Lemonade & Sunshine

For Hazel's 3rd birthday party, I decided to do a pink lemonade party.  The colors were pink, yellow, and gray.  It was a lot of fun to plan, but also a lot of work.  I think a lot of people pay to have things done for a party, but it's much cheaper to DIY, so that's what I did.  I just purchased some digital paper and made all of the paper products myself in photoshop.  I made the invitations, food tent labels, pennant banners, glass drink and water bottle labels, party favor sticker labels, party hats, and thank you cards. For decorations I made some crepe paper garland, and just picked fresh roses from our yard and put them in mason jars as centerpieces. 

For food I decided to do a Create Your Own Salad.  Fresh salads always sound great to me in the summer.  I love Zupas (a local soup, salad, and sandwich shop) so I picked similar salad toppings and homemade dressings, and gave suggestions of some good combinations.  Guests had the option of different fruits, nuts, cheeses, and chicken. We also had rolls and butter. The children had almond butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit kabobs, and cheese and crackers.  The desserts were lemon bars, pink lemonade cupcakes, and chocolate dipped rice krispies, all made from scratch.

For activities I had a table where the children could make macaroni art, and also a little bounce house.  My parents bought that bounce house like 7 years ago for my little sister's 5th birthday party.  I had my parents bring it out when they came for graduation in April. It has been a lot of fun to have, and great for play dates.  

Brendan and I made the lemonade stand together, and it didn't cost a thing.  The wood was some leftover wood from a guy at Campus Plaza.  I had some chalkboard contact paper and we just stuck it on.  I really love how it turned out!

After Hazel's party, we had to run to another little boy's party around the corner, and Brendan's mom was amazing and cleaned most everything up.  Thank you Naidra!!

 I made this cake on Hazel's actual birthday (May 29th) earlier in the week.  It was a pink lemonade cake with a lemonade cream cheese frosting. Delicious! Here is the recipe. I made the frosting a little different though.  I used the same amount of butter as cream cheese, and did the sugar to taste. I found the ruffle tutorial here. It was really easy. Since my frosting was a cream cheese frosting, it wasn't as stiff, so my ruffles look a little different, but I still liked how they turned out. I made it with 6" pans, which was the perfect size.

I got the napkins, plates, and cute galvanized steel utensil container from Target!

The striped paper straws, cupcake wrappers, and chevron party bags are from Orson Gygi in Salt Lake.  I love that store!

I got these cute matching lemon shirts from Target.  Perfect for the party! 

The family.

I of course had to wear the party colors too!  These pink shoes were actually my wedding shoes from Payless.  I've gotten a lot of use out of them. 

And I couldn't leave out another picture of this cutie!

So after such a great party, the day didn't end that well.  Hazel had a little accident and fell our of her swing and her mouth hit the ground hard and knocked out her front tooth.  Our beautiful little Hazel now looks like a hillbilly.  We are hoping to get a fake tooth put in, because 4 years or so without a front tooth is a long time.  Such a sad day!  

Mother's Day

My day started out with a nice breakfast made by Brendan.  He made eggs benedict with a homemade hollandaise sauce, hash browns, and orange juice. 

For dinner Brendan barbecued some swiss cheese and mushroom hamburgers and shish kabobs.  They were delicious! He even used some mesquite wood chips, so they had great flavor. We really LOVE hanging out in our backyard.

And of course we needed some juicy watermelon.  Hattie and Hazel were loving it.

Hazel had a roll and Hattie stole it from her.  Whenever Hazel tried to get it back, Hattie would get angry and hold onto it for dear life and arch her back and pull away.  Hazel just thought it was funny. 

Hattie pointing again.

Brendan's parents gave me this pretty hanging flower basket for Mother's Day.

 For Brendan's mom, I had a set of 9 magnets made from my Instagram photos of the kids and I tied it up in a little bow.  You can purchase your own here.

I also made a card with this quote on it that I got from the eighteen25 blog.  You can download it in many different colors.  I printed it on card stock and put this cute questionnaire inside that I made.  I asked Hazel questions about Brendan's mom and wrote down her responses.  It was a simple but cute little gift.  I found the quiz idea from the craftingchicks blog. 

