Dylan's Birthday!

 Dylan LOVES fire trucks! I took him to the fire station and he spent 90% of his time sitting in the drivers seat driving!

 We went really low key on his presents... he got a tractor and some books. He was very happy!

 My handsome man:)

 Dylan loves his grandma!

 I love his face in this picture! He was stoked about his fire truck cake.

This picture was taken right after he blew out the candles. He got smoke in his eyes...

Dylan is super sweet and very very very sassy! He's a teaser and a lover. He's into everything and every time I leave him alone for a moment he is doing something naughty. He climbs on every counter, tries to get toothpaste, soap, get into any cupboard accessible from the counter, gets into the medicine cabinet, eats the dog food, you name it he's getting it. He LOVES gum. Most of the time he's climbing he's on a mission to find gum.  He loves riding his bike and squirting people with the hose. He is really smart. He knows exactly what he is doing. He can be a challenge, but I sure do love this little man. He is a great sleeper and loves to snuggle. So glad I have him!



For my records

Dylan is 31lbs and 36.5 inches tall at 23 months old. His growth percentiles are 84% and 95%

Madison is 48lbs and 45 inches tall at 4 years and 3 months. Her growth percentiles are 96% and 97%

Grayson is 51lbs and 48.5 inches tall at 6 year and 5 months. His growth percentiles are 66% and 82%

7 years!

Dan and I celebrated our 7th anniversary a week early. We dropped the kids off at my mom's and headed up to Midway to enjoy a little alone time. We had a couples massage, went horseback riding, and had dinner at Ruth's Chris. After dinner we shopped the outlets then spent the rest of the night enjoying our nice private room.The next day we golfed at Soldier Hollow and ended our time back at the outlets making sure we weren't empty handed when we picked up the kids. We got them new sandals from the Croc store. 

Dan and I have had our ups and downs, but we made it to 7 years! I'm lucky to have such a good husband and look forward to many more years with him. 

Bathtub!

We finally have a bathtub! Dan tiled the floor in the kids bathroom and put in a new toilet! So our kids can now enjoy a nice bath instead of showering all the time. They love it, especially Dylan. He didn't get the bathtub experience the other two got when they were little, but now he's making up for it! It's a little crowded but they don't care one bit. I love those smiles.

Madison is 4!

Madison is so beautiful, sweet, happy, sassy, thoughtful, observant, loving, little girl. I just love her so much. She is my little buddy and I am so lucky to be her mama. On her birthday we sold our car, went swimming, had dinner at a pizza place, and then opened presents and had cake at our house. I made a Tinkerbell cake with an Ariel candle(as per her request) and she got her first barbie doll. She is so girly it's crazy. Madison is very smart. She knows all of her letter sounds and is starting to read 3 letter words. She can count to 100 and can sing a ton of songs. She can actually carry a tune now and then as well! She loves to play with friends and is very good at pretend play. She plays soccer and loves riding her bike and watching movies. She is very mothering to her baby brother and loves to help everyone. Happy birthday to my little dolly.

Happy Easter!

This year we had a fun Easter! We got a bunny a few days before and Madison named him Grumpy. He's a good little bunny, but is currently in our neighbor's backyard under their deck. Hopefully we'll catch him soon! The Easter Bunny hid the baskets and eggs in our backyard and the kids had a ball finding all the stuff. The bunny waited till we went to church to hide all of the stuff. They got sunglasses, bubbles, sidewalk chalk and of course a little candy, but not too much:) Grandma made Madison's dress and bought the boys their cute bow ties. It was beautiful weather and we just had a lovely day.

My baby is 6!

Grayson is so many things. He is quite the guy. He is so curious and interested in how everything works. He has the most tender heart and is worried about other people. He LOVES his dad, then mom, then brother, then sister. He gets along wonderfully with most people and loves to talk and ask questions. He causes his fair share of trouble and has plenty of energy to go around. He is taking Karate and will be starting soccer in the spring. He is sooooo smart! He is reading books and writing very well. He loves to draw pictures for people and write kind notes on the back. I can't believe he is 6 already and I feel so lucky and blessed to be his mama.

 He asked for a trophy cake... I did my best but my mom thought it was a key:( Hey at least Grayson liked it!

 We kept his birthday pretty low key. We have friend parties every 2 years.

 Grayson love Lebron James hence the shirt.

 He likes money and started putting it in his wallet instead of his piggy bank. A sign of him growing up and wanting to do his own thing.

 He got some sweet new running shoes from Grandma and Papa. Grayson is getting to be a great runner! So far his fastest mile time is 9 min 13 seconds. Every time he runs he wants to beat his previous time. He is a competitive little guy.

