Happy 1st Birthday Aydan!! - Family Party

We decided on a Sesame Street cake - but were not too happy when we got it back. It looked nothing like the picture in the book at the store & it was very sloppy! It was also supposed to be half chocolate half white - we got it and it was 100% chocolate....but oh well, Aydan still had fun....
This was the cake they gave Aydan as a personal cake - for free. He very much enjoyed it. Took a little bit to get him started & he actually cried at first but once he tasted it he was VERY happy. He munched down 3/4 of the cake!!

Aydan isn't much into opening gifts, so Mommy got stuck doing it. He loved what came out of the packages though. This one was a Sesame Street bath time boat toy from Aunt Jamie & Cousin Alli. He loves it, but I did have to tell Dylan & Ryan that it was Aydan's & they needed to leave it alone. (They liked it too..) :)
He also got a Sesame Street mail box shape sorter from Gamma & Gampa. He's getting very good at using it too!

This was just as he was getting started on the cake. By the time he was done he was covered in it. He ended up having a sink bath in the kitchen & I was still picking it out of his ears & nose afterwards!

It was a very good 1st Birthday. I still can't believe my baby is 1 now. It seems like only yesterday we found out he was on his way. Hopefully the next year goes a little slower - because the first one was WAY too fast!!

Happy 1st Birthday Aydan!! - Friend Party

Aydan wasn't too happy to get dressed in his "Birthday Boy" clothes - can you tell?? :)

He loved all of his new "big boy" gifts. He hadn't really gotten any new things since Christmas when he was only a little over a month old - he had out grown his baby rattles a long time ago..

He got a puzzle, small fire truck & dump truck, phone, & \/

a Safari Truck & Animals that Dylan & Ryan got him...

Aydan's first time to eat Peanut Butter Cookies - He loved them!! I'm so glad a couple of his friends were able to make it to his party. (the other one had already left before this picture was taken)

It's official ~ He's a clone......

I just walked in the room to find a scene that took me back about 4 years....

Dylan at 11 months on the left ~ Aydan at 11 months on the right
(Yes, it is even the same pj's.....)

Aydan LOVES to eat!!!

Sunday after church we came home & started fixing lunch. About the time we got finished cooking Aydan smelled food & woke up.
I sat him on my lap to share my lunch, but I wasn't feeding him fast enough so he snatched my banana!
This was getting rather messy so I quickly moved him to his own chair!

He was very proud of his prize!!

He loves ALL food! Bananas are a favorite though!

I know it's probably not good, but the quickest way to make Aydan happy is to put food in front of him!! (Someday when he has a weight problem he can blame it on us! I don't think he has that problem yet!!)

Dylan's Field Trip.... :(

When I found out about Dylan's first ever field trip I QUICKLY let the daycare parents know I would be closing daycare for it so I could go with him. As everyone knows I am a devoted scrapbooker - so as any other big event in his life I wanted to be there to capture it myself & spend some fun time doing something new together!

So this morning I excitedly (possibly more then Dylan) got ready for the day. I got up earlier then I have in months just to make sure I had EVERYTHING ready...little did I know - the day would not go as planned.

We get to the school while it is misting rain & I walk Dylan to class. The plan is to leave the school at 9:00 A.M. via school buses(for the kiddos, personal cars for parents with siblings). Dylan asked me to stay with him in his classroom until they got ready to go, so I did. As soon as they started lining up I decided to head out to the van where my Mom, Ryan & Aydan were waiting.

Dylan's class came walking out & loaded into bus 16. Soon we where off! It was a little bit of a drive into the next town. I was so excited! I couldn’t wait to hear all about Dylan’s very first bus ride! We were about 2 buses & 8-10 cars behind him. (He was in the first bus)

As we near the Pumpkin Patch 2 buses from another school hop in front of us as well as about 8-10 of there parents/families cars. At this time I begin to worry as we’ve never been to this place before. Luckily there are BIG signs so we made it just fine.

When we arrive there is a bit of a traffic jam & we get stuck behind a couple of buses & many car so I decide to get out with Ryan & walk to Dylans bus to meet him. At this point we are about 3 or so blocks away from him. We make it about 1 block on our trek to him when parents who are walking in front of us turn around & start back towards us saying our kids are loading back on buses because all the pumpkins near us are green & they are heading to another area where there are orange ones. So trying to make sure I make it to where they are going Ryan & I hurry back to the van to get ready to move.

