Happy First Birthday Kylie Reese!

This past weekend was full of fun things. Ryan's parents came in town for the weekend to celebrate Kylie's birthday. They brought the cutest Easter buckets for the kids and they loved them! Braden was busy checking out what all was in his.

I would have never thought that a 2 year would like harmonicas but both of them really enjoyed trying to get noise to come out of them. Thanks Granny Carol for such a great idea and bucket full of fun stuff.
Kylie even got a bucket full of candy, chocolate bunnies, pinwheel, hair bows, etc.

Are these not the cutest pajamas?! These were also part of her bucket along with some headbands. Granny Carol doesn't have much experience with little girls and their bows:-) After the kids opened their buckets, Granny Carol and Grandpa hid eggs downstairs for the kids to have a little egg hunt. The weather was not cooperating for an outside one! I didn't know if Reed and Braden would "get it" this year but they really enjoyed filling their buckets full of eggs. I wish that I had Kylie on video because that girl was trying to run to the candy on the floor and stuff as much in her mouth as she possibly could. The pink eggs had cheerios in them but she could have cared less about those when she learned the others had chocolate in them. That's my girl!! Now, onto the party planning! Have any of you tried to make these infamous cake pops by Bakerella??!! They are such cute ideas so I thought I would try to make the cake pops into little chickens for Kylie's party. Well, let's just say the picture below is as far as I got with them. They were a disaster!!!
This was the cake pops before I attempted to dip them in yellow almond bark. All the pictures that I had seen of these had such a smooth candy coating and looked so pretty. Let's just say that mine looked like the boys had rolled them around in the coating and then played with them.

So onto plan B which was to just buy a cake at Publix...I should have just listened to Ryan in the first place:-) I would like to think that we taught Kylie how to show '1' with her fingers but we haven't even tried that. Wow, how things change with your 3rd child. Sorry Kylie, I do know the "pain" of being the last child!!!
I am trying to keep up with taking pictures of her though so that her baby book isn't as small as mine was compared to my brothers, Kyle and Craig. I love you mom, but you have to admit theirs were significantly fuller than mine. Oh well! Those of you who were the third child understand:-)
We had a great turn out for her party even though the weather was not the best. Of course, it had been beautiful the whole week leading up the her party then it stormed the day before and made Saturday pretty cold. So much for an outside party which was the original plan. I have learned that I have had to let my type A personality go with three kids 29 months and younger. I am sure that will be the case no matter what their age is! Sweet little Charley with Tina. She is officially 10 days older than Kylie.

Ryan's dad brought up some crawfish to boil for the party. I was not a big fan of this idea since crawfish does not smell the best. But, I did compromise and let Ryan have it as long as they boiled them outside:-) The kids did enjoy playing outside some but for the most part, most of them stayed inside. We had planned the party for my parent's house since they have a great yard but thank goodness we did because I do not know where all the people would have fit in our house. I hope that Tori, Brady, Colton, Callie, Taylor, Weston, Charley, Reese, Rylie, Maddi, Preston, and Camille all had a good time despite the cold weather.

Kylie waiting for her chocolate cupcake. I had bought her a white cake with white icing for her "smash cake" but Ryan thought that chocolate was better so that it would show up in pictures. Next year, I am going to let him plan the party....just kidding. I love you Ryan!

When does taking a family picture get easier? We are going to get a professional picture done this summer of our family but I sure hope Tucker has much better luck than this!!!

Family Picture Take 1

Family Picture Take 2

Family Picture Take 3

Family Picture Take 4

Family Picture Take 5....Oh well, maybe next year!

This was when we were singing Happy Birthday to Kylie but I think that Reed and Maddi thought we were singing to them! Kylie didn't dig in quite like I thought she would. She ate some of it but then didn't really like the cupcake being all over her hands. Maybe she is going to be a little like her mommy.

Aunt Tina got Kylie the softest and cutest little rabbit. I hope that she falls in love with this just like Braden did with the rabbit Aunt Tina bought him 2 years ago! I don't know what it is about my dad but kids love him. Reese and Rylee sat forever and let him read to them. It was the cutest thing. Reese and Rylee are twins and they have a little brother about 17 months younger than them. I tell Lia that is is very doable but you just have to let some things go. I keep reminding myself of that weekly:-)
Charley was enjoying her some ice out of the cooler.