 This birthday I learned he doesn't like frosting as much as the cake part.

 Madison is the opposite. She loves the frosting... true female style!

Dylan is such a happy sassy darling little boy. He is 18 months old and all over the place. He climbs on the counter, the entertainment center, the table, the desk, the shelves in the pantry. You name it he's on it. What a little monkey. He is very sweet and loving. But only when he says so:) He is so full of personality and beginning to say a lot of words.

Papa (his favorite)
ba ba (binki)
Shoes
Boots
Dressed
Truck

Back Pack (he likes to wear Grayson's back pack and walks around saying GuGu back pack!)

Peas

Cheese

Sissy

GuGu

Mama Dada (of course)

milk 

juice

cracka

chair

bum

please

car

ball

(wow I'll stop there)

Happy Birthday ME!

This year for my birthday I decided last minute to take Madison skiing for the first time! She did great. She completely exceeded my expectations. We went up for a half day and she only skied the whole time with a nice hot chocolate break at the end. She's off the bunny hill and onto bigger and better hills. My dad was up there already and he helped teach her with his awesome backward skiing skills!

We went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and had cake that Madison made (I supervised of course) afterwards. I am so grateful for my family and even if I now have neck wrinkles and shrunken boobs I am glad to be able to celebrate another birthday. I am looking forward to were life is taking me. 

Christmas!

Christmas this year was really nice. We spent Christmas Eve at Adam and Natalies house and had a cousin white elephant gift exchange and had some great food. Natalie cooked a tur-duck-en and also fried a turkey outside. Everyone contributed to the dinner and I made 4 pies. 

We spent Christmas morning at our house and were blessed to be able to provide our kids with such a nice Christmas. We also enjoyed all the gifts from family that is out of town. 

Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Palm Springs with my parents. We went to a resort called La Quinta. It was really fancy and I felt like a rich snob staying there. Buuuut I really enjoyed it and would totally go back anytime:) My aunt and uncle and cousins were there also. It was fun to see them because it had been years and we all have kids the same age so they got to know eachother and played really well together. We hung out at the pool, played soccer and football, rode scooters, ate dinner at fancy restaurants, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and sunshine. 

 Grayson needed help tying his shoes. I asked my mom if she could keep an eye on Dylan. She walked over to the water fountain with him. I looked over my shoulder and shouted "Mom, watch him, he'll walk right in!" About 5 seconds after I said that he walked right in! My mom jumped in after him and we had a scared wet baby, a scared wet Grandma, and a ruined I-Phone that was in her back pocket. It was actually really funny:)

 He learned real quick to stay away from the fountain!

 Here are the 2nd cousins by the beautifully decorated tree. Grayson has a swollen face and red spots all over his body. We thought he was maybe allergic to catus but it turns out he had a sickness called Roseola. The day after Thanksgiving they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony and Santa came with real reindeer. They even brought in real snow and created a sledding hill. We didn't bother to wait in line for that... the whole reason for this vacation was to get away from the snow!

 It was so fun playing soccer barefoot with everyone. The kids had a wonderful time.

 This is my cousin, Dad and Dan golfing at PGA West. Dan was stoked he got to play there.

Dan also took Grayson and Madison to the driving range one day and they loved it.

 Dylan is a Papa's boy. They stayed in a room right next to ours and he would always go to our door and say Papa, Papa! When we opened the door he would run straight over to Grandma and Papa's place.

 Sunday we drove to Newport Beach and spent the day playing in the sand, eating at Ruby's and going to Balboa Island. It was a little chilly, but still fun!

The kids on the pier. 

We also spent the next 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure! We all had a great time. I was expecting to had a not so fun time because I thought Dylan would be miserable in the stroller all day. Turns out he was able to go on 80% of the rides, and they rides he couldn't go on I got a stroller pass and got to go on all the rides I wanted to. All the pictures we have from Disneyland aren't JPEG format so I can't upload them here. Grayson's favorite rides are California Screamin(he was 1/2 inch short so we stuffed tissues in his shoes so he could ride) Dan got a video of him on the roller coaster. It is so funny to watch! I'll see if I can post it on here later. He also really liked Space Mountain. He just loved everything. Madison got her hair done at Bippity Boppity Boutique and wored a princess dress all day. It was fun, but I don't really think it was worth the $60. She also loved the rides. She was really brave and not scared of anything. The park wasn't that crowded... the longest line we waited in was 30 min and that was for the new Cars ride (which was really cool by the way) but we are looking forward to going again sometime soon!