I can’t believe my baby is 3. When people say that I used to think they were lying…but nope, time really does fly. I love birthdays. I think the main reason I want more kids is so we would have more than 5 birthdays a year to celebrate!
The night before Andrew’s birthday my mom and I were up doing the finishing touches on the decorations. Around midnight Andrew gets out of his bed and walks past the stairs. With his eyes half closed he says something like “looks good mom.” Then he went upstairs to cuddle with Chris. I thought it was so cute! When he came down that morning he didn’t burst through our streamer curtain like I thought he would. Instead he got on his belly and ever so carefully crawled under it. (he saved ripping them down one by one for later in the morning)

He runs over to the table and says, “That’s my bike! I got it with dad!” Yes, it is true. Andrew helped Chris pick it out and he was so excited about his “army bike'”…although it is really a Spiderman bike :)
My favorite picture…isn’t he angelic? This is before he tried to blow out the trick candle…hehehe. He is always blowing out other peoples candles so I wanted him to have plenty of times to blow out his own candle. This one was in the muffin for so long it actually melted the wax off the candle so it was just the wick. The muffin wasn’t very eatable after that (it really wasn’t that great to start with anyways…I guess you really do need vanilla and brown sugar when the recipe calls for it. Oversight on my part!)
He finally gets this present he has been waiting for since my mom bought it for him back in January! I had it locked in a closet, but Mr... I can get into anything found it…then found it again…then again. I was so excited when he could finally play with it! ( and I could relax about having to face a tantrum over not being allowed to play with it! Horary!)
So was he!
Ahma and Joy had perfect timing…as usual! They came over to say hi to him and it was right when we were finishing breakfast (yes it was around 11am) and getting ready to do donuts and breakfast. Chef Chris whipped them up some yummy crepes with strawberries and powdered sugar and I took pictures. I love this picture!

Tay taking a turn on donuts. Since I post a picture of all of us doing donuts for every birthday you can just go back in the history and find them…we look pretty much the same :)
Andrew with the chosen donut!
Yes, I even got my mom to do it! She was actually pretty fast…so I made sure to fix that when it was Joy’s turn :)
She looked like a pro to start with…and I had shown them my secret trick…so like any fair person would do I gave her donut a big push so it would swing all over. The video is priceless :) Too bad I have no idea how to upload video to our blog…maybe I’ll start working on that next :)
Andrew loved the phone calls he got! For all of you who called him THANKYOU! When Papa called to talk to him he had to take the phone outside to “show” him his bike. It was really cute how excited he was about his bike…and how he has no idea that the person on the phone can’t see what he sees.
Since Andrew’s birthday fell on a Sunday we decided to get together with everyone and do an Easter egg hunt. I was going to host it at my house, but my uncle Robert INSISTED we bring the whole tribe up to his house. Thank you uncle Robert!!!! Jan – will you make sure Robert sees this part…he will know why :)
Ella and Kallie looking for eggs…..
Ummmm, no Hunter. We can’t hid eggs in the sky…but good trying!
Some of the “adults”. It was just yesterday when we were all looking for Easter eggs…*sigh*
I had to post this picture! Kelsey was holding Lil’s and the whole time Lily was happy and smiling…until I took this picture :)
Old mission buddies catching up. Andrew was still so tired from such a big weekend…and week before that he didn’t even participate in the egg hunt! I was so sad! Thankfully Krista got him a few eggs so he (or me, Krista, and Kelsey) could have some yummy candy. Don’t worry…..we re-hid all the ones we didn’t like and filled up the eggs we had eaten out of with extra candy that we didn’t like from other eggs. Once they open an egg isn’t not like they KNEW there was supposed to be m&m’s in there instead of one jelly bean! I mean…this egg hunt is for the kids after all!
See what I mean? This kid is so exhausted!

He really wanted a drink of water and he couldn’t even drink it…it was too much work. Look at those eyes!!! Am I a mean mom that I took a picture and THEN picked him up?

I love this shot of Joy! Joy – can I request copies now please? Thanks :)
Tay running up to ask if this was her water gun. Do you think we just do eggs? Heck no! This is Joan for heaven sakes! All kids also had toys to find…there’s really a lot to live up to for this Sunday when we do it.
Jan prepared all the eggs and hide them. Nini picked out all the toys for the kids. It was one of our “quick” errands. She hit a home run with EVERY SINGLE kid. That’s pretty impressive mom!
My gorgeous girl finding eggs…
Ella showing off her tangled doll. I think Ella’s hair is longer than the dolls hair! It is so long!
Kelsey. I must stop and tell a little story about Kelsey. The day before Kelsey and her mom Jan ran in the SLC half marathon. She had a blister that pretty much took over half her foot and walked like a little 90 year old lady. She couldn’t bend, move or do anything without pain. I’m just grateful there wasn’t a fire or anything that she had to get out fast for…I’m not sure she would have made it! On the other hand her “68 year old” (not really her age…but a story I want to remember so I had to put it in here somewhere so I can write it out for our personal book) was walking kids on horses, running around, hosting 30 of us and you couldn’t even tell she had participated in the marathon. Sorry Kels…but it’s true :) Oh, by Jan walked/ran….kels pretty much ran the whole thing! You go girlie!
Kelsey and Annie. It took her 15 minutes to get up after this shot :) j/k…kinda…
I’m a little bit of a mean aunt/mom because I gave these boys 3 of the candles that don’t blow out :) he he he. By the end of the night Andrew said he didn’t want to do candles anymore. Not really my mission…but I’ll take it! Maybe Kal can blow out her own candles this year :)
You would have thought the paparazzi had arrived! I just had to take a picture. These little boys were surrounded by cameras and every side. They are so loved :)
Mom, I don’t want to do candles again! I’m tired!
Really? You’re making me do this? Fine, I’ll look for a picture, but I’m not eating any cupcake!
This is too much work!
I’m just going to go to bed here.
The little girls got Just Dance 2. IT IS THE BEST GAME EVER! The adults might have kicked them off to play a round…or 7….
Lily gives the cutest kisses! She was kissing Ahma like crazy and it was just the sweetest thing to see! I took about 40 of these pictures…here are a few of my favs…
Mike and Hunter. “Oh no, I’m three. How am I going to do it?”
Meanwhile, Andrew found a nice comfy couch to sleep on rather than the dining room table. This poor child. Who knew entertaining Nini and Taylor AND turning 3 could be so much work!
The next day we sadly had to say goodbye to Nini and Taylor. The kids were very sad…but very happy because we took them out of school early to go to lunch before the airport!
This has been a common way of finding Andrew lately. Nini, I don’t know what you did to tire him out so much…but come back and do it again! I beg you! He didn’t wake up all through lunch, the 40 minutes shopping trip to Justice, and the 25 minute drive to the airport. When does he wake up? When I’m parked on the curb at the airport waiting for Nini to return with the kids after they “help” her with her luggage into the airport. That’s when he wakes and gets mad that he isn’t in the airport with them..but I can’t leave my car to find them, or move my car up to the parking garage since I don’t know where the kids are or when they will get back and I don’t want to miss them. So he sadly had to stay in the car with me. He stayed awake the whole ride home. Ben and Kallie fell asleep before we hit the freeway…I crashed at 6pm and didn’t wake up till the following day…I think we partied too hard :)
