Happy birthday to me!

So, yesterday was my birthday. I love my birthday. I feel it to be my own personal holiday. And, since I decided several years ago that I will NEVER get old and that the "number" does not define me, I don't care that I am now 33 years old. I say, BRING IT ON!!!

My birthday didn't go at all the way I had planned it. Instead of doing something fun with my kids I had to clean the house. Instead of making my traditional Hawaiian Chicken for dinner, I went out for Brazilian barbeque with my hubby. I even had a grand scheme for my birthday cake. I had it all planned out in my head. I was going to make a sponge cake and then pipe a basketweave pattern on the cake with whipped cream. On top of the cake I was going to artfully mound glazed strawberries and then use chocolate covered strawberries to garnish around the base.

Well, by the time I had cleaned the house, taken care of the kids all morning and afternoon, made the sponge cake, the chocolate covered strawberries, glazed strawberries and whipped cream...I was way to tired to haul out even one piping bag or one little tip to do any sort of decorating. So, instead, my cake turned out looking like:
I know it is not nearly as artful as I had planned it out to be, or is it any sort of grand, decadent dessert like my friend, Sierra, is learning to make in culinary school...but boy! It was yummy! My absolute favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake, so this is my little spin on it. The sponge had orange zest in it which was yummy with the strawberries. The strawberries were glazed with vanilla sugar. And...there are very few things in this life better than chocolate covered strawberries.

So, happy birthday to me!

I love my big bay window!

So, today I took pictures of Julianna (mostly) because she is now 4 months old. Kind of trippy to realize that she is indeed 4 months old, but there it is...I can't change it. My kids were in a particularly restful/happy mood today, so I whipped out the camera a shot about 70 or so pictures. No big set up, just in my livingroom with daylight coming through my big bay window. I love my big bay window. I have used it several times before while photographing my kids, and let me tell you, it is fabulous! So much light comes streaming through that I don't have to use a flash! It is like we are outside taking pictures, but without the cold! I absolutely adore natural light and the fact that I can shoot pictures of my kids inside my house using natural light is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Here are a few examples of what we accomplished today:

Aren't they cute? I love it!

Gratitude Journal

This year for Relief Society, we have been challenged to keep a "gratitude and service" journal. We made little notebooks and we are supposed to write in them everyday- 1 thing we are thankful for and 1 thing we did that was of service to others.

My journal is going to be simple...I have the simple pleasures and services of being a mostly stay at home mom. But, I thought I'd share with you my entry from yesterday:

1-9-08: I am thankful for a 4 year old daughter who in response to the question: "What does leg start with?" answered: "A foot".

It is always amazing and pretty much the cutest thing to see the world through the eyes of a four year old. I am starting to understand the Savior's direction to us to "become as little children"...only my little children could have ever gotten the lesson through my thick skull. And I am grateful for that!

Henry Boy

This is my Henry boy. I never thought of anything being special about the fact that we call him "Henry boy", we just always have done ever since he was itty-bitty.

At lunch with Grampa before we came home from California, he heard me call my son "Henry boy" and he started to tear up. Apparently, my Grampa's gramma would call him "Henry boy" when he was a child.

I did notice that every time I called to my son, my Grampa perked up...it must have been a challenge for him to figure out who was being talked to, with two "Henry boy"s in the place!

Henry to the power of 2

Some of you know that we name our children for members in our families. My son is named for my grampa, Henry. Over the Christmas break the two Henrys were able to spend some quality time together...they were contemplating the origin and the functionality of trains as only a 70-something Henry and a 2-year old Henry can. It was terribly adorable. Here are two of my favorite pictures from the encounter:

In this picture Grampa is explaining that the train isn't broken, that there really is supposed to be a hole there. (Don't ask me where the hole was that was causing this problem, it was of some serious concern to little Henry, though!)








In this picture, little Henry is asking Grampa where the train came from and they are having a rather in-depth discussion on the subject that the train came from Aunt Chelle.

All in all it was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen!

3 months old!

Can you believe it? My baby is 3 months old already! I am perfectly astounded! Time has gone by so fast! She is sooo cute, though! She is such a little character, too! She turns on the charm when I walk passed and she wants to be picked up. With her smile, it is hard to resist! Well...just see for yourself:

Nathan has his master's degree!

On Friday December 12th, Nathan graduated from WSU with his Masters degree in Education!!! YEAH!! I am pretty excited!! He has been working on his masters for over 4 years, so to have it complete is a wonderful feeling! He will be applying for a PhD program for 2010, so he is nowhere near done with school...but at least he will have a little time off to do things around the house and with the family! And, he even let me take a nice picture of him all decked out. Usually, he makes some funny face or looks constipated when I take his picture!