All 3

We did it!  Our wonderful photographer Tami Proffitt captured all three of my littles at one time.  This is impossible for me to do.  Someone is always backwards or running away.  I absolutley love these pictures.  What little cuties!

 

Props

I had found a super cute picture of a 1 year old with a smash cake in a bright colored high chair and really wanted to do something similar.  But I really wanted it to be somewhat meaningful.  I was determined to find a really cute antique high chair that I could paint turquoise.  I searched on Craig's list for a while trying to find something cute and just couldn't find anything I was looking for.  I was discussing this vision I had with my super trusty mother that has everything, and she said I could have her antique high chair.  I couldn't believe it, the boys actually used it several times and she was ready to get rid of it.  What timing that was!  I asked over and over if she was sure she was okay with me painting it and of course she was perfectly okay with it.  I really wish I had a true before picture.  She has had it for several years and it doesn't have a tray.  So Aaron had to get out the old saw and create a tray that would work for the smash cake.  So here it was getting a several coats of primer.  Note to self...spray paint in the grass, now a section of our rocks are turquoise.

Here is the final product.  It turned out absolutely perfect and I can't get over how cute the pictures turned out.  Now it is sitting in our dining room and I just can't bare to part with it forever.  Man, now I have 3 high chairs.

Annual Wine Trip

I'm pretty lame,  I guess I only busted out my camera 1 or 2 times.  I guess that means we were having such a great time the camera just got in the way.  We take a big family trip every year and try to hit wine country either in the spring or fall.  This year we headed to Napa.  We always have and amazing time and get to spend some adult time together.  We are lucky enough to have amazing family that are willing love to watch our kids so we have spend time together. 

 

 

 

Here was the whole gang.  We were missing a few regulars but will force them to come next time! 

Walking

Chloe is now an official toddler.  Seriously, she went from her super cute famous bear crawl to full blown walking.  She really didn't spend much time practicing.  She just did it.  Now look at her, this is just a couple days after she started taking 2 or 3 steps.  This is all happening so fast.  I absolutely love the crawling phase.   I love having a little person crawl up to me and want to be picked up.  I think it is so cute and the phase is so short.  At least for my babies it was.  I guess having 3 walkers makes it a little easier.  I also don't have to worry about her crawling all over the dirty floors everywhere.  I'm also so glad she decided to walk right before we left on our trip.  It would have been really sad to miss this big milestone. 

Karate

Zackary started Karate a couple months ago and is loving it.  I always said I didn't think Karate was active enough for him until we saw a performance at his preschool fall festival.  It would be awesome if someday he was on the performance team.  Those kids were doing quite a show for us.  I also love how it teaches focus, discipline, and is physical at the same time.  I think it is the cutest thing to watch too.  

 

 

Easter

So every year for Easter we head out to Boyce Thompson Arboretum to grill breakfast, do some hiking and hunt some eggs.  We have been doing this with my family and some great friends for about 6 years now.  I can't believe that we were doing this even before we had kids.  I will admit we missed last year, but it was because we were in the hospital having our beautiful baby girl.

Lane and Katelyn holding hands.  These two have become quite the little friends.  They are always off playing together.  

Chloe is really trying to walk.  She is taking about 5 or 6 steps and is doing really well.  This is just way to early for her to walk...

Afterwards we headed out to Aaron's folks house for the Allan Easter celebration.  We had a great dinner and enjoyed playing outside and Easter egg hunting.

The little Allan Girls...

 

 

Chloe managed to raid Zackary's Easter basket and find a sucker.  Boy did she dig that piece of candy.

Ending a great day digging in the dirt is perfect!

7th Anniversary

Aaron and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this year.  And I can say what a fast 7 years it has been.  I can also say it has been quite a whirlwind of adventure for us.  But a great whirlwind, 3 babies later, we are blessed and grateful for everything we have.  So if you have been a long time reader you probably know we always try to give a gift of meaning from the traditional or modern anniversary theme.  This year was copper and wool.  I busted out my glue gun and flower making skills and made a cute little frame with wool flowers and copper leaves.  It turned out really good (at least I think so).  We were also trying not to spend money because the next week we were headed to Napa for some wine tasting and wanted to save our pennies.  So my wonderful and super creative husband came up with this.  I got this letter and a penny to go with it on our way out to dinner.  Here you go...

