It's Birthday time!!

Some one's turning 11!!! 

Can't believe it's our Cameron!!

 

For his birthday one of his very best friends

and her family

came from Ely, NV to spend the birthday weekend with us... 

Emalinne turned 11 last week,

and Eva turns 4 next week,

so party we DID! 

Grandma Annie, Papa and Aunt Jenny were able to come down and have dinner with us and celebrate! 

Ema gave Cameron a box with treasures, including this special little turtle 

Emmalee & Henry 

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Clint gave him this little Ty Beanie Baby - which he loves and affectionately has named "Gurgie" & some Kit Kats of his own!

(they are Uncle Clint's favorite too!)

 

(he named it after the little creature on the Black Cauldron...

 a voice Cam does really well LOL) 

His Dad and Mom gave him the Kingdom Keepers numbers III & IV.

He loves this series and received I &II for Christmas!

His collection is now complete! 

We didn't get a photo of this... but it is a HUGE box of chocolate puddings!

His FAV! 

He is set for the next couple of months!

LOL

Austin & Eva 

Sorensen's gave him 2 really cool puzzles! 

Happy Birthday little Eva!

We gave her a little monkey she named Michael! 

Happy Birthday Ema! We gave her a little puppy and a BYU T-shirt

(she wants to be an animator when she grows up... and the Y has a fantastic program for that!

So though she is only 11 years old... she has a "plan" & a dream to follow! :) ) 

Mom and  Dad also gave Cameron 6 weeks of Basketball classes... something he has been asking for for years!  

But Papa and Grandma Annie gave him the most precious gift of all...

He has a toy harmonica, and loves it, but has been saving his money to buy a real one so he can learn how to actually play one. Grandma Annie heard this and so...

She gave Cameron the harmonica that HER Grandma played as a teenager and young adult.

This is his Great-Great-Grandma Mathews' harmonica!

With the original box.... dated 1823-1903! 

What a CHOICE gift!

Cam's mom took the box for safe keeping, and Cam went and got his special box to keep it in.

It will be a treasured item that is FOR SURE! 

Liza helping get the cake ready... 

He requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so we laced his cake choice with his favorite candies as well! :)

We sang "Happy Birthday"and then the birthday girls helped him blow out his candles!

 

We are so excited to play for the weekend! 

Even Mom with her friend too!!

All about Cody:

Our tall and growing one turned 12 today!

He wanted homemade buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.

We went shopping for clothes for his first time really ever, and he got all new Sunday clothes.

He will be Ordained a Deacon this Sunday. 

Here are some fun facts about Cody:

•  He loves to read. He spends a lot of his time buried in a book on his bed.
• He loves to play on his Nintendo DS, he has requested Pokemon Black for his birthday.
• Cody's best friend is Emmalee
• He has a group of friends at school that includes girls and boys. He attended his 1st co-ed birthday party a couple weekends ago.
• He loves to eat pancakes and waffles with peanut butter and syrup.
• His favorite meal is my Homemade Winger's Chicken, celery sticks, ranch dressing and hot rolls.
• He has an awesome sense of humor - if you can get him past his shyness. LOL
• Cody is no respecter of shoes. If he needs to go outside he will grab the closest flip-flops around and wear them! LOL
• He would be happy eating PB&J every day for lunch.
• He hates to ride scooters or bikes, as he has no depth perception.
• His favorite candy is Reeces Peanut butter cups... and so cookies of course are RPBC Cookies!
• Cody's favorite cereal is Honey Nut Cherrios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Waffle Crisp
• His favorite color is Aqua Blue.
• He likes to watch Jimmy Neutron (a cartoon)
• He loves to go camping, but is nervous for his first week long Scout camp.
• He completed his Faith In God booklet this week! LOL Just in time! *wink*

Cody has an amazing testimony, and is constantly asking us questions to learn more and more and more. He is a smartie pants! LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY!!!!

We are so very very blessed to have you in our family!!!!!!!
We LOVE YOU!!

