Seaside and Santa

As a surprise for me Shane got us a weekend at Seaside, OR for Mother's Day. It was so nice! We stayed in a Condo style hotel called Rivertide Suites that had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and two bathrooms. It was nice to be away together. It was nice that we were in a comfortable place with just our family. We are so thankful for all the support that our families had given us the past couple years. We stayed with Shane's dad, then Matt and Patty, then at my parents home. It was fun but cold. We couldn't keep the boys out of the water. I was freezing and Levi just stayed in the front pack the entire time we were at the beach. We walked the beach, walked around town, and ate at such delicious places. Our favorite food was Pig 'N Pancakes. The kids loved it and the price was right. Shane and I tried shark tacos at Taco Shark for the first time. We had a fish taco trio, salmon, halibut, and shark was by far the best!

I loved seaside, but it will be funner the next time we go. If we go just the two of us, then we will plan a couple hikes, eat out at a couple places, visit all the shops and art displays, and just enjoy being together at a nice hotel. If we take the family, then we will cook most of our meals, but a couple kites for kite flying, go ride the carousel a few times, and definitely go to Pig 'N Pancakes again. It's hard to go to stores with the kids, and since we ate out a lot we had no money to buy kites or go on the carousel. One evening, Shane let me go out for an hour to walk around the shops by myself and that was a nice break. Thanks, my love, for that.

Oh, we tried a deep fried snickers. Ummm, not impressed. Neither of us would have it again. We did love the old school candies you could buy at the many popcorn and candy shops. I am a candy-a-holic, so I was in heaven.

One of my highlights for the trip was seeing Santa Clause on vacation too! Shane will tell you if I see people in the world that make me smile, I just have to take pictures of them! I know I have quite a few random people in my photo gallery just because they were as perfect as this guy!

Before and After... Levi's Birth

First I want to say thank you so much to Debbi and Patty for planning and throwing a wonderful baby shower. Thanks Dad for watching all the kids. Thank you Jammi for making delicious foods and thank you friends and family for all the wonderful gifts and celebrating with us. The theme of the baby shower was a little brown monkey with the colors bright green. baby blue, and brown. The party was fun and I am so grateful for all of the love and support from all of my friends and family from that point forward.

This is baby belly a couple days before birth.

This is Levi's debut as a Boyd boy. All the brothers love our new addition!

Easter 2010

My favorite part about Easter was that I was out of the hospital! I was still low functioning because I couldn't walk without a walker and ever with a walker I could only walk a short distance. I got an ergo carrier from my mother in law which has been amazing! I was helped outside and sat in a chair while I watched Shane and the boys fly a kite, coloring eggs, and an easter egg hunt. We had fun being visited by Jessica, Jessi, Debbi and Shelbi.

We spent a little time at Uncle Bill and Wendy's so see my Grandmother and lots of other relatives. It was fun but tiring too.

Seth's Birthday Date with Dad

Seth went out on his birthday date with dad this year. The soonest we could arrange it was yesterday. First they stopped off at Wind Up Here... (the toy store downtown) to get his free little gift for coloring their birthday postcard, then they headed over to red robin, then made the stop at Toys R' Us to spend his birthday money. He had so much fun with Shane and ended up buying a Ben 10 Combined Alien kit, a silver Lego star wars guy, a new bakugan, and a bionicle for himself. The cute thing was he bought Jacob a Diego toy and Elijah a Lego Star Wars set.

Happy 5th Birthday Seth!!!

Seth had a blast on his birthday! The day started out with his choice of breakfast. I offered to make him french toast, bacon and eggs, or pancakes, and he was so excited to pick whatever he wanted. His response, "ummm... I pick oatmeal... and... yogurt... and... cup of noodles!" Really Seth?!? We have oatmeal and yogurt every other day so I thought for sure he'd pick something different in the morning. Sure enough that's exactly what he ate. Elijah just couldn't believe he didn't pick any of the yummy sweet options that we have maybe once a month. The boys had a primary activity in the morning making hygiene kits for people in Haiti. Seth was just too excited that a primary activity was on his birthday. So, after breakfast we went and all three boys got hair cuts before going to the primary activity. The activity was a success. They passed their goal of making 100 kits and actually got 120 kits together with left over supplies for more to be made. After the activity we rushed home to get ready for guests to arrive. Shane picked up pizza and as people came we set them up at the table to do the art project. Seth had banks for everyone to paint. He had cars, piggy banks, and robots to choose from. The activity was fun, but I wish it was nice enough to have the party outside. I spent more time cleaning up paint off my table, chairs, and carpet then I did setting up the party in the morning.

Seth's cake choice was fun! Okay, so it was a huge challenge to frost, but I think it turned out okay. He picked a white dinosaur cake frosted with red butter cream frosting. He loved the way it turned out, even though I think it looks more like a red godzilla. The cake baked perfectly, but there were soo many crumbs after cutting and piecing the shapes together, that I had to use a lot of frosting and it took a lot of time. I had to clean all the crumbs off after frosting each inch around the edges. I used purple frosting to outline the form of the Dino. Then I cut sour candy strips for the grass and texture and good and plenty's for the claws, eye, and teeth. I also made homemade ice cream which is my favorite part about birthday parties these days. Seth made an announcement that he has to make a wish and took about four times to blow out the candles. He was so adorable!

He celebrated with his friends from church, Jason, Teancum, Xavier, Mary, Rosie, and lots more family. The party was a blast and it was so nice Shane was able to come. He drove straight after working in Portland that night with his new job. Needless to say he lost a ton of sleep over the weekend.

Here are the boys just finishing at the primary activity. Elijah was the most helpful big brother. He made sure everyone at the party was taken care of.