The Remainder of Fathers Day

Here's the rest of the festivities from Fathers Day. I had to take these pics with my phone because the flash in our camera isn't working. I wanted to take Craig camping but we didn't make it, so we enjoyed s'mores in my parents back yard.

My Lovely Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day this year. Craig got up and cleaned the whole house, and took care of the kids. It was great!

I told him I wanted flowers for the yard, but I figured it wouldn't happen. When you have no money you pretty much always no how much money you don't have. Well Craig got a check that I didn't know about and used it to by me some pretty flowers for the yard. He also bought me some berry bushes.



And, of course, some treats.



The boys nursery leader had tons of things planned for mothers day. So many cute and special cards from all my little men.



With no money I came up with this idea as a gift for grandma's, and great grandma's.



We attached a poem that read:

Dandelions aren't much more
Then some annoying weed
But when a gift from a child
They're loveliness indeed

Treasures, trinkets, buttons & bows
May be junk to some
But every little child knows
What specialness can come

Keep this jar some place nice
And fill it with the grand
Special gifts and precious flowers
Picked by little hands

Happy Mother's Day!

It's kind of dumb, but oh well.

We ended the day with a nice dinner at my parents house. My Grandma A even joined us. I really enjoyed my special day this year! I hope the other mother's in my life had just as great of a day.

Super Bowl Sunday

If I had to pick a sport, it would be football. I was a water girl in High school, and I was a huge fan of the game back then. I got really into it. I even understood what was going on. Nowadays I've lost touch a little, but still enjoy a good game.

My family isn't so into sports that you would token us for having Super Bowl parties every year. But for some reason I got into it and now I can't stop. It started from a craving for 7 Layer Dip. Every year I would use the Super Bowl as an excuse to make it. Now that we have our own place we do a full blown party. After all, who doesn't love an excuse to invite friend over, eat food you can't always have and enjoy some funny commercials?

This year just my parents came. We had a taco bar, and of course 7 Layer Dip. I was glad my mom brought brownies because I had nothing sweet on the table.

The kids favorite part of the day was when we pulled out my nephews toy helicopter, that actually flies. Consequently it was the only reason we have pictures from the party.




Baby M was the biggest helicopter fan!




That about does it for a Super Bowl Sunday fun!

Two Boys Turning Two. . .

. . .have two parties, two cakes and two chances to be with the people they love!

The twins turned two on March 25, 2011. We had a party that night with some neighborhood friends and some family at Carl's Jr in Provo.





My Visiting Teacher came with 3 of her kids. She has a boy the twins age and two girls that just love playing with the twins. Our neighbors, from down the street, came as well with their three boys. They have been really good friends to us!

The theme of the party was Diney/Pixar's "Up" and "Cars". Big H likes balloons and Little H likes cars, hence the choice in themes. For party favors we gave away Hot Wheels tied to balloons-- my mom's idea. All night long Big H kept asking for the balloons and Little H kept asking for the cars.



Here they are opening some presents.



After the party died down we headed back to the house for a "Happy Birthday" song and some cake and ice cream.




We couldn't find any anything that was "Up" themed so I made some decorations for the house. "Cars" decorations are easy to come by, but I just went ahead and made those too.






What a fun day we had! Thanks everyone for the gifts and the support!




The next week we headed down to Toquerville to enjoy a fun party with Craig's family.

We decided to move the party to the park because of the nice weather. It was windy but fun.






The boys enjoyed yet another cake-- as did all the guests-- and another "Happy Birthday" song.

Due to the windy weather we returned to Craig's parents house to open the presents.



Baby M enjoyed playing with the remnants of the boys presents.




We also made a fleece quilt for the boys for this party. The plan was to be working on it at the party, but that didn't happen because I failed to prepare everything ahead of time. But thank you to those who contributed fleece. I'll put a pic up of the quilts when we're all finished. They are looking really cute, and the boys love them so far. Thanks for the presents and support too! We love you guys!

