Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Easter and Cameron's 30th Birthday!!!!

Okay, I know you're probably all completely shocked to see a new post on here from me.  I sincerly apologize for being such a slacker!!!  For it being my off-season, I'm surprised at how busy I've been (it's taken me four days just to write this blog).  So, instead of me trying to play catch-up (because I'm sure you don't want to look at Christmas pictures in April), I'll just start with the present and maybe throw in some past photos here and there.

We had two really fun days in a row.  Saturday April 11th was Cameron's 30th birthday.  He said he wanted to go to a greek restaurant in town for dinner with some close friends.  So, he assumed that I had called some friends and made reservations at this restaurant for his birthday dinner.  Little did he know that for the past two weeks, me and our good friend Steve were planning a big SURPRISE party for him.

On the morning of Cameron's birthday,  I tried hard to not make a fuss over my incredibly messy house (I wouldn't want to give anything away by running around and cleaning madly).  So, I tried to act completely normal.  I hard-boiled some eggs.  Pulled out the dye kit because after all, it was the day before Easter.  And we began to dye eggs.  While looking over this cheap kit I bought at Target (or maybe WalMart), I was amazed at how time's have changed...


...like, whatever happened to just three or four color tablets???  Look at ALL THOSE MUGS!!!  As I was counting all the color tablets, I was praying I had enough mugs.  I even (keep in mind, I'm acting normal and not stressing) had to run back to the grocery store and buy more vinegar.  Honestly people, how many different shades of blue and pink do we need?  It still looks pink regardless.  Sheesh!!!  Kashton thought it was so cool.  How do I know this???  Well, he told me!!  "Coo Mom"  "Coo"  "WOW...Coo Dad"  He didn't even make that big of a mess.  My carpet is still the same color that it was before we began.
11:30 AM: 
Cameron: leaves for work.  Bethany: MAD MARATHON DASH AROUND THE HOUSE!!!!!  Clean up the egg mess, babysit Kashton AND Parker, keep them content and happy, cleaning, cleaning, re-cleaning (TWO TODDLERS...enough said), cooking, baking, shopping.  It was a miracle.  The two boys both took two and a half hour naps while I was outside pulling weeds, mowing the lawn (No, strike that, reverse it.  Actually, I weed whacked the lawn because the lawn mower broke), and planting flowers.  I take pride in my house.  I can't have friends over and have them see weeds.  How traumatic for me.  I love flowers and I love my yard to look pretty.  Vain?? Yes, I am!!

What incredible friends we have!!!  My good friends came into the house, saw how much still needed to be done before Cameron got there and immediately got to work.  I couldn't have pulled it together without them.  Dont believe me???  Wait till you see the cake!!!  Thanks Mark for grilling 36 hamburger patties and 24 brats.  I didn't even know how to turn the grill on.

So, while Cameron is driving home with Steve, he's calling me over and over.  He's wondering why he needs to come all the way home to get me so that we can go to the greek restaurant.  He just doesn't understand why I can't meet him at the restaraunt.  After all...Steve drove them to work, I had the car, I had Steve's kid.  Of course, it makes PERFECT sense for me to meet him at the restaurant.  But, I refuse to answer the phone.  Well, give me a break.  My house is full of people and if I answer the phone he'll hear them all.  Plus, it was fun to make him curse and sweat ( and I honestly was fresh out of excuses).  Why wouldn't his dear, sweet wife answer the phone???  I'm not kidding, my phone rang every 30 seconds.  We all thought it was rather humorous.  

Steve texts me:  "We're pulling into the neighborhood."  So, out we all go into the front yard.  There's really no place to hide all our cars...so we just thought we'd be in the front yard to greet him.  Too bad I didn't get a good picture of his face.  It was priceless.
Kashton loves his "Uncle" Chip.
What a sight!!!

Cameron admitted that he was fuming when he pulled into the neighborhood.  He was ready to come into the house and chew me out for not answering the phone.  What??  Me??  I wouldn't do that to my husband.

