Ezra you are Free! Happy Birfday

Ezra's birthday breakfast of choice

The night before the Carmacks had come over and given Rowdy a mini "cars" launcher and Ezra loooved it and thought it was his birthday present. Rowdy loved it too. Before Ezra woke up Rowdy decided to wrap it up and give it to Ezra. Everyone was happy.

Ezra wanted to go to the jump house. Our old faithful ended up being closed on Mondays. So we found a new one in Hurst. Ezra had fun.

 

We all did.

After the jump house we ate at Market street and popped in with our popsicles to the Brownies for an impromptu swimming party

 

Its all fun and games tell mom gets sunscreen in your eyes :(

 My first sunscreen incident of the season had to happen to the birthday boy

 Yaya and Papa sent pakages full of goodies and funny dancing cards

We got him a spiderman costume for his birthday. 

Its funny to me he hasn't  watched the cartoon, he just likes Spiderman

This picture cracks me up. 

But, even better is when he puts on his bike helmet and cruises up and down the street

Blue cupcake for our birthday boy

-Ezra is fiercely loyal to the things he likes. For example the color blue, Spiderman, Super Why and the Super Why song, Diego, jump houses, his blue pillow and whatever toy he decides he is into that day. He is good at sharing but he lets everyone know what he likes.
-He is doing good at potty training stuff. He still thinks that every time he "goes" he gets to play Dad's phone.
-We have been battling molluscum w him for a long time now It is finally starting to clear up. We have some lotion now and he will pat me while I put it on him and say,"I'm just trying to make yo feel better Mom."
-He has been making up silly songs that he sings to himself...and cracks up about them. We love eaves dropping.
-He likes to sing poppy songs that Rowdy or the cousins are singing. My favorite lately is, "I don't know your beautiful" :) but he has busted out a few times "Mom you don't know your beautiful" aww. Thanks lil' buddy.
-He still is a little jumpy around dogs and spiders and super loud noises, but not so much thunder anymore. But Rowdy loves to get him riled up..(related to Pops much? :)
-Before going to bed every night he comes out of his room and says,"Can I tell you a question?" Then he tells us some random line from a cartoon , or something he and Rowdy were laughing about. He fake laughs and then goes right back to bed.
-He is still so cuddly and makes messes pretty much every time he eats
-He is a good boy. Always glad to give a cuddly hug, for which I am uber-grateful
Love you Ezra.

Rowdiest 5 year old we know

Happy Birthday Rowdster! 

Donut breakfast

 cupcake lunch

 We met cousins and a few friends at the Roanoke splash park

 

We played Phineas & Ferb tag

 Loved wearing this shirt today. Thanks Letti!

 played more tag

 

I had spent all morning doing water balloons. Ezra snuck a bunch of them

He Reminds me of Cody. So sneaky :)

 Water balloon game didn't last too long :)

 That is Grayson hanging upside down. I had mercy on Zoe and didn't put up the picture of her getting the bucket.

When we got home we rode bikes and played w water guns, using the dry ice from the popsicles to make it more interesting

 Brain Freeze!

Rowdy really wanted to watch the Phineas and Ferb movie and play "olymics" on the wii on his birthday. He wanted to decorate both nachos and ice cream for his birthday dinner.  When Nan called to asked how his party went he said, "I was so happy I bursted with joy!"

Happy Birthday Rowdy! We love you

Rowdy's 5th Birthday Eve

Getting so big. So independent, imaginative & thoughtful. 

Tonight I put the kids in bed and heard their door open. I was kind of exhausted..., "Mom, I love you more than anything." accompanied w a big hug. Loved that little moment. 

Thanks Rowdy.

Here are a few cute things you've said recently:

-as you were eating a "dum dum" w Yaya in California....," Yaya in Texas things are bigger... Like the Lollipops."

-We were talking about life after kindergarten and you mentioned "Up School" which we figured out was High school.

-At your preschool graduation they asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up and you said,"A Lion Tamer."

Its crazy to think 5 years ago you were just a tiny little nugget of a new born. You were so alert and handsome. Our world never was the same ...in a good way. You still teach us so much. You've broadened our horizons and deepened our understanding. I am grateful for your patience as we learn to be better parents and people. We are grateful for you in our home. You are kind and helpful & we are grateful for your good example to Ezra and Elliot. They love you soooo much too. Thanks for always helping them and loving them.
Just want you to know...
We LOVE YOUR 5 year old GUTS!

