5...and Proud of It

Somehow, in what seems like a blink of an eye, Nolan turned 5 this week.  5…did you hear me?  F-I-V-E!  How did that happen?  Well Mr. Nolan was super duper excited for this milestone, he has been doing a countdown for about two weeks now.  Actually, the countdown hasn't stopped because now he is counting down the days until his party!  The nerve of his Mom to plan a party AFTER his actual birthday.  If he only knew I was doing him a favor by prolonging his "Birthday Week".  I like my birthday to last a week so I figured he would appreciate the same!

What can I say about Nolan?  He continues to amaze me with his kind heart and easy going personality.  He adores his little brother and he also adores antagonizing his little brother...we just hope we get more of the straight up adoring in our days and less of the antagonizing!  He loves legos, swimming, playing with his friends and superheroes.  He is most content when he is involved in some sort of imaginary play and more importantly…dressed the part.  He has his moments when he acts his age and throws us some attitude; dude man is smart and he uses it against us sometimes.  Good thing we are smart too!  Attitude aside, he truly is just a good kid.  All of the little boys look up to him so much.  I can't lie…he's not a bad example.

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy…we love you bunches!

  

They are sleeping…forever

Miss Violet just turned two, so we needed to celebrate with a little photo session.

Problem 1: Julia (her mom) had an "idea" in her head
Problem 2: Said "idea" was simple in theory, hard in execution
Problem 3: This "idea" wasn't going away

So what was this idea you ask?  Julia really wanted pictures of Violet frolicking in a field of wild flowers.  Sounds easy right?  Well, I think we missed the true wild flower season and they weren't as prevalent as we once thought.  BUT Julia assured me she found the perfect spot.  Yet another problem, this perfect spot was in a random field on the side of the HIGHWAY.  I humored her and let her park but then when I realized where she was talking about (far away, too high of flowers and in direct sunlight) I kindly told her NO WAY.  So we headed on down the road to find the next perfect spot.  Then we spotted it…wild flowers all in a row as if they were dropped from Heaven just for Violet to stand by.  Where is this wonderful field you ask?  Still on the side of the road, but this time it was tucked ever so sweetly in a…Pet Cemetery.  No lie, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.  Do you think that stopped us?  No, it sure did not.  I was doing okay until Julia kept telling Violet "There are doggies over there, but they are sleeping…forever".  I mean seriously Julia, did we HAVE to bring that up?  How about…"look at these pretty flowers".  Just a suggestion for next time.

Pet Cemetery or not, I think we did alright for ourselves.  Here is Miss Violet…age 2…in the Pet Cemetery!

Vacation is Over :(

Well we just got back from our "little" family vacation and by little I don't mean little at all actually.  We went on vacation with 4 other families…yep we are crazy like that.  Total we had 10 adults and 8 kids…YIKES.  I can't lie the vacation went amazingly well.  All the kids were rockstars and the adults behaved okay too (even Curtis).  Of course I'll have multiple other posts to share later when I adjust to being home again :(, but I wanted to share a glimpse of what we were dealing with.

Who says getting a group photo of 8 kids is tough?  Not this girl…ha!  Please note the ONE kid looking at the camera does happen to be mine!  We'll just ignore the fact that the kid running away is mine as well!

Baby Charlee

There's another new kid on the block, Miss Charlee.  She's a lucky little lady with some pretty stellar Parents, Grandparents, Cousins and Aunt (okay, her Uncle isn't bad either).  Rachael and Ryan have been anxiously awaiting her arrival and she did not disappoint.  She is absolutely precious.  Welcome to the World Charlotte Olivia.  Keep the bows coming :)

Kansas City or Bust

As many of you know from my whining my parents moved to Kansas City a while back.  Well, we decided it was high time to make a visit and see what this place had to offer.  I can't lie, I have always been a huge fan of Kansas City so if my parents were going to move somewhere I guess this is the best spot.  On our way home Chad and I decided we were going to move there (surprise Mom and Dad…make room for the 4 of us!).  We had a great little visit with my parents, my brother and his family and also some extended family who came in town for a mini-reunion.  Believe it or not, I didn't take all that many pictures.  I know crazy.  I was trying to enjoy the moment more and not annoy my WHOLE family (I save that for my own kids).  So here is a small glimpse at our time in KC…

On the steps of Grandma's house waiting to leave for the day.  Precious yes?

  

Well they looked so darn cute I couldn't help but throw my nephew in a picture too.  Turns out getting 3 to look and smile is even harder…shocker!  I think Cy is giving us the "why does this kid have his arm around me" look here. 

We went to the T-Rex Cafe for lunch.  Think Hard Rock Cafe…with Dinosaurs.  Over the top decorations, roaring dinosaurs, cool aquariums.  Bennett was totally in awe.  Grandma and Grandpa even sprung for a Build-A-Dinosaur for each of the boys.  

Spoiled much?

Then we went over to my Aunt and Uncles for some family time.  I again tried to torture myself and get a picture of all the boys with my Grandma.  This was the best of the bunch...

On Sunday we woke up and went to Legoland!  My Mom has been hyping this trip up to Nolan for a LONG time now.  So it was time to hit it up!  Nolan's mind was blown from the minute we stepped foot in the door!

This scale was supposed to convert your weight to lego bricks.  Awesome right?  Well yes, until we discovered it gave everyone the same reading.  And something tells me my weight in Legos is a little different than Nolan's weight in Legos.  But a girl can dream.

There was a pit of Legos that Nolan could have sat in all day.  I can't even imagine just how many lego pieces were in this thing.  A whole pile of awesomeness in Nolan's eyes!

Ah, look at that.  A family picture, with some creepy Lego people.  It must be our lucky day!

Don't worry, Bennett enjoyed Legoland too...

Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us the grand tour of KC…we will most certainly be back soon. Oh and you might as well grab those Season Passes to Legoland because I'm fairly certain Nolan will be demanding a return trip…each time.

A "Super" Day

We are officially on vacation and we are having a "Super" time!

Our first rest stop brought us to the home of Superman…Metropolis, Illinois.  We took the opportunity to run around the huge Superman Statue and of course stick our heads in the Superman Photo Props!  

The boys have been troopers in the car thus far. We have about 4 more hours to go tomorrow so keep those fingers crossed and most importantly... have a Super Day!

Big B's Big Party

Mr. B turned two so of course that meant we needed a celebration.  With his birthday being in the middle of August I get nervous about outside activities, so I opted for an inside location again this year.  And seeing as though we have adopted Myseum as our new favorite spot this summer we thought it was the perfect location to help us celebrate.  I can't lie, I think we were right.  This birthday boy was SO EXCITED!  Every time I turned around all I saw was a flash of Bennett running by with a huge smile and a squeal to follow.  He was a happy camper, as were his little tiny guests, so this Mom was a happy camper too.  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

When everyone started singing to the Birthday Boy he was not so sure…

But no worries, he quickly caught on and thought blowing out the candles was an okay thing to do...

After pizza and cake it was time to play!  Sometimes I couldn't decide who was having more fun, the kids…or the Dads?

Can you hear the squeal?

Happy Birthday Mr. B, I hope your party was everything you imagined it would be and more!