Birthday Bashes

This last week is always full of celebrations.  My birthday, Tyson's birthday AND the 4th of July, and our anniversary. 

It is great, I LOVE it.  It really is like Christmas in July.  Tyson spoils me WAY too much on my birthday.  He usually gets to take the day off of work which is super fun, but this year I told him not to because I wanted him to take our anniversary off instead.  So my birthday came and I asked Tyson what he wanted for breakfast.

Tys: "I don't feel like eating our food.  Do you?"
me: "Um, why wouldn't we eat our food?"
Tys: "I think we should go somewhere to eat."
me: "are you serious?"

So we did.  We went to Waffle House.  If anyone knows me, they know I LOVE breakfast food, anytime of the day.  And I love Waffle House.  I think the southern environment is awesome and I love the waffles.  So that is where we went and the waitress was super nice.  She gave the boys each a cooking hat, which was adorable and they loved it.  There was a guy sitting behind us that came up to us and told us we had a really special family and that we are really blessed.

True that sir.

So I thought Tys was just going to go into work late, but he decided to go to the free movie with us (they have free kid movies twice a week at our local theater).  It was so fun!  A little crazy with Matthew, but hey, we didn't have to pay anything, so it wasn't a big deal that I kept having to get up with the little stinker.  The movie was about dragons and Caleb especially was in heaven.  He kept saying how "AWESOME" the dragons were.  Precious.

Then we went home and Tys just didn't go back to work.  He gave me my present which was a coupon/gift certificate book full of gifts from other people.  Like a girls night from my friends, a hair cut from my sister, lunch with my mom, massage from my dad, ice cream with my sister, pedi from my mom-in-law, and of course unlimited devotion from Tys (I loved that one).  It was the cutest idea and was SO sweet that he went through so much trouble for me and that I have so many people that love me.

Then Tys took all of us and my mom out to dinner too, and he ended up never going into work which he had also been planning on all along.  He seriously is perfect.

His birthday however, was not so perfect.  We went to a bike parade with the boys in the pouring rain, they handed out hot dogs afterwards and Tyson finally got to get one, but they were all out.  Then we had to stop by the store because I needed a few more supplies for his party later.  While I ran in the store, Tys drove the boys around the store.  Behind the store was a GIANT puddle, like the coolest thing you have ever seen.  So being the cool dad he is, he drove through it.  Awesome, the boys loved it.  Then when they came around, they picked me up and went to drive through the puddle with me so I could experience it.  Halfway through the super cool splash, the car dies and slowly coasts to the other side.

It doesn't start.

So we think it needs to dry out.

Still doesn't start.

We push it to a different position thinking that might help.  Nope, no go.

It is boiling hot and humid by now and poor Tyson is spending his birthday super mad at himself and the car and hot and hungry.  I hate moments like that.  I have no idea what to do to help and I can't fix the problem.

Thankfully my dad came and got us and we got home in time to get ready for the party and celebrate with our friends.  But Tyson was tired and frustrated about our stranded car, so he was not himself which only made him more frustrated.  Then we were playing with sparklers and Matthew reaches up and grabs the flame totally burning his hand.  Thankfully no emergency trip was needed, thanks to this awesome healing cream for burns my friend gave me.  Needless to say, it wasn't the best birthday for Tyson.  Not to mention my present for him (he will be mad I said this) was pidly in comparison to all the amazing stuff he did for me.

But our van is fixed now and not totally ruined like I was afraid it would be.  It wasn't cheap, but it drives like a dream now.  :)  And I really am sure we will look back on that day and laugh.  All I know is, I am going to do something amazing for that hunk of mine next year for his birthday.  I just don't know what yet...

Oh and for our anniversary, he surprised me and took me to a local Bed and Breakfast.  Seriously.  How lucky can I get?  He really is incredible.  I told him I am afraid he is secretly really ill or something because he has been WAY too nice to me.  :)  He says he isn't, so let's hope that is true.

So yeah, minus being uncomfortably pregnant, life is really good.

 One layer from the seriously mouth watering cake that Tys made me.

 Super cute 4th of July cupcakes (and yes the flags are marshmallows)

The Star Trek Enterprise cake I attempted to make Tys.  It didn't turn out too bad and Em was there to add a few more accurate details about the ship.

Superhero Sons

They may be super exhausting to raise, but they are super amazing and super cute.  :)

 

So, I am a little behind, I know...

