We Had a Birthday! (Or two. Or three.)

Birthdays are something special. As a kid they are magical and anticipated and always too far away. As an adult they act as a marker of progress, providing a moment to both reflect on the past and set new goals for the future. As a mother, I've come to appreciate them as a reminder of miracles - a testament of the incredible love and sacrifice and strength that exists at the moment that every soul makes it's way on to this planet.

In my blogging drought I have failed to document THREE of the birthdays that have happened in our family. That's a real shame and I'm here to fix that!

Ammely Turned FOUR

During the fourth month of this year our eldest child turned four. Four years of, well, just...everything. How can you explain what it is that a child adds to your life? It's just everything. I am sure glad that this sweet girl was brave enough to be the trailblazer of children in our family. She is awfully patient with me as I figure out this mothering business.

At the beginning of April, I was still just weeks out from having Clark so I tried to keep things pretty simple as we celebrated Miss Ammely. I didn't do a party or gathering this year. Instead, we had flower cupcakes to take to the General Conference/Belated Easter celebration with all of the cousins.

It's my favorite thing when the crowd is singing "Happy Birthday" to one of my children. I just know how much it means to them and I'm so grateful that my children are growing up with so many wonderful built-in friends through their cousins.

Alright, so maybe I didn't keep everything simple. We decided to decorate Ammely's room for her birthday. We (me and my dad) painted her room a really pretty light purple (her favorite colors are pink and purple - our girly girl is quite passionate about this fact). Ammon built her a beautiful picket fence for her wall which we put flower decals behind. And we got Ammely and Lynnden new flower bedding to match. It all turned out really sweet.

In addition to me being in the "postpartum, tired, lame mom" stage, her birthday also fell on a Sunday this year so we didn't do many birthdayish things on her birthday. She still got her birthday pancakes though!

Also, Daddy totally came through in the traditional "Daddy Birthday Balloon" - a note telling her that they were scheduled for a Daddy-Daughter date that weekend for this:

So after some anticipation, Friday finally came and Ammely and Daddy headed into Phoenix (with her pink post-it note invite in-hand).

To add to their adventure they parked the car and rode the "train" into downtown. It was fun, but an awfully long ride when you had so much to look forward to!

The show was definitely a hit. She talked for weeks about riding the train with Daddy to see Disney. About the princesses. About Tinkerbell flying. About Captain Hook being eaten by the Tick Tock Crock.

Plus, Daddy took her to an awesome lunch downtown at the TGIF in Chase Field. So much fun.

You know it was fun when someone falls asleep on the way home.

Ammon's Golden Birthday

At the end of April, Ammon had his golden birthday - he turned 28 on the 28th! To celebrate, the girls picked out presents for him themselves. I think they did a pretty spectacular job. ;-)

My gift to Ammon was a tour of the Biosphere 2 just outside of Tucson. His gift to himself was taking the day off of work. So after morning presents and birthday pancakes, he and I (and Clark) headed out for the day while the girls stayed home with Grandma Breakall.

P.S. One of my favorite things to do with this boy is just drive. I love long rides where we can talk and laugh and share. Plus, he's just so handsome that my view is always spectacular, even if we're just driving through the desert.

If you have not been through the Bioshphere before and ever have the opportunity to do the tour, I highly recommend it. It was quite a bit of walking and absolutely fascinating. It was one of those things we came away from just so glad that we did it. But don't just take my word for it - check it out for yourself if you can!

We certainly enjoyed the experience.

From there, we headed home so we could do his birthday cake - which the girls made for him with Grandma. I'm told it was amazing. He has requested it as his birthday cake every year from here on out: brownies, oreos, fudge sauce, chocolate mud slide ice cream, cool whip, crushed oreos. Yup. Basically all of his favorites all rolled into one.

As if that wasn't an awesome day already, we further took advantage of Grandma Breakall being in town and went out again that night, without any of our children. Wow. What a treat. We went to see the Batman V Superman movie (meh) and then picked up some Red Robin to take home! It was a full day of goodness.

Lynnden Turned TWO

At the end of June, Lynnden entered into those terrible and terrific twos. She is a ball of fire in every way, good and bad, and I have to admit that I love that about her. She's sweet. She's strong-willed. She's regal. She's a force to be reckoned with and I think that's exactly what this world and this family needs right now.

The circus is always in town around this little girl's birthday and once again Grandma Breakall was able to be in town for this little girl's birthday. As such, we were all lucky enough to benefit from Grandma's generosity and go to the circus.

The seats were fabulous. The sweets were fabulous. The show was fabulous. It truly is a great event for the whole family.

Lynnden's birthday also fell on a Sunday this year. But having learned a thing or two from Ammely's birthday we did all of our celebrating the day before. We woke Lynnden up bright and early with singing and gifts.

We got her all dressed and then let her do her "Daddy Birthday Balloon" - an ice cream Daddy-Daughter date is on the books!

After birthday pancakes, Grandma Breakall then continued the birthday spoils by taking the girls to see a movie which is always a fun time.

Then Saturday evening we invited our friends over to celebrate with us!

Grandma and Grandpa Lords showed up first with a hit of a gift: a slide! WOW. So much fun!

After patiently waiting, our friends showed up and we turned our backyard into a water play park. We converted the sandbox into a pool. Turned the sprinklers on. Had the water table handy. We even turned our new slide into a water slide for the occasion!

When the water lost it's appeal we all headed inside for the main event: singing and cake!

And Lynnden walked away from the event with even more awesome loot. And such thoughtful loot too! Like these custom, handmade bows (and bow holders!) from Aunt Amber (is there anything she can't do?). Lynnden obviously loved them - she insisted on wearing all of them...at the same time. Ha!

And these wonderful file folder games from Aunt Tamzon. Lynnden played with them all night long and they get great use every week at church. We love them!

It was such a sweet, full day. It fills my mother heart with such joy to give my children good days, special days. Especially for their birthday.

But whew. Oh boy! Those days are sure long. I'm grateful for every birthday and for all they stand for but sure am glad they only come around once a year for each of us. I might never get around to documenting them if they happened more often than that!