Happy 2nd Birthday Ryan!

Wow, my baby is two already! Boo Hoo! He's growing up so fast, much faster than Kyle. He adores his big brother and wants to be just like him, so he does his best to keep up. We celebrated with family on his real birthday. Grammy and Papa were in town to join in on the celebration. Here he is spitting, I mean blowing, out the candles on his cake :) Don't mind the cake, it was kind of a left over of the REAL cake I was making for the party with his friends for the next day. This mama couldn't quite get it together to make another cake, you'll see why later.

Who ever said the second kid gets gypped? Not this one. He made out like a bandit. He got this really cool firehouse from Grammy and Papa and this "roar", that's what we call lions around here.



I have to tell you, he loves the roar. He carries it, he rides it, he roars with it, and he puts it to sleep right next to his bed. Night, night roar!

He also got this me-mommer, I mean digger, from his Mommy and Daddy. Pretty cool huh? It's tough to think of stuff for Ryan, but I think we scored with this one.



As if that wasn't enough, he also got a fabulous sandbox from Nana and G-daddy. What kid doesn't love to dig and feel the sand run through their fingers. Both kids with love this one for sure.



The next day we had a party for Ryan and all of his friends at a place called Monkey Joes. It's a huge indoor space with tons of inflatables from bounce houses, to obstacle courses, to gigantic slides (a favorite for both kids). This place just screams fun. So, everyone put on their monkey legs (even Daddy) and jumped and jumped for hours. They had a blast!







We did manage to take a break for lunch and grab some pizza and cake before we went on bouncing!





Check out the cake! I think Ryan was pleased with his Spidey cake! I actually made it, believe it or not. I must admit, I was pretty proud, considering this was my first shot. Will I do it again? Who knows. I guess I need to make Kyle one to be fair, right, and then it's back to the bakery... ha, ha!

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Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday, the 23rd, was Daddy's birthday! He turned the ripe old age of 34 :) We celebrated with his favorite dinner and, of course, cake. This year it wasn't just any cake. Back in September when Kyle was trying to decided which cake he wanted for his birthday, Daddy was telling him all about the cakes he had when he was a kid. One in particular came to mind, the Cookie Monster cake. We asked Nana to scan a picture of it and send it to us so Kyle could see it. It turns out that the Cookie Monster cake was really an Ernie cake! Must be the old age kicking in. Anyway, how could I resist an opportunity to make a Cookie Monster cake for a grown man. So, here it is....

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband, I hope you had a great day!

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G is for....

The letter of the week at Kyle's school this week is G and it just so happens that today we found out that we are having a girl! I can't think of a better G word, can you? I am actually shocked. I really thought we were going to have another boy, but I guess the cards say otherwise. We are just so excited. After 4 years of cars, trucks and trains, we'll have to start thinking dolls, princesses and ballerinas. Bring it on! My first thought, actually, was that I will be able to go into a store and buy a pretty dress instead of a pair of cargo shorts. Whoo Hoo! Then I thought about it some more and that is just the beginning. There will be beautiful summer dresses, Christmas dresses, princess dresses, prom dresses and hopefully one day the most beautiful dress of all, her wedding dress. What fun it will be for me to share all of those special moments with her as I did with my mother. And we can't forget how lucky this little girl will be to have two big brothers to watch out for her. I'm pretty sure Ryan has no idea what is coming. Kyle, on the other hand, is excited that he's going to have a baby sister. He's been saying it was a girl all along. He was right, and he's been telling me so. He's now thinking her name shouldn't be Happy anymore. His top choice at the moment is Hello (as in Hello Kitty). That would be a first, I think! Here she is.....our baby girl!

And here are her toes!

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A Zoorific Day

Sunday was an unseasonably warm November day, so we decided to take the boys to the zoo. We had such a blast walking around and visiting all of our favorite animals. We loved watching the gorillas. They really are smart. The chimpanzees were great too. This guy gathered up a couple of treats and sat right in front of the window eating his snack in front of Kyle. He thought that was pretty cool.

Here are the boys checking out the ostriches. Just thought this was a cute picture, ostriches really aren't that exciting in my book!



Now elephants, on the other hand, ARE exciting! Fortunately, this guy wasn't in much of a hurry, so we got to look at him for a good while! One word....enormous!



The rhinos were also out roaming with the elephants, but most were pretty far away, except for this one. He was more than willing to pose for a picture.



We also got to see the giraffes, zebras, lions (they were sleeping), bears, polar bears and much, much more! It really was a great zoo and we couldn't have asked for a better day! We'll definitely be back!

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Happy Halloween 2009

Well, we certainly got plenty of use out our costumes this year with all of the halloween parties we went to. I think Kyle has worn his 4 times already and Ryan has worn his 3! We had a blast last night trick-or-treating around the neighborhoods and the kids definitely raked in the candy! What we're going to do with it all, who knows? Here they are ready to go.....our Lightning McQueen race car driver and our little Spidey!

Ryan was hilarious. After every house we went to he would say, "See you later alligator!" And here they are with they're loot!



YUMMY!!!





Earlier in the day we carved our pumpkins. Kyle wanted a scary one. My little helpers weren't too much of a help as they weren't too keen on sticking their hands in all that pumpkin goop :) Maybe that's why I only ended up carving two of our three pumpkins!



Here are MY masterpieces :)



Two weeks before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat. We had done this before, so we knew it'd be a lot of fun. However, it was FREEZING!!!! We got lucky on Halloween night and it was actually quite warm, but look at these poor kids. Their faces tell it all!



Oh and I don't think we missed a single car. Ryan was all about it!




HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

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