My Andrew is Eleven!

Way back in the middle of April we celebrated Andrew's eleventh birthday. I think I have been putting this post off because I always get emotional thinking about my kids and how much they are growing and changing.

Andrew has matured a lot this past year. There were many occasions where I sighed a big heavy sigh of relief and thought to myself, "He's going to be okay. We've got this." He was quick to volunteer to help a family move just because he wanted to serve. He worked super hard the entire time too. He is embracing scouts and he listens and participates in Family Home Evening. He is very quick to feel the Spirit and it always softens him right up. He has a love of music that can't be matched. He is always playing something on the piano, ukulele or guitar. Sometimes he is even tapping something out on my furniture. I can't wait until he starts percussion in junior high. He'll be awesome!

Just when I think things are going great and he's growing up into a responsible young man something happens and I wonder if we've made any progress with him at all. The last few weeks have not been easy. He's was sick for a while and then he hurt his foot. Good heavens, he can be all drama. More often then not he is a wonderful boy. I am happy to have him, but he still has his Andrew moments. BUT we're working on it! He still can't handle pain, he's super sensitive, very emotional and he still needs to eat very often or he turns into Satan. He still likes to tease Emma and sometimes he is just downright mean. BUT we're working on it!!! (See a theme here?)

He is certainly a challenge but I think we need that to keep us on the straight and narrow. He's a blessing and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

We took him to eat at Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner. When they put him on the saddle he declared, "I'm too old for this!" LOL! He was a good sport. 

Back home we had cake and opened presents. He wanted a red velvet cake from Costco. I was so relieved to find out they sold them all year. If they didn't I was going to have to make something.  

All he wanted from Grandma Renee was a sock elephant. I know this was a challenge for her but it turned out well and he loved it.

Andrew loves rainbow Mentos. The only place we can find them is Old Navy. It's really bizarre. Paul went onto Amazon and got him a whole box. He was trilled. They lasted a few weeks. 

He also got action figures.

Headphones

Lego set that we had been holding onto since before Christmas

and a Marvel book that he had been wanting for a very long time. He was happy happy happy.

This year he picked an Angry Birds balloon even though it didn't say happy birthday. They were still cute!

Mother's Day

We went out to lunch today in honor of Mother's Day. We ate at Tucano's. It was delicious and we totally ate way too much! We were walking around after and I happened to see my friend Liisa who snapped our picture for us. I am so thankful that she did. I love it. I love them. I am so thankful for my little family.

April Collage

We've been busy busy busy but I don't have a lot to show for it. A lot of it's church stuff. I need to start taking a lot more pictures though or there isn't going to be a May collage. Mental note, get on that!

Instagram Dump

Man I didn't realize how many pictures I had sitting on my phone. I was doing the photo a day thing, that's what a lot of these were suppose to be, but I haven't been good about blogging them on a separate blog so for now I'm putting them all here. I figure it's better to get my memories down somewhere rather than no where. 

Marius has claimed Emma's bed. At first she was fine with it. Now not so much. He still thinks its his and that is causing problems. Only time will tell what spot he claims next.

Have I mentioned lately that I hate having a pet? Or that I will never have another once he is gone? 

They are a lot of work. They are hairy and they cost us money we would rather spend on other things. 

Marius got a boo boo so he got to visit the vet. He was great the whole time healed right up but I couldn't help but think when I paid the bill that I could have gotten several new tops, a couple of pairs of shoes or gone out to a very very nice meal with that money instead. 

Yes he has his own place on the couch, with his own blanket that sometimes falls over his head. He doesn't seem to mind.

Andrew loves Marius. He carries him all around and is always trying to hold him. Sometimes Marius tries to get away and other times he just goes with the flow.

This is Marius going with the flow.

After some really nice warm weather we had rain and snow. It was fine because it didn't last long.

Before Andrew's birthday (which I haven't blogged yet) we asked him to clean his room so it would be ready for his new things. He did it! He did it well and he didn't complain or procrastinate. He came home from school (Emma was at track practice) and I told him I was going to the store and asked if I could bring him and get him a treat. Mentos or Strawberry milk. Of course he swindled both out of me. 

Look at that face. He's a bit of a con artist, and I know it, but I still can't resist him.

After Emma's second track meet we asked my mom to watch the kids so we could have a date night. We went to PF Chang's and got the dinner for two. Yum!

We LOVE their lettuce wraps.

We got Mongolian Beef and Honey Chicken for dinner. Delicious.

 It also came with two itty bitty desserts but they weren't enough. Our friends just happened to be at the same restaurant at the same time so we went and got gelato together after. Fun fun!

What can I say? It's legal gambling for children. 

We made angel hair pasta with marina sauce loaded with chicken, zucchini, yellow squash and marinaded artichoke hearts. We ate it with a ciabatta bread from Kneaders that was doused with browned garlic butter and parmesan cheese before warming. Holy carbs batman. It was so good though!

Guess what I happened upon...yep, the world's largest pineapple display. They were cheap too! 

Good grief I love balloons.

Everything was so happy and tropical! 

If you got a pineapple (for .48 a pound) you got a free reusable bag. I ended up buying two and they were both fantastic! 

We went back to Chubby's after one of Emma's track meets. Like I said I would, I went for the gusto and got the Chubby Cheesesteak. Holy crap it was good. I want another right now! 

Yep that's snow. That means it's spring in Utah. Luckily at this time of year it never sticks around.

 Emma has been wanting "sparkly butt jeans" for forever. My mom got her some along with these black jeans with the heavy stitching. She was so excited. 

Man I am hungry right now! Looking at all this sinful food is killing me. These are pictures from Andrew's birthday lunch at Rubio's. I just got my free birthday email so hopefully I will be chowing down on some of this delicious food again soon!

More pictures from Andrew's special day. These are the Paradise cookies that we got after eating at Rubio's. I kept myself busy while the boys stopped in at the bank by taking these pictures of cookies.

These are awful sour candies. They are so sour they made Andrew foam at the mouth. Guess what he wanted to take for his class treat...yep, Zots. I'm sure the teacher appreciate a class full of foamy mouth kids. 

I saw these lovelies at Target. I thought they were so ugly they were cute! 

After Andrew's birthday on Wed. the 11th my parents took the kids home with them for a few days. Paul and I were going to get a hotel and stay in Salt Lake (calling it our anniversary weekend) but the rates were outrageous so we had a staycation. Thursday night we went to the temple. 

Friday night we went to Blue Iguana for dinner, window shopped at the new City Creek mall and went to Temple Square to see all the tulips.

It was gorgeous. Saturday morning we went to Park City before picking up the kids. It was a lovely weekend.

Some of these dresses are older than my children. I have finally decided to let them go since Emma says I should never be caught dead in them anyway. Bye bye old friends...

I think I have a bit of a skirt problem. I have close to 50 skirts. Getting those giant Eddie Bauer dresses out of the closet made more room for the year round/summer skirts! The other good news is they all fit. 

This was Emma's favorite Easter egg. She spared it from the egg toss down the road and declared it off limits to eating until it was the very last boiled egg. She told me that if I did eat it she had to be there. Well, she was at grandma's so I took lots of pictures before her sparkly Easter egg became part of my high protein breakfast!

I crack myself up! 

Andrew doesn't know I took these pictures. He might kill me if he saw this...crap I almost just got caught, anyway this was Andrew after his first scout camp overnighter. My guess, he didn't get much sleep at the campout ; ) 

He was in and out of consciousness all afternoon. He'd open his eyes, play his Ipod for a minute and then drift away again. Sweet baby boy hasn't napped since he was a tiny little thing. Seeing this pretty much made my day.