My Baby is Two!

Jared's birthday went quite smashingly for the birthday boy. He woke up to balloons in the living room. Which were used immediately for hitting fights.

We had cupcakes (I call them muffins) for breakfast.

Later, on we had zucchini, sausage and wagon wheel noodles for dinner. (Because Jared loves circles).

Then we opened the presents!

And finally we got to eat cake. He got into it before I could even frost it the day before, which is why it is so lopsided. But I think it is a good attempt at cake decorating. At least good enough for a two year old! He love the color blue and also M&M's (his potty treat).







And it was good!

The Results are In!

So on our poll to the right 8 people guessed our baby is going to be a son, while 31 people guessed daughter. I was surprised it was such a landslide! Well, we had the ultrasound this morning and it seemed like it took forever for the technician to ask if we wanted to know the gender of our second bundle of joy. Well, it turns out the we are having a daughter! I couldn't be more thrilled!!!!
I am looking forward to a world of dresses and accessories and ponies. Not to mention trying to teach her all that she needs to know to become a woman.
Sheesh.
That's what parenting is I guess. Just a little (or a lot) overwhelming.
Now I've got to get back to teaching Jared to not hit and also new words like sister and share!

Good Morning!

Step right up!

I would love for all of you to notice the cool poll on the sidebar to your right. Let us know if you think this little one is a girl or a boy. Pink or blue. Sugar and spice or snake and snails and puppy dog tails.
Bragging rights to all who are correct!

Family Reunion

We had a lovely time with the Kemper family in California!

Playing on lake Tahoe

Finding fool's gold in a stream

Going to an old mining town

Seeing snow in June

Experiencing the really Big Trees

Ken hiked in Yosemite

I was with all my siblings and cousins (cousins not pictured)

Lots of fun activities including an Iron Chef competition (cranberries were the secret ingredient)

My award winning Cranberry upside-down cake!

Jared spent most of his time with the chickens in the coop

Good times were had by all!

Helping the marathoners

Another year, another marathon!
Ken and I love to volunteer with the Utah Valley Marathon. It makes us feel a little athletic and it sure is fun to see all those people doing something amazing. We were at mile 4 this year, helping people turn. This really means we help the first people turn and then just cheer for the rest. It was a load of fun, but I'm glad it isn't our habit to get the whole family up at 5 on a Saturday morning.
Maybe if we volunteer at enough of these we'll maybe participate one year!

Shaving cream art

Thanks to the blog post of a friend, Jared got a very fun evening yesterday. It is the cleanest messy fun we've had in a while!

Three cubed

My sweet Ken (love of my life!) turned 27.
I like to let Ken choose the menu on his birthday, so for breakfast we had muffins. Dinner was Ultimate Nachos (nachos with all the ingredients you could want). And for dessert I was going to make a cake, but when we were at the store Ken saw Cadbury eggs and he told me that is what he wanted. So I made a nest for those eggs. Ken was thrilled!


Jared of course loved getting messy in the dessert too.

Well, I don't have any pictures for it, but I gave Ken a pretty awesome birthday gift. I gave him a weekend away! Ruth babysat Jared for over 24 hours, while Ken and I went to the Little America in Salt Lake. It was wonderful just to spend time talking to Ken as we walked around and saw SLC and ate as much as we could.
I'm sure glad that Ken was born and that we get to share our lives together. He really is the most thoughtful, kind and selfless man I have ever met. (And I'm not just saying that because he is my husband.) Happy Birthday to Ken!