It's been a year already?

Sloane has turned a year old. Already. In some ways it's gone by so quickly, and it other ways, it's felt just right. She is such a fun baby. She really is. She's been fairly laid back, although we are just now starting to see a little attitude come out of her. Sometimes she thinks she's 1, going on 21. Since she's getting more mobile, she doesn't like to hold still, and when someone is holding her down, she lets out the loudest shriek and shrill. She's definitely been the loudest of the 3. We always call her the little shriek owl. Or sometimes howler monkey. Yes, it's that loud. But when she's not piercing eardrums, she is a ball of fun. She's got a great personality. She greets you with smiles and giggles every morning and after every nap. She likes to play and be tickled. She "talks" a lot, usually with something she's trying to tell us, but nothing we can understand unless she points at something. She mimics us and her siblings alot (which is setting us up for T-R-O-U-B-L-E). She likes to sing with others and at church. Reid learned a song about colors at school and it has sign language with it, and he's sung it so much that she's picked up on it. I didn't realize that until I was pointing out colors today and saw her start to move her hands (imitating sign language) and heard her "singing". It was so cute. She's taken a few steps, but isn't consistent with it yet. She's almost completely on table food now (still eats some rice cereal and jarred fruits for breakfast). And she loves her sippy cup of milk! Anyway, on to the party...!

Her actual birthday was spent at home. Instead of a cake, we got some big, thick, iced sugar cookies from a favorite cookie shop. We put a candle in one that looked like a cupcake and used that as her cake for the night.


To celebrate her birthday with family and friends, we held a circus-themed party the following Saturday. It was a fun party to plan because the whole family got in on it. Reid and Blair helped me stuff bean bags for the Bean Bag Throw, paint coke bottles for the Ring Toss, color signs (all of which proved to be awesome busy-projects for them), and then helped set them up at the party. My mom baked the cake, while Jeremy did the icing and decorating (I think we have another Ace of Cakes on our hands!). And my dad figured out the mechanics of getting the Bean Bag Throw and the Strongman Cutout to stand up. Okay, so my mom and dad probably weren't really LOOKING to get that involved, but well, they were here, so they got put to work! And Sloane showed up ready to party!

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages...

Step right up and try your hand at the bean bag throw!

And ring toss!

Come challenge the amazing Strong Man!

And, uh, Strong WO-man! (yes, she has a hairy chest, she moonlights as the Bearded Lady on weekends)


And what would a circus be without Sidewalk, the clown?!?

...making balloon animals

...and painting faces















Also featuring the internationally-renowned and incredibly talented Pooch Performers!




















So grab your hot dog...












...popcorn and peanuts...















...and of course the cotton candy (clown noses optional)















...and witness a spactacular feat of cake balancing...

...as Miss Sloane, Star of the Galaxy, celebrates her First Birthday!

Vacation Bible School started today.

Haaaaaaallelujah! Haaaaaaaallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!

Nothing says "Happy Memorial Day!" like Chinese take-out.

Happy Memorial Day! Our extended Memorial Day weekend was great. Very summery, very sunny, very Memorial Day-ish.

Reid's last day of school was Wednesday, May 20th, and they ended the year with a talent show and swim day. My parents were here to help out while Jeremy had sinus surgery (more on that later) so they were also able to watch the kids so that I could attend the field trip to the aquatic center with Reid. He doesn't know how to swim and he doesn't even like his face, much less his whole head, to get wet, so his idea of swimming was laying on his belly and doing an army crawl up the shallow beach entry of the pool. But he was very proud of himself. Later, he put on orange goggles and a lime green tube and held his nose closed and, boy was he really swimming then! Or so he thought. And looking like a pretty big goober too!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent playing outside, playing outside, and more playing outside. I think we got enough fresh air to last us all year! We also spent a lot of time playing in the sprinkler, eating popsicles, repotting plants, and nearly burning the house down (more on that later too).

