Birthday Cupcakes

Lorien couldn't wait for me to bring cupcakes to her class on her special day.  They don't allow home made goodies at her school either, but it's still fun finding cute cupcakes at the store.  She got SO excited when we walked into the room. . . so did all her friends.

I LOVED these cupcakes.  They were SO bright
& colorful, just like Lorien.

  

Mrs. O, Lorien's teacher insisted on letting my other 3 little ones eat cupcakes with the class as well.  I knew for a fact it would get messy if I did that, but I would be a totally mean mom if I didn't let them have one while all the other kids in the class got one.  Sure enough, Craiger made the biggest mess he possibly could.  At least he's cute right?

It was fun meeting all of Lorien's friends in her class.  She felt like a super star.  It was fun for everyone.

Lorien's Birthday Breakfast

Hooray for Birthdays.

Lorien's birthday is our 2nd birthday in February (but 3rd birthday in a month time period if you count Trek's in late January).  She was SO excited about turning 8 years old.

For her birthday breakfast, I found a yellow tablecloth left over from making her Valentine box so I put it on the table to decorate since yellow is Lo's very favorite color.  It added some fun to the morning.  For her birthday breakfast she wanted:

bacon, sausage, toaster strudels, & ding dongs.  

Lorien has this crazy love for toaster strudels.  I can't stand the things.  I don't know if it's the texture or what, but they literally make me gag, but boy oh boy does Lorien LOVE them.  So since it was her special day, she got to eat as many toaster strudels as she wanted.

She was in HEAVEN.

5:45 comes fast when you're a sleepy 8 year old.  I can't believe what good sports I have for kids.  Even though they're still tired, they pop out of bed right when we ask them to with smiles on their little faces. Lorien was EXCITED to wake up this morning.

Yummy Toaster Strudel

I still can't believe my little Lorien is 8 years old now.  She's growing up too fast.

Happy Birthday my Baby Doll.  I love you.

Lorien's Baptism Dress Photos

Last weekend we took Lorien to the lake by our house to take pictures of her in her beautiful white baptism dress.  Mimi & Baba bought the dress for her when we were living with them in UT this winter.  Lorien is getting baptized on Saturday, March 23rd.  We are SO proud of her & her decision to be baptized.

She looked GORGEOUS in her dress; almost like a miniature bride.  Lorien is such a beautiful little girl to begin with. . . this dress just made her amazingly gorgeous.  She is my little sunshine.

I love you Lo.

Ummm, Mom?

So Trek & I decided to FINALLY show our kids Star Wars.  Bladen is into everything Star Wars right now, even though he's never seen it.  All he knows is that "Dark Mater" looks pretty cool & the light "savers" light up & make cool sounds at the store.  We thought watching the actual movie would help further his love for the franchise.

Anyway, we were watching Episode IV: A New Hope in the dark, snuggling together as a family when Taya reached over to Trek & said:

"Here Daddy!" 

and proceeded to hand him something wet & sticky.

Trek jumped back disgusted & asked her what in the world she handed him.  I love her response:

"It's my tooth!"

It was so simply answered. . . not a big deal at all, just matter of fact.

Yup, another tooth managed to get loose & just FALL OUT on it's own for Taya.  This kid has been a breeze with teeth.  No blood, no screaming, no tears. . . just simple little "Oh look!  Cool!"

She put her tooth in a cup by the window & sure enough the tooth fairy made a visit that night & left Taya a $1 bill.  She was SO excited.  Let's hope the rest of her teeth wind up being this easy.

Littlest Potter Boy

I FINALLY got to see my new little guy for real yesterday.  It was the best Valentine's Day gift I could get.  I've had 2 other 3-5 minute ultrasounds so far, but nobody will "LOOK" to verify that this indeed is a little boy.  Since I'm "high risk" pregnancy, they referred me to the Naval Base hospital because they specialize in this sort of thing & I got to get a 45 minute echo of my baby's heart.  The techs were wonderful people & let me just look at my little one & showed me straight out that I indeed was correct in my boy prediction.  He is ALL BOY.

But my favorite part of the whole appointment was this picture here.  He was very tired & kept yawning at us.  Look at this kid's jaw!  His mouth is WIDE open & you can even see his little tongue in there.  He has the Potter nose, like all my other kids & amazingly enough looks VERY similar to Craiger.  Yup, another mini-Trek.  Six kids & I'll never get one that looks like me.  Oh well, at least they're cute like their daddy.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are for him to come to our little family.  I love him already & can't wait to hold him in my arms.  May can't come soon enough.

