Birthdays and visitors

I am a bit behind. Spencer's birthday was at the end of February. He had to work a weird shift that day and didn't get home until the late evening, so we didn't do any celebrating that day. We did however receive our most faithful visitors that day. Leslie and Aaron drove drove down from Portland (from Utah) and spent the next couple of weeks with us.

Below, Spencer blows out the candles on his birthday cake (sour cream chocolate cake, a recipe from his Grandma Higginson).

Here are the kids. Aaron loved holding and caring for little Andrew. It was sweet. (Yes, Lila's clothes were sloppily created with the computer.)

We watched the Mountain West conference tournament. Andrew seemed to get into it as well. (Pictured here is the SEC tournament)

Aaron and Lila curled up in a chair together.

Luke loves Andrew to pieces.

It was a glorious 65+ degree day. We couldn't resist hitting the park.

Go Les!

Leslie also had a birthday while they were in town. A few weeks before she arrived she threw out the idea of throwing Spencer a surprise party. I thought about it but with him working that day and a few other complications I decided to turn the table on Leslie and throw her a surprise party. Fortunately she knows a handful of families from our ward, enough people to fill our home and surprise her. Thanks to all who came to help us celebrate Leslie's birthday.
Gotcha!
I made some of her favorite treats, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, sugar cookies, and chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.

Lila and Elise embrace, excited to see each other.

Leslie opened the present Aaron chose for her at the store earlier that day.

Luke and Marcus

Spencer isn't usually this big of a dud. In this picture he had just found out about the Brandon Davies mishap. Spencer was devastated.

Andrew loves his Johnny Jump up. Anyone who has held him knows that he loves to jump. This handy dandy devise enables me to rest my arms and allows him to get his jump on.

Having six kids in the house does lead to occasional crazy wildness. In this instance we sent them outside to run laps to get out their superfluous energy.

To these boys Andrew is a toy to play with. They love to crawl right beside him and see things from his perspective.