Catie's 1st birthday photo session

Saturday we drove to see my sister and her family and do Catie's 1st birthday pictures.  Lisa's friend Jenna is a wonderful photographer who also did Robbie and Alex's 1st birthday pictures.  It was a great excuse to visit. :)  The boys were so excited to see their cousins.  And I know I always say it, but it's so nice that they play so well together.  I don't think there were any fights or tears, so it was a good day. :)

Lisa bought a cookie cake so we could celebrate Catie's birthday with them.  I don't know if my kids have ever had a cookie cake before, but they LOVED it!

The cake that Lisa wrote on.

Waiting while we sing "Happy Birthday."

Can I have it now?

What do you mean I can't have the whole thing??

I wasn't sure how the pictures were going to turn out since the boys didn't nap (Elise generously offered to let Catie nap in her crib), but they did great.  One day they will learn to smile for pictures.  Until then, we are stuck with the cheesy smiles. :)

The funniest part of the photo session came when we brought out the smash cake (isn't that always the best part??).  The boys were both unsure at first, but Catie couldn't get away from the cake fast enough.  It's almost like she was scared of it!  I even put some icing on my finger to give her a taste, but she tried to wipe it off instead of eat it.  Unfortunately she kicked the cake and got dirt and grass in it so NO ONE could enjoy it.  Luckily we planned on going to Piggies for dinner and the kids' meals came with an ice cream cone, so they weren't too upset about not getting a piece cake.  And they had cookie cake at lunch, so they really didn't need another dessert.  But I was hoping for a piece. :)

We went back to the house to let Catie open her present and say good-bye.  It was a fun day for everyone!

Catie and Elise are good buddies.  Elise was so sweet with Catie and Catie loves playing with older girls.

We are so excited for her present!  And the Jack-in-the-box.

Cousin hugs!

Jenna's amazing pictures

How is this sweet girl almost 1??

I think she was trying to reach for Matthew here.

Daddy's girl!

I love my kids!

Best brothers for life!

So close to a good picture.  Well, if it weren't for those cheesy faces! :)

My big girl!

I love her open mouth smiles!

This one is my favorite!

What is this??

You want me to do what with it?

I don't think so.

Run away!!

Is it safe to go back?

Alex and the dinosaur puzzle

My parents got Alex a dinosaur puzzle for his birthday.  He loves putting it together and is getting pretty good at doing it on his own.  He also likes to name the dinosaurs when he's done...and then destroy it!  Here he is naming the dinosaurs while Catie tries her best to get the camera from me.

My little gardeners

Matthew and I have been saying that we really need to do something with our flower bed this year.  A couple of weeks ago Robbie said that he wanted to plant flowers and my great idea was born!  Saturday we took the boys to Lowes and let them each pick out 3 packets of seeds and we bought a little planter.  Sunday evening Matthew and the boys filled the planters and added seeds.  I figured it would be a couple of weeks before we saw anything sprout, but we started to see some green Wednesday.  A lot more have sprouted in the 2 days since then.  The boys are super excited about their flowers and I'm super excited about our cheap flower garden! :)  The only downside is the boys will be losing their dirt.  But I'm ok with that!!  (And they still have their sandbox.)

Filling the pots

"Let me out!!"

Robbie picking seeds.

He went with Foxglove as his first choice.

Alex's turn to pick.

He went with Cypress Vine (aka the star flowers).

We did let Catie come outside, but she wanted to dig up everything.

Our little seedlings!  The only ones I can identify for sure right now are the sunflowers and that's only because some still had the shell on.

Our flower garden will include sunflowers, foxgloves, gaillardia, hollyhock, zinnia and cypress vine.  I have no idea which ones will thrive as we just let the kids pick whatever they wanted.

Catie is 11 months!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe my baby girl will be 1 next month.  She is such a sweet, happy girl.  We keep thinking she's going to start walking because she cruises all over the place and will walk if you hold her hands, but she's not ready to let go and walk on her own.

Catie has 6 teeth now.  Her other top 3 finally came in!!  It's cute to see them, but you can really only see them when she's laughing.

Catie loves to play peek-a-boo.  It does help keep her entertained when I change her.  When I ask "How big is Catie?" she puts her hands up in the air.  I love it!

We have Catie's 1 year birthday pictures scheduled in a couple of weeks.  I'm looking forward to it because I love Robbie and Alex's pictures.  Hopefully the boys will cooperate a little more than they did back in October and we can get a better family picture.  But I really want a cute one of Catie.  Not that it will be too hard to do. :)

A cute video of Catie playing.  I don't know why my phone kept focusing and unfocusing.



Catie in the car.



Pictures!

1 week

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Alex is 3!!!

