Happy Birthday to my Titanic-Loving Kid

Happy happy birthday to HD who is now double digits. Like how though?!

 At the beginning of the school year, he was really into the Titanic. We found a fictional book series about the passengers on the Titanic and he couldn't read them fast enough. He also enjoyed the book, "I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic" which he also quickly read. He had no idea what he wanted for a cake this year, so I surprised him with the idea of the Titanic. He was quick to inform me he didn't want it to be sinking!

 He liked it, but he said he would have loved it if it had four stacks like the actual Titanic....

 I could not have done this cake without my dear friend, Alicia, though! She and her daughter came out for a concert and stayed an extra few days. Because that weekend coincided with HD's birthday party weekend, I suggested she help me with his cake. We had always talked about getting together to make a cake, but we never set aside time to actually do it. I figured now was a good time to check that one off our list. 

 She's got a pretty steady hand, so she did all the little windows on the bottom of the boat. HD was very interested in what she was working on and wanted to try it himself. 

The cake decorators and perfectionists in us were both thinking NO, it'll ruin it! So we let him do windows on the back of the boat, since there's ALWAYS a backside!

A Kittie Party on Mothers Day

Ms. Gail had been counting down to her 4th birthday pretty much since she turned 3. For her, it's been helpful to count the long length of time by reminding her who's birthdays have to come first before she have another. With every birthday marked off the calendar she quickly became more and more excited to turn 4. I'm sure, for the last 3 months, she reminded me her birthday was coming soon every day, since JP and myself already had our birthdays.

Last year she really wanted a Minnie Mouse cake, but changed her mind a couple days before hand and switched it to a Cinderella cake. Ever since, she's been a bit sad and confused why she didn't get a Minnie Mouse cake for her birthday so I was prepared to theme her cake as such this year. She pulled the switcher-roo on me again though after she typed "C-A-T" into Pinterest to look at cat pictures and stumbled upon a cat cake. And then we were done. There was no changing her mind at all. She wanted a cat cake for her birthday.

Because I'm still new to the area, and don't know many people, her party wasn't much. We did plan it for a Sunday though so her cousin and auntie could come celebrate with her. Nanny and Grandma were also able to make it to her little party, along with my Aunt who road-tripped out with my mom, and also my cousin who lives in Portland.

Aunt Bobby was going to come out for her birthday as well, but decided to come a week so she could spend a little extra time with the kids. (And because Perry and I needed a sitter!) Before Aunt Bobby left, we took Ms. Gail to a nail salon to get her toes painted. She did so good! She acted like a little princess! Because she wasn't tall enough to have to toes soak in the tub, the technician had a bit of extra time so Ms. Gail also got her finger nails paint too. She was pretty spoiled!

I spent the majority of her actual birthday working on the cake. Due to some health issues (I'm sure I'll write about them later), I was *extremely* tired, and my new medicine was making me irritable, so that was awesome... Around lunch time, JP gave her some flowers for her birthday. Last year she requested HD give her flowers, but we decided to have them alternated each year. She loved it! 

Then we brought in our present for her to open. She had been asking and asking for a kitchen, so we caved.What she didn't know, was that the box was empty because Perry had assembled it the night before. She was pretty mad when she opened the box to find it empty. Lol.  

Her kitchen came with a little play phone too so she spent the next several days calling and texting everyone, as in "I can't come to eat yet! I'm texting someone!"

We all took a break in afternoon from being cooped up in the house to go see Beauty + the Beast while it was still in theatres. I loved the cartoon version, and loved this one as well! I spent the remainder of the evening putting together all the kitties for her cake and probably stayed up a bit too late doing it too!

The kitties are a little hard to see, but I ended up making replicas of some of her kitties. Baby Booties and Mama Booties, of course, made the cake. She loved them all, and really enjoyed checking on their progress throughout the evening.

 In the morning between football games, I let Ms. Gail help finish up the cake by decorating it a bit more. I had added some pearls to the side of the cake the night before, but I knew having sprinkles on her cake was important for her, so I let her do the sprinkling, before my OCD kicked in. She also took great pride in arranging the kitties on the cake. When all the kitties were where they needed to be, she looked at it and exclaimed, "Oh wow! It's like a cat party on my cake!"

Seriously, how is she FOUR already?!

We're now 3 weeks into being a four-year old and she's already planning her next birthday and insisted we put up her birthday count-down in the kitchen... I keep reminding her, let's be four for a while before we start thinking about being five, shall we?

Because the Birthday Boy Loves Green...

My baby boy is now seven. SEVEN! I am so proud of the young little guy he has become. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't just melt my heart. I asked him the other day if we could just not celebrate his birthday so he wouldn't have to turn seven. "As long as I can still open the presents, we don't need party." Well...that's not how it works. "Then I guess I'll have to turn 7." Ugh. I know he's *only* seven, but I carried him to the bus stop the other day. I'm not going be able to do that for much longer...

 I just love him so much! Just look at that cute little two-year old face of his!

