Allison's Birthday Party

As we thought about Allison's birthday, we didn't think that we would do a party because all of the friends that she really plays with have all moved away. Who was left? We decided we would just do a family thing.
However, somehow something happened and we decided to do a party for her anyways. I figured she would want a princess party but she decided that she really wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party.
We obliged...for some reason.


I got a Strawberry Shortcake cake pan and was actually really looking forward to doing this cake because I hadn't done one in over 2 years like this. Looking at everything I had to do, I wasn't excited about doing it, but continued on.  I ruined the first 3 batches of frosting, and then finally got two other batches that would work, and then I still had to color them and then decorate the cake. It was already 11:30pm and I didn't need to pull an all-nighter to get it done because I still had a day to do it. I just colored the frosting the colors I needed that night and then actually decorated it the next day. It was super fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I kept thinking, I need to have more kids so there will be more birthdays that I need to do cakes for to keep me in practice. (haha just kidding) But it is easier when I remember all the small details when I am doing it. Chris' birthday is coming up so maybe I will make a decorated cake for him or something.
Here is my fun cake I made for her party.

Allison has said at one point that because she had a family celebration and a party she is now five:) haha

She loved seeing the house decorated for her party.

I found out that my friend, Rebecca, makes pinatas. I was thinking of either trying to do myself or find a cheap one so she offered to make a strawberry for the party so we got to have this fun pinata. When Allison saw it she was so excited about it she grabbed it and ran off. It made Rebecca feel good that she liked it so much.

Birthday kids eating a strawberry shortcake dessert.
They didn't even know what strawberry shortcake was, but we made sure to remedy that:)

Chris was the brave pinata holder

Once all the kids got to go two times with blind folds and once without, we let Allison just go after it to finish it off.

I think she liked her cake and candles. Look at that cute smile.

Mmm, mmm, good

While we were waiting for people to arrive and then after we opened presents and just waited for parents to come, they got to watch Strawberry Shortcake, yes even Matthew likes to watch because it is electronic. He will watch anything if you let him.

She was so happy to have a party. It was very low-key and Chris loved that about it. I didn't have to do that much and Allison just absolutely loved having friends come over to celebrate her birthday.

Allison's First Texas A&M Volleyball Game

I love going to the Texas A&M Volleyball games. I didn't get to go to any last year so I wanted to make sure I got to go to some this year and put the games on my calendar in case we didn't have anything going on that day.  However, when I do go to the games it makes me wish that I was still in volleyball and had practices to go to and play the game so much more. Oh the good old days.
I have always taken Matthew with me to these volleyball games and I started taking him when he was 3 and he loved it. There was a game at noon and one at 7pm on the Friday before school started so I thought about taking Allison to the first one and then Matthew to the second one. Though I would have had to pay twice so then I thought about me taking both kids but it is kind of fun to just do the one-on-one thing. Then I thought, Chris likes Volleyball too, we could just all go. As we talked about it Chris said it would be fun for me to just take Allison to her first game and then he and Matthew would stay home and play a game of Warhammer. It worked out and they just finished their game when we got home.
Allison really liked going to the game with just me. She did enjoy it but during the second game she asked if we could go home after that game. It was so cute to hear her say yes as she clenched her fist and shook it in excitement when she saw that I was clapping and cheering. She loved listening to the band and dancing to the music.
I think the best part about it though was the popcorn she got.
We had fun with just the two of us. I still think Matthew liked it a little more but that is ok, I can train her in the right way:)
 

 

 

 

 

I taught Allison the sway that you have to do during the fight song.

I also had to teach her about WHOOP! So this is her doing the WHOOP for any Aggies out there.

Red Dress

I found this cute, kind of pulled to the side dress for cheap and because it was sleeveless I just had to wear a top with it. I thought the slit would be low enough but I wore it to church one day and the slit goes up a lot farther when I sit down. I got to enjoy it (make sure my scriptures were on my lap open all the time while I sat) for a day and then had to take it back, it just wasn't going to work but I at least got to where it to church once and got some pictures in it. I love wrap to the side dresses and shirts. 
 

