Happy Birthday Justin!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthay Dear Justiiiiinnnn!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Eeeemilyyyyyyy!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Quin!

Natalie and Quin, Santa Barbara 2009

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Quuuuuiiiiinnnn!

Happy Birthday to you!

Carter Turns 5!

I don't know how or when it happened, but my little baby boy turned 5 today. Carter has been such a joy to have in our family. He's starting to turn into a wild little boy, which is fun, but also has its moments. He is definitely a rough and tumble, full on boy, and we're glad for that. At the very same time, he is as sweet and snugly as they come.

He wanted a "whale cake " which I thought would be easy enough, until he started describing a 3D version of Santa Barbara with a whale jumping out of the cake. (I'm not the Ace of Cakes!) After much discussing, we settled on bouncy balls. Thank you to Kaylin for letting me borrow her awesome ball cake mold. It was a wee-bit tricky transferring the round cake from my house to the party. Alyssa did a good job holding it, but we did get a few finger prints in it when the cake tried to roll right off the platter.

We held the party at Blast Off, the local indoor playground. These kids played hard.

We had many friends and cousins helping us celebrate and Carter came away with more loot than Christmas day. Such fun!

Make a wish, big kid!

I think it is fair to say, he had an awesome birthday!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Boy, did you all deliver with the questions! You are some crazy creative people. I've loved reading all your questions and I'll get to them, each and every one, but first let's hear a little shout of joy for the return of Idol.

I love this stupid show! And how about seeing cute little Jason Castro again. I really ended up liking him last season. Don't know how I'll feel about the brother, but I enjoyed seeing Jason and his nasty locks again. And I want to know if anyone else cries when the contestants receive their golden tickets. I am such a boob. I tear up EVERY time! What is the deal? (Of course I used to cry watching people win on Price is Right too; I think I have a problem.) Then they go and hit me with the whammy of Danny (was that his name?) and his recently lost wife....good grief.

Anywho, I can't wait for the ball to get rolling and the actual competition to begin. Although, the try outs are the only part Jarom watches with me, so I guess I'll go ahead and enjoy my Idol time with my hubby for a while longer.

Now, on to the first question. I'm starting with my mom's question (a.) because she's my mom and you should always start with your mother, and (b.) because it's rather pertinent for today.

What were you doing at this time 33 years ago? I'd really like to know.

Well, 33 years ago today, I was entering this big ol' world for the first time. I'm sure I was feeling rather ripped off to be forced out of my toasty warm place that I had over-stayed my welcome in by a week. I can only imagine the thoughts forming in my mind when the cold blast of air hit me. But here I am now, 33 years later ready to take on the world. And with 33 years behind me, I hope I'm a little more wise to tackle that task. Watch out world, Elena is here to stay.

I feel like a newly engaged, giggly girl again today too. My hubby surprised me with my wedding ring all shiny and new. I lost a diamond 2 1/2 years ago and haven't worn it since. (You may recall I wore a mood ring for the longest time, until the thing turned my finger green.) Its SO fun to see something sparkly on my hand again. I really am married to the best gift giver in the world. Thank you Jarom!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad & Mom Sept. '08
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Daaaaddd!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Ellie

Happy Birthday to my beautiful niece Ellie. This little girl is gorgeous. The exotic kind of gorgeous that could make her millions. But don't you worry, you will never catch this kid wearing anything inappropriate. She is the most modest person I've ever met. Such an example to us all. This is her big number 8 which means she gets to get baptized. Yay for Ellie! Hope you have a wonderful day and we can't wait to see you at the Christmas party this weekend.

Happy Birthday Gregg and Benjamin!

I've been so bad about missing birthdays lately. I don't know what my deal is. So today is my brother-in-law Ben's birthday. Ben is Jarom's business partner and is quite talented with a computer. If you need yours fixed, I know just the guy to do it.


Also, happy late birthday to my father-in-law, Gregg. His birthday was last Sunday and we celebrated with the traditional clam chowder and red velvet cake. Always so good. Thanks for letting us share your day with you!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

One more birthday wish today. My brother-in-law Kevin turns the big 3-0!! Woo-hoo! I had a hard time finding a recent picture of Kevin. I almost resorted to posting Owen since he's a mini-me of his dad! :) Have a good one today Kevin and enjoy your movie and dinner party!!

