Jensen Turns Five!

Jensen boy turned 5 on December 27th.  Normally I let the kids have their first friend birthday party when they turn five, but since we were with family for the holidays we decided to just have a cousin birthday party instead.  It was SO fun!  We went to Airborne trampoline park (in Draper) for the party and then went back to my parents house for pizza and cupcakes.

A few days before the party we went to Zurchers and I let Jensen help pick out some decorations for the party.  He chose dinosaur decorations and mini dinosaurs for the cupcake toppers.  (Super simple things, but I hope it helped him feel special for his birthday).

He chose chocolate cupcakes and vanilla frosting for his "cake" and my dad was awesome and made those for me.

We went to Airbourne mid morning on his birthday and played there for a few hours with a few of the cousins and family that were around.  I didn't jump since I am pregnant, but I enjoyed watching everyone else jump.  Everyone from the toddlers all the way up to the daddy's seemed to have a good time.  The obstacle courses were a favorite.  My kids especially enjoyed swinging on the ropes into the foam pit.  Jensen is such a busy body.  He always needs to be touching things, running, climbing, or jumping.  This was the perfect activity for him.  I especially loved watching him play and thoroughly enjoy himself.

After the trampoline park we drove back to my parents house for pizza, presents, and cake and ice cream.  Delicious food and Jensen LOVED opening his presents.  He loved all the flashlights he got and his telescope. 

Thank you to all of the family that made his day special.  So grateful for family and the sacrifices they make in their lives for us.

Jensen we are SO thankful to have you in our family.  Your personality is blossoming and you add such a fun spirit to our family.  You love playing with your daddy and your brother and sisters.  You ask awesome questions and are always coming up with cool inventions in your mind.  You love ropes, tools, flashlights, your bike, running, and cuddling with mommy.  You are getting so tall and are counting down the days until you go to school like Adalyn (although you do LOVE being at home all day with mommy).  You love to love on Magnolia SO much.  She runs away now, but that doesn't stop you from trying to give her constant brotherly attention.  You tried out gymnastics this year and didn't love it so now we have moved on to soccer which will start in a few weeks.  You did great at swimming lessons this year and improved so much.  You love your primary class and are the loudest singer at singing time.  You love treats and occasionally try and sneak them ;).   

We love you Jensen and hope you have a wonderful year!! 



 

 

Christmas in Utah 2017

Let me be honest, I hate that I am so far behind with posting on my blog.  BUT I don't feel like I am SO far behind that I should just skip things and move on.  So here I am talking about Christmas in Feburary.  Hopefully I will catch up soon!

Christmas this year was a great one.  We finally figured out how to do Christmas in Utah well.  The wrapping and shipping gifts to my moms house was not stressful and I had a fun time helping Santa out.  

We showed up in Utah the Tuesday before Christmas (Christmas was on Sunday).  McKay stayed in Idaho for a few extra days to work, but the kids and I headed down early since Larissa and Rusty were coming into town and we wanted to spend some extra time with them.  We played with cousins, shopped, and took a little trip to the library.  7 little kids in the same house, kept us on our toes!

On the 23rd we had our official Christmas party with my family at Corinne and Stu's house.  McKay met us at their house from Idaho.  We took unofficial family pictures before the party started since some new babies had been added to the family since the last time we took family pictures.  No photographer, just all of us in Corinne's backyard.  But we are so happy that we were all able to be together again. 

And look at this cute picture of grandma and grandpa with all the grandkids!  Look at those cute kids! 

For lunch we ate yummy chicken Parmesan slider sandwiches and ham and cheese sliders.  After lunch came the main event... Gingerbread houses!!

This is our second year doing these and it went a lot smoother this time around.  All the adults broke off into couple "teams" to design and build our own gingerbread houses out of frosting, candy, and graham crackers.  We have 4 engineers in the family so it can get fairly technical.  My parents gingerbread house ended up being the best by far.  McKay and I made a train which isn't very original, but I am just happy it didn't fall over and break.

It was a special day spent with family and I loved every minute of it!

That evening we drove to Evanston to spend time with McKay's family.  We slept there Friday night and then played and played with cousins the next day.  It was freezing outside and the Pace family has grown SO much over the last few years (lots of babies being born) so we all just squeezed into the house and try to not go crazy from all the kids running around :)  Grandma and Grandpa are good sports about the grandkids taking over their house.  

These photos are not great quality, BUT I am going to post them anyways to remember the day by

We opened presents and had a tasty turkey dinner and then we all headed our separate directions Saturday evening.  We headed BACK to my parents house for Christmas eve and Christmas day (the more kids we get the harder it has been to travel around to a million different houses over Christmas.  So we are having to cut some activities out to avoid going crazy over the holidays.)

Christmas Eve was church, a nice family dinner and our yearly Christmas eve program.  The kids sang jingle bells and Addie did a dance. 

Grandpa made a treasure hunt for the grandkids with clues all over the house.  Also... matching Christmas jammies ofcourse ;)

      

After the kids went to bed the Adults just sat and played games... jk 

All set for Christmas morning 2017 :)

That night Magnolia didn't feel well and I started feeling sick as well so it was a LONG night.  I know the kids had a great day, but I did not feel well so we had a very low key Christmas day.  

My favorite part from the day was the yummy breakfast my parents made us.  It was eggs wrapped in sausage, covered in bread crumbs and then baked.  Once cooked they were covered in a yummy cream sauce.  Yes a breakfast that my dreams are made of :)

The kids had a wonderful time opening their gifts and had a great rest of the day opening every box and playing with ALL of the toys.  Oh the crazy the mess that Christmas makes!  Boxes everywhere!   

Addie's favorite toy was her microphone and play make-up

Jensen loved his remote control cars

Declin LOVED  his playskool Rescue bot transformers

Magnolia loved her baby doll

It was a fun Christmas day and we enjoyed being with family

The last part of our Christmas day week celebrations was going to visit McKay's mom.  We went down to her house the day after Christmas and spent the afternoon with her.  We opened presents and then went on a field trip to the Bean museum at BYU.  I had never been to the bean museum, but it was a perfect outing to do with our kids.  They LOVED it and I wont lie I really enjoyed it too.  They looked at all the animals and saw the huge snake display.  At the end they got to go to a mini live animal show and touch a couple animals.  We will definitely be going back sometime when we visit her again. 

Christmas 2017 complete!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!