Our 4 Year Old Sweetiepie

My baby girl turned 4. She is not a baby anymore that is for sure. She is so cute and yet pretty stubborn. However, lately I haven't really noticed the stubbornness as much so that is so nice.
She loves to see everybody happy. In fast and testimony meeting if someone gets up and cries she always tells me that she will go give them a hug to make them feel better when it is over.
This little girl gives so many kisses and hugs. I absolutely love it. So many times she will just come up with puckered lips and give me a kiss and hug and then leave. It just makes me feel so loved by her.
 She loves to be called sweetiepie or recently birthday girl and even princess birthday girl.
She wants me to do her hair many days which is so nice.

We asked her what she wanted for breakfast and a little birdie told her that she wanted donuts.
The rest of the day we would ask her what she would want to do and a little birdie helped her say different things, that HE wanted to do. Matthew had more ideas of what to do then she did, therefore HELPING her.

A phrase that we heard a lot that day was, "I'm the birthday girl so I can do whatever I want." Well, she did get to do a lot of things, some of which she doesn't normally get to do but I heard that phrase way too often that day, and I would remind her that she did not get to do whatever she wanted but she did get to do a lot of things because it was her birthday.

Back in June, I sang a duet at a GED graduation. Chris wasn't home so I had to take the kids with me. We sat in the very back with my co-worker and our Bishop was in the row in front of us.  His wife was one of the GED teachers so she was up on the stage. Allison didn't want Bishop to have to sit by himself so she went up and sat on his lap. She stayed with him the whole time. Ever since they have been great buddies. We also learned that night that Bishop and Allison have the same birthday so that bond grew even stronger. Ever since then, every time she sees him, she runs up and gives him a hug. Also whenever they saw each other they would excitedly talk about their birthdays that were coming up.
The day of their birthday, Bishop showed up in the morning to wish Allison a Happy Birthday and give her a present. She was so excited to see him and she loves her Tinker Bell, because BISHOP gave it to her. They are so cute with their special bond now.

We weren't having her party that day but I decided that I would make these fun rainbow cupcakes and then we took some over to Bishop's house.
These were cool to see come together and all the different designs they made. The paper around it was also cool looking when we took it off. I loved how bold they turned out. However, they made your mouth turn those colors. They were fun to make though.

 

 

 

Allison got sung to again and got to blow out her four candles.

 

 

 

I asked her a bunch of questions at breakfast and here they are with the answers:
What is your favorite color?  Pink
What is your favorite song?  Nephi's Courage and Old Park Bench
What is your favorite food?  Mac and Cheese with chopped up hot dogs
What is your favorite thing to do?  Read books
Who is your favorite person?  Matthew, Mommy, and Daddy
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Police Officer
What is your favorite book? Bernstein Bears Bedtime
What is your favorite cartoon?  SuperWhy
What is your favorite drink?  Water
Where is your favorite place to go?  Cookie Club at Walmart
What is your favorite cereal?  Corn Flakes

She prefers water over anything. Occasionally she will pick milk but it is usually water, which is super cool. She takes after her daddy.

Allison has a hard time with your R's. However, she does say some of her r's like when it is at the beginning of a word, but there are some words like river that she can say well. When she says car, it sounds like she is from Boston, ca. We try to get her to say carrabbit since that helps her get that r sound in it.

99% Complete

Today I got Matthew's second scrapbook 99% complete. In fact so complete that I put it on the bookshelf with the other completed albums. I decided last night that I wanted to get an 8x10 picture of Matthew when he is three and put it on the very back page. On the front page I have an 8x10 of him when he just turned 2 so I decided that would be a good way to complete that. So other then picking up the picture and placing it in the album it is COMPLETE!! Yay!!
On Tuesday when prints are $.06 I will order the next 532 pictures which is his years of 4, 5, and everything in 6 so far. I have his album and just need the pictures to continue on. There is still so much to do to catch up with everybody's albums but I am excited to keep going.

A TV Prayer?

