I'll start with my birthday. It was on a Sunday, which also happens to be the Sunday we decided to have Caden blessed, September 7th. It was so special to share my birthday with Caden and family who came from near and far to share the occasion with us. To celebrate my birthday I had two seperate birthday breakfast dates with my two best friends, my parents took me to dinner and shopping, and Darrin surprised me with a dinner date to "THE ROOF"! That was so special to be able to have such a fancy dinner date with my hubs. It was by far the fanciest dinner date we've had and we both agreed if you're going to spend a lot of money on dinner, that was the place to do it. The atmosphere was amazing and the view was obviously unbeatable. On the actual day of my birthday I was spoiled and felt so loved. I woke up to gifts on the couch from Darrin and the boys including a lamp that I've wanted all set up looking amazing in the living room. Darrin got me the lamp, sewing scissors, a remote for my SLR, a phone cover, some clothes (I picked out myself :)), the date to The Roof, and BEST of all, the sweetest coupons EVER which included: 3 massages, 3 do the dishes, 3 dirty diaper changes, 3 vacuuming, 3 put the kids to bed, a home cooked meal, and hanging a mirror and shelf I've been wanting hung. Are you kidding me?!? He's the BEST! I cried I loved it so much and you better believe I've been using those coupons and savoring each one :).
Caden's blessing was beautiful. It was so special and wonderful to have most of our family here for it. We missed those who weren't able to make it. Here's some pictures from his big day:
Darrin's birthday was fun. It was his BIG 30! So I knew I had to do something out of the ordinary. So I decided to do a surprise birthday party for him with his family since I knew that he would prefer it that way. I told him that I had a special birthday date planned and that my parents were going to babysit. So the day of (2 days before his birthday), we went to drop the kids off for my parents to babysit, when SURPRISE, his family was there to surprise him. I had gone earlier that day and set up dinner and decorations. He kind of ruined things since he decided to work from home that day and knew I was over at my parents "hanging out and helping my mom clean for a get together they were going to have the next day". If he hadn't worked from home it would have been perfect. Another little give away is that Parker had told him that he was going to get to wear a party hat at Grandma's when he was getting babysat...BUT it was still a surprise for the most part. He was just a bit suspicious that something was going on.
We had a dinner of some of his favorite foods and then we split into three teams and were off to the PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT that I put together. Here it is for any who are interested in using some of them for a scavenger hunt of their own:
1. Go to the nearest Harbor Freight and get as much free crap as you can for Darrin with the coupons provided (each person on the team can get one free thing (including kids :))) 5 points per item you get for Darrin
2. Make a chalk outline around one team member's body (like in a crime scene), then take a picture of just the outline, with at least 2 team members looking sadly down at it. 5 points
3. Video at least one team member doing 30 jumping jacks. 5 points
4. Go to a near by 7-11 and get a slurpee but not until you have tate tested every flavor and taken a video :) 10 points
5. Take a picture of 2 or more team members playing on a playground. Plus 2 bonus points if one team member is hanging upside down from something. 10 points. Plus 2 bonus if someone is upside down
6. At a thrift store pick out an outfit that you think Darrin would wear and model it. 5 points
7. Make a "Happy 30th Birthday Darrin!" sign and take a picture with all team members and the sign. 10 points
8. At a thrift store pick out an outfit that you think Darrin would NOT wear and model it 5 points
9. Ask someone (not on your team) to sing "Happy Birthday" and video it 15 points
10. A team-member break dancing in the middle of a store (any store) 10 points
11. Video of someone on the team singing (or saying the words) to a famous song from a famous movie 10 points
12. Find a Geocache and take a picture with it 15 points
13. Get a guy on the team to try on a dress at a thrift store 10 points
14. Go through a fast food drive through WALKING and order something from the dollar menu 10 points
15. Video offering to pump someone else's gas for them at the gas station 10 points. 5 bous points if you actually pump their gas