I also want to share a small story about the cakes.

So I made these peanut butter bars, and while I was making them Big H kept stealing tastes of the dough for the crust. The boys both loved them after they were completed as well, so we decided that would be their birthday cake. Well then I made another cake dessert, and that got the boys attention too. They would actually cry when I put this dessert away because they wanted more. So began the dilemma of which cake to make. Well than an opportunity arose for us to make some repairs on Craig's car, but his car had to be down South in order for us to do it. Well than came the idea to celebrate the boys birthday down there as well. After all, the timing worked out and I thought it would be fun to celebrate a birthday with Craig's family. Viola! Now I would be able to make both cakes. One for up here and one for down there. And the boys thoroughly enjoyed both just as I planned. If you want the recipe's for the cakes just click on "cake" above.

The Talented Mr. Big H

We've actually been social the last few months. We invited Craig's cousin Mikyla over for dinner, and a fun evening with her and her boyfriend. Our little Big H was the photographer for the evening. He captured some videos as well but those have since been lost.



We've also had some neighbors over for dinner. These neighbors are some of the most awesome people I know. I don't think Big H was allowed the camera that evening so we don't have any candid shots, with heads and hands cut off, to remember it by.

Big H loves mega blocks! He's great at building things with them too. He was so proud when he built this he sought me out just to show me. It struck one of my motherly heart strings just so. I had to find a way to capture the moment and make him feel like he was extra special! It was one of those moments I wish could have lasted forever. A picture just doesn't seem to do justice.



Here we get a taste of the Stratton boys acrobatics. Look at those amazing and daring jumps from the coffee table to the couch. I had no idea they could jump so well.



It's strange how you try to teach them something for months and it just doesn't seem to get absorbed. And then, all of the sudden, you wake up one morning and all that info, you thought they didn't retain, comes out of some sort of locked box in their mind. When this happens I always find myself saying, "I didn't know you could do that!"

Our St. Patty's Day

This year I forgot to wear green. And I forgot to dress the boys in green. In fact, the only member of our family that wore green that day was Baby M, and that's because I dressed him after I realized it was a Holiday-- Craig tries to claim his green eyes count, but I disagree. Yes me, who tries to make every little Holiday fun and special, did not wear green on St. Patrick's Day. But we did have a little celebration. Do I have pictures of it? No. But I'll tell you about it.

We invited my parents over for a festive dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage. Along with this meal we also had some corn bread, scalloped potatoes and Sugar cookies with green sprinkles-- don't tell anyone that the sprinkles were actually Christmas trees.

I never did dress in green, and I never dressed the boys in green either. But we had a fun day. Oh, and when I went places I wore flip flops with green on them. That's festive right? And the boys had green on the onesies that were under their shirts. That counts right?

Here are the only photos we have from that day. The twins asked to color and Baby M got a hold of one of the markers.




Hope you had a Happy St. Patty's Day!

Baby M's 6 month Celebration!

Well it was almost a month ago that our baby finally turned 6 months old. Around here we have a little celebration for their 6 month birthdays. This year my parents came, and we invited some neighbors from down the street. Craig had a gift card from KFC, so he brought home some Kentucky Fried Chicken for all of us to eat. My mom was sweet enough to bring the Eclairs, or chocolate hot dogs as Nephew K calls them.

We all had fun visiting and enjoying the food.



Then Baby M got to dig into one of the Eclairs. This kid has awesome motor skills! It amazes me how well he can self feed. He's not quite to the finger foods stage, but he does pretty good for his age.



Then Baby M opened his present. I completely forgot about it so he opened it after our friends had left. Grandma and Grandpa were still there though. He got a swim suit of his very own to use this summer, and I'm sure he'll enjoy it very much. He loves the water! Thanks to my mom for getting the swim suit.



Later that week we took a quick trip down to Southern Utah to go to a baby blessing and visit family. We decided to take Baby M's 6 month photos while we were there. After all how many opportunities do we have to take pictures down south.