JAYBIRD'S SIXTH BIRTHDAY

Ahoy, me mateys!  My little landlubber turned six (in April...have I mentioned that I'm a teensy weensy bit behind in blogging), and we all know what that means.  PAR-TAY, pirate style!  Cap'n Jaybird was more than excited for his birthday.  In fact, unlike most pirate who do not know Monday from Tuesday, this little man had been counting down for like six months!  I mean what is cooler than using both hands to show people your age...

So what do pirates do on their birthday?  They grunt and growl and show their muscles.

 They eat serpent legs (noodles w/ alfredo) and sailboats (mini hotdogs w/ cheese sails) and seaweed wraps (bacon wrapped beenie weinies) while slamming their cups on the table and yelling, "Down the hatch, me hearties."

 They insist on breakfast in bed in the Capn's quarters.  But while most pirates sleep in, our little pirate was up at the first crack of dawn asking the ship's cook why she hadn't brought his meal yet :-)

 And even though their bellies are full of good grub, they dig in to a delicious cake, which is most definitely a delicacy on a pirate ship.

 And where do you keep a bunch of rowdy pirates?  Why in the garage, of course!

 But what do you do with a bunch of rowdy pirates?  You make them walk the plank, and search for buried treasures, and fish for prizes, and pin the sword on Capn' Jack Sparrow.  At least that's what these pirates did.

 And you finish with bringing treasures to the Cap'n.  Of course, he's very grateful because this Cap'n has a mother who just so happens to be teaching him manners (I think).

So that's it, Jase.  Your birthday in a nutshell.  You have now officially belonged to me and dad longer than the five years we waited for you, begged for you.  It's funny how those years of sadness and longing have been swallowed up with laughter and little boy toys and snuggles and six birthdays.  You are everything I hoped and wished for.  And on each of your birthdays, I am the one feeling like the present is mine.  Happy Birthday, Jaybird!

EASY, CHEESY CRAFTS :-)

Sometimes a girl just needs some craft time, so when the fabulous Jodi James called me with an idea for some bunco prizes, I jumped on board.  We hit the local craft store and gathered up some cute material, colored gloves, and chocolate.  The results were too cute that I just had to share.  No one likes to clean, but with these beauties you can do it in style!

My next wave of craftiness came in the form of cupcakes.  Dustin's sister gave me the cutest book called "Hello, Cupcake!"  It has amazing cupcake ideas that are right down simple to do.  No special decorating tools, just a baggie and some candy.  I did these cupcakes for my young women, and they were a hit!

BLOG OVERLOAD

Stay tuned! I'm trying to blog a year's worth of posts in a couple of days.  Coming up next...birthdays, Kindergarten graduation, backpacking, and more.  Come on, you know you missed me :)

THE WILD WHITTS & DISNEYLAND

Clearly, I should have posted this in March when we actually went to Disneyland, but this way we can drag out the magic of Disney!  I also realize that this post would have been best seperated into days, but let's be honest, we're lucky that I'm even blogging!

This vacation started out as talk during a family dinner at Dustin's parent's house.  Soon enough, though, Dustin's sister had it all planned (she's a serious planer), and us "fly-be-the-seat-your-pants" kind of people were tagging along. 

Before we get to far into this story, let me point out that from the months of October to March, the Lawn Ranger family is bound by weather, more specifically snow.  So after packing up the van and programming the van's GPS (Dustin calls her Martha), we were set.  Or so I thought.  Snow fell that night and Dustin was stuck in Cedar plowing that darn white stuff while I tackeled the challenge of driving myself, my boys, and Aunt Shelley to Anaheim, California. 

By the sheer hand of Heavenly Father (and some serious help from my co-pilot), we made it safely.  I had booked a flight for both Dustin and Spencer so that they could sleep all the way to California after staying up all night plowing.  But their plane got stuck in Salt Lake, and they ended up driving and arriving the next day. 

Now that we're all in Anaheim, let's play!

 Hooray, dad made it!  I'm not sure who needed him more...the boys or mom!

 Jax enjoying a turkey leg.  He pretty much ate the whole thing by himself. 

 The wonderful thing about Tiggers are Tiggers are wonderful things :)  Especially to the Wild Whitt boys!

 Enjoying some playground time while the big kids ride the Grizzly Rapids.

 Which one is not like the others...

 You can do it, Jaybird

 Okay, maybe Jax can do it...

We talked the boys out of buying a souvenir at every store at the end of every ride by bribing them with these cars.  It was a store called Ridemakerz in Downtown Disney.  Finally, someone got smart and created the equivalent of Build-A-Bear for "boys" :)

 I think Dustin enjoyed customizing these remote control cars as much as Jase & Jax!

 This is Jax concentrating.  The wheels had to be just so, and the tongue definitely helps with concentration.

Okay, we're ready to go home.  Can you believe my kids actually said they were tired of Disneyland and ready for their own house?  Well, they did.  We packed up the van, the boys clutched their new cars, and Dad drove us home.  Oh, how I love the passenger seat!

THE JAZZ GAME :)

Dustin has been talking about taking the boys to the Jazz game for over a year, and this mom finally got sick of the talking.  After a little research and listening to Dustin whine about not wanting nose bleeder seats, I booked us some tickets about 16 rows back from the center court.  The boys LOVED it!  And when I say boys, I mean all three :)  They were spoiled at the Jazz store, ordering custom jerseys and stylin' hats.  They were spoiled with treats galore.  And they were spoiled with all the up- close and personal attention from the Jazz Bear.  But seriously, when you are as cute as the Wild Whitt boys, you deserve to be a little spoiled! 

PS--This game was back in January of 2011.  I've had some serious commitment issues with blogging....but I'm ba-ack!

Letters from K

Miss Kendra is pretty much our little girl. In fact, we should just call her Kendra Marle Whittaker :) She snuggles Uncle Dusty and always includes me in her prayers. The little sassy pants loves to come to our house, and she LOVES the Wild Whitt boys. In fact, she wrote Jase and Jaxon letters the other day. Her sheer honesty warrants that I record them on the blog!

Dear Jase,

You are just going to play with me, okay!
You are my big cousin...No, big brother.
You can babysit me and Jaxon if you want.

Love,

Kendra

Dear Jaxon,

Sorry you were being mean to me.
Your playroom looks beautiful with all that stuff in it.
Your hair is handsome and your eyes are pretty.

Love,

Kendra

Well, you can imagine Jase rolling his eyes (pretending to be too big to enjoy the letter) and Jax giggling a little at the pretty eyes part; but what they were realling thinking was,

We LOVE our Kendra!