Happy Birthday, J Man!

So, my baby turned 4 years old yesterday. It's so hard to believe that the sweet baby boy I rocked around the world and back is already that old! Although he's a mischievious monkey sometimes, he still has a really sweet nature to him that I just adore. He loves his mama and tells me so every day. And you know what? Each time he looks at me with those big blue eyes and says, "I love you, mom," and then reaches up, hugs my neck and gives me a kiss, I simply melt. I wanted him to have the best day and I think we succeeded!

February 17th began with J's usual breakfast--one and half cinnamon rolls.

I must agree, Mrs. Baird does make a heckuva cinnamon roll.

After playing all morning with the girls, Jackson got a visit from Meme!

I asked Jackson where he wanted to go for lunch and he chose McDonalds, so we packed up the minivan and headed over there. He had me order him a cheeseburger, fries, nuggets and apple slices and probably ate a good 80% of all that! Guess he is a growing boy.

Miss Lila got to try out her very first french fry...

and she loved it!

After all that sitting still and eating, a boy's got to get moving, so off to the playground he went.

For the afternoon, I had a little surprise up my sleeve. Since Jackson has declared that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up, I thought it would be fun to arrange for a visit to our local Murphy FD. Right after I told him about my plan, he raced upstairs to get ready. He came back down wearing his fireman jacket, fireman hat and carrying his fireman axe. You gotta be prepared!

Fireman Bill was so nice and gave us a private tour of the entire facility. He let the kids check out the engine. Right here they were looking at all the tools. Jackson was especially impressed by this big axe.

Then the birthday boy got to sit up in the driver's seat.

Of course, Little Miss Thang was right behind him and got to take her turn, too:) She told all the firefighters that she was going to be a firewoman one day and then broke into one of her favorite songs--"Let's do Jackson--Jackson, Jackson bo backson, banana fana fo fackson, me my mo mackson, babababa Jackson! Let's do Lila!" They got a huge kick out of her show!

After touring the whole place, our last stop was the firepole. They both got to check it out from the top...

and then we went downstairs to wait for Firefighter Bill to show us how he slides down it when the bell rings. So cool!

After a short nap (I needed one, but only the kids got one!) we went to Amazing Jakes for Jackson's family bday party. We ate pizza with Gigi

and Memaw and Daddy

and then got to the fun stuff. The carousel was the first ride they did.

The train ride was next and my favorite part, by far, was watching my dad squeeze into the caboose! His rear exit was even funnier:)

After those rides, J chose the fighter planes.

They jerked up and down and then started going pretty fast. Thank goodness both kids were all smiles.

Then we were off for some good ol' go cart racing! Jackson and I raced Jared and Maddie.

Then J took another turn with Daddo in the driver's seat.

After go carts, the boys moved over to the arcade games for a bit. J tried his hand at skeeball and a few other games and got lots of tickets.

Then it was time for some cake! Miss Lila was ready to party with her hat on.

In fact, everyone had on their party hats!

We sang to Jackson and then all got to have some yummy chocolate coke cake.

He got the piece with the "4" on it, as requested!

After eating mostly icing, he was so ready to tear open his presents. Whew! What a day. Happy Birthday, my big guy. Your mom and dad love you to Pluto and back.

Big Valentine's Day

Dear Valentine's Day,

You have worn me out! I have always enjoyed you. I think it's important to let the people you love most in the world feel special and appreciated. Not because Hallmark pushes you to do so, but because you genuinely like putting a smile on that person's face. But for real, this has been such a long day!

Jared and I quit going out to dinner on V Day a few years ago and now celebrate sometime during the weekend before the 14th. This year we kept things really low-key and went to dinner at A Taste of Italy. We had some yummy food, good dessert and shared a great bottle of Pinot. It really was perfect.

Right before we left I asked my mom to take a picture of us two. Before she could get the camera ready to roll, our biggest rugrat ran over and jumped in it!

This morning both the big kids were still asleep when Jared left for work, so he just got to cuddle with Miss Lila. She was all smiles for her daddy and loved her new baby doll.

When J and M woke up a few minutes later they found an array of Valentine's gifts. Since it was a school day, though, we had to get moving. So a few cinnamon donuts later I was rushing them upstairs to get dressed and out the door.

After we dropped off J at his class, Lila and I went to Madison's class with her. Their party was at 9:30, so we just stayed and played. Madison loved it that Lila sat at the princess table with her.