I had posted this on facebook and decided it should be here so it can go in a scrapbook later.
You know those stories in The Friend about the little child suggesting they should pray in a situation? Well, our tv stopped working tonight while we were watching the Olympics, Matthew and I were quite bummed. Chris and I were frustrated and trying to figure out how to fix it and Matthew was so excited to suggest that we could just pray about it. I was really hopeful that it would work, not neces

sarily to get the tv back but to prove to him prayer works. We knelt down and prayed. Unfortunately the tv did not start working again. I was so sad for him to not see an answered prayer. We tried everything we could think of and it still didn't turn on. Matthew finally had to go to bed without his prayer being answered.
I decided I really wanted to watch the women's gymnastics so I went to the gym for numerous hours and watched there. On the way home, still thinking about the opportunity that could have been there about praying for all of us, but sad that it didn't work.
I got home, the tv was still out a little and I decided to just hit it hard, because what could it hurt it was broken anyways and when I turned the power on it actually came on. It is one thing if our tv dies but I hope that it still works in the morning to prove to Matthew that his prayer worked. It would stink if our tv died, which it might later, but the most important part of this is the answered prayer that Matthew said.
We will need to say another prayer of gratitude also. YAY, AN answer was much needed.

Posts are Better then Memory

As I am trying to think back when Matthew was 28 months old, I try to remember the funny things he said or did and why I took this or that picture. I can usually say where it was or when but little details about it I don't remember.  I am so grateful for my blog. Though probably not many read it anymore, because of facebook or other reasons, it is still so good to blog about all of my pictures and write the story behind the picture when I know all of the details.  I only have 10 pages left to journal in Matthew's scrapbook album. I am having a difficult time deciding if I should blog or journal, each one is so rewarding. I am ALMOST done with his second album and it is exciting to think I don't have many pages left to journal. It does take more time having to read the blog to see what happened or little funny stories I can add to his album, but it is worth it. I have a list of funny things Matthew has said on the side of the blog and those were so fun to add to his album. It just makes me realize how important my blog really is to my memory. The last couple days I have taken off to make and decorate a Strawberry Shortcake cake for Allison's birthday party. It was fun but now I have to get back to journaling so I can get it done and continue to the next album. I at least have my pictures uploaded to blogger so I will be able to write about them soon. Off to journaling.

Journaling

I have been trying to catch up on Matthew and Allison's scrapbook albums. Right before I had Allison I had Matthew's completely caught up. Then I started Allison's baby album many months later and I finished her baby album (birth to 2 years). After that I decided that I would catch Matthew's album up since there was more there that needed to be done. I thought that with his second album I would be able to have it be 2 yrs to 5 yrs but fortunately and unfortunately I got a new camera when he was three. I have so many more pictures then I would have before. Two weeks ago I had ordered 512 pictures for his 3rd year of life. I was able to get them in the mail and crop and put them all in his scrapbook album in two weeks. This album is full so I have to start a new album for him but now I have to go back and journal. The last time I journaled in it was 4 years ago before Allison was born. This is the main reason I keep blogging about different things, so that when I finally get around to journaling these pictures I know the small things that happened and have something to write in these albums.  I look forward to getting this journaling done in his album so I can order many more pictures and continue. I have lots to do but it is great to look back and see all of it done, and the kids like looking at their albums. Once I get Matthew's caught up then I will work on Allison's second album. She will be four tomorrow so that will probably be all one album. It is a never ending job/hobby.

Life Savers

Chris left on Father's day and was going to be gone for 5.5 weeks. I was up for it. My kids are older, I had lots of things planned and I had 3 of the 5.5 weeks  taken care of so it wasn't going to be that hard right?
Yeah, right.
 Like I had mentioned before I had my super close friend move away the end of May. The beginning of June I was feeling like the only person I had was my best friend and husband. I didn't want to be social but it was ok because I had Chris.
When Chris left, it was hard feeling like half of you leaves, but I had to be strong because this was only the beginning. Starting the next day we had Cub Scout Day Camp all day, every day that week. We left early and got home late and we all went straight to bed. The next week however I was starting to feel more and more and more alone. Feeling more and more depressed. I didn't go anywhere or talk to anybody but Chris on Skype occasionally.
It got to the point that every time I skyped with Chris I just cried and cried, which made Chris feel terrible.
It got to be very dark. Poor kids had a terrible mother.
Chris got to the point that he thought that he should probably just come home for all of our safety.
He prayed though and thankfully a small miracle happened and I was able to turn around and be less depressed.
I had five more days before I was able to get on the plane and go get some help. I made it through those days and showing up to Grandma and Grandpa Thomas' house was so welcoming to me and to the kids.
It was nice to have help.
The day before we left to MT, my mother-in-law could tell that I was struggling. I hadn't planned on breaking down but I did.
My in-laws gave me the choice to just come back with Heather and come back to their house and not be alone in TX. I was more then happy to just have Heather drop me off there on the way back.
We got to be at grandma and grandpa's house for almost another week and it was so wonderful. I am so thankful for wonderful in-laws and how much they care and love me as like their own child, maybe even more:)
We enjoyed spending more time with grandma and grandpa.
Grandma had this great idea to make Chris a welcome home sign so we did and even grandma and grandpa got in on the action. It was fun.
 

