Even though The Squishy actually turned one a week ago, I am finally getting around to posting about it! Unfortunately, nothing too exciting happened on his actual birthday since it was back to work for Mama and Dada but we did have some morning fun. Daddy made the Squishy some jungle animal pancakes and we stuck a candle in the monkey and sang Happy Birthday! Then Jackson got to open a couple of his presents from Mommy and Daddy, but before we knew it, we were off to work.

We waited until the following weekend for the party with some family and friends and despite the day before his party being sunny and eighty degrees, Saturday was in the low sixties and rainy. But that wasn't going to put a damper on our day!

I decided to actually do something a little different this time and we got cupcakes from a local bakery (that won the show Cupcake Wars) and man were they good! We had eight different kinds. Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Red Velvet, Smores, Black Bottoms, Cookies n' Cream and Strawberry Shortcake. Although I had grand plans in my head for lots more homemade stuff, like usual, I ended up running out of time. I did manage to make some cupcake toppers. They weren't perfect, but I thought they were fun!

Of course one little cupcake just wasn't going to do for The Squishy. So he got his own little cake. Nom. Nom. Nom.

The other thing I did make (and our new hallway Board and Batten was the perfect place to hang it) was Squishy's little jungle banner. Emma got a big kick out of this and was loving practicing her letters on something new!

The poor babies were stuck inside because of the rain all morning, and Mommy was running around like a crazy person mom getting ready for a birthday party so after naps, the babies were ready to get their party on! I had taken nap time to make the final preparations, including strategically placing all the balloons in the perfect spots. Yeah, should have known about that one. They lasted about 15 seconds....

Can you tell Emma was a little excited for the party to start?

We did have about 30 seconds to snap a quick family picture. Emma looks like she saw a ghost, Jackson is wondering what Mommy is looking at, Mommy is having a silent panic attack because the balloons are everywhere and Daddy needs a beer.  But, this is one of our very few pictures as a complete family, so I love it.

(PS. Remind me to never wear that shirt again. Color is cute, but NOT flattering. Ugh.)

I actually tried not to have the camera attached to my hip for most of the day and actually enjoy the party. I did have to break it out during cake time though and boy am I glad that I did because I wouldn't have wanted to miss this...

The minute that The Squishy's cake touched down, it was like wasps to a flame. All the little ones came running. So naturally, The Squishy tried to protect his cake. Mostly, from his big sister who had already stuck her fingers in it.

Now, I'm no mind reader, but I am pretty sure that this is Squishy's "Sup. Watch this." face. :)

Yup. Then he dove right in. Smart kid. Streamlining the process already.

This is where Squishy proceeds to look around the room, and wonder why he isn't getting yelled at because I'm pretty sure that this is his dream come true.

"Ummm. Really? I can't put a rock in my mouth but I can put a four inch cake in?"

The Squishy's "Whoa" face. "Shew...I need a break."

"Whop! Breaks over!"

This is when I realized that this could go on for hours since the icing was probably an inch thick all around! So I gave the cake a small cut, and that little man just kept going.

After that it was off to open presents which was pretty much a whirlwind. Squishy couldn't have cared less and was off playing while the rest of the kids (including Emma) opened his presents. He was pretty beat that night, so I think we may have made it to 7:30 before he crashed. We really did have a fantastic day.

The Babies

As soon as I get 30 seconds to sit down at the computer and download the pictures from The Squishy's first birthday party, I'll have some more pictures to share! But for now, I just wanted to share this one because it's not often that I get a picture of the two babies together.

It's not perfect, but its adorable none the less....

It May Only Be March

...but lately it's felt more like June.

It's no secret that the weather has been unusally warm this winter and spring. We had been taking advantage of it before, but now that it's light out longer, we spend most of our afternoons and evenings outside.

On St. Patrick's Day, we had a really busy day, but a good busy day. To wind things down a bit for the babies as Daddy was inside cooking our St. Patty's day dinner, we headed outside for some playtime. It was sunny and warm and just like a summer day. I couldn't resist getting out the camera for a few play-shots.

Emma and I had ran to Toys R Us earlier in the day and she picked up this little watering can. So we tossed on one of her bathing suits and played for about two hours in the sunshine. It was perfect.

