Partae

 The story goes kinda like this..... Del planned a party for me and had the girls & hubbies and the baby pistachio (Mike and Ashley's inner preggie child) over.  Matt, Bethany and Andy are in Washington, and Elder Hillary is kinda busy elsewhere.  So the girls are stuck with me - and their respective spouses.  Here they all all cute and lovely.  I love them....Lee Lee, Pistachio, Mikhole, Beep and Ryan mmmmm.... not to be confused with Ryan hhhhhhhh.

 

Mandy made one of her amazing creations - it was seriously this cute and hard to make - and much appreciated.  I'm not kidding folks - you need to hire her - she's a freak of nature when it comes to decorating cakes!  Later on, we learned that fondant can be burned in the candles located on the table - which we cannot have anymore on the table because my children are pyros.....

 

We set the table up all nicety nice and civilized and then we played with fire some more.

 There are a lot of candles to deal with at a 50th Birthday Party eh?!

 
Del is a seriously serious Steak griller, like he's on grilling crack I swear.  (I'm lovin' the hair baby...) He's an excellent Harley man, Rocket Scientist, and Grillin' Freak - a perfect combination....  He was out in the snowstorm grilling just for me - I'm feelin' the love baby.  Now this next picture might scare you - but we don't have any steak knives - somehow they get broken or thrown away - so we just pulled out all of my butcher knives, and bread cutting knives and meat cleavers - all with 12 inch blades - I put them out just for fun and then I looked over and my sweet son in law Ryan is hacking up his steak with the bread loaf knife and not complaining or saying anything - I know we scare him so he probably wouldn't have said anything - we are a strange family, indeed.
 
Ashley and Mike brought flowers and balloons and yummy salads and rolls and then we pulled out the matches again and burn baby burned those candles.  I received a great CD from Mandy and Ryan that makes me cry, and 4 extra special messages on my phone where she sings Happy Birthday to me in Spanish, Korean, Jumbalia, and British, all complete with bleeps where she has to swear on a couple.  This is unique because Mandy doesn't speak any of those languages, even British!  Those are treasures, seriously folks, you might pee if your heard them...she took up 4 slots on the message machine.... Ashley and Mike gave me a book called "My Grandma Drives a Harley" that they picked up in Vegas on their last trip there - it's SO funny and I can't wait to read it to not only Andrew, but his little sister and his cousin Tommy Hawker Pistachio Doxstader!  Del was a total sweetheart and planned the party and pulled it off complete with doing the dishes afterward.  Later on I received a call from Washington with the funniest attempt to get Andy to say Happy Birthday Nanna - but he kept inserting the word "Cars" then NANNA really loud - I laughed and cried!  It was followed by a wonderful card from My Missionary Man - something about actually listening to my nagging - that kid better count his blessings that he's far away  on my birthday or I'd put him on dish patrol or wipe-o for a month - right Matt? (:  Thanks for all of the wonderful face book well wishes!  My favorite was:  "Can you hear the death march yet?"  Obviously from an 'older' friend of mine.....  I noticed that I didn't get one from
Mikenzie Reeder Wade - WHF?

Happy day - we had a blast - and I am totally blessed with amazing family and fun friends.
Thanks for making it special!