He's been anxiously awaiting his birthday, especially this week, as his presents started arriving from his relatives and stacking up in the corner. I ventured out earlier this week with little C to Toy 'r Us knowing it was going to be a rough trip. She did alright all things considered. There was a lot of reminding going on..."We're here for JP. We're looking for something he will like, not you." Her willingness to not pout through the entire store won her a trip to the pet store to look at the kitties. Win win I would say! Because dad had to go into work early today, I let him only open one present before we managed to scoot out the door for school. (Thank goodness my little sister called *at the crack of dawn* to talk to the birthday boy, or we might have all over slept since my alarm was set for 6pm...)

 I had every intention of getting a really good jump start on his cake yesterday. I baked it first thing in the morning and then while it cooled I took upon the task of painting the ceiling in the dining room. Not all of it, but some of it. But since I did that, I figured I better just go ahead and paint the short wall so we could put the old curtains back up. And you know, the other wall is only a couple feet wide... so by 5:30pm H was cooking mac 'n cheese for dinner. So much for working on the cake. Today was the deadline and JP was already asking about it at 7:30a. Such a procrastinator I've become. I remember when I'd start cakes on Tuesday to be done by Friday night! C tested her patience by holding spatulas and beaters and later danced her Barbie dolls around the kitchen while I she tested my patience. I finished it up with 15 minutes to spare - just enough time to dust off the powdered sugar and walk to the bus stop to get H, JP, and one of JP's new friends.

He misplaced his glasses somewhere in the house last week and we've yet to find them. He looks so young without them on! You knew he was going to have a green cake, right? He's that predictable. A couple weeks ago I realized we hadn't had the "birthday cake chat" yet. He rolled his eyes and knowingly said, "A lego cake, of course." Of course... I made H a lego cake for his 6th birthday, but yeah, we'll do legos again. As his big day neared, he made it known that he specifically wanted a Lego Ninjago cake, but didn't specify which one. I should have messed with him and made the blue or yellow one. 

I resisted and made Lloyd. I gave him yellow hands at first but his hands were struggling to stay up (you know since I procrastinated...) so I switched it up and used black. He looks a little more Ninjago-ish with the change. 

Though we didn't originally plan it, we had an impromptu sleepover with his friend. I didn't realize it until it was bedtime, but this was our first sleepover! JP has been to a sleepover before (I don't think HD has though...) but we've never had the opportunity to have a friend stay the night so the boys were extra excited about that. Getting three boys settled down for bed is no easy task, but we conquered :) They seem pretty excited about puffy pancakes for breakfast!

Grandma Gets Re-Married!

We never would have guessed at the beginning of the year that we would be attending a wedding for Grandma Betty. I don't recall when she decided to start dating again after the passing of her husband, John, but I know that she put all her faith in God to lead her to the right person. The Lord did just that and we are all so happy to see her happy and excited about life again!

Our family met her new 'mate in July when the 7 of us took a hike up Morrell Falls. This was where she expressed to me how much in love with him she was, and that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him! John later confessed something similar to Perry while they were out grilling. A few short days later, we received a call announcing that he did in fact propose and they were planning on an October wedding, a little over 2 months away. We had spent one more weekend with John and Grandma in Washington when he was introduced to Em and Colin before their wedding.

They planned the wedding for October 15th at Rich Ranch near Seeley Lake, MT. It was a beautiful ranch! Though the weather hadn't been favorable all week, the rain held off on Saturday and was a nice warm-ish fall day. 

In the morning after every had breakfast, most of the wedding guests loaded into the wagon for a horse ride around the ranch. I hung back at the lodge so I could work on assembling and decorating the wedding. While I would have had time to get it done after the wedding, or even after the wagon ride, I preferred to work on it when there was a lot less to distract me. Like kids... 

 Everyone that went enjoyed the little excursion - HD especially because he had to ride up front to make room for everyone in the back! He loved it!

 While we originally weren't expecting Cameron, Erin, and Stevie to be able to come to the wedding, because Erin just had sweet little Addyson only several weeks prior, we're so happy they made it after all! I was so anxious to meet the newest member to the Dustin family!

The wedding was short and sweet and turned out just perfect. She looked so pretty in her grey dress. At the end of the ceremony, John surprised her by singing her a song he had written for her. So sweet!

There was lots of dancing going on throughout the afternoon that was entertaining to watch. Little Stevie sure has some killer dance moves! Perry joined in and showed off his stellar moves, in hopes that Stevie would copy him. That was fun to watch! Perry has some serious moves! I danced only a little - I had to lead the group in the "Chicken Dance" only because it was too painful to watch them do it wrong! 

After dinner I brought out the cake for everyone to enjoy. I love how it turned out! She wanted a simple cake with three red roses. I messy frosted the outside to make it fit into the rustic decor and the wooden slab fit in perfectly! She loved it!

There were a couple toasts to the bride and groom and then they cut the cake and each had a turn smearing it in each others faces. 

Perry and I made a quick trip into town to stop by one of my former co-workers' wedding, but I didn't realize the reception was somewhere else, so we missed out and headed back to the ranch earlier than planned. We brought Ms. Gail with and she fell asleep in the car on the way back - worked out perfectly! 

