Jacob visit's the doctor!

Jacob had his 4yr. check up yesterday.  He was very smiley while talking to the doctor.  She weighed him 36lbs..then measured him 75th % I can't remember the exact inches.  Listened to his heart and then told him to get dressed.  He didn't even mind the blood pressure cuff. THEN the nurse came in...dun dun dun.

He saw the tray and said what is that? I told him it's going to be ok, just a couple quick shots. NOPE, he was not having that.  First the "poke" as Jacob calls it. A finger prick. He didn't cry but he had the saddest little whimper.  Than she told me to hold him in my lap wrap both my arms across his arms and lock his legs between mine. It took ALL my strength to hold him. He fought so hard and was yelling no don't the whole time.  Makes you feel so awful.  As soon as it was all over I was holding him and telling him it's all over we can go home. I was trying to hug him. He turns to me and says " You did this!" I told him, no mommy didn't, I just was holding you. He say's " NO, I saw you".  I've never had any of the kids think I gave them the shots.  I felt so bad.  He walked so slow back to the car. Which if you know Jacob that is NOT normal.  He told me when we got home, that I had to carry him and let Giselle walk..:)

He laid on the couch a lot of the afternoon.  I had to go to a meeting last night and so I got a babysitter.  When I got home he was crying in his bed calling for me.  She said he had a rough night saying his legs hurt.  He climbed in bed with us last night..yes in halloween pj's.  He says his leg hurts a little today but at least he's smiling again. 

Menu board...and I made it!

My ward here in Illinois has a craft group.  They are so talented and creative.  Every time I go I am amazed..and this time I was amazed at myself. I ACTUALLY finished it THERE! I am so excited.  This is a magnetic menu board.   You can add to it any time and it's super cute.  It took me forever to come up with a color theme that worked but luckily I got it done and Jacob and Giselle were there the whole time and only managed to dump goldfish all over the gym floor, play with tons of little people and get plum worn out. So it was a great time for all. THANK YOU Amy and Diane, I LOVE my menu board!

Jolie's Paris Birthday Party!

 Jolie invited a ton of girls from school and church.  We were very excited to plan and prepare for this party.  Jolie was also excited because Grandma and Grandpa Mendenhall came up from Michigan. Sorry these pictures are in reverse order. Blogger changed how to post and it's going to take me a little bit to get used to the new way!

Jolie's cake is trying to blow her candles out. I honestly did not mean to but I accidentally got her trick candles.  So she kept blowing them out and they wouldn't go out. Her friends were more than happy to help her out!

 This is a group shot of all the lovely young ladies.  They were ALL so fun and so full of energy! I loved meeting all her friends and seeing her with them.

** It was also nice because Grandma and Grandpa took the 3 little ones to Steak and Shake..Genna was at a friends house for a fun campfire!

        
 The girls were such good sports and let me take pictures of them in the french Beret and my hat. It didn't take long for them to really get into it!

We had parfaits for the end dessert. Two of the girls at the party helped me assemble them in these fun glasses! and various other containers that I could find because there were a few extra girls that I didn't know about until the last minute. 

         This is Jolie's cake. I got it a bakery in Hinsdale called Toni's.  It is such a cute shoppe.

 The girls were very excited when I told them we were going to do french manicure's.  We started by going in the bathroom and using the Lemon Hand Scrub and washing our hands.  They all liked that part.  Then I got two kits to do French Manicures. I was planning on helping them do it but they didn't need me. There were a few girls that were really good at it and took over.  Jolie was one of them!

Lots of cute girls working on nails and jamming to some fun music!

I had so much fun decorating and planning the food.  I am very blessed. A wonderful friend..thank you thank you Meghan, lent me an Eiffel tower cartridge for my cricut and I had a lot of fun with that.  Also BIG thank you to my mom for making ALL the Crepe's.  The girls LOVED them. They were gone so fast. 

The perfume bottles were a HIT!!!

 I wanted it to look like you are stepping into a cafe when you opened the door. So we moved this couch from the living room into the foyer and then I cut out Cafe Jolie with my cricut.  My mom got Jolie the big Eiffel Tower for the wall and we put that up. She also got her the Bonjour pillow.  The beautiful Lilac's are from my parent's house. Than we strung some white lights.

Jolie helped me make a lot of the goodies. We dipped marshmallow's in white chocolate and then rolled them in sprinkles or coconut or both. We dipped pretzels in the same stuff.  We also had Madelaine french cookies.  Lemon cake bites.  Red cherry gobstoppers. Raspberry m &m's and of course the yummy crepe's.   The drink was the Awesome yummy punch!

I made these pom poms from tissue paper.  The zebra paper was really stiff but still good. Than hooked some little lanterns to them!

Jolie had so much fun and I absolutely loved every minute of it.  Brett was there too and even though it was a lot of tween girls he loved every minute too!

Mother's Day Lemon Hand Scrub!

Activity Day's was at my house tonight. Activity Days is a youth group of girls age 8-11. I am one of the leaders that takes a turn hosting. Mother's Day is coming up so I knew we had to do something centered around that. I was scouring the Internet for some cute but easy projects for the girls to do. I came across this one here!
It was so easy and it actually works. You never know, right! I still need to put a few little finishing touches on it but luckily we have a little bit of time still!
I wasn't the most patient tonight and I hope the girls know how much I enjoy them.
The past couple weeks have been really long and I think I'm in need of a little mommy break but that's not the point of this post.
Just wanted to tell you of a fun, easy, cheap and cute gift idea!
ENJOY!!
**** Luckily, I have the BEST co-leaders and they always make everything so much better. THANK YOU so much Ladies you are the best!****

Jacob's birthday party!

Jacob's birthday party was yesterday. We were going to have the day after his birthday but it was spring break and most of his friends were out of town so we changed to after all the holiday's and vacations!

Jacob loves trains so we went with a train decor theme but kept it very simple. We have learned that doing lunch is a waste of money when they are this young. So we stuck to snacks. Popcorn,pretzels, chips, fruit and green m &m's. They were minty so the kids didn't chow down to much on them.

Always make sure to have plenty to drink. So we had a big thing of lemonade. I got these paper straws from a super cute website....aren't they so cute?

We played outside the whole time. I was SO worried it was going to rain. We were supposed to have storms in the morning but it never happened. I kept checking the weather and holding off to set up outside until the last minute. But phew, it never rained..just a few sprinkles.

I have to say, I love 4yr. old boys. They are so cute and don't hold anything back. I just love the age Jacob and his friends are!

We sat in a circle and picked bandanna's to wear so we could be engineers or cowboys..depending on who you asked...or even pioneers! :)

A friend from church..Lorenzo, he had this tambourine and he loved it.

We brought the train table outside and it was a BIG hit. Brett built this track right before the party started. We couldn't believe it but it was still together when we brought it back inside.

We also did some races, follow the leader. T-ball, basketball and lots of bubbles!

No one walked...there was a lot of running. Yes, they were all tired that night! It was great!

A group photo. well most of the people..some were having way to much fun running around or grazing on snacks!

I wanted to get Jacob a train cake but Costco didn't have any. Jacob saw the dinosaur one and really wanted it because that is what daddy had. I was thinking of making my own train cake but decided forget it! I forgot to take a picture but I put individual scoops of ice cream in cupcake holders before the party started and put them in the freezer. It was so nice to have those all ready to go. I think next time I will make the scoops a little smaller though!

Jacob blowing out his candles. He loved all his helpers!

This is Phoebe. Jacob and Phoebe are super close buds. He talks about her all the time and they were always together at the party. Two cute, huh!

At the end we passed out the goody bags. Train whistles with their name on them. I cut vinyl letters out from cricut and put it on there. Train sucker. Some candy, a train craft and there bandanna of course too!

We had a great time and it was so fun to have some of Jacob's friends from school and church be there.

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Happy Easter!

The kids found Easter baskets after church since we have 9am church.
Grandma Fox found these cute dresses for the girls...Jolie is 5ft. tall now and so she does not match but we had her in her pretty white baptism dress that she LOVES to wear. Jacob is in his spring suit. He LOVES matching daddy. Now I just need to find matching ties for him and Brett!

I thought this picture was so cute of Giselle and Jillian...silly kiddo's!

An Easter family photo. All dressed up. This was after church so I was glad everyone's hair was still in place, especially for a few of them. I loved wearing a hat to church, it was fun and something I wouldn't normally do but it might just be my new Easter tradition!
Thank you Mom Fox for helping me stay just a little more in style! :-)

We loved having Brett's parents and sister here for Easter dinner. I had never made Easter dinner before and was excited to give it a go. A few things weren't perfect but in all I thought it turned out pretty good.

A closer look at our yummy food and place settings! The centerpiece didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned but I'm already thinking of new ideas for next year. Pinterest is the greatest site!

I am so thankful for the knowledge our Savior Jesus Christ came to this earth and died for us. He did not lay to rest for eternity he is RISEN, he lives. Happy Easter!