Mia Turned 4 years old!

Mia turned the big 4 on March 21st. She's

been waiting for this day for a looong time, so she's

just a little excited. What can I say about my big 4 year old

without filling up with tears. She's my miracle, my little spirit

who waited in heaven for me to get away from a terribly abuse relationship

and find the perfect dad for her- Rick. I always say she's an old spirit, because she is so intuned with adults

and what is going on in the world. She looked like she was a year old the second she was born.

She is so lovey dovey, always wanting hugs and kisses, yet at

the same time she needs her space (like her mom) She's so amazingly smart , stubborn,  fiesty, and can be a pistol

at times (especially when she's trying to win an argument) but she LOVES church, is so spiritual, is the teacher's pet at preschool (like her mom used to be in school)

LOVES animals, has a smile that could melt your heart ( like her dad's) and wakes up every morning excited about the world, saying, "Mom what do I got today?" She always wants to be busy. We love her so much and are so proud to be her parents. Love you Mia :)

On her actual birthday, Wednesday, she wore a cute shirt

to preschool and brought some chocolate chip cookies that

she made Grandma B make because she said that she

makes better ones than me. haha :) Then after work,

I took her to Toys R Us with Grandma Lil who was visiting from Idaho

and she got to pick out a few toys and get a balloon. On the way home,

we picked up Subway( one of her favorites) for dinner.

This was the CARS cake we made, my mom and I, it

was the first time I tried fondant and it was really hard.

Mia was helping us the whole time and holding the picture up

making sure I did it perfectly, little stinker!!

This is what it looked like with the CARS characters on it.

She helped me set up her entire party and colored about 30 car

pictures last week to decorate with. We did a cake walk

and walked around listening to CARS music:)

And she REALLY wanted a pinata, so we had

to figure out where to put it, since we didn't have anything to hang

it on, so Rick made up this..

And this was the set up before the party.. She had all her grandparents

and her Aunt Brooke, and her babysitter Kirstin there. One of her cousins

was supposed to come but couldn't and she was really upset about it,

but she didn't want any other kids so she was fine. ( I'm not doing friend

parties for a long time) If all her cousins lived here, they would all be here, but

unfortunately they don't.

Rick got all these fancy balloons and she did all the rest of the decorating

We had this on the front door and when each guest arrived,

she said, " Welcome to Radiator Springs!" So cute!!

waiting patiently for the cake, we did little cupcakes for everyone

to eat since I knew she wouldn't let me cut into her fancy cake,

I think her Rapunzel cake stayed in our freezer for 4 months before

she let us throw it out.

Blowing out the candle- notice the flag caught on fire, oops!

Then right into opening gifts where we spent seriously 45 minutes  

Of course everything mostly CARS, but she got the cuttest stuff

from Aunt Nicole (an Ispy bag and a church bag) and she loved it!

She's obsessed with Charlie Brown and wanted the figurines.

Notice she's wearing her Nascar shirt and racing ribbon

This was her frustrated look when she couldn't open a present.

CARS stuff

Grandma and grandpa M gave her some really cute clothes and

a fun CARS book.

Kirstin her babysitter gave her a coloring book

I had to... she hasn't touched it yet. Haha:)

Grandma and grandpa M

Aunt Brooke let her pick out her own present at Target on Friday

before the party , so she thought that was pretty cool!

THen after presents, we all walked outside to surprise her

with a little simple swing set we got :)

Bentley needing attention

Grandma B trying out the slide- notice she's the only one in a

birthday hat?

Mia and Kirstin- I can't even tell you how much she loves her.

And look at the yummy food- we ordered from Ray the neighbor down

the street because it's Mia's favorite pizza and he gave us lots of extras,

we had salads, pizzas, breadsticks, orzo, shrimp salad, garlic knots, yum :)

After dinner, we did the pinata

She had a blast

lots of chocolate- she's such a chocolate head, she always

says, mom girls just love chocolate don't they. Yup!!

Mia and all her gifts- I had grandpa bring this tire over for

a game but we ended up using it as a centerpiece for her

birthday, so that was fun1

She definitely made a haul: CARS stuff, dinosaurs, clothes,

stamps, and more!

had to involve Spock since he was on her invite list

and bear

Grandpa B made her get in it, oh was that fun!

This could've been a disaster, first my mom wanted to stand on it,

then my dad tried...

look at Rick's hand like Oh no!

And that's all I got, I pretty much threw the camera down when he tried

to stand up and had to jump off and slide on my floor- crazy grandparents!

Mia had an amazing birthday and was so happy that all her grandparents were able to

be there. Yes we are lucky they live here, we know that. We missed cousins but Mia

loved hearing them sing her Happy Birthday songs. Here's to many more years of amazing birthdays!

We love you Mia :)

Funny Video

So I wanted to video Mia reading this book she already

memorized in a few days, but in the middle of it, she sneezed

and farted LOUD. OMG Rick and I about died, I had to run

in the closet to laugh. It was hilarious!