Okay, so Easter (haha, I know a month late)?  It was great, as you can see:

 

 I love that Tyson's office puts this hunt on every year.  The kids LOVE it and they love that all their buddies get to be there too because let's face it, almost all their friends are kids of people Tyson works with.  The boys had a great time!  So glad my mom was there, then there was one adult (or a-dolt as Josh and Caleb say) for every kid.

 Then we had an egg hunt at home too.  The Easter Bunny was awesome and hopped by to hid some eggs.  What a great bunny, and if you look closely you will see just how well and color coordinated the bunny hid some eggs.  :)

 Matthew loved this new adventure of finding eggs that were full of sugar.  He still gets a little frustrated that all the eggs he finds now are empty.

 The boys and their Easter bunnies.  ;)

 Their Easter baskets (thanks to Grandma Cooper).  Josh wrote out a list the night before of everything he expected the bunny to include in his basket.  Tyson and I thought it was the most precious thing:  "Dear Bunny, Peeps, Hershey, Jelly Beans, Snickers, Love, Joshua"  The Bunny tried to live up to his expectations.  He has the best hiding spots too.  Caleb's was in the fireplace, Matthew's was behind the curtain, and Josh's ("that sneaky rabbit!") was behind his dresser.  It is way too much fun having kids during holidays.

 I also love the fun things Tyson does with the kids.  Like one day, Matthew walks out from the bedrooms, shirtless, with the words "I heart Momma" written on his belly.  It made my day and for days made me laugh every time I saw it since it didn't clean off easy (not that I tried real hard).

 The older boys had a sleepover with Aunt Carmel.  They both fell asleep reading.  So precious!

 Cracker houses that Josh built.  :)

 Tyson took me on a day trip to Appomattox Court House.  We took a few kids from the school for Travel Study and we got to have a great date (thank you Mom, Carmel, Cassie and Dallin!)  I am so glad we got to get away and what a PERFECT day!  The weather was amazing, I so love Virginia in the Spring.  Plus it is okay learning a few things too, but not too much history, but still really neat.

 The local jail.  :)

 Another great thing about the spring is that Tys brings me wildflowers all the time.  They are so pretty and make me so happy.  Plus, the boys have learned from him, so I have had plenty of dandelions, clover buds, buttercups and these little cuties, not to mention amazing smelling lilacs.  Seriously, I love this place and I LOVE my boys (Tys included, although he is a "man" whenever I say this to him)!

 It is a little blurry but Matthew LOVES talking on the phone.  He jabbers in his little language and walks around the house and won't give me back my phone.  It is really cute and sometimes annoying, but I think Grandma likes it.  :)

So other than that, not much is going on here.  I am not babysitting or doing preschool this month so sometimes I feel a little bored, but it is really good for my body to get a break.  Baby is due in roughly 13 weeks, so any time to relax is a good thing, right?

Valentine's Videos - Take 1

Okay, so I thought it would be a super cute idea to film all the boys taking about love and what it means to them and then putting it together in a video to give to Tyson for Valentine's day or to put on his website.  Well, it didn't really work out, because of course, they are boys and have nothing to say ever but "I don't know."  I need some girls that will actually talk about emotions.  The boys and their answers (or lack or them) were pretty funny though.  So here for your enjoyment is some of the takes I took.

 

Vday Videos-Take 3

Take 5 - Caleb

Last one

Faces

These are all pictures the last few weeks before our trip.  I was a little surprised how many pictures I take of Matthew, I really need to be better about getting pictures of all the boys.  These kids are so cute and they grow up so fast, I've got to capture the looks before they outgrow them!

 Matthew learned how to climb up on chairs and so nothing is safe.  Caleb's sandwich that he left for a few minutes was no longer his...

 Josh doing his "work" on his laptop and letting Caleb watch.

 Matthew has also gotten super good at stacking cans.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

 Uncle Dallin's birthday!  I have pictures from my mom's birthday too but for some reason the camera was only making them SUPER blurry and you can't even tell what it is of.  So sad. 

 Matthew also loves to play t-ball.  See what I mean?  Tons of pictures of the little guy!

 This is Caleb's awesome face.  Seriously, I have to get a video up here of the way he talks right now.  Hilarious!!  He always has this face or his eyebrows pulled down and super grumpy saying stuff like "you ruining my life."  Notice the cell phone in his shirt pocket too.  Just love what kids think of.

 Crazy cute Logan.

 Poor little guy was pretty sick when I took this picture, so he doesn't look like his normal self.   But he is such a good, sweet little guy almost all the time.

