Happy Birthday Joel!

     Joel turned one on Wed. Sept 4th. I can't believe it! Where did this year go? It has flown by! Joel is the dang cutest kid I have ever met! I might be biased though. He is seriously so happy all the time. He takes everything in stride and he laughs so so much. Everyone who meets him tells me he is the cutest sweetest baby ever. It's true. His new favorite thing is to open his mouth and go AWE! It sounds weird but it is so funny! He is taking tentative steps but hasn't totally switched over to walking yet. He still has no fear for his life, he dives off, into, and through everything. Pulls anything he can and off and out of anything. We lovingly call him baby hulk. His weight has kind of evened out since his surgeries but he is still nice and tall and has the biggest feet! He is my cuddle bug and I love it!!! All you really need to know is we think he is pretty awesome and are so lucky to have him in our lives!

     So his birthday was on Wednesday and we wanted to do something fun. If you know me, you know I am a birthday party crazy lady so the fact he was really going to get one was breaking my heart. So Monday morning I decided we needed a party. So this was very last minute and I planned a cute little car themed dinner party for us for to have. Sophia loved it and Joel had no idea what was going on!

Birthday Boy! 

Balloon Wall. This was so easy to do and so cute! I will have to do this for more indoor parties!

The whole get up!

Sophia thought the cones were party hats! She kept trying to wear it.

The birthday cake! Turned out cuter than I expected and was fairly easy!

That's right! Digging right in there! After a little help he was ready to attack that cake! 

Joel did a little redecorating on the cake! We thought it was pretty good!

The after mess.

All Joel wanted to do was eat the presents!

This was how present opening went, Sophia opened, Joel played.

His sweet new motorcycle walker, which I got for a steal of a deal!! 

It's hard to believe this precious boy is one! I am feeling very nostalgic right now! What happened to this last year? How I love this boy! 

~A 

Summer Recap

So the last time I posted was Sophia's birthday party, oh so much has happened since then! So let's do a quick recap of the summer!

We had the 4th of July which we spent with my family.

The kids all at the new splash pad by my moms house! Not the best pic but I love it!

The girls at the parade! We didn't even make it through half of it it was so hot we went home. The kids didn't even want to be there. 

Over the 4th of July Briana and Matt were in the musical the Scarlet Pimpernel. I love this musical! I went down for the whole week and did hair for the play. It was a lot of fun! 

Then we had the 24th of July which we spent at my Grandma's.

This is the only pic I took of that day. Sophia with her face painted ha ha. 

My grandma's town always has a big todo and we always go up for it and have a big bbq. 

    Then we went to Ely for a craft fair Tyler's sisters and I have been prepping for since Feb. Ely Art's in the Park was a two day event. It was a lot of hard work but I am really happy with our turn out and how well we did. Our booth was very original and super cute! The hardest part was our need of selling and our want of keeping the cute stuff we made ha ha.

     Then Joel had his second surgery the 6th of August. I did not take any pictures this time. Joel did amazing. When the doctor came out he said there was quite a bit more damage done inside then he was expecting so they had to go back and fix it. He hated the the IV this time but after they took it out he was completely happy. We got home from the hospital and he was crawling and playing right away. It was amazing! I couldn't believe it. For how well he did last time he did even better this time. That baby is one amazing kid!
     4 days after Joel's surgery we moved to California! I will have a nice lengthy post on that next but we are here now and settling in.
    In between all this we had parties, family reunions, several hospital visits for Burns and cuts and surgeries (my kids didn't take it easy on me this summer), lots of packing, several car break downs, visits from Tyler, and more packing.
    It was a CRAZY summer! Not particularly one I want to repeat but I am glad we got as much in as we did I knew it would be the last chance we got to do a lot of these things and I didn't want to leave anything out!

~A

My 3 year old.

     That's right folks this little lady turned three! I can't believe I have a three year old. It's weird, I will probably say that for every birthday but it's true, it's just crazy how fast time flies!

     This little girl is full of spunk and sass. She is also very sweet and kind. She loves all things princess and dirt. She is friends with just about anyone she meets, and all though her brother can get on her nerves she really gets along with him well and I can tell they are already friends. She loves it when he follows her around the house and they just giggle together most days. She loves to give compliments and helps with baby Joel all the time. She will be the first to tell you she doesn't like something or she doesn't want to do something. If a kid is mean to her she is not afraid to fight back, which I actually really like about her!

     I wasn't going to do much for her birthday this year because we had such a crazy summer going on but my mom mentioned she thought Sophia needed a princess party and I knew she was totally right. So I went for it, and I will be the first to admit I went total crazy mom! I don't know what my deal was but I just had to make everything I saw! So with out further ado, Sophia's 3rd Princess party!! 

     It was such a fun day! The kids loved the party and Sophia was so spoiled, she got way to many presents! haha Sophia has so many good friends! It made me sad to think of the friends we are leaving behind in a month to move to Cali. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! A huge shout out to my mother for making the cake for me, and to my sister Tiff for coming early and helping me get stuff ready, and to my wonderful sis in law Hanna for taking pics!! You guys are fabulous!

~A