Photoshoot

Yeah, he's just that cute!

Birthday

Here are some highlights from the festivities of the day.

 He got so tuckered out he had to rest up for the party after dinner!

 This boy loves soft lovable things!

 The way the cake really was....we had to add a dog by the hydrant.

 The cake was too dry, but he was still a fan...for a bit at least.

 All dudded up for birthday pictures! (I made his pants, suspenders, tie and hat - more pictures to come)

The birthday boy and his mommy! We sure love this guy!!!!

This is pretty long, like 2 1/2 minutes, but some people might want the full experience of him eating his cake.

Birthday Ball Pit

So we started this with The Girl, and it was so fun we continued the tradition with The Boy. So here is a video of our Birthday Ball Pit!

We are sad to say that shortly after this was taken, someone had a bladder malfunction and ended up having to wash approximately 200 balls and a porta-crib. It was awesome!

We also brought up the baby piano, The Boy is a big fan!

Birthday Cake and Lunch

This morning I got to finish The Boy's birthday cake. How on earth could I survive doing something without a little helper? Well, here is my helper...having too much fun helping!

 Sam wanted a hydrant for the candle, I say he did an excellent job sculpting with Airheads!

 We tried out pizza for a birthday lunch, it went over quite well.

Where the Pavement Ends

As some of you know, Sam and I have been playing with pallet creations. Going so far as to create a business name of Where the Pavement Ends. We have had a lot of fun with it. These are some special orders that we filled this week. A quilt rack and a shot glass holder. I hope I’ll be able to get pictures from the people once they are up in their houses, but for now you can see what’s up.

The Rest of the Story...

I grew up listening to Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" and so part of me always wonders what the rest of the story is.

Anyway, we took these family pictures back in October and I was just looking through Sam's pictures and I had an idea. Those 3 great photos that were used in Christmas cards, yeah, there were almost 100 to get them. So here is The Rest of the Story behind family pictures...

Singing in the Cold

While in Texas we took The Girl to see Frozen. She sat through it and seemed to really enjoy it. Nearly a week later, once we were back from out trip she busted out singing one line of Do You Want to Build a Snowman. She was a little relentless, so I sent her outside to sing. She was cracking me up so much I had to get it on video, so here you go, the same line over and over and over and over...dancing and facial expressions are bonuses.

Texas duck feeding

It wouldn't be a trip to Texas without going to feed the ducks and play at the park. On January 1 we went to the lake/park to do just that.

 The Boy didn't seem to mind the birds but Mommy was a little freaked out by all of them swarming around.

 Three generations of fly away hair...

Both of the kids were taken with the park. The Girl started to learn the difference between a playground and a park....there are tons of playgrounds in Texas, and she got to go to at least 4 of them, possibly more, I just lost track.

MouseTrap

We got Mouse Trap for Christmas from my awesome brother and his family, along with our books that saved us during sickness. Maggie is in love with the game. You'd think that after a bit it wouldn't be exciting anymore...that is just not the case. Almost as soon as The Boy goes down for a nap she asks to play it. I finally pulled out the camera to record an actual "trapping". Enjoy!

Thank you again, Gordon and Coren! We love the game!!

Convalescing

Christmas vacation was fabulous, I'll put posts up about that later, but what have we gotten the most from that we brought home from Texas? This lovely sickness! I was lucky enough to catch it in Texas, and lucky for us no one else got it until after we got home. The Boy is mostly better; he still has a wonderful cough though. In this picture I set him down to go get socks or something and when I came back he'd just keeled over, not able to keep himself upright.

 The Girl joined the ranks of the sick ones on Saturday night. Lucky, lucky, lucky for us on Friday we got another Christmas surprise! Not only did we get Mouse Trap (a game that is quickly becoming a favorite), but we got these great books! We all really appreciated having new books to read! I must have rubbed off on The Girl because she always requests Fox in Socks. Another cute thing, if you ask her the title to One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish....? She adds, "White Fish!" Even The Boy is enjoying sitting and reading with us, although he doesn't have much patience for the longer pages.

The books were an answer to prayer, a distraction from the misery that has been our house for the last week. Hopefully we'll get all better so we can actually leave the house again.