My handsome boys

I tried to get some normal pictures of my good looking guys on Sunday...James wearing his first dress shirt and tie. Not so normal, but still cute.

Friend Birthday

EVERY year on James' birthday, the wind blows approx. 45-60 miles per hour. I'm not even kidding. Last year at his party in the park, the wind blew the giant city garbage cans over, it blew the cake off the table, etc. This year we went indoors. Although Mcdonalds no longer throws parties for kids, apparently they have no problem if you bring your own party to them. We had a GREAT time :)

He wanted Spongebob cupcakes for this party.

Happy Meals can really make you happy!
I think James knew I was concerned that we'd get busted for using matches inside Mcd, so he blew candle out before the song was through.



Then we saw a lot of these blue-iced faces:






Then he opened presents...


But mostly we saw a lot of this, as the kids ran off to play again and again...



It was a great celebration!

Family Birthday

The birthday boy wanted Spiderman cupcakes for Preschool.


He got his first ties and dress shirts from Granny and Papa.


Here he is loving the money from Grandma and Grandpa. He ran and put it in his bank and said it was only to be used for Chuck E Cheese!


Opening presents from Mommy and Daddy. (Thanks Walmart after Christmas Clearance Sale!)



At his Birthday dinner



Leftover Spidery cupcakes double as the 'birthday cake'. He was quite concerned about the fire.


We LOVE the birthday boy!!!!!


James' not-very-exciting reading of Grandma and Grandpa's card :)

Somebody had a birthday!

Turned 4! Eating peanuts at his choice of birthday restaurants. When we asked him where he wanted to go he said, "Does this town even have a PF Changs?" :) Yeah, so his 2nd choice was Texas Roadhouse even though he's only been there one time.


Turned 3! I am admittedly really bad at picking out presents for this kid. Most of my "big gifts" turn out to be really bad ideas. He's only been on the bike 3 times in a year.

Turned 2! Here we are at the park on his birthday. Hard to believe he actually needed a jacket. It is NOTORIOUSLY windy on his birthday here every year. This year I decided to have his party indoors, and yep, it's been calm all week.

Turned 1! He wouldn't eat that cake! He ate a few bites of frosting if it was fed to him, but otherwise, he was content just to smash it around.

Sweet baby just born! He had a GIANT head and GIANT feet. All the rest of him was giant in no time!

Easter Fun

This child is going through a "I can't smile normal" phase.

James and Lilly got together for some egg coloring fun...

Easter morning: Once again full of strange smiles-this time a bit sleepy, too.

Ben's Easter Basket for me...A nest made out of a new body pillow, a new book, a booklight, a duck and some "eggs" that the duck laid. I'm a lucky girl :)

James enjoyed playing conference bingo while we watched on TV. It was funny because even when we weren't playing bingo, everytime I heard a new topic come up, I shouted it out-in my head!

Another day of fun!

Ben and I went out to dinner to celebrate the end of the phd!!! We had a wonderful time!

To celebrate James' upcoming birthday, we all went to Sesame Street Live today. He was sooooo excited and we had a great time. It is a super fun show!

First of the springtime fun!

Despite the fact that James looks like he's in pain in the first 3 pics, we had a great time today! We had a lunch/playdate/egg hunt adventure at Brooke's house. The winds were blowing like none other but that's what you get here in the Spring.