Sunday, we went to Denise's in-laws' house out in the country. They had one of those big water inflatables, so that was fun for the kids. They have been begging me for one of those everytime they see one in a catalog or at Sam's, but since I don't have an extra $550 that I don't know what to do with, we haven't bought one. We also got to fish, ride four-wheelers, eat homemade ice cream and all kinds of grilled meat (deer, pheasant, some sort of African antelope...yes, antelope). As always, we had a great time. It's always nice to get out of the city every once in a while.

Sloane and cousin Caroline










Look out, innocent bystanders!










Caroline taking cousins on a joy ride













Here I come!














If you wanted to fish, you had to hold the worm. Blair kept saying, "That's ew!"













All tuckered out after a long afternoon














By the time Monday, Memorial Day, rolled around, we were so tired and worn out from our busy busy weekend that we spent the whole day inside. Not very "Memorial Day" at all! I couldn't even think of anything inspiring and Memorial Day-ish to eat either...hence the Chinese food. Oh well.

But back to the surgery, Jeremy had had almost a constant sinus infection since November, so he had to have surgery to do a few things to his sinuses, nose and ears on Friday. The surgery went well and the recovery is progressing nicely.


And what's this about burning the house down, you ask? Well, on Saturday, I had a jarred candle lit on the mantle. It had been burning all day, and finally got down to the very bottom of the wick. Well, instead of just putting itself out, the wax--or maybe the metal thing that holds the wick--caught on fire. Except we didn't see it right away. We were all eating dinner, and Jeremy finished before everyone and was heading back to bed to rest and noticed it as he walked through the living room. Now it wasn't a HUGE fire, but it was definitely bigger than a normal lit candle. I tried blowing it out several times, but it wasn't budging. So my dad tried to smother it with a napkin, which is when we noticed the bottom of the jar had cracked from the heat, and when that didn't work, he tried blowing it out, only to have it mushroom back up in his face, singing (sp?) his eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair. At that point, the napkin was smoldering and sitting on the mantle, little embers were landing on the mantle, and the fire was no longer totally contained in the broken jar. Finally, we grabbed the baking soda, poured it over the fire, and that put it out right away. But it left a nice burn mark to serve as a reminder to never leave a burning candle--especially one burned down to the bottom--unsupervised. It could have been SO much more dangerous had we not been right there with it. And this concludes your Public Service Announcement for today.

Summer Vacation, of sorts

We made another trip down south again for our nephew's 5th birthday. But this time we decided to make a family vacation out of it.

We started out Wednesday night, driving a few hours and then stopping for the night. The kids always think it's a treat to stay at a hotel.
We just try to keep Blair off the pole. (She will have to find another way to work her way through med school.)

Thursday, we got up and drove the rest of the way to our destination. We checked into a hotel on the beach and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool where Amy, Mike and Lawson met us for some fun. After swimming, we continued playing "tourist" and went to eat at a local seafood restaurant with an ocean view.

Friday, we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant overlooking the water, then ran to the nearby beach shop for some sand toys. With shovels and pails in tow, we headed down to the beach to build some sand castles. Reid and Blair had a blast playing in the sand and filling and dumping their buckets of sand. Sloane even had fun in the sand too. I thought she would find the gritty sand irritating (when she sits in grass, she keeps her feet in the air so they don't dare touch the prickly grass!), but she loved it, crawling around in it, digging her fingers in it, and even eating it.

Yes, EATING the sand! And not like, "oh, there's some sand on my hand and it accidentally got in my mouth." She was literally picking it up by the handfuls and putting it in her mouth!




