Party Preperations

I have known for awhile that we were going to have a "Farm Themed" Party for Bryce's 2nd Birthday. The biggest hurdle was finding a pony to rent. There were several companies listed in St. George but when you called they were actually all located in Nevada and wanted to charge an extreme amount to come to St. George. I called my friend Fallyn and she was able to find us a pony-even better she brought her husband who took care of the pony rides-it was great! After we found our pony it was time to plan the rest of the party.

My Sister-in-Law Brenda made this super cute Birthday Invite for it... 

 I found these Iron-On animals on Ebay and made these cute little shirts for all Bryce's cousins who are about his age.

Chloe and I made these cute animal water bottle labels out of scrap paper that I had on hand.

Chloe also helped me make this cute sign out of an old pallet. 

With Pinterest there is an abundance of ideas to be found so we finally narrowed down our games/entertainment.
Pony Rides (most important)
Tractor Pinata
Catch The Pigs Game
Pin The Tail on the Donkey
Barn Bean Bag Toss
Barn Playhouse
Duck Pond

 Landon and my sister Tiffanie helped a lot with the games. My Sister is the master of cardboard-she helped with the Barn Playhouse, Pig Pen, and Bean Bag Toss. Landon can create and draw anything-he made the pinata and pin the tail game. Everything turned out great!

Next up was the food. I wanted to do some fondant cupcake toppers as well as a cake.  My sister was supposed to help out with the fondant, but her and her family came down with Strep Throat...so my Grandma and I decided to give it a try-we had neither one fondant on our own before so it was new for us. I think they turned out pretty cute for our first time and Bryce loved helping.

 Working with Mom and Grandma can be exhausting....

 (Chickens and Pigs)

 I found a pattern for this horse cake on Pinterest. We decided to make two since the were kind of small. My Grandma can make anything I can bring her a picture of-so she did the majority of the work. Bryce loved the cakes. His favorite one was the White "Appaloosa" and yes he can say appaloosa :)

Farmer Bryce

Bryce is OBSESSED with anything to do with farms-tractors, animals, etc. He owns about every single farm book-haha and double that in farm animal toys. He can sing 'Old McDonald' not just a few words...the whole thing!!! He would sit for hours and watch you tube videos of horses if I would let him. He is having a Birthday Party this week-and of course it is a farm themed party. I thought it would be fun to take some cute "farm themed" photos for his upcoming party-or should I say have my sister-in-law Brenda take them. I had great ideas and good intentions, but the photo shoot just didn't go quite as planned. For one thing it was bitter cold...in the single digits and Bryce let us know he is not a fan of the cold. Also we didn't realize until later when we got home that he had a nail that had gone through the bottom of his shoe and was poking into his foot. So between that and the cold no wonder he was crying for most of the shoot. Despite all of that we still managed to get a few good shots of our little farmer.

(The horse in these pictures in Landon's brothers little baby colt named Cinch-Bryce loves him so much!!! In fact he loves him so much that he makes sure we include him in our family prayers every single night!!!)

Facing One of My Biggest Fears

One of my biggest fears is speaking in public. I have some serious anxiety. A few years ago when I got called to teach relief society I didn't know if I could do it. I remember sitting there crying the few minutes before it was my turn to go-I survived the first lesson and ended up teaching for the next year-each time getting a little bit better. However, I still dreaded and just couldn't fathom speaking in sacrament meeting. That's right in the almost 33 years of my life I can honestly say I have never spoken in sacrament meeting-not even as a youth speaker! I have said the opening prayer a few times and bore my testimony once, but never given the talk. This  is kind of amazing considering the fact that Landon is now on his third consecutive bishopric and usually this is something a bishopric members wife would be asked to do. I had friends who protected me, bishops wife's and Landon of course, whenever they would suggest me to speak, so I was able to escape. Then this last new bishopric got put in and a few days later Landon came home with the speakers for the first month and guess who was listed-yep me?! I really didn't want to speak, however I didn't feel like I could say no. For the last few months I had been having the feeling or prompting that I was going to be asked to speak in sacrament soon and that I was at a point in my life where I might be able to handle it without having a full blow anxiety attack. So I consented to remain on the schedule and give a talk. Yesterday was the big day...as time for church got closer and closer I experienced some pretty bad anxiety-I shed more than a few tears, but before I knew it the time had come and there I was sitting on the stand waiting my turn, luckily Landon had at least arranged for me to go first. It was finally my turn and though I was a little shaky and my voice wavered throughout the talk I made it through it-with much relief. I did it I faced one of my biggest fears and survived-now hopefully it will be a long long time before I will ever be asked to do that again. I was thankful that I had Landon there to support me and encourage me-he also gave a talk right after me-he seems to be a natural and always know what to say. I was also grateful that my Grandma Marshall came to sit with Bryce and the other kids while I was up there-and though she probably would have been fine for the whole meeting I used that as an excuse to go down off the stand as soon as my talk was over. 

