Stache' Bash 2012

This year for Will's 30th Birthday, I decided to go all out!!! A surprise birthday is getting more and more difficult to plan the longer we are married, and keeping track of little white lies is even harder! But he loves surprises so I suffered through. So I got all the cute invites made & sent, and all of our cute decorations together, and with a little help from some wonderful people, pulled it all off to perfection!

So here's how the day went: we woke up at 8 am to get ready to go out to breakfast, I told him his mom had sent some money for his bday and that I was taking him and the kids to Village Inn. So we get to Village Inn and ever member of his wonderful family is sitting at a big table waiting for us! He was so surprised! It was so awesome to have them all there, and to have his parents and brother drive all the way from Casper to be here. 

Then we hung out for a bit, and I sent him off to have a guy's afternoon with his Dad and brothers.  I took this time to get the house ready and finish making the food.  Then I told him I was taking him out to dinner and then we were heading to Aunt Jamie's for cake and ice cream with the family.  We had some Olive Garden (delightful as always) and I told him we should sneak home for a little alone time ;) When we pulled up to the house, every light was off, and there were no cars in sight! He unlocked the front door and people jumped out and screamed "SURpRIsE!!" while throwing confetti & shooting silly string at him!!! He was pretty startled at first, it was so funny! So while he may have been let down for the alone time we were supposed to have, he really had no idea what was going on under his nose all this time!!! Kinda like a mustache.... :)

We played Name That Stache', and the person who got the most correct won a liter of Coke, Way to go Anna! I can't believe she got Geraldo!!!

I built a photo booth out of our bathroom! Two shower curtain rods and a black shower curtain, a porcelain chair and a black sheet made for a perfect booth! I drew and cut out fun little props and glued them to skewers, everyone had loads of fun in there!

 Our wonderful friend Whitney Robbins made this AMAZING cake! It was so cute and perfect! Yellow cake & Coconut Creme Filling were soooo Yummy!!!

I though it would be fun to make a little Will Wall for everyone to see what his last 30 years have looked like!
From baby pictures that look IDENTICAL to Rome, to waterfall mullet school pics, to orange haired senior pics, the wall was a hit!

So believe it or not, I couldn't find orange solo cups. haha. So i made do. Everyone had a custom work of my art :)



 Some even sported wonderfully groomed mustaches special for this occasion....TJ even dressed up, I couldn't even look at him without busting a gut!!!

Then we played Pin the Mustache on 70's Burt Reynolds, I know its a little kid game to pin the anything on something, but we had soooo much fun!!! Sean was the winner winner chicken dinner in the end, but there was lots of mischief going on in between.....

I was pretty sure Mike was going to get murdered for this, but I don't think I've ever seen Jim laugh so hard!!!

Needless to say there was fun had by all....but most importantly for this guy....who I can't believe is 30! He is the best, and I love him so much more each and every day!




And I can't forget the after party.....we had to let Ry and Rome celebrate a little when they got home from the babysitters!

January

Is it just me or did January of 2012 last a whole year!? It was sooo long!! We were really hoping for lots of snow this year, but it has seriously been really nice out! Obviously its still too chilly to play for too long outside, but these kiddos find mischief and lots of places to play inside.... :) I love that they play together!

         Haha!!! Had to post this cause it is sooo funny! She decided to put her tutu on before church!

However, when the snow actually did fall, we took serious advantage of it!! It was a super dry snow, so a snowman was extremely difficult, so we improvised. This is our Snow Mound :)

Rome's First Christmas

 Christmas is SO much more fun with kids.  I know people always say that, but they are the magic! We didn't wake up early (We have lots of years to come that I know we'll be up at 4 am) so that was nice, and we went to church before opening gifts, which was weird haha.But what could be more perfect to celebrate our Savior's birth than to get to worship him for an hour!?

 

After Church we put the kids back in their jammies, and let them have at it! This Christmas was so amazing for us, because it was the poorest Christmas we've ever had.  But Heavenly Father made sure that our kids did not go without. A wonderful and magical thing happened to us this year, and there is nothing more humbling than someone showing your family what Christmas is really about.  While we were planning on getting each of our kids one gift each, and literally re-wrapping some of their old toys that had been in storage. Then a few of God's angels left a big red bag full of toys on our doorstep.  I can't type this without crying. I have never felt so much love, and never known who to direct it to.  But I pray that whoever our angels are receive blessings tenfold to what they have given us.  It was so wonderful to watch my kids open toys on Christmas morning.

 This Boy thoroughly enjoyed his very first Christmas!!!

Catchup. Spelled Right, Right?

Ok, yes my birthday was 2 months ago. Ya. Ya. It was a fun day, and I am not gonna lie, even though I'm 23 now...I still feel like I am 18 and I just graduated high school last year. Ugh, it has not been five years, it has not been five years. :/    Well anyways, my dear sweet husband made my day special, threw me a little birthday party, made me a REd VeLvEt Cake all by himself!!!, & made me the coolest jewelry hanger you've ever seen! Its an old window he got a few years back from a house he was painting! He is the best! :) Honestly, he had me at Red Velvet....

 

And as usual, after my birthday comes Christmas Eve. It was so fun to just be our little family together in our jammies, Rome was a party pooper though haha!

Cookies With Cousins

 Ryann ADORES her cousins. Especially Carter! Where you find Carter, there too you shall find Ryann! She is silly.  We made some sugar cookies and invited Matt & Jocey to come over and let the kids decorate them, it was lots of fun.

Aunt Jocey Boston Carter & Ryann Frosting Cookies

(Notice the Icing Pouch in a Certain Someone's Mouth haha)

 Boston LOVED decorating Cookies!!!

 

                                                                                            Mr. Carter

Will's Christmas Tree he's so Proud of                         

       

       

       

       

     

  These are my sweet baby boys
 <--Ryder Ray
        and
Rome William

Born eight weeks apart, they are so cute together! Ryder is so tall and Rome is so small that they stay about the same size all the time. It is so fun having babies the same age as Jocey!!! Rome really enjoyed his fist sugar cookie!!

Oh how I wish this picture was better quality.  Ah!!! It captures perfectly my DIVA QUEEN. Miss Thing has an attitude the size of LA! She refuses to keep all of her clothes on, hence only the mini skirt. Did I mention she eats at least one otter pop a day??? I swear, every hour on the hour I hear, "Sickle??" I just love her.

Poor Bebes...

My Poor Little Poopsies had croup right before Thanksgiving, and our Dr. recommended we take them outside to breath in the cool air to help settle the inflammation in their little lungs.  Needless to say Rome did NOT enjoy this, and sweet Ry couldn't even stay awake for it, so she snuggled up to Aunt Nat and fell asleep!