What's Cookin'

Brynlee celebrated her 8th birthday with a cooking party. It was lots of fun...and LOTS of work. I made 10 little aprons (pattern was from here) and finished them about 3 hours before the party began! Had I started a month earlier when I had the idea, I would have saved myself alot of stress. But as with most things, I put them off but always seem to pull it off with a couple late nighters!

The invitation...

When the party guests started showing up, they went downstairs and played Just Dance on the Wii until everyone arrived. Then they came upstairs, got their aprons and decorated the bands of their chef hats with stickers, markers, and stamps.

Then Brynlee opened presents...silly girl sat up on the fireplace!  While she was opening presents, another mom (who stayed for the fun...she was my LIFESAVER!) and I taped the tissue paper to the decorated bands for the chef hats.

After presents, we still weren't done with the hats so the girls entertained themselves with Just Dance again. They loved it and I loved not having to have a structured activity that I was in charge of. Once the hats were all done, they each made their own personal pizzas. A huge thank you to Rob for making the dough and preparing the toppings.

After pizza it was time to decorate cupcakes.  They each got two cupcakes to decorate with M&Ms, Skittles, Nerds, and sprinkles.

These three got a little crazy and moved on to experimenting with "mixed" drinks. They were all fascinated by what happened when Skittles were dropped in rootbeer!  Yes, they drank it!

Group shot...

Silly girls!

It was a really fun party and a nice reminder of why I only do parties every other year! :)  Next up...Ashlee's 10th (which thankfully she wants the same thing so I've got all the kinks worked out and even have a headstart on some of the aprons!)

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve:  During the day, we took the kids to play at the Cache Valley Fun Park.  The evening was spent enjoying Rob's delicious homemade chicken alfredo and bbq chicken pizzas (the only kind my kids will eat!), watching Mr. Krueger's Christmas and The Nativity, getting new Christmas jammies, and reading the story of Christ's birth in Luke (and also Helaman 14 when Samuel the Lamanite prophesies of His birth).

[Side note:  On Sunday when one of the speakers in Sacrament meeting read those same verses in Helaman, Ashlee turned to me and said "Hey, we read that on Christmas Eve."  It made me happy to know at least someone was paying attention...both on Christmas Eve and in church!]

Trevor could have played on this all day...

Gotta get the annual "everyone-in-matching-pjs-in-front-of-the-fireplace" photo...

After we took the picture with all of them, they wanted to take pictures with each other.  I think the only combination we didn't end up with was Ashlee and Landon.

All is calm...

Christmas morning:  As you can see from the clock on the wall, it is just after 8:00!  Our kids didn't wake up until just a few minutes before and we had to go wake up Trevor.  I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts...soon I'm sure it will be 5:30 and hearing "Mom, dad, wake up so we can open presents!"

Matching pink pjs and matching pink Ripstiks!

Love Landon's bedhead...

Trevor sporting dad's new USU hat...

Later in the afternoon Rob's parents and Grandma Jones joined us for a yummy prime rib dinner...and we can't forget the Magic Cookie Bars.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without those!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Have a safe and healthy 2011!

Run away white horse!

Run away white horse! by Brynlee Barton

I was walking down the road.
And I saw a run away white horse.
I was asking is this your horse to everyone I saw.
And they said... No No No No.
And I thought about that horse.
I thought.
And I thought to myself run away white horse.
Run away white horse.
Run.
Run.
Run away white horse.

T is Three!

My little Trevor is 3!  When Brynlee got him out of his crib* the morning of his birthday, she said "Hey birthday boy" and his reply was "I not birthday boy, I Trevor".  That's Brynlee's favorite thing to do...well, getting him out of his bed for one but also calling him something to which he replies, "I not _______, I Trevor".  It all started a month or so ago when he was "clunking" around in his shoes and Brynlee said "Trevor, you are clunky" and his response was...well, you know.  She also bugged him all day asking him how old he was.  It was a hard concept for him to understand that all of a sudden, he wakes up and is now three.  Finally, by the end of the day his first response was "I three!" 

*[Side note: yes, he is still in his crib...way longer than any of my other kids but of course, that's because I had another baby by this point in time with the others!]

I wonder if three will become his new favorite number.  Whenever Trevor sees two of something, he says "there's two ______"...usually the blank is filled in with some sort of bird or animal.  He never says the quantity unless there are two of the object.  Interesting.

This is right after I finished adding the fondant cutouts to the *yes, I'll admit it* store-bought cake.  It was a busy day, and I knew I would not get a cake baked so I snatched this one at Walmart.  I had planned on putting a bird on the cake (Trevor and I googled "bird cakes" to find what he wanted) and I thought the chocolate drizzle might look like one we saw that had a tree on it.  Well, not so much but all he cared about was that there was a bird on his cake.  When I showed it to him, he said "My bird cake!  Sing Happy Birthday to me?"

Opening presents...

If you haven't guessed yet, Trevor is slightly passionate about birds.  This one didn't leave his sight all night...even making it as the toy of choice to sleep with.

This photo is just priceless and captures Trevor to a "T" (no pun intended!)  He has such an excitement for everything.  It is contagious and makes everyone around him smile.  Love him.

Did I say he had an excitement for everything?  Sorry, everything except Santa...

We had a surprise visitor just as we were finishing up cake and ice cream.  This was as close as I could get and really that was pushing it.  Poor thing...

Right after Santa was gone, he was back to his chatty, happy self.  It was strike two for Santa in Trevor's book this year.  Maybe next year he'll warm up to him!

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Christmas Piano Recital

The girls had their Christmas piano recital on Sunday.

Brynlee played O Christmas Tree and Jingle Bells.

Ashlee played Up on the Housetop and The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Barton Family Christmas Parties

Last Saturday we headed down to Centerville and Draper for two family parties.  The first one was with Rob's Grandma Barton, aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins' kids.  It's always a fun event with yummy food, graham cracker houses for the kids, a kids gift exchange, and white elephant exchange for the adults.

Then we headed to Cheryl's house with the smaller Barton clan for more yummy food, more gift exchanges and fun with cousins.


The grandkids that are taking piano lessons played their Christmas songs for us... 

The little ones danced along...

Christie and Cheryl favored us with their famous "Winter Wonderland" duet...

Trevor with his froggy backpack opening another present...

Lando is in heaven...

But not as much as Brynlee with her new doll...

Sarah and Trevor play with a new toy...

A book with just about any kind of animal out there.  Trevor reads this all day...mammals and birds and reptiles, oh my!

A sewing kit (with a promise of sewing lessons for her birthday) from Grandma...

I love this time of year!!