Our Birthday Boy

This past Friday was Levi's 4th birthday. We had a fun few days celebrating with him. He was so excited for his birthday. He woke up bright and early to go check out his loot. Brandon has been wanting to get Levi a tool bench for a while now, and and few weeks ago came across this great one for a great deal. Levi was thrilled when he saw it, and has had so much fun playing with it.

We usually only let the kids open one present in the morning, but since he didn't really have to open the tool bench, we let him open up another one.

On Friday, the kids had no school, so I told Levi he could pick whatever he wanted us to do that day. He chose to go to The House of Bounce. I unfortunately didn't get out my camera while we were there, but the kids (and Brandon) had a great time bouncing around on all sorts of bouncy castles for a couple of hours. Later that night we invited our families over for a family celebration. I love how happy Levi looks =)

Saturday morning Levi had a "spiderman" party with a few of his little buddies. I was stressing out that no one was going to come, because I hadn't heard from anyone, so I made a few phone calls the day before, and we ended up with 5 little boys which was plenty! They started out in our back yard jumping in our bouncy castle while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then they came inside and decorated a bag with spider stickers, put on their spiderman masks, and got ready to go on a spider hunt! Here they are right as they are about to start the hunt.

We let them loose in our front room to go on the spider hunt. I hid hundreds of different kinds of plastic spiders all over, and they had a blast finding them I actually just ended up throwing them all over the ground, because I underestimated how many I had bought.

After the hunt, they had some pizza for lunch, and then it was back to the backyard for more playing and a pinata.

Here is my attempt at some spiderman cupcakes.

We played one more game, (Pin the spider on the web) and then we finished up with presents. His friends were very generous, and he ended up with a lot of fun new things to play with.

We were happy with how the party turned out, and so was Levi! After a weekend full of celebrations we were all exhausted! We love Levi so much. Our family would not be complete without him =) I can't believe my baby is 4 years old!!

Levi has really been taking pride in cleaning his room, and keeping it clean lately. He loves when everything is picked up, and always runs to tell me when he's all done cleaning. The other day, he ran in to let me know he had cleaned his room. It had been a pretty big mess so I was curious to see if he had really cleaned it. He proudly led me to his room, and I was quite impressed as I walked in and saw this: Then as I turned the corner, I saw this:

He had taken everything that had been scattered throughout his room, and piled it on his train table in the corner. He saw absolutely nothing wrong with this and was still just as proud as ever that he had cleaned his room so perfectly. I didn't want to hurt his little spirit, so I just said, "Great job Levi!" I think we will be working on putting things where they go from now on, but for that day, this was just fine with me =)

Meeting Lyla

This past weekend I was able to travel to Salt Lake to meet my brand new adorable niece, Lyla Delcie Maudsley, who was born to my sister and brother in law, Cindy and AJ on September 26th. What a wonderful and special weekend I had holding and snuggling with this little bundle of joy: When my sister, Kristalyn had both of her cute boys, I was so lucky to be able to go straight to the hospital and see them, and then continue to see them regularly. That is until they too moved to Utah this past year =(. I can't even tell you how hard it was not being there to run to the hospital when I received the text that Cindy was in labor. I waited anxiously by the phone all day to hear the play by plays. It worked out perfectly for me to travel to Utah this weekend. As soon as Cindy answered the door, and I saw Lyla's cute tiny little baby head peeking around the corner, I was in heaven! Lyla is so precious, and I couldn't not get enough of her all weekend. Here is a picture of me right after I got there, holding her for the first time.

It was nice to be able to just relax all weekend, and visit with Cindy, AJ and sweet Lyla, and help out with things. I was able to help Cindy give her a bath one day.Here is a picture I snapped of her right as I was carrying her to her bedroom after the bath.Here is Cindy getting her dressed. It was so fun to see both Cindy and AJ and how well they have taken to being parents already. Lyla is one lucky little girl to have such wonderful parents who love her so much.

My parents along with Michael and Daniel drove up to Utah that weekend as well so that my brothers and dad could attend the priesthood session on Saturday night. They were so excited to meet Lyla for the first time as too. I love this picture of my mom seeing her for the first time. Cindy looks like such a proud mommy, and my mom looks like such a proud grandma =)

Here are some more pictures I took that weekend. I am so glad that I was able to go and spend a few days with them. I will treasure that! On Sunday morning I was able to hold and rock Lyla for a few hours so Cindy and AJ could sleep in for a little while. What a treat that was to be able to spend that one on one time with her!

As I was sitting on the couch shortly before I left to go back home, I realized the next time I see her she will be two months old and so much bigger! I am so glad that I got to see Lyla in her brand new newborn stage. It is so hard not living close to all of my family! Kristalyn is expecting a baby girl in January. I think I just might have to plan another trip out here!

Congratulations Cindy and AJ! You are such amazing parents already. Thank you so much for opening your home to me this weekend so I could meet sweet Lyla. What a sweetheart she is!