Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Birthday Boy

Warning-tons of pics, tons of talk. Everything's WAY out of order...


After Church on Sunday



She really thought he needed that bow instead of her!

The birthday boy at his birthday party. This was after he'd been playing for a couple hours and had already changed into his swim suit. Better late than never.

This is to show how Maggie holds her own pretty well with these older kids. She was right there with them no matter what they were doing. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe she's just 14 months old.

Maggie was scamming everyone else's cake

Two forks, meaning two plates of leftovers she'd taken. Now she was lookin' for more...


Will and his GG, my Granny. They got to spend a few hours together this week while I was running errands with Maggie. I love that she just sits and talks with him for ever-our crazy life is so fast paced, and she lets him just move at his own pace. Such a special relationship.


Will getting into the cheese puffs at his party

Trying to dig into the cake before it was time

How sweet, he was holding her hand to keep her back while other kids were swinging at the pinata!


Telling me he's three!

I love this face. He was in heaven listening to Happy Birthday yet again...

Will with my parents opening some presents

This was during the "Happy Birthday" song. Maggie was tired of waiting for a cupcake

Diggin' in

Will and his Chief

Will at the bottom of the slide

Will at his first movie

By the Horton poster

Will and Maggie eating the traditional birthday chocolate chip pancakes. He seems to be making the face of a three year old who knows 300 pictures will be taken in the next few days and this is only the beginning!

Ethan, Will, and Liam at school eating Spiderman birthday cupcakes. He's never seen it before and doesn't have any spiderman toys, but he keeps talking about Spiderman for some reason. If you're wondering why he doesn't have shorts on at school-but they were in the process of changing out of their swim suits because it was splash day at school!

Enjoying their selections from their first trip to the ice cream truck

Maggie sees Will putting on underwear now and thinks she needs some. Everytime I get a pair out of his drawer, she goes and picks another pair for her. I guess we need to get her some pink ones!


We've had such a busy week celebrating Will's third birthday! He got to go to his first movie, Horton Hears a Who. Eric has been reading him that book every night for the past few months and we've been telling him he could go see it when he started pee peeing in the potty. Well the week before we went to Mexico, he decided he was just done with diapers out of nowhere! It was crazy, but the doctor had warned me that would probably happen one day. Anyway, he finally got to do that this week so it counted for potty training and a birthday fun night. For his actual birthday, it was his last day of school, so it was also the day of his program. We took cupcakes to school that morning to share with his friends, and since we had leftovers, we took them to the church office and shared the rest with the staff. Will loved that everyone kept singing Happy Birthday to him. It was at that point that he really got into the whole "I'm the birthday boy--anything goes" attitude!

That evening, he wanted "britos" for dinner, so we had a stacked taco picnic with my family. On a side note, most of the work we've had done around the house is complete and we are really enjoying our new covered patio, especially the fans in this 95 degree weather! If you tell my kids that it's time to eat, even if we're inside, they run out back to their picnic table and wait for the food. I don't remember the last meal we had at the kitchen table!

After dinner, we had quick baseball cupcakes, then we were off to his performance. That wasn't Will's favorite part of the day by any stretch and he cried when they were walking on stage. After we got back from Mexico, he was kind of "done" with school. Oh well, he was fine right after and we even made a quick trip to the park on our way home.

Let me also say, he was OBSESSED with presents. For the past two birthdays and Christmases, I have WAY over bought for him and he usually opens one or two things and is done. He actually opened a lite brite as a rainy day gift about a month ago that I had bought when he was 18 months for Christmas, then rewrapped when he turned two, rewrapped for Christmas last year, and just never given him. Anyway, not so as a three year old. He was opening things all day long, whether or not I was looking. I ended up just wrapping up some underwear and outfits I'd bought him just so he could unwrap them.

The "official" birthday party was Saturday. I told him he could pick what he wanted for his party-Pump it Up, Little Gym, etc. All he wanted was exactly what Maggie had. So we got the bouncy slide, the pinata, the friends, family, and food, and repeated what we did two months ago. Thanks to all those who came and made it such a special day for Will. I didn't get any pictures of him with Eric, me, or any good ones of him with his friends unfortunately. Crazy, I know, but I kept forgetting to take pictures!

