Cache's 8th birthday!

Our boy Cache was baptized on his 8th birthday.

  What a sweet special day.

• He started his day with opening presents. New underwear! I knew it would crack Cache up. 
• Devin and I took him to pick out a Lego set. And it was a big decision.

• Then he went to his very first basketball game and made a basket!  
• Rode his bike with his Dad to Subway, his favorite lunch place.
• Came home so we could all get ready for the most important part of his day: His baptism.

The Primary president gave him a new white towel to dry off after his baptism. And his Grandma and Grandpa Orton got him his first set of scriptures and scripture case.  Devin and I got him a journal,

which he was really excited about after reading the books: "Diary of a Wimpy kid."

 The only time our miss Nay gets her hair curled is by aunts and cousins.  

Someone needs to give me a lesson.

And then it was time!

Cache chose his Dad to baptize him.

 I just love this picture of Cache and Devin by the Savior. 

Having your oldest be baptized was a different experience than I had anticipated.

I guess when it's your own you think about things more.  

In short it was a very sweet experience for me to prepare my son to take his first step in following in the footsteps of the Savior.  I saved more details of that for my actual journal.  If future Cache is reading this and wants to read more, you have permission to read my journal. :)  We just love this boy and although very much an obnoxious 8 year old boy, he has taken it upon himself to raise the bar in his own life, telling us: "I haven't told one single lie since I've been baptized." And "Now that I'm baptized I will try to be nicer." :) I need to make sure he knows it's okay to mess up, but I'm proud of him.

We know as parents that following the Saviors example with be most sure way of leading the happiest life, despite all that comes our way in life. As the Nephites in the book of Mormon stated: "And we lived after the manner of happiness." Meaning they followed the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. And though simple, it brings peace in our hearts and in our homes,  keeps us from addiction and helps us forgive and maybe the biggest blessing of all, it gives us HOPE. Hope that you are never too far gone.  Hope that we can always be better, hope that good will over come bad in this world, and hope to know that this life is not the end! We will see the people we love again. They are still living as spirits and growing and love us just as we still love them.  It is only a temporary separation.  And on top of that  we have access to truth and the blessings of simple quiet happiness go on and on. This is why we want our children to follow in our footsteps and why we try to follow in the Saviors. Or at least why I do. I guess I can only speak for myself.

 Cache doesn't understand all of that, but I am surprised how much an 8 year old does understand. 

 And sometimes he gets it more than I do. 

Thanks Julie for capturing these "off camera" shots. 

 Grandma Colette and Grandpa Dave with their oldest grandchild.

My sis with her baby girl. I love this picture.

We all gathered back at our house for meatball sandwich supper and his party.

 We didn't get many pics of the guests. 

But The Barrett's are always  camera hogs and end up on the camera. Nate and April have been to more of our children's births, birthdays, blessings and now baptisms etc. than any actual member of our family. Plus, they know things about us that no one else in the world does, so we keep them close. ;)

And that was the day.  Makes me heart warm to remember it.

 Here are a few hundred pics I took to document 

our Cache David Orton as a strapping eight year old boy: 

Cache had a few good ideas for his 8 year old pictures too:

 And that's our boy!

Happy Birthday Cache. We love you so very much.

Its my birthday so I can ramble if I want to.

(Written in September. Finally spell checked it and put it up today.)

I chose to go on this little hike called, "Blue Lake" for my birthday. According to locals, it is perfect for kids, meaning not too long and is most gorgeous in the fall.  So we waited all summer and decided it would be a perfect birthday destination.  WRONG.
But I'll tell the short little story.
We prepared.
Jackets.
Hiking sandals(doink).
Restaurant scoped out online for lunch afterwards.
Bags of cute special snacks for each person, made by my cute husband Devin.

Then we drove. So pretty!
I must be old.
Only old people love the drives.(According to my kids and also myself as a kid.) 

Stopped at a cute store for an emergency bathroom break. And I was excited. I love cute weird stores. But they informed us, it was only for paying customers. Ignored them and ran Naomi into the bathroom before she peed on me. Came out to glares. I mean real glares. That happens outside of movies? Then outside, the whole town must have been chatting on the store porch and gave us the EYE too. This town shoulda been called, Mypottynotyours or something.  We decided to be peace makers and buy a soda. Luckily, they had Devin's favorite soda for only $5 a bottle.  Not to be deterred, its a birthday trip, lets buy everyone their favorite flavor!

I'll get to the point. We got about 1 mile till the starting point of our trail head and there was snow. And dark clouds. And they kept getting darker and the snow deeper.  And I was wearing sandals.  Devin the ever optimist(I'm not being sarcastic) declared:  Amie this doesn't feel right. We need to get off the mountain.   Now Devin says statements of caution like that once in.. well NEVER. So without question I gave up the hike.  We got out to see the snow for a few minutes. It was cold. Frigid. 

Drank our sodas.

 And drove back down. 

Googled a nearby lake.  And went there instead.

  And that's really the end of the story.
But here are a few pictures of us trying really hard to enjoy the day still.

 So determined to reach his big brother. He struggled and panted and...

 Made it.

 Then we got burgers on the way home at little old burger place. And that's it. Officially a year older.

My cake:

Here is a little synopsis of my 30th year of life:

So far being in my 30's has been the best thing ever.  My favorite year of my life.

