Kace's Baby Shower

Miss Kace is due the middle of next month with another boy! He'll be here before we know it, so we decided to have a small "sprinkle" of a shower for her. A couple of months ago I asked her what types of food she wanted for it, and she said the only thing she's been wanting lately is ice cream. I decided that was as good as anything, so I based the entire shower on it, and we had an ice cream shower!


I looked forever for half decent invitations that would work, but found nothing that I didn't have to order. I decided that I would just make them instead. I had to look online for ideas, but in the end this is what I ended up making:

 

And this is what I found to put on the back.

What would an ice cream party be without ice cream cone cupcakes?  Thank you pinterest for that idea! I think the hardest part of these babies was cutting the circles out of the pan so they could stand upright. :)




I tried to come up with ideas for decorations that were cheap, but bright and made an impact. I've seen these pom poms around for a while and decided that they didn't look very hard and I could make them. They were a lot harder than they looked ... After 3-4 of them looking like garbage, I watched several youtube videos to figure out an easier way to do it. After several videos, I finally found an easier way for me to make them, and they started to look much better. I'm sure it didn't help that it was like 2 in the morning at this point ... 

I also made some little banners to hang up and they turned out pretty good.

It was hard to get this entire table in my camera to take a picture, but here is my build your own ice cream sundae spread.

More pom poms hanging from the fan.

I'm not a huge fan of tradition baby shower games. I don't really like to guess what kind of candy bar is in the diaper .... or guess what flavor of baby food is in the jar ... so I generally steer clear of those. I don't mind ones where you fill out a baby of scrambled words, or something personal for the mom and baby, and honestly the one where you guess how big around the mom's waist is with a string isn't that bad either ... (it probably helps that she's tiny ... and I'm oddly good at that game).


I found a print out of this sheet that we did instead. I had everyone fill it out and then I will make them into a small book for Baby Zack when he is bigger.


(A link to the pages can be found here)

 

 
I also did a word scramble, which ended up being harder than I thought it would! Nanan was getting frustrated because she's very British and ... well, she didn't know what some of the words were. :) After she figured some out she would be like "What is a onesie?!?" ha ha. Silly lady.

Nanan recently got back from a week long trip to England to visit family and attend Grandad's sisters funeral. While she was there, she got the baby these awesome pj's! They were super cute!

And her sister sent this shirt for the baby.

My mom, Debi and I decided to go in on a gift together and get Kace a double stroller. I love mine and use it all the time! I also made Zack a dinosaur quilt and got him some cute pj's. 

Kace with her mother in law Julie, and her sisters in law Erin and Brenda. Brenda and Kace are due about a week apart!

Kace with my mom and Debi

Nanan, Kace, Ber and me. 

It turned out pretty good and I hope she had a good time. Can't wait to meet little baby Zack!

Living Room Campout

Mart and Ethan decided that they were going to have a campout in the living room!

I decided I would let the boys hang out and I would be in my own bed. :) Ethan needed bonding time alone anyway.

Around bedtime, they got to work setting up the tent.

Once it was setup, Ethan was having way too much fun with it to even think about sleeping. They talked and just hung out for a while.

After a few minutes, Ethan started a wrestling match in the tent. I guess he's watched the guys play the wrestling game too much on the weekends because after a minute, I looked over at him and he was stripped down to just underwear "like the wrestlers". I couldn't help but laugh.

After the wrestling match was over, Mart read the boys a book and I took Lincoln up to bed. He slept in his own room.

I told them both goodnight and headed to bed. Around 4 in the morning I heard the stairs creaking and a minute or so later Mart came in my room. He crawled in bed to go to sleep. I asked him if the floor was just too uncomfortable and he told me that Ethan had never fallen asleep. He just laid there waiting for Mart to go to sleep and then he'd try climbing over him to climb out the door. Then he would just chat away, so he took him up to his bed.

The next morning they had a hike planned and Mart, George, Ethan, Lincoln and Kya headed up the mountain. I stayed home for some much needed alone time. :)

Here is Ethan all excited for his hike!

This picture is a little small. They forgot the camera and had to use Mart's phone instead. They all had a good time and were worn out when they got home! I think the dog just collapsed the minute she walked in the door, along with the boys! Afterall, they didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before. :)

Nanan's Birthday Dinner

Nanan and Grandad usually come to visit around general conference time and sometimes once in between during the summer. We've had them here for Grandad's birthday in April a couple of times, but they've never been here for Nanan's birthday in June. We asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and after much coaxing she told Kace that she wanted to go up the canyon with her family and have a BBQ. After calling the forest service, we found out that the only places we could have a fire were in campgrounds with designated cement fire pits. I only knew of one campground with cement pits ...

We all met up at first dam and headed up the canyon together. I was nervous we wouldn't find an open campground because it was Saturday, but as luck would have it, we found a spot right after we pulled in!

We didn't bring wood with us, except for about 2 logs to get the fire going, so we all headed off looking for wood for our fire. Kace found a huge log that was perfect and Mart just hacked away at it until we had enough to cook our dinner. 

 Nanan and Grandad enjoying the mountains and crazy kids. :)

Mart took a turn with each little boy and they each got to help him chop wood for a minute.

While dinner cooked, we all just hung out and talked and enjoyed each others company.

Traves came too. He's pretty much family.

Kace is getting so close to being done with being pregnant! She's due next month!

Lincoln loved his marshmallows! Nanan brought the giant ones! They were seriously huge.

 

Ethan is a s'more fanatic and was so excited to have a fire and roast marshmallows

Ber wasn't feeling very well, she had a migraine. Even with a migraine, she is a life saver! She chased my kids all over the place playing with them!

Tyler liked his s'more too. :)

Chocolatey face Lincoln.

It was a fun way to spend her birthday. We are glad she was here with us this year!

4th of July

For the 4th this year, we celebrated 3 days in a row! Ethan was in firework heaven.

Monday the new subdivision near our house had a "neighborhood firework party" that we were invited to. I didn't take any pictures of that, but there was a good turn out! There were tons of people gathered and everybody just brought treats and fireworks. The fireworks were just in a huge pile and a few guys lit them all. There were kids everyone and they all seemed to have fun!

Tuesday was the night Logan did their firework show. We decided to go get pizza and take it to the park and have a picnic and let the boys run around and play before the fireworks started. They had a blast running around and playing on the playground.

We had a small mishap where the sprinklers decided to turn on where we were sitting. I heard them coming on and grabbed what I could to move it out of the way. In the process I got sprayed in the back and the butt. It made for a chilly rest of the night. :)


My mom and Debi came and watched the fireworks with us. It was fun, but seemed like a lot less than usual.

Wednesday the 4th we went up to the Collin's house. Todd and Ryan were super cute with Ethan and let him help them light all the fireworks.

Todd and Mart lighting Ethan's sparklers:

Ethan loved the sparklers as usual. We had about 50 leftover from last year when Kace brought over a huge box! After we got started with them and pieces were falling to the ground, we realized that we should have made Ethan wear shoes instead of sandals...whoops. He didn't get burned, thank goodness.

Lincoln wasn't a huge fan of the sparklers. He had a hard time with the fireworks on Monday but was starting to get used to them on Wednesday. He just didn't want anything to do with them that close to him!

We told Ethan to be Harry Potter and wave his wand around.

Kace was playing with him too!

Our third day of fireworks. Ethan kept asking for more even when we were finished! He loves them!

It has been a fun week. Happy 4th of July!