Double Digits

Logan is officially 10 years old. It has been a great decade. Here are some pretty fantastic things Logan did in his 10th year:

- won a baseball championship
- went to his first concert: Star Wars
- shook Pat Hill's hand!
- won most of his Cross Country races & was awarded MVP for his team
- placed 9th in Cross Country District Finals
- earned his Bear rank in Cub Scouts (and several arrow points, belt loops, and beads)
- learned how to knee board
- won all but one of his wrestling matches
- went snow skiing several times
- took first place in Regional DI competition

Just for funsies, here are all the different "cakes" Logan got at his multiple birthday parties (remember Logan does not eat sweet or anything with too much sugar):
1. family party: Toaster Scramblers (top L picture)
2. Duran family party: french fries (bottom L Picture)
3. Ward family party: tator tots

Logan learned a little trick last year...he asked only for ca$h on his birthday wish list and ended up with enough money to purchase his own 32 gig iPod Touch. That was last year. This year he had a different expensive item in mind - a PS3. He put out his wish list again and he was gifted enough money to purchase a new game system. Here he is with all of his loot. WOW. That is a lot of cash for one kid. My favorite is the dollar bill boa necklace. Nice. :) (Special thanks to all the grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, and uncles that obliged Logan's request for birthday $$ - you made his day!)

Here are the things we will always remember about you at 10 years old. You are a most obedient boy, always trying to do the right thing. You are a master at finishing your chores in record time. You are already an excellent co-babysitter - paying attention to the kids and cleaning up before mom and dad get home. You give the best goodbye/goodnight kisses. We love that you say, "I love you" as many times as possible at bedtime. WE LOVE YOU TOO. Happy Birthday, Logie Man.

Jackson turns 5!

Jackson is officially 5 years old! He survived his whirlwind birthday day (that was the same day as the great DI competition) and ended up more spoiled than usual. He had so many birthday celebrations!!

- with the Duran family
- with the Ward family
- a small family party on his birthday morning
- a large chorus of DI competitors singing at lunch
- a McDonald's full of cousins singing at dinner
- a birthday date with mom to Build-a-Bear workshop and pizza lunch
- and a special birthday playdate with his birthday friend, Liam

We went to the doctor for his 5 year old physical (and shots - ow!). We had already measured him on our "birthday growth chart measuring board thingy" and the dr. visit confirmed our measurements. Here are his official stats: 44 inches tall and 44 pounds! He is perfectly proportioned.

Jackson is one inch taller than Lizzie was at 5 years. He also grew 3 INCHES in one year! My goodness they grow so fast!

Jackson, here are 10 things we will remember about you at 5 years:
1. you love to play on the iPod
2. your favorite foods are chicken nuggets, Me N Ed's pizza, Dole peach parfait cups, and top ramen noodles
3. you like to wear your church clothes all day long on Sundays
4. you love going for bike rides to get a shoot gun from the gas station
5. you like helping mommy make banana chocolate chip muffins
6. your favorite color is RED
7. you are addicted to playing with LEGOS and love to organize them on your lego shelf
8. your googah is still around and brings you much happiness
9. you are excited to go to kindergarten
10. you know all the letters in your name and enjoy writing them... in no particular order

Lizzie turns 7!

Lizzie turned 7 years old in January. She had our traditional week-long birthday celebration and felt like a rock star princess VIP all week!

Lizzie started celebrating even before her official birthday celebrations began. Gramma Elizabeth took Lizzie shopping (to pick out her own presents!) and out to lunch at the Red Robin. Lizzie had such a great time hanging out with her Gramma and auntie Mica. It was all that girl time and time spent together that made it so fun for Lizzie.

She woke to a pile of presents, donuts, and a family birthday party to start her birthday off right!

One of our family traditions is to measure the birthday kid on the morning of their birthday (you are always tallest in the morning, right?) Here's Lizzie's height on the morn of her 7th year.

Her class was treated to individually wrapped birthday brownies (note fancy new birthday dress and the blue bag full of goodies)

Lizzie ordered up a luxurious Spa Party for her and her girl cousins



Birthday lunch with Mom and Dad at the Dog House Grill! She had her choice of any restaurant she wanted and she totally chose the best eatery in town!!

