Jaden's Birthday Wisdom

I took this of Jaden at breakfast on his birthday. He had already been talking for about 20 minutes before I thought to grab the camera. It is a regular occurrence in our house that Jaden blesses us with every thought that enters his head.

I thought it would be fun to share with you. :)

Jaden's Birthday

Is it just me, or is it completely out of the blue that Jaden is now 6 and going into 1st grade this year???  I don't know, it kind of caught me off guard, but it is true.  He is so happy to be 6 now "like Luke."  He can only enjoy it for 6 months until Luke turns 7, and then that is all I will hear about until this time next year.  So the cycle goes.  :)  Anyway, speaking of Luke, Mrs. Karrer outdid herself this year and made Jaden the most amazing knight's castle cake I have ever seen, and not to be unfair, she made a beautiful princess one for Baylee as well.  I'm not sure if she truly realized how much work it was going to be, or if she just loves my kids that much, but we think she is pretty special.  :)

She did most of the work at her house, but brought it all over here on Saturday morning to assemble it.  The kids must have asked if we were finished yet 1000 times.  They were SO excited!

She even let them put the tops of the towers on when she was done.

Balyee was thrilled with hers.

And of course, my mighty knight loved his and has said several times that it was the best birthday that he ever had.

Thanks Anne, you made it so special for them!

Aubrey had some fun too.  Since Jaden got a new bike, he got to upgrade to Jaden's old bike.  Tony put the training wheels back on it and he hopped right on.  He loves it!  I was shocked at how well he did.  It is pretty big for him.

He was SO proud.  :)

So was Daddy.

Jaden and Baylee waited all day for this moment!

Her cake looked so cute with the candles on it.  What in the world??

So everyone enjoyed some cake and I think Anne was very relieve when it was all disassembled!

The kids were even crazy enough to want to get in the pool.  I remember those days... but they are long since passed for me.  Thankfully Tony and Nate were willing to brave the cold and swim with the little ones.

Nana and Cathy hung out with the girls.

Chase man enjoyed Jaden's new beanbag.  He was so cute, he liked the balloons too.  Just wasn't quite sure about all the people, but he is getting much better.

Jaden LOVES JC and was so glad he came.  :)  I saw them sitting together eating cake and had to grab a picture.  It was the sweetest thing.

 

Going back in time...

My mom thought it would be a good idea, for old time's sake, to take one last picture of the kids by the fireplace before we move.  They typically take a picture there on the first day of school, so here they are, in order from the beginning.  Picture #1 - Jaden on his first day of pre-school at Stockdale Christian. (3)

Here they are on their first day of our home school preschool co-op. (4, 2 &1)

First day of Kindergarten (5, 3 &2)

 

Last day at our first home (still 5, 3 &2, but close to 6, 4 &2)

Aubrey had just woken from his nap and was not too happy about the photo shoot, but I'm happy to have this picture.

And here we are at our new house a couple of weeks later.  Yes, Baylee is wearing the same outfit.  :P  The babies  were awake for this, and I'm sure will be standing up for the next one in the fall.  Time flies.  At least our new fireplace is taller.  One more picture on the other one and Jaden would be taller than that last brick.  :(  Stay tuned for the fall, I'm sure much more growing will be going on before then!

 

Attempting to Catch Up!

I think I may have finally figured out how to blog on my new computer.  If so, watch out!  I have so much catch up to do.  Here are a few recent pictures.  Baylee is having so much fun riding her bike!

The girls are being adorable, as usual.

Jaden riding his bike.

Aubrey riding his bike.

Baylee with her new trick, kicking her leg up while she is riding around.  I think she thinks she is a figure skater.

She is so funny.

Swimming!

It seems odd to post this today as it is raining and cold, but over the weekend the kids got to try out our new pool for the first time.  Luckily they have a father who is willing to brave the cold water, because if it were up to me there would be no swimming until mid June.

Of course, they loved it!

Baylee was a little nervous at first, but after a while was kicking all around with her little tube thing grandma gave her for her birthday.

Aubrey opted to sit on the steps for the first time, but quickly joined them on their second swim.  (Which was right after a long bike ride that they got home from looking like little tomatoes.)  It was so hot!  I think it was even worse for Aubrey because he rode in one of those little tent things you pull behind your bike and I'm not sure how much air circulation there was.

