Wow....I am not good at this.

I know I am a slacker. I am behind a few months, but I have a good excuse. :) Anyway, Jacob turned 5 in January. He wanted a pirate birthday, so that is what he got. I let him have his first friends party. He had a blast.

All the little pirates eating their pirate ship lunch. They had sammie sails, orange slices (to ward off scurvy :) ), walk the plank cheese sticks, and chips.

Finding the treasure chest at the end of the treasure hunt.

Cannonball rice krispie treats for a cake. They were a BIG hit with the boys. :) They all went home with purple mouths. :)

This was the cake he wanted. I made it for his "family" party. It was really fun to make, and it was super easy too. As you can tell, he really liked it. :)

Natalie turned 3 in February, and she wanted a pink heart birthday cake with candy and Dora on it. So, that is what she got. :) She loved it, and we had fun. A heart shaped cake isn't the easiest thing to cut by the way...

This is her "cheese" face. :)

She loves Dora.

This was her cake. She was blowing so hard to put out the candles. It was really cute. :)

Next, is the new baby. Molly May was born on March 25, 2011 at 1:48 am. She weighed 7 lbs 14.6 oz. She was 20 inches long. She was pretty big for me only being 37 weeks. Jacob was only 5 days early, and was 7 lbs 15.4 oz. I am quite glad she didn't stay in any longer. She would have been big! Everyone is in love with her, and Jacob just won't leave her alone!! He has to be right next to her most of the day, and asks to hold her ALL the time. He even wants to help me feed her, but that is where I draw the line. I can nurse all by myself. ;) He is a cute kid though.

Baby Toes. :)

She posed herself under the bili-lights. :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

New Blog

I have a new blog. It is all about my crafty side. Feel free to check it out if you wish.

http://reedsews.blogspot.com/

Snow Day

First day back at school after Christmas break greeted everyone with snow. School wasn't cancelled or anything, so off Cody went. :) He was outside waiting for his ride. He decided to help get the snow off daddy's car. Isn't that sweet?



A little bit later, Jacob and Natalie got bundled up in their snow clothes, and ventured outside to play in the white stuff too. Jacob thought it was hilarious to eat the snow.


Natalie thought it was pretty yummy too.


All that playing in the snow sure does tucker a girl out. I found Natalie fast asleep on the couch crouched down like this. I don't see how this could be even remotely comfortable, but she slept this way for about 45 minutes...

Our Chickens

Here are some updated pictures of our chickens. They are quite a bit bigger now than they were. Two of them turned out to be roosters, so now we are down to 8 chickens. Oh well. We are still waiting for eggs, but hopefully soon, we will have some. I had to build them a bigger house since originally, we were only going to get 3-4 chickens. They now have a good portion of our back yard right behind ours and Natalie's room. We never used that area anyway, so now it is getting put to good use. :)

Better Late than Never

Well, since it is after Thanksgiving, I thought I would finally post about Halloween. :) I don't really feel like writing a lot today, so pictures will have to do. First up, we have painting our pumpkins.

Then we have the costumes. Jacob was an army guy, Natalie was Tinkerbell, and Cody was Darth Vader. I don't have a picture of him for some reason though. Oh well.

This year, the second grade had a little program for the award ceremony for the month. You can't see it really well, but Cody is in there. They had a little skit, and sang a song. It was pretty cute. Cody is by the flag,m to the right, in the red shirt. Right in front of the plant.

I heard the kids giggling in the back seat of the car, and I looked back to see this. Jacob was laying on Natalie's carseat, and she was stroking his head. I thought it was cute. Kind of difficult to take a picture while the car is moving though...I don't reccommend it.

I promise I will post more. Maybe. In a few weeks.

Disneyland

The Happiest Place on Earth. Where a kid can be a kid, and parents alike can relive childhood memories, and let their children experience the same emotions and feelings that they did. Where you can share in the fantasies that the rides were inspired by. Where you can have fun, and share the joy with your family. Making memories that last a lifetime. We were able to spend 5 days in Disneyland this year. It was Natalie's first time going, and although Jacob has been here before, he was really too young to remember it, so it was like he was there for the first time also. It was wonderful to watch them experience the joy for themselves. The first person we saw, after we entered the park was Mickey Mouse. The line wasn't too long, so we waited, and got a picture. Natalie was a little scared, but she stood there, with help.



We then made our way to Fantasyland. We rode the storybook canal boats, and then went to Casey Jr.'s Circus Train. We sat in the wild animals cage, and Jacob had a blast looking at all the stuff along the tracks.




Then we made our way over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Cody really liked that ride. Jacob wasn't too thrilled with it at first, but ended up riding it a few more times. Then we made our way over to Splash Mountain. Cody said that he didn't like it, while Jacob thought it was sooo cool. Cody eventually came to like the ride, and they both rode it a few more times. They also liked to play on the little house right off the ride.



The next day, we took advantage of our early entry day, and spent a lot of time in Fantasyland. We rode Peter Pan, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, Pinocchio, the carousel, the kids tried to pull out the sword in the stone....



