Happy 3rd Birthday!

This past Saturday was the boys 3rd birthday! Rylan wanted a farm party and Jacob wanted a construction party. So, I put on my thinking cap to try and combine the two and we landed here...Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin. If you have not read these book, go to your library TODAY! They are outstanding! Very well written and illustrated and so funny.
To welcome our guests, we asked each of them to autograph the boys favorite Cronin book.. Giggle, Giggle Quack for Rylan and Dooby, Dooby, Moo for Jacob. We started this last year and the boys LOVE their special birthday books. After the party, I glue in a family photo to the front cover.

These were the favors! Each child (and adult family) got a Cronin book. I also enlarged several characters to decorate the house. The boys still love playing with them and pretending to be the books.

The cake! This came off of Betty Crocker's website. It turned out really cute, If I do say so myself! :)
Our family at the party...

As the kids came in they each got a construction hat. They added star and farm animal stickers to their hard hats.
Jacob was very meticulous about placing each sticker in just the right spot! :)
Then we watched the Click, Clack,Moo DVD. The kids were spell-bound. Jacob, Kamri, Annelise and Rylan. These are the girls that the boys say they are going to marry one day. All the parents are in complete agreement... now we just need to get it in writing! :)
Cousin Evan, Aunt KK and Uncle Justin were able to come down and spend the weekend with us. It was such a treat for them to stay at our house. Our visits are usually so rushed, but this seemed to be calm, even with the party! This is Evan sporting her hard hat!
Then we went into the backyard for the first game. Heather and her kids helped me paint and build the barn while Jason was out of town last week. It turned out perfect! Notice the brand in the middle? That was Heather's idea! We got the hay from the local feed store. Then I hid little hard plastic animals in the hay and...

the kids hunted for the animals! BIG HIT!!!



After we searched for the animals, I read another Cronin book - Thump Quack Moo. Then the kids used inflatable hammers to build the barn and markers to decorate the barn like the animals in the book.
Brotherly love!
Jacob was once again in deep concentration.
Heading back inside for...
the reading of Giggle, Giggle Quack - Rylan's favorite book!
The kids drank Capri Sun while I read the book. The hammers and juice were favorites!
In the book, the animals convince Farmer Brown's brother to buy them pizza for dinner...seven pizzas to be exact. So we did a relay carrying seven pizza boxes (thank you Domino's). As much as the kids liked carrying the boxes, I think they liked throwing them more! hahaha
Then we played "pin the pencil in Duck's hand" - also from the book. This is Jacob.
Now it's Rylan's turn. This was probably the overall favorite game. The little girls did it about 4 times each!
Rylan was waiting to throw the rings at the cow bottles. He squealed and squealed at this game. he thought the cow bottles were hilarious!
What do you think? :) Thank you Daesha for painting the bottles!
Then it was present time...organized chaos to say the least! The pile of gifts was overwhelming. They got lots of games, play-doh sets, Little People stuff, puzzles, toys...you know, overall GREAT FUN!!!
We got them a grill. It was a HUGE hit! They use all their new wooden food on it and pretend to be Daddy. It is precious. This is all the cousins having BBQ fun.
The party was a great success! All the kids had fun and Rylan and Jacob had a wonderful time. It was fun to celebrate them! :) happy birthday to my two precious boys!

Two 3 pounds of joy ...again

Almost three years ago, we were blessed with two little 3 pounds of joy. Rylan...3 pounds 2 ounces.
And Jacob - 3 pounds 13 ounces
Our new bundles snuggling together for the first time since the womb - 3 weeks old.
This year we got 2 more 3 pounds of joy each...in the form of cinnamon rolls! These rolls are the same size as the boys when they were born!!!!! They fill a dinner plate and are about 3 inches tall. They are DIVINE!!!!!
Jason brought these home from a little San Antone cafe owned by LuLu. They are her speciality!
You know what they say...everything's bigger in Texas!!!

