Natalie's 4th Birthday

Natalie turned 4 on July 30 and she was so excited! I can't believe how big she is getting. She is as cute as ever and such a joy to have in our family!
She had a great day although it was a little different because Daddy was in NY for work (He was really sad he couldn't be there.--He did call and sing to her and she laughed and giggled and said, "Daddy is a silly guy!"), and Grandma and Grandpa Tobler and Brooke were on their way home from WY where they had a stake youth conference trek (they did get home that night in time to give her presents before she went to bed). She still had Mom, Lincoln, Preston, Aunt April and Uncle Michael with her in CO to celebrate her special day.
Normally I bake and decorate the cake for birthdays but since we were in CO and April has taken some cake decorating classes Natalie asked her if she would make her a cake for her birthday. So the kids and I were happy to help (watch) April bake and decorate Natalie's cake.
She had the kids help her the day before by baking the cake and they loved it!





Then on Natalie's birthday she came over with all her cake decorating stuff and Natalie and I watched her decorate it per Natalie's request (a pink cake with pink frosting and pink flowers and green leaves). I think the cake turned out great!
Natalie loved it!




Thanks April, you're a great aunt and sister-in-law!!!

Natalie loved eating the practice flowers.
Natalie was too excited to take a nap earlier in the day with her brothers but she was so tuckered out she fell asleep on the floor. Pretty cute!
When she woke up she didn't want to eat dinner but get right to singing "Happy Birthday", blowing out candles, opening presents, and eating cake and ice cream.










So Natalie got some great things that she loves--princess roller skates with knee and elbow pads, a Fancy Nancy book, a 24 piece princess puzzle that she quickly learned to do on her own and loves taking apart and putting back together, some clothes and sunglasses, a heart money bank (Lincoln got a train one), some musice CDs and a pig water squirter from Michael and April, a dress and shirt, lip gloss and nail polish set with hair clips and magic grow towelette from Grandma and Grandpa and a princess phone from Brooke.

July 4th Colorado Style

We spent the fourth of July in Colorado and it was really fun! The town put on a lot of games that people could compete in for prizes and of course we tried most of them along with my brother Michael and his wife April, my brother Mark, my sister Brooke and my cousin's wife Nikki while my parents watched us and the kids play in the sand castle building area. So let's see we participated in the bathtub derby where Ben and I teamed up to push a bathtub filled with water and a girl about 50 yards which we did pretty well for time but didn't place. We then did the tricycle race which was awesome! We had to wear a life jacket in case you went off the sidewalk into the river on a sharp turn and a helmet. I raced my brother Mark and smoked him right at the start, Ben raced someone in the community and beat her, Michael and April raced and he pulled it out in the end, and Brooke raced Nikki and won. Everyone looked hilarious on those trikes and everyone got a t-shirt that said all we got was the lousy shirt with a picture of a trike on it. Next we did the creeper race where Ben and I raced for time. I sat on the creeper and had to put on a bandanna, hat and gloves before Ben could push me down and around a cone and back. I'm not going to lie it was a little scary going that fast with Ben pushing me on a mechanic's scooter on asphalt but fun too! The girl's signed up to do a tug of war but it wasn't even organized chaos so we did it once and left-too many kids just jumping in and doing it. We also did an egg toss which Ben and I were the 4th place team-not too shabby! The last race we did was the carry your own wife race. Ben gave me a piggy back and ran down to a hospital bed and pushed me back--he almost tripped and I was about to jump off (we had already seen several guys trip or drop their wives) but he caught himself and pulled me on tighter and we didn't biff it--we could have learned some more tricks to the race had we been near the end instead of the beginning but oh well. My sister got to go on a free helicopter ride which the rest of would have had to pay but she knew someone. We also saw some crazy boys doing motocross jumping for show--they must be fearless. The last and most participated event was the big 5,000 ping pong ball drop. The helicopter dropped all the balls that had numbers on them into the crowd and it was a free for all. We then had to stand in an unbelievably long line (2 1/2 hours) to redeem our balls for coupons and prizes to merchants around town. We got 17 balls altogether and really there were only a few that were worthwhile but good memories. Of course we topped of the day with a great fireworks show with the family! I'm so happy we live in a free country! Of course this is the day everyone celebrates my brother Benjamin's birthday too.