Mr. Chubbins Turns ONE!

Cole is one!  

ONE!!!

I can't believe that my little nugget is already a year old.  How time... goes fast... like a bird in the sky...

Last night, we had a little party at our house with our friends, the Binghams.  (Incidentally, they have their own Cole, so it was a Celebration of Coles!)

Pizza and watermelon.  So far so good.

Here's Grown-Up Cole, who just graduated from law school at the U!  WOOHOO!!

And here are the older kids -- Weston, Katelyn, and Dawson.  (Haha!  I can't believe that Weston is one of the "older kids.")

And here's their new baby sister, Emma!  OH MY GOSH THAT HAIR!!!!!  I want to cuddle her and rub her fuzzy fuzzy head again.

Present time!  The older kids were very good at "helping" Cole to explore his gifts.

Little cars.  Sweet.

Bongo drums.  Even sweeter.

And then for the cake!  We wanted to honor both Coles:

The Coles were excited.

"Oooh.  This is gonna be good."

"Oooh.  OOOH!  It IS good!"

"And now... how best to attack this piece..."

"Soooo close!!!"

"Aw, thanks, Grown-Up Cole!"

"Yeah.  Yeah.  Keep it comin'."

"Y'know what.  I'm just gonna dive in."

"OM NOM NOM!!!!!!"

"Okay, I'll make a funny face for ya, Mom."

"Oh man.  It's so good.  I just want to keep putting more and more in."

"Wait.  It's GONE???"

"Oh, hang on.  There's still some frosting that I can lick off my fingers."

"Okay.  NOW I'm done."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. CHUBBINS!!!

Easter! AND Tee Ball!

Hey, look, I'm blogging!!

In case you didn't see my blog-undrum on Facebook, I basically realized that although I find my kids to be super adorable, blogging sometimes feels more like an obligation than a pleasure.  So, I've decided to only blog about the really blog-worthy things, like birthdays and holidays and new babies and the like.  Naturally, any new "Weekly Dork Time with Microsoft Paint" installments are also included in this list.  I'm not cruel, and I'd never want to intentionally deprive you of those doses of creative inspiration. :-)

Moving right along... we had a FANTASTIC EASTER!!!  Dana (Tim's sister) and Kim (Tim's cousin) flew out from PA to visit, and Mark (Tim's brother) drove down from BYU-Idaho.  Lemme tell ya, it's pretty much nonstop hilarity with these folks, plus our Utah regulars (Chris, Adrienne, and Mary).  IT WAS SO FUN!!!  I was exhausted most of the time (the hilarity knows no bedtime), but it was so worth it.  I am so excited to see everyone again at Christmastime!!!

So... the day before Easter, Tim and I took the boys to Easter Eggstreme at Thanksgiving Point.  It was a paid event, but I loved that there was so much more to do than the 10-second-long Easter egg hunts.  There were bouncy houses, cow train rides (you're like, whaa?), wagon rides, food stalls, games, and giveaways.  I realized after last year's disaster that we needed something a little more organized (and longer than 10 seconds) for our Easter fun.  Fortunately, the egg hunts at Thanksgiving Point took place every half-hour and were split up by age.  And they put out A LOT OF EGGS.  I'd say the hunts lasted... oh, 15 seconds?  Hey, that's five whole seconds of bonus enjoyment.

Here's Weston at the bell.  GO, CHILD, GO!!!

GRAB 'EM!!!  GRAB 'EM!!! 

Aaaaaand we're done.  (I love that all the kids are still standing around.  Like one of them is going to see an egg that no one else sees.  Haha!  Man, I sound really mean.) 

The spoils!!!  Weston was very proud of the nine eggs that he collected. 

They actually had a baby egg hunt, too, which was freaking adorable.  (Except for all the older siblings who were running around grabbing eggs as fast as they could for their baby brothers/sisters.  Honestly, I'm still uncertain about Easter egg hunts.  Not sure if they're wonderful, innocent fun for kids, or frenzied explosions of unbridled avarice a la Black Friday.)

