Happy Birthday Panda!

Three years ago tonight I was sitting in my hospital bed with my new baby boy, never imagining the joy he would bring into my life or the lives of others. Alex has such a happy spirit and I feel so blessed that in this life he is mine.

Alex didn't have much of a choice as he was the third child, but he has always been very easy going. Alex was the happiest little baby ever!

When he was only about a year old he started carrying a spatula around. He wouldn't settle for the toy ones he had to have the real thing. About a year ago he traded in his spatula for a yellow hammer, also known as a "knock". In the last year he has collected many hammers, and other tools and has become our little builder. Whenever Chris or Grandpa is working on anything he is right there just taking everything in.

Alex is a spunky little guy with a big heart. Every time he gets fruit snacks for himself he always brings one for Cooper(or just smart, he knows I'll let him if he is being nice to his brother). Everyday he is talking more and more, just spouting out random words like chihuahua.

I know he has been getting bigger ever since he was born, always growing. But it seems that overnight he a boy instead of my little baby. He is skinny and just looks so different to me all of a sudden. Just like a little clone of his dad!

The funniest thing is when you ask him his name, he says,"Pandabear". You tell him no it's Alex and he says, "NO, Pandabear". It started when he was a baby and Chris just started calling him Panda. One of those things that just sticks. No when ever he sees a panda bear, he says "me".

Happy Birthday my BIG 3 year old boy!

I love you!

First Day of School

Today was a very long day! This morning Alex had his first day of prescool at Tony Alamo. It was hard on both of us, especially when he started crying. I saved my tears for the car and said good-bye. Chloe grabbed his face with both hands and told him "everything is going to be okay" and then she kissed him. She is such a good little mama. When I got in the car I was crying and Nick and Chloe asked what was wrong. I told them it makes me sad when they are sad and I can't do anything about it. So they promised that they wouldn't cry when I took them to school! When I picked Alex up he was so happy. He said "I a good boy, I no cry no more!". It was so cute. I am glad that his first day went great. We then headed to lunch at McDonalds. I don't know if we are ever going to eat lunch at home again. It takes so long to get back and forth to the school, we are going to have to figure some things out for sure! And then it was time for Nick and Chloe to go to school. They kept their promise, they didn't cry! Nicked happily lined up with his cousin, Hailey for kindergarten and Chloe waited very impatiently for her turn to line up with her new prescool friends. It made me happy that they were both so happy to start school. My sister, Jenny picked the kids up because I had sleeping babies. Thats right,both of them fell asleep on the way home from dropping the kids off. School wore Alex out and I was worn out too. I am not used to morning school yet! So the three of us slept to the rain. All in all, it wasn't too bad!

[BOB]

Alex has been talking about his Bob party for at least the last 6 months, so to him it probably seemed like this day would never come, but he finally had his Bob the Builder party yesterday.

He had fun helping Jenny and I do the balloons and help decorate. I have never had a 3 year old care so much about their party. He wanted everything Bob or orange. He even requested Aunt Amber to make him a Bob cake. Another request was that the pool be decorated. He kept telling everyone that he was going to have a Bob pool. Jenny came up with the idea to float tons of balloons on the pool and of course he loved that!

Alex was a luck guy with 2 birthday cakes, so of course we had to put candles in both, double wishes and double singing. When we sang the first time he put his hands over his mouth like he was being shy and as soon as we were done he blew his candles out. He was very excited to see the second cake come out, but as soon as we started singing again he covered his mouth again. It was pretty cute!

For the couple of days he hasn't been feeling well, so as soon as the party was over he crashed on the couch with dad. What cute guys!

Thanks to all of our family and friends who helped make his birthday so special!

Wedding

Last Saturday Chris' little brother Tristen got married and we all got to be part of their special day! I was a bridesmaid, Chris was a groomsmen, Nick was the ring bearer, and Chloe was the flower girl. I don't think she quite understood her job though. It is my fault, I never really explained to her what was going to happen or what she would have to do, but she did look cute just walking down the aisle carrying her basket of rose petals. When she finally got to the front I was trying to whisper to her to throw the flowers on the floor, so when she finally stopped she picked up a handful and threw them all over the people on the front row. Everyone laughed (it was pretty funny!), but that only made her more scared and more grumpy! Besides our grumpy girl everybody seemed to have a great time. Tristen was his usual goofy self, but it was so cute to see him so happy and ready to begin his new journey in life.

Congratulations Tristen & Tahtiana!

Computer NeRD

This is what I find pretty much everytime I walk into my bedroom! Cooper loves the computer! Luckily he is happy enough just playing with the mouse and making some color come to the screen. It is so hard for me to be mad at him when he looks so cute! Even if I do get mad he just laughs at me and then I start laughing too!

{funny kids}

I wish working out was as fun for me as it is for my kids!

They are always asking to use the treadmill and I had to start hiding the key because I am afraid they are going to get hurt. Nick does the treadmill a couple times a week, more if I let him and does crunches and push ups too. This morning Chloe told me that when she gets big she is going to go to Weight Watchers. Funny girl!!

[lake]

Chris and I got to spend a day at the lake with no kids. It is so awesome to be able to get away now and then and have some time by ourselves. I guess we weren't really all alone, but it was nice to hang out with my brother, Jordan, his wife, Amber, and my little sister, Jenny. We had so much fun tubing! Hopefully we will be able to that again this summer.

Water Day

Nick has had the opportunity to attend preschool for the last 2 and a half years. He has grown so much and learned so much! I am so proud of him and so thankful for his teacher, Bonnie, who has been a family friend for forever. As the school year draws to an end there is always water day that the kids look forward to. It is so much fun and the siblings get to come too!

I love summer

I think the last day I blogged was Nick's last day of school!

That means I have been enjoying FREEDOM!

It has been so nice not having to taki him to school to only pick him up 2 hours later. We have been taking it easy, just lounging at the pool. Naptime has been uninterrupted and that has meant alot of time sitting by the pool with a good book while all the cousins play. They have been having so much fun, I have been enjoying myself and life has been great!!


If anybody knows how many times Chloe has tried to give me a heart attack with her lack of swimming knows that it is a BIG accomplishment that she can now swim without floaties!! At the beginning of the summer she was afraid to even try (I'm sure the last couple summers of experiences didn't help!), so we are so proud of her for how far she has come in just a few months! And Cooper too! He hated the pool not so long ago and now he is backing his little self into the pool. He loves to jump off the edge to me and is even swimming under the water. Nick has been a fish for quite some time, so now Chloe and Cooper have joined him!




We have gone to the public pool all of two times this summer. We used to go all the time before my mom got her pool. And now that I have been once with my four little children I have realized that it is not something I want to do again by myself until all four can swim by themselves! I don't worry about Nick, but it is just so hard to keep track of four little bodies who all want to do their own thing. The next time we went we took dad and they all wanted to go with him! Now he understand why I won't do it by myself!