Jared's birthday parties!

Jared recently had his birthday!  He is such a big boy!

I seriously agonized over the decision about whether to have a birthday party with friends.  I wanted him to have them every other year (like I did growing up), and since he had one last year, this was an off-year.  But it's hard to explain that to such a young kid who has been to like a dozen other friends' birthday parties over the past months.  I was considering trying to pull something small together with just a few friends, but then I was agonizing about how I could just invite a handful of kids over and leave so many out!  I was losing sleep over it, and Alan was so awesome to tell me to just stick to my original plan of no party this year.  Anyway, I tried to make up for it by celebrating Jared's birthday sort of over a whole week's time.  We did tons of fun things.  

We had a birthday dinner with my parents a few days before.  Rigatoni--Jared's favorite!

Maggie was there, too!

On Jared's actual birthday, we went to the local splash pad. 

 Jared got to open presents from us (his parents) on two different days.  He was so nice to let Maggie help open some of them.

He got a lot of new books, the movie Toy Story, and these fun HexBugs and a HexBug habitat.  He's loving everything!

Celebrating over the course of a week meant he also got several different birthday cakes AND he got sung to several different times!

Alan's mom also hosted a little birthday party for Jared at her house (combined with Aunt Laura's birthday).  Alan's mom makes some pretty amazing cakes:  We got a rocking horse cake and a giraffe cake!

Grandma S. also made Jared one of her famous candy bar cards.  It uses candy bars and other small toys to create some fun puns.  He LOVED it, and he has been enjoying the spongy grow capsules, glow-in-the-dark stars, and the kazoo!  Thanks for the fun parties!

We love Jared so much.  I can't believe he will be starting Kindergarten in a month!!

Magstabishi

This post just contains a sample of how I am unable to take good pictures of Maggie.  Seriously, it is so frustrating!

Modeling her new Hawaiian dress she got from her Aunt Shawna on her birthday

Reading with Grandma C.

Maggie loves to have me read to her.  Wherever I am sitting, she will come plop on my lap with a stack of books and insist that I read to her!  It's hard to get things done around here!

Blurry photo shoot with her pigtails.  She wouldn't hold still!!

"All done, Mommy!"

She is generally a very sweet and happy girl.  We just love her so much!

Father's Day

Yeah, I'm behind on my posting.  (What else is new?)  We had a delightful Father's Day.  Alan had church meetings all morning, so we couldn't do a fancy breakfast, but Alan opened up his presents: a book and some new work shirts.  Jared also made him a couple cute things in his primary class.  Then we had a lovely dinner with most of my family at my brother's house.

I'm so grateful for Alan!  He is such an amazing dad.

Little Link

A few weeks ago my newest nephew, Lincoln, was born!  He had a little bit of a rough start, but he seems healthy now.  Isn't he adorable?

We are loving him around these parts!

The Little Rascal

Little Maggie has been such a trouble-maker lately.  She has always been a book shredder (even board books!), but twice in the past week she ripped all of the flaps off of a couple of our lift-the-flap books.  The books were seriously in tatters.  And they are some of her favorite books!  I spent at least an hour trying to paste and tape each one back together, something that I'm not sure was quite worth my time (each book was like a $12 book and both of my kids still read them--does that make it worth it?)  I honestly don't think Jared even once ripped a book apart when he was a toddler, but this now makes like 2 dozen for Maggie.

Another rascally thing she has been doing lately is taking off her diaper first thing in the morning and during nap time, and then peeing all over her crib (and her favorite blanket and the clothes that she has removed...)  I am so sick of having to change her sheets and clothes once and sometimes twice a day.  She can take off onesies, so those don't help, and I have also tried putting her diapers on backwards and also taping them shut with clear packing tape.  It is so lousy!  Next attempt: duct tape, I think.  I might go all the way around her diaper a couple of times or something.  (BTW, a couple of people have suggested to me that this might mean she is ready for potty training.  I don't think so.  She is scared of the toilet and can't pull her own pants up yet.  Also, I'm not ready for potty training either.  Potty training her would mean I would have to transfer her out of her crib to a bed.  I'm not ready for that yet.)

Anyway, this is just an update on the youngest disaster in my life.  I still love her, though.  :)