The Penny

So my gift to you for our 7^th anniversary is a penny.  Before you get mad and think that I’m being a cheapskate, let me explain.  Copper is considered an appropriate gift for the 7^th anniversary.  Pennies are made of copper, considered a semi-precious metal.  You are very precious to me.  The penny has a date of 2005, the same year we got married.  It can serve as a reminder to you in case you ever forget how long we have been married.  It also states “in God we trust”.  I know that we are building a strong marriage with God as our cornerstone.  Some people consider a penny to be good luck.  I consider myself to be the luckiest man to be married to you.  I do think that you make your own luck in life, but a little more never hurt, just in case.  The penny is the building simplest unit of money so therefore it’s the building block of all other monetary units.  You start adding them up and you start to have something of great worth.  I would like to consider thinks like your friendship, trust, honesty, laughter, etc. as pennies of love; our basic currency upon which we have built a wealthy relationship.  Pennies start off as super shiny when they are brand new, just like the beginning of any relationship.  There’s nothing quite like a shiny new penny.  Looking at this penny you can see that is has started to brown and age.  It has a few nicks and scratches.  Just like any relationship it has gone through different seasons and is changing.  Some people get mad about the tarnish on the penny and always want to try and make it shiny and new.  They don’t realize that as the penny ages it will eventually be covered in a beautiful brand new green-blue patina.  It’s still the same penny, it has just matured.  I hope to grow and mature our relationship with you.  The other thing that people don’t realize is that this new patina actually serves as a protective coating.  The bright shiny penny is still below, under the surface; time, wisdom, and maturity have now made it stronger and still just as beautiful.

I love you.  You are my precious penny.

Happy Anniversary,

Me.

Tears?  I had them.  This is so beautiful and I had to share...

Just Playing

I'm aware I've really been a slacker with the blog lately.  But as you know I am quite a busy little one.  Here are just a few pictures of us playing outside enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  I decided to get the camera out and practice some settings.  Look at my beautiful babies.  

 

 

I tell you what these two are little besties.  Zackary is such a good big brother. 

Man I love these babies!

11 Months

How can this be?  11 months, what, if feels like she was just a tiny little baby in my arms, now I am chasing her around soaking in the last weeks of my absolute favorite and famous bear crawl, and watching her considering taking steps.  How can it be possible that I am already planning her birthday party? 
Why does it have to go so fast?  My baby is becoming a toddler.  

I don't think she can get any cuter!

I had so many pictures of what we do all day, so I put them into little collages to show more of them.  She is really into climbing things, she has recently figured it out and goes over and in everything.  I just hope she keeps it to lower objects...

I believe we are on round 2 of polishing the rocks in the backyard.  It is constant.  We are working on it and she spits them out as soon as you put your hand on her chin.  This age is so hard outside.  But man does she love it.  So I deal with it and follow her everywhere. 

 

Play Time

I just thought this was funny.  Chloe is figuring out how fun climbing is.
So why not climb in the coffee table toy box. 

 

 

Ren Fair

So we got to spend the day at the Renaissance Festival with my folks.  And all I can say is what a crowd! Anyways we had a great time,  Zackary and Papa rode and elephant...

This cracks me up.  Check out the pointing...I wonder where Zackary gets it?

We ate delicious turkey legs...

 

and saw Twig The Fiery, again.  

 

Disneyland

So since Zackary was so determined, we got to take an amazing trip to Disneyland.  I have to be honest we didn't think this would happen so fast.  We had about 2 weeks to figure out how we were going to pull this reward off, but we did, and it was so worth it.  We left Chloe at home with my amazing mother.  We figured she was way too young to enjoy any part of it and would much rather be home playing with Nana. So here is our trip.  We booked our stay through getawaytoday.com which was such a great way to go.  Thanks to some social networking websites we got lots of input and ended up super happy with everything.  We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott which was right across the street from the entrance of Disneyland, so we got to head back for a nap and some dinner then back to the park for the evening events.  The boys All of us were cooked and ready for naps about 2 in the afternoon so we took advantage of the convenience.

 Anywho, on the the festivities.

I was really horrible about taking pictures the entire trip.  I just wanted to soak in the fun and the sparkle in their eyes seeing everything.  Oh, and keeping track of them so they made it back safe with us.  

 

 

We were so lucky Lane was pretty much tall enough for all the rides.  The first day he was willing to ride pretty much everything.  Surely not knowing what to expect, he was a little trooper.  The next day, however, he was a little more reserved on what rides he would go on.  We didn't push him, so while one of us took Zackary on the roller coasters the other took Lane on more age appropriate rides.  This only happened a few times and with the fastpasses and switchback passes we managed just fine and actually didn't have to wait in any lines longer than about 20 minutes.

This is pretty much what most of my pictures look like.  The backs of their heads watching everything and climbing on the rails.  That alone is pure entertainment for 2 little boys.

 

 

 

 

Zackary was still ready to go at 10pm however Lane was cooked by the end of the day.   

Both All the boys were so well behaved and listened very well.  It brought back so many childhood memories for Aaron and I.  It was such a great feeling to get to take them to a place and let them experience things we did as kids.  I can't wait until Chloe is 4 or 5 because we already have plans to go back and enjoy it with our whole family.
  It truly is the Happiest Place on Earth!