We had a great time at the fire pit eating smores.
This is my HORRID cake the we threw together in...no joke...10-15 minutes.  I baked the cakes earlier in the day, but I hadn't decorated them.  Three of us girls threw this thing together SO fast.  There was powdered sugar, raspberry jam, and milk every where.  It looks terrible, but OH...did it taste like heaven.  Thanks Dad for being a Baker!!!  At least I learned something.
Kayla, Sonya, Chip, and Brad.
Cameron blowing out his candles.
Wait a tick...are those trick candles??  The darn things just wont stop burning.  Well, actually, they weren't as cool as we thought they'd be.  Or Cameron just has some mighty lungs on him.  Either way, they didn't burn long.
Gretchen (Gwechen) and Kashton
Chip, beautiful Kelly and (even more beautiful) Macy, and Brad
The cute Godfrey family: Kayla, Mackenzie, Sonya, and Darren
Me, cutting the cake!!  
One of my FAVORITE familys:  The Nichols (Bob, Lana and Chesca)
My second son Parker and his daddy "Uncle" Steve (where's Kelly????)
"Uncle" Chip
We TOTALLY didn't plan this.  AAAWWW!!!  CUTE!!!!!
Serious Rock Band time!!!!  Steve going crazy to Metallica (Kashton gave Cameron the new Guitar Hero Metallica game for his B-day).
Chris rockin' it out like Kirk Hammett.
Happy Birthday Cameron!!!  It was one of the BEST parties we've had in a long time.  It began at 7:00 and ended at 2:00.  We got in bed around 3:00 AM.  We were talking about how the last time we went to bed that late was probably when we were in college.  What a great night.

The next day was Easter Sunday!!
Kashton got to pick out his own egg to eat for breakfast.
Yummy, Yummy Egg!!!!
I love flowers SO much.  Kashton in his cute Easter suit that Grandma Marge gave him a YEAR ago.  He's finally big enough to wear it. :)
Such a charmer!!  I love my little man!!
Opening up his Egg from Grandma.

It was always a tradition in my family that when we woke up Easter morning, the "Easter Bunny" had come during the night and we had to hunt for our Easter Baskets that were hidden in the house somewhere.  I remember a particular time when I was quite young.  I couldn't find my basket anywhere and all my older siblings had found theirs.  I was quite upset, thinking the Easter Bunny forgot about me.  I climbed up into my parents bed...quite distraught...only to find my Basket in bed with my parents.  Silly Bunny!!!  The best was when Easter was on Conference.  It was probably the only time that my parents got us to sit still during Conference as we stuffed our cheeks full of Easter candy.  I miss getting those HUGE divinity eggs.  I sure miss our amazing Easter Egg Hunts at Grandma Larsen's house with the ENTIRE family.  I'm sad Kashton misses out on things like that.

Anyway, enough reminiscing.  I thought it would be fun to hide Kashton's basket as well.  I loved that tradition, so I thought I'd carry it over to my own family.  Even though Cameron rolled his eyes at me, we both agreed Kashton was sure cute searching the house for his "basset."  When he couldn't find it, I asked him where the Easter Bunny hid his basket and he looked up at me and said, "Dohn know."  It was so cute.

After church, we drove up to Springfield and had an amazing Easter dinner with some relatives of Cameron's.  They had a little Easter Egg hunt in the house.  This picture didn't turn out, but I thought it was really cute watching Kashton walk around the house looking for eggs.


Later, "Aunt" Kaye gave a WONDERFUL lesson/activity on our Savior and the true meaning of Easter.  It was the perfect way to end our perfect weekend!!!

4 comments:

The Lead Singer said...

Are you kidding me!!!!!??!?!?! You guys are so freaking adorable! This kid is so handsome and the both of you look so happy. I can't believe I haven't seen the two of you in so long. Too long! I miss you so much!!!!!

Chelsey said...

What a fun weekend! I can see why that post took you so long...you had a lot to tell everyone! Cute pictures! You guys are such a cute litte family.

Carlie said...

Yeah! I love the pictures! I'm so glad did a blog post - I loved the pics of Cameron's birthday - great job on the party - I know I already told you that - but that was a lot of work - talk about stressful - something like that would totally stress me out. The pics of Kashton on Easter are adorable - his hair is saweeeeet! Miss you.

Danielle said...

this post was so fun to read. I am seriously laughing at u running around cleaning. At our house it's called "operation: CLEAN!" ha ha so funny I totally relate! love ya