Party like it's 1985!

We had an 80s themed party to celebrate Rusty's 40th!  We encouraged our friends to dress up in 80s duds.  We ate yummy Las Golandrinas fajitas and burritoes.  My friend, Alysun made these super cute and tasty cupcakes in neon green, orange and turquoise.  I made a playlist of some great 80s songs.  We discussed several 80s fashion failures as well as some things we loved about it.  :)  And I haven't laughed that hard in a while.  I think everyone had a good time, especially Rusty.

Make a wish...

Tony & Natalie

Kim and Nick

If you look behind them you can see the bottom of a collage of photos I put together from Rusty's childhood.  All photos were pre-mission.  I was surprised to see how much Ren looks like him!  Porter does in a few, but Ren is almost the same kid!  :)

Allen & Cathy

Brad & Elizabeth

Darren & Sheri

Mark & Leilani  (atleast sommmmme people dressed up...)

Jeff and Rusty (we missed Sarah, Jeff's wife, who was home with kids)

Me and the birthday boy...I know I look so chubby in this photo...I can't imagine why? :)  Chloe helped me crimp my hair and I put so much hairspray on and teased it...It was just like the old days!  

One friend brought Rusty a Napoleon Dynamite 'action figure'.  You push a button and he says phrases from the movie.  One of my favs is something like "Are you drinking that 1% milk cause you think you're fat?  Cause you're not."  It is pretty silly.  He also got a few funny gifts like an emergency diaper and some 'old man pills' and some goofy glasses.  Some friends who know him too well :)  brought him movie tickets.  

I especially loved this t-shirt that Mark and Leilani gave him.  It has all the famous 'ginger' hairs on it!  From the top...'the boy wizard' - Ron Weazley, 'the ranger' - Chuck Norris (I don't know if he is really red headed?), 'the overacting investigator' - Horatio from CSI Miami, 'the evil doll' - Chucky, 'the 50s icon' - Lucille Ball, 'the prop comic' - Carrot Top, 'the late night host' - Conan O'Brien (Rusty's look alike, though Rus is much better looking), 'the animal' - an orangutan, 'the fast food clown' - Ronald McDonald, 'the extreme athlete' - Shaun White, 'the 80s brat' - Molly Ringwald, 'the founding father' - Thomas Jefferson

Pretty funny, right?

Last Days at Disneyland

Our passes expire in a couple of days...and we've been trying to get our last D-Land days in.  I took the little kids on one afternoon to catch a few rides.  It was supposed to rain so we didn't know how long we'd be there.  And we did get wet.  Then we went home.  :)

Ren drives his mini car.  He really loves this ride.  But it gives me a headache.  The exhaust from the cars is poisonous, I tell ya!  We've only been on this a couple of times this year.

Ellie and MJ in their car.  Ellie was nice to let MJ drive.  :)

Everyone loves the tea cups.  Ellie and MJ use all their strength to make us spin faster!  

Ren was too short to go on this ride.  He was not to happy about it.  I don't blame him.

Ellie strikes a pose.

Bear with me as I share the flowers at the park.  Everywhere you look, there are beautiful flowers.  And due to spring, tulips!  I really love tulips.  I'm sure they spend a fortune on flowers.  They are constantly changing them.

We were soaked and decided to go home...after one last pose.

A few days after that...Ren and I snuck off to go by ourselves and go to Ren's favorite rides...2 of which are the Buzz Lightyear ride in DLand and the Woody ride in California Adventure.  

After waiting in line for far too long...we finally get our 3D glasses and prepare for some games.  I actually like this ride a lot too.  :)  There was an obviously Mormon family right behind us in line.  They had their 4 kids (one in a BYU sweatshirt) and were on a family vaca from Washington state.  It was fun chatting with them in line.

We will miss you, Disney.  (I have to admit, I was ready for those passes to expire.  I need a break!)

Happy 40th!