Fish Tank for Jes' Birthday

Jestin saw some fish at Walmart and he LOVED them!

We have not had our fish tank up and running for most of the year... I have been trying to sell it to make money. His excitement sparked the desire to nix that money making plan!

LOL

My sweet sister came down and we tackled the task of cleaning the tank all up. Jes was surprised!

Then for Family Home Evening we all went to pick out his fish.

 The kids wanted some cute fish too so we got these two little kissing fish. They named them Cosmo and Wanda.

And here is the fish that Jes wanted:

 Looks like an eel...

 Until it moves it's fins! Eeek!

 It's a "Dragon Fish"

LOL

It's a creepy little blind fish... but he sure keeps the kids interested! 

Caleb's Family Birthday Party

He had to don his birthday vest and hat again! *grin*

Love new toys!

Sweet! His first sets of bionicles!

Cam bought these for Caleb at the aquarium. :)

Happy Birthday!

Cute baby Jaysen

Woohoo! I got a transformer!

And my own MONSTER TRUCK!!!

(thanks Mom and Dad!)

He was so excited about blowing out the candles he blew wax all over the cake! LOL

Gram made us the cake!

Thanks Gram!

And Happy Birthday to my littlest man and me!

Turning another year older...

Another year older and wiser too?

Woke up to breakfast in bed from my kids :)

(they were almost late for school! sweethearts!) 

heh heh... I tried to eat some of it kiddos...

it was slightly crunchy! LOL

add the butterless toast and wowza! I am spoiled let me tell ya! hee hee

Jes left a card on my pillow.

I ran to the temple with my friend Suzie and we did initiatories and had lunch at one of my favorite's - Kneaders.

Jes took care of dinner for me.

It was a great day!

Ok sweetheart of mine!

Time for you to get older too!

LOL

My Littlest Man is 6!!!

My littlest man had a birthday today!! 

He is a little excited! LOL

He wanted Mac-n-Cheese for dinner.

We opened a few small gifts

(his other gifts were saved for his party on Saturday with his Grandma's) 

He made himself this "birthday vest"

*giggle* he is SO cute!

We took him to Cold Stone for his birthday treat... he got chocolate with sprinkles and grinned from ear to ear when the workers behind the counter burst into song just for him! 

He wore is hat from school all day!

He even slept in it that night!!

It's so fun to be 6!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cub!!

Happy Birthday Party!

Friday, April 1st - we celebrated Caleb's & Jesselynn's birthdays together!

We invited the whole family to come down for dinner, cake and games, but because of the stomach flu making it's rounds through our house G'Ma & Papa came for dinner and left, and Jenny came for games. 

Can't you tell they are related! :) So cute... 

The kids shopped for some gifts at the Dollar Store, and all in all we had a good little party!

Emmalee ended up being sick all day long. Sweet Britt spent the entire day tending to her, watching movies with her out in the camp trailer. She was so kind to Emma! By evening Emma felt better.
Although...

Jestin and I quickly both disappeared upstairs after dinner... we both didn't feel well and then were terribly ill all night long and most of the next day as well.

We struggled to be "alive" for General Conference sessions, but slept most of the evening.

Jes was bummed - he was invited to attend the Priesthood session with all the men of our family at the Conference Center... but he could barely move. He slept from 4 pm until 9:30pm! Nicole was awesome! She made homemade chicken noodle soup for us and took care of all 8 kids... it was wonderful!

(THANK YOU Nic!)

Jes and I got up about 9:30, like I said, and finally, after a week of trying to get to it (haha) we finally got to play Settlers of Catan. *grin* Brent and Nicole loved it.

ha ha! We have another couple addicted to it! bwahahaha!

Super Fun Weekend!

It is a long weekend... so we made good use of it!

Our dear friends from Ely came to visit with us for a few days...

Sorensen's arrived late Thursday night. We stayed up talking until after 1am. LOL (oops!)

Everyone was so glad to see one another!