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to adorable little Micah! He really is such a cute little guy. However, he's mighty attached to his mommy. I haven't been able to win him over quite yet. I'm going to keep working on it though. I just can't resist this little cutie pie!
And while I'm doing birthday wishes, I better wish my sister-in-law Kaylin a happy late birthday. Her birthday was last week. I didn't forget, I just never got around to posting. So sorry Kaylin! (She's on the right)
This picture is perfect because tomorrow is Natalie's birthday. So Happy early birthday to Natalie! (She's on the left.) With a large family like my husband's, there are many birthday celebrations. Hope everyone has, had, and will have a marvelous birthday!!

Kate Kate Finally Turns 3!

Poor little Kate, she gets the birthday shaft every year. The only year we've celebrated her birthday on her actual birth date was the day she was born. Thank goodness she's still too little to know any better.

I honestly can't believe she's 3. I still consider her such a little baby. I guess that's what happens when you're the baby of the family. In fact, I was thinking about her party and thought, "Oh, I'll just make her some type of cute pink cake. She's too little to know what she'd want." And then I realized that for Halle's 3rd b-day, she INSISTED on a black bat cake. And for Carter's 3rd birthday he demanded Spongebob. My little cousin wanted a vacuum cake for his 3rd birthday. So I realized that she's really not a baby and she probably knows exactly what she wants. Sure enough, when I asked her, she replied, "Pink Cindewella cake." So a pink Cinderella cake it was, and she loved it.




This kid is all about "girl" stuff. Barbies, babies, and dress ups were the main theme of the night and she loved it all.

She had been so excited about it being her "Cindewella party" all day long. But when it finally came time to celebrate she started feeling yucky. She got a really bad headache and kept squeezing her head and laying down. She managed to enjoy opening the presents but then it got too much and she threw up right after the cake. (Apparently she takes after me, poor little thing.)

Poor little girl ended up laying in Grammy's arms for the rest of the night and fell asleep before Mimi showed up with another gift. She didn't even get to open it. But this morning when she woke up, she was good to go and remembered every detail about the party. Even what gifts she got from who. "Halle gived me dis Barbie, and you gived me clothes (and so on)." It was really cute.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law today. (Thanks for the picture Becky.) Yes, that's right, another birthday for our family. But don't you fret, we still have several more November birthdays to go. We were joking about all the November birthdays we have last night saying how November is 9 months from Valentine's Day. :)

Anyway, we celebrated Anna's birthday yesterday by breaking in Becky and Kevin's new home and having a family dinner. Becky has the biggest dining room I've ever seen and we were all able to fit nicely. All Manwaring dinners from now on will be there. ;)

Happy Birthday Anna! I think new furniture is a pretty exciting birthday gift. So cute! Hope you have a great day.

Party Time!

Halle had a "spa-tacular" 8th birthday party! We did this same party for Alyssa last year, and Halle's wanted one ever since. I know it seems like a lot of work (and there is some definite prep work that goes into it), but if you have wonderful sisters or friends willing to help you out, this party is one of the easier parties to do. And THANK YOU to my wonderful family that helped me out. I couldn't do it without them.

We had five different "spa" stations that the girls rotated through. Each girl was given an appointment card and just went in the order designated.

Halle chose to name her spa The Red Ruby day spa and then Jarom made the cute itinerary cards.

Hair done by Aunt Emily. She did everyone exactly the same and they loved looking just alike. They were finished off with some glitter spray which was so fun. They got to keep their own combs from this station.

Facials done by myself. (For Alyssa's party we used tinted cool whip and that didn't work so well. This year I just used cold cream and it was much better.) We put a little make-up on after their faces were nice and refreshed. They each got lip gloss, hand mirrors, and hair bands to keep at this station.

Nails done by Aunt Mimi. (Her name is also Emily, but we call her Mimi to make it easier.) Each girl got to keep an emery board.

Pedicures done by Aunt Deidra. Complete with foot soaks, smelly lotion massages, and painted toes.

Craft and snack station run by my mom. The girls decorated bags to keep all their loot in. We were so excited to have our Utah cousins join us for the party this year. Sami and Megan are Alyssa's age, so she was in seventh heaven.

The dolled up party group. They all felt so beautiful. It was so fun to watch them take out their mirrors and just look at themselves. Every little girl deserves to feel beautiful once in a while.

Present time and a look at the backs of the adorable hair Emily fixed.

It's tradition to get a set of scriptures with your name engraved on them for your 8th b-day in our family.

Make a birthday wish!

Happy Birthday Halle!

