Ben's BDay

OK, Ben turned 6 two months ago and I posted about his friend BDay party, but I didn't post this. My parents came up and surprised us with a visit. The kids were so happy to have them here! Ben especially loves G'pa Goold.

In the Idiart family, the girls strongly outweigh the boys. This pic shows Ben with his brother and 3 male cousins (He has 6 girl cousins!)

Mary Sunshine turns 4!

These are some of my cute Nieces and Nephews: Mary Nadauld, Marcus and Annie Idiart and Noah Nadauld at Mary's 4th BDay party, on the day her uncle Damian was called to be Bishop of her ward. My nephew Ashton said, "Uncle Damian, what is the POINT of you being our Bishop? Our other Bishop was still good!" It made me laugh. Ben's card to Mary also made me laugh:

Translation: Ben. Mary. I hope you have a nice Birthday. Love, Ben

Pretty fun day! I love my sweet niece Mary. It is a joy to live next door to her. My kids love playing with her everyday and I enjoy the banter she has with Damian. Last night at dinner she snuck over. She had already eaten, but sat and talked with us. I asked her why she used to hardly ever come over and she said, "I used to be scared of Uncle Damian, but now I'm not even afraid of him anymore!" Too cute. We were enjoying her company until her dad found where she'd snuck off to and made her go home.

Ben's 6th Birthday!

Ben really wanted to go to the "Family Fun Center" for his 6th Bday. It's sort of like Chuck-E-Cheese, without the scary, dirty looking rat character and the creepy auto matron figures "dancing" while you eat. Oh, also . . . our "Family" Fun Center is mostly full of juvenile delinquents and interesting middle-age, tatooed people on the Dance Dance Revolution Game. So I'm not sure which venue is better. But the kids LOVE it there and Ben had a great party.

I love that kids can entertain themselves here and I can sit and do church work on my blackberry, while I watch the door to make sure no scary-mini adults try to kidnap the kids. For a mere $1o per child, the kids were fed, entertained and won prizes, while I texted the YW.

I'm such a sucker for this kid! I love his cute face. He gives me this look when I'm trying to discipline him. . . and while stroking my cheek and saying in a patronizing voice, "Shhh Mommy, it's OK. Just relax, it's going to be OK."

We ate pizza, drank soda, played token games, collected prizes, played in the jungle gym structure, ate cake/ice cream, opened presents and had a BLAST!

Ben and I went earlier in the day to buy a cake for the party. I used to spend hours making fancy cakes, but for $8 we got a COOL motorcross cake and I had a lot more time to create exciting party bags for Ben's friends!

This year, the twins mom asked Ben what she should buy him. He said, "An ipod!" She laughed and laughed. I explained to him later that when people ask him what he'd like, as a gift, he's supposed to say something SMALLER. He looked at me like I was stupid and said, "THERE IS NOTHING SMALLER THAN AN iPOD!" I then explained, "Well, by smaller I mean, something CHEAPER!" Again, the stupid look, "Mom, How am I supposed to know how much things cost? I'm a kid!"

I'm pretty sure this was Ben's first big party with his buddies and he was so thrilled about all the presents (and never complained once about a lack of an ipod gift!) His friends were generous and he's been having a great time with all his LOOT! I didn't even buy him a gift this year and he hasn't seemed to notice. He's just a happy kid that enjoys whatever he's got (except, he still wants that ipod!) Thanks to all the fun boys that came to his party and made it a success!

Happy Birthday to my Teenager!

My sweet, darling Emma turned 13 today! I still remember when I took her to a REAL photographer, not someone in the mall, for the 1st time. She had just turned 2. I borrowed all the clothes she wore from some better dressed kid and curled her hair. She charmed the photographer and we all had a great time. She was so adorable, with such a fun personality. I was so proud to be her mother.

