Easter & Cherry Blossoms in Japan

Egg Hunt

Ready for the big hunt.

Our Branch getting ready to run wild. There were over 800 eggs for our little primary-the kids went crazy!

Jayden scored in the tunnel.

Tia and her 2 best buddies...Briley & Brentlee.

Easter Day

The Kids:

The Parents:

The Whole Family:

What a beautiful Easter. The Cherry Blossoms bloomed just in time.

Cherry Blossoms

Behind our house is a row of Cherry Blossom trees. They were beautiful the week of Easter. They bloomed and were gone all within a week. I had no idea the flowers were only around for a week. It was a special Easter having such beautiful white and pink trees everywhere.

These pictures were taken right out our back gate:

This is what it looked like 1 week later...

...it was like pink snow.

I can't wait till next year!

Shane's 30th Birthday!

We were really sad this year because Shane was gone for his birthday (2 months ago) and we didn't get to celebrate it with him until 2 weeks later. We weren't totally sad for him though because he was in Hawaii for the full 2 weeks---rough huh! He keeps telling me that he wasn't on a vacation and that it was work, but hey...who wouldn't want to go to Hawaii for work?!

Anyways, when he left this is how sad Tia was:

Am I a totally mean parent for video taping it??? It was the only thing I could do to stop myself from going crazy. She cried like this for about 45 minutes. I'm glad I can laugh now because it wasn't so funny and cute when it was happening. Gotta love this girl!

Because we had so much time to think about Shane's birthday, we decided to make some changes in our lives as GIFTS to dad for his big 30th birthday. We also got him some little gifts, but these gifts are the things I want to blog about.

Jayden's and Tia's gifts were both on our "To Do lists". We have both been trying to get them done, but had no luck. Both of these things stressed us out so we kept avoiding them. This is why the kids and I thought they would be perfect gifts to dad.

Tia's gift to dad:

Yep...Tia Potty Trained herself for dad's birthday gift. This girl is amazing! From the first day we started she has gone all by herself...without having to announce it to everyone or ask for help. When she needs to go...she just gets up and goes. She even gets up on her own each night (2-3 times) and uses the bathroom. When I'd praise her for going to the bathroom she would say "me pee pee...daddy's birthday" . She knew exactly why she was being potty trained...I didn't even need to give her treats. Way to go Tia! I must say potty training a girl was a thousand times different than potty training a boy!!!

Jayden's gift to dad:

That's right...he learned to ride his bike for dad's birthday. It wasn't a piece of cake I'll tell ya...there was lots of yelling and screaming...I'm just glad that he doesn't know any cuss words or it could have been worse :)

I'm so proud of Jayden. Every day he would wake up and say "Can we go practice riding my bike for dad?" He was so excited to show his dad when he got back that we couldn't even wait until the morning. We had to go outside at 10:00 p.m. just so Jayden could ride his bike for Shane.

My gift to Shane:

"a box of fabric scraps"

...it may not look exciting, but it sure was to Shane because it meant that I FINALLY mended his 25 year old blanket that he (and I) totally LOVE!

A little background on the blanket:

-his mom made it for him 25+ years ago

-he uses it everynight because it is so darn comfortable

-whenever he is out of town I steal it and sleep with it :)

-he's used it so much that all 4 sides were falling off and there were many holes from where his toes would rub at night

-EVERY time I would sew ANYTHING he would say (in a really sad "pitty me" voice)...

"you can sew______, but you won't fix my blanket"

or "you made that for __so & so__, but you won't fix my blanket"

or my favorite

"my blanket is going to choke and kill me at night and you don't even care (in a joking voice of course)"

...this went on for over 1 1/2 years!

Don't ask me why I never fixed his blanket. I think it just scared me because I knew I would have to cut off a lot and I wasn't really sure what to do. I'm a self taught sewer and I didn't want to ruin his favorite blanket.

Anyways, here's what I finally did...

The choking pieces :(

...cut off all 4 sides, patched holes, and resewed an edge with a funky flower pattern around the whole thing. I usually only straight stitch or zig-zag so this was a big deal :)

Here it is...

The finished product. Just look at those clean edges. Shane will definitely NOT choke on his blanket now :)

Shane's gift to himself:

Who doesn't love buying themselves a gift?! We've never had a lawn to take care of before so Shane was really excited to buy his first weed wacker.

The Cake:

I definitely need help with my cake decorating skillz. It's the thought that counts right?!?!

Birthday dinner to "Gyoza Heaven":

Those were 5 extremely large gyoza's (water dumplings). They were almost as big as my fist. I think we prefer smaller ones, but these were still good. Any homemade gyoza is fabulous!

Happy Birthday Dad!

We are glad we could celebrate your birthday for 2+ weeks :)

We LOVE you!

A little side note:

I was telling my mother-in-law how I mended Shane's blanket for his birthday and how I steal it every time Shane leaves town. I love that blanket. It's the perfect weight, temperature, etc. Anyways, during our conversation she mentioned that she had made 2 of those blankets and that the other one was not being used....WHAT??? I was so excited!!!

A few weeks later I received THIS in the mail...

My new blanket :)

When Shane got home the day I got the blanket in the mail Jayden said "hey dad, mom doesn't have to steal your blanket anymore because she has her own just like it now."

THANKS SO MUCH Suzy...I love the blanket!!!