Happy Birthday, It's Liesel's Birthday!

On September 12, Liesel turned two!  Brad was home on that day as part of his paternity leave.  When the little kids woke up from naps and Parker was home from school, Liesel got to open some presents!

Then we went to the Ogden Eccles Dinosaur Park.  It was was a double celebration for Liesel's birthday and Jason's potty training.  He finally did it!  He had been doing really well when I went into the hospital, but became reliably good while in his grandparents care, thank you!  By the time I returned home, he was fully trained!  Hooray!!!

We saw this snake on the pavement outside the museum.  It was slithering really quickly and about a foot long.  Crazy!

I showed Liesel this YouTube video of the Happy Birthday song that was written for Mickey's 60th birthday.  She loved it and asked to watch it a dozen times.  I don't blame her...it's my favorite birthday song too!

At her two year check-up she was in the 28% for both height and weight.  A year ago she was at the 7%, so she's been catching up!

Her party was ten days later.  I made flower cupcakes.  It's super easy to do.  Just cut marshmallows on the diagonal and roll them in colored sugar to make the petals.

You can't see very well, but we had long balloons that we made into flowers, swords and various animals.  Parker found out a while ago that I knew how to do that and couldn't wait for an occasion.  Most of the balloons popped quickly, but we had lots and all of the kids enjoyed them!  

Liesel got tons of great toys!  After opening her gifts she went around and gave everyone a hug or kiss to thank them for their generosity!

She tried to blow out the candles, but her "blowing" is making an extended "ffff", so Jason helped out, ha, ha! 

We did lemon cupcakes with ice cream or sherbet, yum!

Liesel loved trying out all of her new toys.  She's feeding her baby dolls...and then she fed herself, ha, ha!

She had a tea party with "melk" and "joose" with "Ma-mah".

This tutu is a dress up at my mom's, but she got those dress up slippers.  She's worn them half of every day since.  She loves them!  She's really gotten into being a "miss-muhs" (princess) lately!

We love our happy girl!

Cuties

Some other random photos:

Parker had some fun things at school.  He and Daddy went to "Goofy Golf Night" where they had pizza and played mini golf at a park.  They also had "Pirate Day".  Jas wanted to dress up for it too!

Brad was able to take some time off for paternity leave.  It was fun have him around so much!

Brad started his fall league of softball with his work team.  Most of his games have been late, so we couldn't all go, but we have gone when we can.

 Elise is such a sweetheart!

(9 days old)

 (4 weeks)

 (41/2 weeks)

 We attempted to get a creative photo of our crazy family!

Fire Dragons

Parker's soccer team this year is the Fire Dragons.  By coincidence, he is #2 again!

 The whole family attends most games.  (Elise was in her car seat just out of the photo.) 

 Usually the kids sit well in their chairs, but sometimes they get restless and run around...mostly out of bounds, ha, ha!

 This is right as Parker was kicking a goal!

 Victory!  Parker does this exact same expression and arms-in-the-air cheer when anyone on his team makes a goal!

Way to go, Fire Dragons! 

Dinosaur Captain America

One morning Jason told me he wanted to make a mask.  He got out some paper, but I told him I'd cut eyes in a plate for him.  He decorated the mask and the papers and glued them together himself.  He said it was a dinosaur, but said he also wanted a Captain America shield.  I gave him another plate and his costume was complete.  I love that you can see his happy eyes through the mask, ha, ha!

 The other kids wanted to be in the photo too.  If you look closely you cab see Liesel's giant goosebump bruise.

Brigham City Temple

We were able to go up to the Brigham City Temple open house.  Until the Ogden Temple reopens, it is our closest temple.  We met my parents, Angie and Grandma Ipson there to go on the tour together.

The kids enjoyed the bus ride that shuttled us from the parking to the temple.

It's a beautiful temple and we felt the spirit as we toured through it.  I know the temple is the house of God and where we can be sealed together as families forever.

We attended the dedication last Sunday and are excited to attend the temple there soon!

Long Distance Relationships

I already have two siblings that live out of state, but now Brad has a sister that lives far away too.  Eric and Jen moved down to Gilbert, Arizona.  The weekend before they moved we all got together for a send off party.  Here are Will and Adam appreciating their new cousin Elise.

 Everyone else appreciated her too!

Brad's cousin Lauren had a baby five days after Elise.  Jackie is holding Elise and Jen is holding Presslie.

Here are all of the grandkids (except Jada).

  The whole group:

 Earlier in the day Grandma Cannon met Elise too.

 We'll miss you, but we'll keep in touch and look forward to seeing you at Christmas!

Enjoy your new adventure in Arizona!