Kai's 2 Birthday Parties!

After flying back from California Wednesday afternoon, I put together a 'family' birthday party for Kai since I was leaving the next morning to go to Youth Conference down in Manti with Brent.

G'pa Bill and G'ma Joan came over for dinner and we had a few presents and, of course, a cake for Kai!  These kids love cake!  And Kai loves presents! Brent was still out of town until late that night, poor guy!

I had to re-light the cake twice because Keala blew it out the first time! Shes her mother's daughter!

Kai spent the first couple days with his dad while we were in California for Lynne's wedding. He had to go right back to his dad's again the next day. I got asked a lot of questions why that was!

 Keala's is pretending to sleep. I guess it was the pose of the day!

This is Kai's 2nd Birthday party with friends which I threw together after getting back in town on Saturday afternoon.  Don't ask how I managed to throw 2 parties in between 2 trips out of town!

Keala just ate the toppings off her pizza... gross! I am glad now that I can officially say my kids are 6 and 8! And I can't believe they are so old! They're not babies any more. Wahhhh!

Here's Birthday Cake #2: chocolate! Kai's request! He was very upset that Cake #1 was vanilla. So how do we remedy the situation? Buy another cake, duh! (Good thing we had 2 parties to go with 2 cakes!)

These are Kai's neighbor friend, and his 2nd cousin Ben. We played pin the bomb on the Star Wars Universe, did a water balloon toss, and had a Darth Vadar pinata! What a party!

The presents just kept coming and coming...

And coming and coming...

And then Justin's parent's Ann and Brent just happened to show up with MORE presents as we were opening presents! What a coincidence!

Awwwh! Cute family!

Darth Vadar Pinata made me really mad!  After one hit from Kai his helmet broke and fell off his face (after all the bucks I payed for it!)  I wrapped him in clear packaging tape and then the cord fell out the top! So then I had to wrap the rope around it! Got very close to sending a heated letter to the pinata manufacturing plant... but what do they care! Next year, I'm building my own=

"MEGA-DEATH-PINATA-OF-THE-INFERNAL-PIT!" (that never breaks!) oH YEAH!

The point is... Kai had a great week, despite his mom being gone most of it!

My Aunt Lynne's Wedding

Last Monday my sisters and I flew down to L.A. for a quick 2 day trip for my Aunt's wedding.  The wedding was held on Tuesday at the Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes.  The Chapel was as beautiful as the ceremony.  Heres their website: http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/

My sister Breanne took all the photos during the ceremony for my Aunt. Her new husband's name is Don, they met over a year ago, and have had a wonderful connection ever since.

This is Lynne's first wedding. All her friends, along with us family members couldn't have been more excited for her. I had such a fun day just being overjoyed for her happiness! So much fun!

Originally my Aunt Lynne and Don wanted to elope but my dad (her only sibling) talked her out of it. And slowly but surely more and more people wanted to be a part of their special day. People came from Vancouver (where my Aunt lived most her life), and from Maui (where she lives now) and many other places across the states and other regions of Califonia.

After the ceremony we drove up to Rolling Hills Estates (not too far away) to Frascati's Restaurant. For anyone who lives in the area, you MUST GO to this restaurant. It was wonderful food and a great atmosphere! They closed the whole restaurant just to our wedding party for the whole afternoon!

Lauren and Ryan drove down with their kids to spend the week in California, but the rest of us flew, free of children or spouses.  It was such a fun time, full of giggles and laughter.. all the good medicine!

This is the wedding party, with my Aunt and Don in the middle. (Shes the one in white!) Ha ha ha!

I announced that I needed to be in the picture because I helped with Lynne's hair... ha ha ha!

What a good looking group of siblings! I just love my family! We're so cute! Hee hee.

Next to Lynne is Don's only daughter, Jill.  On the other end my dad and his wife, Kathy.

It was a quick few days, with a flight back early Wednesday morning, but we will all reconnect in a couple weeks for our annual family vacation... this time children and spouses will be included. Ahhh!

My Brother's Bidding:

I got an email from my brother this week with this picture attatched and the heading read:

"This is your mission, should you choose to accept it."

I say.... "Piece of cake"!!!!!

Graduation Day!

Ahh Cute! Sibling sweetness!

Good lookin' family!

Best buddies!

The procession!

Recieving of diplomas.

Look at the light shine down on these kids!

Yeah for class of 2011! 

The best part of the day... eating at Texas Roadhouse! Yeah babey!

Here We Go Loup-de-Lou!

The kids finished school on Thursday... Summer has started... 1, 2, 3, Go!
I took my kids shopping at the South Towne Mall yesterday. 
 I used the Merri-Go-Round as an incentive for them to be on good behavior.
(It kinda worked). Kids are kids!

We took snap-shots in the photo-booth they have and Kai loved it!

I gave Kai 8 quarters to play the video games and he lost it all on one stupid toy game.

I felt aweful for him. But then we went and got his first REAL neck tie and we were back to fun!

 We all shared an Orange Julius (which I love!)... hey, its tradition!

(Brent HATES spending $5 on a glass of orange juice!) But I love it!

Here is Keala a couple weeks ago, shopping with mom... good posing!

I took all these pictures with my cell phone.

This is the first time I figured out how to email the photos to myself.

Don't ask, and don't judge!