After a few little snacks, it was time for the good stuff--cupcake decorating! The kids got to spread pink icing on the cupcakes and then decorate them with sprinkles. All great things...although I'm pretty sure Madison would have been just as happy with a spoon and big dollop of icing!

This girl loves her some pink cupcakes:)

After running a few errands for J's birthday, Lila and I made it back to school to attend the party in Jackson's classroom. When we walked in the kids were already tearing into their treats. In between bites, J told me repeatedly how there was one cupcake left and that I could eat it if I wanted to. I finally had to tell him that I'd already had one at Maddie's party and that was probably enough for the day. Such a sweet boy to try and save it for his mama!

Lila was a big hit, as usual, with all of the girls. Peyton was especially interested in her today. Wonder if she's big brother's main girlfriend this week? Maybe trying to score some points with little sister?

After school, we stopped by Gigi and Boom's house to deliver their handmade cards. There were more presents waiting for them there. How fun!

Lila sure loved her little singing bear!

Maddie got Barbie and Ken and Jackson got this Mickey Mouse band set. This picture is wacky for many reasons--Madison was in a trance, I am sporting my Valentine's socks and Jackson has a ring pop in his mouth! Wow. Especially wow on my socks.

Our evening ended with a visit from Memaw and Poppi. They brought the kiddos some cool magic wands and cards with stickers in them. After such a big day only Lila was willing to pose for any more pictures, though.

I think Valentine's Day is about to rival Christmas. This is just out of control! I did somehow manage to keep the candy eating to a bare minimum. I'm sure they will dive into it tomorrow!

Dishwasher Darlin'

Last night Miss Lila discovered something very intriguing--the dishwasher!

She shimmied right on over and pulled up on it to check out what was inside...

She looked so happy about it that I thought she was about to let go, run around the room and tell us all about how cool it was.

"Not so fast, mom! I think I'll keep one hand on this fun machine."

Sweet girl was so tuckered out after her new discovery that she fell asleep in the highchair before I could feed her dinner. Now that's a big night!

Snow Day - Round 2

This past Wednesday school was cancelled again! Last week I could understand why...this week, not so much! It was cold, sure, but there really wasn't a big reason to go and cancel everything. We were scheduled to bring some friends a meal that night and decided to go ahead and do it. Jackson helped me bake the brownies...such a big helper.

I was glad that he refrained from asking to wear my pink apron this time...or for any apron, really!

After we got the brownies in the oven, it was time to make some early Valentines. The kids worked so hard for a whole 5 minutes. Here's Jackson writing his name all on his own...a newfound skill!

I let the kids make two Valentines each and decide who to give them to--today the big winners were Lila and Boom. What fun! We can't wait to make more this weekend:)

10 months

Just a mere 10 months old and Lila has already started practicing her cheerleading skills!

She loves to sit in the position of a herkie jump quite often...

next we will work on jumping off the ground!

In this respect, Jackson and Lila could not be more different. He is a rough and tumble, soccer ball-kickin' dude...but they sure do resemble one another!

Same big blues eyes and cute little round cheeks...

and the sweetest smile.

Thank goodness Lila has a few precious dimples. Otherwise, we would surely be in danger of confusing their pictures years from now.

Lovely Friends

We went to a Valentine's party at Kelly and Andie's house yesterday and had so much fun! Lila loved playing with the girls...

here she is with Miss Andie and Miss Chloe--so cute how they all wore festive clothes!

Then Lila's boyfriend arrived, so she went to check him out. Even though he came dressed in his best tuxedo shirt, she was a little bit leery!

Not sure how we mananged this pic, but here are all 9 kids that were in attendance. Jackson is one of the oldest, so he got to hold the youngest...and he did great! Maddie had a hold of Lila and made sure she didn't leap off the couch, either. So glad the big kids take care of the little ones. I really am lucky:)

After lots of playing, it was time for some good eating. Bring on the cupcakes! Jackson wolfed them down like he was participating in one of those eating contests that you see on TV. He scarfed down two cupcakes in under a minute and wanted a third!

Cupcake number one--done!

After cupcakes, it was back to the toys. Lila and Maddie were loving this cute little piano.

Things took a turn for the worse when Lila nabbed Maddie's sheet music. It's all fun and games, till someone takes away the playbook!

Thanks, Kelly for a great kiddie party. We loved it!