Happy Birthday Blake!

Blake is finally 6 years old today! Everybody, for the past 11 1/2 months, has given us funny looks when we say he's only 5 because he's so tall. Since his birthday was on a Saturday this year he chose to go out for breakfast instead of dinner. After eating at Denny's we picked up his friend Myles for a sleepover to celebrate.First stop -The Strike Zone for some bowling. Blake is happy to report that he beat Mom by 20 points!
Next stop - some fun in the sun swimming at our pool. Finally after dinner Blake was able to have birthday cake and ice cream followed by opening presents. His favorite was the new "Mater National" Playstation 2 game from Mom and Dad.
Blake requested a Tony Stewart #20 car for his birthday cake this year, one of the more challenging requests for Mom to do.

Happy 1st Days of Summer...

...even though we've been celebrating here in Georgia for months! You know it's goin' to be a great summer if you have tan lines like these on the first weekend of summer - the crazy thing is that Blake is even darker! Even though we coat them in sunscreen and they haven't gotten burnt this summer, ya just can't help but soak up the Georgia sun, resulting in an awesome tan!

Father's Day Gift

Okay, now that Father's Day is passed and the surprise can't be ruined- here's what I did for my Dad this year. You can take any picture and turn it into a tie on Wal-Mart's website. Rick wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that, but my parents eat that stuff up since we live so far away. I thought it was a cute twist to the traditional Father's Day gift and he said that it was a big hit at church that day.

Birthday with Blue

Ashlyn LOVES Blue's Clues and would watch the show 24/7 if we let her, but won't sit to watch anything else. So I decided to make a Blue's Clues birthday cake for her birthday this weekend. One word of advice if you're thinking of making one - it's done with a 9x13 cake and then you cut out the 2 ears and head...I stuck it all together and then tried to decorate it...it didn't work too well. You can't get the decorator tube on the inside very well to frost the middle. Next time I would decorate them and then put the pieces together. I'm not sure where she picked up what you're suppose to do with birthday candles since we haven't had a birthday since Rick's in February, but she was blowing them out faster than I could light them! She knew exactly what to do with the presents too! No time was wasted tearing into them! (Can you believe how big she is getting? She looks like a little lady in this picture!)Her favorite gift was a pink Oregon Duck's shirt from Uncle Steve and Aunt Lisa. We had her try it on and she won't take it off...my guess is she'll end up sleeping in it tonight like she has with every new pair of shoes she's gotten in the past year. This is her dancing around the room with it on - can ya' tell she's excited about it?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Ashlyn's friend gave her a tricycle the other day that she had outgrown - boy was she excited for a bike! Her feet can barely reach the pedals, but she figured it out already. Don't get me wrong, she's no speed demon....because of a slight slant of our driveway she can only go down the driveway....she has no concept of stearing so she kind of zig-zags until I straighten her out. Blake was the same way when learning to pedal, their leg muscles just aren't strong enough for a couple of weeks. However, Blake finally learned to pedal a couple of weeks before his 3rd birthday and Ashlyn's 2nd birthday is this weekend. They say girls develop their motor skills faster than boys - with our two kids that has definitely been the case.

Picture Time

I did a little photo session in our backyard with the kids the other day to get a picture to make a Father's Day gift for my Dad. (I can't say what for, because it will ruin the surprise!) However, I thought this picture was soooo adorable even though it won't work for what I needed it for. I'll have to frame it for my shelf in the piano room maybe. Can you believe how big they are getting?

Ooo-La-La!

For Ashlyn's birthday she got her ears pierced today! She's been wearing clip on dress-up earrings around the house a lot lately and gets mad when they don't stay on. So I asked her if she wanted "pretties" in her ears all the time like Mom. We went down to the mall today and boy did she think she was hot stuff. She picked out which ones she wanted (little sparkle flowers with blue centers), hopped up on the chair and chatted away with the lady. However, there was only one lady working, so we couldn't do both ears at once - big mistake! She wasn't too keen on getting the second one done. After we talked to her and calmed her down and distracted her enough we were able to make her head symmetrical again.
After all was said and done she only took a couple of minutes to calm down and then was thrilled. She had to stop at every mirror we passed in the mall to see and talked about them all day long. Pretty!

What a Memory!

Blake is happy to report that he finished memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith for Primary last week, earning a Brusters Icecream gift card and a new journal. As a Primary Presidency we've been focusing on all of the kids to accomplish this goal by the end of the year. Blake was the 4th kid in our ward to be able to pass them all off - the other 3 kids are kids who are turning 12 this year and have to do it as part of the Faith in God Program. The craziest thing about him doing it is that he did it all on his own - we didn't help him one bit! He skipped ahead and memorized #13 out of order about a month ago and when they pass that one off we have them recite it in closing exercises for everybody, which of course everybody was in awe of...he recited it just as if he was reading it. When parents came up and asked me what "OUR" method was, my only reply was that HIS method was just to read it outloud 2-3 times and then he was able to remember it perfectly all week to pass it off to his teacher during class. Crazy!!

"I Love to See the Temple"

We were blessed with the opporutnity to attend the temple in Orlando this weekend. Talk about a beautiful temple! I love all the tropical plants and trees that they landscaped with. Rick is in the Elders Quorum Presidency and they put together a temple trip complete with babysitting at the Stake Center across the street from the temple and we all caravaned down. Since we were traveling with others we didn't get an opportunity to walk around the grounds with the kids and take more pictures. Blake was pretty mad about it, but understood and made us promise next time to allow some time for it. What a great blessing to be able to attend the temple and reflect on our covenants we've made. I can't wait until Ashlyn and Blake have the opprounity to be sealed for Time and Eternity in this beautiful building!

Movin' On Up!

Blake has officially graduated from Kindergarten and is a big 1st grader now. Ashlyn and I went to his little graduation ceremony and party at school on Thursday and then Friday was their last day. I thought he'd be pretty excited about moving up,but when I picked him up from school he was trying his hardest not to cry. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I'm afraid I'll bust the next grade Mom." After clarification, he was afraid that 1st grade was going to be too hard and that he'd fail. After I informed him of the stuff they do in 1st grade - all of which he can already do - he was realived and then only worried about not getting to see Mrs. DeBarry. Again I reassured him that it would be fine he'd have a new teacher and that he'd pass his old classroom every morning to go to his new class so whenever he wanted to say hi to Mrs. DeBarry he could. All is well and he is now excited about 1st grade.