A month of celebrations...

So I haven't been in a blogging mood lately. I've just been a slacker the past few weeks in general. I actually haven't really done anything... no laundry, no house cleaning, no nuthin'! :) I have been playing with Tucker and totally enjoying the holiday, if that means anything! :) I finally DID do laundry this week and had like 9 loads to do! For three people! I hate laundry! I locked myself in my house all this week and cleaned and did laundry. It sucked. I brought it on myself and just had to do it before my anxiety of worrying about it made me explode.

Anyway....I'm back and have some catching up to do! First of all, Tuckers Birthday Party! As you may recall, my family took Tucker to Chuck-E-Cheese for an early birthday celebration. Since his birthday was so far away, I started planning in my head a little get together with friends on his actual birthday. Something small and quaint and easy and simple. As the idea grew in my head, so did the invite list. I kept on adding kids (and entire families) that I knew Tucker loved. (and I loved, too!) Pretty soon, this small little affair turned into a BIG party. Like too big of a party that any two year old should have. At one point in the planning, Ben asked me just who this party was for; Tucker or ME!!! :) (It was for me.) :) I knew that Tucker really couldn't have cared less if he had a big birthday party or not, but I also knew that he would have fun, and it was just a good excuse to get a whole bunch of my friends and favorite people together!

Once the invitations were out and I started doing the major planning of the event, I realized that our little house wouldn't even fit all of the people that would be there. We had to move it on up to my parents house that has a whole lot of extra square footage! And good thing we did, because we barely fit up there even! Anyway... it was so much fun! I'm so glad we had it! Ben cooked some hot dogs on the grill and we had chips and fruit and dip. Simple and pretty easy. I think secretly, I was paying homage to the summertime. I really do hope to have a child in the summer time one day...it would make for a great party! :) Anyway, here are some pics...

Instead of cake for all the people, I made sugar cookies and let the kids frost them themselves. Here is Tucker helping us with the making of the cookies.

I had to add these before pictures. I covered two long banquet tables in my parents dining room with butcher paper and put play-dough and crayons on the table for them to go crazy with.

Tucker enjoying the food, before people arrive...

And this is after. And this isn't even a full table! There were kids everywhere and Tucker loved having so many friends over to play!

Some of the adults and older kids played in the living room and/or watched football. It was the night of the Utah/BYU football game.

Kids always love to play with Ben's bald head, and during the present opening, it wasn't any different...

Tucker was funny opening his presents, he wanted to play with every single one of them as he opened them, so it took FOREVER to get through all the presents. He got so many awesome presents, that my mom and I didn't even end up giving him ours. We'll save them for Christmas! :) Here, he stopped mid-present opening to sit down and read this book he got. I don't know why he's looking at Carter like that, but I thought it was funny!

He loved it when everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to him.

It was a fun night. I'm not sure that I would throw a party like that again for a two year old. I think I'll wait for him to be old enough to actually appreciate it! :) But I had fun with my friends, and that is, after all, what really matters, right? :)

In other birthday news...here is what we did on his actual birthday. Have I ever mentioned to you that Tucker is S-P-O-I-L-E-D by my family? Well, he is! On the actual day, which was during the week, my mom took us to lunch and to play at mobius. Mobius is a little kids museum downtown, and Tucker loves it!

And, of course, the day ended with a trip to Ben and Jerry's. It doesn't get much better than this! I plan on having a lot more kids, just to enjoy the celebrating of their birthdays with grandma!

Nathan used to be the lone birthday boy in November in our family. All of us, every single one of us have a birthday in the summer, and then it's Nathan's in November. Well, now Nathan has to share his b-day month, not only with Tucker, but with Kayla's husband, Jason. So, we decided to surprise Nathan on his big day and took him out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants.

Some how Tucker always manages to sneak in and be a part of the spotlight.

One of Nathans best friends was there with us and I think that Tucker had a crush on his girlfriend. We were taking some pictures, and he just went over next to her and said cheese at my mom who had the camera! He is not a shy boy!

Even though we weren't there, I wanted to say a happy belated birthday to Jason. My mom was visiting them in Provo and took these pictures on his birthday. I found these on her camera, and had to give a little shout out, so he didn't feel left out! :)

Happy be-lated birthday guys!