Happy Birthday Will-we love you so much! I wanted to try and post some pics of him at one, two, and now three (and memories of course), but this is SO long already...that might be a post for another time!

I do want to make a brief list of the things I LOVE about Will at this age for posterity. I love that the second he wakes up in the morning, he wants to know what the plan is for the day, and that every night when I go in to tuck him in, he wants to talk about everything we did that day and what his FAVORITE parts were. I love that he laughs all day long, and about anything and nothing at all. I love the sweet moments he and Maggie share, and that he loves to go in and climb up her crib to "help" me get her out of bed. I love the conversations he has with his friends-let the eavesdropping begin, I guess, but those kids are so cute when they're having their little talks! I love hearing him say his prayers at night and trying to follow his train of thought. I love his bluntness, his innocence, his oblivious-ness if that's even a word. I love watching him learn something new and then practice it until it's "perfect." I love the excitement on his face and the animated "wow"s and how he says things are "really cool." I love that he's a hugger and a kisser and is always ready to say "I love you" and then show me how much with his hands! I just realized how long I'm rambling...

I guess I should sum up. To anyone who stuck with me this long, have a great week and a Happy Memorial Day!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Oh, Mexico

We got back yesterday from a wonderful vacation in Cabo. My sister's family had so much fun they extended their trip a few more days! It really was such a great week, and I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to get away for awhile. The kids had a blast together, as usual. Okay, on to the pics since probably no one's reading this anymore anway...

 



 


 


 
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My sister and I had gone to lunch on Mother's Day and there was a little store next to the restaraunt that had these hilarious capes-we couldn't resist.

 

Not a bad place for an afternoon nap!

 

Shayla and I post massage-Happy Mother's Day!

 


 
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Will has this new thing when the person taking the picture says "Say cheese" he gets this hilariously confused/sad look on his face. Not so cute for the picture, but his consistency is impressive!

 

Maggie loved watching the bigger kids jump into the pool-and even tried it herself a few times!

 


 
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This was so precious-everytime I told Maggie "Look at the waves!" she would wave to them. I guess that is a hard concept for a little one!

 
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Will's first attempt at sushi. He ended up just eating chicken that he stabbed with chop sticks.
 


 


 
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Maggie never could get these goggles on, but it wasn't for lack of trying!


 

Will was very into the seatbelt buckle on the plane. I think it reminded him of the ones at Six Flags to be honest. He thought the mountain our house was on was a roller coaster when he looked back at it. Guess that doesn't say much for the landscape of Dallas!

 


 
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This is literally when Will fell asleep on the way back. Notice the planes in the background? We were already taxi-ing to the gate when he just couldn't take it anymore!


Since we were in Mexico for Mother's Day, the dads took the kids for a few hours and Shayla and I were treated to massages and facials at the house. When everyone came back, we went off for a long lunch and had such a great time catching up. I'm so glad to have a sister who is also my best friend. We always have the best time together! And what a blessing to be a mom to two such wonderful kids who make me so happy (and a wife to a pretty fantastic man)!

The rest of the trip was spent eating, relaxing, swimming, and a little more eating! The kids did great going and coming on the plane, so that was an answer to prayers...and a response to lots of snacks and a portable DVD player! Maggie had a little trouble with her ears on the way down when we were getting to Mexico, but we think that might have had something to do with her being tired and getting four new teeth! She looks like such a big girl now!

Will had some pretty funny things to say while we were there-for one, he thought the house we were staying in was Mexico-literally, just the house. One day we were swimming and he and Molly were squirting water through one of those water noodle things and Molly got it to spray really far-Will said, "Whoa, Molly, that almost went all the way to Mexico!"

He is really into the show "Little Einsteins" still, and it's really funny to hear him use musical terminology in real life settings (Mommy, go adagio-ly) and to hear him talk about real places. We were walking up the hill back to the house from the beach and he said "Here we go walking up Mt. Fuji on our way to Mexico"

Well I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures. I know there were a ton, but out of the 200 plus that I took, I thought I narrowed them down pretty well! As Will would say, "Buenos Nachos"