A Birthday SURPRIZE!

I truly have the best husband ever!  I always knew I would marry someone special, but I had no idea just how amazing that man would be until I met TJ.  Every day with TJ I discover more and more how wonderful he is.  He makes me feel like the most beautiful, wonderful and special person in the world.  I keep on falling more and more in love with him every day!
TJ is by far one of the most thoughtful people I know.  Each gift he gives has so much thought behind it.  And he is always topping himself!  This year for my birthday is no exception!  My actual birthday isn't until the 20th (TJ will be out of town for my actual birthday), but the party has already begun!  This past Saturday started out as a "ME" day and ended with a huge celebration of ME!  Back in September TJ went to a Braves game with some friends in Atlanta.  In return for letting him go I got a ME day.  It was SO needed!  I started my day at the Temple and then enjoyed some much needed retail therapy!  I then met a friend for a late afternoon pedicure.  She turned out to be one of the conspirators working with TJ to get me out of the house and home again at the right time.    As Leana dropped me off, I started to think something was up.  There were a few cars in the front that I recognized.  Then there was a huge card on the doorstep along with a sign and some accessories to put on.  I opened the card and put on the accessories and opened the door.  I was so surprised to see some of my dearest friends filling my home!  I could hardly believe that TJ had pulled off the surprise.  TJ went all out with the party.  It was a HOT PEPPER theme - 29 and still HOT!  So the food was hot.  The games were hot or related to 29.  There were even prizes relating to hot for the winners of the games!  TJ thought of everything!  When I saw all the food, I was so surprised and I mentioned to TJ that I was shocked at everything he thought of.  Lily was also a big help to her daddy in getting everything ready!  I just have to mention that TJ had to take the kids to a birthday party that morning too!  He had worked so hard to prepare everything and he pulled it off without a hitch!  

 Even the decorations were related to the theme!  The letters were all flaming! 

 Look at the spread!  I didn't think to take any before people started to dig in.  I have to say that it was all amazing!  TJ even made two cakes.  One with chocolate cake and one chocolate chili cake.  The chili one definitely had a kick to it but it was good!

 He also had hot sauce guessing and chili recognition as some of the games. 

 Love all the cinnamon or chili related candy in the CHILI dishes!  My favorite was the Lindt chili chocolate with the cinnamon bears!  SO GOOD!

 Logan loved the theme!  He was all over the candy and the hot wings! 

 This is the card and accessories I was greeted by!  I love it!

I LOVE YOU TJ!  Thank you so much for an amazing surprise!  Thank you to such wonderful friends that helped make it such a great party!  I do have amazing friends and THE BEST husband!  I truly felt loved!  It makes turning another year older so much fun! 

Personality!

Kids are such a wonderful gift!  They bring so much joy and love to life!  They teach what true love is and how we should treat others.  I love each of my kids and all that is them!

Lily is our master of disguise!  She is always pretending to be someone.  It is usually either a Princess or a Superhero.  She is always using her imagination. 

Logan is always kicked back and relaxing!  He is good for a good snuggle as well!  This is just one of his sides.  His other is described best by a tornado!

Siblings

One of my absolute favorite things is to watch Lily and Logan playing nicely with each other.  Logan thinks Lily is by far the coolest person around!  He gets so excited to see her in the morning or when we pick her up!  He loves to play with her and do whatever she is doing.  She also loves her brother and takes pride in the fact that he loves her so much!  The other morning I was doing the dishes from breakfast and looked over at the table to see the two of them playing with moon sand!  They were have a great time!  I noticed that Logan was up on the table and had to take pictures.  I just love my kids so much!  They make me smile every day!

 I just love those little toes sticking out!

Four Mile Fall Festival

The first weekend in October was a busy one for our family.  TJ was busy working on his ASA, next step in the career, it was General Conference, and it was the only free weekend to go get pumpkins with the kids.  This meant that TJ went into the office on Saturday morning and I took the kids to the Four Mile Park's Fall Festival.  We had a great time!  This was our first time going to this Historic Park.  Four Mile Park was the last stop coming west to Denver along the Cherokee Trail.  The home was built in 1859 and gave a place for travelers to rest before reaching Denver. 
While we were there we enjoyed taking a step back in time and enjoyed all the authentic costumes and activities!  We wish Daddy could have came with us, but we know he was working hard for our little family!  It was a really good day even though the high of the day was maybe in the 40's!

 The first thing the kids wanted to do was see the horses!  They especially loved that the horse neighed at them!