It's only been 3 months... but it feels like a lifetime after the life we have lived since then LOL!

The kids are getting SO big!

Amy & Austin have never been, so we headed up to the Draper Temple to do an session early Friday morning. It was a choice experience. I was gently reminded how lucky I am to have such a dear friend as Amy... and I am so thankful that Austin and Jes are good friends as well!

I struggled a bit throughout the session, including almost being knocked down by the officiator right before the prayer because he was trying to get passed me and I could not step backward! Thankfully my sweet husband had ahold of me and kept me from going down. Or almost being knocked down by the sister who walks through the rows. Amy was sweet and helpful when my body didn't do what I wanted it to do, like tying a bow, and I was not at all self conscious with her. It was a gift to me.

We all really enjoyed the quietness of that smaller Temple.

Emmalee was a sweetheart and tended kids for us, and when we got back the kids were thoroughly enjoying playing and playing and playing some more!

Such CUTE girls! :)

And this little one just melts Jes' heart! *grin*

We ate lots of yummy food!

Sammy is left handed, while Caleb is right handed... we were giggling at them as they tried to figure out how eat their cereal without bumping elbows and knocking cereal off each others spoons! bwahahaha

This is the scene that followed our temple trip... LOL.

I think it was a long drive, late night, early morning... what do you think?

The kids were kind to us... they let us all take a nap while they played and played.

Little Sam, poor thing, was not feeling so hot. He was so sad!

Saturday we ordered pizza, drank root beer, and had a game night, with lots of treats to snack on!

Followed by a birthday celebration! Cam and his best buddy Em have birthdays just days apart last month and Henry's is next week. They loved it!

We made traditional Sorensen birthday treat, chocolate cake. 

We also made Cam's new favorite, Homemade Icecream Cake.

After that kind of party and sugar rush... we needed some help chilling out for bedtime!

Amy had them all lay flat on the floor and breathe in and out slowly. She walked them through some relaxation exercises.

We were cracking up... they had a hard time figuring out what to do. After "thinking about" and flexing their calves, which we had to explain where their calves were, she then said "now focus on your knees". Half of them took their hands and grabbed their knees. We were rolling! It was so cute! Kids are the best!

This is how Jes felt about meditation! Bwahahaha!

We had grand plans of attending church together today to hear Emmalee speak in Sacrament Meeting for the first time, but Sam still wasn't feeling well... and all of the adults, and Emma too had issues with our tummys.

I spent the entire night puking and wanting to die from the stomach cramping. Everyone else just felt nauseated.

We figured we all had eaten something bad...

Emmalee showed her true colors. At first she called and left the Bishop a message saying she was sick and wasn't coming, but then her sense of responsibility kicked in and she got herself dressed last minute and went!

Our friends hit the road to head home shortly after they left for church.

Within an hour of their departure... this is what I had before me:

Caleb puked and puked and writhed on the couch for the pains in his tummy. We cried together.

Cam started with it with 30 minutes after Caleb.

Emma came home right after Sacrament Meeting and this is how she remained all day on the family room floor... sleeping and whimpering that her body hurt, and her head hurt and she didn't feel so good.

And my poor Cody started with it last...

This evening he found an empty spot on the family room floor saying his head hurt and his stomach felt sick.

Oh how we LOVE the stomach flu!?

Jes is still feels like he has a knot in his tummy, but he hasn't gotten full blown sick, thank goodness!!

He has been the go-for for all of us...

Thank heavens tomorrow is a holiday and no one has school. We are all sleepin' in! LOL

Regardless of the illnesses that we had to face this weekend... it was wonderful to be with our friends. These last few months have been really lonely as a family, and we have been quite inner focused most of the time so it was nice to "live" again like things are normal.

For my health history, I did struggle somewhat with over stimulation, but it seemed to be when I was trying to complete a complex task, like making a big meal, or orchestrating activities. Something new to work on. ;) My multi-tasking skills have GOT to come back! I am a mommy after all!