37!

It seems like once you get past 22, life just flies by! Ours has been fun, but I'm not sure how I'm married to a 37 year old all of a sudden :) I wanted to have a party for James, and he wanted to invite all of the family over for homemade pizza. I made 7 pizzas: 3 Hawaiian (Kahlua pork and pineapple), 3 barbecue pesto chicken and veggies, and 1 veggie. I'm not sure what I was thinking...I tend to over do it on the food! We also had barbecue meatballs, fruit salad, green salad, pasta bake (thanks Lynsey), ice cream, soda, and a chocolate mousse trifle. All at James's request (we don't usually have meat or cheese)!We have been so blessed to live close to both sides of the family, and we were so glad they could all join us to celebrate the special occasion!

Andrew is back to the mustache, but at least he doesn't have the long hair :) He was a huge hit with the kiddos (as usual), and this time he was recording their jiggly faces on his phone and replaying them in slow motion. The kids were all laughing as if they were being tickled! Paul is expecting to be a you tube star since Andrew told him he'd post the video of him!

James had a little fun writing creative names on all of the plastic cups. He just loves to get under people's skin (like Paul does!). Stewart turned into "Stewpid", and his girlfriend, Alissa's cup said "I'm with Stewpid". Lauren became Loren...a huge pet peeve of hers! 

I can't have enough pictures of these adorable babies. This was their serious pose (except for Blaze). We love to hold and play with Cache and Max. They are the best behaved fun loving babies! When I hold them I kiss their faces and tell them I'm going to eat them because they look so scrumptious. They give me concerned looks!

Don't you think he should be on a baby food jar?

Peter and Blaze decided (on their own) to clean up the Capri Sun juice like puppies! SO GROSS!

Beautiful mommies, Lauren and Andrea!

Cache was having a ball with the balloons and soccer ball! His dad was teasing him though, and at one point he arched his back and started screaming at Caleb! Notice the clips Caleb had collected on his shirt sleeve. This was for a game we played in which you could steal some one's clip if you caught them saying "James", or "birthday"! I thought it would be easy for most of us because hardly anyone calls James by his name. It's usually J-dog, Jimmers, Jimmy, etc. Caleb was the winner of the game collecting 4 clips!

The other game we played was 2 lies and a truth. Everyone was supposed to write 2 stories they made up about James, and 1 true story so we could guess which one was really true. James absolutely loved the game! He doesn't get embarrassed, and he can take what he dishes out! He read those cards over and over again and we had fun reminiscing about the true funny stories of James. Later after the party he even shared them with his parents, and he's keeping them in a file too!

Interesting fact: We learned from our Indian friend, Sumedha, that James shares his special day with their holiday the third day of Diwali, marking the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth! Sumedha said this is very good! If you know James, you know how conscientious of money he is! So it is not surprising that he was born when some worship the goddess of wealth!

 

All the kids were excited to help James blow out his candle, and then they ordered him to "skip around the room"! He's looking pretty foolish, but he provided us all with a good laugh!

 

 

Can't let the day end without a good round of birthday spankings. 37 must really hurt.

Love Chris's jazz hands :)

Ice cream is a rarity in this house. The boys were a little excited, so was James!

Our kids have the most fun Uncles! They are always playing with our kids and giving them special attention. It's always a party with them around!

Cheesy! Someday maybe I'll get a nice picture of James and I. Maybe for my birthday? I've been told it takes some mad photo shop skills from a pro to make it happen though (from our pro photographers who have taken our family pictures!).

Jackson is taking after his Uncles with his interest in art. He made some really cool pictures for James, and a very sweet birthday card! James's heart can be melted by someone other than Alanna :) I could tell that James had a fabulous birthday, so thanks to all who helped us celebrate!

 

 

Party with the Palmers!

It was so fun to visit with the Palmers this past Friday night. Maryann and I had a girl's night at Kneaders, then she brought her kids over to play for a bit. They all just picked up right where they left off from our last visit. I still can't believe that they don't live right across the street anymore! I miss watching them grow, and our kids play so well together. Alanna was so excited to play with Pyper, but she did not want her picture taken. We had to force her, and she wasn't too happy about that! I love that Preston and Jackson aren't "too cool" to hug each other and let me snap some pictures!

Halloween 2013!

 The "scary dinosaur" face. Blaze enjoyed wearing his costume the entire day, from Paul's Halloween parade in the morning, to the preschool party, to trick-or-treating! I got to go help with Blaze's school Halloween party, and we made sucker ghosts at my station. It was fun to watch Blaze "working" in his classroom, and I was relieved to see how well he followed directions and listened to his teacher.

 This was a humongous deal...we bought Alanna this witch costume for last Halloween, but this was the first time she would wear it. What a beautiful little witch, even if she didn't want her picture taken. The kindergartners got to have their own parade in the school cafeteria - SO cute!

 Harry Potter, "vampire", witch, and dinosaur... ready to fill up those bags with candy!

It really looks like he's casting some sort of spell.

The kids loved wearing these glow in the dark glasses from Fred and Jill!

Alanna and Blaze didn't need to stay out too long collecting treats. They were happy with a "few" items and then they came back to eat! The boys came back with quite the loot. The kids sorted the candy, tallied it, and graphed it. The most popular candy to give out in our neighborhood was Starburst! I took all of the chocolate to chop up and put in monster cookies! 

Poor Blazer has had a lingering cough that often keeps him up during the night despite the humidifier and four pillows he is propped up on. Lately, it's not unusual to find that he's crashed somewhere trying to catch up on those ZZZZ's. We thought it very appropriate that he found this white blanket to curl up under on Halloween night. We didn't even realize it was our little ghost for a while, we just thought it was a blanket piled on the floor!

Many Faces of Blaze...

I am in LOVE with this face! Especially with my Blazer's huge eyes and long like butterfly leg eyelashes. It's never a dull moment with Blaze between his facial expressions and commentary. The other day he told me a joke:

Blaze: Knock, knock

Me: Who's there?

Blaze: Giraffe

Me: Giraffe who

Blaze: it's just a joke, you don't have to cry about it! (as he was laughing so hard he could barely deliver the punch line!)

I just can't get over how cute and adorable he is! A few times a day I will ask him "Blaze, why are you soooo cute?" and he says "Because I love you Mommy!" Melts my heart!

He was really excited to get some "new" hand-me-down shoes, and I was so relieved he would finally give up his summer Crocs.

We went to his parent/teacher conference for preschool a couple weeks ago. Miss Debbie, Blaze's teacher, said that he's the hardest worker she's ever seen! He is constantly working very independently, so much so that he doesn't want her instruction! But, she said that once she builds a stronger relationship with him she thinks that he will be willing to receive some instruction. Sarah, Blaze's reading teacher, said Blaze is a very enthusiastic "reader". At his school they go through a step by step lesson book, and right now he is still learning letter sounds and rhyming. I'm glad that he has the attention span for the reading lessons. We have been working with him at home, and he's happy to do his homework just like his big brothers and sister! I'm so glad that he has the opportunity to attend school this year because he is just thriving there!