Happy Birthday Dinner

Tonight Daddy got home and we had a Birthday dinner for Abby. She loves this dinner I do called the Shrimp Boil where I cook food and then throw it on the table....the kids think it is so funny to eat off the table with no plates! Then after dinner we did cake and presents and she got some great stuff but one thing she was really hoping for was to get the Cars movie that came out today...well Greg went this morning first thing and got the movie before it sold out and so we had a movie night after a long day of celebrating! We had a fun day and I think she realized how special she is to us...not just today but everyday!

New Family Pictures!

today after church my dad took some pictures of us in Old Town Alexandria. The kids were pretty hungry and it was super cold but all and all I think they turned out...well as good as can be expected from a 2 and 4 year old. I have had to come to realization that we will not get the "perfect" studio pictures during the toddler years and that is ok! I hope you enjoy....

More Family Pictures!

Here are a few more I thought were cute! The one with my parents cracks me up...I took probably 40 pictures of the same pose and we didn't get one with everyone looking....this one is my favorite because they are all playing together and having so much fun.

It's a Party!

Happy Birthday to Abby and Reese! Today we had a party for the kids...since their birthdays are so close together it's easier to just have one together so the grandparents can all come up! So we had a Cars party (very orginal I know... we have been to 4 Cars parties this year:) Anyways we did lots of fun stuff...the kids decorated cookies, colored, had a puppet show, played games, Granny (my mom) made balloon animals for all the kids and we all ate lots of sugar.....good times!

My dad took tons of pictures so I will have to post a few times to do the party justice:) Enjoy!!

Just take ONE Picture..Please!!

Ok this is really funny....well I wanted to get a group picture...I guess that was not such a good idea because it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to get all the kids to sit after they ate all that sugar! In the first picture you can see me trying to corral all the kids to get in the picture and the last picture well Lizzy is the only one I got to sit down...so I guess you can say we didn't get a group picture...oh well the action shots will have to do for now:)

Balloon time!

My mom did balloon animals for everyone and they were crazy jumping around...but Granny handled it well:) There were balloons everywhere and kids running in every direction...I guess you could say it was a typical 2 and 4 year olds birthday party! It was great!

Presents, Presents....

and more presents! As you can see they got a tons of toys...Reese got a bunch of Thomas the Train stuff...Greg and I got him a Thomas the Train Table and he got all the trains and tracks too...he loves it! Abby got some My Little Pony stuff, lots of crafty things for her to do, a Leapster and....lots of other great things! I think all and all they had a pretty good day...wouldn't you agree?

Too Much Fun for Me!

Well these are too cute...Reese here is giving you a huge cheesey grin...notice the chocolate all over his face:) The next one with Reese and Abby laying on the ground....well they both wanted to do the game together but couldn't quite decide who would go first! The last pic is of the puppet show....before the cake Anglea (my sister-in-law) and Debbie (Greg's mom) did a little show for all the kids....it was so cute the puppets said all the kids names and talked to them and they were so excited...one of the little girls turned around and said to her mom, "Mommy, that puppet knows my name!" It was so sweet...I think they had alot of fun!

Fall Fun Festival!

Last night we went to Fall Fest at a church near by...the kids as you can see went as a chicken and a frog...I tried to talk Abby in the being a cowgirl and not a chicken again like last year but she only wanted to wear her cowboy hat with her chicken costume! anyways the kids had fun..Greg's parents came into town yesturday for the kids birthday party this weekend and so they got to go get candy with us! The church had moon bounces and lots of cars with candy in the trunks! We also got to see fireworks at the end of the night. Reese and Abby had tons of candy and were on sugars highs for the rest of the evening...In the picture of Reese and MawMaw looking in the bag of candy he is so amazed people just filled his bag with candy...it was funny to see what the kids picked out too....they kept picking out all the "non-chocolate" things...I was shocked! Who would pick that candy when there are snickers and Reese's peanut butter cups in there?

On the Potty for the First Time!

Reese yesturday asked to get on the potty like Abby so we let him give it a try...well he was very excited and tried real hard! We got a great picture but he is not "decent" so we can't show the picture:) but it is so sweet! He is growing up like crazy and wants to do everything like Abby! I don't think he is quite ready to use the potty but he sure wants to be all grown up huh?

Party! Party! Party!