Anyway, Cole was thrilled to get the four little eggs that he and I picked up.  He pretty much just bonked them together and shook them for the next 10 minutes.  Geez... babies are so easy. :-)

Speaking of frenzied explosions of unbridled avarice, I sent the boys into the last event of the morning: the Chick-Fil-A Mosh Pit Free For All!  I guess there were a bunch of golden eggs containing coupons and freebies, but Tim and Weston never made it to them.  Those eggs were snatched up in the first 5 seconds of the hunt, while the remaining eggs were snatched up by the 10-second mark.  Haha!  Oh well.

Despite the craziness of the hunts, it was a fun morning, and I'm glad we did it.  It was nice to go to a large, well-organized event.  And, before we left, Weston rode the cow train.  Yes, this is the cow train.  It's pulled by a tractor.  (Weston, try to control your enthusiasm a little.  You're getting too worked up, son!!!) 

Anyway, the next day, Weston was SO excited to search for his Easter basket!!  First he helped Cole find his: 

...and then he tracked down his own!! 

Last year, we inadvertently started a tradition that the Easter bunny brings a basket of goodies, plus a wrapped gift.  (Only one.  He's not Santa.  He doesn't have a sleigh.  Just his wimpy little bunny arms.)  Weston was excited about his new pirate ship toy, and the little treats and toys in his basket: 

Cole's basket was a little more limited; he just got a couple little toys, a Star Wars board book, and two packages of yogurt melts (his cocaine). 

His wrapped toy was a spinning... uh... thing that talks and plays music.  (Thank you JBF!  I love being able to buy used toys for baby.) 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

(Um, that was the end of the Easter portion.  Please enjoy these adorable pictures of Cole during our brief intermission.) 

Aaaand we're back!  Guess what... Weston started tee-ball this week!!!  Oh my goodness, I'm so glad we signed him up for it.  He's not only getting experience with sports and friendshipping (always good), but Tim and I get to watch a whole bunch of little preschoolers running around, all cute and all, with no idea what's going on.  The whole thing is just... PRECIOUS.

Up to bat:

Focused on running home: 

Waiting for that fly ball!  (He's going to be waiting a long time.) 

Cole spent most of the time blowing raspberries in the stroller: 

Aaaaand you never get enough of that hey-there's-a-ball-coming-what-should-I-do insanity:

HOORAY WESTON!!!  We're so proud of our tee-baller. :-)

Weston Is FOUR!!!!

My firstborn is four years old.  FOUR!  I still can't believe that I'm a mom, let alone that I have a four-year-old.  BAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Anyway, Weston's birthday is "technically" on February 26th, but because February 26th was a Sunday (not to mention the Oscars), Tim and I sorta kinda just pretended that his birthday was on Friday the 24th instead.  (It's nice when they're little and don't pay attention to calendars.)  And what a super-extreme-mega-birthday it was!!  Tim took off work, and we had buttloads of fun.  More on that...!

First, during the week leading up to his birthday, I came to preschool with him, in part because it makes him so darn happy to have Mommy there, and in part because I wanted to bring cupcakes for all the kids.

Weston has two sweet teachers, Miss Amanda and Miss Vicki:

And there's my little fella, actually looking attentive, which is nice: 

Cupcake time!!!

Incidentally, I believe that this picture was taken AFTER the extreme-cupcake-enthusiasm had already passed:

Moving right along... On the night before his "birthday," I snapped this photo, which will be added to his Birthday Bedhead collection.  (I realized that I'm not going to be able to get morning-bedhead photos of him until he's like 12 -- is that when they finally start sleeping in? -- so for now, I have to take them late at night instead.)  Anyway, he's such a sweet little dear. :-)

Like I said before, Weston's birthday this year was a super-extreme-mega celebration.  We started off with doughnuts from Banbury Cross for breakfast.  Then, we drove south towards Chris and Adrienne in Provo.  Naturally, we needed to eat lunch somewhere, so of course we visited the birthday boy's favorite restaurant ever: McDonald's.  (Seriously.  It's his most beloved, most coveted place on the entire planet Earth.  Chick-Fil-A is a close second, but McD's takes the cake because they have actual TOYS in their kid's meals, rather than books.)