She took 2 friends for a "girls nite out" shopping trip

And FYI there was NO cake this year. She didn't want it! Instead, she chose:

birthday breakfast: donuts
girls nite out: smoothies
class treats: brownies
spa party: rainbow sherbet with pirouette cookies
family party: cookies with vanilla ice cream (her favorite!)


Here are some things we love about you at 7 years:
♥ that you know what you want (Squinkies and no cake)
♥ you are so much fun to be with
♥ you are a great friend & have the talent of making friends easily
♥ your love of school
♥ you are confident about yourself
♥ your super positive always happy good attitude
♥ the way you memorize songs so quickly
♥ your crazy dance moves and excellent rhythm
♥ your love of crafts

Happy Birthday to our Lizzie girl, Bo Biz, Lizzie bo Bizzie!! We love celebrating you and your birthday!!

Trevor turns ELEVEN!

Trevor's 11th birthday was last month. He had the traditional awesome week-long celebration. Here are some of the fun things he did:

1. Woke up to a birthday party, a pile of presents, and donuts in place of cake

2. Went out to lunch (during school!!) with his best buddies to Panda Express

3. Had a birthday party at McDonald's with the Durans

4. His friend party was a NERF Battle Royale, followed with pizza and a movie at home

It is hard to believe that this boy is 11 years old already! Where has the time gone? We like to measure the kids' height along with their age each year. It gives us a better reality of how much they've grown - physically and in maturity. Check out our measuring board here:

On the morning of his 11th birthday we measured Trevor. He had grown 3 inches in one year! He is officially 5' 1". Good grief! He is only 5 inches shorter than his mama! When did he turn into a person instead of a kid? To prove that Trevor is on his way out of childhood and into adolescence, here is a list of some of Trevor's interests these days:

nerf guns
xbox - halo original game
reading - action packed books and/or fantasy
talking with his buddies
learning how to babysit
11 year old scouts
golf, snow skiing

That list is full of all things boy, for sure, and also things that teenagers enjoy. Seriously, he LOVES reading!

We tried making a deal with Trevor this year. The deal was this: instead of getting older on birthdays, he would age backwards and get younger instead. He's grown up so fast that we want to reverse time to go back to when he was younger. Trevor was not going for it. He would rather be 11 than 9 this year. Bummer!

It is true what they say, "they really do grow up so fast."

The many mini-parties of Logan's Birthday

Logan's 9th Birthday was a jam-packed fun-filled EVENT!

#1 His birthday celebrations began a couple of days before his birthday. Jeremy and I took him out for his special date night dinner. He chose to eat dinner at the DOG HOUSE GRILL. Yeah, it was Awesome.

#2 The next day was still not his birthday, but he wanted to bring treats to his class at school anyway. He had a short party in class and fed all the kids his favorite snack - FLAMIN' HOT CHEETOS!

#3 Saturday morning (his actual birthday) he woke to a family birthday party and the traditional pile of presents! Check out his new razor rip stick scooter he picked out for himself on his birthday date with mom and dad.

#4 A couple of hours after his family party was his final baseball game. He got to play in the championship game for his league. And guess what.... THEY WON! WOO HOOOO! First place to the Dodgers on Logan's birthday!! What a great birthday gift to be #1! Of course he had a celebration lunch following the game - check out his intense chomping down on the sandwich of sweet satisfaction and success.

#5 Later that night was Logan's friend birthday party. He wanted to do a laser tag party like Trevor's done in the past because they are SO MUCH FUN! Those boys were so eager to have a fun time and their energy was contagious. We formed ranks inside the arena and worked together to take down the big kids/adults that were our opponents. SWARM SWARM SWARM! ATTACK!!! We've got to get back there soon. :)

#6 Sunday night was Logan's time with our extended family. The Durans came over for some delicious chicken patty sandwiches for dinner and then presented Logan with his presents. All Logan asked for on his birthday wish list this year was CA$H. He had a larger gift in mind for himself. And he got EXACTLY what he asked for! (No worries, that string of cash was all ones. Thank you, Grandma!)

#7 The final party happened immediately after the Duran family celebration. The Ward family also got together on this same day to celebrate all of the birthdays in May. Count the # of cakes. Yep, there were 5! That was a lot of cake.