I can't believe that Alex is 3 years old!  It just doesn't seem possible.  I'm pretty sure he just turned 2.  Three doesn't seem right.

We started his birthday celebrations Saturday.  We did a joint birthday party with his friend Xavier again this year.  Luckily it has worked out both times and the boys don't seem to mind sharing their party with each other.  I think they're just happy to get cake and presents. :)  Alex had a couple of friends from school come and several church friends.  Unfortunately the park we usually do birthdays at needed some fixing up, so Amber found a great new park to celebrate at.  All of the kids played so well together.  We are lucky to have such great friends.  It would have been a perfect day if the wind wasn't blowing!  Of course, it's hard for us to complain about winter when most of the country is covered in snow!

We did a Cars in Space birthday party since Alex wanted a Cars birthday and Xavier wanted a rocket ship birthday.  Amber did a great job combining the 2 and found cute snack and drinks to go along with the theme.

The snacks: Asteroids - Corn Pops, Nuts and Bolts - trail mix, Saturn's Rings - Fruit Loops

Flo's French Onion Dip and Mater Tater Chips

Rocket Fuel (lemonade with green food coloring) and Motor Oil (sweet tea)

The delicious chocolate cake made by our friend's mom (with a little help from Ava and Zac)

Snack and cheesy face time!

My cute (almost) 3 year old!

Jim and Catie

Alex running on the playground.

Ready for the cake!

Looks like Alex is singing "Happy Birthday"

Xavier blowing out his candle

Alex blowing out his candle (though I think the wind got it before he did).

Jim and Jean came up for the weekend to celebrate as well.  It's always nice to have grandparents around.  We figured the boys weren't going to nap, so we let Alex open up his presents from Jim and Jean.  He loves his new space ships and they have both kept the boys entertained.

Jim and Jean also offered to watch the kids so Matthew and I could go out.  It was especially nice since it was Valentine's Day.  We tried a new (to us) restaurant, Saucy Taco, that we both liked.  It's always nice to go out without kids, no matter what day it is!

Matthew made lunch Sunday so we didn't have to go anywhere.  It's nice to just be able to sit and talk and not worry about the kids getting up and running around.  We also did Facetime with Patrick, Mariruth, Caitlin and William.  I'm definitely glad we don't live up north after seeing all of the snow they have gotten!

Monday was Alex's actual birthday.  We spread out the celebration.  Alex opened a couple of presents in the morning.

Birthday pancakes!

Since it was also President's Day, Robbie didn't have school, so all of the kids got to go to the gym together.  I made sure my friend Meg was taking her boys, too, because they all like to play together and Robbie has asked when he gets to play with Lawson at the gym because Robbie is in school Mondays, so he doesn't get to see him.

It really wasn't a good time to take their picture, but I tried!

I left my class a few minutes early so I could change before getting the kids and going to Mama Fu's for lunch.  Alex loves their ninja noodles (teriyaki noodles and chicken) and Robbie loves that it's next door to Moe's.  Matthew met us for lunch with a Cars balloon for Alex.  Then we went to Sweet Frog for some frozen yogurt.

We let Alex open a couple more presents after lunch, they watched shows and then it was nap time.  Matthew went in to wake up Alex so we could go to dinner, but, apparently, he wasn't quite ready to wake up!

Yes, he did lie down on the changing pad and fell back asleep!

Sweet angel face!

We finally did get him to wake up so we could go to Five Guys for dinner.  We also had to go to Publix where Alex picked out cookies to take to school the next day to celebrate with all of his friends there.

When we got home Alex had a few more birthday presents to open.  Matthew got him some Cars to play with the Infinity game that Jim and Jean gave the kids for Christmas.  While the boys were playing, I took the side off of Alex's crib so he could have a toddler bed.  He was so excited to see it!

Unfortunately, after bath time, Alex started crying. It took us a while to figure out what he was saying, but eventually I figured it out.  "I want my crib fixed!"  Rewatching the video makes me think he was worried about falling out.  Thanks, Robbie!!  So while I read the boys books, Matthew put the side back on.

The Eikelands gave Alex a bubble blower for his birthday and the boys wanted to use it yesterday.  Just remember that it's nice and warm here (or it was yesterday!) and that is why Catie is only in a diaper.



Today was Alex's 3 year check up.  I think it might be the best one because he didn't get any shots.  Alex was great with the nurse and the doctor, even better than just a few weeks ago when he had an ear infection.  Alex is 29.6 lbs (26%) and 36 3/4 inches (33%).  He's happy and healthy and growing like he should.

Alex asked yesterday and today for a big boy bed, so I thought we'd try it out again.  I won't say that the boys napped today, but at least Alex didn't cry asking for his crib to be fixed!



Robbie said "Brothers don't fight, brothers hug!"