Happy 8th Birthday Nolan!!

Here are the pictures from celebrating Nolan turning 8!! 

4th of July... Day and Party

This year on July 4th we had fun with family and friends at a BBQ at our house.  I have recently been enjoying being off my dairy free, practically food free, diet so I ate entirely way too much onion dip and artichoke dip....but that is what holidays are for.  :)  We started the day before getting a few things ready:

Kaylee made some patriotic cupcakes.  I love how she is becoming such a great baker in the kitchen. :)  Girl after my own heart!  

She took a regular box of white cake mix.

When the cupcakes were cooled she took some strawberry jello and just added the boiling water.  Then she took a chop stick to poke about 6-7 holes half way down in the top of each cupcake and spooned the jello water on top so it could soak in the holes.  Then the cupcakes were put in the fridge overnight.  

The next day she added cool whip, blueberries and patriotic sprinkles.

Mini Themed Birthday Party~ Nathan's First!

Our own little mini is turning 1,

so come and join us for some itty bitty fun!

Nathan's Miniature 1st 

Birthday Party

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Just a teeny bit past 5pm

The small house on:

Tiny regrets only:

Happy 7th Birthday Alexa!

So hard to believe that my baby girl is 7!!  I mean Kaylee should only be 7 right....and Alexa should still be 3???  So crazy to think how fast it is all going.
We had a fun few days celebrating Alexa.  It started on Friday night, the 8th, with a family dinner at our house.  With the new baby my sister, Brandon, and Maggie were not able to join us.  Memaw brought Asher so he could join in the celebration.

Kaylee's 10th Birthday Sleepover Party!

Kaylee had so much fun this year having her first birthday sleepover.  We had pizza and fondue, cake, ice cream, and a fun silly string fight outside.....that made a HUGE mess but the girls had a blast!!

Our set up party table

Happy New Year 2016!!!!

Wow!  Can't believe it is 2016!!  Ryan and the girls and I were talking and we could not believe it had been 1 year since our last year New Year's Eve celebration.  It seems like that was just a few months ago.  I know it was a baby year but wow that went fast!  We remember last year saying that at this time next year we will have a 6 month old and now here we are!  

I had meant to do this post a few days ago but every time I would sit down at the computer I would find myself looking at old pictures on the computer and reminiscing from years past and then it would get too late or I would just be too tired.  I am one of those that does not like Christmas to be over and I like to hold on to it and the season as long as possible until after New Years.   I did manage to put most the decorations on the dining room table yesterday but our tree is still up and decorated, and the little trees in Ryan and mine and the girls rooms are still up.  I did manage to pack up one and a half bins so far between the last few days, I think I still have 4 to go, most of the time while still listening to Christmas music.  :)  I kind of slowly have to fade it out.  I love how I still hear Alexa and Nolan singing Christmas songs and last night at bedtime Nolan still requested Frosty the Snowman.  I always feel that kind of let down feeling when it is all over so it has been fun to look back at old pictures and fun family memories.  Fun to see where we were, and where we are now, and how we have grown!  It reminds me I am thankful I have still held on to this blog.  I know it has not been easy most the time especially since having 3 and 4.  I know blogs have fazed out for a lot of people but I love the memories my kids and Ryan and I will have someday.  I realized when looking back yesterday that I used to journal so much more and my posts now are often a one or two line and upload the pictures as fast as possible so I can be done.  Hey, I figure as a busy Mom of 4 that is about as best as I can do most days and I am just glad to post something.  We will still have the memories in the future and I will try to be better about journaling more later because I know that is fun to look back on.  So here is to another year of keeping the blog going!

Happy 2016 to anyone who still looks at it besides me!!  :)

Getting ready for New Years Eve.  This year was just going to be our family and Memaw!  Was still full of family fun, good food, games, and fireworks.

Happy 3rd Birthday Nolan!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my little Buddy!  On the 1st he turned 3.  Nolan, my first little boy.  He has brought so much fun and laughter to the house!  I love his energy and the cute little things that he will say.  Loves singing and Christmas music right now.  Loves to say, "that is good to me", for anything he likes.  We have also really been working on saying please and asking nice for something.  So we will say to him, "you need to ask nicely or how do you ask nicely."  Then he will say for example, "may I please have some more milk nicely".  Then he will laugh and it will make all of us laugh!  It has definitely been special to have him.  Really likes to test the waters right now but also has such a sweet side.  I love that he is a mama's boy.  His little hugs and kisses are so sweet.  He still has such a special bond with Kaylee too, and it has been so fun to see him step up and be a big brother to Nathan.  He loves Nathan and always wants to help with him when he can.  He will give him hugs and kisses and bring him toys if he seem sad.  He and Alexa are collectively known as the middles around our house for their energy and classic love/hate brother/sister relationship.  Those 2 know how to ruffle each other's feathers and are both loud and wild, but when they put their guard down and forget to annoy each other they can actually play really sweet!
The last three years have gone so fast and can't believe he is 3!!  He loves Mickey Mouse right now so he wanted Mickey themed party decor.

Happy 2015!!

We had such a fun New Years Eve this year hanging out with our friends the Fullers!  So often Ryan seems to work both New Years Eve and New Years Day.  It was nice to have him around on New Years Eve so we could have a little party.


