Kyle's Birthday Party

This year for Kyle's Birthday we had a Pirate themed party at a park near our house. It's the boys favorite park to go to because the play ground is huge. It has 5 or 6 slides, a rock climbing area, swings, and all kinds of other things to keep them busy.

I went to the park with Cameron at 8:30 to set up. The party wasn't starting until 10:00 so I thought that would be plenty of time to get a good table and get all set up. When I got there, the parking lot was full, (I had to park in a handicapped space to unload my stuff,) and all of the shaded tables had been reserved by some bicycle marathon group. I quickly unloaded all of my stuff onto the last two tables at the park and called Gregg to get the Easy-Up out of storage on his way so that we would have some shade.

In the end it worked out just fine, it was a beautiful day and we ended up closer to the playground.
The kids who came to the party ranged in age from 13 down to infant. The park had something for everyone to do. Carter and Kyle were thrilled to have so many of their friends and cousins to play with. They were practically buzzing.

It was nice to be able to hang out and catch up with our friends and family while the kids were off playing with each other.
Some of our friends that came to the party were people we only get a chance to see a few times a year on a special occasion like a birthday so it was fun to have everyone together and relax.


In years past I have been busy "hosting" the birthday parties. This year I was able to really just


enjoy my kids, friends, and family. We may never have another birthday party at our house ever again. (Thank you Brad and Carroll for the great idea!) Clean up was a breeze too. Roll up the disposable table clothes, take down the Easy-Up, throw the cooler and gifts in the Suburban, and go!

After lots of swinging, sliding, and running around, we did a Pinata. The youngest kids went first for obvious reasons. The all did well hitting it, but none of them got close to breaking it open. Even the "big boys" couldn't break it. Gregg finally had to step in and give it a few good whacks to get the candy out. When I asked Carter later what his favorite part of the day was, he said, "when Daddy killed the pinata and got my candy for me!" Apparently it was a hit, no pun intended. ;-)

We sang Happy Birthday and Kyle tried to blow out his candle, but he was pretty tired and couldn't quite get it so Carter stepped in and took care of it for him. Kyle didn't care at all. He was just happy to have a long awaited cupcake.
He even helped himself to a second one while I was taking pictures. When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he said, "Cupcakes!!" It was a fun party and a great day. Thank you to all of our friends and family who came to our little shindig and for everyone who brought or sent gifts to Kyle. He LOVES ALL of them and so does his older brother!

What's been going on here

I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted so here are some pictures of what's been happening here.

Here is Cammie at 2 months old. (I think she looks like she is going to a Clovis High Football game. I love this little outfit!)

I saw that her brothers were trying to keep her warm. I didn't see who did it, but my theory is that it was Kyle because this is the blanket we keep in her bed and he thinks we should keep it with her all the time.


Here is my 2 1/2 year old niece Jordan holding Cameron for the first time. She did so good. She's a natural.


I was folding laundry in my room and Kyle was running around in my room. It got quiet for a minute and when I went to hang up Gregg's shirts this is what I found in the dirty laundry basket. :-) He's faking if you couldn't tell. He thought he was so funny.



This is how we have resorted to keeping Kyle in bed when he has his stubborn moments. He does pretty well and most nights we don't even need to use it, (just threaten to). It's usually nap time that he decides he doesn't need to stay in bed. ;-)

Carter wanted me to take his picture when we were playing outside the other day. He is getting so big. All of his baby features are gone and there is a handsome boy in their place.

My Cammie is smiling all the time now. I took this picture with my phone and it's a bit slow so it's kind of a goofy picture, but I love it!

More postings to come soon, I hope. Three kids, two dogs, a cat, a fish, a husband, and house work can really keep a girl busy, but I wouldn't change a thing! Well except maybe the amount of laundry I have to do, I would change that. ;-)

Easter Morning

This year Easter morning was more exciting in our house because Carter new the Easter Bunny would be leaving him a treat. He's been on his best behavior, (most of the time,) because he wanted to make sure Mr. Bunny didn't forget him. The boys were very cute sitting at the table picking through their baskets while Gregg and I made breakfast. They were occupied long enough for us to make bacon and biscuits and gravy.

At one point Kyle couldn't take it anymore. I heard "Mommy, it's good!" and turned to see him licking his chocolate bunny through a small opening he made in the back of the foil. :-)For Cammie's first Easter she got a little bunny in her basket. She looked so sweet cuddling with him.

Here is Cameron in her very first Easter Dress. Just one of many to come over the years I'm sure. Unfortunately this year it was to cold for her to wear it longer than a few minutes. When you weigh less than 8 lbs there isn't a lot of fat to keep you warm. But it was precious for a little while.

Easter Egg Hunt

Sunday afternoon Gregg's older brother Chris came over with his wife Penny and their girls Courtney and Ashley. Our friends Mike and Nicole came over with their daughter Madison too. The weather was cold and windy and rain kept threatening to ruin our plans, but the kids decided to brave the weather and continue on with the Easter Egg Hunt. Ya right, like they would have let us NOT do an egg hunt, Carter has been talking about it for 2 weeks. ;-) Courtney and Ashley helped Kyle stay on task, he was still a little groggy from his nap. Carter raced around like a mad man grabbing every egg in sight. Luckily there were only 3 kids, and like 50 eggs. Madison was a perfect little lady carefully picking up any eggs she came across. I think they all had a lot of fun.

After the kids had found all of the goodies we all headed inside for an early dinner. It was a great Easter Sunday filled with lots of fun, friends, and family. I can't wait to do it again next year. Hopefully 2011 will bring warmer Easter weather. ;-)

Cameron is One Month Old

Thursday Cameron turned one month old. She's such a sweet little girl. She's pleasant, even tempered, and content. She has even started smiling. It's so cute! At her doctors appointment on Wednesday she weighed in at 6 lbs even. She is a good eater and a great sleeper. We have been supplementing her with some formula to try to bring her weight up a bit. She does equally well with breast or bottle, milk or formula. Carter got to feed her a little bit last week and was absolutely elated. We love her so much and feel very blessed that she's part of our family.

Bunk Beds

I Love Hand-Me-Downs! The boys got bunk beds from a friend of ours the other day and Gregg put them up last night. I was a little worried about Carter not wanting to sleep in his because he gets the top for obvious reasons, but he's afraid of heights. He doesn't even like to sit on Daddy's shoulders. But I was way of track, he Loves his new bed. In fact they both do. They both climb up and down with ease and have already started making up little games to play with each other in their respective beds.

This is Kyles first big boy bed. Last night we tucked him in and kissed him goodnight and he seemed like such a big boy in his big new bed. Unfortunately the freedom of being able to get out of bed on his own proved to be too much for him and he ended up sleeping in his crib, (which we didn't take down just in case that happened.) He was so mad. We'll try again tonight. He really wants to sleep in his new bed so I'm sure it won't take too long for him to figure out that if he doesn't get up I won't put him in his crib.

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St.Patrick's Day and we don't do much to celebrate it, but since green is my favorite color I can't resist doing a little. Of course each of the kids had on green clothes and for dinner the boys ate green beans, green Mac and Cheese, and green milk. Carter even said, "Mommy this green milk is really good." The next time they won't eat something maybe I should just add a little food coloring. :-)