Dancing was winding down when we came back to the lodge from putting Ms. Gail  to bed. HD managed to sneak a dance with Grandma before the night was over and JP caught a few pictures of Perry and I dancing together too. Pictures of us together (other than selfies!) are far and few between! Thanks JP!

I'm going to wrap up this post with a few little out takes of Ms. Gail and I. That girl... All mom wants is ONE good picture!

And in her best pose, she blinks. *face palm*

We did manage to find one decent one out of the bunch Perry snapped :)

My Princess Turned 3!!

I am so tired right now I could cry. Actually, I might have before leaving for work at 10:30pm. These Friday night shifts are killing me! But lucky for me, I had a friend stop by the house to drop off somethings and she brought me coffee. Exactly what I needed to get through the morning!

Charlotte's birthday last year was super last minute, and this year wasn't much different. I was originally planning on having her party Friday evening, but then I heard cousins Casey and Dylan wouldn't be there so I moved the party to Thursday. Then I heard Aunt Kile was going to come, but she thought it was on Friday. I moved it back to Friday, after I agreed to work the overnight shift. Some serious poor planning right there. You know, thankgoodness it wasn't on Thursday though. At one point there was 11 kids at my house ranging from 8 months old to 7 1/2 years old. It was chaos. I was just glad my mom and neighbor were there too! I would have never gotten anything ready for her party while watching Charlotte + Kady + 3 babies during the day. 

Aunt Bobbi occupied some of the kids by playing baseball in backyard.

After baking and carving the cake Thursday, I woke up semi-ready to tackle Friday the 13th. Charlotte was so excited when she woke up and ate her last jelly bean on her countdown to her birthday! Ridiculously cute! Just as I imagined, she requested Cream of Wheat for breakfast, her favorite. 

Charlotte and Aunt Kim in the hammock. 

 I spent the morning tidying up the house knowing that by the afternoon, you wouldn't be able to tell it was tidy. I powered through just so I wouldn't have to work on decorating the cake. I keep putting it off until the last minute. I think I'm burning out on the caking... At one point I had two babies at my feet, and two very curious girls watching me frost the cake. I can't tell you how frustrating all the questions can be when I'm concentrating! But I got it done with time to spare.

 My parents showed up just in time to help make the burger patties and prep the toppings. Perry arrived home to a house FULL of people, and just in time to grill. Unless I miscounted, there was 20 adults and 12 kids. I don't think we've ever had this many people at our house at once. Especially for a 3 year old's party! I loved it!

 Hunter enjoyed his time with cousin Casey, but also had a friend over to play with as well. (He just shows up at our house pretty frequently so instead of sending him home, I said he could stay for dinner. Then he set his plate down and the vulture-dog of ours ran off with his hot dog.) JP didn't care for all the people, which didn't surprise me. I found him in our spare room watching a movie "having some Jimmy time." Charlotte was later found in Hunter's room crying because of all the people. Poor little thing!

 We quickly cleaned up dinner and moved on to cake and presents to perk up her spirits. She loved the cake, but she wasn't into pictures today. Go figure. This is the best of them. Booties helped her to at least look at the camera. 

 She wouldn't even cheer up for Daddy!

 She did perk up a bit when her bestie came around though! Just a little.

 After I took all the pictures I needed of the cake, we sang her the birthday song, and wasn't overly impressed about it. She did request mom and dad to sing it again to her at bedtime and her face was all smiles!

 I'm pretty sure Hunter adores Casey as much as Casey adores Hunter. I sense some trouble coming on with these two in a few years...

 Once she ate her cake, Charlotte made a mad dash for the presents. All the kids did. She had been waiting all day to open up the present JP gave her. He had me pick up a box of Whoppers for her and he wrapped them with the message, "To Charli Love Jimmy" on the box. If that doesn't melt your heart....

The other night at dinner we asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she was quick to spell it out for everyone. A bike from JP, a pink flower from Hunter, her "purple-red" blanket (it's actually teal) from Dad that's been sitting high on a shelf for several months (only Santa can reach it, her words not mine!), and a light saber from mom that looks like Hunter's. She later changed my present to puzzles thankfully. Other than her blanket which is already hers, she received everything she asked for!

 Perry rode her bike in from the garage. I had bought a few bows to put on it, but they didn't make it to the bike. The pedals didn't make it on the bike either. I found it posted online from a church friend and immediately spoke for it. It has princesses on it too! Perry helped her ride it down the hall after Casey helped her put her new helmet on. 

 Once all her presents were opened, we all got a really nice thank you out of her. She opened them all so fast that she didn't process everything she was opening. After all the guest left, she dug through her box of stuff excitedly!

 Casey enjoyed her new pom-poms :)

 Before the nephews left, we attempted to get a cousins picture. #1 I can't see Dylan! Sit Dylan up!

 #2 Stay there Dylan! JP look at the camera! Hunter put the bat down.

 #3 JP look here! Casey! 

I think we should have stopped after the 1st picture.

Much to our surprise, Aunt Erin and cousin Stevie were in the area and were able to join us for the party! Such a fun surprise! I'm excited to hopefully see them again before they head home next week!

Happy birthday sweet Charlotte! Where have these last 3 years gone?!