Backyard Fun

I'll admit before Hunter's birthday he had esentially no outside toys. Our backyard was the least cool on the block...or the city...maybe even the metroplex.

Post-2nd year birthday, the outside play options are endless.

Grandee and Poppy got Hunter this awesome swing set for his birthday...

Hunter loves sliding the most right now......but I think once I get some sand for the sand pit area underneath and a toddler swing to replace one of the big swings, he'll love it even more. And if not, James will force him to play on it everyday anyway since it took him FIVE DAYS to put it together. We're all really excited and thankful to have it, except could someone explain this to me...

The advertisement calls this a chalkboard. Yes it does. And the picture on the box? Yeah. It has an actual chalk board on it. What? Um...excuse me Toys R Us, what kind of rip off is that? Hunter doesn't seem too upset at this point, so I'll refrain from recruiting Laura to write a letter to the company letting them know exactly how false that advertising is.

Hunter also has tons of bubbles and sidewalk chalk and balls outside now...all of which he adores and would play with all day if his mom could tolerate being outside that long. Tonight he chose the sidewalk chalk first...

When I asked what he was drawing he promptly said, "Elmo."I don't know about y'all, but I totally see the resemblance. My child did not, however, and grew very upset that his picture did not turn out like Elmo. So he handed me the chalk - he hasn't yet discovered that art isn't one of my fine points - and told me to draw Elmo. Here's what he got...I really can't see much of a difference between that and his attempt, but he was really excited and clearly recognized my stick figure as the best Elmo ever drawn.

We also moved some of his older toys outside since there was so much more room out there...

...well that and those wheels cause much less harm to my floors when they are outside. Hunter was having so much fun that we took the truck to the front where we realized that he'd probably be better off with a Big Wheel. BUT do y'all remember this?He's finally enjoying that truck, so why would I go out now and replace it...even if his legs are painfully long to be riding on it?Right after this picture was taken, Hunter looked sternly at me, pointed to my camera and exclaimed, "ALL DONE!" So the picture taking stopped for the evening, but I can't leave y'all without a picture of my favorite backyard toy......the Jump-o-lene! No, it's not a swimming pool. It's a toddler trampoline! Now if I weighed 30 pounds, I'd totally be tearing it up on that thing every day.

Y'all come over and play sometime! We are sooo the coolest - and most fun - family in town!

"...and the party never ends"

Saturday was the big day! We had such a good time with Hunter's friends and family celebrating his 2nd birthday. We are so thankful that so many of them were able to come...even though it was really far for some of them! We love y'all!

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I took lots of pictures hoping to get at least one of every kid, but of course that didn't happen. We'll blame pregnant brain...there were a lot of kids to remember! We'll also blame pregnant brain for my lack of zooming skills. Yeah. That's it. Pregnant brain. There are a lot of pictures, so consider yourself warned!
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Several kids played in the toddler area, so Hunter had plenty of company there. To our surprise, he acutally did spend some time in most of the different bounce sections, but definitely loved the safety of the toddler area!

Here's sweet Kayden smiling for the camera...

and Judah sliding on the slide...Natalia had fun sliding down the big slide with her mommy, Ronnee...and so did Travis with his daddy, Reid...Okay so I realize that probably no one in the world, except for maybe Travis's mommy, Emily, could tell who that was. This is just one example of my many zooming deficiencies for the day. You can see how cute Travis is here.

Here's Grover and his mommy, Greta, on another big slide...

and Grover's sister, Zoe, bouncing with Preston and Kaitlin in the bounce house...

Ronnie is really focused on his game of air hockey. Notice the intense facial expression:)...

Sweet Noah came to play with his mommy and daddy, Amy and Josh. I think he looks like a perfect combination of the two of them!

Cousin Zack in the caterpillar. I don't think many kids braved the caterpillar. When you opened it's mouth a gush of tornado-like air blows in your face. Not so much my idea of fun....maybe Hunter's more like his mommy than we thought!

After the kids were pooped from bouncing, we went into the party room for pizza, cake and ice cream.

Thomas and Olivia chowing down...

Presley and Jackson enjoying some juice. Presley is such a good picture poser! She was so patient with me and smiled so pretty for the camera. You can totally tell she's a photographer's kid!

Aunt Courtney made the Elmo cake for Hunter - isn't it great!!!

Singing Happy Birthday...

Hunter did a great job blowing out his candle, but he was really upset when we took the cake away to cut it. He hasn't quite mastered that patience thing yet.

Hunter devoured his cake...

and moved quickly to the ice cream...

making sure to lick every inch of the spoon...until there was nothing left...and then he didn't know what to do...After all of Hunter's friends left, we went across the parking lot to one of grandpa's other buildings, a cheerleader gym. I think it's safe to say that Hunter had more fun there than at his actual party...or maybe it was just all of that sugar...He ran and ran with Cousin Vanesa...(Notice he's throwing his head back with glee in that second picture.)

Luckily grandpa was there to help him come down from the sugar high...

It looks like next year all we'll need is a spring floor for Hunter's party!

"Bir-day!"

