Happy 82nd Birthday Grandpa!!

My Grandpa Newman has been saying for over 40 years that he will die when he is 82. Well, he turned 82 in January and because my whole family knows that he has been saying this, we wanted to surprise him and throw him a Birthday Party. We don't know how long we will have my grandpa with us, but I hope he is wrong and we have him for a few more years! My aunt reserved a room at the Golden Corral for 80 people. But we had well over a 100 people show up for my grandpa's Birthday! It was awesome. He was so surprised. 

My aunt Lorna makes cakes on the side. It's always been one of her hobbies, so she made this incredible cake of my Grandpa fishing. His most favorite thing to do. It looks just like him!

My grandpa hugging everyone. Our little Emily was the first to run up to my grandpa and hug him. It was so cute. I wish I could have recorded that. She gave him a huge hug right after we all said, "Surprise!" Then everyone starting singing Happy Birthday to him. 

Aunts and uncles and cousins...

More cousins...

And even MORE cousins!

Adam and his girlfriend, Kari (We love her and hope she will be part of our family soon!)

My cute and ornery Grandpa! ;)

Me, my model cousin, Charla and my twin cousin Andrea (We were born 2 hours apart).

Grandpa opening his presents. We all pitched in and got him fishing stuff, an ipad, and a few other fun items that he likes.

My cousins, Shaun, and Robert with Adam

Twin Cousins!

My dad's father and siblings. Alma, Lorna, Grandpa, Gloria, Mike, Joanne and my dad. (Missing my grandmother, who passed away in 2010 and my Aunt Audrey, who passed away when she was 16.)

Our Lego Kingdom

I have Avery read to me almost every morning and then I tell the girls to go play for a while so I can clean up the kitchen and the house a bit. Well this morning, Avery asked, "Mom will you please play with us today?"

How can I resist that pleading...

So I decided to forgo the cleaning and the shower and play.

We played Legos for over 2 hours! I was having so much fun with the girls building a kingdom for our King and Queen and of course for the beautiful Princess. We had Pirates attacking our ship and guardsmen guarding the Kings castle and his herd of horses. The girls after awhile said, "We're tired and hungry mom." I guess I forgot all responsibility of being a parent as it was time for the girls to get off to school...I would have kept playing not realizing the time and they would have missed school...Yeah real responsible there, Mom! :)

Our mean fighting faces.

 Princess pose.

Goofing around. Love the girl's faces in this one.

Talent Show

For activity days Madisen had a talent show and her leaders lip-sang a song to Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was pretty cute. All the girls did very well in their talents. Madisen played the piano for everyone but I didn't get a picture of her because I was so focused on her I forgot. But it turned out pretty traumatic for her. She had been practicing her song for 2 weeks and played it perfectly. She even had it memorized. Well, she was so nervous she couldn't find "c" position and so she had her hands on the wrong keys. She started to play and immediately stopped and looked at me. I motioned to her from the back of the room that it was ok and to keep going. Well she did and you can guess how it sounded. She was devastated. As a mom your heart just goes out to your kids when they are in those types of situations. I didn't know whether to go up there and help her or stay back. I didn't want to maybe embarrass her more by going up there. So I just sat there with a broken heart for her. 

Graciously everyone clapped and she came over to sit by me and just started to cry. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was and I tried to reaffirm that to her. I told her I was so proud of her for having the courage to even try to play for everyone. We left early as she was just so upset. She started piano 5 months ago and the other girls that played that day have been playing for 3-4 years. So I told her she can't compare herself with them. One day, I told her, she will be playing just as well as them if she keeps practicing and working hard at it. I told her of an embarrassing experience I had during one of my piano recitals and told her everyone has at least one! I think that helped as I got a laugh out of her. Later that night we had her play it again in for our family. And she did it perfectly. 

Ryan and I are very proud of her and we love to hear her play. Sometimes she really enjoys it and other times it's a battle to get her to practice. I guess that's how it always is as a parent. Ups and downs!

I just pray and hope that she learned something from this and it made her stronger and want to try again and not give up. I also hope she learned to have compassion on those that find themselves in her situation and to reach out to them as one girl did for her.  

Bowling Night

We try and go out once a month as a family and do something fun. For F.H.E. we decided to go bowling. 

Emily's forced smile...Ha! Love it.

Avery loves the camera. 

 I just love this next two pictures of Emily as she is crouching down anxiously awaiting for her ball to knock down the pins.

And this stud killed me. He got a Turkey, three strikes in a row. We were all quite impressed.

Yep. Mom did the worse. Hahaha. I am pretty sure this is lowest score in bowling I have ever gotten. 

Friends

My guy friend, MacKay from High School stop in to visit us while on their way to Boise. He and I were inseparable for a few years, playing tennis together, hanging out on weekends and going to Senior Prom and two other dances together. He was one of the few people that made High school so enjoyable! He has a beautiful wife named, Heather and four adorable kids... Keely, Carter, Austin and Parker. It was so great to visit with them and hang out with them for a few hours.

Thanks for stopping by! Come again, anytime! 

(Emily's face cracks me up! What a goof!) 

Kindergarten Christmas Performace

Avery had her Kindergarten performance at the end of the year and I forgot to blog about it and put in it the 2013 Blog Book I made but I wanted to add these pictures anyway. She was such a cute Christmas tree! Definitely the cutest! ;) She sang so loud and did a wonderful job on her part.

This boy, Taren is in our ward, and he was Rudolf. He was so adorable!

Great job Avery, everyone in Kindergarten and especially the teachers for putting it all together!