Nan's glow in the dark Birthday

It was so fun to be there for Nan's birthday. She wanted to go swimming so we borrowed Letti's neighbors pool and partied in the a.m. Rowdy was pretty much back to square one with swimming but nan encouraged him to go around the whole pool holding onto the edges and then he didn't want to get out.
We parted ways and later Nan, Letti and Lynda went to stake conference, the sat night session and we snuck over to Nan's house before they got back. We filled up balloons with glow sticks bought a cutie cake and a couple lego people. We put the glow sticks in white balloons and it was all pretty when she came home. Then the fun began :) She told us about how her girls at girls camp had popped the glow sticks all the way open and splattered them everywhere so we did it! and started painting Paige's face and body painting with these glow sticks it looked awesome! but then some got on someones shirt and we decided we better check to see if it stained. no staining it said, but you need to be careful of the glass!!! Just as we read that all the kids started complaining oww! my face is burning! aww. it was sad funny. and sure enough we notice little glass viles all over. Yikes! But when it was all calmed down we did it outside and it was Beautiful!  Just like Nan. We are one lucky family.

May & June

At Tad n amelias we put cousins glow in the dark sticks on the spokes of all the cousins bike 

tires! IT was so surreal looking!, angels game, mothers day eve was so lovely. 

We went in Tad n Amelia's spa, Monday Cody drove up in a new 
car! for my birthday!! I felt like I was in a fancy advertisement! IT was covered it crepe 

paper and full of people. rowdy leaked info, 

tueday rowdy preschool grad...rowdy said he wanted to be a lion tamer when he grows up :) 

Lots of thoughtful birthday peeps, b day ended fun, angels food cake, at lake w livee 
then just dance w canciennes. ...road trip to ca...I fell asleep driving and hit a big 

orange barrell in my brand new MAzda :/ , Then later in the day rolled my finger in 
my window. It turned purple! IT was so painful, 

We surprised everyone in CA, kids finally getting used to the "new" faces. Hung 
out ...lakers nan n pops. Letti's bbqed. Disneylanded. Letti watched Elliot one 
day, camping memorial day weekend....turned into Disneyland. 

It turned out we would've had to hike 3 miles to our camping spot!!. Then dinner w 
monica, Saturday we went to a Scottish festival papa took boys on the train..nagas. 

We saw Cypress ward peeps on Sunday., We went to pharaohs water park, 

Cody goofed on work or dates to go home? so we had a surprise b day party for him 

before he left.
 & we may or may not have had syd dress up like a gorill at Taco Joes then later eat ice cream 

and cake at the park 

Happy Birthday Goodbye

 Sooo Cody bought himself a plane ticket to go back to Texas 2 weeks before his birthday. He was working on a BYI-I  pathways project and he hadn't transferred work stuff out to CA. So the evening before we left I told him I was taking him out to dinner and had family and friends surprise him for an early birthday dinner at Taco Joes.

I even blindfolded him and he guessed it as we crossed the threshold! His favorite senorita Laura was there serving too. It was great. It was so fun to see everybody there. and! Nan Pops and Letti were coming back from a wedding extravaganza in Utah and pulled up just in time! Little Gary and fam came. Aunt Lindy and Toni and Grandma and Grandpa Bowler and My Mom and Dad the Byrds. It was nice. 

Then we went over to Pico park and had some cake and Chocolate malted crunch mmmm. & played with big ole' bouncy balls. It was fun, and weird he was leaving. Happy Early Birthday! He will have to fill in the details of his actual birthday. He was in Texas with Locke and Katie & fam staying at our house while they found a place to move, and Craig down the street with his birthday the day after Cody's. We sent him a package but that was pretty much all we could do.

He worked his tail off at home for a group project/ movie on Elder Ballard as seen here. all 10 minutes. The credits are also noteworthy

 It was really hard being away. As soon as he could he brought a flight back home and transferred work stuff out to CA until Syd's wedding. We had made the Father's day movie to send to him because he was going to be gone for that too, but he ended up coming home the Saturday before Father's Day. It made it so much sweeter. and It was really cool to be with our Dad's for Fathers day too

Story of my birthday..and my NEw CAR!!!

Cody pulled up Tuesday of my birthday week with a new car!!! wrapped in crepe paper! I felt like I was in a car commercial :) 

It is such a beautiful car. Its a Mazda CX-9. 