We see the buses from the other school turning around so we turn too, then pull over to wait for our buses. At this time we worry with the traffic that maybe we should move to let other people get where they are going easier. By this time though the van is on E & the gas light is on. So we drive back to the entrance/owners house Ryan & I hop out to wait for info while Mom drives the van back into town to get some gas.

While she’s gone I heave that the owners had taken a trailer out to the field so the kiddos could get pumpkins. Though part of the kids were headed back to the front to get pumpkins there. The first bus came, from the other school….so we waited….some parents came along….from the other school….so we waited… Then along came some parents for our school, I asked if they knew what was going on. They let me know that the plan was bus 7 would come back to the entrance to get pumpkins there. Another of the buses were getting there pumpkins from the trailer, and the third bus -the one in the front- WAS STUCK IN THE MUD!!! & couldn’t get out!!! – Guess who was on that bus??? Yes, Dylan!! About that time the owner comes driving out of their barn with a green tractor – to pull them out. About 10 min after that my Mom makes it back with then van. Ryan & I hop back in and head back to the actual patch. We get down there as the last two of the other towns buses are loading up. We see the tractor heading back to the front-meaning they have made it out of the mud!!!

Now though we had to wait for all these youngsters to get out of the road so we can make it down to where Dylan is. As the last ones pass by us we get ready to move, but by this time Dylan class is all loaded up & head towards us so we wait. As they pass us we turn around, get RIGHT behind them, & follow them all the way back to school.

I hop out of the van as quickly as I can to greet him as soon as he steps off the bus! The first thing he says to me is “where did you go while we were at the Pumpkin Patch??” I have to admit, I had held it together until that point, but did tear up when he asked me that….

He was very quiet though & as soon as we got to the door he asked if he could go home to change his clothes because he was wet & muddy. I didn’t answer him right away because I wasn’t sure how wet he was.

They had gotten back a little late for lunch so the school had sack lunches ready for them to eat in their classroom. He got sat down to eat and I noticed he was still very quiet so I decided to investigate this wet clothes thing. Sure enough from his toes almost all the way to his tushie he was soaked!

Being sad we had missed getting to spend this time together already I may have been a little too eager to give into this going home thing myself…. So I checked him out of school, took him home to change (his poor little toes were COLD raisins!!) then we left to meet some friends for lunch. Feeling bad for Dylan still - we went to MD’s because he’s been wanting one of the toys they have. We spent about 2 or so hours there playing! It was so nice to get to finish the day with him. I had taken off work so we could enjoy doing something together – since try #1 didn’t work out, we went for #2 & had a blast!!! Though I still don’t have any pictures of him at the actual Pumpkin Patch to scrapbook with. Please enjoy the pictures I did get….

Moral of the story – pray that all the other parents take their cameras just incase something happens & you miss the events……


Getting Ready to leave school...

Ryan & I waiting at the enterance to find out what is going on...

The wonderful green tractor that pulled my Baby from the mud...

The bus on the way back to school......

Birthday gift to Daddy - From Ryan! (What are we going to do with this kid?!?!)

Last night we put the boys to bed and all was going well until J.D. heard Ryan making noise. He went in to find Ryan jumping on his mattress -off- of the bed. He had pulled the sheet off & ripped it to shreds & pulled the mattress off to play on it & under it...(it is a toddler size)
I think there is enough of the sheet left for me to make a small pillow case with it though, so hopefully not a total loss.
Sometimes we just don't know what we're going to do with him. The wierd thing is - he never does it because he's upset & usually he's very proud of himself & wants to show us....even if he gets things taken away & time-outs...

The night before last we caught him with the bathroom hand soap in his bed - he was painting his head....crazy kid!!!

He will grow out of this...right???? :?

Ryan's Birthday gift to me?!?!

For the past few months this is how I saw today going:
-taking off work
-lazing around in my pj's
-SCRAPBOOKING!!!

Somehow it isn't turning out that way!! Here's how it is going....
-started out scrapbooking
-got a call that my cousin whom I am VERY close to had to be rushed into surgery for a tubal pregnancy
-then Ryan flushed a bath toy down the toilet

#2 slowed the scrapbooking big time, because I couldn't stay focused
#3 put a full end to it

J.D. discovered Ryan playing in the potty & had to give him a bath. While he was bathing J.D. went ahead & flushed the potty not knowing Ryan had filled a small rubber ball with water then dropped it in the toilet - so it had sank to the bottom & was under the toilet paper Ryan had also added.