 We got to take a ride in an old stage coach!  It was a very nice stage coach, but I still would not have wanted to travel very far in it!  The kids thought it was great!

 The pumpkins were a huge hit with Logan this year!  He would have spent all day playing with the pumpkins!  Lily was determined to find the perfect pumpkins to represent our family! 

 

 After we had our pumpkins, we got to see the Blacksmith work!  Lily asked him why he was called a Blacksmith.  He explained to her about how a Blacksmith gets dirty and looks black by the end of the day.  She thought it was cool to watch him work.  We also learned how to start a fire and talked to a trapper about the animals he trapped.

 Logan found the chickens right after we got our freshly baked old fashioned cookies and so he tried to feed his to them!  Luckily there was a kind man who kept Logan's fingers safe!

 This is the original home that was built at Four Mile Park.  I want to go back and take a tour of all the buildings.

 They also had musicians there playing around the fire.  Lily LOVING music as she does, found her way over to them and started tapping her foot to the beat.  She also dance for a while before sitting down to enjoy the music!  She was sad when I told her it was time to go.

Lily's BIG Day!

Our little girl is FOUR!!!  Not sure I know where the time went!  It seams like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital!  Lily is such a sweet girl!  She is so full of life and joy!  What a blessing she is!  Because she is so special, it was only fitting that she have a VERY special day on her birthday! 
The day started with breakfast in bed!  When I brought her breakfast she was already in her Cinderella dress!  (Every day since she got this dress she puts it on before she leaves her bedroom for the morning!) 

 She was so cute about getting breakfast in bed!  She kept saying that it was her first time to have breakfast in her own bed!  And that she loved it!
After breakfast, I had arranged for someone to come watch Logan so we could go out and have a girls day!  I had the whole day planned and it was all about her!  I think I might have been more excited about the day than she was! 

 We started with getting Lily's nails done.  She loves to get her nails done!  Everyone in the Salon was so cute about it being her birthday!  She truly had the royal treatment!  

 After her nails were painted, we made a stop at McDonald's for lunch!  This is one of her favorite places to eat.  We had fun with the mustache during our meal!

 After lunch, we went to pick out something for Lily to spend her birthday money on.  She picked a tea set.  While we were waiting to pay for it, we ran into someone we know.  I mentioned we were celebrating Lily's birthday and the lady behind us heard.  She then proceeded to tell Lily that on her birthday her grandmother would give her nickels.  Since it was Lily's birthday, she gave her dimes because she didn't have nickels!  What a sweet old lady!  That truly made Lily and my day!

 Next up was to get Lily's ears pierced!  Lily has asked a couple of times to get her ears pierced.  I always said I would do it when it was Lily's idea.  I never put it in her mind and so when she came to us wanting her ears pierced we decided it was time.  When I told Lily that we would be doing this, she said, "Yeah!  Now I don't have to wait until I am a mom!"  The past few weeks she has been saying, "Mom, I'm going to get my ears pierced after I am a mom and have 10 kids!"  I also told her it would hurt.  She said that was okay.  She was so brave!  She cried just a few seconds.  Then she couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror or showing EVERY person we saw!  She is so proud of her pierced ears!  (the picture above is the last picture of Lily without pierced ears!  The one below is the first picture with pierced ears!)

 After her ears were pierced, we went to Charming Charlies, my favorite jewelry and accessories store!  Lily is always wanting to wear my necklaces.  Now she can wear her own!  She loved the store just as much as I do!  She wanted everything in the store!  We will be going back soon I'm sure!

 The last surprise for just Lily was a trip to Bliss cupcakes!  Lily loves cupcakes!  She got to pick out cupcakes for after dinner (saving me from making another cake!) and then one to sample right then!  We had such a great time together. 

 Once TJ got home from work, we went to see Hotel Transylvania.  It was a cute movie!  The kids had a great time eating popcorn and watching the show.  Lily said it was her favorite movie she has seen when it was over.  Then it was home to have Lily's requested dinner, Macaroni and Cheese!  That was easy enough!  After dinner, we Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Gray so Lily could open their gifts.  She also got to open gifts from Daddy and Logan. 

 Then we got to sing to Happy Birthday to our sweet Lily and have our cupcakes!  Lily loved that we got to sing to her a second time!

 Logan enjoyed his cupcake as well! 

I just love that Lily ends the day the way she begins, in her Cinderella dress!

It was a very special day!  Lily enjoyed the Royal treatment as she was spoiled like crazy!  We sure do love our four year old!