Can you believe it?  He is 40.  He doesn't look a day older than 30, right?  His team spoiled him at work, they had his office decked out in decoration.  They had a special breakfast at the local "Bake & Broil" for him.  And he was treated to several gifts.  And let me tell you, these people are very generous!  They love him, and though he may be the "boss" as they affectionately refer to him, he always treats them with respect and courtesy.  (That's what they tell me anyway!  I get an earful of how great he is whenever I stop by his office.)  As this balloon states "It's not the age, it's the attitude!"

Instead of cake, Rusty asked for apple crisp.  I guess his team at work knows how much he likes pie...cause they gave him 2, an apple and a lemon to take home.  Rusty texted me and said don't make the apple crisp cause he'd be bringing home 2 pies already.  I had already assembled the apple-blackberry crisp and set in the fridge to bake for later.  We saved mine for Sunday night.  And we've had more than our fair share of pie this week!  (the apple-blackberry was delish, by the way...if I do say so myself)

The kids gather around their favorite Dad and 40 year old!  :)  We are so blessed to be his family!  I can't express my thankfulness for him enough.  He treats me so good and is a wonderful father, who could ask for more?!

Raina, MJ, Madison, Anna, Ren and Claire

Today we had 3 extra little girls in our family.  Our friends, the Keller's, had a baby!  Yay!  So, mom and baby are home and we got the girls for Sacrament mtg (their dad is bishop, so he's busy and couldn't sit with them).  They were really good.  I was playing organ today so was on the stand and after the songs, I didn't go sit down with the fam, like I normally do cause there was no room for me on the bench!  Or maybe I wanted to enjoy the meeting in peace?  No, but I won't deny I enjoyed it!  Rusty sat with them.  

After church, we were waiting for Ellie who had gone to pick up a tithing slip.  It was chilly but all the kiddos had candy and I didn't want them to make a mess on the carpet so we went outside.  The 'big' girls (MJ, Madison and Raina) were up on this wall/gate thing.  Of course, the 'little' kids wanted up.  So, I set them up there.  I was a little worried about Claire on the end there, I thought she might slip right off!

Aren't they so cute!  I remembered I had my camera in my purse so snapped a pic.

About playing organ...I share the duties of organist with 3 other great girls.  We each take a week during the month and it works out great.  We get an email every few months with the hymn choices for the next while.  I looked on the email for todays hymns, checked them out.  Ok, easy, songs I know.  Get to church, and sure, we can change the closing hymn to Be Still My Soul, no problem.  Then they announced the opening hymn, and I scrambled, since that wasn't the song I had my book open to.  And in fact, I looked at the new one (Gently Raise the Sacred Strain) and thought, oh now, thats a practicer!     I'm not real familiar with that one.  Drat, nothing I can do now.  Let's go.  Hmm.  In fact, all the numbers were different than I'd looked at!  I got to look them over before playing them for the ward though, so that was ok.  Anyway, I reminded them later to please let me know of changes at least 10 minutes before the mtg starts, that way I can play it once in my prelude!  :)  It really wasn't awful, just not perfect.  I asked Rusty later, and he could tell I made a mistake or 2!  Ugh!

Rus, MJ, Ren and I went to a baptism tonight.  Actually, one meeting but two baptisms.  Rook Turner and Treyson Pay.  It was really nice.  We'll go to several this year, since they are all friends of MaryJane's in Primary.  MJ's baptism will be in April.  I'll let you know when as soon as I know!

Teeth and Teddy Bears

It's the 2nd day in a row that MJ has come home from school carrying a mini-tooth case that holds one of her baby teeth!   And as you can see, the front of her mouth is looking spacious!  And she also has a lisp.  Now she'll really have trouble with the tongue twister...Susie sells shells by the sea shore.  :)

Ren is so silly!  He loves making a crazy faces for the camera.  His preschool class had a teddy bear picnic today so he brought "Honey" to school.  (My mom gave him this teddy bear when he was born.  But I think I'm more attached to Honey then he is.  Side note:  None of my kids have ever been attached to items.  No one ever really 'needed' the binky - though I tried to get them to love it!  No one ever 'needed' their blankie.  Or dolly or silky or teddy...  I don't get it.)  

Anyway, my little car pool, Claire, Braden and Ren were all talking so excitedly about their picnic and how they would be taking a walk in the woods with their teddy bears.  I hinted that maybe the 'walk in the woods' would be more pretend.  OH MY!  No, they would be going into the real woods.  They were really funny, and would not entertain the idea of a pretend forest!  Anyway, I was a little worried that there would be disappointment at school.  At pick up, I asked about the walk in the woods, they laughed and told me about the pretend walk in the woods through the living room and backyard of Miss Shirley's house!  Too funny!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I really do love this holiday.  I think we should say and show our love on a constant basis, of course.  But it's nice to emphasize it a bit more on days like today.  Although, I don't like getting roses cause it seems that prices for said flowers skyrocket for the occasion.  But I do love the extra I love you's from family and friends.  Rusty and I learned our lesson regarding V-day dinners out a few years ago.  The lesson was never go out on V-day.  :)  Do it another night when everyone else isn't out.  We literally couldn't find a restaurant without a 2 hour wait.  I think we ended up at Ruby's.  Which was great, but not what we had in mind for a 'romantic dinner'.  :)  Anyway, we went out this past Friday with some friends.  That seems odd right, but it was actually pretty fun.  And I am pretty spoiled, cause we go out almost every Friday night for our alone time.  (Hey, it wasn't always this way.  In fact, we rarely went out alone before we had an in-house sitter!)

In fact, we fed the missionaries for Valentine's dinner tonight.  We had chicken ceasar salad and tomato basil soup in bread bowls, with chocolate covered strawberries to top it off.  It was good, but I think I need another tomato soup recipe.  Anyone have the one from BJ's pizza?  That is one of my very fav soups to eat out.  Yum.

Ren celebrated Valentine's last Thursday with his school class.  He chose monster truck cards to which we attached a fruit snack.  He enjoyed getting cards and candy, really for the first time this year.  He was fun to watch as he opened each.  His favorites were the 2 Iron Man cards he received.

Ellie and MJ both got to bring cards to trade with their classes today.  MJ chose the kitty and puppy cards for the girls in her class and the zoo animals for the boys.  Each of her cards came with a temporary tattoo.  Ellie gave out cards that had a heart or flower cling thing, it will stick to windows or mirrors and is pretty colors.  Their school has a no candy policy.  That stinks, right?  But they did get pencils, erasers, bubbles and thinks like that.  Ellie was very offended when a boy in her class threw away her valentine in front of her.  I tried to explain that boys generally don't care about the cards they are given.  They generally aren't sentimental about them like she is.  And that maybe that boy needs to work on his manners, but that she shouldn't be the one to teach him.  And to let it go.  :)  

Chloe's school doesn't trade v-day cards, but you can buy Val-grams for 50 cents each to be delivered to the person of your choice.  Chloe gave out some and got some.  But none from any really cute secret admirer, like she hoped for!  

As far as Porter goes...I don't know if high school does anything like that.  Porter certainly wouldn't let me know if they did or if he was participating.  He won't tell me any girls he likes, and hasn't for years.  Not even when I beg him.  

Fresh Haircut

I really love getting my hair done.  My friend, Heather, does it and she always does a good job.  I only get it weaved and cut every 4 months or so.  It feels so good and light.  I remember when I weaved my hair for the first time, it was sometime after Chloe was born but before Ellie.  It was about $65 for a cut and weave, not including tip.  It was so expensive, or so I thought.  A couple of years ago, as prices skyrocketed to $140 without tip, I decided to not weave anymore.  After 2 years of that, I started with Heather.  I think I look so much better in this lighter color.  Silly?  Maybe, but I like it soooo much better.  Plus, Heather gives me a deep discount since her salon is in her kitchen.  (Heather also has a little boy who is one of Ren's best friends, so he had a good day playing over there during the hair time.)

Do you like it?

Ellie loves it!!!!!

I love it too!