T-W-O

You're my little boy blue and I love you so...

I took these rain boot photos of you on your real birthday. I can't believe it's been two years since I met you for the very first time. My, what a special day that was. Part of me feels like it was yesterday, but another part feels like we've had you forever.

And, as I'm looking back through them, I just realized that I could just eat you with a spoon :)

Your favorite color is blue now. It's funny that Emma & I picked that color out for you when you were "zero," as she calls it. You will only color with a blue crayon, want blue EVERYTHING (clothes, pj's toys, cups, plates, oh my), and will find the tiniest smidge of blue in just about anything.

You love your new dump truck.

And your coordination is pretty amazing. You run fast. You climb like a champ. And, you can get up and down our stairs like you've been doing it for 20 years.

You still love to push things.

And, your vocabulary has exploded!

You love grapes, cashews, cheese, milk, yogurt, chick-fil-a, eggs, dried cherries, strawberries, and ice cream. I am pretty sure you would choose to survive via the dairy and fruit food group only, but of course, I don't let you.

You love the park with all of your heart and are happiest either playing outside, reading a book, singing songs, dancing, or watching Barney. My goodness do you love that purple dinosaur. You can sing and do all of the motions to "if you're happy & you know it." And you love "the itsy bitsy spider."

You listen really well...cue the hallelujah chorus please. You love your sister so much. And, she loves you back just the same. She takes really good care of you, which is so, so nice. You do really well with a little bit of independence. You actually stay "with us" if you aren't constrained, which is just mind boggling to me.

And, you love to ride the carousel too.

Sometimes when Emma's at school, we have breakfast together, just me and you.

I love to have you all to myself. Time with just one little one is oh so treasured. Oh, and by the way, your spoon skills are much improved :)

So proud! And your laugh just kills me. And, yes, you chipped a tooth, just before your birthday. I was devastated, but have no clue how or when it happened. No mouth injury, no fall, nothing. oh well.

You love to play peek a boo...

And oh my goodness do you love to read now.

Your favorites are "cake book," "goodnight moon," and "the big red barn."

Now for the boring stuff...

As far as clothes go, I would go with a 2T, but some of your 18-24 still fit. You're in a size 5 diaper and a size 6.5 shoe. You love to name your colors...especially blue! You've been sleeping like a champ lately. You usually wake up around 7:30 am, nap from 1 to 4, and bedtime is around 7:30 at night. You sleep with a real pillow in your bed now and a blanket, but we are still using a sleep sack. You love all of your stuffed animals, especially Baxter, Spot, and Blue :) And, you still sleep with three pacis (or ba's...as you call them.)

Before I call it a night, I want you to know that...

Time really does fly by. You grew so fast, but were loved every minute along the way.

I love to rock you just before you go to sleep at night. You lay your head down on my chest, and you're just so sweet.

It's my favorite time of the day.

When we rock, and I wish I could just freeze time.

You love your daddy a ton and you love your Emma too. You give her a hug every night just before you go to sleep.

And, when you're excited, you shout, "YAY!" Daddy's coming home..."YAY!" Ice cream..."YAY!"

You're so fun and so sweet and I wish you the best 2nd birthday ever.

To my little boy blue...we love you dude!

Bro's Birthday Bash ::part two::

After nap time, Carson woke up and opened a few of his gifts. He got fire man rain boots from aunt char, a rain coat from Mama C. and Papa, and a dump truck from us. It had been pouring all day, so we decided to give all of his new gear a run...

We love rain boots at our house! They are great for playing in the yard, even when it's not raining. You come away with no ant bites and clean feet :)

Emma was so excited that bro got rain boots. Jumping in puddles is still one of her very favorite things to do. Proof is here, here, and here :)

I really wanted a photo of Carson with his birthday balloon and dump truck, but he just wasn't having it.

After they splish splashed, we headed in for dinner...

And bubbles. He calls bubbles "abu," and he loves them, so a bubble machine was the perfect gift.

We grilled a yummy dinner and then sang to our birthday boy...

His blue cookie cake...

And he even blew out his own candles :)

Oh my goodness it was so good.

Love him.

And I can't believe he's two....

They both dug right in.

And then the next day they both gobbled up cookies that Mama C. & Papa had sent...

No lack of sugar here!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little boy ever!

Bro's Birthday Bash ::part one::

My favorite little guy turned two! And, I just can't believe my eyes. His real birthday fell on a Saturday morning, which was just perfect, because we could all spend the day together.

We started the morning off with a trip to the donut shop in the pouring down rain :) We brought bro home his blueberry donut and the festivities began... He moves his little hands around when we sing...swoon.

And always claps at the end....yay!

So, so yummy!

We went pretty low key for his birthday this year and opted to not have the big party. We did that last year and alternating the big and small parties seems pretty fitting to me. So, it was just the four of us. There are some really weird shadows happening in the photo. It looks like I have an iron burn across my face...I don't!

After breakfast, we hung out at home, read some books, watched some barney & the wiggles, and headed to chick-fil-a for lunch. The kids had their usual, followed by playtime & ice cream. Nap time was next on the list for the birthday boy. So, while he was sleeping, Chef Emma helped me whip up a giant cookie from scratch and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Then, we decorated the cookie with blue frosting. Carson's favorite color is blue :)

I'll be back soon with part two!

laid back heart day

mama c. helped us whip us emma's little valentine day goodies for her classmates. you know emma has a thing for s'mores, so we were pinterest inspired, and it worked out perfectly!

emma had a whole bar full of goodies waiting on her when she got home from preschool. aunt charlotte sent us a whole box worth of fun with the lady & the tramp included.

from us, the kids got homemade playdough with glitter. they had a stack of cards from family too. hugs to aunt char & uncle steve, mama c. & papa, and aunt lindy & uncle dill for making their day special!

i made them chocolate covered strawberries too. i've made these every valentine's day for rob since i can remember. they are so, so good.

and, my sweet hubby brought home flowers too. miss emma even had her very own single stem pink rose.

the kids were dying to open their goodies, just too excited, as emma might say.

i love how all of these little holidays are so much more fun with little ones :)

i loved bro's card :)

and bro enjoyed his gel clings.

we just had to try out the new playdough...

i think i had just as much fun as they did. and, i'm pretty sure i never made it to the shower that day :)

although, i did have on red sweat pants, so that counts, right?

we had dinner at home, nothing fancy. just stuffed red bell peppers for us and homemade pizza for the kids. chocolate covered strawberries were for dessert. i was trying to keep with the red theme :) although, can i say i used some homemade pesto for the kids' pizza, instead of pizza sauce, and it was hands down amazing! try it next time, it won't disappoint.

we ended the night with a valentine's day story.

carson will sit and listen to a book now, which is so much fun.

i love reading with my kids and i love them both to pieces.

i definitely prefer our laid back night in to our fancy night out...

it was a happy heart day.

happy valentine's day to my three sweeties!

and

happy anniversary to mama & papa c!

and

happy birthday to my dad!