We party like rock stars...

Caleb officially turned FOUR on Wednesday, July 18.  When he woke up I told him, "Happy Birthday Caleb!"  He looked at me and said, "It's my birthday?!"  I said, "Yep."  He stops and looks at me with a completely serious look on his face and says, "Well!  We need to get some people here for a party!"  The kid totally cracks me up.  Apparently he forgot that we already had his party!  Oh well, I like how the kid thinks!

So, since he decided we need to have a party, we made chocolate cupcakes (I've trained him well, he licks beaters):

B got in on the action after her nap & helped taste test one of our cupcakes (much to her brother's dismay):

The girl had crumbs from her nose to her toes!  I even found crumbs hiding between her diaper & her thighs when I went to change her!

I told my mom what Caleb had said about having a party and asked if we could come down and have a hot dog roast.  She said that would be fine so around 6:30 we ventured down to grandma's house for Caleb's party.  We pulled out some lounge chairs & partied in style:

B & Nash played a rousing round of "Put the swimming pool over Nash, climb on top of the pool, sit on Nash's head, get off the pool & check to make sure he didn't escape"

There was also quite a few rounds of dog pile on the swim floaties:

We even let Charlotte come to the party:

B has learned how to climb into this chair completely by herself.  And don't think that it's going to be ok with her if you hold onto the arm rest to keep the chair from falling over.  She'll let you have the what for because that just ain't right!

After we worked up an appetite playing, we had cupcakes!  And then we roasted a hot dog!

On our way home when I asked Caleb if he had a good birthday he said, "Yea, but I didn't get to open any presents though."  Ha!  My mom did tell him that she's working on a new flying suit for him though.  She would have had it done if her sewing machine hadn't broken last week too!  He was pretty excited when he realized that was a present that would be coming his way soon.  I think Caleb was pretty happy with the fact that Uncle Zack was at Grandma's house and came out to play with him too.  Who needs presents when you have an Uncle Zack to play with anyway?!

I still can't believe he's FOUR!  Now, if the little bugger would decide he's going to use the potty ALL the time & not just when it's convenient for him!

A few more of Relay & some fun ones

When I left for Relay, my Holly Hocks were nearly touching the roof of the house again.  They were blooming and full of new blooms just waiting to open up.  Thanks to the storm that hit us on Friday night, I came home to my Holly Hocks looking like this:

So, on Saturday Monday I went out and took my tree clippers to my poor sad Holly Hocks.  Here's all that's left of them:

I'm hoping that I can get them to keep growing & maybe get a few more that are big enough to bloom before winter hits.

Every year for Relay we make Luminaria bags for the Luminary Ceremony.  I don't usually keep them. Samantha was quick to pick them up this year though.  I didn't get a picture of Cindy's bag because I sent it to Cindy (she has kept all of the ones we've done for her).  I did manage to get a picture of the other 2 we did this year though.  Not sure what exactly Sam's planning to do with them...

The other day Brookelyn got a hold of Sam's Minnie Mouse ears.  She LOVED them!  She handed them to me to put on her head & she was just happy as could be!  She was so cute with them on.  She actually left them on for quite some time too.  I was pretty surprised because I thought she'd yank them off as soon as I put them on her head!

Last week my brother asked me about cutting his hair off.  He hasn't cut it in a year.  As you can tell from the pictures, it was about shoulder length.  He was just sick of it & decided he wanted me to shave it all off.  I told him the longest I could leave it if I buzzed it was an inch.  He was fine with that.

I love that he let me shave his head for him!  He hasn't had hair this short since he got out of rehab in Dec. 07!  I love it because I can see his face again!  I really like his natural hair color too (which he rarely lets go).  Actually, he bleached it all in an attempt to get the under side he had bleached awhile ago to blend in.

I had to stifle a laugh because Sam told him, "Well, there goes all your girlie hair!"  It was a huge pile of hair & it took me over an hour to buzz it all!

Making Strides in UT

Last year I wanted to do the 5k that the American Cancer Society does for Breast Cancer.  I didn't ever get registered on time & therefore didn't end up doing it.  This year, I'm on the ball.  I've registered my team, Lea's Legacy and will be participating in the 5K on October 13th.  This year I'm doing it to mark the 10 anniversary of my Grandma's passing.  Come join my team (hey, I'll have all four kids in tow), make a donation, or just check out the team page.  Should be lots of fun!  Hope someone will join me other than my kids!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=47444&pg=personal&px=2086508

Relay for Life 2012

This year our event was held out at Elk Ridge park in North Logan.  This turned out to be a really, really good thing for us this year!