Oh and I finished this book the day before Mother's Day.  It was very inspirational and made me want to be a better mom.

Transplanting the Garden

On Saturday we transplanted our plants from the greenhouse into the ground.  We are so excited for our garden this year!  If you remember from a previous post, we planted everything from seed except a few herbs, and they have all done so well. We already have a few varieties of peas to eat, and the squash is starting to grow.  We planted our cilantro from seed, and it tastes so good and fresh!

Hattie's favorite thing to do is point at everything.  She puts her shoulder up high to her chin and gets this serious face (except this time she is smiling) and points. 

 Hattie is standing all the time now.  She doesn't need anything to hold on to to get up anymore.  She was loving the peas.  She finally has two teeth that broke through on the bottom.

Brigham City Temple

While driving back from Logan we could see the Brigham City temple from the road, so we decided to stop and see it.  I think it is a beautiful building, and it will be done very soon.  Some guy told us the open house is in August I think.  We also walked around the Brigham City Tabernacle across the street.

Hazel picked out this Hello Kitty stuffed animal with a U of U t-shirt on it when she was at the bookstore with Brendan.  She loves it.

He Finished!

Two weeks after Bruce and Whit graduated from BYU, Brendan graduated from the University of Utah and Brianna Rowland (my sister-in-law) graduated from Utah State.  That was a lot of graduations for one month.  Brendan graduated with his Bachelor's degree in International Studies with an emphasis in Trade and Commerce and a Business Minor.  I'm so excited for him to be done!  We are still going to stick around Provo for a while though.

We went to Brendan's graduation on Friday morning, and then we all went out to eat at Cafe Trio (one of our favorites) for lunch in Salt Lake.  Earlier we had decided to make it a fun weekend by staying in a hotel downtown, and then we would get up Saturday morning and drive up to Logan for Brianna's graduation, so we would have less driving.  We stayed at the downtown Marriott, so it was nice and close to walk to City Creek to shop.  Hazel also had a lot of fun swimming in the hotel pool.

A lei was the thing to have at graduation and Christopher and Brianna didn't want Brendan to feel left out, so they made this lei with some flowers from a tree on campus.

Walking.

 Group Picture.

 Of course we needed a picture by the U, even though it was way too sunny.

Another group picture.

Bruce & Jessica's Wedding

Here are just a couple of pictures from the temple.  Bruce and Jessica were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, and it was such a beautiful day!  Brendan took most of these shots, and unfortunately we didn't get too many.  I didn't even get a picture of Hazel and Hattie together in their dresses.  The photographer was Jessica's cousin who came from New York City, and she is a great photographer.  She took a lot of pictures and we will have access to those on a cd.  Some of the wedding pictures are posted here on her blog and their bridal and groomals are here.  The reception was also beautiful and done very well.  

The Nephews looking cute as can be with their little bow ties.

Some of the bridesmaids.  Four of my sisters were bridesmaids and also Jessica's sister.

BYU Graduation and Wedding Dinner

A few weeks ago was a busy weekend for us.  My sister, Whitney, graduated with a Masters in Accounting and also my brother, Bruce, graduated with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from BYU.  Bruce also got married the same weekend.

Some of the family with President Samuelson and his wife. 

 Mom and Dad looking very springy.

The grads! 

My Hazel and Hattie. 

 With some cousins.

 Mom and some of the sisters.

My three youngest sisters. 

 After graduation we had a BBQ at our house.  Brendan of course pulled out the games for the kids.

That same evening we had the wedding dinner.

Some of the cousins at dinner.

Daily Struggles with a Toddler

 Hazel in the morning.  Not too much else to say.

She dressed herself, including the head piece, and said she was going running with her horse.

INFO: I typed up this post a few weeks ago when I was really frustrated and having a bad day, but Brendan told me it was too harsh, so I never posted it.  I decided to post it just because I thought someone might be able to relate and could laugh about it.  As difficult as she can be, just look at that cute face with her 80's outfit.  How can you not like her?  