They even rode on the tea cups. Natalie enjoyed it, even though she wasn't spinning. :) The boys thought it was funny to see how fast they could spin it. I think it helped make it funny when Jared was acting like he was about to throw up. ;)


We also saw the Jedi show. Neither of the boys got picked for the training, but they still enjoyed it. I asked them if they wanted to see it again to see if they would get picked, but they both declined. It was hot, and most of the seating was in the sun. I don't blame them.



The next day, we spent time at California Adventure. The boys had a lot of fun. They got to ride on most of the rides there. They started the day riding the Grizzly River Run. Jacob was thoroughly soaked. :) They also rode on Jumpin' Jellyfish. They sat together, and they liked how high they got. Jacob wouldn't look over the edge, but Cody did.



We met another character, and again, Natalie was shy. The boys were being themselves, and goofing off, so they missed out. Jessie was trying so hard to get Natalie to stand by her. Oh well.

Natalie got to ride on her first Ferris Wheel. She was so excited about going up and down in a circle. She just kept looking around at everything, and marveling about how high we were.

In the end, she finally warmed up to Mickey. Sort of. At least she was letting him mput a hand on her shoulder, and she was looking at him. That is about the best we got.

We also did a lot of rides that I don't have pictures for. Cody rode Indiana Jones, the boys rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds, and we rode It's a Small World, Jungle Cruise, Nemo, Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiters, and we rode Pirates of the Carribean at least 5 times. Oh yeah...we also did the Haunted Mansion. They each had their favorites of course, but it was fun. I think everyone enjoyed the vacation.

Time Flies....

Time just seems to fly once school starts. Cody is in 2nd grade this year. He attends George Washington Acadamy, which is one of 2 charter schools in the area. He loves it. He likes his teacher, and he is learning so much stuff!

Jacob is in his 2nd year of preschool. He loves his school, and was so excited that the school shirt was blue! His favorite color! I had told him it was going to be red. When Cody was there, he got purple his first year, and red his second year. Jacob got purple last year, so I thought he would be getting red. Anyway, he loves it, and is making a lot of friends.

Natalie is just too smart for her own good. We are still in the throes of potty training, but such is life. She stays dry both morning and most nights, but that darn other end is giving us trouble. She knows when she has to go, she just doesn't want to use the potty. Little stinker. :P

We will be going on vacation next week, so I will be sure to write about that. We are going to DISNEYLAND!!! We will be there for 5 days, so I should have lots of fun pictures to post. :)

Oh yeah, and for those of you who don't know yet, we are having another baby.

ER visits

Well, it has been 7 years since children have been in our home. 7 years, and only one ER visit. Cody was 2 1/2, and so sick. It was Christmas. He was so dehydrated he could barely move. Poor thing. He got an IV, and after a few hours, was finally keeping fluids down, and we were released. Now, Jacob has NEVER been to the ER for anything. And, for those of you who know Jacob, you can be just as surprised as me. It is okay. I don't understand how either. Now, a few weeks ago, we had to make another ER trip. This time for stitches. For Natalie. :( Cody was pushing her in a hammock swing that we had set up in the back yard. Natalie and Jacob were in the swing. Cody was giving them underdogs. He would push them from the back, and then he would push them from the front. Well, he was pushing from the front, and was about to run under them, when the swing tipped, and both Jacob and Natalie fell out onto the concrete. Jacob had a scratch. Natalie on the other hand, had a gash on her chin, a hole in her lip, and her two top front teeth were REALLY loose. At first, her chin didn't look too bad. When I couldn't get the bleeding to stop in 5 minutes, I knew she needed stitches. So, I loaded her up, and took her to the ER. They patched her up, and sent us home. A week later they took out the stitches, and now she has a little red line under her chin. Jared is worried that it will scar. I say, who cares? It is a battle wound. ;)

Noses

I was out in the backyard, checking on the chickens. When I was comming back to the door, I could hear Natalie screaming frantically. I ran the rest of the way inside, and tried to calm her down. I kept asking her what was wrong, but she was so hysterical, she couldn't talk coherently. Finally, I was able to calm her enough to figure out what was wrong. She had cereal stuck in her nose. I got out the flashlight, and laid her down on the couch, so I could see. Sure enough, there was an orange fruit loop stuck in her nose. After much blowing, we finally got it out. I have told her no more sticking things up her nose. We will see how long this lasts...



She also wanted to still eat the fruit loop. Don't worry, I didn't let her. ;)

Photo Shoot

I can't believe it has taken me almost 2 months to post about our awesome photo shoot experience with Andrea Whittle Photography . She does an awesome job. My kids love her! She also has a pretty fast turn-around for your pictures. Her prices are fantastic too, so if you are in the Phoenix area, contact her, and let her know I sent you. ;)

A decent picture of Cody without a funny face!

Jacob is the perfect little model. All of his pictures usually turn out really well.

My sweetheart. :)

All 3 goobers together and smiling! It must be a miracle!

I even got in on the action this time. We had a blast.