Happy Birthday Grandma Ivins!

Doug's cute Grandma turned 86 this week and had a party to celebrate! It was so fun and adults only (with the exception of the Mabes) which made it extra fun! Here's a beautiful cake they had made for her. The flowers on top are out of fondant. Beautiful!
His aunt did a ton of work with the decorating and centerpieces. It all turned out so good!

Everyone got one of these cute party favor boxes/place settings.

Inside there was chili sauce and her recipe, two spoons from her spoon collection (one from Doug's birth year and one from China), birdseed with a cute note that said "Every Birdie Welcome" because she loves to include everyone at everything, a collapsing animal thing with her motto "Be Flexible", a packet of flower seeds and picture of her gardening sons and her flowers, fortune cookies to represent their Thursday lunches (which often include Chinese food), a picture of her outside the temple on the day she went back (after 67 years!) and a box of her homemade toffee and peanut butter cups. It was all such a cute idea!

Here she is telling what each thing was in the box. Halfway through the party she went and put on this robe she always wears. She said that it coordinated with her outfit so it was okay to wear it to the party. She's so cute. Here she is cutting her cake.

Here's Mabel and Grandpa Wilkins. We felt bad being the only ones there with a baby but she really did pretty good.

Grandma and Mabel.

4 generations.

And here's Doug's mom and her siblings with grandma.

This was my contibution to the party. I am the tiniest bit obsessed with Cupcake Wars and jumped at the chance to have an excuse to make some.
These ones were chocolate hazelnut. I put Nutella in the batter and frosting. I also frosted them with Nutella and dipped them in chopped hazelnuts before I added the frosting. I hope that Florian would have been impressed. He is hard to please though.
These ones were rootbeer. My friend made them a few months ago and they were delicious! There was rootbeer flavoring in the batter and then they were filled with a rootbeer caramel. I topped them with rootbeer flavored buttercream. I know it sounds weird but they were good!
Anyway, Happy Birthday again Grandma Ivins! Thanks to everyone for their hard work (and to Lauren for watching our kids!)!

Teach me how to Jimmer

We had a fun time at the BYU game the other night! Lilly was so mad that she didn't have a BYU dress. This was the best I could do. Here we are waiting for the game to start. We were only there a few minutes early and the game was sold out so I promise the seats did fill up.

Here's the cutest cheerleader getting ready to watch the game.

Our seats were pretty awesome.

Luckily we were still able to get a close up.

Just in case you haven't seen this one yet. Apparently there's a website dedicated to the song now where you can buy your own Teach Me How To Jimmer T-shirt! Just what everybody wants!

Silly Girls

I was cleaning up the other day and I came upon this scene. So happy to see they decided to give the ponies a much deserved snack. Here's this little cutie after church. Her cute hat came from this site. They have the cutest stuff! Including these cute sequined headbands that are only $1!

This is her favorite look as of late. She's getting her two bottom chompers in and she constantly keeps her tongue over them.

This little silly can climb in the exerciser and it is her favorite place to be.

I love that she has to be on her knees in order to fit. What a silly thing.

Sophia built these royal chair yesterday after church and Mabel had a royal time sitting in them.

This is the outfit Lilly chose for herself today. I tried a number of times to get her to pick somthing different but it always resulted in a tantrum. Wow she looks beautiful.

Finally, here's Mabel enjoying a lemon at dinner last night. I know Liza. No citrus until they're 1! I think she might live.

Red

Red
By Douglas Wilkins

Red is the color of Valentine's Day.

It's the color of love, hearts, and rose bouquets.

Oh, but to me, red is more than a color today

It represents our love and what made it that way.

The following girts, all red in their color,

Remind me of times we've had with each other.

The ball is the first, and I'll never forget.

The way that you kicked it the first night we met.

It also reminds me of times spent outdoors,

Playing in parks, or roasting up smores.

Second's the pen and a paper to write

Letters keeping me warm on cold Swedish nights.

Third come the slippers and oddly enough,

They remind me of walking and snuggling up.

Oh, all the hikes and roads we have walked

Making adventures as together we talked.

These slippers remind me of holding your hand

As we, in white slippers, exchanged wedding bands.

Fourth, the towel reminds me of how clean and how pure

You, my wife and sweetheart, really are.

Fifth comes the car, as red and as shiny

As my BYU car. Boy, that was sure tiny.

It also brings back very fond memories

Of driving to Canada and AAA emergencies.

Sixth are the pans, and not a moment too soon.

Our others are tattered, worn, and in ruin.

Since cooking and eating are favorite pastimes

I'm sure these pans will get used just fine.

We've cooked and we've baked many an entree

And many a culinary craft you have taught me.

Lastly are wipes for cleaning messes and wiping the bums

Of three little girls, I'm glad they're not sons

'Cause these three little girls are lucky 'lil buggers

They're blessed to have you as a model of mother.

So as you can see, red is more than a color,

It symbolizes my love for you, no other.

Oh how I love that boy! We had a relaxing night with homemade Chicken Bryan (chicken with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes), asparagus, Blood Orange Sparkling Lemonade (from Sunflower Market) and this for dessert. We've tried to duplicate this cake a number of times and this, by far, was the best it's ever turned out. We topped it off with some chocolate and hazelnut gelato from Terra Mia and it really was divine. I'm drooling right now just thinking about it! So yum.

We also watched "Charlie St. Cloud" which was uber weird and a little spooky. Not quite the Valentine's Day flick. Oh well.

Last week I helped in Sophia's class for their Valentine party. The mom in charge did so much work including making these bag/boxes for each child in the class! She wrapped cereal boxes with paper and the kids got to decorate their faces. She also had 4 stations where they wrote a valentine to the teacher, decorated a sugar cookie (she had individual bags of frosting for every child), made a valentine to take home and played valentine bean bag toss (complete with heart shaped bean bags made out of cute valentine fabric). Amazing! So much work and the kids had such a blast. What talent.
One of the girls in Sophia's class had her hair like this so we copied it for church Sunday. It was acutally way easy to do and pretty cute. I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day!

Mabel Gets her Groove On

Here's cute Mabel groovin' at lunch time today.

Gus is Such a Funny Bug

Sophia's book from school the other day was about a funny bug named Gus. At the end it gave suggestions of how else to use the book. It had a suggestion to draw a picture of Gus doing something funny. Here's what she came up with.

She was trying to copy this picture. I thought she did a pretty good job.

Sneaky Snake

Sophia had a fun time making a snake with Doug's ties the other day. She was pretty proud of herself.

Lilly drew a picture of the snake. Close up of the face. I love the ponytails!