Happy Birthday Lexi!

 We celebrated Lexi's 9th birthday on Friday.  She was so excited! She had "movie night/pajama party" birthday party.  It was the easiest birthday party ever.  I fed the kids hot dogs, opened presents, had cake and ice cream, and then movie time! Party over. The end.  ;) No coming up with cute decorations.  No exciting games to play.  No parents to entertain.  It was perfect.

Backyard dinner

Blowing out candles

Opening presents

Favorite Present



Because Lexi had a pajama/movie party, one of Lexi's friends gave her new set of pj's that matched.  Lexi thought it was cool.  As a nine-year old, Lexi is very girly.  She loves playing with make-up, fake nails and doing hair.  She loves being the little mama in the house.  She's very kind to her baby sister and loves to cuddle with her.  She is also very helpful and tries really hard to make good choices.  She has a lot of friends and is very social.  She is doing awesome in basketball this year (major attitude improvment from last year!) and loves to ski.  She's still a skinny-minnie and we sometimes have a hard time finding clothes that are long enough for her that don't swamp her! Lexi is very by-the-rules and definitely lets someone know when they've bent them!  Overall, Lexi adds so much to our family and we love her!

Love and Life

 

The kind of life that is crying, whining, follow me around screaming kind.

All. The. Time. 

And the kind of love that is needy, want-y, and only mommy will do kind.

 

For the past few months anyway. I mentioned to Ryan that if I was crier, I'd be bawling all day long with the rest of them.  It's just a phase, I know.  But when will it end???? I tried to get pictures of the kids a couple of weeks ago and either Shayli or Kyson was crying inconsolably. Predictably.  They will be precious memories.  One day.

 

 

Here's the best shot of the day.  Shayli is not really smiling.  More like a grimace.  But we can pretend, right???

 

And since it was just here, these are my Valentine's day treats.  What a good boyfriend!  (wink, wink).  I don't normally wear animal print, but I decided if I wanted to start then these shoes were the way to go!  And for $13, why not? 
Happy Love Day.  My family has shown me in so many ways how much they love me (see above pictures for hidden meaning). 

Kyson turns 4!

I can hardly blieve my little Kyson is 4 and will be starting preschool next year!  Where does the time go?? (I say that now, but I was just discussing the woes of 2 car payments with Ryan and 2 more years of that seems like an eternity!)

 

Obviously, we had a Spiderman theme.  I can't say this is the most ingenius cake ever - I was definitely on a time constraint with this one.  I was at church in meetings from 8:30 til 3:00 and dinner was at 4:45.  But Kyson was thrilled so that's all that matters!

We invited some family friends over for birthday cake as well as Gammi and Pa. (We missed you Gammi....darn that flu bug!) 

And I'm pretty sure Kyson was not the only one blowing out candles here!

As a 4 year old Kyson is still a little ornery.  He loves stirring up the pot and bugging his sisters.  However, he loves those girls to death.  He always wants to sleep in their beds and I often find him curled up next to them in the middle of the night.  He loves playing Pokemon cards and Lexi and Kendri are very sweet to him and let him win (and then they give him some of their cards to add to his collection!). He sleeps with his "chicky" and his Pokemon cards and he is currently sleeping with about 25 silly bands on his wrist.  He still climbs fences and he has just picked up the skill of doing tricks while riding the neighbors electric scooter.  Which is much too big for him.  In fact he's crashed twice but it hasn't really fazed him - even when he almost knocked out his front tooth!  He likes his hair to "be like Malfoy's".(Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter)  Meaning plastered to his head and pushed over just a bit.  I hate it and try to make him "cool" but he won't have any of it.  (I must say, I'm getting a little weary of all these opinions!)  Kyson still gives the best hugs and kisses and loves to get "spankings" from Gammi.  He is a joy to be around and has the best personality.  I love his little voice and the way he talks - it's just so cute.  We love Kyson!