3,2,1...Blastoff!!!

We were finally able to have Powell's birthday party! We were initially set to go on his actual birthday (Jan. 30th), but then, as we know, the kids got sick. Ugh.
The morning of the party was a Sunday morning, so we still headed to church in the a.m. I had decorated the night before, so when Powell came downstairs, he saw the silver, swirly stars hanging from the ceiling. He gasped and said, "Oh, thank you, mom!" It was pretty sweet. The little things in life...
Powell was so excited about his cake, and I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, too. Everything was from scratch, except for the cake mixes. They were Duncan Hines. ;) Did you know that marshmallow, homemade fondant tastes sooooo much better than the premade fondant you can buy at the store? And it's so incredibly easy to make! Moving right along....Powell really loved his cake, and he is probably the only kid I know of who has to be threatened in order to open his birthday presents. lol All-in-all, I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time, and it was nice that my parents were in town to celebrate with us as well.

The only thing on the cake that was not edible were the fins of the rocket ship. The planets, stars and astronaut were made of the marshmallow fondant. Needless to say, we had kids picking off the stars all afternoon. hehe
Had to get that cute astronaut waving to us.

Powell was pretty excited to have everybody singing "Happy Birthday" to him.
G'ma and Isabel. I thought it was pretty funny how they were matching, and not on purpose. :)
As you can tell from his face, Powell wasn't too into opening the presents, but he did love them all!

Happy Baby Shower!

We finally got to throw a baby shower for our sweet Andrea! She has been waiting for this day for a long time, and we wanted to make it extra special for her.
The food was delicious.
My favorite part. We incorporated her daughter's name into scripture and prayed them over both Andrea and Lila (I had found the idea at this blog, and fell in love with it). I was a mess, so overcome with emotion. This was such a special day.
She is positively glowing! And look at that beautiful, sweet, baby girl. :)
We love our special girls!! God is sooo great!!

Goin' On A Safari

Day 2 of opening presents was just as fun as day 1! He loved the sticker book from Aunt Jordan and he loved the safari vest with all of the accessories from g'pa Carson and g'ma Candice. He was on "safari" all morning, and had to fight his little sister for the net. She thought it was pretty funny to put over her head and face. Silly babies. We also enjoyed putting stickers in the sticker book. He, of course, wanted to start with the food pages. :) Thank you Aunt Jordan and g'pa and g'ma Dove!!

Sticker book!

Isabel wanted to try on the vest. hehe

Checking out the compass.

Silly girl. She would put this on her head, then laugh hysterically. She thinks she's funny stuff. :)

Showing off his lantern that really works!

These were his "glasses". He was just walking around like this. The goofy boy.

Birthday Videos

Here are a couple videos from Powell's birthday. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Powell!!

Well, my little boy turned 4 years old today. We had to cancel his party for today since he woke up yesterday with a croup-like cough. We are postponing it for a later date though, so stay tuned! I'm really excited about his cake. I'm really hoping that it turns out. Since we didn't have the party today, we still let him open his presents from us. He was pretty excited about his Leapster2, since it was just like cousin Isaac's! He wasn't wanting to open presents after ours, so we get to open presents again tomorrow! :) Extending present opening is always fun. I still made a cake, but it wasn't anything too special. Just a chocolate cake with pink vanilla frosting and sprinkles (he picked the frosting out, by the way..lol). He also wanted pizza for dinner, so we sprung for Cici's Pizza. It's cheap and pretty good! During dessert, he wanted to watch "Sleeping Beauty" while eating his cake, so we set the kids up. Special day calls for some spoiledness. ;) Happy Birthday, my big 4-year-old! We love you to the moon and back!

Answer To Prayer!

One of my dearest friends and her husband had a HUGE answer to prayer this past week. They got their sweet baby girl via adoption. This has been almost 7 years in the making. We could not be more overjoyed for them. God is so good! This has been a week full of smiles and tears of joy (I am a cryer). She is the sweetest, most mellow baby. I have been so blessed to be a part of their lives. It has been so fun to help get their house ready for her to come home to. Congratulations a million times over, W and A!!! Your little "dark-haired beauty" has arrived.

She is so beautiful. Perfect.

I Hate This Time Of Year...

You always hate when your babies get sick, but you hate it even worse after they've had to be hospitalized with croup (see blogpost, January of 2009). Isabel woke up with a temp of 101.2 and a cough with an edge of croup-yness to it. I had to give her a couple doses of Tylenol, but her fever did break on Monday. Her cough has turned more into a chesty/phlegmy cough, and I've been running the humidifier every time she sleeps and giving her a teaspoon of honey before she sleeps and giving her warm water with a little lemon juice and honey in it. I hope she kicks this thing soon. Downside: Powell now has a cough with a croup-y edge to it. Booo!! When will it end? Luckily, we have two humidifiers, so now they both have one running in their rooms. The sad part? We've had to cancel, with hopes of just postponing, his 4th birthday party to a later date. Why do I even try to plan a birthday party for him? The last couple birthdays, he has been sick. Curses to cold and flu season! I do hope everybody else is staying healthy.
Poor Isabel was just so wiped from being sick, that she fell asleep during lunch. Poor baby.

For those of you who are trying to ward off sickness, especially if you feel your immune system is down, this stuff is great!