Kade's Birthday Interview

This morning I did Kade's birthday interview. I will ask him these same questions over the years to see how his answers change from year to year! I wrote down word for word what he answered with even if it didn't make sense. And then I added in my own thoughts in parenthesis. :)

1. What is your favorite color? Pink, blue, & red

 2. What is your favorite toy? Music radio (He has been talking about a music radio for months, he doesn't have one and I have no clue where it came from but he is hoping to get one for his birthday!)

 3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries and grapes and plums (Where plum came from, I have no idea. I am fairly certain he hasn't ever tried one before?)

4. What is your favorite tv show? Two shows, mickey mouse, dinosaur train

 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Bread sandwich, ketchup (For the record, I do not give Kade ketchup on bread or by its self for lunch :))

6. What is your favorite outfit? Pants & a shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Monkey lunchbox (on the iPad)

 8. What is your favorite snack? Fruit snacks, goldfish

 9. What is your favorite animal? A Blue (of course!)

10. What is your favorite song? Phil Phillips “home” (We love that our boy has good taste in music. He loves this song, and wants to listen on repeat all the time in the car :))

 11. What is your favorite book? Handy Manny toolbox

 12. Who is your best friend? Mama

13. What is your favorite cereal? Captain Crunch

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play

15. What is your favorite drink? Juice and water

16. What is your favorite holiday? Pumpkins (I assume Halloween?)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Blue, snuggy, bear, Gerry the giraffe

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes

 19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cake

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to vacuum (I hope that doesn't mean he will be a janitor!)

I love this boy and I can't believe he will be THREE tomorrow!!!!!

This little girl

She has her daddy wrapped around her teeny tiny finger. Yesterday when Bryan got home from work, she crawled to him so fast and just laid her head on him when he picked her up. Bryan kept saying, "look at her, look how sweet she is."

She has no clue the power she has :)



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Bedtime

Our life is settling back to normal after the move, renovations, and crazy summer schedule. I am so happy to have family dinners again, nighttime walks, playtime, etc. I had missed our normal routine! After dinner, we usually go for a walk, then it is baths and we finish up with some playtime, or dancing, or snuggling, just whatever tickles our fancy for the night! Tonight it was playtime in the playroom.

 

By the time bedtime rolls around, the playroom looks like a disaster zone.

 

Bryan deciced to make himself comfortable in Kade's chair, Kade was bringing the "gang" over for him to hold.

 

Ella tried to get the camera.

 

Snuggling with Dad!

 

Ella loves her books!

 

Kade's face is blurry, but I had to get a picture of the "gang". The gang consists of Blue, Bear, Snuggy, and Gerry the Giraffe. I spend my days looking for one of them and trying to keep up with them all. I told Kade he wasn't allowed to add anymore animals to the gang... 

 

Ella was mad because she wanted to play with Kade's toy, but I wanted Kade to show Bryan this toy. Kade came in and sat down with it the other day and he knew SO MUCH. It kinda freaked me out! A voice asks where certain things are and you push the state to find it. I was literally in shock watching him, toddlers are smart little things.

 

We finished up the night with a birthday party for Gerry. We have been talking nonstop about birthday's and parties for a few weeks now. It is a hot topic in this house :)

 

And then a few books before bed!

Love, love, love my family time!

5 years

On Saturday, August 11, Bryan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! Bryan surpised me with an ovenight date night. A hotel was booked, dinner reservations made, and he had a babysitter for our kids! It was wonderful!

These past 5 years have been nothing short of amazing. I am incedribly blessed to call Bryan my husband. Our kids are our greatest accomplishment in our marriage, and will continue to be until the day we die. Nothing else we do will ever top Kade and Ella. They are perfection, and we are so proud to be their parents. But since this blog is dedicated to Kade and Ella and everything they do, I want this post to be about Bryan and I. I am so proud that we have the marriage that we do. Our foundation is strong, and honestly we just love being around each other even 5 years and 2 kids later. Every night I am happy when my kids go to bed and it is just Bryan and I time. He will sit and watch all my 'trash' reality shows with me and not complain. We just enjoy each others company. He is my other half, my BETTER half. He makes me want to be a better person and I am so thankful for that.

When we were dating, I told Bryan that my dream was to travel the world. I wanted to see everything. I said I would sacrifice other things just so that travel was a priority in my life. Well, my husband delivered. And in these past 5 years we have traveled more than I could have ever dreamed. Trip by trip he is showing me the world and there is no one I would rather see it with than him. We have had so many fun and memorable moments on our trips.