Here are the wonderful life-savers themselves. We got to go to church twice with them. This was the second time we got to go with them.

We were sad to actually have to leave them and come home but thankfully we only had to be home for less then 24 hours and then Chris was going to be home. I figured I would be able to handle being alone at least for that long.
Mom and Dad were my life savers.
Thank you SO much.

MT to AZ

We drove back from MT to AZ with Heather and her kids in her van. We decided to go through Yellowstone National Park.
We were able to see a pretty close buffalo as seen in this picture. Obviously this buffalo did not care about all the people that were right there staring at it.


We saw a waterfall

We sort of saw this Elk

Then we got to Old Faithful. When we got there it was raining. When it was suppose to go off, we didn't exactly know where it was.
We decided to wait around for another hour and a half until the next time and by then it was nice outside.

Old Faithful

 

 

Grand Tetons

Hear of Buffalo

We took a wrong turn and added 3 hours to our trip but we eventually got to my double cousin, Misty's house. It was so fun to see her.
The next day we went to her parents house to visit them
Here is Aunt Carol and Uncle Glen with our group.

 

 In case you don't know what a double cousin is, it is a cousin on both sides. If you have one, you will know that it is so cool.
Think of it as your sister has no relationship with your husband's brother so if they were to get married the kids would be cousins on both sides, double cousins.
This is my mom's brother, Glen and my dad's sister, Carol.
It was so funny to see both my mom and dad in their siblings and the little things that they do.
I am glad that we got to see some family on the way back to AZ.

Heather and I got to talk a lot and the kids got to spend more time with their cousins so that is what we were going for.
Heather dropped me off to my mother-in-law so that we could go back to grandma and grandpa thomas' house.

Reunion Day 2

Our reunion was Thursday and Friday and then Saturday morning was breaking down camp and people leaving.
Thursday night was the beginning of trying to put up a tent. My dad said that it was going to take 3 hours to set up this tent. None of us believed him and thought with all of us McNiven kids it would not take that long. Well, my dad had never put it up before so none of us really knew what we were doing, nor did we realize just how big it was.
Mike started pounding these stakes in the ground Thursday night and then we had to leave it overnight.


There were definitely the biggest stakes I have ever seen.


Finally Friday morning this tent started going up. It looked like a circus tent it was so big, and this was just 2/3 of it. We could have made it bigger. There is one tall, tall pole that you have to put in the middle. It is pretty difficult to get up but we have lots of strong guys. It was kind of entertaining to watch them put it up. I was the photographer. haha.

 

 This was the final result. It actually doesn't look very big in this picture, but it is.

 While the guys were putting up the enormous tent Katrina and Jessica were making breakfast.
I am just going to brag a little here, and it has nothing to do with me or my own children.
This little niece of mine, Jessica, is the most helpful young person I think I have ever met. She was always helping with everything. Always asking if there was anything that she could help with, and she actually is helpful not just get-in-your-way "help". She did exactly what you asked her to do, and WHEN you asked her to do it. She was so nice to Allison and played with her all the time. Allison calls her "my friend". Allison has a hard time with names so when she refers to "her friend" we know that she is talking about Jessica. 

 

After breakfast, grandpa had three horses that the grandkids could ride. Every grandchild got their turn riding a horse and they all loved it. Unfortunately there had to be people that walked around with them so Mike and Chad switched half-way through and then the two oldest grandsons got to lead all of their cousins around before it was their turn to ride the horses by themselves.
Here is Allison with Paul leading her.