Sorry, Cole.  No Happy Meals or play areas for you yet.  But I have a feeling that the McDonald's obsession will rub off on you soon enough.

What a goofy little ham!!

Next we dropped off Cole with Adrienne (THANKS, LADY!!!) for Part 3 of the birthday extravaganza: SNOWTUBING at Soldier Hollow!!!  Tim and I were especially stoked about this part of the day, partly because we SO enjoyed our previous snowtubing trip with my friend Lauri years ago, and partly because we KNEW Weston would absolutely love it.  When we told him the plan, however, (Weston being Weston), he immediately balked and was adamantly against anything involving mountains, because his ears hurt from the pressure and therefore he hates mountains. :-)  That's our Weston!!  We endured a lengthy spell of screaming through Provo Canyon on our way to Soldier Hollow and a whole lotta anger and stubbornness about this unknown "snowtubing" thing.  But when we arrived, he FINALLY got excited and decided that he was okay again.  (That was after we put a hat on his head to "cure" his ear pain.  Duly noted.)

There was a whole frustrating thing when we tried to get our lift tickets, but it would be boring to recap, so I'll just move along.  We finally got checked in, and IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!  Boy, did Weston have it easy.  He sat in his tube almost the entire time, while Tim pulled him over to the lift, and then the lift took him up the hill, and then I pulled him over to the run, and then he slid down the run, and so on.  Hahaha! But it was good fun for all of us, and I think Weston enjoyed doing an activity with just Daddy and Mommy.

SO FUN!!!
Anyway, after the snowtubing, we left Soldier Hollow, raced back to Provo to pick up Cole, and then raced back to Salt Lake for the birthday party at 6.  Our friends, the Petersons, actually beat us to our house just barely, haha!  We cut it THAT CLOSE!  (Whoops!)  But, we made it.  We didn't have time to stop at Costco to pick up pizza like we'd planned, but we just ordered in from Papa John's instead.  Phew!


Weston had a great time with a bunch of his buddies:

Nom nom nom!

And then we played games!  First the kids played Tim's version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," which was entitled, "Pin the Proton Torpedo on the Thermal Exhaust Port."  The kids loved it, and I applaud Tim for his excellent Death Star:

Next we played a Shark Attack game, where the kids walked around an "island" (blanket) to music, and then when the music stopped, they had to jump onto the island so that the "sharks" (grown-ups) didn't catch/tickle them.  That was cute and, as can be expected, very rowdy.  We finished with that old game where each kid unwraps one layer of wrapping paper from a present (receiving a Ring Pop in the process), and then the final gift is actually a bunch of party favors.  Yay!

And then it was present time!!!

And finally, the piece de resistance... BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

Yum.

Overall, it was a fun party and a terrific day.  Getting a bunch of kids together is always a bit like herding cats, but fortunately there were a bunch of grown-ups to help out.  I think from now on, we might do Weston's birthday parties OUT of the house, just so that we don't have to worry about the messiness and the clean-up, and we can enjoy ourselves more with the partygoers and parents rather than spend most of our time wrangling kids and running everything.  (Weston's February birthday means that we have to be indoors every year, but Cole is easy because he has a May birthday.  Party at the playground!!!  Haha!  Done.)

After everyone had left and everything was cleaned up, Weston had some quiet time with his sleepover buddy Jane, along with Chris and Adrienne, where he got to dive into one of his new toys from me and Tim:

Ahhh, good times.

AND, the icing on the cake??  A few days later, a special package came from Gangy:

WHAAAA!!!  Hot Wheels Shark Park?!?!?!  Dare he dream??  Yes.  He dare.

That is one happy kid.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WESTON!!!!!!!!  We love love love you!!!