Today our sweet birthday boy turned 2! I cannot believe how fast these last 2 years have flown by. Hunter had a really great day, and I tried hard to revert back to my old self and take lots of pictures, which I was successful with most of the time.

When Hunter woke up this morning, James and I crept into his room and sang happy birthday to him, which he LOVED. No exaggeration here people. The kid was giddy, elated, giggling the entire time we sang. He hearts the birthday song over all of the songs he loves to sing.

Then we ran into the kitchen for some waffles - which he also loves. As soon as he got into the kitchen, though, he saw the cupcakes I had made for his class birthday party at school and immediately said, "cake!" So since it was his birthday, I couldn't resist...

As you can see, he can't believe that he's actually getting to eat that at 6:30 in the morning. He devoured it in about 2 seconds (before I could change my mind) and quickly moved on to the waffle...

Then I took Hunter to school where he had a great day with his friends, and I came by at 2:30 for his school birthday party. (This is the part where pregnant brain takes over again and I leave my camera in the car.) I'm totally sad I didn't get any pictures because those kids were sooooo cute singing to Hunter and eating cupcakes together.

After the party we rushed home and Hunter got to open a present from mommy and daddy...

Is the suspense killing y'all or what?

You know it is...

Hunter was so excited about his "play-toh" that we played with it all afternoon...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Then tonight we went to Chick-Fil-A so our family could celebrate with us. Hunter got free ice cream because it was his birthday, and even though he'd had 2 cupcakes and waffles today, he finished the.entire.bowl...and we're not talking a small bowl here y'all. I'm sure the ginormo bites helped out with finishing so quickly.

Even Zack's amazed at my kid's mad eating skills..

Then Hunter opened cards...

and presents...

and played with Zack...

and ran around endlessly...

until he finally wore himself out.

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Hunter, the last 2 years have been the best of my life. I continue to be overjoyed with raising you to be a God-fearing young man. I adore you, and I adore watching you learn and grow more every day. I am amazed at the blessing God has given your daddy and I through the wonder of watching you grow.

"So whenever you doubt just how special you are and you wonder who loves you, how much and how far, listen for geese honking high in the sky. (They're singing a song to remember you by.)

Or notice the bears asleep at the zoo. (It's because they've been dancing all night for you.)

Or drift off to sleep to the sound of the wind. (Listen closely...it's whispering your name again!)

If the moon stays up until morning one day, or a ladybug lands and decides to stay, or a little bird sits at your window awhile, it's because they're all hoping to see you smile...

For never before in story or rhyme (not even once upon a time) has the world ever known a you, my friend, and it never will, not ever again...

Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn on the wonderful, marvelous night you were born."

It's a...

GIRL!!

James and I are really excited. Hunter on the other hand - well I'll let you be the judge. Here's the conversation I attempted to have with him when I picked him up from school today...

Me: Hunter! You're going to have a baby sister! Baby Charlotte is in mommy's tummy!
Hunter: shakes his head no with this look on his face...
Me: Hunter, aren't you excited to have a baby sister?
Hunter: uh-uh....banana
Me: You can have a banana when we get home. Can you say Charlotte?
Hunter: no!
Me: Baby Charlotte is in mommy's tummy. Say Charlotte.
Hunter: uh-uh...banana

That's when I finally decided to give up on the dream. I actually did get him to attempt to say Charlotte later. It came out as "shot". At least we've got time to work on the pronunciation...and Hunter's love for his sister.

Four

Okay so this is a little late, but in the words of our overly dramatic Saved By the Bell friend, Jesse, THERE'S NO TIME!! THERE'S NEVER ANY TIME!!!
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It's been a crazy weekend. I literally haven't stopped at all since Friday morning (unless you count my 7 hours of sleep last night, but really people, how is that enough for a women who's growing a human? Especially when said woman runs around like a maniac from 7 am to at least 10:30 pm 2 days in a row.)
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Enough with my excuses. Let's get to the point already...
James and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday. Most of y'all know that I have many, many, many, (a milllion manys) things I would change about my wedding day. It's really just a side effect of my crazy type A, perfect-day-wishing self.
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Somehow throughout our entire engagement I morphed into this person who didn't pay attention to or care about detail and just wanted to get married. (I do acknowledge that actually wanting the marriage and not just the wedding is a good thing.) So there were many things I would go back and change...photographer, bridesmaids dresses, hair style, my dress (I had 2 dresses I couldn't decide between so of course I'm going to second guess that I should've picked the other one), and on and on.
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So every anniversary James and I watch our wedding video. Now I LOVED this video the first 10 times we watched it (in case the math isn't adding up for you here, I watched that thing about 20 times the first week we got it), but then the nit picking started. Nothing's perfect...my skin's too oily, I look frumpy in my dress, it's stupid that my bridesmaids are wearing long black dresses at a 1:00 wedding, blah, blah, blah. So obviously all of that horrible regret of tiny, unimportant detail that no one even cares about crept up from deep down until the thoughts were overtaking my mind. I know. It's a little obsessive, but that's me...for better or worse. So I'm laying there obsessing, and I think to myself, would you give everything you have just to go back and have the perfect day? And that's all it took to snap out of it.
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Because this is my everything...
And they are worth so much more than a lifetime of perfect wedding days.