(For those who are not used to looking at ultrasound pictures & can't make out what is what. . . this is a picture of our little guy's head [right side of his face].  The round portion on the left side is his forehead.  If you look carefully you can make out his button nose & upper lip.  Then you can see a large V shape that is black. . . that is him yawning [the open space in his mouth] & his tongue is a little blob in there.  Then you have his lower lip & chin.  Good luck!)

Valentine's Day

February is a BUSY month at the Potter house.  First we have Trek's birthday, then Cadence's one week later.  A week after that is Valentines & then a week after Valentine's is Lorien's birthday shortly followed by Craiger's birthday one week after hers.  It's a miracle I'm still alive when March hits.

Even though Valentine's Day is sandwiched in the middle of all the birthday celebrations, I still love it.  Pink & Red are two of my favorite colors & I just love anything heart related.  I have a blast with my kiddos on Valentines Day.

This year, for the first time in the 5 years I've had school aged kids, I got to make a Valentine box with Lorien.  She wanted a Minion from the movie "Despicable Me" which I thought would be SO MUCH FUN to make.  We spent one afternoon just playing around with it & it turned out adorable.  Lorien was SO happy with it.  I thought it was great fun & I enjoyed that one on one time with her.

Valentine's morning started out with our usual scripture study at 5:45am - 6:00am.  Then the kids went to the breakfast table to find it decked out in pink & red.  I know it's not the "healthiest" breakfast, but it was fun.  We had pink pop tarts, strawberry frosted mini wheats, & strawberry Sunny Delight.

After breakfast I packed a fun filled Valentine's lunch for the girls (& for poor Trek who has to endure my holiday madness)  They got a heart shaped strawberry jelly sandwich, a red kool aid, a red apple, tomatoes, & a pink marshmallow heart.

My friend Nancy always sends the kids Valentine outfits.  This year they were purple, grey, & white.  Don't you just love the silver astronaut boots?  SO FUN.

 

 

 

Craiger can only handle so many pictures before
he has a meltdown.  What a good sport.

After the girls went to school, I did my own little preschool with the kiddos where we learned about hearts & made cute valentine bag people.

They also got a Valentine themed lunch.

For dinner I set the table with Valentine decorations & put my little valentine gift for each child.  (Bladen's was my favorite.  He's really into Darth Vader right now & I found this ADORABLE Darth Vader stuffed toy for a DOLLAR at Target.)  I also included a Valentine card from the kids' Opa & Oma (Trek's parents) & a sweet little Valentine from our Branch President here in VA.  We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints & our little meeting group here has been wonderful.  The Branch President (like a Bishop) loves the kids of this area & sent them all sweet little Valentine's.  I just love him & his wife.  They are the sweetest people.

For dinner I made Strawberry Kool-Aid, BIG HEART PIZZAS, & strawberries & raspberries shaped like hearts.

Opa & Oma sent $10 to each of the kids in their Valentine's.  The kids were SO EXCITED to have MONEY.  We're going to take them shopping this weekend.

Craiger was more interested in his Kool-Aid
than his $10.  ha ha ha.

And then every year since Trek & I got married, I've made him a special recipe of mine:

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes.

It's a devil of a recipe & is hard to make, but I do it for him every Valentine's to show him how much I love him.  They are his favorite & I love to make him happy.  I always make them in heart shaped cupcake pans & they are DELICIOUS.

They are chocolatey & yummy looking on the outside, but boy, when you cut into them & the fudge comes running out the center, mmmmm.  There's nothing like them.

Dani's Molten Chocolate Lava Cake:

4 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, melted

(Ghirardelli is my favorite. . . be careful not to burn or scorch your chocolate.  Double boilers work best)

Preheat oven to 400.  Generously butter 4-6 muffin cups (no liners. . . the actual pan).  Dust with sugar & tap out excess.  Set aside.  In a bowl cream butter & sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs ONE AT A TIME, beating well after EACH addition.  With mixer on low speed, beat in flour & salt until just barely combined.  Beat in chocolate (DO NOT OVER MIX.)  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  Bake 10 minutes.  It will look a little undercooked, but it's supposed to.  When you cut them open, the chocolate gooey goodness comes out.

After we put the kids to bed, Trek & I exchanged gifts ourselves.  We are simple when it comes to Valentine's Day.  We always buy each other cards to remember that first Valentine card Trek gave me 12 years ago.  We love our little cards for each other.  I bought him some See's Toffettes & he bought me some Ghirardelli Chocolate.  He also surprised me with a iPhone adapter so my phone will fit on my stereo properly.  Stinker. . . we were only supposed to do a small treat.

I love my sweetheart.  Happy Valentine's Day to all our family & friends around the world.