When I look at these photos, my two favorites, I still can't believe that Heavenly Father sent Damian and I such a special girl. Emma, you have always been a true blessing to our family. You're a marvelous oldest sister and example. Even at 2 years old, you babied and cherished Josh, your new 6 month old brother. You have always been very obedient and righteous. You are kind, pretty and smart. What a combination! I love you very much, sweetheart!

Josh is ELEVEN

At Josh's last pack meeting he finished earning everything Webelos. He earned all 22 pins, with the help of his wonderful scout leader and his dad.

He and his family walked across a bridge that symbolized the fact that he's bridged to Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts. His new 11 year old scoutleader is his dad and they do something together with a few other boys every Sat. morning. Josh has a binder with all his future scout stuff planned out. He and his dad have planned the Eagle Scout project that he'll do in 3 years. They're going to get a ton of baseball mitts donated, have the scouts and volunteers clean and oil them. They'll ask the Major League teams to donate autographed balls.

But here's the best part. . . after he's finished his Eagle Scout Project, Josh and his parents will go to South America to donate all the equipment to underpriviledged children. Yay for me!

Damian and I are so very proud of Josh and his accomplishments. He's a wonderful young man and I'm so thankful for this day that Josh was born, eleven years ago. Happy Birthday to my sweet little (big) boy!

October Bdays

We Idiarts have 3 birthdays to celebrate in October: Elise on the 15th and Josh and Christine were BOTH born on the 22nd! We all came home from church to have a big family party and Grandma and Grandpa Idiart were visiting from their mission! What a fun surprise!

Josh went shopping with Aunt Allison and showed her everything under the sun that he wanted. Then, she took orders from all the aunts/grandmas and went later and picked things out for him. He was really excited opening his presents, knowing before hand that he'd get an assortment of things he really wanted. Pretty good system! She's such a nice Auntie!

I loved how ALL 13 of the grandkids crowded all around Josh. He loved all the attention, too!

Next, it was Little Elise's turn for presents. She's already had a cute bday party, earlier in the week, with her baby friends. It was a polka-dot tea-party, and her polka-dot skirt matched all the party decorations! Her mamma is so creative and Elise is a little darling.

This particular present was the highlight of the night. Allison made a special frame for Christine. All the adults knew about it and gathered round to see her reaction. She was so happy and brought to tears with the emotional feelings that came with the gift.

The top photo is of Christine Elise, as a toddler with Donna Gardner, her mom. Donna passed away when Christine was young. Christine really misses her mom and loves her very much. The bottom photo is of Christine with her little Elise Donna. What a sweet gift.

Here are the 3 October Bday cuties. And here is a little tribute to each of them.

Josh is a light in my life. He's 11 now and what a wonderful boy. He's so smart, talented and athletic. He's got a great sense of humor and he's very fun to be around. He's a natural leader and he tries to help others do the right thing. I am very proud of the young man he is. I loved him from the first minute I held him in my arms and will love him forever. Josh, you are a joy and I am having a great time being your mom!

Christine is one of my favorite people in the world. She's my sister and a dear, dear friend. I look up to her, I enjoy being with her, she makes me laugh and I love her. She's beautiful inside and out. She's a wonderful woman, wife and mother. Happy Birthday you young thing! I really wish she and Jared were going with Damian and I to Las Vegas this weekend. She loves U2 ALMOST as much as me and she's really fun to travel with. Darn it!

Elise, or Leesie, is such a gem. She is a little piece of growly heaven. I adore the chunky little angel. I love to watch her, she's so interesting. As she unwrapped her present, she crinkled up each little scrap she tore off, then waddled over to place it in a special pile. It took about all the other cousin's concentration not to "help" her. She just cracks me up. And her blue eyes and grand smile are SOOO cute! I love all of you Octobers! You're the BEST!

Cousin Birthdays

I have been such a blog slacker. I have quite a few nieces/nephews that I didn't honor on their birthdays.

