I love Birthdays!! (and spring break and the Velasquez family :)

Last week was a blast! Wendy, Jose and the kids came up for part of their spring break. It was so much fun. I miss them a ton already. We went out all day on Saturday (the 19th) for Jose's birthday. We tried to go to the Temple that morning, but we found out that you don't even want to attempt going to the Portland Temple on the 1st Saturday of spring break. All the schools (College, High School, Elementary) throughout the entire state of Oregon have spring break on the same week. I am not sure why they do this exactly, but they do. It just meant for a whole lot of weddings and youth groups being at the temple. It was cool to see it so busy, but not so great for finding parking or doing a session. So we just drove around and looked at the temple for a little bit and decided to go off on our second adventure of the day - down town (I never get tired of going there :). Of course my pictures kind of stink (what else is new), but I am just happy I remembered to use my camera every now and then. We saw this cool pirate guy right out side our lunch spot. The boys really got a kick out of it. I thought he was pretty sweet myself.

We had lunch at this fun little place called Qdoba. Believe it or not, I had never heard of it before. It was awesome, the food was so good (thanks Wendy and Jose - We loved it!).

And of course we had to stop in at Powell's books. You can't come all the way to Portland without checking out one of the nations largest book stores, right?

Here we are at an out door Market (and of course I didn't get any pictures of the actual market - sometimes I really wonder wear my brain is). The market was great. They had lots of little jewelry shops and art, and clothes, and food, and soap... etc. It was something new to me and lots of fun. I got a cap, Nick got another.... whatever those are called that he is wearing in the picture... some kind of head covering :). Wendy got some cool soap and Jose got some awesome spices. I don't think Josh got anything there..... He did however get a great book at the bookstore that he read (and probably finished) while they were here. It was called.... "A Zombie Guide" or "A Guide to Zombies" or something like that. Whenever I went looking for him, he was always reading it. I hoped he liked it. We only had these two older boys with us that day. It was really neat getting to hang out with them too.

We were out so long that we went to dinner as well. We went to this fancy Mediterranean restaurant that was so good. I can't remember the name of it because ....... I forgot to take a picture of it. But, we are all in luck because I do remember where it is located. So if you come to visit and you want so great Mediterranean food, I can get you there.

Then we headed home for some Costco "All American Chocolate Cake." The Best chocolate cake in my opinion. It was fantastic. I love birthdays and I am so happy that Jose shared his with us.

I am not sure what was being said here, but I love the looks on these 3 faces. I know they were talking about that cake. I wish I knew what they were saying :). We love you Jose! Happy Birthday!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

David is the best holiday guy. He got up this morning and made green cupcakes with green frosting and green sprinkles for the kids. They loved it (not to mention they were super yummy)! He reminded the kids last night that today was going to be Saint Patrick's day. Ben and Emma both slept in green so that no one could pinch them right when they woke up. David was sitting at the table working this morning and heard someone walking up but didn't look to see who it was. Ben came right up and pinched him and said "you're not wearing green dad." No good morning, no Happy Saint Patrick's Day dad, just a pinch and a rebuke. David laughed pretty hard then went and got dressed in green before anyone else woke up.

Ben started scouts this week. He was so excited to go. I think he looks so handsome in his uniform. He has only been a scout for 5 days and he almost has his bobcat badge. He has been working hard.

The weekend before his 8th birthday the cubscouts went to plant trees to help earn their world conservation award. They invited Ben to go. David was telling him that this is one of the hardest to earn and how lucky Ben is that they let him come help and he should be really proud of himself when he gets this award. Ben is so funny. He wants to do as much as he can so he can get stuff on his shirt. Which is kind of sad since not much goes on the cub scout shirt :).

Jacob tagged along, but didn't have quite as much fun as Ben because he was so cold. He is like me, he has about a 4 degree comfort zone when it comes to the temperature. David said he was a trooper though.

It's Great To Be Eight

Benjamin turned 8 on Saturday March 12. We had a blast with him. These first few pictures of him blowing out candles and opening his present were actually from March 5th. Emma opened hers on March 4th and since they had both asked for Harry Potter Legos, and we got them both at the same time, and it was already wrapped, he begged and begged to open his too. He is not our most patient child :). We got these cute cupcakes from an auction the night before and he was bound and determined to get all 8 candles on one little cupcake. I didn't think it could be done, but he accomplished it.

