Caitlin's Birthday

Caitlin's birthday was pretty low key this year. It was a non-party year so we told her she could pick a restaurant to eat out at. She chose IHOP. 

It's hard to believe sometimes that I have a 7 yr old. I know I say this every year and repeat what millions of other parents are saying, but time is flying by and my babies are growing up. 

But I've enjoyed having a 7 yr old. She's such a beautiful young lady - inside and out. She's still our little cuddle bug, but she's also so much more independent and confident.

Happy Birthday Dominic!

Our little boy is now 9 years old. 

And what a fun age that has been so far. 

Here are a few pictures from his birthday celebrations.

 

 

Caitlin's birthday

I honestly can't believe that my baby girl is six years old. It seems like just yesterday that I was rubbing her curly head in the hospital. She's grown into such a beautiful and precious young lady.

She is independent, smart, kind-hearted, and funny. Our family wouldn't be the same without her.

She's my little turtle and I love her so much.

She had been begging for an American girl doll for quite some time. But those dolls are outrageously expensive. She came to sit beside me while I was researching all of the 18' dolls out there and fell in love with a blond Madame Alexander doll. It was only slightly cheaper than the AG, but the reviews said it was just as good. Caitlin was extatic to open that box and see her "baby." She named her Brianna and calls her Bri.

 

 

Since this was a "party" year for Caitlin she asked that I bring cupcakes to the school. 

Her only request was that they have lady bugs on them.

We had a family celebration that night. Caitlin requested strawberry shortcake. We still don't have our island (waiting on butcher block that's on back order). So some of the kitchen things are still packed in boxes. I forgot to look for the candles until the last minute and then couldn't find them. Caitlin was fine with blowing out the large ones.

 

 

Uncle Jason and Aunt Kim came up and we went out to eat. Caitlin wasted no time in telling the waiter that it was her birthday.

 

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Happy Birthday Dominic!

I didn't forget his birthday. I just didn't have time to post anything on here.

This is the non-party year for Dominic. So he chose one friend and we had them over on Sabbath to eat lunch and cake with us. Then Dominic spent the day playing with his friend. The bonus - the friend came with a sister. =)

Dominic requested a Lego cake. The poor kid requested it before the fire. So I purchased the ingredients and walked over to my in-laws to make it. Then I carried everything back over to the house and spent ages trying to get the fondant wrapped around it. As you can see from the pictures, if it's a Lego, it's one that's been melting in the sun.

But Dominic was so proud and in love with it, so I tried not to be embarrassed.

His actual birthday was spent celebrating with family, including his cousin who came up to spend the week with us.

I love this little boy, except he's not quite so little any more. His crazy energy, funny stories, infectious laugh, and sweet heart are some of the awesome things about him.
I'm so blessed that I get to be his mom.

I took some pictures for his "professional" pics that will be on here later.

Happy Birthday

This past Thursday was Caitlin's golden birthday. She turned 5 on the 5th of December. We had a really great day celebrating with her.

We've had company all this week. They've been wonderful to have and I've threatened to lock the doors so they can't leave us. But it does mean that I've been a bit distracted and had some extra things on my plate. I'd fully intended to post this blog on Caitlin's birthday and say a little something about baby girl on facebook. That didn't happen. But we had a fun day and that is what counts.

Caitlin opening her presents. She was pretty excited about it. Wouldn't even look up at me.

 I asked her if she wanted to help me pick out the decorations for her cupcakes and then help me make them, or if she wanted me to do it while she was asleep and surprise her. She opted for helping. It was super fun trying out different designs with the pearls she'd picked out.

 Bear bear helped out a bit.

Most of the completed cupcakes.

 Goofy girl!

She was really messy after making those cupcakes. So I let her have a bubble bath and then we painted our nails.

 

 Caitlin chose to go to Cinco's for her birthday meal out.

All day she told every person she talked to that it was her birthday. 

So when we got into the restaurant she told the hostess guy, the guy who brought our chips, and the waiter that it was her birthday.

Our waiter really went all out with singing to her (by himself), putting whip cream on her face and making her feel special.

She isn't usually a big dessert person. But she managed to eat the entire thing.

 

One final picture with her birthday sombero.

 

Her meal of choice for supper was pigs and broccoli. Not very shocking when you hear her ask for it almost every night for supper.

 After supper she FINALLY got to try out the cupcakes. They tasted as good as we'd hoped.

Happy Birthday Caitlin! 

Daddy and I are so proud of the big girl you are becoming. While we have a little bit of sadness over losing our baby, we are so excited to see how much you are growing up. Your infectious laugh and zest for life are a fun blessing to our family.

Happy 7th Birthday Dominic!

I can't believe I'm writing this. It seems like just a little bit ago that Jon and I were driving home with a tiny little bundle in the back seat, wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into.

Perhaps it's a good thing we had no idea. =)

Dominic has brought tons of fun to our family and we are so thankful for our smart, enthusiastic, crazy wild boy. He's incredibly hungry for knowledge, protective of his baby sister, affectionate (on his terms), full of life and ideas, talkative, and loyal.

Last week we had some time to kill and decided to head down to the depot to take some pictures and climb around on the train.

We had a lot of fun and took tons of pictures.

 

 Caitlin was feeling a bit left out.

SO thankful for the blessing I received 7 years ago when this baby boy was born.

Birthday!

Caitlin had a fun, but packed birthday.

Because she had gymnastics in the morning we met Jon for lunch.

Caitlin chose to eat at Cinco's because she remembered that hat she saw another person get to wear on their birthday. I'm sure it helped that she loves the food.

 Unfortunately when they came to sing to her, she was crying about something we had made her do. 

 Ice cream cheered her up though.

 But the sweet guys at Cinco's thought she needed a candy ring in addition to the ice cream.

 She then chose IHOP for supper.

She had requested a pink and purple cake. But I forgot until the night before and was rushing to try and get her gifts wrapped and cake made. So please ignore the lack of decorations or the skill level on the icing. I figured she wouldn't notice as long as it was pink and purple. Thankfully I was correct.

On another note - On Thursday I couldn't get Caitlin to come to the table to eat breakfast. So finally I went into her room to get her so we could take Dominic to school. She was sprawled out on her floor playing with her doll house and the Polly Pockets. I threw her into the car in pjs and no shoes. When we returned she headed straight for the bedroom to play again. Nothing I said could convince her to change her clothes or eat a thing. Since I was feeling pretty cruddy I left her alone and about 11:45am she came out asking for lunch. I convinced her to change before lunch or she would have spent the day in pjs. Every day she's spent at least a couple of hours playing in her room. Even Dominic is enjoying using his men to play with her. It was clearly the perfect gift for baby girl.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!!!

Caitlin is 4 years old today!

It hardly seems possible that the chubby little baby girl with a mop of dark hair is now a big tiny 4 year old with golden brown hair and huge smile.

I had procrastinated in setting up an appointment for Caitlin's 4 year old pictures. Combine that with my laziness, our busy schedule, and my impending cold (or something) and I decided to try to do them myself.

So here are just a few of the tons of pictures I took yesterday. Caitlin and I had tons of fun!
And even though I got some good ones that I can use for her "professional" pics to send to family, my favorites are when I captured her being goofy.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Early Birthday present

Tomorrow is Caitlin's birthday. But I've been so excited to give her the doll house that I manufactured an excuse to give it to her tonight.

She knew that she was getting it (because she slipped into my room and peaked under the sheet while it was under construction.), but thought it was coming at Christmas time.

We also gave her the gifts from her Grammy and Gramps because a doll house without furniture just isn't fun.

 
So we she's been playing with it this evening instead of joining the guys at the Y, like usual.