#8 The very next day Logan spent his birthday CA$H. He had enough money from birthday presents and his savings to go to Costco (for our FHE activity) and purchase his very own ipod Touch. Wow. That boy owns a fancier ipod than his mama! He is quite proud of his new baby. He's still learning his way around the menus, but is totally and thoroughly enjoying his toy that he purchased for himself.

It was a whirlwind weekend full of sooo many celebrations. We can just go ahead and call it "The Great Weekend of LOGAN". Logan, we love you and hope you felt loved and special! Happy Birthday, Logie Man!

Cake? We don't need no stinking CAKE!

Logan is our no-sweets man. He does not like anything sweet. No sugar. No candy. No soda. No cookies, cake, pie, ice cream or anything resembling dessert whatsoever. Not even fruits and some veggies that naturally have a lot of sugar.

What do we do when it's time for birthday cake, you ask? Well.... we improvise!

Logan had many birthday celebrations this weekend. And needed a "cake" for each event. Here are our perfect improvisations - perfect because they are all foods that Logan LOVES!

Cake #1 - Pillsbury Toaster Scramblers

Cake #2 - $5 footlong from Subway
Cake #3 - Chicken Patties

Cake #4 - French Fry Cake!

Logan likes having a unique cake unlike anyone else he knows. He also likes being able to actually EAT his own "birthday cake". Finally we have figured out how to make this birthday boy happy on his special day!

Jackson's 4th

Jackson's birthday has come and gone. And here's a shocker for you... we did NOT do a week-long celebration! We jam-packed his big day and slammed everything we usually do for birthdays all in one wham bam super celebration day!

He woke to the traditional pile of presents and donuts (as requested) for breakfast. Watch out for that birthday blowing out of the candles moment - that's classic Jackson for you.

After all the kids headed to school, Jackson and mommy planned out a fun day all about Jackson! We laid around in our jammies for awhile playing Wii, enjoyed a quick visit with Grandma Elizabeth and Grandpa Louie who brought over a fun balloon treat for the birthday boy, and ate the rest of those donuts before heading out for a visit with Nanny Boggs (that's Jackson's Great Grandma). She had a special choo-choo train waiting for him. She was moving out of her apartment the next day and we got to take the tour of the place and say goodbye to everyone with her.

Jackson had been asking ALL WEEK to go to the gas station to buy a treat. We finally headed out to grant his wish and use the gas station as one of his birthday gifts. He chose a cool nerf shooting gun and a single serving tub of Dibs ice cream. It's the little things in life that bring him the most pleasure... oh, to be 4 again.... It was time for lunch about then, and we had planned to go to his restaurant of choice - Me N Eds. Now, I know what you're thinking, but NO, I did NOT influence that choice one bit. He LOVES pizza. It's his favorite food - he'd eat it every day if we let him.

After lunch we stopped at the Build-A-Bear Workshop for another birthday gift. He watched Lizzie get hers for her birthday and he requested the same for his. He picked out exactly what he wanted and we were out of there in less than 15 minutes! What a difference between boys and girls! He named his bear "BuildABearHugsAndKisses". Awwwww.... he has a soft sweet spot after all!

We ran home to collect the kids and meet daddy over at the miniature golf course (a.k.a. our new family favorite hang-out). Jackson also requested golf for his bday fun. I'm telling you, this boy KNOWS what he wants! And he REALLY wanted that hole-in-one on the 18th hole to get his FREE icee! And, no surprise, it didn't go in. Even with all their not-so-honest efforts.

After a fun round of golfing goodness we made our way over to the Dog House Grill (a.k.a. our family favorite eatery). I have to admit that we may have coerced him into choosing this location. That tri-tip sandwich was the "icing on the cake" to a great day. (All puns intended, naturally.)

There was a sweet race on the way home - as there always is when we are in separate cars. The winner is the first person to touch the front door.

It was a sweet sweet victory for mama's car. We love beating daddy any chance we get! We made our way into the house to finish off the day with a final happy birthday singing by the cousins. It's never truly a party until the cousins arrive.

Jackson went to bed a happy boy that night. We're still working on the question, "How old are you?" He'll put up four fingers, but will say, "Three!" instead of four. It's amazing how time flies. Happy Birthday, Jackson boy. That was a GREAT day.