16. Buy $0.50 of gas and take a picture of the total-extra points for whichever teams gets closest to $0.50 10 points. 5 points. 5 bonus points to whichever team gets closest to $0.50
17. Vido Ding-dong ditching someone's house 10 points
18. Something Darrin would love to get for his birthday 5 points
19. Something Darrin would hate to get for his birthday 5 points
20. Find something the color of Darrin's eyes 5 points
21. Something Darrin already has 5 points
22. Something Darrin does not own 5 points
23. An item that starts with the letter "D" 5 points
24. The cheapest thing you can find (price must be in picture)-bonus point to the team with the cheapest item 5 points. 5 bonus points to the team with cheapest item
25. The most expensive item you can find (price must be in picture)-bonus point to the team wiht the most expensive item 5 points. 5 bonus points to the team with the most pricey item
26. Try on the tackiest outfit you can find-bonus points to the team with THE tackiest outfit 10 points. Bonus 5 points to the team with tackiest outfit
27. The heaviest item you can find 5 points
28. 3 different kids of m&m's 5 points
29.Video singing "Happy Birthday Dear Darrin..." with the whole team singing. 5 points
30.Video singing "Happy Birthday Dear Darrin..." in a different language 10 points
Total possible points: 267
At the set time for the hunt to be over, we met at our place to look at everyone's photos on our TV through Chromecast and have Darrin's favorite dessert. It was a ton of fun and our team won :)! He also got some shooting targets, 2 pairs of shoes, 3D glasses for our projector, a new BluRay player and some trip treats for his business trip that he left on the next day.
And as for our yard, I can't really remember if I've talked much about it on my blog yet. But when we moved in we knew that the lawn was terrible. We never wanted a big yard (half acre/12,000 square feet of lawn). But we fell in love with the house and decided we could deal with the yard and pay for someone else to maintain it if need be. This last year we tried our best to salvage the lawn that was here. We hired a company to fertilize, mow etc to do their best to bring our lawn to the best it could be. Long story short-it was still terrible! So, we decided this year would be the year to re-do our lawn. And while we were at it we decided to put in a basketball court to take out some of the lawn area and we knew we wanted one anyway. We hired someone to remove the old lawn and someone else to re-seed etc. Well, we started in April and the guy who we hired to remove the old lawn bailed on us (that's a long story short!) and we couldn't find someone anywhere near affordable to finish the job the first guy started. So, we decided we'd better start removing the lawn ourselves. The whole thing was a WAAAAYY bigger project than we imagined and it was SO MUCH FLIPPING WORK!!!! I was pregnant and hauling HEAVY loads of grass into the truck and trailer and off to the dump and unloading at the dump since Darrin was working during the dumps hours. We had to get it done and get it done fast before weeds were everywhere. We had SAINTS helping us along the way (THE BIGGEST HELP BEING MY MOM-THANK YOU MOM-YOU WERE AMAZING, INCREDIBE AND STRONG!), our next door neighbor helped a ton, the elders quarum came twice to help and both Darrin's and my family helped a ton. It took a TON of sweat, sore muscles and tears. Well, we finally got the lawn removed, and then it was time to do some sprinkler work which Darrin and I did most of ourselves. Again, a huge project. Then we hired a guy to come and till the whole yard to prep for seeding. Well, he didn't do his job right so then again, we were fixing his mistakes for many a hours. Then came the time for seeding. Finally, someone who did their job right. It was now time to wait. And wait, and WATER, WATER, WATER, and WAIT. We were really worried since it took WAY longer to come in then the guy told us and the old type of grass was growing back in despite killing it with grass killer and digging it up. BUT its FINALLY looking great and we're excited to see how much better it even looks next year as we'll be able to get all the weeds gone and it'll fill in some spots that are sparse. We also LOVE the basketball court/hoop. So, that's were our time and money went this summer. Here's some pictures:
BEFORE:
DURING/The removal process:
Beginning stages of growth:
Growing in with lots of weeds and old grass-thinking "we just waisted a ton of money, it's hopeless-even after all our HARD work!":
What it looks like now. Still not perfect but we're happy and know it'll grow in even better next year and we'll be able to get rid of all the weeds:
