chocolate birthday.

for the last couple of months all berkeley has asked for is a

chocolate birthday....

with chocolate cupcakes, chocolate balloons, chocolate popscicles, chocolate candy and chocolate presents.

so we had a chocolate birthday.....

with chocolate balloons, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate milk, chocolate pretzels, chocolate cookies, chocolate peanuts, chocolate cake pops, chocolate plates, chocolate cups, and chocolate bars.

the party included duck duck goose, hide and seek, lots of friends,

and a dance party.

it was a fun little day for my

chocolate 4 year old.

lizard.

todd caught this lizard for berkeley last night and she thought it was maybe the coolest thing ever. she said numerous times that she LOVES lizards.

{this being the first time shes ever held a lizard}

this poor little lizard probably saw the end of his days after we got a hold of him...

but it was still a fun adventure for berkeley and dada to have together.

thanks todd for so vigorously catching our lizard.

play days.

love love love thses kiddies.

i love the days when we just stay home and play, color, sing, cuddle, and love eachother.

they are my favorites.

and its fun to add cousin clay in the mix.

this week.

first, i will just say im exhausted. i have had a super busy week....mostly of really fun things, but still, i'm tired.

sunday we celebrated our 7th anniversary. we didnt go out and doll it up this year.... we ended up showing eachother acts of service as our

gifts, and to be quite honest, i really loved it.

i sometimes cannot believe that i have been married 7 years.

it seems like a life time that i have been married, but at the same time i feel like it was just yesterday we started our lives together. it is pretty fun

to think that when we got married i was 20 and he was 23

and at the time we felt sooo old.

i know im only 27, but i feel like the last 7 years with todd, i have really become more myself than ever, and we have really become one as a couple.

i love our love.

todd got accepted into the MBA program at ASU, so we tacked on another year of school, but added another degree....... so im ok with that extra year ;)

he started his orientation this week, and he says he loves it and this is

where he is meant to be.

tuesday night we went to the closing dinner of the orientaion so i got

to meet the guys in his group and meet some of the people

who will be spending more time with my husband than i will be.

thursday was todds 30th birthday, so todd and i celebrated at la grande orange in phoenix for dinner.

friday night todd watched the kids while i went out for lisa's birthday party.

saturday i was asked to help in our stakes play in a day. we were assigned the 50's, and i was asked to help with a couple of dances in the play.

we started at 9am...... 2 meals, 30 kids, 2 route 44's, hearing rock aroud the clock 40 times, and 2 performances later i got home around 9:30.

again....im tired.

todd watched the kids all day, and i came home to a clean house.

good job todd.

my nieces ansley and rilee. i wont tell them to their faces, but they both are gorgeous.

back for round {2}

i didn't quite get my fill of california from my last trip out there, probably because the beach was constantly overcast, so

i decided to take the kids and go back for a long weekend in attempt to get some good beach weather.

thursday my mom had my brothers kids, so we all went out to la to the natural history museum. i had never been there, so i was actually really excited to go. the place was massive, and was absolutely amazing.

it was built in 1913, so the architecture was so beautiful, and the exhibits were so life like and so visual. berkeley loved seeing all the animals, and couldn't stop talking about the dinosaurs. she was entertained all day, and couldn't stop talking about every animal that we saw.

beckham was a gem the whole day. he started getting sleepy and asked for his blankee and just nestled in his stroller.

he was asleep in minutes.

then we went to the beach twice. the first day we went to newport and the weather was beautiful. we met up with my friend jade and her little girl. berkeley found some friends of course and played all day. beckham didn't quite know what to do with himself because he was so tired, so half the day he just wandered around aimlessly holding his blanket.

the second day we went to the beach, we went to manhattan beach in la. it was overcast....so lame. we went with my mom and 2 sisters. we stayed for about 2 hours and i was freezing the whole time. it was still fun to go though, and let the kids play.

i dont even know what to say.

words cannot express how bizarre this was.

berk found this hat in my sisters stuff and she said it was her magician hat, so she added a magic wand, and naturally, she went ahead and took the whole charade to the beach.

me and jade and our darling babies who are only 1 day apart.

such a fun beach day.

love her.

my sweet berkeley started her 2nd year of preschool today.

she is only going 2 days a week, thanks to her mom, who signed her up too late, and couldn't get her into the 3 days a week class.

she is so excited, and this year she is in the same class as her cousin clay.

she's so glad to be back in school.

painted nails for the first day of school.

berkeley drew these this morning. my heart just melted. little kid drawings i think are basically the cutest things ever, especially when they come from your own kids, and even more especially when its our family!!

love her.

this gal.

while in california i got to see this girl.

luckily, the day i locked my keys and phone in the car......with my kids in the car as well, she was there to help me.

since the kids were inside, i decided it was considered an emergency, so she called 911.

5 minutes later at the mainplace mall parking lot, we heard sirens coming from a big red fire truck.

it took 3 fireman about 10 minutes to open the car.

i was humiliated the entire time.

the kids were fine, and had no idea what was going on.....

luckily.

thanks rae for helping out!