Special Day Indeed!

September 1 is a very special day for many reasons:

September 1 2006
Mara's Birthday
A sweet little angel was sent to our family--Princess Mara was born!

1 year old and her daddy's little sweetie!

2 years old and just as cute as 1

3 years old and more like a Princess everyday!

4 years old and a sweet beautiful angel!

To celebrate Mara's birthday we headed up north for the 'annual shrimp boil'. Every year to celebrate Uncle Colin's birthday the family does a shrimp boil and since Mara's birthday is two days after Uncle Colin's she too gets to share this celebration!
This is one serious and fun ordeal! All the food gets dumped in the middle of the table and every chows down taking what they like!

This was the second year we have attended, and I'm pretty sure it is now an official tradition!

It was a lot of fun gathering as a family to celebrate, we were just missing Grandpa Lewis who went to go Washington D.C. to listen to Glenn Beck!

Even the kids enjoyed taking part in the shrimp boil--their favorite part is the little smokies!

Another part of this tradition is having fresh peach pie for dessert--Colin's favorite. So we added a few more pies to the mix: fresh strawberry! Yummy!

I must admit this was my first fresh strawberry pie I've made and it was really very good!

After the festivities of dinner we opened presents! Mara received many great and wonderful gifts! Thank you, thank you family for the nice presents you gave Mara!

One of the presents she got was a bike helmet! Her old one was too small!

On Mara's real birthday we celebrated again!
Mara went on a special trip to the grocery store just with her daddy to choose her special birthday breakfast: chocolate doughnuts!

I was taking a bunch of pictures of Mara and Ty said, "Why are you only taking pictures of Mara and not me!" Good grief--talk about sibling revelry!

Mara had her nails painted and got her hair done on her birthday. She sure is a pretty little princess!

Then we made chocolate cupcakes together for her party!

We spent the afternoon at the park with friends. We had a planning session for Mara's preschool and the kids played. Then Mara shared her cupcakes with her friends in her preschool class.

Isn't she a gem! Even when she doesn't want her picture taken she is still beautiful!

Mara had a birthday party with her friends after school at Dino Mine Park.

Cute little Lucy! She is in Mara's sunbeam class.

The girls loved the tire swing!

Birthday girl swinging with her friends. I had all the girls swinging at the same time, running back and forth pushing them all. They had such a great time!

Cute little Ruth! She is in my primary class and she is quite the character! She is so fun!

The other thing that made this birthday party special was that it was actually a double birthday party! Ty's friends Harrison who lives across the street had the same birthday so we decided to combine them both. Harrison invited all the boys, Mara invited all the girls--it was quite the birthday PaRtY!!!

Even Caleb had a fun time running around with the kids. His favorite thing was going down the slide.

We tried making a huddle to light the candles but the wind kept blowing them right out!

Mara requested chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles! Pretty girly and cute!

The girly-gooz!
(Lucy, Ruth, Cecilia, Julia, Mara, & Ada)

It was very fun to celebrate, especially with friends and family!
Mara thinks it's fabulous to be four!

September 1, 1950

Grandma & Grandpa Card's Wedding Anniversary
60 years ago Nate's grandparents fell in love and were married!
This definitely was a call for celebration!

On Saturday the Card family gathered together at Uncle Mike & Aunt Diane's to celebrate the Grandparents anniversary. It was so fun to see everyone. I feel so blessed to have married into this family. They are wonderful.

The three daughters (Darelyn, Dyann, & Miriam) worked this year on a quilt to present. They had each member of the family put a hand print on a square. Then they got together for a sister's trip and worked on putting the quilt together. It turned out amazing!

Throughout the years Grandma & Grandpa have answered questions about themselves and written in journals. Aunt Marla made a book for each of them that has the journal entries and questions & answers about them plus pictures. The books are incredible and we can hardly wait to get ours in the mail!

The kids had a lot of fun at Mike & Diane's. They loved the hammock.

Caleb had a good time in it too!

Hey there little cowboy!

What's up dude?!

Mara loved playing the drums, Ty loved playing with the legos. We all enjoyed swimming in the pool. I enjoyed beating Nate at our basketball shootout!! It was a fun time celebrating with family and being together.

Congratulations Grandma & Grandpa Card!
Happy Anniversary! We are so grateful you found one another and were married in the temple. Thank you for your good example to us. We would like to pattern our own lives after the example you have set! We sure love you and appreciate all you do for us. It has been wonderful to get to know you...you feel like my own grandparents! It will be fun to read your books and get to know you even better! I am thankful my children know their great-grandparents, and they love you too. We have had many fun trips with you and look forward to going to Scofield, Strawberry Reservoir, and having you come visit us in Price!

September 1, 1972 (?!)
My Parent's Wedding Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Mimi & Papa!!
Sure glad you fell in love and were married...because I probably wouldn't be the person I am today had you not!! Grateful you are my parents. Thanks for all you taught me. It has been wonderful moving back and being able to see you more often. Thank you for being such wonderful grandparents to my kids. They sure love you and I do too. Hope you had a special day!