Rowdy had spilled the beans earlier in the month. So it wasn't a complete surprise like Cody had hoped. But I got to do 2 test drives at least and have a little input. but the day of it was a real surprise! Its a new/used car just a year old thought w 13,000 miles..."Dolphin gray"

I of course had a moment of silence for the sweet Camry, which had been so good to us for so long. And we received it at a time we were only a one car family and I was starting to get a little depressed and feeling grounded w/ no wheels. So the camry will always hold a special place in my heart. But we are getting bigger. The Mazda had 7 seats and its been so nice to have one or two extra seats for tag- alongs :)

Here is a pretty picture of it in Wyoming.. yes Wyoming

 

So my actual birthday was pretty non-eventful and I was fighting off grumpiness. Then we ate this delicious shortcake for dessert and my attitude instantly changed. Cody whipped the cream himself...mmmm

He got called into work and Livee came with the kids and I to ride our scooters through some awesome wooded trails next to Lake Grapevine. That was nice. And then Megan, Mckay and Livee and the kids and I did 'just dance', which is what I really wanted to do (have a dance party.) I received flowers and chocolate from some friends in the ward and that was lovely.
Soo... Cody kept saying I'm sorry about your birthday, because he had to finish a big school project and then got called into work. But, he said I will make it up to you this weekend. So he tells me to pack a bag for the weekend for us and the kids and then 30 minutes before we go he says we are going to CA so make sure you have the right stuff!! It was fun I like surprises. I had totally forgotten about him having vacation that week. but yes in retrospect? we should have probably addressed the details regarding Sydney's wedding 2 months away in which we would need to be out there again. We had an uber fun summer I just hope we didn't drive my parents bonkers. Well, we probably did but we made some good memories.

We left at 5 or 6 in the afternoon and drove through the night. I stayed up w Coy a lot of the night and then he finally needed a break at 8 am in New Mexico and I was fighting off sleep but I felt bad because He had barely fallen asleep. Then I dozed and hit a big orange round bucket thing for construction! Yikes! Hadn't even had the car for a week. It cracked the bumper and tore off the black wheel protection thing on the car. Could've been a lot worse. I have since been on 3 sucessful road trips, but I don't mess around any more w the dozing. ahh!
 Well later int he month I take the car up to utah idaho and wyoming and on the way back notice a crack in the windshield. ahh man! Then one random day I guess I ran over a shard of metal and got a flat tire. any way I'm not having the best luck. but I do adore the car. I just don't know if it is adoring me.

The Song

The M&M

Uno special girl

Happy Birthday ElliotThis year has gone by fastI can't believe how fast it has gone.
We love you sweet girl.
Your brothers adore you. You usually love them too.
I have to constantly warn them to stay out of your face, because you are a scratcher.

You can say Mom, Dad, UP & sign for more

You Love to eat

You make awesome faces and still like to growl. We had a lightning storm a few weeks ago and you got so excited when the thunder rolled in you were growling in response.

You crack up when animals move or when we make stuffed animals pretend to talk to you.

You are starting to let us put stuff in your hair and leave hats on.
You love your cousins...& Aunts
You are starting to cuddle again. You only like to read a couple favorite books. You crawl really fast, which is probably why walking doesn't interest you. But you will stand up & cruise around furniture or with your little old lady walker. The other day you pushed it into the couch and couldn't go anymore so you screamed!! and then bit the couch in anger. It was pretty funny to watch. You are starting to drink out of a cup and get so excited when you do it. & Whenever you see tissue or hear the word blow, you blow air out your nose. You weigh 21 lbs, have three teeth, and are the cutest little girl in our family... maybe the world.
Love you sweet Elliot




Birthday festivities...B day was on a Sunday
We made pancakes for breakfast and actually let you have syrup because it was your bday and you were crazy hyper at church. The YW wanted to sing to you in YW

Knew just what to do with your cupcake

The Carmacks came over to Celebrate and eat.

It seriously seemed like yesterday that Rowdy and I went to watch Seussical the musical, where he sat on my lap and probably squished you in utero. Then we drank that big ole' root beer float, that very well could have put me into labor at mid night. and then we helped postpone the Carmack's vacation plans so Aunt Lynda could come give Cody and I moral support. You were born at 9:30 ish it seems like. Everyone was surprised at how big you were. But you were such a sweet baby. You instantly began to sleep through the night which was a first for me, and a huge blessing. You are growing up to be a beautiful girl. Its so fun to be around you and continue to see you personality blossom. We really love you Elliot and are glad you came when you did. XO