These cute boys are my Ben and his cousin, Marcus (the Birthday Boy!) And in the bottom left corner is another nephew, Ashton. Ben's best friends, other than Josh are his 3 boy cousins.

Marcus and Ben are taking gymnastics together and Ben loves his little buddy. Marcus is a fun, loving, spunky guy. He's so handsome and smart. He's sweet to his baby sister and a good friend. I enjoy having him over. He says the cutest things. Happy 4th Birthday to Marcus!

This little Sprite is my neice, Lucienne. We call her LuLu or Luci. She's adorable. She just turned one and got her first haircut. I liked the mullet, but apparently, I'm the only "Mullet Lover" in the universe.

She is a tough kid that can take some rough play. She's fiesty and cute and I'm enjoying getting to know her little personality. Love you, Lu!

Happy Birthday, Luca!

My sweet nephew Luca turned 5 today! He really is such a darling little boy! I met him last fall when I went to Italy to attend his daddy's wedding to my sister, Briana. I brought Briana a few books that she missed from the States. Luca taught me Italian and I taught him English as we read, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." In Italian, you say Yellow, "Jello." That's all I remember from our session. I'm a slow learner.

This is Briana with Luca. She is such a good mommy and loves him very much. He is a genuinely happy boy, with an infectious smile, laugh and winning personality. I wish I could spend more time with him.

Happy Birthday sweet boy! I hope you liked the package we sent . . . I hope you can play Webkinz and my kids can play with you online . . . or just Aunt Sarah can play with you! xoxox

Miss Mary is 3!!

My sweet little niece, Mary turned 3 last week. I missed doing a special birthday tribute, but better late than never, right? I adore this girl. She is so fun. What a happy, sparkly little personality she has. Mary idolizes Katrina and the feeling is mutual for Katrina. Katrina would rather hang out with Mary than anyone else.

Mary had a cute PINK Hello Kitty party and I only heard one boy complain.

Benjamin.

I forgot to warn him that he needed to be polite about all the pink stuff. He refused to eat dinner on a pink plate. I don't think he played Hello Kitty Bingo either. He did like his Hello Kitty Party Bag, though.

Mary is a girl that enjoys the outdoors. She loves playing on her swing set and her new trampoline. She has a lot of energy and is so very smart. When we went to the beach house together last month, she and I spent one afternoon playing games. I played games with her a few days ago and she was still using the phrases I'd taught her at the beach. She is a good sport and helpful and kind to everyone. I LOVE teaching her swim lessons and gaining her trust during each summer. I am looking forward to that this year!

At Mary's party, I couldn't resist taking some shots of her brother, Noah and my Josh. Josh REALLY loves Noah and the feeling is mutual. Josh would like to move in with Mary and Noah. He dreams about being adopted by their parents (Allison and Aaron). He was supposed to stay with them when we went on our Mexico trip and he's very disappointed that he won't be able to.

It has been so fun to watch him adore these little guys so much. He is very gentle and loving with them, and will make a fine babysitter in 2 years. Which is probably about the time Mary might consider having another babysitter besides her Grandma.

Or not.

But we can hope.

There is another Love Affair blooming in our family. Rachel (notice the new braces!) and Elise (Jared and Christine's daughter) have bonded recently. They are so cute together. Rachel is hardly big enough to heft around this little cutie, but she does . . .

She just juts her hip out, swings Elise up and carries her everywhere. I'm so grateful that my kids are learning to be good mothers and daddies by caring for their little cousins. It is so fun to watch them act like little grown ups.

Ben is 5!!

My youngest, Benjamin, turned 5 on April 6th. I threw him his first birthday party with friends and he had a great time. First, he and I made a fun cake. Then, we spent an hour decorating the house with streamers and balloons. My dang house is so big, one hour of decorations isn't enough and looks a little lame. Even though we hung up 6 rolls of streamers, it looked sparse. Next year I'll take photos and show you what I'm talking about.

