Lilly Turns 2!

Lilly had her birthday on Saturday April 17th!When she got up and I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, she went to the fridge, and got out the ingredients for quesadillas and also a cheese stick. Silly girl, but it's her birthday so that's what she got!

We had Ally's first soccer game that morning so we went to that first. Speaking of Ally, she has lost her first two teeth in the last little bit and I keep forgetting to take a picture and blog about it, so here it is!

For lunch we went out for Chinese food at one of our favorite restaurants. (Allan is Ally's coach, notice his matching jersey)

Here is every one waiting to get their food.

Lilly loves chicken and rice!

But.. she was too tired to finish it!

After lunch we met some friends who were going to the zoo. This is the new baby zebra, only 7 days old!

Hadley and Lilly are good little friends.

After the zoo we went to Tautphus Park.

Everyone had a great time.

Even Daddy and Brayden.

After the park we went to get some ice cream at Sundaes.

We took that picture, but Lilly was mad because Allan set the car seat down on her high chair.

She got over it though when the ice cream came.

That night we made Lilly a little treat, but she was so tired she threw herself down on the floor before she realized we were giving her a treat.

Pretty much she is already acting like a typical 2 year old with mood swings all over the place.

The next day we had a party for her with Allan's family and I made these cakes for her. I am really excited about how they turned out!

Once again, Lilly was in a mood so Allan had to hold her while we sang Happy Birthday and she blew out her candles.

Everyone was very excited to pick which piece of the cakes they wanted!

Lilly is a very cute little girl. Like I said, her moods are kind of all over the place, and she is still in that stage where she knows what she wants, but can't always communicate what that is. She is getting to be a big talker. Lilly loves her sisters and brother. When they come home she runs and gives them hugs, and when Brayden is crying, and even when he is not she always wants to help. The only exception is when she is tired and grumpy and wants me to put the baby down and hold her, but usually a couple of minutes is all it takes to put her in a better mood. She likes to run and jump and be outside. Lilly loves to dance and sing, and anything to do with music. She is always trying to keep up with whatever the big kids are doing. Lilly also has a mind of her own, and when it's set on something there is pretty much no changing it. I still have more issues with her sleeping than any of my other kids, she doesn't like to go to bed, or stay asleep for very long. Lilly loves to get stuff out, but most of the time is pretty good about putting it away. She always wants to be held if I am in the kitchen, and seems to have a sixth sense to need attention when I am busy.

Brayden Smiles!

Brayden has actually been smiling for close to a month, he started doing it a lot around Allan's birthday. HE'S SO CUTE!!!!

Summer Slim Down-Biggest Loser Competition

Hello Everyone! In an attempt to motivate myself and my husband, I have decided to start a friendly biggest loser competition. Here's some basics on how it will be run. It's going to be on your honor and no weight loss enhancers, just diet and exercise.

1. It will be an 8 week competition running from April 19-June 13 based on % body weight lost.
2. Anyone wishing to participate turn in your starting weight and $20 to me by Sunday April 18th at midnight either by phone or e-mail.
3. There will be 4 weigh ins total, one every other week: May 2, 16, and 30, and June 13. You can weigh yourself anytime Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and turn in your weight by Sunday at midnight.
3. Weigh yourself on the same scale wearing the same thing each time, no shoes. (or close to, i.e. shorts and a t-shirt)
4. For each of the 3 weigh ins prior to the final, a $10 prize will be awarded to the person with the highest % weight loss during that 2 weeks.
4. Anyone who loses a total of 10% or more of their body weight will get $10 back.
6. At the final weigh in, the top 3 people will get the rest of the prize money divided 50%-first place, 30%-second place, and 20%-3rd place.

This is open to all my friends/family and their friends, it doesn't matter where you live. I will be the only person who knows the actual weights and will only send out information with everyone's % weight lost.

So tell anyone you know who might be interested, the more people we get, the higher the prize money will be and everyone has the chance to get at least half of their money back! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail or call me.

