BALLOON PARTY

Last night was Ava's much anticipated (by Stella especially) third birthday extravaganza. Ashley did such a cute job and we had tons of fun, as you will be able to see.

BALLOON SURPRISE

Yesterday Brent took Stella on a little "surprise" shopping trip to the store. When they got home Stella ran to me and yelled: "Mom, I got you a balloon, you wanna see it!?" She of course couldn't stop talking about the balloon and struggled with the concept of a surprise. Then in her prayers that night she said she was thankful for getting Mommy a balloon. Right before he went to bed last night Brent told me: "Just wait, Stella might have a few surprises up her sleeve." I laughed so hard because I know I will never forget how she was too excited to wait to tell me all about the balloon.

Naturally I was super "surprised" when a card and balloon were delivered to my bedroom this morning. Stella showed me the card and then ripped open the envelope and raced to show me the giant pop-up Snoopy inside.

At church Stella also decided she wanted to go up with the other primary kids and sing. She didn't know the words, but she sure looked cute peeking over the wall and waving at her mommy. Man I love her, and I sure am lucky that I got to be her mom.

FOCUS AND CLICK

I spent a few short hours in Idaho Falls this week. I flew up to take pictures at the Mayor's Scholarship Award dinner for this year. Heidi is in charge of the whole thing, and I am always super impressed with the way she makes everything happen. I have a very smart, sassy, and capable best friend. I also love this program as well so I am lucky to be able to be the official photographer.

It is kind of a stressful event to take pictures at. I had to get pictures of all of the kiddos getting their awards and at one point I am almost positive that I flashed the audience when my skirt flipped up. I then discovered in horror that my flash batteries had died before I had taken the last few pics of the first group of recipients. During the second group, when they would stop and pose for a picture you could hear a pin drop in that room. It was super quiet as I would stand up (check to make sure skirt is down), focus, click, pause (super quiet still), focus, click, sit down. I was so relieved when it was all over and I had captured all the kids for sure.

That night Heidi and I stayed up too late talking. I was also thrilled when she surprised me by buying me the Hunger Games trilogy. I squealed with delight. Like I said, I have an awesome best friend.

For more pictures taken at the dinner, click HERE.

COCONUT DRESS

This year's Easter dress is brought to you by an impulse shopper who bought this dress for a daughter several years before she was even conceived in a size that the hoped-for baby wouldn't be able to wear for almost three years after her birth. Was it worth the wait?

This morning when Stella was looking at her "pretty dress," she asked me: "Mom, are these hearts?" "No, those are polka dots." "Coconuts?" "No (giggle), polka dots." "Oh, coconuts!" Then when we were at church: "Do you see my coconuts on my pretty dress?" and "Do you like my coconuts?"

Aw, Stella...this kid should sell tickets.

FIRST ANNUAL EGG HUNT

It is no secret: I LOVE Easter. Always have, always will. So when we put in our fence last year I was already plotting our future Easter egg hunts. Stella spent the week helping Mommy get ready for the hunt. She helped pick out candy and eggs. She then helped me fill the eggs (while occasionally testing the candy to make sure it was good enough for the hunt). Then on the morning of the hunt she helped hide all of the 240 eggs we had filled.

She would ask: "Mommy, are kids coming to my house for eggs? Oh, I so excited!"

Our yard is kind of boring, without a lot of hiding places for plastic eggs. However, the morning we put out the eggs, Brent got very creative and started hiding them high up in our blossoming tree. I, on the other hand, spent most of the time strategically placing eggs in the grass for the smaller kids.

After we had all of the eggs out, I took Stella outside for a mock hunt so I could take some pictures.

I was surprised how many of my friends were able to make it to our little party. We had 12 of the most well behaved and fun kids you could ever imagine, and I give a lot of credit for this to my friends for being such awesome parents. The older kids were super nice to the little ones, and that made it lots of fun for everyone.

If I had to choose a winner of the hunt it would probably be my Ava. At the beginning, most of my focus was of course on Stella. But then I starting watching Ava, and I was seriously impressed by the speed with which she gathered all of the eggs. It was like she didn't even stop to pick them up, but just grabbed them as she dashed by without a moment's pause. It was pretty awesome. Pretty soon I had to tell her she had enough eggs because her basket was overflowing. She didn't agree though. It was hilarious.

Everything happened so fast that I couldn't get that many great pictures of all the action. You will just have to trust me that it was fun.

CUTE CLOMPS

This morning, I was planning on debuting my new navy blue Gucci heels at church. I brought them downstairs and set them down on the floor, then started to gather up all of our Sunday stuff. Then I hear Stella: "Mom," (clomp, clomp, clomp) "Look at my shoes!"

This is not the first time Miss Stella has put on her mommy's shoes. But I don't know, something about the shoes and the dress all combined with the clomping made me laugh, and I had to take a minute before we left for her to pose it up.

STELLA'S FIRST FORT

This highly exclusive fort was built by Stella Sallay. It was her first try at fort building, but her mom thinks that she is a natural. We are told that those invited to share the fort are very close friends of the architect, and that they are found most often sharing sleeping quarters with her. Stella's mom hopes that her intelligent daughter will be discovering more ways to enjoy forts in her future. She only hopes that her next work of art won't be built on the family's disgustingly dirty couch.

SWOON

I don't remember the last time I felt really wooed by my husband. But these delivered tulips and their accompanied note made me giddy. Not a bad choice I made April 8, 2004.