For opening ceremonies a bunch of motorcycles took the flag around the track!

Travis did his fair share of laps with Brookie on Friday during the heat of the day while I set up the silent auction (which I was in charge of - silent auction took in $2655 this year too).

Brookelyn liked our "spirit stick"

Our caregiver messages for the survivor lap!

Survivor lap!  I missed Grandpa & Grandma because apparently they walked on the opposite side of the track than what I was on!

Miss Cache Valley helped carry the banner during the survivor lap!

My mom pushed Cindy in her wheelchair for the survivor lap since she just had hip surgery.

My friend Amber was there to walk the survivor lap too!

My grandpa doing cowboy poetry after the survivor dinner.

My poor mother had to watch Brookelyn a lot since I was back & forth with the silent auction the entire weekend.

How cute is this baby girl in her relay shirt?

The rain & wind caught us on Friday night about 8 pm.  The wind was awful!  Because of the rain & wind our friends, Melody & Tyler, weren't able to perform for the event!  I felt so bad!  They drove all the way up from SLC for the performance.  They performed last year & have told me they'd come perform next year too.  They didn't feel too bad because they went & got Fredrico's even though they couldn't play.  That fear of electrocution during a rain storm kinda got the best of them :)

Sham-WOW!   Cleaning up puddles that were in the tent after the rain storm.  There were a LOT of puddles to clean up too.  We had dropped the canopy & both tents when the wind started.  The doors on the tent had to be undone in order to get all the air out of them so they'd lay down & they never got done back up!

All our fundraising items sitting in the tent out of the rain.

Travis had taken the kids to his parents' house during the storm & came back up when I called him & told him we needed a shopvac & towels. :)

This wagon became my very good friend.  My arthritis was kicking my butt for a few days before Relay & then again at Relay because of the storm.  My cousin, Melissa, pulled me around the track 15 times so I could collect my lap beads!  I wanted to get more lap beads than I did last year (18) so she pulled me around and around the track until I hit 19 laps.  I ended up doing 2 more laps Saturday so I ended up with a total of 21 lap beads.  Thanks Mis!

This is where Melissa slept because her tent was still wet when we gave up around 5 am & went to sleep!

Where Brookelyn took her nap on Saturday while Travis & I did clean up.

The rain was kind enough to come back during clean up too.

The sign my team got because of our fundraising total ($1119 prior to the event).  Yes, I took the sign home & yes, it's currently staked in my front yard & will remain there until further notice!

My other goal for Relay was to raise $1,000 personally.  Since several silent auction items had been donated through sponsorship, I was able to credit that toward my fundraising as well.  With that little addition, I was able to hit $1001 at the event.  I counted up what we sold from our fundraising at the event & that totaled another $102.  I am going to take $30 from that $102 & purchase the final box of Cards for a Cause.  That will give me $195 from Cards for a Cause & another $72 from our event fundraising.  That will put my personal fundraising total at: $1268.  Yep, I'm proud of myself.  I worked my butt off for that $1268!  I'll be getting the red shirt for being a "Grand Club" member as well.  That means I personally raised $1,000 or more.
I've already said I'd be willing to be chair person of sponsorship again next year.  Not sure what I was thinking because I agreed to that about 3 weeks ago!  I guess it's because now I know what I'm up against & I'm not starting from scratch!  Plus I'll be able to start in January and not in March!  Sponsorship was able to secure $7,000 in donations this year.  I was told that was more than double what sponsorship did last year.  Here I was thinking I needed to hit $10,000 to even begin making a dent in it!  Guess that will be next year's goal for myself - hit $10,000 in sponsorship totals!  Yes, I am crazy.  The preliminary numbers I was given yesterday at clean up put our event total somewhere in the neighborhood of $90,000.  We're a ways short of our $150,000 goal, but $90,000 is still a lot of money.  Plus, we can turn in money until August 31.  I think the rainstorm on Friday just killed it for us.  There were a lot of good onsite fundraisers that got messed up because of the storm.  I bet there are teams that will do their fundraising & turn in money later.  It would be cool to hit $97,000 like we did last year.

Travis & my mom were talking yesterday & have already come up with some ideas for our team theme for next year.  I'm a bit horrified at their ideas & yet oddly curious to see if it works out.  Good thing we've got a whole year to figure it out!  Now my question is whether or not to go get a booth at the Hyrum Farmer'