Happy 2nd Birthday, Austin!!

Can you believe he is already 2?! It seems just like yesterday he was this small:

Austin 7 months old :)

He may be just a little bit bigger, but he still seems to have a thing for fire trucks!

So, of course, we had to pull off an awesome fire truck themed birthday party with our favorite little friends!

FYI - Target cakes are awesome. I just told the baker what I wanted. Done.

But, wait... You can't have a fire truck party without some special guests? How about some firemen? And....a fire truck??? Um, yes, please!

That's right. There is a massive fire truck coming up our driveway!

The kids absolutely loved this!! I mean, who wouldn't?! This was awesome! Austin, of course, was decked out in his own fireman's jacket and hat.

Checking out the awesomeness!

Had to show y'all the 9/11 plaque <3 - Yes, we will ALWAYS remember.

Austin and Andrew

Ok, y'all. These next photos crack. me. up. Austin was SO into this. You'll see. 

 

 

He copied this firemen almost the whole party. It was SO cute!!

A HUGE thank you these firemen! They were awesome!! The whole crew hung out the entire time and it was just amazing! These guys put their lives on the line whenever those sired go off, so we were thrilled to have them here to party it up with Austin! Y'all made this little guy of ours have the best day of his life! :)

September 2015 {Music Video}

Just wanted to share all the things we did in September with some music! The boys love this song from the movie "Cars" which they just call Lightning McQueen movie. Cute! Enjoy!

Highlights:

• Austin was admitted to the hospital for 1 night... Thanks stridor... UGH! 
• Lots of playground days thanks to beautiful weather
• Andrew turned 6 years old...what?!
• Aria was Baptized - thanks Father Wilfred!
• Alex got to work his own magic in the kitchen
• Andrew earned the "Smarties:award for knowing all his sight words

It was a great month (minus the hospital stay...)!!

Currently. {Vol. 4}

Enjoying: Having my husband back home!

He was gone ALL last week... NOT fun. A day or two long business trip, I can handle. All week? Um, no thanks. Please no more of that. For a good long while, ok? Ok.

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Oh, yeah! I am also enjoying asking Jason if he misses his 30s and teasing him about it!! Ha!! It is so much fun!! Of course, it will come back to bite in just a week or so. I'm up next to turn - gasp! - thirrrradjghaljyyyyy. We just won't say it yet. I shall enjoy these last days in my 20s.

Loving: Our friends being out of school for the summer!! We have had so much fun this past week! Splash pad fun, impromptu treat outings, and more!

Planning: LOTS of stuff!! Thanks to Trello, I have picked out Aria's announcement, planned a rough draft idea for the end of August, and taken care of a few other things.

What I didn't plan for is my inevitable mini panic attack while taking care of and rearranging some of these to-dos... HELLO?! I'm 2 days into the 3rd trimester!!! Eek!!

Feeling: A mixture of excitement, stress, and other things. But, that's a 3rd trimester thing, I'm sure... 

All I will say on this matter is PLEASE don't stop praying for our buyers and us. I do hope I can share more information very soon!

Making: Personalized coke cans! One of our zoo days included an stop by the #shareacoke stand where you could personalize a coke can. How awesome! And, of course, since Coca-Cola is one of my top 3 drink choices, why not? Also, anything I have...I end up sharing in some fashion with Aria. So, yes, please!!

Awesome

Listening: Alex had a message from the librarian at one of our libraries last week... He was the winner for week!! He loved hearing this message!!

Scored a book and a bear. He and his favorite librarian named him LiBEARian Bear! Love it!

Reading: It is just not in the cards for me... I have been reading a lot of Magic Tree House with the boys lately. And I did start a few of the books, but eh. My rule is (sad, but true) that if the book hasn't grasped my attention by the 5th chapter, I'm not wasting my time. However, there is one book that I have to read...not because I want to or anything.

source

Yes, we are still reading this series... Why on EARTH is it so long? Jason and I are reading these books together. And, no it hasn't grasped my attention, but he says that they are awesome books and all. I'm really trying to give these books a fair chance. But, OH. MY. GOSH. Can we just get to this damn tower already? It is so drawn out... I had no idea going into this either that there were 7 of these books (or 8?)... We should be reading Harry Potter instead... But, I am saving that for when I can read it to the boys. Anyway, I'm at the part (if you care to know or have read these books) where Blaine the Dumb Train has crashed into oblivion. Uuuuuggggghhhhh.. I swear. I am going to make Jason read all of Jane Austen's books or something when this is all over...