Basketball Season

Well our month of no sports has ended and though it was nice, it is good to have the kids involved in stuff once again to help with their endless bounds of energy. 

Tanner has started 4 day a week baseball practices as well as practicing basketball for both his City League Games and Church Ball. I am so glad he decided he still wanted to play b-ball after not making the school team as it is one of my favorite sports. He had his first City League game on Saturday and will have both City League as well as Church Ball games this week.

Tanner is on the Celtics this year. His team lost their game on Saturday, but it was still fun to watch. Tanner is definitely the team leader-which is in itself a great thing for him. In the past he has been so shy and reserved-he now comes across as confident and in charge. The other players listen to him and you can tell he is in control of the game when he is playing-he knows when to shoot, or drive, or pass-he plays point guard whenever he is in. He played all but one quarter. It was good to see this positive change in him.

Chloe is on the Jazz this year and no I am not her coach, in a way I regret this, but in another way I am relieved as Chloe and I tend to butt heads a little bit and also I tend to want to be a little more competitive than most of the coaches and players. It is sometimes frustrating in City League because you have so many skill levels all playing together-some of the girls have no clue what is going on while some could play on a comp team if they wanted.

Chloe's team lost their first game by a lot. They won their second game 8-4-yep it was a real high scorer! If Chloe would had made all of the shots that just didn't fall for her, it would have been triple that. It was a frustrating night for her-she had so many steals and fast breaks, regular shots, and even two foul shots and she just didn't have the right touch going on-they would all ring around the rim and pop back out. She did finally end up sinking one at the very end. You can tell that Chloe knows what she is doing when she dribbles she definitely has control of the ball, she also is good at reading where the ball is going and following the game which makes it easy for her to get a steal and fast-break. I would say she easily had 20 steals in her game on Saturday. She is having fun and trying to be patient with those team-mates who are just learning the game-which is good for her.

Sporting the Cool Mo-Hawk hair-do...

Barn Fun

Bryce loves the new barn tent my Mom made him for Christmas. He always wants it on the table, and if I take it off, he is always asking to put it back on. The other day he didn't want to get out to eat his breakfast-so I fed it to him through the barn window.

Sunday Best

Ever since Tanner was Bryce's age, Landon's Grandma (Grandma Robison), has given all of her great-grandkids new Sunday clothes every year for Christmas. It is one of my favorite traditions. I love knowing that they will get a nice new pair of Sunday Clothes to start the year out with. It might not always be the funnest gift for a kid to get, but honestly I think my older two have started to enjoy and even look forward to it as well. I always try to snap a picture of them in their new Sunday attire. Love the blacks and blues on these kiddos-they were looking pretty sharp!!!

Curious Cloud

 A few Sundays ago when the kids and I came out of church Tanner pointed out this cloud to us. It was definitely interesting and something none of us had ever seen before. I snapped a picture and later posted it on Social Media. A lot of people commented that they had seen the same cloud the past few days, someone even shared an article with me on what cause this cloud to form. It was pretty interesting to learn about and fun to see something we hadn't before.

Here is the article that was in the St. George News about this cloud...

ST. GEORGE – A strange cloud formation hovering over St. George Sunday afternoon raised the curiosity of many.

According to the National Weather Service, this type of cloud is known as an altocumulus standing lenticular cloud, and usually forms during winter and spring months.

A lenticular cloud occurs when, the NWS states, relatively stable, fast moving air is forced up-and-over a topographic barrier that is oriented more or less perpendicular to the direction from which the upper-level wind is blowing. This deflection creates a gravity wave downwind of the topographic barrier not unlike a wave you might generate by throwing a pebble into a pond. When sufficient moisture is present above mountain-top level, lenticular clouds develop within the crest of these mountain waves where the air is rising.

These types of clouds don’t usually form in desert areas because of the dry weather, but because of recent moisture in Southern Utah, the lenticular cloud was able to form.

The last time a lenticular cloud formed in St. George was Oct. 11, 2012.

New Years

We started out the New Year by going to a Birthday Party (my friend Amy's son-Tyler's). Being that there was lots of snow on the ground the took advantage of it and had a sledding party.

Bryce was excited about the concept of sledding and happy to wear the new hat he had so proudly picked out but once we got to the sledding hill and he realized what sledding was he quickly change his mind.

 He went down unwillingly a few times, but after that he was content to sit in the warm truck and look out the window at others sledding. We discovered he is not a fan of the cold at all-love those baby blues though.

Chloe however...went again and again and again. Tanner had fun for awhile, but eventually joined Bryce in the warm truck. Chloe didn't stop until we headed to lunch.

 The party was a fun way to start out the new year.

We stayed the next few days with Landon's parents before we headed home. It was fun just hanging out and visiting. We also went to the movie on Friday Night-with several of the cousins and Landon's brother Layne and his wife. Even though the older kids had been there over a week by the time we left they still wanted to stay longer-haha. I think we managed to get away in pretty good time and only forgot a few small items-that we can think of. The kids are already looking forward to when we can go back again-probably on Easter.