They had both sets of Legos built that very same day. I need to put up some pictures of them. They are pretty cool.

His actual birthday was one long adventure. We left around noon and went to Party City to get some cheap little toys for our primary class. Ben had a dollar that Emma gave him that morning and he was so excited by all the little toys he could buy there. Then we went to Subway for lunch. Ben and Emma both love Subway, but we very rarely go there as a family (because, lets face it, it is more expensive to eat there than other fast food joints :). He kept telling us how his sandwich was the best (plain french bread loaf, provolone, and turkey - nothing else on it).

Then we went to the train (Max) station and rode down town to go to the BSA store and get him his scout shirt and patches. We forgot to take any pictures of the actual store and shopping, but he loved it. It was so funny to see him walking around pulling out the the patches and asking what they were for and how many he could put on his shirt.... etc. He is so excited to start doing scouting. I love that David is into it because I really don't understand any of it.

When we had discussed what we were going to do for his birthday the only 2 things we knew for sure were the scout store and Panda Express for dinner. So already he was loving that we had gone to party city and Subway as well. After the scout store we started asking him what else he wanted to do. He couldn't really think of anything but he didn't really want to go home. When we got off the street car to get on the train Ben noticed Finnegan's toy store. He begged to go in so we did. We had a blast. He likes it because it makes him think of Mr. Magoriums Wonder Imporium.

We stayed here for about an hour. They have a little bit of everything. Even David and I enjoyed looking around. I was thrilled when we left only spending a dollar to get these little pencil topper animals. I was quite happy with that little bargain.

After the toy store he still didn't want to go home so we decided to go to the little down town mall that was right down the street. We spent some time in "The Game Stop," and rode the escalators a few times then decided we were all hungry again and ready for dinner. So we hopped back on the train, went and got our car, stopped at Target to get a whole bunch of cereal (we are cereal freaks and we were almost out) then went and had a yummy dinner at Panda Express.

After 7 long but fun hours we finally headed home. He couldn't wait to try on his scout shirt. I thought he looked so cute. We have since washed it so it fits a little better. We spent the rest of the night watching the new Nickelodeon movie Best Player (I think that's what it was called - it was very cute). He said this was his best birthday ever. It really is great to be eight :).

Is she really 10?

I love my little EmmaLee! I cannot believe it has been 10 years since she was my little baby girl. She really ended up having a birthday weekend not just a birthDAY. A while back she asked if we could celebrate her birthday on Saturday instead of Sunday because she wanted to go to Dinner with David and I for her birthday. We said "sure." Then she realized she needed to open her present (she only got one, because she wanted the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle - those things are expensive, but awesome) on Saturday as well because she wouldn't really get to build the castle if it we waited till Sunday. We went ahead and agreed to this too. Then it turned out that David and Ben and Jake were going to help plant trees Saturday morning with the cub scouts (which was when she was going to open it) so she had to do it Friday night. So to make a long story short (I know, too late) she opened her present (which she had wrapped herself) on Friday, went to dinner with David and I on Saturday, then got to have her favorite dinner and a little present (I couldn't help it :) on Sunday. What a lucky little girl. I hope she enjoyed her 10th birthday weekend. (Don't you love the keys hanging down in the picture. They really spice up our kitchen decor :)

Seriously, I love this little girl. I cannot imagine life without Emma. Originally we had planned on naming her Lindsey Kate, but when she came out we knew she wasn't a Lindsey. It took us until the end of the second day to figure out her name. I had always wanted an Emma, but David didn't. He actually came up with the compromise of EmmaLee. I loved it from the get go. EmmaLee Gail has always suited her.

My girls are really into wrapping their own presents. We always offer to buy their gifts and surprise them, but they would rather get to choose. I love that they still want to have them wrapped though. The only birthday wrap we had was princess wrap from Katie's birthday. Apparently Emma is to old for that so she and Joelle took Christmas wrap and wrapped it inside out and then colored all over it. They were very proud of their wrapping paper. Grandma's gift is the pink one on the left. She always makes her packaging so cute too. My girls take after their grandma I guess. If it was up to me I would probably just hand them the gift with no wrap and wish them a happy birthday.