Watching: Farmer Jason, y'all!

This was so much fun! We went to the Summer Reading Kick-Off Concert for our new library near the new house and we had a great time! At first the boys were not at all impressed. But most of the kids acted that way. Once they all warmed up and the songs were going, everyone seemed to be having a blast! Glad we went!! Have you heard about Farmer Jason? He's pretty cool.

Oh!! I did watch (and finish) the first season of The White Queen and LOVED it!! However...I'm back to square 1... When does the 2nd season come out? I need another historical drama to watch... Otherwise, I'll just be re-watching The Tudors... Ideas?

I'm also watching my email and Facebook messages. I'll let you know if I see something worth mentioning!

Have a great week, y'all!!

Alex is 4!!!!

Wow! Alex is 4. I just... Y'all. My wild child "threenager" is finally 4!! It was one awesome weekend filled with tons of fun and some pretty awesome friends!

Friday: Wii would like to play! Yep, they are all about Super Mario Brothers. And, as long as we have good behavior, then it's on! Alex even has his very own remote now (we just had 3 before...but the boys wanted everyone to play together...which is so hard if you have this game. OH. My. Gosh.) 

Amazon

Saturday: Alex wanted to hike the Gardens

After an awesome adventure at the Botanical Gardens, we stopped by the ice cream shop. Alex, of course, chose "Birthday Cake" for his cone! So, so cute!

Sunday: Mass, then 2 birthday parties!

After Mass, Alex chose where we would have lunch - 5 Guys! He loves the place where you can get a hot dog and have all the peanuts. Haha! He is so funny! Afterwards, we hung around the mall until it was time to head over to Austin's friend's birthday! They all had a blast! Then after some partying, we had to leave to head over to Alex & Hart's Birthday! 

First, I know I've said this to her a million times in the past 24 hours (or more), but... A thousand more "thank yous" to my awesome friend, Ashley! Her little boy and my Alex have the same exact birthday, just a year difference! And, since we all share pretty much the same friends, and our house is still on the market (more on that later), she suggested we do a joint-party. Love her! I had no idea where we were going to be and how we would pull off a party with the madness going on. So, thank you, my dear!!

Now for the party pics!!

The best friends & the birthday boys!

That's right. There was a FIRE TRUCK!!

Alex loved exploring the truck and all the gadgets inside

He got a chance to "drive" the truck, too!

Austin was fine with it, but was still in the "I just woke up from a 10 minute nap...hang on" mode.

Another one of mine that "drove" the truck

Andrew was impressed that the fire truck's tire was only a tiny bit taller than he is!

...and then my phone died. LOL How's that for a #momfail -ugh! Ashley and her mom took a ton of pic, so I'll grab some from them soon!

Of course all that partying hit them hard as we piled in the car and headed home. Alex decided that his ears hurt because everyone was too loud...so he cried, poor guy. Austin was mad that even though he had tons of fun... three power naps just didn't cut it. So he threw his binky and his Baby Fox in a wild rage and screamed home. Andrew he was annoyed with everyone being loud that he made some weird sounds that belongs more in a jungle setting than a minivan. But, hey, it was a long day. So, ok.

But it didn't matter that Alex was tired. After he was all showered and ready for bed, he needed to rip open those presents! He did wait quite a bit, too. One of them was even given to him Tuesday of last week, but he said he was not going to open it until his birthday. Wow. He was serious about that!

Monday: Happy 4th, sweetie!

I let him pick whatever he wanted for lunch and we have just been playing all day. He did get some mail though! Thanks, Ma & Dave. Those cards are always fun!

Lots of laughs! "What?!"

"It's a Packer player!"

"I played football with that Packer guy, Austin!"

Oh, dear. Yes, you are famous today. But, with the way he plays outside...it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he didn't end up playing on some team. He is already asking when he can play with big kids. We will discuss that in another 2 years... Maybe.

For now, happy 4th birthday my sweet Alex! You don't know how much happiness you brought to me when you were born. We love you so very much!!

Last Week

I'm catching up! I'm almost there! Just a few more photos...