When I think of Hazel, I'm reminded of this poem my mom would recite to us as kids from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

She stood on her head, on her little trundle bed,
With nobody by for to hinder;
She screamed and she squalled, she yelled and she bawled,
And drummed her little heels against the winder.Her mother heard the noise, and thought it was the boys
Playing in the empty attic,
She rushed upstairs, and caught her unawares,
And spanked her, most emphatic.

Hazel can definitely be good and so cute.  Yesterday she asked me if I could do her a favorite (favor).  But most of the time I feel she is on the other end of the spectrum.  This poem describes some of her fits so well.  Instead of drumming her heels against the window its her bedroom door and not only with her heels, but also her fists and other objects.


Does anyone else wake up somedays feeling overwhelmed because you know you have another day ahead of you dealing with your toddler?  Here is what our morning was like today.  Woke up at 8:30 and Hazel wanted something to eat.  She wanted oatmeal, and I told her it would take a little while to make (we make steel cut oats so its about 20 min).  She also wanted to get out her step stool and help.  She poured in the oats and when I went to have her pour in the water she said her hand was too tired(what???) OK, so no more help from Hazel.  After a little while she starts complaining its taking FOREVER to be done (imagine a whiny voice.)  I ask her to help me clean up her room and pick up the toys while we wait and her response was that her hands were too greasy from the quesadilla she ate last night.  I tell her we can just wash her hands and of course she doesn't want to (she comes up with the best excuses.)  When I start to dish out the oatmeal, she insists that Hattie has her own bowl.  I told her Hattie could just share with me, but that didn't go over very well.  Hazel was hungry so the eating part went well.  After eating, Hazel sees Hattie standing holding on to her step stool so Hazel gets mad and knocks Hattie down to the floor and tells her not to touch her stool.  Hattie is screaming and I put Hazel in her room for a timeout (we usually put her on a stool in the bathroom, but she purposely peed on the floor the night before when she was in timeout and I hadn't cleaned it up yet, yeah I know.)  Hazel starts her fit of banging on the bedroom door screaming everything you can imagine....she doesn't like me, she likes dad, there are monsters in her room, she wants to come out, then she starts banging loud toys on the door. The fit goes on for a while, and after I deal with the fit/timeout and apologies are said she is out of her room.  We've only been up for about an hour and I'm ready to go back to bed.


It's something different every morning.  The other day she was in the bath and I asked her to stand up so I could wrap her in her towel and her legs were too tired (That is her excuse for everything these days.  Some body part is too tired to do something she doesn't want to do.)


I feel like I will always be late as long as Hazel is with me.  It seems no matter where we are going, she is always throwing a fit about something right as we are going out the door.  I even plan extra time knowing there will be a fit and we are still late.  


You may be thinking kids throw fits when they are tired, maybe she isn't getting enough sleep.  Well I know she isn't getting enough sleep, but she is very stubborn.  She stopped taking naps around 18 months and some nights won't go to bed until midnight.  You may be thinking that I just need to be firm and put her in her room.  We've tried that.  She bangs and screams on the door.  She knows I don't like it when she pees on the carpet, so she will scream that she is going to pee, then she says I'm peeing, then she says I peed.  She knows I will open the door and come in and clean it up.  I clean it up, and then she is back in her room throwing her fit.  She gags herself on purpose so she will throw up.  She yells, I'm going to throw up (because she knows I will come in and clean it up.)  Brendan is busy studying most nights, so I'm left to this routine by myself.  Night after night of this is too much for me to handle, so I've just given in.  It's much easier to let her stay up.


Speaking of no sleep, Brendan sent me this video the other day and I could not stop laughing.  Boy could I relate.

After watching this video, I told Brendan I'm obviously not the only mom throwing fits.


After such a long and negative post, I thought I should say something positive.  Even though Hazel can be tough to deal with at times, I am thankful to be a mom and have healthy kids.  We all have bad days.