 Baby Mozart

 Josh and Caleb created this cool "bridge" with leftover wood from the carport building.  I am still impressed with the design.

 Valentine's Day!

 Tyson left a tiny box of chocolate by my bed in the morning and then when he came home surprised me with this.  I just LOVE this guy!

 Such blue eyes!  It still mystifies me how two hazel eyed people got a chocolate brown eyed boy and two super blue eyed boys.  Makes me wonder what this next one will have.  Josh says he needs to have brown eyes so he won't be lonely anymore.  So he told me to eat lots of chocolate like I did when I was pregnant with him.  I don't know if that really works, but I'm willing to test the theory.  :)

 Graham cracker milk dipping with Daddy.  Tys is such an amazing dad.

 I know Logan isn't really my kid, but I sometimes feel like I have four boys already (at least in the morning).  It is so much fun, I know it will be crazy, but I'm excited to add one more boy to the crew.

The Trip

Alright, here are the rest of the pictures from the trip:

 

We took lots of naps.  After the long drive and not sleeping well, we had a hard time catching up and plus we all got sick. :(  But sleepy pictures are super cute.

 But we did do lots of fun things, like go to the mall (civilization!!!  We NEVER go to the mall here cuz it is about an hour away), and the River Walk, and parks.  I think we all had a really good time and it really felt like a vacation.

 Matthew really enjoyed exploring Grandpa and Grandma's house...and hiding in the cupboards.  :)

 Tyson and Grandpa took Josh and Caleb to the local missions.  Me and Grandma aren't nearly as interested in history as they are.  :)

 Grandma took the boys to Build-a-Bear.  I have never been there and neither had the boys.  They LOVED it.  It was such a fun adventure for them.

 The one person I thought wouldn't care at all about something snuggly loved his animal the most.  Matthew grabbed this rabbit and hugged it tight pretty much endlessly.  So cute.  When I asked him what his name should be, he said "frow," which is his word for throw.  So that is his name.  :)

 They got to "wash off" their animals.  Josh really enjoyed this part.

 Josh picked out this bear, we all kind of thought it was a little girly so we kept trying to convince him to get something else, but he was very determined.  This was his.  And he named him "Giggly."

 Caleb picked this cute little rabbit and named him "Fluffy."  I love the names little kids pick.  Note Matthew digging through the hearts in the background.  He would not leave those things alone.

 Walking to the mail boxes where the mail man pulled up and showed the kids how he fills each of the boxes and even let Josh lock up the doors when he finished.  What a cool mail man.

 The house suddenly got quiet and I looked out the window and saw this: All four of them walking hand in hand.  Totally adorable.  So I ran after them barefoot to get a picture.  I felt a little bit like my dad.  Lol.

 Reading time with Grandma.

 Matthew was way too comfortable climbing up and down the stairs over and over again.  So this is me barricading the bottom of the stairs to catch the little guy if fell down.  He never did though.  Unlike our last trip, there was no falling down stairs, calls to poison control, or trips to the ER.  I have to say, I was and am pretty thankful it was more low key this time.

 Matthew also loved this spot.  I was so nervous he was going to get smacked in the throat by someone on the other side, but miracle of miracles, he never did.

 Tinywings, I think is the game they were playing on the mini i-pad

 More cute sleepyness.

 And this is kind of out of order, but here are the pictures from the car ride there.  I was really excited to eat lunchables.  Hehe.

 The trip wasn't all happiness, especially for this guy.  He wanted to be held really bad.  I thought he just wanted to run around, but I set him down on one of our stops and he acted like the ground was made of lava or quicksand and started shrieking and wouldn't stand.  It was kind of funny, but sad too.

 Caleb casting some spell in his sleep.  At least that is what it looked like.

 The very tired drivers.

 All bundled and cruising.

 The first few minutes.  Josh was this happy THE WHOLE time.  He kept saying "I don't want to be a chicken!" because I asked them if they felt all couped up.  Believe me, I regretted saying that one phrase for almost 24 hours straight.

It was a REALLY long drive there and back.  Not something we could do often.  But we made a lot of fun memories.  Tyson and I had lots of fun talks there and back, we read a book, sang songs, and chewed celery and drank pepsi until we thought we were going to puke.  We had a lot of fun in Texas and vacations are way nicer now that the kids are getting kind of old enough where I don't have to constantly moniter everything they do.  I'm really glad we got to go and hope the kids remember it, they are fun memories.