After plunging many times & flooding the bathroom I decided to ask Ryan if anything else besides paper was in there. (Keep in mind he is watching this whole stressful process) At which time he lets us know that the ball was in there. - If only we had asked sooner. Of course by this time we've pushed the ball as far as it will go.

Soon I come up with an idea to try using the wet/dry vac to see if we can suck it back out, no such luck & after about 5 minutes J.D. decides to completely remove the toilet.

I never realized how yuck this could be!!

As you can see we did find the ball and WITHOUT a plumber!! Yay us!!

The little ball was very happy to be removed from the potty & after a good bath has recovered from the whole ordeal un-harmed!!

(Can't you tell how happy he is?? See that smile!! Of course I think the plunging caused one of his eyes to sink further into his head & the vac caused one to pop out, I think he'll be okay though)
After we got the ball out J.D. took Ryan in to try to explain why we don't put things in the potty & talk about what the potty is really used for. (I am concerned that this went in one ear jiggled around in his head for 2 seconds & fell out the other side...)

New Car!!! (Trouble!)

Well, so we finally did it. After being teased that it looked like we were getting out of a clown car every time the 5 of us went somewhere - we bought a new vehicle. A 2007 GMC Yukon. JD had bought our Altima NEW in 2001 & ever since said he'd never buy a Brand New car again because they loose their value as soo as you drive them off the lot, so we went used.

On July 25th we drove to OKC & traded our "Clown Car" the seated 5 in on a "Monster" that seats 9. Our new Dark Blue beauty had some hail damage from the storm that went through OKC the week earlier & the dealership was fixing it(for free of course) we just had to bring it back the next week.

We took it back to get the hail fixed & they gave us a loaner Chevy Truck. Tight fit - not comfy at all! Really was a pain in the tush - really it was - my hip hurt all week!!
They were supposed to have the hail fixed in two days, but it took a week which meant we had to drive this thing close to the OK/TX boarder because Dylan & Ryan were going to go spend a few days with Gamma & Gampa before Dylan started back to school - luckily my mom was able to meet us there because we didn't want to take it out of the state.

Finally the day came for us to go back to pick it up & guess what happened?? It started storming!! We worried all the way there that it was going to end up getting hailed on again before we ever got it back home. We were lucky though, we seem to be in the eye of the storm or something because it stayed clear right over us all the way home & started raining literally right after we pulled into the garage.

:)

Well today it broke down! JD was headed off to work after lunch & the check engine light came on, the thing went into safe mode & would only drive 10 MPH. He got it back home & we had to have it towed!

Wow what a interesting 2 months it's been! Needless to say J.D. says we'll never buy used again, the extra money is worth the peace of mind....

Ryan's Little Piggy's are Growing!!!

Well, most kids want to get a new pair of shoes before school starts right? Well last year before Dylan started Pre-K we went shoe shopping. We got him some really cute little Sketchers. Of course Ryan wanted new shoes too! So we got him some too! We went on Tax free weekend Aug. 1-3 2008.

(Ryans Size 5's)

Well, to the point I go!!! Ryan had been wearing these shoes ever since. Then on July 25th when JD was getting ready to take the boys to their first Lowes Build & Grow class I noticed Ryan tripping A LOT, so checked his shoes & sure enough he had Finally Out Grown his size 5's!!!!! I had already gotten him a new pair of shoes over the summer(when I found $59 shoes for $14). They were a bit big, but he started wearing his size 6 1/2 shoes later that day.
(Ryans size 6 1/2's)

So as we were driving out of town Friday night guess what happened???? Yea, Ryan starts crying..."My Toes Hurt!!!" Sure enough his poor little toes are scrunched in the tips of his shoes already!!! Not that I'm complaining, I'm happy to see him growing!!
We just tried hard over the weekend to do things were he didn't have to wear shoes. We had some of Dylans old shoes at home that he could wear for the time being so I can shop around. I hate paying full price if I can get the same thing cheaper by looking around....

(Dylans old size 7's that will work until we have time to shop)

Back to "School"

3, 2, 1...Blast Off!!!
Well, our Daycare "school" year has officially begun! Except 2 kids are home sick, so....things are off to a slow start.
Ryan had fun though. This month our themes are Spiders & Caterpillar to Butterfly - we are also working on A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, Circle, & Yellow. So we started off today working on the letter A & mini unit Astronauts. These are a couple of the little things we did today. We also took a flight on our "Space Shuttle" we had tickets & packed our backpacks. Having our "Moon Walk" was a blast!
We learned about a bunch of things that start with the letter A. Except Ryan keeps letting me know his name DOES NOT start with an A!