 

 

 

 

 

After horseback rides we went down to the Huntley, Barkemier park. It was so fun because there was grass all over, for one, but there were also swings and other things for all different ages.
Here is the merry-go-round

I was on the tete-totter (or seesaw as some may know it) with Allison and I convinced my mom to come sit with Allison. Maybe it was that we were too big for it or something but that was the most uncomfortable tete-totter I have ever been on. Now, I don't think I have been on a tete-totter since I was little and that could be why but when I was little it was a bigger wooden one that you sat on not a skinnier metal one.  I don't know how much of that is because I had a smaller bum back then so it was easier to sit on compared to now but all I know is that my mom and I were hurting being on that thing. It was fun to get her on there though.

Cute Allison going up the slide with her fabulous smile.

I wasn't able to post Spence and Joni's family picture because they have a good camera so I just took their family pictures with their camera, therefore not having that picture to put up with the other family pictures but I just part of their family here.

The afternoon before this, Ashlyn wasn't breathing well so they took her in and she ended up having to stay in the hospital overnight. When they were finally able to get out of the hospital they came to the park to join us.
Since I don't have a family picture, here are Spence and Joni's other two children.

Madi

 

Cole
Cole was SO excited to ride horses. He kept wanting to go down to the horses but had to got back. When I told him it was his turn to ride horses I wish I could have had his reaction on video. It was absolutely adorable.

We had box car races and the kids had so much fun with it.

We also had an obstacle course and the funny thing is that I think my mom designed it for the grandchildren, but my siblings are just a little competitive and we all went also. The funny thing is is that none of the in-laws raced just the four boys and I.
And people wonder why I am so competitive and aggressive when playing sports...um, I don't know, maybe being after four boys had something to do with it.


Matthew pushing Allison and other cousins on the merry-go-round.

My mom had Spence and I bury little trinkets and prizes in the sand and then the grandkids got to come over and find them.

Sometime while we were at the park I lost my camera lens cap. I was so grumpy about it. I didn't want to ruin my lens and I had looked everywhere for that cap. It was a black cap and I could not find it anywhere. I was sure that I would see a black thing in the green grass but I just wasn't spotting it. Finally I decided that I was putting my camera away until the cap was found. I put it in the car and said a prayer.
I was not in a good mood losing that cap. It was no where to be found.
We finally decided that with all the kids and adults we should put out an award for the person that found it. I had my other cap from my other lens so I was able to show the kids what they were looking for. We put a $1 up as an award and boy did that help them look. They looked all over the park. It was suggested to me twice to look in our black bag that we put our garbage in. I wanted to make sure we looked absolutely everywhere else before I started looking in there. We had just finished lunch so there was a lot of garbage but I didn't have any other options. My mom and I dumped out the bag and started going through each individual piece of garbage putting it back in the bag looking for my lens. Thankfully it was our own garbage and it was recent. As everyone else was out looking, sure enough my mom found it in the garbage we were going through.
I was so happy and relieved to find it and the grandkids were all bummed that grandma found it and none of them got the $1. I then went and put it away in the camera case and said a prayer of thanks.


There was a basketball game that happened and a dodgeball game and we also played volleyball.
There was a storm that came and it started raining and lightening and we finally had to go back to our camp. I wish we could have played volleyball longer. It is super fun to play with my family.

 Saturday morning we had to clean out and take the trailers back and everything was taken down including the big tent that was up for less then 24 hours.

Homesteader day parade was that morning so I drove Heather's van and took some nieces and nephews with me to the parade. It was fun to have a van full of nieces and nephews.
However, the best part I think about the WHOLE thing was when we came home from the parade, I had some of the oldest nieces and nephews with me. Instead of letting them watch a movie I put on ABBA. It was so fun to have everybody singing and jamming out in the van. I LOVED IT!!!
We got back to grandma's house and we didn't get out, we all just kept singing and jamming. The oldest grandchild, Paul, is 15 and it was like I had a little brother. It was really fun. I think it is fun chilling with my nieces and nephews, especially the older ones because we can just have fun. I am now considered the fun aunt, which is definitely true:) I had SO much fun jamming out, windows down, and just singing our little hearts out. SO MUCH FUN!!