Halle was due November 17, my mother-in-law's birthday. At 30 weeks gestation I started feeling really strange. I suffered from severe cases of vertigo. After seeing several doctors they decided it was blood pressure related and sent me to bed. I was on bed rest for 10 weeks. Half of the time I lived at my mom's and the other half she spent at my place. I gained 55 pounds.

My doctor told me to call the hospital on Nov. 14 and see if I could come in to be induced. I was SO ready to have the baby. I called and they said, "There's no room at the Inn. You can't come in today, we're too full. Try again tomorrow." Ughhh....talk about tears. I didn't care if there wasn't "room at the inn", I was having that baby the next day or else. Lucky for all the hospital staff there was room and I delivered Halle around 8pm on the 15th.

Halle was stuck and the dr. tried to use the vacuum thing, but Halle had too much hair and it kept slipping off. So he ended up having to use forceps. Her shoulders caught, but eventually we got her out. There was meconium in the water so they quickly showed her to me and then whisked her away to suction her out and make sure she didn't swallow or inhale anything. She was perfectly healthy and weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz., nice and chunky.



Over the months her growth just tapered off until she was a teeny tiny 4th percentile one year old. She was the cutest little thing ever. And what made her even more cute, was her big spit fire personality inside her tiny little body. This girl has always been able to hold her own. She walked at 10 months after showing no signs of even wanting to. One day I just glanced over and there she was toddling across the room. She's been going strong ever since.

And now my tiny firecracker is 8 years old! She's still on the tiny side but her big personality hasn't changed a bit. Halle is such a creative spirit and enjoys all things crafty. She's particular about how she likes things done and can't rest until its to her specifications. She LOVES babies, any baby, and would kiss on and hug them all day if the other mommies would let her. She's also limber as a rubber band. (Something she did NOT inherit from me.) She can whip out the splits like nobody's business. Halle is all about having fun. If is isn't fun, it isn't worth her time. (Something I'm afraid she did inherit from me.)


I love my little Halle Loo. Our family would not be complete without her. Along with that firecracker personality she is the sweetest most sincere child you will ever meet. Happy Birthday baby, hope it is a wonderful 8th year!

Happy Birthday Sami!

Today my niece Samantha turns 11! She told her mom that instead of a birthday party this year, she just wants to come to Idaho Falls to visit. How cute is that? So we're hoping to get to see our cousins this weekend. Have a great day Sambo!

Happy BIrthday Ogden!

The tank turns 4 today!!! Ogden is always such great entertainment. We love this kid and hope he has the best 4th birthday ever!

My baby is TEN?! You've got to be joking!

Well, Alyssa did it. She went and grew up on me. How did that happen so quickly? I swear I was pregnant and COMPLETELY miserable with her just yesterday. Now she's entered the double digit era. What a great kid Alyssa is. I wouldn't trade her for the world. She's always such a help to me and has such a talent for caring for her siblings. She's such an example to us all. You will never hear a naughty word come out of Alyssa's mouth. She's the language Nazi around here. I love that she is so firm in her beliefs and has such great self esteem. Alyssa knows what she wants and where she's going. I knew she would be an amazing person from the minute I laid eyes on her. Happy Birthday baby, I don't care if you're 10, you'll always be my baby.

Alyssa gave me explicit orders that she was going to have a poppy seed cake with NO frosting. That kind of dashed my hopes of decorating a fun Halloween themed cake, but after I added the spider rings, I felt better about it. And besides, it wasn't my birthday.

Building haunted houses was a hit. Thanks Emily for the adorable idea. The kids all loved it.

If you thought that Kate was going to be left out of the fun, you were dead wrong! Thankfully she was satisfied with broken graham crackers and I didn't have to glue a whole house together for her.

How cute did these turn out? (It also looks better if you display them on the counter with a few chocolate sprinkles spilled about.)

I think my ears are still recovering from the din of the party. They played "monster tag" in the dark basement and my oh my can little girls scream. But what fun they had.

Alyssa has asked for an Easy Bake for every birthday and Christmas for the past 3 years. I finally caved and let her have one. Can you see the sheer bliss on her face. She's been a cooking fool ever since.

I'm always so grateful for my mom's help at the birthday parties. She's been to almost every single one I've thrown. Even some when we lived in Boise.

You'd think with a wind up like that, she'd have gotten all the candles in one blow, but...it took two.

After the guests have gone home, I wonder to myself why I even cleaned the house before they came. :)

Happy Birthday Becky!

They say it's your birthday!!!! And a big one at that. Becky turns the big 3-0 today!! Welcome to womanhood Becky. :)