These were what I had planned for the activity since we were going to be inside. I saw something similar to this online but they only used one finger for the ears. Didn't these turn out so cute?!!
All you do is paint your child's palm and fingers (not the thumb) white then pair up the fingers to make the ears and push the child's hand down to make the print. Then clean off their and and paint the tip of one finger pink to make the nose then paint that same finger pink to press for the pinks of the ears!!! I put the eyes on there with glue and just drew the mouth with a Sharpie. Fun and simple!

We have had a great first year with Kylie and we pray that this next year brings as much happiness as this past year did.

Sick Days and Charley Turns One!

Before we get into the fun stuff. I have to write (for their "baby book") about these last couple of weeks of sickness with ALL 3 kids! It all started with Reed getting sick at Mother's Day Out on a Monday with the stomach bug then he took a turn for the worse. He was as sick as I have seen him since he has been home from the hospital 2 years ago. He would not eat, play, walk, turn his head to look at you,etc.. So my mom calls me at school on Thursday and says "we are concerned that he might have meningitis because he does not want to move his neck." Not the best thing for her to call and tell me 10 minutes before I am going to teach Calculus class:-) I, of course, am a basket case and think that Reed is going to have to go to the hospital for an aweful illness. Long story short, they did a quick strep test which came back negative and the doctor just said she thought he had a bad virus with a really sore throat because his lymph nodes were really swollen. Well, we had a follow up visit the next morning and his congestion had gotten much worse so she sent us for a chest x-ray which came back as viral pneumonia. Then later that day, the nurse called and said the culture came back positive for strep. I was so excited to know a reason for all of this! The antibiotic didn't help that they put him on over the weekend and he ended up getting an ear infection too. He was still not really eating at this point and hardly drinking his milk. I called the doctor and she put him on a new antibiotic which worked!!! I had called cardiology several times during all of this just to make sure that he didn't need to come in. It actaully made the doctors feel better since the others were sick too. Braden also had strep and Kylie had a double ear infection with thrush. It was probably my hardest week as a mom minus the hospital days! Praise God they are much better now!!! Now onto the fun stuff. Kylie Reese is getting around everywhere and mostly by walking. She is going to be celebrating her first birthday this upcoming Friday! Where has the time gone?!!

The great grannies came for the weekend to celebrate Charley's birthday. The boys were enjoying the warm weather especially since they could eat Popsicles outside. Kylie walking with her papa. She is going to have some tough feet...who needs shoes?!

My little girl is growing up but she is so much fun. She is so well natured and pretty laid back. Don't get me wrong though, she lets her brothers know if she doesn't like when they mess with her! Braden is still ALL boy. He loves to do anything outside and is really into throwing balls and playing in the dirt. The boys were running to get out of the driveway from the big trucks at my parent's house and they both wanted to be picked up by nana! Braden is terrified of the trucks. He will not even get close to the driveway if he hears or thinks a big truck is coming down the driveway. I guess this is a good thing though!

Oreo's anyone??? It is such a relief to see Reed feeling much better. He has lost weight since being sick so we pretty much let him eat whenever and whatever he wants! Charley's First Birthday Party!! Isn't she just the cutest thing? She is a little mixture of Craig and Tina. Tina had everything decorated so cute and the "berry" theme was carried out throughout everything. She had cute little cupcakes, sugar cookies for party favors along with bubbles for the kids, a strawberry pinata, and pink and green candies.

My dad and I were both taking pictures of them so I didn't get all of them looking at the camera at the same time. Charley didn't care a lot about her cake because Craig gave her one of these rock candy suckers that she did not want to let go of. She ended up sticking the sucker in the cake to eat the cake!

All of the "big kids" had already left when we did the pinata so my boys were the biggest kids left to try and bust it open. Needless to say, Ryan had to help with that! Nana having a little talk with Kylie. These two are going to have some good times growing up together.

Tina, with her brother Jason, entertained the boys for a while with the sand and water table. This is one of those fun toys that I refuse to buy because I don't want to clean up the mess:-)

The boys went down to the pond to do some fishing. Can you tell that Braden and Reed were about past going?? Ryan showing the boys his 'big' catch!!

Oh, little Miss Charley can have a little fit when she wants to. Nana was giving her water out of the water bottle and this is what happened when Nana took the bottle from her. Guess who won this battle? Papa, Tina, Charley, Kylie and Nana

These next two pictures summarize who's each of their favorites. Well, not really but most of the time when you ask Braden "Whose boy are you?" he will reply "Papa's!" and when you ask Reed "Whose boy are you?" he will reply "Nana's". I know it's not Easter yet but we have to get at least two wears out of these outfits:-) Don't they look too cute?? I know some of you think that dressing the boys in knee socks at age two is pushing it, but I love it!!!