 

We went snorkeling in Honduras

 

Threw our pennies in the Trevi Fountain (ask Bryan I WILL be back one day)

 

We swam with dolphin in Mexico

 We had our camera stolen in Florence, and then saw the tower of Pisa.

We spent a week on the beaches of Alabama

 

We went on a gondola ride in Venice (picture me singing 'O Sole Mio and That's Amore the.entire.time.)

  

We sailed and para-sailed in Turks and Caicos.

 

We went to Mexico for our first trip with kids.

 

We went to DC and saw the White House decorated for Christmas.

We go to Paris and overlook the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

We also climb to the top of Notre Dame

 

We see La Sagrada Familia and decide it is the most amazing thing we have ever seen.

 

We have a picnic in Versailles.

 

We experience jet lag with a toddler.

 

And we see our first nudist on a beach in Barcelona.

 

This picture makes me happy. We were in Rome, it was our last night and I made Bryan go back to St Peter's Square. We went every day because it was my favorite place in Rome for some reason. This night, the sun was setting, the weather was nice and cool, and the square was almost empty. It was gorgeous and Bryan and I just sat and talked about our trip.  Just a special moment between us  It is my favorite memory from any vacation we have ever been on.

Well, it is sort of a tie between this and the time Bryan was massaged by an eighty year old blind man in Arkansas, but I'll save that one for another post :)

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Terrible confession

Some times when my kids are sick I secretly enjoy it. No, I do NOT enjoy a sick child. But I enjoy the fact that they are snuggly, calm, and don't want to do anything but watch movies all day. I get sooooooo much done around the house. I also get to relax more than on normal days. Kade is on the mend from a stomach bug but not 100% feeling better. He has for the most part wanted to lay around all day. We have watched Cars 2 twice and are on round three as we speak. He looks so sweet just laying there with his snack watching his favorite movie.





I have gotten a lot done around here and if only this little cutie would partake in snuggly movie watching, I could relax too!




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Change of plans

So yesterday I had big plans of documenting our day and blogging about it. You know, just a "day in the life of Kade and Ella." When I look back in the future those will be the posts I treasure most, the simple things like what our days were like. All was going well until about 11, when tantrums (like the big bad kind) were thrown and tears were shed by all, including me. So I gave up in trying to document the day. I was so flustered and in a bad mood the rest of the day that I figured I would just try again another day. But I was looking at pictures this morning and figured there was no reason not to post them! So here is a little glimpse into the first 3.5 hours of our day!




Breakfast of champions, waffles and bananas.




Love him!




Love her too!




After breakfast Kade danced...




And Ella worked on her walking skills.




Then as I was getting my self dressed and everything ready to go Kade did a little water coloring.




Then we loaded up to head to the gym then to the library! It was Ella's first time riding forward, she loved it!




Kade pre-meltdown




Ella kept fake coughing because I would turn to look to see if she was ok, she would giggle every time :)
And that's all! Maybe soon I will get our entire day!
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Ella Claire- 11 Months old

On July, 27th, Ella turned 11 months old. I short month away from turning 1 year old. Excuse me while I cry a river. I honestly can't even believe that we are this close to her first birthday. This month we had two big milestones. First being her first tooth! Hooray! I was beginning to worry we were going to need  baby dentures if there is such a thing! Second is she took her first steps! She is now walking about 50% of the time and getting better by the day! It is hard to believe that this fall I am going to have two walking kids. YIKES! What a fun (and exhausting) 11 months it has been!

Side note, Ella's ability to move at incredibly fast speeds makes it impossible to take pictures of her anymore. Honestly, I have never seen a kid crawl as fast as she can. And I think she would be walking more if she would try to take her time. She is a nut! So this was the best I was able to get!

And below is what every other picture looked like. Actually, this is a good one compared to the others..

Dish washing girl

Where ever I am, Ella is right there 'helping' me. She is into everything. Everything. Yesterday she climbed on the door of the dishwasher and then couldn't figure out how to get down. She was turning in circles to get off saying "uh ohhh" over and over again. It was hilarious! I ran to get my phone only to have it die the moment I tried to use it. So after charging I put her back on to try a reinactment but she just sat and stared at me the entire time. She is a mess!




And one more picture because she is so cute!



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Car wash

I love kid friendly businesses. This particular car wash not only had giant windows for Kade to watch but these buttons he could press that would spray water out of a firetruck inside the car wash! He was washing every car that went by! Fun fun!




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