Inside Grandma's gift was this brown paper packaging that said "For your next trip to our house."

Inside was a notebook and a pencil box with colored pencils so Emma could write about her trips to Grandma's and Grandpa's. There was also a map on the inside cover that shows the way to their house. She loved this gift. She loves to write and is always thinking about her next story.

Grandma and Grandpa also gave her her very own set of Harry Potter books (which my mom got a great deal on - Thank you Mom!) She is very excited to re-read them.

This is what she has been waiting for for months! Ben got Hagrid's Hut for Christmas, but the girls pretty much built it. Everyone has had so much fun playing with it that all they have been asking for are more Harry Potter legos. They have loved putting this castle together and then acting out all the different stories. I love these kind of toys that bring them together :)

Saturday night David and I took Emma to Marie Callender's for dinner. She loved it. She got a the Turkey kids meal and then tried mine and David's too. She is so fun to take out because she loves food as much as I do. She is open to trying all different kinds of food. She pretty much likes everything. While we were there we gave her the love language test out the the 5 love languages for children book. We discovered that her love language is quality time (although I already had that one figured out:). We had great food and some great discussions. She is so fun to be around.

Happy Birthday EmmaLee Gail!

Snow Days and a Little Bit More

This picture has nothing to do with a snow day, but I love it. Jacob took this picture. This is how Katie looks every morning. She loves "green drink". She and Joelle and I have been having it for about the last year, but I finally got the rest of my kids on board in the last couple of months. I think it is such a yummy way for them to get more fruits and veggies (I just saw that Jon and Heidi's family are doing it too - Awesome!).
A couple of weeks ago I went to a "soup swap." You were supposed to bring 6 one quart containers of soup and you would come home with 6 more of a variety from other women there. I told David that I was going to make chicken noodle soup since it is really the only soup I know how to make. He said "No, no, no. I will make the soup." So here he is at 10:30 on a Friday night (because we had to freeze it to take it to the swap on Saturday) making his delicious "Zuppa Tuscanna." He is so good to me. I love that he would do that for me. I am so dang lucky!

Just as a side note, I am not sure I ever blogged about Valentines day. If I did, bear with me. I love this man. He brought me and the girls this beautiful bouquet of roses. He also brought me home a huge box of chocolates (which I love, but found that they were disappearing faster than I was eating them - Emma and Ben... but mostly Katie :). He also brought the kids 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. He is kind of a sugar freak. He really knows how to make a holiday fun.

2 weeks ago we had to super fun snow days. The first only stuck around for a couple of hours. The kids made a few snowballs and a pretty little snowman, but they loved it. Then toward the end of that week we had a much larger snowfall. It was a blast. The flakes were huge! I love to watch the kids play in the snow.

I love the way bare trees look all covered in snow. I have missed seeing this (although I have realized I am not cut out for tons of snow - I just want to look at it for a little while, have the kids play in it and then have it melt after a couple of days and get back to regular weather).

Samson looked so cute exploring in the snow.

This is the newest addition to our family. Lucky. He is such a sweet little dog. We inherited him from my best friend Mindy. We know they love him and miss him, but we just want them to know that he and Samson are very happy together and that he is doing great!

He is way more used to the snow than Samson is. I love this picture. I think he looks so cute. He is so fun to watch in the snow. He is not really afraid of anything.

David got to telecommute that day, so it worked out great. He had a fantastic snowball fight with the boys and Katie.

Katie really got into it. It was so cute. I still can't get my boys to wear pants. I don't know how they don't freeze. Don't you love Ben's 90's jacket. He has a great new winter coat (just like Jacob's but green) but he loves this jacket. He says it's his "coolest" jacket. He is so funny.

While Dad and the boys had a snowball fight the girls made a very cute snowman in the front yard with our backyard neighbor Andrea. My girls love her. She is the sweetest little thing. They were quite proud of their snowman.

This was Jacob's pride and joy. His great big snowball. I don't know if he actually tried to throw it at anyone. I'll have to ask :).

This was Katie's biggest snow ball. Not bad for a three year old munchkin.