Happy 4th Birthday, Dylan!!!!

I can't believe my little man is 4! He is such a special kid and I'm so glad to be his mom! He is fun, intelligent, tender-hearted, strong willed, witty and humorous. He is maturing so much and it is fun to watch him develop from a toddler to a kid.

Uncle Matt came into town for Dylan's birthday weekend and it was a whirlwind animal filled weekend. On Saturday, Taylor was under the weather so I stayed home with her while the rest of the family went to NW Trek. Dylan had the best time! He is really into pumas right now so he was so excited to see them. Uncle Matt bought him two puma's at the gift shop and they haven't left his side since. On Sunday, Dylan and I went to the zoo with Uncle Matt and Papa. Dylan always runs from animal to animal in record time and it was a fun trip.

While we were at the zoo everyone decorated house in a wild animal theme. This picture is a little blurry, but you can see the animals all around. Dylan thought all the decorations were really cool.

Taylor woke up from her nap and I could tell she was getting pink eye (our friend's kids had it recently so when I saw a goopey eye I knew she was getting it). She was a trooper, but I told everyone to keep there distance, which is almost impossible because everyone wants to snuggle this little cutie!

Dylan wanted a lion cake so I had fun making it for him.

Lion Cake, YUM!!!

Dylan wanted to eat the eyes.

Aunt Lana and Brenna helped Dylan open his huge pile of gifts. In the week leading up to his birthday he was very worried that people wouldn't know he was into animals so they wouldn't get him animal toys. Well, luckily for Dylan everyone got the memo!

Some of the family waiting for Dylan to open his gifts.

Uncle Matt giving Dylan a painting that was done by a Spectacled Bear at the Houston zoo. This was a very cool gift and Dylan has it displayed in his room. Dylan likes to show everyone the paw print on it.

Dylan was checking out his new safari hut. He wanted to open it so badly! Too bad he had about 20 more gifts to open. By the end he started saying, "I'm getting tired".

Nana and Papa gave Dylan a HUGE lion. Taylor loves to ride it!

Gigi sent Dylan a bouncy ball and Dylan was playing a human bowling ball and knocking over all of his inflatable animals. Lauren was a great sport and spent about an hour continually setting up the animals.

Dylan's actually birthday was the day after his family party. I was planning on taking Dylan to the zoo, but he just wanted to stay home to play with his new toys. I talked him into going out to Red Robin for lunch because he LOVES their corn dogs. Daddy met us and as you can see in the photo the pumas came with us too.

Dylan enjoying his birthday sundae.

The following Saturday was Dylan's party with his friends. I let him pick who he wanted to come to his birthday and he only wanted Sawyer and Chloe. (Actually, he wanted our other neighbors Joel and Jared to come too, but I knew they wouldn't want to come to his party - they are 10 and 12). It was a fun, intimate party.

Once again it was an animal theme, but I didn't want to make another big lion cake so I made lion cupcakes.

When the kids arrived they decorated their goodie bags and binoculars for the safari with animal stamps and stickers.

The kiddos were ready for the safari. I told the kids facts about each animal and gave them a clue about where they were hiding.

They were excited to find the giraffe hiding by the TV. I was surprised how much they enjoyed the safari. They loved finding the animals. It was so cute!!!

Next up was pin the tail on the lion. I was afraid that the kids wouldn't like to be blind-folded so I found this doctors hat from an old halloween costume and it worked so well. It covered their eyes but it wasn't tight so they didn't feel scared.

I loved the end result! The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun to watch them stumbling over the lion to put on the tail.

Next up, the lion pinata!

Before we even got the video camera rolling, Dylan decapitated the lion. I definitely learned that you should buy a pinata in the shape of a sphere if you don't want it to instantly break. We ended up hanging it by the body and the kids were able to whack away at it.

Sawyer taking a big swing.

This picture sums up our daughter. She grabbed the bat and was ready to attack that lion! This is definitely one of my favorite pictures!

Inside the pinata were animals and candy. Dylan was so excited about the animals. He was collecting them as quickly as he could.

Everyone enjoying their mini corn dog lunch.

Whenever Dylan shows people how old he is on his fingers, he always bends down the pinky. I don't know why he chooses to do it this way because it is so hard, but it is cute.

Blowing out his candles.

Grandma and Grandpa gave this fire truck chair to Dylan and Taylor is definitely enjoying it. It was a great birthday week!

Taylor at the pool

Tonight we took Taylor to the pool with Grandpa and Grandma. By this point, Dylan had been in swimming lessons and he would go to the pool all the time. Taylor hasn't been as frequently and she was a little apprehensive when she first got into the water. It look her about 10 minutes to stop fussing. She loved watching all the other kids and Grandpa held her and swam her around for about 30 minutes.

Cute little ruffle tush!

Trying to adjust to the water.

She loved throwing the balls.

She collected them all.

Grandpa and Taylor heading the car. It was a fun night!

Gymnastics with Dylan and Little Gym with Taylor

This week I got to visit Dylan at school during his gymnastics time. It was so cute to see all the activities they do and to see the fun Dylan has with his friends. In this picture, Dylan is waiting in line with his buds Gunnar and Grayson.

The sideways somersault is always fun!