We had a little family party tonight for Reese because if you don't already know, it is his Birthday today! Anyway we are having a party for Abby and Reese in a week or so when all the grandparents get in town but we wanted to do something today too....so we had a little shindig on our own! We ordered pizza (Reese's favorite) and had cupcakes and opened a few gifts! I think after the whole day he figured out something is going on here...I am getting gifts too...wow this is cool! I just loved seeing him open the gifts. He got play dough from Abby and trains from us...he was soooo excited he carried the trains all night. After the party we headed to the mall and let the kids play at the indoor park area they ran around like crazy and before we knew it it was almost 10:00...wow we were partying so hard we lost track of time:) Well I hope you enjoyed my little blog tribute to our precious Reese...I can't imagine our family without him he's the best!

A Few of Reese's Favorite Things!

I wanted to make today special for Reese so I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday....and with his limited vocabulary:) he told me play dough, painting, choo-choo and Daddy lunch....so that's what we did! First we got the paints out and him and Abby had alot of fun...I now remember though why we only paint every once in a while...Reese gets paint everywhere:) After that we got out the play dough and all he wanted to do was make balls and then cut them up in tiny pieces...so I guess that was fun for him! Then we headed to the "big toy store" as the kids call it and played with the Thomas the Train table. We then met Daddy for lunch at Chick-Fila which the kids really love! So all and all I think he really had a fun birthday... and Abby asked tonight when her "favorite things" birthday is?...I loved that...I really love birthdays and want to make it a special and all about celebrating them so I hope he felt as treasured as he really is!

Happy Birthday Reese!

Today is Reese's 2nd Birthday! This morning we had cupcakes for breakfast! I wanted to start a tradition with the kids and this is one of the ones I wanted to do and they seemed pretty excited about it! Here you can see that he is really loving every bite!

Costume Day at Mainly Music

Today was costume Day at our Mainly Music class and the kids dressed up as a chicken and a frog....they are so cute aren't they? Abby was constantly talking about how she had a big belly in her costume and Reese well it took alot to get him to take it off when the party was over!

Pumpkin Carving

So I gave in and did the whole pumpkin carving deal tonight....even though last year was a bit crazy we decided to give it another try:)
It was kinda funny last year they couldn't play with the seeds enough and this year they wanted nothing to do with it...Reeser put his hand in there for a second and then wanted to have his hand clean asap!...and Abby wouldn't even try! Well we had alot of fun and they even got to try and cut a little...don't worry it's a butter knife ! They loved it when we put the candle in and turned the lights off....Abby wanted to put it in her room for a night light tonight...then just a few minutes ago she said she wanted it out of her room because it might catch fire...she is always on top of things that Abby!

"Now Pay Attention Reese"

Abby tonight was teaching Reese the ropes of being computer savy! He was all cuddled up and very interested in all the her wisdom...it's kinda weird how good she is at moving that mouse around and she doesn't even get to play all that often so she must soak up all she can when she is allowed huh? All I know is she is about as good as I am with all this computer stuff...tonight she told me her email address...what's up with that? I think I didn't even know my phone number at her age:)

M&M Caper!

So Reese is smarter than we gave him credit for! Greg and I were talking in the other room and Reese comes running in and basically tells on himself by opening his mouth and this is what we saw... but way worse!....We told him to take us to where he had taken all those M&M's and he ran into the kitchen and showed us the empty bag of M&M's on the floor.....the whole (big) bag gone...he probably ate about 40 some M&M's in about 2 minutes! WOW that's impressive! Maybe one day we will enter him in a contest and get some money out of it to pay us back for all the food he eats:) Just Kidding!

October Party!

Tonight our family and Greg's brother's family had an October Party...what is an October Party you might be wondering?...well Greg's parents used to do this with Greg and Doug when they were growing up so they send a box with everything we needed to do it with our families....it's kinda like Double Dare the old TV show on Nickelodeon. We first made homemade pizzas and the kids got to build their own then we did 4 different games or challenges. The kids and us parents had alot of fun....I think we should have a party like this every month...it was great! I will post a new entry for every game I hope you enjoy...we sure did! Thanks Maw Maw and Poppa!

No Hands!

The first challenge was digging a teddy graham out of some pudding with your mouth and not using your hands....the kids did so good they all got the teddy graham...then Reese took a few more dives into the pudding just for fun! They were so messy and they loved every minute of it!

Marshmallow on a String

The next challenge we put a marshmallow on a string then dipped it in the pudding and they took turns trying to get the marshmallow in the other persons mouth....the kids did great and they loved getting pudding on each other....I loved to listen to them laugh they had so much fun...I really wasn't sure they would be able to do it but they did and I can't wait to do this with them again! (a great family night activity for sure!!)