Preston's Birthday

Preston has been counting down his birthday since he arrived last summer . . .  we gave him the choice of having a BIG Party or celebrating with the family and he choice a family activity!  When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he was quick to tell me German Chocolate and when I informed him that no store makes a good German Chocolate cake he still insisted that was what he wanted . . So I made one!!  That's right folks I made him a three tier German Chocolate cake and it was WONDERFUL!

After school he was able to open all his gifts . . .  I had him call Oma so she was able to hear him open the gift!!  I knew he was going to be pretty excited about the new fire truck Oma, Opa and Daniel had gotten him. (Lower left corner pictures) Preston got some great gifts - Sam got him a Nerf Flag Football game, Breckin and his family got him some cool Lego set, Kaylab got him some fighter jets and Micah and I found a great WWII documentary that he wanted, another Lego set to add to his collection and a Paper Jam Amp for his guitar.

Off we went to Layton Classic Fun Center - that's what he wanted!  He and Kaylab LOVE LOVE playing Laser Tag while Breckin was bounce happy.as you can see from the pictures to follow we had a great time.  Happy Birthday Preston we hope it was a GREAT ONE!

Yup that's Tanya!  What fun is it to have kids if you can't act like one of them from time to time.

Breckin wanted a turn to go with Micah - and Sam got some pictures of them. . .

This is Micah having his own turn. 

Silly Breckin Faces . . .

And such a CUTE little face too . . .  Since Breckin was only going to be a 'short-term' placement I knew that we would never get a chance to take family pictures so I used my front room to take a few pictures of him. 

Congratulations Erika and Steven

I never have ENOUGH to do . . . Yea Right!  When Erika called to tell me she was getting married I offered to help and it is something that I love to do.  So has luck would have it I had some wedding invitations and some ideas and I offered to gift her her wedding invitations.

Sam says . . . .

Sam says to me one day after dinner . . "Tanya I don't feel so good!" My response is . . "well duh Sam! You came home from school and stood in the kitchen eating for 30 minutes non-stop and just ate everything in sight at dinner! How about we go shopping that will make you feel better??"

On the way to Old Navy Sam begin to question me as to what it is like to have menstrual cramps and he believes taking Midol will cure his aching stomach ache!  OK whatever Sam .  . . he now believes he is suffering from Man-Cramps and has begun to feel sorry for every girl who has ever had to endure this pain.

We go to Old Navy he picks out two of the ugliest shirts EVER and I tell him that I hope in the morning he feels better enough to realize those are some ugly shirts! Less then 30 minutes later he has thrown up a dozen times and is complaining about his side aching. He goes to bed with instructions if it gets worse come get me. I even had to CONVINCE him that he had to stay home from school no if - ands - or butts about it.

Next morning he is still in bed and when I check on me he says it got worse during the night, but he didn't want to get out of bed. Dr says bring him in at 11am and I will take a look. By 11:45 we are off to get the fluids for him to drink for the next two hours to have an MRI.

By 5:30pm he is prepped for surgery for an appendectomy to have his appendix removed.  at 6:30 the doctor comes out to tell me that he did great and is in recovery.  Sam stayed the night in the hospital to get some extra attention and came home the next morning.

Valentine's 2011

Wanted to do something fun for Valentine's Day so I made some rasberry filled cupcakes with pink frosting, we had a ham dinner with sprakling cider. 

Afterwards the boys had cute little treat buckets with mircowave popcorn, candy, fruit snacks and a box of See's Candy for each boy - THANKS OMA!!!

Family Night Out

Tonight we took the family to the Layton Classic fun Center for an Unlimited Package deal I found in the Value Coupons; it was unlimited bounce, Pirates Cove, Laser Tag, and Skating  ($1.00 to rent skates) with a Jumbo Pizza and a pitcher of Soda for $30.00 for a family of five.

It was our FIRST time and the place seemed rather run down, but the boys had a BLAST being able to play laser tag for four hours and even enjoyed the pizza.  Preston liked it so much in fact that he asked that we go there for his birthday rather than Chuck E Cheese.

The Grand Finale of the evening was the six of us playing laser tag with another family we knew from the ward. . . .  3 teams of three.  Kaylab, Breckin and Micah were the Green Team  and Preston, Sam and I were the Yellow Team and of course we all lost to the Blue Team.

SHS Preference 2011

Here is a few photos of Sam and his date, Megan
shortly before they left to go have dinner and go to the dance.