We started off that morning with Ryan's sour dough pancakes!  These are so good and such a treat!  My uncle always usually keeps a sour dough starter and has given one to Ryan in the past but at some point he stopped keeping it up.  My uncle said he had a really good batch going so he brought a starter for Ryan when they came out a few weeks ago.  He was right, this one is a good batch and made the best sour dough pancakes!  Ryan will definitely have to keep this starter going.  These are fun because you have to start the prep for the pancake batter the night before.  This is always something we looked forward to in CA.  I grew up always getting these when ever we would visit my Aunt and Uncle.

Happy 2nd Birthday Buddy!

My favorite little guy turned 2 on December 1!!  I really don't know how my baby is already 2!?!?  I still look and think of him as my baby, even though he has gotten so big!  This past year has been so fast and it kind of snuck up on me.  Nolan is such a blessing to our family and I feel so lucky to have a little boy.  He has brought such fun and excitement to our house.  The girls just adore him as well and he just loves his big sissies.

The night before his birthday we had a little family party for him in the Dusty theme.  He had never seen The movie Planes before but has a little ride on toy that is Dusty, and just loves Dusty and gets so excited to see Dusty, and all planes are called Dusty.  :)  So the girls decided he needed a Dusty party.  :)

I had fun fun making his Dusty cake!

Turning Five! ~ Frozen Style!

This was such a fun party to plan and the excitement from Alexa did not disappoint!  The girls at home, and Alexa's little friends at school, have been so into Frozen so Alexa knew exactly what kind of party she wanted.  Ideas are everywhere for Frozen parties so I had fun putting it all together.  It was definitely a challenge to find everything because I think everyone else in town was also trying to find Frozen stuff that week too. ;)   Somehow it all came together and the girls had a great time!

Our Queen Elsa

Superbowl / Birthday Party

Ryan's Birthday was just 2 days after the Super Bowl this year, and for the first time in like 5 years Ryan was actually home on the Superbowl, so we did a little combo birthday party for him.  It was just supposed to be something little but I kind of had a little too much fun with the details.  But those details are what make it so fun and special!

Kaylee's 8th Birthday!!

Happy 8th Birthday to my beautiful, smart, sweet girl!!  One week ago Kaylee turned the big 8.  I have to say I think this Birthday has been one of the hardest on me.  Now anyone who reads my blog knows that any birthday seems to be hard on me with any kid and I just want everyone to stay little, but this is the first year that I really feel like she is getting older and I see it in her from the way she dresses, talks, cares what others think, wants her privacy, takes on more responsibility....just overall seems like a big kid now.  No longer can be classified as a little kid any more.  I remember talking with Ryan about all this the night before when I was getting everything set up for the big day...still set up balloons, streamers, etc.......(you bet I will do this even when the eyes start rolling!!!)....and I remember it really hit me hard this year....got teared up and everything.  I think this was the first year I almost felt really truly sad the night before one of my kids birthdays.  Now I know she is not moving out yet but I start thinking thoughts like, she only has 10 more years until she is 18, and lots of kids want to move out at 18 and go to school...ahh!  10 more years is almost half the time that she has been alive and I started thinking all those crazy thoughts and how fast it has all gone.  I realize that I need to try and learn to embrace the change and cherish each time, and learn to celebrate each phase even though it means getting out of the little kid phases that I know and love so much....because face it, none of us or our kids are getting any younger.  So with that said, I talked myself out of the pity party and we had a great weekend celebrating Kaylee!

Alexa's 3rd Birthday- Rapunzel Party

Last Friday night we had Alexa's 3rd Birthday party- Rapunzel style!  It was a little early but with my sister's wedding coming up, and other activities for it, we thought it would be best just to have it a few weeks early.  Her actual Birthday is April 9.  Seriously can't believe she is almost 3!!  We went all out with purple and yellow and had fun decorating with lanterns and suns!

Ballerina Birthday Party!

This year Kaylee wanted a Ballerina party.  So we decked the house out with ballet shoes and tulle, put on some ballet music, and invited over a bunch of ballerinas! 

The Birthday girl all ready for her party!

The Party-Alexa turns 2!!

We had a little Birthday party for Alexa on Saturday night. It was a perfect and nice low key night with family. We had dinner, opened presents, ate cake and ice cream, of course sang "Happy Birthday" again, played, and finished off the night with a mean game of balloon toss!

Ice Cream Sundae Party- Kaylee's 2nd Birthday

This is a flashback post from when Kaylee turned 2!  I was looking at these pictures the other day and it reminded me of the cute Ice Cream Sundae party we did for her.  I love all the pink and green and the fun little details.  This was only my second kid birthday party EVER but I think it turned out pretty cute.  I don't have a ton of pictures but wanted to share what I had.  This party was back before the blogging days but I still wanted to remember this cute party.

Please join us.......

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Turning 5 ~ Ladybug style

To create the perfect ladybug birthday party you have to make cute ladybug accessories....

The Party! ~ Alexa Turns 1!

On Friday night we had a small party with a few family and friends to celebrate the big First Birthday! It was nice to do something really low key. Alexa seemed to really enjoy herself just playing in the yard and I enjoyed the no stress!

Here she is sporting her 1st Birthday gear!