33

Another year down. Life is good at 33. I have a wonderful family and really good girlfriends. Callie took me out to lunch earlier in the month, then I had desert at Red Robin with my girlfriends, and on my birthday I even got 2 cakes! I loved these cakes from a place called “Creative Cakery” that went out of business, so my mom made me her version of one. It was delicious. Then I also got one from a friend in the ward at a service auction. She makes such yummy cakes! I’m all about chocolate cake with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting! Let’s just say that every night for a week I sat down and had a huge slice of cake! Thank goodness it’s only once a year!

 

Piano Recital

Brooklyn had her piano recital at a retirement home. They have a beautiful piano and the residents got to have a nice little concert. Stephanie Campbell is a wonderful piano teacher who comes to our home in the morning! Brooklyn played Greensleeves, with her own additions in the beginning and end, then she played A Happy Working Song from the Disney movie Enchanted. Her grandma and grandpa May came and gave her a beautiful orange rose. She really loves to play the piano and still loves to practice. I’m crossing  my fingers she always will.

Stitches…again

Our last emergency WAS 4 months ago, so we were due for another. We went to my parents house to visit and Casey took the boys out to play laser tag. Casey went and hid behind the car and within seconds Nathan is screaming. He tripped on the pavement and fell and hit his head. I could hear him from in the house, but my kids do scream a lot and didn’t pay much attention until Casey came in with him. He had blood dripping all down his face. 2 hours later he had 2 stitches. Nathan is back in the lead for emergency visits. Nathan 3 – Cody 2.

Brooklyn’s Birthday

For Brookie’s birthday she had a pj party. They had pink popcorn, decorated pillowcases, painted their nails, and had mud pie. Brooklyn told me she doesn’t like cake very much. Casey took the boys to the school’s bingo night, and we had one of our favorite babysitters and her friend come help with the girls nails. They were life savers! I thought I took more pictures, but I guess this is all I got…

Brooklyn’s Hero

Brooklyn was chosen to read her essay on her hero at her school Martin Luther King assembly. She did a wonderful job and wasn’t' one bit nervous! She really is such a thoughtful and loving girl! I had to hunt her down to get a picture because she had taken off to deliver popcorn with the student council for popcorn day. (I couldn’t get one during the assembly, I was trying to video tape and had Cody with me, I had my hands full!)

My Hero

By Brooklyn Baldwin

Anybody can have a hero. They don’t have to be famous. It can be someone that you look up to like your mom, dad, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle or grandparents. They are just them.

My hero is special. My hero is my dad. He grew up in Orem, Utah. He had 9 brothers and sisters before his brother Breck died. He is as sharp as a tack with math. He went to BYU because he got good grades and served a mission in Chile. My dad learned lots of Spanish. I say he learned all of it. He says, “There’s so much Spanish you can never learn all of it.” But I’m pretty sure he learned a lot.

My dad is my hero because he helps me with math homework. He knows a lot of math. My dad will go to bed at 10:30pm and get up at 5:00am to go all the way to Portland to work as an Actuary. But, he doesn’t get home until 6:30. That leaves me with only 2 hours a day with him before I go to bed. I love my dad, so I use that time with him. There is a game he has to play every night with my brothers, Bedroom ball. You throw a ball at each other in bed.

One night, I was doing my homework and almost passed out. Even one teeny tiny, itsi bitsi look at that math problem would make me fall to the ground and throw a fit. I closed my eyes and got my dad. He said I used to say “let’s count it out!” It took me to the bright side and I finished it. Now, whenever I do my math, I laugh at what I used to say. (“Let’s count it out.”)

I love my dad. Once he gets in the car to leave, I want him to stay so much I could even stop him, but I wouldn’t or I’d get in trouble. Some people say their hero is the best in the world, but, my dad is special in his own way.

Cupcake Wars

The girls wanted an easy bake oven for Christmas. Instead they each got their own cake decorator and snack size cookie and cupcake mixes and frosting and free reign of the oven, sort of. I told them my oven is way more expensive and cooks better, and showed them how to use it, as long as I am around of course.  This Sunday we decided to make their cupcakes. They had a blast measuring all the ingredients and cracking the eggs themselves. Then they started decorating them and Olivia declares “It’s Cupcake Wars!” Brooklyn was in. They decorated their cupcakes and found some VERY willing judges!

The “Judges”

Brooklyn’s Cupcakes  &  Olivia’s Cupcakes

Ringing in the New Year

This new years we were invited to the beach with Callie’s family. We headed out on a snowy Thursday afternoon and as we started up the coastal range the traffic came to a standstill. As we slowly moved along we were passed by 3 ambulances and several police cars then we came to the actual cause of the delay. There was a 6 car pile up one of the cars being a police car. The roads were slick. After that we had a close call of our own when the car in front of us started sliding sideways and we couldn't stop. It took an extra hour, but we made it. The next day we all headed out to the Tillamook cheese factory. We had some yummy ice cream cones. Then we went to see a light house. We couldn’t go in it though because there had been some vandalism recently. It was a beautiful day! We did pass another car accident though, they had hit some black ice and rolled their car, so scary! Then the kids had fun ringing in the new year with pots and pans. Nathan wasn’t a fan of the noise!

A little snow

It snowed just a little bit, but that is all Olivia needs to make a snow man. She is always the first one out the door rolling snow balls for a snow man. A couple hours later the snow was gone, but her snow man was still there.