Mercedes Birthday Bash (and Jon Mark's Too!)

As I mentioned in the previous post, Mercedes has turned 1 and she does weigh close to 23 pounds still.  She has actually lost about a 1/2 pound because she's not quite at 23 now.  Anyway, she had a fun birthday and her aunts from Utah got to be there.  We were missing: Brian, Ben, Vanessa, their kids, Kevin, and Jaron.  Although small, it was a nice get together at my parents house.  We celebrated Jon Mark's birthday as well.  The big 30!  He and I had had a date together on his actual birthday, but he got to blow out candles alongside Mercedes.   

Michelle and Jessica were here for a week with my nephew, Sawyer.  Joshua loves Sawyer, especially because Sawyer thinks he's pretty funny.  Joshua thought he was funny too and would say, "HA HA Mommy!  Look at Sawyer.  Baby Sawyer is being silly!"  We wished Jaron could have been there.  Joshua hasn't forgotten Uncle Jaron and when Jessica forgot to point him out in the family picture, he made sure she knew about it.

We missed Brian as well.  He was in Arkansas looking for housing.  Lindsay and Brian are moving at about the same time as us.  Brian is going to be going to law school as well.  It makes me sad to think about us all being so spread out and far away. 

My Mother in law and my Mom were both at the party too, but I guess I didn't get a picture of them there.  My mother in law was behind the camera and my mom was grilling.  But here is a picture of Sawyer being cute.

Silly Bekah and silly Joshua--both giving us their fake smiles for the camera.  They thought that all of Mercedes new toys were for them.  Joshua has claimed a book she got for himself and Bekah made me pry the new glowworm out of her hands.

Jon Mark has finally gotten his cast off (hallelujah) and now has a walking boot (yippee!). 

Here is my latest art project.  I took a long board out of the dumpster (can you believe someone threw away a beautiful piece of hardwood?!).  Then, I cut it into two pieces using my dad's saw.  I glued the two boards together, sanded them down, stained it, re sanded to distress it, free-handed the silhouette, re sanded in certain spots, and finally--I put a finishing coat of poly on top for protection.  I like the way it turned out.  Oh, and then I put brackets on the back so that I can eventually get around to hanging it up in the bathroom, but since we're moving, I'm not going to any time soon.