Family Star of the Day!!

This morning, I awoke to the alarm, turned it off and promptly fell back asleep.  Every Sunday, I am the first person up, I get the rest of the family up and we all get ready for church.  Well, we have the 9 AM slot this year and since I tend to stay up late on Saturdays, I have a hard time getting up Sunday mornings - which explains why I didn't stay awake after my alarm went off.

That brings me to 9:30.... I get a knock on my bedroom door.  I can always tell which kid it is by their knock.  It was family star of the day!!

Which was.............Lily.  She asked me why we weren't going to church.... and she was already all dressed and had been waiting on the couch since 8:40.  She must have been watching TV and got distracted (she is *my* daughter, after all) before she realized I wasn't up.

The cute little thing was sad we were going to miss church because it was Fast Sunday and she was looking forward to bearing her testimony (she is our only kid who LOVES to bear her testimony).  I told her that I was going to also and now we wouldn't get that chance.  So I had her climb into bed with Bill and I while I decided to snuggle her and I bore her my testimony.

So even though we missed church today, it ended up being a great day.  Yes, it was fast Sunday, but I made the family a huge breakfast.  We all sat around the TV, ate breakfast, and watched the TV show "Bones."  We never let the kids play video games on Sundays but we decided to forgo that rule just for today but on one condition: they had to play a game together.  They had a lot of fun.

Later we played "Don't Eat Pete" and then watched some more TV.  It was a very lazy day but very needed.  And before bedtime, we sat the kids down and had a great discussion about how we can be a stronger family.  I told the kids that Lily was the family star of the day.  She smiled.  She has been going through so much stuff lately and needed that recognition. :)

Justin's Birthday

My mom made a three tier cake with three sides for the birthdays that were close together: Justin, Lily, and Liam. This is Justin's side of the cake. My mom did an AWESOME job!!


Here are the boys playing video games
Justin got two games for his birthday: Pinball for the Wii and Kung Fu Panda for the Xbox.

Justin was insanely excited to get this remote control flying dragonfly.


Justin with the remote

Justin being silly as he blew the candles out.


Since Justin's birthday fell on the weekend that Lily got baptized, he got to have his friends over on a different weekend and got another birthday cake! Technically, 4 mini ice cream cakes that I made.


I loved the fun candles. He was trying to blow each one out separately.


Justin opening another remote controlled toy... this one is an ATV one. He LOVES this one too.


Justin waiting for Bill to open the ATV car. He had 4 friends come over to stay the night -in the picture are just two of them. They stayed up late playing video games and eating junk food - which is exactly what he wanted to do. :-) I can't believe he is now 11! He is growing up so fast and almost as tall as me! He is a special kid and has a heart of gold.
I love you Justin!!!!