Birthday season 2013 has commenced

 Abby kicked off birthday season with her birthday a couple weeks ago. Now we're on to our second birthday.

Gabe has turned 4!!

Gabe, my "baby" before Abby came is now four. I can hardly believe it.

Flashback photo:



Gabe now, 4 years old:



Today Gabe insisted he be called "Birthday Boy" all day. He also was one spoiled birthday boy. First he got to go pick out his own gifts the night before his birthday. He loved the shopping spree and was trying to grab random items to throw into the car the whole trip - from Angry Bird soap dispensers to various bags of candy. Finally we got him narrowed down to a pirate sword/shield set, a My Little Pony trading card pack and slap bracelet, a bag of his favorite chips, a box of juice boxes,  and a new bike!
Then Gabe got to bring cupcakes to his preschool class today. Next he had special treatment at lunch time including his juice box, a strawberry smoothie, and shells and cheese. He even got to open his pirate sword set early and played a bit of sword fighting with mom. Then his brothers got home from school and he shared his cupcakes and had more sword fights. For dinner he got to pick out his favorite food -which was PIZZA. (Uhh not on our new health eating plan though) We splurged and got him pepperoni pizza complete with cookie dough and cheesy bread. For dessert he got strawberry shortcake. YUMM  However what Gabe REALLY wanted was a Minecraft cake. So I've got a cake being made to be ready at a later date.

I'd say, overall, the birthday boy had a pretty good day! Now mom gets a breather before the Insane Birthday Week begins...one more month.

New Year's Resolution UPDATE

So. Its half-way through January. Amazingly we're still sticking with our New Year's Resolution. Rather then bog down the family blog with healthy eating updates, I updated my See Mommy Run blog (See tab at top of this blog). :) So go there for the skinny on getting skinny (okay, I admit that was cheesy).

I don't think I mentioned our other half of the New Year's Resolution, however. Billy came up with an idea to help our family also. While I'm working on the healthy side of things, he's working on the moral side of things.

Some of our boys have potty mouths. While our version of potty mouths range from "crap", "butt", or "stupid"...the extreme end of this range includes the Big Ones occasionally. You know, the ones they can't even air on TV or the radio. Oh boy.  So, dear husband has come up with a plan to Feed the Pig whenever an unacceptable word is said. While most of us don't have change on hand at all times, we keep a tally system. The boys are given an allowance and have to pay up their tally marks for bad words, as well as pay tithing (10%) before they get the remainder of their allowance. The first week our boys roughly got half of what they were supposed to get...
So said Pig is actually a pig of the ceramic variety. Decorated with festive "Vacation Fund" wording (see photo). Next year, when its family vacation time, we will break open the Pig and take a nice vacation with our potty mouth earnings. Further, if we cheat and go to take-out we have to put the same amount we spent into the Pig. Another stipulation was added as well that if we skip church for no good reason, each person has to put in a small amount in the Pig.

At the rate we're going, we'll be half-way to Hawaii in no time.

Everyone is slowly getting involved and in the game. I can't say "crap" now without little ears somewhere shouting at me "FEED THE PIG!" The boys get great joy from catching each other in the act.  The other day the TV was on, and the 3 yr old was even chastising actors on the TV show to "feed the pig" every few minutes.

Look forward to more updates from us soon, including some blog changes. I am thinking of switching the blog up a bit...any ideas?

First Birthday Photos...

Just a quick, shameless, photo post. I will have more to post later, but for now here are Abby's first birthday photos that I thought I should share!
The cake! An awesome princess cake, chocolate with raspberry filling, made by our cousin Heidi from Heidi's Treats. SO yummy!

Interestingly enough, the boys were jealous of all the pink and fuss over Abby. Maybe because they have birthdays so close together that its not often they get a whole party to themselves. I insisted to each one that they had a big 1st birthday party fuss as well!

Abby loved the paper, ribbons, and bags the most!

Big brother Brayden holding a smiley Abby.

Cake time...but she's just daintily picking pieces off like a true Princess. She just started picking the pink and purple fondant balls off to eat.

So big brother Alex got in there and showed her how to tear into the cake properly.

"Oh..there's chocolate in here you say?!"

Digging in...

CHOCOLATE!!!!

Finally getting the hang of this cake thing.

"Did I get it all?"

The aftermath...not too bad!

Haaaaaapy New Year! (And Happy Birthday)

 Wow what a year 2012 was...
First of all, biggest news, THE WORLD DIDN'T END! We get to see 2013 (bet the Mayans didn't see that one coming...)

2012 was a happy year for us. We added a new special little member to our family.
She almost came on New Years. We were sort of hoping for it. Rumor had it the first New Years baby got a prize. However, every other mom and baby must have had the same idea. The delivery rooms were full and so we had to wait another day. Oh boy was that tough.

January 2nd celebrates Abby's first birthday!!

Here's a quick look back, just a day old:



And now (well last month):



She's spoiled and loved by all. The boys still fight over who's turn it is to hold her. Now they like to sneak her treats behind mom's back also. She's going to get every little thing she asks for. Oh Boy.

Now...on BIG Family New Year's Resolution.

We are going to attempt to eat healthy, preservative-free, artificial sugar-free, and just as pure and healthy as possible. I think going too extreme our first attempt will burn us out quick. So this will be a learning process. I'm taking it one week at a time with  my meal planning.  We may be having to do this in baby steps. A great tool to start our journey out with is the 100 days of real food website. Recipes, meal plans, lots of tips. Great stuff. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
I will be updating our progress here on the blog. By the end of 2013 I hope to be writing a similar post to this telling you of all the great things we've seen by changing our diet. Yay!
I'm not a baker (nor for that matter a butcher nor a candlestick maker)...so I will be limited on what I can do. However it will be interested. I was pretty excited to see a Great Harvest Breads in Wenatchee. I guess I never paid attention before! I hope to buy our whole wheat bread there since I lack a wheat mill as well as the desire and talent to grind my own wheat and bake my own bread every week.
Check back weekly, or maybe monthly, to see how we're doing!

School starts back for me, like now, so I'm back to being a busy full time mom/full time college student again.

Hoping that 2013 will be a fantastic year for all!