When his friends arrived, they piled up his presents. This was my favorite, from Ben's cousin Ashton. What a creative little guy. That's Yoda saying, "For You, this is!" in case you can't read it.

We gave out Star Wars invitations, but the party was Sports Themed. Sports themed parties are easier to plan games for and make cakes for, that's for sure. I've learned that whatever invites you give, those generally are the kind of presents your kids get. They're like a little "clue" for mommies.

It worked well. Ben adored ALL his presents and was so thrilled to get some from his friends. We'd been practicing what he should do after opening gifts all week. He performed very well, adding his own quirky touch. As soon as he opened a gift, he'd say, "Here I come Aiden, with your thank you hug!" or "Watch out Nathan, I'm gonna hug you!" He had a funny little one-liner for each buddy. I enjoyed watching him tackle and hug each friend, knowing next year he'll be too old to hug his pals.

I told all the boys to be serious for the first picture. Colton (the moving little blur) just couldn't restrain himself. Ben thought "Serious" meant "Grumpy," apparently. Four of these little boys will be in his Kindergarten class next year. Two are one year older than Ben, but they are his HEROS! His little cousin Marcus (in the orange pants) came and did well at a big boy party.

The two big boys in the front are Ben's brother Josh and Josh's best friend, Drake. When I asked Ben who he wanted at his party he listed off all of Josh's friends, and his 2 boy cousins. I had to remind him that he has friends his own age. But he was ADAMANT that we invite Drake. Since Drake is his BEST FRIEND. Drake was a good sport about it. He came a little early for the party and I put him and Josh to work cleaning the house and getting things ready for the games. I appreciate him.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy, Ben. He lights up our lives and brings a lot of laughter and joy to our home. He is spunky, funny, intelligent and sweet. He is considerate and kind. I am proud to be his mom and I love him very much.

Emma is TWELVE!!

This is my adorable oldest, Emma Suzanne. She was 4 in these photos, but today she is 12!! She has grown so much and is such a wonderful young woman. Yesterday was her actual birthday and she had her FIRST SLEEPOVER. She's slept at a very limited amount of friends/families houses, but this is the first time she had a group of friends sleep at our house. I had my trepidation, but it has been a blast.


I am pleasantly surprised at Emma's friends. It appears that she's found a group of girlfriends at school that have parents as strict as I am. They spent some time trying to decide who's parents were the most strict last night, comparing when they'll be allowed to read TWILIGHT, watch PG-13 movies, talk to boys on the phone, etc. I'm glad to know that she has friends with parents that set limits. She had 2 school friends and 2 church friends over and all of them are well behaved and FUN. I stayed up until midnight, laughing at their antics. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of their skits, charades, and games. I did take some this morning of their home-made mask inventions:

Natalia (banana oatmeal), Sarah (avacado lime), Aven (strawberry banana), Emma (strawberry oatmeal) and Jordan (banana lime)

They laughed so hard as the masks they applied fell all over their clothes/the floor. I just followed behind with a mop.

When they washed the masks off, they all stroked each others faces, declared themselves genius mask makers and wrote down each other's "recipes." Pretty cute stuff.

It has been fun having these girls over. They all had a great time together and I hope we'll be hosting more birthday sleepovers in the years to come. I like the way 12 year olds act. And I like the taste of the strawberry banana mask.

Happy Birthday, Miss Ari!

Today is my niece Ariana's 5th Birthday!

We spent the weekend with her while we were in St. George for my brother Michael's wedding. Before Ari's early-birthday party, Katrina, Ari and I ran down to the park by Grandma's house and played. The girls are only one year apart, but they're the same size. They look a lot alike and strangers ask if they're twins!

They are so cute together, giggling and having fun. Ari brings out the best in Katrina. Here are some cutie-pie pictures of my two favorite LITTLE brown-haired gals.

Happy Birthday Miss Ari. I love you so, so much!! We all wish we lived closer to you and Matthew. We love spending time with you and hope to do it again soon!!