Not much going on today

Today is February 4, my 13th wedding anniversary is coming up.  I'm not sure what we will do yet.  Maybe go bowling.

I had a very successful open enrollment this past year.  I was able to add about 60 new clients and I hit 100,000 AV.  One challenge I have every year is to stay active and continue growing my business in January and February, after working so many long hours from October through December I am a bit mentally drained and I have a hard time getting back to growing my business.

We recently went to St George for a couples retreat with my brothers, spouses, and parents.  It was very enjoyable. We went to Zion National Park for a day, cooked pizza, played pickleball, and other games at the house we were staying at.   Zion was way colder than we expected, fortunately everyone brought plenty of clothes so we could layer.

Our family is getting very excited for an upcoming trip.  Over a year ago I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone to my boys, once we finished that book we watched the first movie, then we read the second book, then third and on until we read all 7 books and watched all 8 movies.  We watched the 8th movie in December.  The trip we are planning is to go to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios Orlando.  We will be going at the end of this month and will be there for 5 days.  I wanted to make this trip very memorable so we are going all out on the trip, we will be staying in one of the premiere resorts and along with that comes the ability to get to the front of the line for most rides in the park.  We will also be getting breakfast at the 3 Brooksticks and also at the HogsHead, and we will be going to a photoshoot, I assume they will have wizard clothes to dress up in.  As the trip gets closer I am getting more excited.

Do people still read blogs?

 It has been almost 8 years since we last posted something on this blog.  A lot has happened.  I don't expect anyone to see this; however, I thought I could start writing on this again to record my own personal thoughts, as a sort of journal.  School is almost out for this year.  Micah is finishing up kindergarten, Asher is finishing 3rd grade, and Liam is finishing 5th grade.

All three of our boys are in playing baseball now.  I feel bad that they are all pretty behind their teammates in skill level, they haven't played baseball in a couple years.  Asher gets really discouraged with himself and I am concerned Liam is getting embarrassed in front of his teammates because is doesn't play very well.  I am working with them on their fundamentals, catching and throwing, and our neighbor has a batting cage that we have been using to help them with their hitting.  But neither of them have got a base hit yet. Hopefully they will soon.

Work is going well for me, although I have been in a bit of a slump recently.  It has been hard for me to stay motivated to make phone calls and do work.  I definitely need to get out of it.

We went on a great road trip over spring break, one of our stops was in Oklahoma City.  We visited a very nice park right in downtown.

This isn't the greatest blog post, but it's a start.

I want to write a funny thing Micah said recently, I was riding bikes home from school with him and he told me a joke, "how do cows stay up to date?", "By reading the mewspaper", but I thought he said newspaper and I told him I didn't get it.  Micah then said "dive into the word dad, dive into it." He is really funny.

Oh Geez, Liam is Three

I was so excited for Liam’s Birthday this year. Liam was so excited for his birthday this year, even though he would forget until one of us reminded him.  Months ago I had Liam look at a blog that listed 30 boy parties.  He decided out of all of them that the Crayon Party was the one he wanted.  Then he started to get into Tow-Mater (from Cars, in case you didn’t know). So I thought I would plan a Mater party. I had it mostly planned and then talked to him about it and nope he wanted a Crayon Party. So here it is.

 

We started out the day by having his favorite breakfast: Waffles, Strawberries, and Cool Whip.  The Cool Whip actually being his favorite part (and if you’ve been following our blog you will know that this is what we have for all Birthdays.  We LOVE it!

Liam chose this Goblet cup.  His big day, I guess it makes sense.

After our yummy breakfast we went to the reservoir to swim.

 

Liam thought he was swimming and was super excited to show me.

Then it was home for naps and then “Party Time”

Liam with his cousins Nash and Bridgette (or “Gibette” as Liam would say)

First we made our own crayons by melting down old crayons in muffin tins.   I did not take a picture of the end result, but they turned out pretty cool.

We went through almost every kid game I could think of.  They only took 5 min so we had to do a LOT to take up time.

  Playing musical chairs or musical towels.  My brother, Mark, dad to Bridgette and Nash, Played along with Jamon. 

Then Present time.

      He loved putting money in his piggy bank.

A hug for Aunt Jodee for giving him a golf set.

Liam got a Little People Farm, Hungry Hungry Hippo (which he is obsessed with), and a Piggy Bank from us.  A Golf set, water toys, bouncing ball thing, puzzles, and Lightening McQueen from friends and family.  Thanks Everyone.

Asher did exactly what he did on his Birthday.

For Dinner we had a Taco/Salad Bar. 

I put the food together in color groups and then tried to put them all in a rainbow.  It could’ve looked better, but it definitely couldn’t have tasted better.

    

My Sister, Jodee, and I had fun making this cake.  Most of the fun was trying to get the colors to be bright.  They turned out exactly like I wanted them too. 

The candles are so annoying.  I wish I would’ve taken pictures without them.

We were most worried about the inside colors not being bright enough.  They turned out PERFECT though.

I am really happy with how it turned out.

I couldn’t get Bridgette to move so I could get a picture of Liam alone.  She was too excited.

Liam’s teeth look blue, because he couldn’t wait until after pictures to take the top off the blue crayon.         

Overall a great Birthday.  Liam totally enjoyed being around cousins and especially being at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Thanks to my family for making it special for him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM

Happy, Happy, Birthday

(Let me start out by saying I’ve had a heck of a time getting Asher’s One year and Birthday posts published.  I finally figure it out and then I delete the Birthday Party Post. Drive me Crazy.  So here is the third draft of this post.)

Asher woke up on his Birthday June 6th to Helium Balloons floating around the house.  His face was in awe at this sight.  He would’ve been fine if that’s all I did for him.  He Loved them.  We didn’t stop there though.  I made him a yummy breakfast consisting of waffles and strawberries, minus the cool whip and syrup (I’m not ready for him to know that yummy-ness yet).  We were having his party the next day so we didn’t do much else on his actual birthday, except go to the park and play outside.

                      

Asher’s party guests consisted of Aunt Jodee, Uncle Bryce, Uncle Ammon, Aunt Leslie, Jaxon and Tess. I have no pictures of the guests except these two cuties.

We ate pizza, played in the sandbox, and played with bubbles.

I have no idea why I don’t have any picture of Asher during these activities.

 

Then it was present time.

Asher didn’t do that bad opening his presents.

This is all he wanted to do with the boxes. 

Even the next day when I put the airport together he still only wanted to stand on the box.

Liam and Jaxon could barely contain themselves.  So I finally let them help with the last gift.

 

Now for the Cake 

I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out, except that I did the writing as I was taking it out to Asher, so it looks real bad.  Jodee helped ice it and made the cars…she’s incredible.

This is the only picture I got with Asher and the lit candle. His hand is on its way to put out the flame. No blowing for this kid.

Asher did not disappoint with the eating and destroying of the cake.

First he just dipped his fingers in

Then he enjoyed a little more

Then he got serious.

Then total destruction

and the cake was no more.

 This is all that was left of the cake.

This was the adult cake.  Caramel Frosting around and through the cake along with caramel sauce. 

Yes, it was SUPER sweet, but oh so yummy!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHER!