Nichole's Birthday

We celebrated Nichole's Birthday in July.

For her birthday dinner she requested the really good mac and cheese that Jeremy makes. Since we weren't going to make him do that right after he got home from work on her birthday, she got two birthday dinners. One simple on her actual birthday and her requested birthday dinner later. It feels like this has become a thing.

So on her actual birthday she asked for alfredo pizza (we put fresh basil from our garden on it)

and when we celebrated her birthday with Dad around, we had that good mac and cheese, tater tot casserole (which she requested after Grandpa made it in Oregon and gave me the recipe), watermelon, and carrots.

And cake and ice cream, of course.

Jet insisted on helping wrap her presents. He's so cute. 

She got art books... of course.  

 

Happy Birthday, Nichole. 

Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 10

Sunday, June 28 was Mel Brooks' 100th Birthday. I wore my bow earrings.

After church, my mom wanted pictures with the tree they planted for our wedding reception so many years ago. It was itty bitty at the time. It was hit and miss with how the pictures turned out because of Jet. He is still a wiggly little boy.

 

My mom made sure to get her short girl picture. She says she has so many pictures like this of young men this age who she teaches at church or she used to teach and they're getting ready to go on missions. My short mom with the kids who stand heads taller than her. 

I have plenty of those pictures with my own children. My children did not get my (and Grandma's) short genes.

 

That evening, we played Rummikub with Todd. We like playing games with Todd.

One time, everyone was able to put tiles down but Jr. Jr. could not. He kept adding more and more until he couldn't fit them on his board.

After this picture, he picked two more tiles, the last one was one he needed. Right before Jr. Jr.'s turn, Todd put his final tiles down and finished. Oh man. We all looked at Jr. Jr.'s tiles and saw that he was indeed correct. There was nothing he could do to get started. And just to show what could have happened if Todd hadn't put his last tiles down, Jr. Jr. started putting his tiles down and realized he could have gotten EVERYTHING down on that one turn and he would have won. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Sigh.

While we were playing, we noticed the lighting was gorgeous on the trees on a nearby hill. 

We stepped outside to see and realized there was a rainbow (double rainbow). A bunch of us piled outside to get pictures in the rain. It was lovely. Absolutely beautiful.

I can't get over Jet's frolicking. That's how we all felt out there that evening.

Panorama function on my phone for the win.

Panorama function on Jr.'s phone for the weird. 

 

This is what my mom caught.

We had a beautiful end to the day. 

Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 4

June 21 was the Summer Solstice.

Goodbye, Spring. Hello, Summer.

It was also Father's Day. We got to spend it with my father-in-law. I wore my bow earrings to celebrate and took a selfie. It was also National Selfie Day.

And... it was a family member's birthday so I also wore my bow earrings for that.

 

Jeremy finished up at his fair in California the night before and drove to spend the night at my brother and sister-in-law's. He went to church with them Sunday morning and made sure to wear his Father's Day tie. He also got chocolate.

I appreciate the selfies they got.

 

Jeremy drove the rest of the way home to find a card and a couple Father's Day gifts which we left for him. We weren't able to be with him (though we did call and sing "Daddy's Homecoming" to him on his trip) but we were able to let him know we were thinking of him.  

Yay! A Flag!

June 13 was Kitchen Klutzes of America Day. Dinner? FFY. Fend For Yourself. Except... I needed to eat so I fixed some pasta and chicken and if other people ate it, so be it.

 

June 14 was Flag Day. Since it was on a Sunday, the boys helped put up flags the day before.

On Sunday, as we were driving somewhere, Jet looked out the window and saw a big flag.

 

Jet: A flag! For President's Day!

Mom: It's Flag Day.

Jet: Yay! A flag for Flag Day!

 

I love the enthusiasm. 

 

June 14 was the birthday of one of my choir buddies so we sang Happy Birthday to her in choir then afterward while we were chatting, we were talking about how it was also Pop Goes the Weasel Day and a few of us started humming the song. We had a fun discussion about celebrating. 

Celebrating My Birthday

My birthday was in May. A few days before, I got together with some friends who have birthdays in May and June and we had lunch together. That was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Stephanie had these pictures taken with her camera. 

 

On my actual birthday, I was going to take a nap but ended up finishing The Duke's Bargain by Megan Walker. 

I did an online book club with her for Lakeshire Park and Miss Newbury's List where she shared things about her writing of those books and I got to meet her and get a hug from her when she came to Utah in April. 

In May, I was part of a different online book club for The Duke's Bargain. Megan shared a few posts on there about her writing of this book. I love that the two main characters in this book were the antagonists in the first two books. I also love that the main characters from the first books made appearances. It was fun to see the growth of the "villains."

I got to participate in an online live event to finish out the month's book club and got to learn even more from Megan. 

 

Back to talking about my birthday- Jeremy made lots of pizza for me (and the family). I LOVE pizza!

 

We had cake and ice cream. Jeremy put the candles in the shape of a heart. He's so cute.

I opened my birthday present, which was a tea kettle! I wanted one. Since there's been so much herbal tea drinking with all the Seeking Persephone movie watching and Proper Romance book reading, this was perfect. 

 

P.S. Jeremy was so pleased with how this picture turned out- there was still a tiny amount of flame on the candles. Have I mentioned my husband is cute?

 

P.P.S. Jeremy texted me the day before our Southern Utah trip saying he wanted to give me my birthday present early because it would be helpful getting ready for our trip. He had previously told me he debated about giving me my Mother's Day present early because it might be useful while we were out celebrating our anniversary. I like to take selfies when Jeremy and I are out birding together. Ultimately he gave it to me on Mother's Day and you know I've definitely used it since. So he told me he decided to give me my birthday present early and had Nichole bring it to me unwrapped when I got home.

"Dad told me to give you this." As I was opening the box for the portable vacuum cleaner (to help clean out the van), she told me this, "Dad also told me to tell you he'd never give you a vacuum as a birthday present. You'll have a different one on [your birthday]." 

Ha Ha Ha Ha. He really is cute.  

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated Jeremy's birthday in February. Jet really wanted to wrap a present for him so I helped him wrap a package of Andes mint chocolates/chocolate mints(?) for Jeremy to open.

Jeremy had an appropriate reaction when he opened them.

Have I mentioned I love my family so much?

Jet also helped me make Jeremy's birthday dinner.

Ah, my kitchen helper. 

Jeremy was thrilled about that, too.

I do love my family so much. 

Pizza Face

January 8 was Elvis's birthday. We put on Lilo & Stitch (animated movie).

 

January 9 was my niece's birthday. I mentioned it to the kids. 

Jet wanted to help make pizza with me.

He must have remembered what I said about his cousin's birthday because he insisted on making a face with onions on the pizza then said, "He's excited because it's his birthday tomorrow."

When it was time to cut the pizza, I had to be very careful not to cut the face so we got a little creative with how the pizza was cut. Jet was very good at instructing me where to make the cuts. I love him so much. 

Happy Birthday, Utah!

Yesterday, January 4, was Utah's 130th Birthday.

It was also National Trivia Day and National Spaghetti Day. I asked Jeremy some Utah trivia. Some people ate pasta.

I took a long nap but I made sure to say Happy Birthday to Utah.