Happy Birthday Haylee!!

Haylee is officially a four year old. I can't believe it. We had a strawberry shortcake birthday party for her to celebrate. We celebrated as a family on her actual birthday. Then only a couple of days after we had a big birthday bash in the back yard. I think it turned out pretty good. She had been telling me for months that she wanted a strawberry shortcake birthday party. I was a little unsure exactly what to do. This was the first birthday party for me, and I wanted it to be good for Haylee. The first task was getting all the stuff together. They don't really sell that much Strawberry shortcake stuff anymore. I don't know why but you can't find it at the stores. So I ordered most of what I needed online.

Seth picked out the cake all by himself while we were in California, and I have to say he did a pretty good job. Haylee was really excited about it.

She opened the presents from us with the family and I think she liked most of what she got. We got her some slippers that came with strawberry scented bubble bath and lotion. She also got a big strawberry shortcake toy she was pretty excited about, and snow white polly pocket stuff that came with a prince. She is always telling me when she plays with her polly pockets that she needs a boy. She has all girls and no boys. I don't exactly know if this is a good thing that she wants boy polly pockets or not.

She also got cute outfits from Grandma and Grandpa actually built her the prettiest head board for her bed. It's pretty amazing what he can do.

The big present from us what her big girl bike. Seth even set up a scavanger hunt for her to go on to find her bike. It was really creative. He hid clues for her to find that would lead her to the next clue and then finally to her bike. She was really excited about her bike she rode it until the sun went down.

A couple of days later was the big strawberry shortcake birthday party. It was a blast, they decorated visers and played games. My Mother in law drew up a strawberry for us to play pin the stem on the strawberry, which was really fun.


Haylee opened her presents surrounded by all her cute friends. She got some pretty good stuff too. It was so nice of all of her friends to come and celebrate with her.
The big hit of the party though was little strawberry shaped pinatas that we hid around the backyard for the kids to find and break into. At first they weren't exactly sure what they were supposed to do with these strawberrys, but then I had Haylee stomp on hers until it cracked open and they were off.

The party turned out to be ok. It was actually pretty fun. I have to admit I was a little stressed out about it, especially when I realized while I was trying to set up that morning that the wind was blowing a little bit. I may have a big backyard but I have a small house and we were gonna be out of luck if the weather turned bad on me because I am pretty sure we would not have fit in my house. I couldn't believe the help and support I got though. All theses kids are adorable and it was fun having them at the party.

Fun Times

We have been pretty busy the last month or so. I cant complain though its all been fun stuff. So needless to say this post is going to be a tad bit long so just a warning.
About a month ago we went to the Oregan coast with Seths family. On the way there we decided to go to the Omsi in Portland. It was so cool. I would definately recommend it. If you haven't been there you should go. There was so much to see and so much to do and it was all pretty interesting and also very educational. We took a lot of pictures and had a ton of fun.

Here is Seth with the kiddos at the Omsi before we got started on the fun stuff.



We finally talked Haylee into touching the electricity ball so that her hair would stand up. It was so funny watching her hair stand up like that. I got a pretty good picture of her too. She was such a trooper. She even gave me a little pose.

Next we talked her into dressing up as a wild animal and climbing into a log on the ground. This was quite a bit easier to talk her into doing. She was pretty cute.

We found a little sand and water table that the kids could play in. They are supposed to learn how to build a dam and make a river and all that good stuff. Haylee loved this. We had a difficult time pulling her away from this one. I think she would have just stayed and played at this the entire time. Seth won't admit it but he had a good time too. I caught him playing in the sand with the other kids. He didn't want to leave either.

The dinasour section was really cool. They had lots of fun dinasour bones to look at. Haylee like this part too. She gave me a different pose at each dinasour.

I liked this picture because it shows how easy it would have been for this particular dinasour to eat Haylee.

We got a little astronaut picture that was pretty cute.

After Porland it was on to Seaside to stay in a really neat beach house with the fam. Seth wanted to hike to the top of tilamook head so he convinced his Dad and Sister to get up early and go hike it with him. I think they had a lot of fun. I was a little jealous. I would have loved to hike with them but I stayed to feed the baby.

We took a trip to the aquarium also. This is a picture of Haylee and I looking in at the seals.

They were so cute and would jump and do tricks. The kids even got to throw them little pieces of fish for them to eat. This was a big hit.

There was a lot of cool stuff to look at and even some stuff to touch.

We spent one day out at the beach. It was so beautiful, the kind of place you have to see to really appreciate just how pretty it is. And even though the weather did not totally cooperate with us we had fun anyway. Haylee immediately started building a sand castle. That is what I like to do at the beach too. We teamed up and built a pretty good one.

Kyle was a trooper. He was all smiles even though Mom had him in like 4 shirts and blankets on him to keep him warm. I think he even had a good time. I actually got creative and used the lawn chairs to build a little fort to keep the wind away. It worked pretty well.

Seth being Mr. adventure decided to play cliff hanger and climb the rocks (while wearing flip flops). I just tried not to look too often.

We even stuck our feet in the water a little bit. That water is pretty cold.

Try as I may I cannot find pants that will stay up on this girl. Her legs are so long that in order for her pants to be long enough they fall off. So once again we captured the bum shot.

After the coast, the kids and I flew out of Portland to make it to my little sisters wedding that weekend. It was so good to get to see my family and be there in the temple when my sister got married. She even let me do her hair and makeup. It was fun to have some sister time. At the reception Haylee and her cousin Aaron started dancing. This was too cute. Little kids dancing together gets me every time.

Here is a picture of Kyle with uncle Kevin. Two pretty handsome boys here.

I found out that nobody was going to decorate the car. I just couldn't have this so I ran to the store and got the stuff. Then I found the groomsmen and gave them the stuff and told them to go decorated it. I helped out a little bit. It was really fun and I think it turned out pretty cute too. We even had cans on the bumper.

I got to spend a little while in California with my family. That was really fun, and then we flew home. So all in all I think that the summer is off to a pretty fun start.