself!

Kason was very sweet with Archie. He kinda liked the Buddha Archie statue more than the real thing, but he was still very sweet.

We got tickets to a hockey game on friday night for the whole group, and we had fun!

We had a birthday "breakfast for dinner" on Saturday night, and my sisters and Mom were VERY helpful. Look at the slaving away over my dinner!

The kids' table isn't just for Thanksgiving at our house. Little Korean tables are very useful.

Have you ever seen a more attractive picture of a man, EVER?!?! He must really love me...

As an early birthday present, my parents brought up a box of Arizona oranges!! SPECTACULAR!!! They taste like sunshine and my childhood...I love them!

One of my gifts came delivered with plenty of packing paper, which Kimo and Elliott enjoyed very much. Kimo is the teasiest and funnest Uncle to have around, and Elliott is such a good sport.

Breakfast for dinner is such a sweet meal, that a cake just seemed like overkill, so we put a candle in some cinnamon rolls and called it good.

I wish you could see the panicked expression on Archie's face here. He was so freaked out by the candle, or maybe the singing; no, it couldn't have been the singing, my family is so melodious...

Archie is so relieved when I blow out the candle! Mom's can make everything better.

On my ACTUAL birthday, we went to lunch at a yummy BBQ restaurant, and Archie had his first high-chair meal.

Gramma Karen came prepared to do a Valentine's Day craft with the kids (and Emily). They made cute candy heart topiaries.

And finally, rounding out the birthday festivities, desert with Mike's family! Mike made his world class brownies (from scratch...I know, right? He's amazing. He didn't wear his apron this time), and we had them with ice cream and caramel!

Whew! You can never celebrate a birthday too much. That's what I always say.

3 of My Favorite Things

The grocery store had these cute little bags of gorgeous meyer lemons (the same lemons I grew on my little lemon tree, may it rest in peace), so I had to buy it and make something lovely. I remembered that when I was little, my home teacher, Brother Carpenter, had a wife, Lela, who made the BEST lemon meringue pies! They were my favorite. Then, I realized that my kids have never had lemon meringue pie! Well, I had to do something about that. This was very exciting to me. Making this pie is kinda something on my bucket list. I grabbed my America's Test Kitchen recipe and got to work, and the adventure began!

SUCCESS!!

Turns out, I don't like meringue! Oh well, it looks pretty, the crust was spectacular, and the lemon was superb!

Onto another favorite thing of mine...family sports outings. The family went to a BSU basketball game. We loved cheering them on!

And finally, and I mean FINALLY!!!, we got some snow in Boise! This morning at 7am, it started, and it just kept coming! How cute are Elliott's sunflowers covered in snow. They look like little snowballs.

By 8:30, the kids had their gear on, and they were out playing before heading to the bus stop.

Poor Archie, this is as close as he gets to the snow. If it would have stopped snowing for a bit, I would have plopped him in it for a photo op, but it just kept on comin!

After school, Elliott's first snowman.

PLEASE let this be the first of MANY snowstorms this winter...we love them!