More birthday stuff to come...farm/construction party and more! :)

A Mouse in the House

While grating cheese the other night, my oldest was under my feet begging for cheese. So I gave him a small bite and set the chunk on the counter to go get milk out of the fridge. When I turned around, this is what I saw... my "mouse" ate a chunk out of the cheese!!!! Would you believe that this angel would do such a thing? :)

Speaking of my angel mouse...he loves his horse. He calls it his "force." He carries his horse ALL over the place and it is so small that I am afraid that we will lose it. He sleeps with his horse and almost panics when he can't find it. What is the horse's name? Nemo. That's right - our Nemo is a horse, not a fish!
Sweet dreams little mouse!

Home!

Granny made it home today! She was released from the Rehab Hospital this morning and is SOOOOO glad to be home. Now the home health people are coming on Monday to do all their assessments and her home physical therapy can begin. Please keep her and my mom and Popa in your prayers. Thanks!

My Little Pharaoh

This week in Bible Power Hour the kids learned about Moses and the Ten Plagues. To help tell the story, Mike had one child act as Moses and one child act as Pharaoh. As soon as Mike mentioned someone being Pharaoh, Jacob stood up. And Mike gambled on an almost 3 year old saying his lines!

Jacob thought he was the hottest stuff! He sat on his throne with great pride. He got a little louder with each "NO!" He may be finding his element! Moses and the Pharaoh... And Moses was such a good sport with my almost big boy. He helped coach his lines and reactions. Thank you Moses! :)
So guess what story our house has told a zillion times this week...you got it - Moses and the Ten Plagues. To see the cute booklet we made, look at my other blog...

Cooking Show...

Jason and I have been faithful watchers of The Next Food Netwrok Star this summer. Jason was pulling for Jeffrey and I was pulling for Melissa. Melissa won this Sunday! She is a Texan, mom of twins and is so perky and practical. Tune in to watch her new show on Sundays at 11:30am. Her tips are what made me love her. Hope you will too!

Pink BD 2009

This weekend we headed a little north for our Pink Birthday celebration! We stopped at Sam*Moon... THREE hours later we left. Seriously, check out all of those cheap, cute necklaces behind Heather and Robyn.Holly and I before we "weeded out" with loot!
Thanks to Aubrey, Ryanne and Allision, Vera has hit the nest. Holly has also fallen in love with Vera too! Holly is Cupcakes Pink and I am Raspberry Fizz. Gotta love the Weekender!
Friday night, we went to the mall and immediately found our new favorite place that we don't have at home... LOFT! (Sorry Holly, my camera did not get you!) Notice the new CHUNKY jewelry?
And dinner was at our favorite place...Cheesecake*Factory. This night we had 30th Anniversary and Coffee. Both were FABULOUS!
Friday night we spent about 2 hours in Bible Study and Prayer. In a word - perfect. We spent time in Ephesians 3 talking about how God's love is Measureless! Having a group to share struggles with and then lift up to our Father...priceless.

Saturday morning after more Bible Study and Prayer time and before we hit the streets again...
Lunch at another favorite... LaMadelei*ne. Two words...Mango Tea. I drank 5 glasses! Heather and Robyn both got CHUNKY necklaces!
Me and Holly...notice, more CHUNK.
Then it was time for the annual bra shopping... unfortunately, we never found a sale and none were purchased. However, we tried on many and laughed TOO loud and TOO long!!!
Then we hit Starbucks for our last Bible Study time. Two of my favorite things... GreenTeaFrap and the Word!
The word of the trip was CHUNK...chunky jewelry that we all bought, being convicted to memorize chunks of scripture, studying God's Word for chucks of time, Snickers Chunk cheesecake on Saturday night, and the grossest of all...the guy who CHUNKED his dinner about 6 feet from us Saturday night at Cheese*cake Factory. That's right...barfing in public.

Thanks girls for not only a FUN time, but all a time of RENEWAL and spiritual growth! Can't wait until Pink BD 2010!

PS - We missed you LOTS Lacie!!!