I found a new comfort in my own self that I've never had a grasp on before.  Magic of the number? Or just coincidence that I finally found this comfort, this year of my life?  Plus I got to go to Tahiti. Which has been a life long dream.  Cache grew by leaps and bounds. Lost his anger he carried through his  5's and 6's. (Maybe a reflection of me?) He is back to his silly self we knew so well as a small baby and boy. He now will sporadically tackled hug me and kiss me right on the lips. His hugs warm me from the inside out.  Naomi just keeps turning into a surprisingly dynamic little lady. I just love to watch her personality blossom. She is just so much of a different girl than me, and I love it. Surprises me, but I love it. I can see her growing up to be a proper little pre-school teaching mommy with a pink house and everything organized or a straight up rainbow loving, free expressionist,  hippy girl.  Most likely it will be totally something totally different. But she will be kind and confident in whatever person she chooses to become. That I am sure of.  Gage is growing up, cementing himself in the dynamics of our 3 crazies. He really is the luckiest of the 3 in terms of me as a mother. I treat him almost like a grandchild. Cuteness out the window. Whatever makes you comfy. Sweats and sturdy shoes for this boy. No jeans and cute button shirts and boots like Cache had. And not because I'm tired. But because what matters in life is changing to me. I'm more calm, and organized but care less about those things. (Well, a little less.)  Devin and I grew, and healed from the trauma of starting a business from the ground with zero amounts of moolah, and no experience, the same year as moving cross country and having child number 3. ( I have surveyed lots of mothers out there and whether they have 10 or 3 kids, 99.9% agree that number 3 was the hardest transition, so I feel validated.) But Devin and I, well, we grew even closer this year and there is no better way to say it than, we are more in love than we ever, ever have been.

A good long vacation alone really did help too.  Still lots of struggles and mistakes and missteps outside our home and in, but now I have learned that, struggle means growth is happening. You just gotta hold on and keep your dignity about ya when you are in the fire. My relationships with my family are healing, changing and becoming more what I hoped that they could be. It's been a good year. I hope this next one is better. :) And that's a wrap. 

For the record here is my 31 year old profile.

Halloween 2013

Leading up to the big day we: 

Carved and colored pumpkins

And attended a witches party at the Sheps. So fun. (A few days before Halloween.)

Naomi is my little decisive ward robe assistant. I love her.   I wish I had a picture of her buckling my shoes while I was doing my makeup, and lecturing me on how these shoes were much more pointy and better for witches than the ones I had been wearing before she showed up and insisted that I change.   

Finally Halloween arrived!
 Woody and Bo-peep!

He insisted that his hat would blow off even if inside. And yes Woody always wears two hats.

Can't be too careful.

And that band aide on his eye? No owie. Nothing. He woke up yelling he needed a band aide on his eye.  If it means sleep, we oblige.  Gage often does things like that  in his sleep.  Trying to reason with him results in hysteria. You just have to agree with him, for whatever he is yelling about. And he will lay back down, pull his yellow blankie over his head and go to sleep.  He also woke up crying that his Woody hat was blowing away.
 Poor guy. The world is against him.

 Cache's school party. Gage stated: "Cache is going to like me so much."
And he did. 

Naomi's pre-school class.

 Trick or treating at the Idaho State Capitol
We just missed the Governor. Darnit.

 It has very tall ceilings.

 And very nice marble I guess.

I just put on whatever and Devin was a crazy soccer fan. We thought of what he was after he put it on and got in the car.  Next year we'll put more effort!  (We said that last year.)

Another successful Orton family Halloween in the Books!

Veteran's Day

I am just going to spend the next month back tracking.  I have a big gaping hole from about Summer to Fall. And heaven forbid I not document every picture I take! ha.  Anyway. During that time we got ready for Tahiti, went to Tahiti, as well as family reunions and then we moved to a new house, new school, new ward, and such. So gotta catch up those pictures.

I think I'll work backwards.

Here is Veteran's day:

We took the family down town to watch the Veteran's day Parade. Lots of tanks, hummers, even a few planes on wheels,  and of course lots of American flags and Veterans. I was really impressed how all the soldiers, veteran's or anyone in the parade would come and shake the hands of every veteran in the crowd, and say: "Thank you."

Here is Gage the grandpa magnet. (Below)

 They came out of the parade and be-lined it straight for little Gage sitting on the curb to say hi.  Gage  would wave his little flag but no matter what they did or said he would not break this expression:

 The Veteran sitting next to us, looked exactly like the old man from "UP." Gage watched a lot of the parade just standing next to him holding onto his leg. Super cute, and totally typical of Gage.

 It is very common for me to be in any store, the Apple store, the toy store, the clothing store, and turn around and Gage has recruited some Grandpa to help him get a toy down, get on a chair, play catch with him.  I've noticed that they are usually always a wrangler wearing, grandfather aged man, just like his real grandpa's.  Anyway, so the parade just furthered my observation of this funny phenomenon.

Moving on.

After the parade we walked down town to "The Pie Hole." Got us some pizza. Funky place.

The week before Veteran's day, Cache's class along with all the other 2nd graders in his school put on the most touching Veteran's day program. It was really special and I was so glad Cache was in this school that taught him such amazing patriotic songs about how wonderful our country is. I can't explain it in words what a special night it was. A lot of the audience in tears! And lots of parents, grandparents and on, dressed in either uniform or in veteran's hat. I just loved it. 

Love those Veterans!

 Love America.