Precious Gifts

Yesterday we got home from our trip & the boys went outside to play while we got our laundry done from our trip.

Very quickly Ryan came back in the house with this. He came in yelling "Mommy!" & when I came to him he handed me this pretty little pink/purple flower and saying "I got this for you because I love you very much!"

The sweetest gifts come from the heart!!

Visiting Family

This past weekend we went out of town to visit Grannie. The kids had a great time! They love going to her house because she has cool toys (all from when my bro & I were little) & lots of bug/critters outside!
These were some of the caterpillars we pulled off of Grannies tomato plants. The boys had a wonderful time driving them around. Then taking them far, far away so they can't eat Grannies tomato's!!

As we were getting ready to leave on Sunday Aydan fell asleep sitting on Grannies lap. She was holding him so we could pack the car.

After leaving Grannies house we went to the lake to see my family from my Mom's side. I tried to get a picture of the boys & Aaron all together, but out of 4 pictures this was the best. They weren't really working with me....Ryan kept sticking food in his mouth, Dylan was trying to show me his shells, & Aaron...um I have no clue what he was up to. Aaron is the only other red head in the family besides my kids. He's 2 weeks younger then Ryan - notice the 6 inch height difference??? But Ryan is growing - I'll have a post on that later!!!

Very resourceful!!

Dylan enjoys spending his afternoons drawing, coloring, making things out of paper, playing with tape, & using the stapler. One day last week though he decided to re-do his "playground maps" so he needed to get the staples out - this is what I walked in to find him doing.

He had turned our chipy clip into a staple remover. Maybe this is a sign we need to go shopping.

Shopping List

• Chips
• Staple Remover

Triplets!?!?!

Ok, when we just had two kids everyone said "Oh-they look like they could be twins!" and I don't believe they ever looked the same. So now with 3 - well you get the idea. So here are pictures of all three. Ok - I'll give it to you that Dylan & Aydan favor alot, but still don't see twins or triplets!!
Decide for yourself....

Binoculars!!!!....(????)

I was going through some pictures taken back around Christmas & found these. We went to visit my Grannie in South Eastern OK. My Bro, his wiffy wife & son Andrew also came to visit from TX. One night we went to meet my cousin Amber & her little boy Aaron at Micky D's for some Apple Pies...The kids (and J.D.) decided to "recycle" the pie boxes. They had so much fun!!!!(This is Andrew)

Getting Ready for Pre-K.......early.....

Ryan is wanting to go to school sooooooo bad!!! He asks daily if he gets to go to Pre-K yet. So I told him he'll go next year, but we better make sure he's going to be ready. Normally for daycare we use Funshine Express Curriculum, but this year most of the kids are so young (8 months-23 months) that I decided to create my own this year. For Ryan though we are using Brighter Vision Curriculum just to give him an added boost for next year.

So this week I've been using their beginner books just to see where he is with his learning. I've really been amazed. He's doing great on his colors, shapes, sizes, counting, problem solving, and even adding numbers!! So I think next week we'll start the next stage books - luckily I have TONS of these books already - before I found Funshine these are what I used with Dylan & Kale.

Of course Ryan isn't too accepting of my answer about how quickly he gets to start school. Every morning he gets himself dressed(faster then Dylan), packs his backpack, eats his breakfast then asks for me to pack him a lunch. He wants to go with Daddy & Dylan too. He's not very happy when Dylan gets to go to class & he doesn't though.....But, he is getting dropped off at daycare now instead of waking up there!! LOL

But as you can see he's VERY into finger painting. You'd be amazed at the things I convince him to do by telling him he can finger paint when he's done. (clean his room, put away his laundry, eat his lunch...) It's so great! Hopefully he'll still enjoy finger painting when he's a teenager!! Hey I can hope! :)

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round & Round

Last Saturday was Build & Grow at Lowes again - only this time I got to go too!!! (So of course I took as good of pictures as I could get.

This time the boys got to build a School Bus

They have sooo much fun doing these little projects! Dylan did most of his by himself & for Ryan we would just start the nails for him then he would finish hammering them in.

Both boys were so proud of these little things when they finished. They were really cute each kit came with stickers & 4 little "people" slide in cards so you could choose who was ridding the bus. Dylan Picked Aliens & Ryan picked Robots.

Our friend Zane was even there building a School Bus with his Dad!