More of Mia's Birthday!

Let the birthday partying continue...
Since Mia's birthday was over spring break, we got to celebrate with her class on Monday. More cupcakes!

I took a few days to rest from our busy, crazy birthday and baptism weekend and then we moved onto another party. This past weekend we had Mia's "friends" party. She has opted the last few years to not have a big bash, but just have a few friends go see a movie and have dinner. She invited 3 darling girls from her school class. This year the movie she chose was "Mirror Mirror." With plenty of popcorn in hand the girls sat and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. We came home and had pizza, cake and opened presents. We had requested that each girl bring their favorite doll, and Mia helped me set the table for her friends and their dolls! The night was not complete until they had several rounds of karaoke with singing and dancing. Even Lily and Piper got into the dancing! Poor Jason - he seemed very overwhelmed with all of the girly giggling and squealing - and we have so many more years of this to come!!










Mia had a ball! And I love to be with her friends and listen to their conversations...I can get all kinds of good info! I found out who they have crushes on and good stories about people in their school class. Her friends are so fun with LOTS of ENERGY!!

As a side note - our Piper is now fully addicted to Backyardigans. We watch it in the car, at home, on my phone - everywhere!! While the girls were busy playing downstairs I snapped this photo of Piper enjoying her show as she stands on the coffee table and dances to each song.

Mia's Baptism

After a day of fun birthday celebration we had a BAPTISM to get ready for! In our church we are baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 8. So turning 8 is a special birthday! We have been excited and planning this day for a long time. Amazingly we all got ready early enough for some family photos with the grandparents. And my dad gave Mia a special compass to remind her of this day, and to help her remember that she now will have the gift of the Holy Ghost to help her choose the right each day. It was super sweet.









Mia's baptism was beautiful! She looked like a princess all dressed in white and smiling so bright. Jason performed the baptism and confirmation. What a sight to see - my wonderful husband and daughter dressed in white together for this special ordinance. It so so sweet having my parents, Jason's mom, my sister and her family, our sister-in-law Jessica and little Owen, our kind Home Teacher and his wife and even Mia's 2nd grade teacher all there to see her be baptized. Mia has grown up so much over this past year. She is turning into a strong, determined and kind-hearted and sensitive girl. She loves being the big sister and helps me so much around the house. I get to be her Primary teacher at church, so I have witnessed how much her knowledge of the Gospel has grown over the past year, and she is an example to me when she always remembers her prayers and to read her scriptures.




Two of Mia's cute little friends were being baptized at the same time so it was extra special for Mia to have this memory made with them. They were little angels in white. I am so grateful for the fantastic friends Mia has made since our move back to Utah. They come from amazing families and will be such good influences for Mia as they get older.



After the baptism we had a family dinner back at our house. Mia's favorite meal - flank steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus, rolls and white cupcakes for the kids and my mom's incredible coconut cake and strawberry pie for the adults. :)




This was a day so full of tender feelings and memories! I am so proud of Mia and the person she is becoming - and seeing her go under the water as she was baptized is a moment I will never forget. I still remember my own baptism, and seeing your daughter do the same is simply incredible! And to have all of this take place on Easter weekend made it all the more special. I know our Savior lived and has showed us the path we should follow so we can return home again one day to our Father in heaven. And then He died and was resurrected for each one of us. On this Easter / baptism weekend I was constantly reminded of the love our Savior has for each of us, and how important He is in each of our lives.

Easter Egg Hunt

We had such a busy weekend with Mia's birthday and baptism, but I couldn't let the fact that is was Easter go by- especially for Lily and Piper - so we colored eggs during Mia's party on Friday and then we had our traditional Easter family egg hunt on Saturday morning. This year was a first for the kids - finding eggs in the snow!! Hayden came and joined us and they had fun battling it out to see who got the most eggs. This was the first of many egg hunts for Piper, who fully enjoyed finding and opening all the eggs. She was so cute looking behind the plants for eggs and then happily dropping them into her bucket.

It's Great to Be Eight!

So, my first-born, adorable, lovable daughter MIA is now 8. How can that be?





Our spring break ended with a weekend of celebrating, playing, eating and focusing on Mia and this special time in her life. Friday, the actual birthday, was a day of games! We had a family lunch with my parents, my sister and her family - subs for lunch, opened presents, had cake (meemaw's awesome chocolate cake!) and played games. Her favorite gifts - an American girl doll (finally - thanks, to meemaw and pop-pop), her own set of scriptures and Wii games. After presents were done the kids took off to play her new Wii games. Then we took a break a colored Easter eggs.






To end the day Jason and I took Mia and Hayden to the Jazz game! I don't think I have ever enjoyed a Jazz game as much as I did that night with those two beside me. They loved every minute, which made me love the whole game, too. We bought those obnoxious foam fingers for them and Mia needed a Jazz shirt. From the time we sat in our seats their goal was to make it onto the jumbotron, and it only took until halftime. :) I glanced up and there was Mia and Hayden on the big screen dancing away. Awesome!! They tracked down the Jazz bear and got a hug and he even picked Mia up and put her on his shoulders. We ate nachos and kettle corn and cheered the Jazz to a victory. What a great night. I love watching Mia and her cousin be such great friends. They are very different, but they love being together.




What a great, FUN birthday for our new 8 yr old!! It was so nice to enjoy a day all about her with our family. There are perks to being back in Utah - we get to be with family for all our birthdays now. :)

Back to Texas!!

Our spring break got off to a fantastic start with a trip back to Houston, TX. The girls have not been back since we moved last summer, and they were dying to go back and see their friends and have some swim time. We made it a quick trip (figuring 3 nights in a hotel was plenty with Piper), but it was perfect! We spent most of our time on our old street with our neighbors, which we now consider family! We had a BBQ and swim time on Saturday evening, and then more sun and fun on Sunday. It rained on Monday, which was a bummer but the girls still managed to find time to swim. We ate at all of our favorite spots and we all got sad when we saw the new family living in our home pull into OUR garage and swim in OUR pool. The girls kept saying they just want to move back into our old house. It was a bitter, sweet trip. We miss Texas and our friends there so much. But we know that we belong in Utah right now and we are settled and happy to be there, too. Overall, Piper was a trooper but traveling with a toddler isn't easy. We did discover she is a maniac around the pool - she had no fear of the water and would just run and jump off the side. She kept me and Jason very busy! Time to get that girl into swim lessons. :) We are so grateful for the time we had back in Texas and cannot wait to go back again soon.

The old gang back together in the pool. Piper was just one of the girls!



Mia and Lily - so happy to be back in the water!





The girls had a ball at the hotel. The first night there Mia got into her bed and said, "Now this is the life!" They spent lots of time playing on the cart, swimming in the pool late at night and exploring the green grass and blooming flowers!





We ended our trip with breakfast at one of our favorite spots with one of our very favorite people - "uncle" Russ!



We are back home now and our spring break will end with lots of partying - Mia turns 8 on Friday!!