NASCAR and more

Mia has been waiting for NASCAR day for a year now,

Rick finally got to take her last Friday. She was grinning

like this from 10am til about 6pm when Rick had to literally

drag her out of the stadium. It really baffles us just how "into" cars

she is. I mean it's a serious obsession. Even on Saturdays, she wants to look

in our engines of our cars?? She even made my mom open her jeep engine up

and look at it for an hour. Who knows, maybe she'll be a mechanical engineer

like her Uncle Kevin. She even said to me the other day, "Mom, am I the only girl

in the world who thinks cars are beautiful?" We had a toy drive for church so I asked

if she had any toys she could give away, so a few days later, she came to me and said,

"Ya mom, I would like to give away all my dolls and girl stuff." Wow did that backfire

on mom!!! I refuse to give away the TWO girl things she owns. Absolutely not! Haha:)

Anyway, this pic, Mia actually got an autograph from Jimmy Johnson, she was in heaven

and now blushes when she talks about him.

Mia and Grandpa M

We were smart and got earphones on her right at the beginning, since

she is very sensitive to sound. She was good to go!

When I talked to Rick at about 1pm, he said she wouldn't budge,

not even to pee or get a hamburger, she wanted to watch each car

go by and of course impress everyone around her with, Oh that's a Ford, that's a

Chevy, etc. Rick said people were amazed!

Taking a break in the shade

We were hoping to get in the garage for free, but Rick ended

up buying tixs but he said it was soooo worth it. She had a blast

and couldn't get her to leave. She ended up with about 6 autographs

and even a lug nut (all the adults were mad about that)

watching the cars from the garage

And this is how she stood for almost 4 hours Rick said and

didn't want to budge!

Even got a pic with the Sprint girl who asked Rick if she

was holding her right since she didn't have kids.

She wasn't looking on this one, but I guess this guy is

a really famous driver...

Mia's Jimmy Johnson autograph

All the autographs signed on the back of her shirt ( one of my favs

oh well)

Race car lug nut

Rick finally peeled her out of the race and she didn't even

make it out of the parking lot without zonking out, she

told me that she would stay there all year if she could

because she didn't want to leave.

Rick of course absolutely loved the time with her and has

a life long racing buddy. On Sunday she even wanted to

order pizza and watch the race. She's too funny!

Besides wanting to be a race car driver, she also

wants to be a doctor and usually practices on either

bear or Spock

On Saturday, she got some ladybugs and we

finally have a yard to let them go into

Mia looking at the ladybugs

Unfortunately we found some on us from the outside and

I felt like I had bugs on me the rest of the night, but it was fun

nevertheless. Mia is still going to preschool but unfortunately

has a little boy in her class who is a bully that's new and she has

anxiety about it every Monday ( because she knows he comes on Mondays)

Rick says he looks like a little sumo wrestler and Mia told me his belly

is this biggggggg. Tonight she told me his dad's belly is big too. Kids are funny.

This is the same kid who she said makes her a little bit nervous, I guess her detective

intuitions were right, but we are trying to teach her that she can't be scared of anyone,

even if he's a pushing little sumo wrestler :)

My Grandpa

My grandpa and Mia's great grandpa passed away today

at 89 years old. It was almost one year exactly that I lost my other

grandpa, which is strange, because they knew eachother for over 60 years and

only lived a few miles apart.  Mia only met him a few times and was a little afraid because she thought he was a pirate. :) My grandpa survived stomach cancer over 20 years ago

when I was maybe 13. He has lived without a stomach for this long only able to eat soups,

liquids, and very few other foods. He was so stubborn and lived with pain every day,

but he just never gave up. He was always up at the crack of dawn working til the day's end.

He raised 10 kids and had a zillion grandkids and who knows how many great grandkids.

Every single year, he sent EVERY single one of his children and grandkids a package for

Christmas that included random items of household tools, coins, and of course CANDY.

He must have spent every single day getting those packages ready for Christmas, being ill and everything,

it's amazing that he ALWAYS sent them. My grandpa LOVED candy, which is probably why he lost all his teeth, that and he didn't believe in toothbrushes :)  His entire office was filled from top to bottom with every kind of candy known to man. You could ask for anything, and he would have it. He also had a food storage

out in his garage that could feed most of Idaho. He always had the strangest jokes to tell and he was known for writing to VERY important people in the church and government and give them a piece of his mind! I have no doubt that he is arguing with God right now! (tell him to send me a baby will ya?)

He won awards for farming, was a professor and honestly one of the smartest, most stubborn, funniest,

and at the same time awnry SOBs I've ever known. (sorry grandpa) But he was my grandpa and he always

had hugs, kisses, and nice words to say to me. I love you and I hope you are enjoying your feast in heaven

right now! NO MORE SOUP :)