We finally made down to the water--Sloane did NOT care for it at all. Blair was so-so on it. But Reid loved it. He splashed around, and he and I jumped waves. You know, most of the time, I just feel like a girl that happens to have some kids. But there are certain times in life that really make you feel like a parent, and this was one of them. I remember jumping waves in the water with my parents when I was little, and this experience with Reid was just like those times, except now I was on the other side of it! After spending some time at the beach, it was time to check out of the hotel, grab some lunch with Jeremy's dad and sisters, and move to my parents' house for the remainder of our weekend.
Friday evening, we went back out to Amy's for dinner and birthday cupcakes to celebrate Lawson's actual birtday.





Saturday, we got up early (thanks to the kids) and before we could even get out of bed, Reid was getting Blair and himself dressed to go play at the "park" in my parents' backyard. It was so cute to hear him helping her and looking after her, making sure she was ready to go. After playing outside and eating taquitos from Sylvia's (a must-have anytime we're home), we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for Lawson's birthday party. (It was a superhero party, which explains the capes. Although, Reid wouldn't object to wearing a cape--or spiderman costume--anywhere we go.)





What kid doesn't like Chuck E. Cheese??

...or adult?












We picked up Miller's BBQ (another must-have) and had naps for everyone (the kids were so exhausted, they all slept about 3 hours every day!). We decided to take it easy that evening, just piddling around my parents' house, running errands, visiting with one of my aunts, and getting some dinner (which included blizzards from the DQ, the 3rd must-have, of course!)

Sunday, we went to church and then joined my aunt, uncle, and cousins for a Mother's Day cookout. Reid and Blair had a blast playing with their second cousins. Blair was in princess heaven, and Reid chowed down on watermelon, one of his favorites! Jeremy and I had fun getting to chat with some of my extended family who we rarely get to see these days. After late--and long--naps, we went out to see Amy and her crew one last time before leaving the next day.

Monday, our fun family vacation came to an end. We got up, loaded up, and drove back home. We look forward to traveling down again to play at the beach and see our family again.

Baseball Barbie

Have you seen the new Baseball Barbie on the store shelves? Well this is what she looks like.

See the hat on the ground next to Blair's feet? I put that hat on her head to keep the hair out of her eyes while she was batting. She fiddled with it once or twice but then soon took it off. When I asked her why, she replied "because it didn't match her Barbie dress". Diva.

May 19th-The Toothless Wonder

Reid's tooth finally fell out today! When he got in the car after school, I noticed the gaping hole in his mouth and excitedly jumped out and ran to his door to check it out up close. He told me all about it. He said it fell out at lunch, when it got stuck in his pb&j sandwich [that image made me laugh] but that he took it out of his sandwich and put it in his chips bowl.

"Well let me see it!" I eagerly said. So he pulled out his cheetos bowl, grabbed the tooth and handed it to me. I had a nose-scrunched "EWWW!" look on my face because it was encrusted with something food-like, to which he replied, very matter-of-factly, "Oh, that's peanut butter." Okay...good to know.

Well, the tooth looked a little odd-shaped so I was turning it upside down and all around, trying to figure out exactly which side was up and which side was down. He took it from me, scraping the peanut butter off, and I said, a little unsure, "Um, are you sure that's not a peanut?" Examining it closer, he gave it a little pinch with his thumb. A small piece cracked off. Oops. "Oh... Yeah, it's a peanut."

So where's the tooth? No idea. But the peanut is now under his pillow, patiently waiting for the Tooth Fairy.

From a boy to a kid.

Reid has a loose tooth! Actually, 2 loose teeth. The two bottom center ones. If there's one thing that shows your little boy is turning into a full-blown "kid", it's a loose tooth. I wonder when they'll fall out? Anyone know how long it takes for a loose tooth to finally fall out?

5/14 Update: It hasn't fallen out yet but it has loosened up quite a bit, resulting in a little bit of bleeding each time. Reid, who is a pretty big baby when it comes to blood, freaks out every time he sees it bleeding. I try to spin the situation, though, by telling him that he wants it to bleed because the more it bleeds, the more money the tooth fairy leaves him. :) Not sure if that helps to ease his mind or not, but we'll see.