Max's Birthday Party!

This last weekend the whole family was in Snowflake to celebrate Pioneer Day.  Since everyone was going to be in town I thought this would be the perfect weekend to throw Max his first birthday party!  Poor Max's birthday is in the middle of July so we just might have to go up to Snowflake every year to celebrate it!   The weather was overcast and cool.  I thought it might rain on us, but it never did, so it made for a perfect evening!

We did a Mickey Mouse theme and I thought it turned out so cute!  A shout out goes to my friend Alacey for letting me borrow a few decorations and Kate's cute outfit, and a BIG shout out goes to my mom for letting me have the party at her house and for all the amazing food!

I love how the cupcakes and cookies turned out!  Thanks Jared for helping me with those!  For dinner we had hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, fruit salad and potato salad. 

The kids just loved hiding under the trampoline!

After we had all ate it was time for Max to open his presents!  He got some amazing gifts!  It got a little crazy here as all the kids were so excited to help Max open his gifts, so I'm not totally sure who gave him what!  I *think* Grandma Foree gave him some cute wooden toys, Grandma Watson got him some clothes and a Little People car ramp, Sherice gave him  a dump truck, Bethany gave him a book and cars, and Lacie gave him another Little People set???  I'll have to ask Dustin to clarify that for me.  But he LOVES them all!  Thanks everybody!  Oh and the big Lightning McQueen car is from Dustin and I.

The whole gang!

We donated quite a few balloons to the sky that night, and these three were staring at them until they couldn't see them anymore.

Then it was time for cake!  I let Max have his own and he wasted no time tearing into it!

We love you so much Max!  Happy Birthday!

Black Out

Last Saturday we came home from running a few errands to discover that our power was out. So we decided to make the best of it, when the light started to get dim we built a blanket fort and got out our flashlights.

We tried to play a dice game, but that didn't last long because it was too much work trying to get Max to not eat the dice!

When the power goes out in the valley, it doesn't take long for your house to get HOT. It had been raining, but it was clear outside and Kate was begging to go play in the puddles, so we went outside. It was cooler outside then it was in the house thankfully! There we found our neighbors outside having a water balloon fight! I do not have pictures of this because I was too afraid to get my camera or phone wet. But it was lots of fun! We played outside until it was dark, and our power was still not on! So we went inside and changed our kids into their pajamas by the light of flashlights, and loaded up the kids in the car and went to eat/kill time at Chick-fil-a. Finally while we were eating I found out, via facebook, that our power had finally come back on.

I think by the time the power finally came on it had been off for about 3 or 4 hours. We had not opened our fridge or freezer during that time to everything was thankfully still cold and we didn't have to replace anything. Although I certainly never wish for the power to go out, I'm thankful it did that day. We did things we normally wouldn't do, and got out and reconnected with our fun neighbors! 

Maybe that was God's way of telling us we need to socialize more?

Gymnastics!

For the past two months Kate has been going to a gymnastics class!  She absolutely loves it!  Her teacher is a lady in our community who does it in her home.  She's been going every Wednesday for an hour, and today was the last day of the summer session.  Her recital is on Saturday, but since we'll be up in Snowflake, we're probably not going to go.  So I went to her class for a little while today so I could see her show off her skills!  I wish I would have taken some video, but I just wasn't thinking.  I'm sure we'll probably put her in this class again in the fall though, so I will have another chance :)

She can do backwards rolls on the "big cheese",

Forward rolls on the mat,

handstands,

and walk sideways and backwards on the balance beam, as well as kicks and walking on her tip toes!

I just asked Kate what her favorite part of gymnastics was, and she replied "cinnamon rolls".  So take that for what it's worth.

I know she loved it and will be asking to go every week until it's time to go again!

Max's Birthday

Max's big birthday party will happen next weekend, but we still had a little party for him.  Kate gave him the presents she had gotten him, and he ate his very first cupcake!

Then later that day we took a trip to the Apache Junction library.  Coolest.  Library.  Ever.  It was not was I was expecting at all!  We will definitely be coming back here a lot!

The had a playground, a green screen room, a movie room, a play house and puppet show area, and a castle!!!

It was a pretty fantastic and fun filled day!  Happy Birthday little man!

The fastest year of my life!

Wasn't I just pregnant?  Didn't I just have a baby?

12 months have already passed and I'm not sure how it happened.

Max, now you're one year old and completely awesome.  You can walk, you can run (kinda), you can talk, you can feed yourself, and you sleep through the night!  You're independent and love to play by yourself, but also play with your sister well (if she's not being mean).  The newest word you say is "Weeee!"

At night you won't go to sleep unless I rock you and sing you your song.  You hug mommy tight and rest your head on my shoulder while I sing it.  It's the best part of my day!

You weigh 21.8 lbs, and are 31 inches tall.  75% for weight, 90% for height.

You're a busy busy boy, but you're still really snuggly.

You say, "Hi Dad" when Dad comes home each day. 

You are the CUTEST little boy ever!  And I love you so much!

Twinners

Just in case you weren't sure if my kids looked alike, here are some pictures to compare taken at the same age.

Spaghetti

While not technically "spaghetti" (I only had bowtie noodles), the first time a baby is covered in marinara sauce needs to be documented.

I think he enjoyed it :)

"Pretendo"

You may have noticed this picture in my last post.

I recently got Mario Party 6 for my birthday (because I'm still young on the inside) and Dustin and I made the mistake of having Kate "play" with us.  We set up the game and handed her the battery-less remote and it's been an obsession ever since.  She wants to play "pretendo" or "retendo" every day.  She insists on being Sleeping Beauty (Peach) or Belle (Daisy)!  hahaha.

How long until she realizes she's not really playing the game?


Also, Max is afraid of Goombas.

A Day in the Life

...of these cuties :)