Last week was CRAZY busy! But it was fun, for sure!

We did a little bit of painting with Duplo blocks and Q-Tips. 

We did a little end-of-the Halloween candy snacking.

 

We did a little playing outside no matter how cold it is... We have these things call jackets and hats and extra layers! (Hey, it was 40-something one day. Another day, I think, it was only 30...). By the way, I have no idea what they are talking about. But they were laughing up a storm about something hilarious! After a while they went off to play some soccer. Love those guys!



We did a little hot chocolate drinking to warm up those little tummies. Also, sprinkles make everything better.

We made some crayons. That's all the rage on Pinterest anyway. Maybe that was last year.... Well, we did it last week anyway!

And while all that was going on, Mama baked some cakes! A 6-layer chocolate and red velvet Cat in the Hat cake. Complete with Thing 1 & 2 "smash cakes" for our sweet little twin friends! It was so much fun baking and decorating those cakes. I'll have another cake to share soon. It gets delivered today! Woot!

 

Thanks Lori for the photo!!

We even did a little fox trotting! Ha! Don't you love that hat?!  

It was a great week at the House! Now, off to take an awesome cake to a little princess!!

Austin is 1!!!! {Birthdays}

 Yes, it is that magical time of year where you remember when you were all like this:

Sometime around 4 am before heading to the hospital on Nov 6th

And, then after a while, you get to see this:

But then a year passes by rather quickly...

Crazy, huh? He is such big boy now!

This was right after he woke up, as you can see in the top left picture. Not fully awake, but ready to party!

That guy is one special little dude. His brothers may be stinkers at times, but they love their Baby Austin so much. Ahem. They love their Austin so much. I was informed by Alex that we cannot call him "Baby Austin" as he is no longer 0 years old. "He is 1, mama. And that mean a little boy. When he is 3, like me, or maybe 5 (like Andrew), then he is a big boy. But, he not a baby." Sigh... 

We had quite the party day for this guy! First, birthday breakfast and presents from his brothers. They picked out a bunch of those Little People Wheelies cars. He loved them, of course (and the bigger ones, too, apparently). While he played, the boys got a bit of some school in while I cleaned the kitchen and got ready for Austin's day of fun.

We had an impromptu mini birthday party at the ice cream shop (which, silly me...I didn't get pictures of that. oops #momfail). I did get a picture of the party-goers though!

I just love that photo! It totally shows all their little personalities. Adorable!! :)

Afterwards, we met up with some more friends at the zoo (which...no...this is NOT a picture from the same day. Same friends, different time. Yet another #momfail)

By this point everyone was sick of the party hats and had entirely too much energy. So, even if I had thought to take a darn picture, I'm sure not one of mine would have chilled out for 2 seconds. Yeah.... Still, the zoo was fun and they were most definitely worn out by the end of the day! Especially, since I took them to Toys R Us afterwards.

Yes, I know. Insane is the word you are looking for. But, it all worked out. The boys knew that 1) Austin was the one picking out a toy and 2) Christmas is coming. Of course, with fact #2, all I heard was, "OOO! Look at this!! We want this on the list!" or "Let's tell Santa!" and "Let's take a picture and send it to Grandma!" Oh, my.

Austin did pick out a toy after we wandered a few toddler aisles. And it was super cute, too! He saw a dump truck and said, "CA!!!" (for car, but basically everything with wheels). I asked his if that's what he would like and gave me the biggest grin. Then we turn the corner to walk to the register. And, wow. I thought he was going to actually jump out of the cart to grab the BIGGER dump truck (which also happened to be orange). He saw that one and threw the smaller one down and reached with his grabby hands for this truck. It was so cute! So, of course, he got that one. And while I was glad it was super expensive (tag said $27 something), I was even happier when I went to pay! It got that thing for $17. Score. Everyone wins.

Jason came home for just a bit to give him his present before having to head back out. But there were smiles all around. He just loves that truck!

"Thank you, Daddy!"

After dinner we did celebration #1 (we had cupcakes for the next few days since Jason missed out), and, oh my.... He's not a big fan of the birthday candle. But LOVES the cupcake!

 

Oh, Austin... You are such a funny, sweet, amazing little boy! You make all of us smile and your little laugh just warms our hearts. We love you so very much!!

Happy 1st birthday to our little super guy!!