This is where you will find us this summer!

First Food

I decided it was about time for the girls to venture into the world of food.  Baby food stage is my least favorite.  It is so messy and difficult.  I am a little bit more excited this time around though because not only does it mean more food and less formula, I am planning to make all of my own baby food.  My mom got me the baby food cooker I had been eyeing and Ashley got me all of these fun little storage containers.  I can make freeze and store all kinds of wonderful things, my goal is to never buy jar baby food this time around!  :)  

After much research, I decided that I would not start them on cereal as I did with my others.  I just don't believe anymore that little ones should begin with grains.  They are too difficult to digest, and are not nearly as nutritious as fresh vegetables and fruits.  So, I went with avacado.  

It is so easy to just mash up right in the peel.  I love that it is filled with good healthy fats, because how much are they really getting down at this stage?  Maybe a teaspoon?  A teaspoon of mashed green bean seems to me to be a whole lotta work for not much nutrition.  

Olivia LOVED it.  She latched onto that spoon like it was her bottle, and she had enjoyed avacado a thousand times before.  I have never had a child react like that on a first bite of anything!  This is usually the face I get:

Brenna didn't think it was the best thing ever.  Every time I tried to give it to her she started to gag.  Oh well, Livie got a good TBS I bet, Brenna will just have to try harder next time.  :)

Big Sis finished it off for them.

Livie, (very happy about this big girl stuff) and Brenna, (not so much).

Kid Quotes

A couple of funny things Jaden said this morning:

"Daddy, have you ever shooted at bad guy? Well... maybe you should try sometime."

(After Tony dropped the butter knife he was using) "Um, Daddy, maybe you should get a knife lesson... perhaps?"

The Beginning...

I love this video. It is the only one I have from the first days of the girl's lives. It was lost, I should say my flip video was lost, for a couple of months after we came home from Fresno. I was kind of bummed about it, but it just didn't matter as much as losing the girls. A few weeks after we got them back, I remember thinking about it and being so sad that I didn't have it anymore. They had changed so much since we first saw them and I did have pictures, but this is even more special. Especially to those of you who never got to see them at the beginning. :) I was thrilled to find my little flip video in the bottom of one of my purses recently. It is not a very exciting video, videography is not my strong suit, but I am happy to have it nonetheless.

Sleepy Time

Probably just proof that I am the worst mom ever, but too cute to pass up.   I was busy bathing big kids and came back to find them like this.  I love how Brenna still has a hold on poor Livie.  She is so funny.  :)

Kid Quotes

I just told Aubrey to pick his pants up and put them on and he started to sing some song about, "pants on the ground, pants on the ground." I know this was coming from Grandpa, I vaguely remember some rap song my Dad liked (gasp!) that sounded like that. Come on Dad! If he sings it at the grocery store you are in so much trouble!

Just for fun

The kids always make sure that the girls are entertained. I walked in the room the other day and had to do a double take!  It was so funny to see them both staring at open books.  My kids crack me up.  :)

Playing Catch-Up

It has been an eventful month for us!  I am so behind in blogging, that I figured I would just give a few random pictures and call it good until I can figure out how (and when!) to use my new computer.  First of all, my little girl turned 4!  Can you even believe it?  I really can't.  It was not the most eventful birthday ever, because we moved 2 days before... but it was fun and I will have more on that later.  Before that, Tony turned 29 and I actually did not get a picture of him.  :/  I did get a picture of the girls on our way out to dinner with our dear friends that night, and that will have to suffice.   

They looked so cute, much cuter than Daddy anyway.  :P  Tony said that Brenna looked like a gangster with those tennis shoes on, but I thought she looked adorable.  

Then there was the move... Tony's birthday dinner was the last night we spent in our little house, and while Tony went out with the guys for some cigars and a movie, Cathy came over and helped me finish up with the packing and last minute details.  All of the moving drama has (apparently) come to an end, and we are in our new place.  More on that later also!

Lastly, and I notice that I'm going in reverse order, Jaden actually caught his first real, uninjured butterfly a week or so before we moved.  It was a big deal to him, he has been trying to catch one for such a long time.  I was glad he was able to do it in the backyard that he had spent so much time trying in.  :)  Also, he has proven to have inherited my useless and strange talent of being able to catch little animals.