Random Happenings-Part 2

So a funny thing happened. I told you I keep borrowing my mother-in-law's camera, well, she went to Walgreens and printed out the pictures and had them wipe her card and didn't get a CD. I was pretty much devastated because I keep all of my pictures digitally and was now going to be missing all those lovely pictures. Well, I have the most awesome mother-in-law ever, and she called Walgreens who still had the pictures in their system and had them make up a CD for me! YEA!!This is Ally and Natalie in their coustumes for Copelia, they were "floppy dolls". Ally sort of audits Natalie's pre-ballet class at the request of the teacher, because the kids in there are 3 and 4, she likes having a bigger girl to be a helper.
This was Ally in her "fan doll" costume. You may have noticed that they didn't have shoes on in either of these pictures and that is because Allan took them over while I finished getting myself ready, and in all of the confusion their ballet bag got left at home...oh well.
My kids love their cousins. They have 20 of the best cousins they could ask for, ranging in age from 10 months to 18 years old. The older ones are all amazing, talented, wonderful examples for my kids and the younger ones are great friends to play with! This is Hailey and her cousin Anna.
Here is Natalie swinging with her cousin Ty.
Here is Hailey and Ally with Anna and Asa. Below is Lilly after getting her bucket for the easter egg hunt.
Here are all of the "little" cousins getting ready for their Easter egg hunt. Easter is a very fun holiday at the Staker house. There are 3 egg hunts, a younger kid one, an older kid one, and a "really older kid" one for the moms and dads! I know I have mentioned before that after the hunts we go into the "store" in the basement and pick prizes and toys!
Hailey hunting for eggs.
Ally hunting for eggs.
Natalie hunting for eggs.
Lilly hunting for eggs.
Brayden's easter basket.
This next one is Natalie helping her cousin Josh find his eggs, my girls all love Josh!I have a bunch more pictures of the egg hunts, I should really make a slide show of them all, but for now, I'll call that good. That day we also celebrated Allan and Jenilee's birthdays.
Allan and his sister Jenilee have birthdays eight years minus one day apart. Allan likes to tell everyone that when he was born his sister cried until her birthday. You see, I guess he must have been born pretty late in the evening, and the doctor told the family that HE was going to be a SHE. Jeni is the only girl and was pretty upset to find out that she got a 5th brother instead of a sister! I think she got over it, although I hear stories about her taking Allan to church in a dress!

Random Happenings-Part 1

I was looking at our pictures and realized, there is a lot I haven't blogged about lately. So I figured I should post some pictures and a little update. This is part one because I have also been forgetting my camera a lot and have been borrowing Allan's parents so I have to borrow their card and get some more pictures on here!
Way back (I think sometime in February) we had a Barnes and Noble fundraiser and my kids sang. Above is a picture I took of Ally after they were done singing and if you look below you will see why.
One of the disadvantages of having short kids is that you can't see them in a crowd. For some reason they never plan out performances very well and my kids are always behind really tall kids! This is the best picture I got of Ally over that kid's shoulder!
So when Hailey's class was filing in I took a picture of her before the tall kid came and stood in front of her. lol. Luckily she was on the end and we were on that side so she kind of directed her performance towards us.
Here's a little bit about Lilly....
Lilly is a little mischievous. On this particular day she used the step stool to climb up on the counter and get herself a piece of bread.
Then she grabbed a plate and sat down on the counter to have a little snack.
Lilly loves her brother, I can't really keep her away from him. I have found her in his crib, if he is on the floor she is always on top of him, and when he is in the swing she opens it up to give him loves.
Another day I put her hair in her first full ponytail. It's really hard to get a picture of the ponytail from the front so here are two views. this was towards the end of the day so it's falling out a little bit.
Lilly has been on this no diaper kick. I put her in a onsie to sleep, but it doesn't seem to make a difference!
Really she is on a no clothes at all kick, she loves to strip down and walk around in just her boots for some reason.
Hailey, Ally, and Natalie's ballet did a performance in March. This is one of the times I forgot my camera so I only have a picture of Hailey because she was in the evening performance as well as the matinee so I took my camera then. I will post pictures of Ally and Natalie soon.
Now a little bit about the boys...
I just thought that picture was so cute, I workout every morning at 6 with a couple of girls. One day I heard Brayden crying while we were working out. When I finished I found Allan and him like this.
Brayden has the saddest little sad face. This is my attempt at capturing it, in real life it's even sadder than this.
Allan turned 31! We had a couple of our very best friends, the Laytons and The Pettingills over to help us celebrate. Allan isn't a huge fan of cake so instead I made Tuxedo Brownie Bites. I made Allan a super big one for his "birthday cake"
As you can see he is very upset about turning 31. Okay, not really, but this was a funny look, you can see by the next picture he has some serious mood swings!
This was the morning after the Easter Bunny came to our house, as you can tell Lilly wasn't quite ready to see what she got.
Lilly quickly warmed up when she saw her sisters going through their baskets. By the way incase you are wondering, it's really hard to get a picture of all 5 kids looking let alone smiling at the camera. After about 20 pictures this one actually has them all looking. Maybe soon I will learn to photo shop and can fix it so the best face of each of them is the one you see.
And lastly another lovely surprise this morning! I don't know how well you can actually see, but this is the walkway up to our house, the show drift was over a foot high!
I opened up the door in the back to get a picture of the back yard and had a lovely present!
And Meesa, yes this is our back yard, two of our neighbors don't have fences which works out greatly to our advantage. The second swing set is in the back neighbors yard, and the neighbors to the side have a sand box. This added to the fact that their families have 5 and 3 kids makes for an instant park in the back yard complete with friends to play with!
So, if you are still reading I guess you stuck out my rediculously long blog. Make sure to come back for part 2 which promises more pictures from the Ballet, an Easter Egg Hunt, Allan and his sister Jeni celebrating their birthdays together, and a picture of my kids with my Grandparents from our trip to Utah for Easter and maybe more!