Nine and he's all mine... for now

In all this May Madness, Jacob turned nine!! What a sweetheart of a boy. He's all ours for now, but with a daughter about to graduate, I know how fast these years go by! Between preparing for stake meeting and helping Lynn with some events, a party was really the last thing I could even think about! Jacob made it easy on me and asked to play Laser Tag with friends-- I highly recommend it.. great party-and easy!

One thing Jacob got for his bday was his own (albeit monitored and guarded) email... let me tell you, I have never received so many messages! He lays in bed sending us things, love notes, funny cat videos... on and on... :) Now when I ask him to do something I get "just a minute mom, I really need to check my email." I love that boy!!

Birthday Dinner: Instead of Olive Garden, Jacob requested Lobster Ravioli for dinner. That boy has expensive taste, but thanks to my bff Costco, it was easy to put together!

Birthday on the ball field
Birthday Party: What is is about boys and arcade games? Give them a sack of coins and they are giddy!

Magic Tricks!

Happy Anniversary- hold that thought...

What is the deal with the month of May?!?! The calendar gets packed full and we run from one event to another every week...having a graduate this year just adds to the mix of activities! Our anniversary was a nice diversion from schedules and games, events and meeting etc..

Jacob had a bball game, Lynn had church business, but he insisted on finding some time for us to get away for dinner. He arranged a late dinner out for us and it ended up being a romantic and relaxing evening. We shut the place down. It's so nice to have those quiet times to talk. I love him for making it a special night and love being married to him, he's my very favorite person...

Primary and Pinewood

Stake Primary Leadership Meeting. Our theme was "D.O.T.S." (Depend On The Savior) It was great to see and connect with our wards again. They are really fantastic primary leaders! Elise lent me her video she made for New Beginnings, (incidentally where we totally copied this theme from) and it fit perfectly with our night.

It was all about the depending on the Savior with pictures, video and music, then she had over 6000 pictures of kids that panned out to make dots which turned into a picture of Christ at the end. I appreciated borrowing her talent for the night! :) Karen Gillan lent me all the tablecloths from New Beginnings and we had a lot of fun coordinating the food. My presidency spoke and President Goodsell gave concluding remarks which was a great ending. I love primary and working with a such great women!

Pinewood Derby!!!! Jacob and good friend Isaac showing their cars. This was the coolest track system we'd ever seen, very slick and quick!

Spring Break!

Spring Break this year was just that, a much needed break for us all. We spent the week in Vegas enjoying general conference and celebrating Easter and doing some fun shopping. We had a fantastic dinner at Aunt Linda's Easter Sunday and a fantastic stay at the Wisers, which is always wonderful!! We got together with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins and really enjoyed ourselves!

We also visited Uncle Alan's office for teeth cleanings and Elise had a milestone- her first cavity and experience with laughing gas. It was such a groovy experience she wrote about it on her blog that very night! I wish I had been there to see the "show." I hear she was quite hilarious. ;) It took her forever to come off the high... she could never do drugs.

A big thing for Jacob and Lynn was going to the store location where "Pawn Stars" is filmed. We love that show. Jacob got his picture taken with "Rick" and visited a bit. It was "oh so cool." He bought a hat, he laughed, he cried, it was better than Cats. :)

The "Easter Bunny" per se, did not happen to visit this year... Several months ago Jacob was torturing me about the validity of Santa. After a lengthy talk and Santa finally emerging with his validity still intact (so far) Jacob moved on to the Tooth Fairy. He said "Come on Mom, tell me the truth, I know the tooth fairy's not real." I finally said "you're right, there's no little fairy that flies around and leaves money for your teeth." I went on to say, It's just like the Easter Bunny -there is no big bunny that hops around house to house hiding eggs at Easter--- "Wait" he says... "Huh? What are talking about!?!? NO EASTER BUNNY?!?" "How could you tell me that?!? Yep, I'm up for Mother of Year for sure now...

We had a fun "Girl's Night Out" dinner during the Priesthood conference session with aunts and cousins. I think we stayed for over 3 hrs!! It was a ton of fun. We were serenaded as well. I think Casey directed him over to Elise which was hilarious. :) He did play some awesome "Santana" hits for us.
Elise and Katie
Jacob with Rick from the TV show "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel.
CRAB LEGS FEST... ooohhhhh... delish.......
I think we ate our weight in crab legs... It was heaven!!

"Piano Girl"

Elise has been teaching piano for the last few years. It's been a wonderful experience for her and she has loved the kids she teaches! Pictured below are the students who could come to the recital. She had two recitals back to back on a crazy busy day (of course) She'd been gone to school since the wee hours of the morning and after school was helping interview for new candidates for next year's student body officers and the alloted signup time for BYU housing online was at the same time- of course. She was a bit stressed doing it at the same time while texting me. If she was the interviews she couldn't talk on the phone, if she took her laptop into the hallway she lost internet connection. And, she'd been so busy, she hadn't fully decided on where she wanted to live yet.... and the clock was ticking. Ahhhh.....

I had visions of us sitting down at the computer, having a mother daughter moment choosing housing.. uh no. Elise's schedule can be nuts. She did a great job, got it all done, felt prompted to choose a certain dorm, signed up and was home a few minutes before the first recital started. The recitals were darling and her students performed wonderfully. It was fun to visit with their families too! I took care of the desserts in between texting with Elise about housing, doing primary stuff and handling Jacob who had just broken the neighbor's window... and running to the store for papergoods at the last minute because I hadn't even thought we might need cups and plates! Ahhh...don't we love days like this? It ended up being a very fun evening though! We were really proud of her!