Doing flips on the bar.

Walking backwards on the balance beam.

Jumping off the tall balance beam. He did such a good job of balancing all by himself all the way down the balance beam.

Who doesn't love parachute time?!

All the kids received a Super Star medal. It was so sweet!

I love Groupon because it allows me to try out new things with my kiddos at a great price. There was a Groupon for 4 weeks at Little Gym and so I bought it to use with Taylor. Unbeknownst to me, Lindsey bought the same Groupon to use with Kellen so we got to do the class with them. It was fun!

Loving the bars!

Such a great pic of Lindsey and Kellen!

Taylor loved roaming around the room and climbing all over the equipment!

In aggressive Taylor style, she was pushing kids out of the way =)

The parallel bars were her favorite.

At the end of class they brought out a bin of balls for the kids to play with and Taylor loved this activity. We had so much fun together at Little Gym!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

One of my favorite things about being a mom is seeing the excitement, anticipation and pure joy my kids (actually, only Dylan at this point) get from holidays. I love trying to make the day extra special for them by doing fun and unusual things.

Dylan woke up to green milk, a shamrock straw, green toilet water, green water coming out of the faucet, clothes that were turned inside out (this was something grandma told him a Leprechaun might do) and a special snow leopard figurine (too bad this had to be taken away later in the day when he made bad choices...bummer). I tried to give him a shamrock shaped breakfast, but he wanted his PB & J sandwich in a rectangle like normal. (Yes, he eats PB & J's for breakfast. They are his favorite thing and he get to choose if he has it for breakfast or lunch.)

Here is Taylor's green outfit. This picture captures another Taylor first in our house. She pushed over the trash can so she could stand on it. She was so proud of herself.

It is kind of hard to tell but the green peppers are supposed to look like Shamrocks. Dylan doesn't like peppers and he was pretty annoyed that he had them on his pizza, but I convinced him to let me leave them on long enough to take a picture. He actually ended up eating a few bites of them, which was a total shocker!

Our dinner was ravioli with a green butter sauce, peas and green grapes.

Here are my favorite people enjoying their dinner. Happy St. Patty's day!!!

A day in the life of Taylor

Taylor does a great job of keeping me on my toes! I am definitely earning my keep as a stay-at-home with this little girl. The biggest challenge I am facing right now is her desire to do things that she isn't quite old enough to do. She wants to be like her brother and climb and stand on everything. Today, I decided to keep the camera on me and try to capture her climbing moments. (Disclaimer: Normally, I stop her before she climbs and stands on all these things, but I wanted to take a day to document these moments so I could remember them).

I was shocked that she actually made it up into the highchair and she looked at me and was like, "Okay mom, I'm ready to eat".
I brought out the play yard yesterday because I was having such a difficult time making dinner, helping Dylan with something or doing anything that took my attention off her for 2 seconds. She is so quick and will be on top of the dining room table before I know it, so it is helpful to have a safe place to put her for a few minutes. Today, Dylan and Chloe had fun playing in it while Taylor pushed the toy bin over to try and climb in.

Trying to climb into her booster seat.

Trying to get up on the couch.

I made it, YAY!!!

This has been her favorite chair to climb on for months. I don't think there has been a time that we have been playing upstairs that she doesn't stand up to look out the window.
Climbing on toys is fun too!

I can't believe mom is letting me stand on the train table, this is so cool!

Climbing up on the table is her latest favorite thing.

She loves to stand on this ottoman! Today, she fell off this for the first time. (No, it didn't happen because I took this picture =). It happened later in the day)

She really wanted to get into the bath!
These last two photos aren't from today, but I wanted to include them because they highlight her latest fashion statement, the helmet. She is now the proud owner of Dylan's old helmet and she wants to wear it all the time. She finds it, brings it to me and demands that I put it on her. I actually think it is good because it protects her head while she finds new things to climb.

The backpack has also been something she enjoys wearing around the house. The accessory obsession definitely continues.

Weekend at Nana and Papas

We spent the weekend down in Gig Harbor to celebrate Nana's birthday. Nana and Papa have a membership to the Point Defiance Zoo and Dylan was anxious to get there to see all the animals. The big cats are his favorite and it was so cool that he could be so close to the Tiger!

Dylan enjoyed touching all the animals in the touch tanks.

Taylor loves Uncle Eric and she spent a lot of time at the zoo hanging out with him. She was in the stroller for about 10 minutes and then she walked the rest of the time. I was surprised how well she kept up with us. She is such an active little lady and she wanted to be like a big kid.

The boys and Taylor at the zoo.


Taylor loved feeding the goats! I wish you could hear her laugh a little better. It was so sweet!

Aunt Lizzy is going to be such a great mom. She loves our kids so much and they love her!

Nana had one HUGE candle for her b-day and Dylan thought that was fun! You must be really old when you have candles that big =) Happy Birthday, Nana!

Nana getting some of her birthday honey from Dylan.

Dylan choose to not eat dinner, so he didn't get any dessert. He loves to try and be sneaky and he grabbed the lid to the ice cream cake and started licking the frosting off of it. He liked to tell us that he still got a treat. He loves to manipulate things in his favor =)

Thanks for a fun weekend, Nana and Papa!