Ice Cream

I just had to post some super cute pictures of Chloe on Memorial Day.  Yes, only the 3rd child would have a huge ice cream cone of her own.  It's sure funny how with each child you get more and more relaxed about EVERYTHING!  Happy Memorial Day!  

Hand made necklaces

(disclosure: the blue animal above is a giraffe, not what you're thinking in your head)
Again, another excellent idea from Pinterest.  We decided to make our own necklaces for Mother's Day gifts and end of the year teacher gifts.  I thought making the necklaces ourselves would make it just a little more personal and something extra special for the Grandmas.  I picked up some Shrinky Dinks (I used to be obsessed with these as a child) at Michaels, along with some colored pencils, and pre-made necklaces.  I had all the beads and jewelry tools to put the rest together.  We cut out 3.5 inch circles and punched a whole in the top and I let the kids color whatever they wanted.  We baked them in the oven,  one of the funnest parts of the project.  Then they chose which ones went to which person.  I think they turned out so cute!  And they were a hit with everyone.  

My niece Lauren made some book marks out of the left over pieces.  They turned out cute too!

 

Grandparents

These are some PROUD Grandparents! 
We are so blessed to have our families so close by and so involved in our children's lives.  It makes me so happy that they make the effort to be at all the kids functions and help us out so much with them.  They are always there for us.  Thanks guys we love you!

Pre K Graduation

It's official. we will have a kindergartner soon.  We just celebrated PreK graduation.  I'm so lame, I got a little teary during the ceremony.  I was so proud of him!  They did such a cute little celebration, sang songs, and got a little diploma.   Here is Zackary with his 2 teachers.  Miss Joanna and Mrs Laree.  He loved them and they were really good to him. 

 

 

Look how proud he was!  It's like a little preview of bigger graduations in the future. 

Our little family!  My 4 favorite people! 

Horse Man

Right now, the boys are soooo into horses.  I'm not sure why or what has triggered this incredible love for horses but it is in full swing around our house.  As you can see above, this is the horse corral that we find every night.  Oh and the backside, this might be even funnier.  We get a kick out of it just about every night around here.  They play cowboy pretty much all day, unless they are dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  I'm not sure why they don't make boy dress up clothes because these guys sure do like to dress up like cowboys, knights, pirates, or Star Wars characters.

Lane just discovered that he has cowboy boots (ones that Zackary wore back here).  If you recall Zackary has massive feet, so the boots he wore at 18months are just a bit snug on Lane now.  He pretty much wears them everyday.  They also really love all their cute little shirts from Old Navy that have the pearl snaps.  They are "just like Opa's cowboy shirts."
I did just order them a couple more, they are so dang cute.

This is also for your viewing pleasure.  For all of you that know us well, you have probably already had the privilege to witness "horseman" in person.  I finally captured it on video.  I can tell you horseman comes out usually when Zackary is over tired, wild, or needs to get out and burn some energy.   I am truly amazed at the amount of energy expended from horseman, it is unbelievable.  Horseman used to drive me crazy, I've learned to love it and now it's just and easy cue for us to know he is ready for bed.
Go ahead give it a try yourself...

(please excuse the horrible videography skills)

The Party

Here was the beautiful party set up for Chloe's first birthday party.  Decorating for this little shindig started about a month in advance.  I did however enjoy the wall paper made from wrapping paper in our dining room.  As you can see I went all out and it turned out beautiful.  The Sweet Shoppe theme was so cute and all the kids loved the loads of candy they got. 

 

All the kids shared her smash cake and it was sure delicious.  She didn't seem to mind at all.

Our attempt at a family picture...good luck with that one.

 

 

Presents were total chaos, good thing I had about 10 kids helping me open them.  And hopefully everything got written down correctly.  If not, thanks everyone for the wonderful and amazing gifts.  Our friends and family are so incredibly generous.  

 

 

 

 

 

All partied out!  It was a perfect party!

1 Year Old

How on Earth had this happened?  1, are you kidding me?  I sit and watch our baby girl playing and interacting with her brothers and can't believe my eyes.  I swear just yesterday she was born.  And look how stinkin' cute she is and what a beautiful little girl she had turned into over the year.
This picture below is seriously on of my favorites.  See that little scrunched nose, this is "Chloe" and she does this little nose scrunch all the time.

 I can't get enough of her.  She continues to be her super easy and laid back self.  I can't tell you how many times I have had to wake her up from her naps pretty much every day to go somewhere or she is carted around all day doing 'boy things' and she is still perfectly happy.  I am so blessed to have such an easy going baby.  Chloe is our 'little' baby.  She weighed in at 18 lbs 11 ozs and is 30 inches tall.  She really doesn't have much to say except mama when she is sad or wants something.  She is signing milk and all done.  She loves to eat and try to snatch her brothers' food.  She is a full blown toddler, walking everywhere.  I was really sad to see the bear crawl go, however, walking is super cute and it sure makes going places with 3 much easier.  

For pictures, I painted an antique high chair my mom has had for years and Aaron built a tray for it.  For the birthday party I made tons of tulle pompoms so I decided to incorporate them into the 1 year pictures and boy did they turn out perfect!  

I had to do a smash cake as part of the pictures and I'm sure glad I did.  The delicious cake was made by a friend here is her website.  The super cute bunting came from someone local that I found on Etsy.  I absolutely love doing this kind of over the top stuff.  It's really fun for me.  

 

Thanks to everyone that helped us celebrate our precious baby girl's 1st birthday.
Everything was perfect.
Happy Birthday Chloe, We love you so much! 

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!