She would fill up about a half inch of water in her watering can, run over to the grass, dump it out, rinse, and repeat. She did this no less than fifty times.

The Squishy on the other hand, is a hand.full. to take outside. He LOVES to eat rocks. Yup, eat rocks. He finally got wind of Emma's pirate water table, ripped the canon off and held that for the next two hours. At least it seemed to slow down his rock eating. Ugh.

This is what happens when you give a toddler a hose, and she gets tired of Mommy taking pictures. Needless to say, I snapped this picture, and then ran for my life.

You can't have a beautiful day like this and NOT blow bubbles.

It really was the perfect day, despite being a very busy day. The kids got up at about 5:30 that morning, we blew up twenty five balloons for Squishy's birthday photo-shoot, gave the babies baths, took Squishy's birthday pictures, Mama took Emma to Toys R Us, Target and Party City. We then met Daddy and Squishy out for lunch. When we got home, the babies took their nap and I headed back out to do some printing at Kinkos. When I got home, the sunshine was calling so I cut the grass and then wrapped some presents. We spent the rest of the day outside, had some dinner and kept going strong straight until bedtime. Shew.

Happy First Birthday to The Squishy

Jackson Douglas,

Every single day, I find more and more ways to love you, even when I think that I couldn't love you more. You and Mama had a rough start, and I will spend my entire life, making up for that, even if you will never have any idea why.

I can already tell, how stubborn and strong you are going to be. And boy do you have a temper! But you are a Mama's Boy, through and through, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I truly feel like that is God's way of helping us to make up for some lost time in the beginning.

My Squishy, you are a lover. You are a snuggler. You love to give wet, slobbery, open mouth kisses. At least in between the times when you are biting or pulling my hair or shoving your hand in my mouth or pulling my ears or poking me in the eye. You little stinker.

Jackson Douglas, you have the absolute best smile and deepest laugh in the entire world. You couldn't love you sister more, and your Daddy is your all time favorite person to "rough and tumble" with.

You are just like your sister in that you love your sleep. You go to bed, usually without a peep, but wake up ready to hit the ground running. You are a mover and a shaker, and have been from the very beginning.

You are going to give Mommy and Daddy a run for their money. For sure.

I love you with my entire heart, and always will. I never knew how much I missed you, until you came into my life.

It's like I have loved you for a thousand years, and I can't wait to love you for a thousand more.

Yours forever,
Mama

Whoa.

Obviously, things have been a little crazy around here lately as evident by no updated posts in a while but no more!! We had an incredibly tough week last week all thanks to the dreaded stomach virus that has been plaguing the cruise ships and causing them to return to port. Sheesh. If we were going to get it, we should have at least gotten part of a cruise out of the deal!

We started out last Saturday with what we were hoping to be as a really fun date day. The Mama and The Squishy had a date to run around and pick up a few things for his upcoming first Birthday ::: sobbs ::: and The Dada and The Emma had a date to head to lunch and just have some special alone time. Although I tend to spend a lot of time with The Squishy in the evenings because he is a complete basket-case that rules the house and a FULL Mama's boy, I rarely ever get one on one time with him. On the weekends, I try to get Emma out of the house and even if its just running to the mall, she and I usually have good Mama-Emma time. So we were really excited to be switching it up a bit.

The morning started out great. It was a beautiful day, The Squishy was happy as can be and eating up all the attention that the ladies were giving him at the stores. Then came lunch. Since Daddy and Emma were having lunch, The Squishy and I decided to do the same thing. He was NOT interested in eating anything which is not like my little endless pit. As the minutes went on through lunch, he got really pale, looked exhausted and just wasn't right. My sick-baby radar kicked into full affect and off we went to home. Luckily we weren't far from home and just as I put the keys in the back door and was attempting to walk inside...SPLAT! Barf. Everywhere. Thank goodness he didn't wait another second because we were still outside. He continued to get sick another three times, be seemed to go to bed okay. Didn't sleep well, but didn't get sick anymore.

Now on to Emma Kathryn. Just about the time when The Squishy had thrown up for the last time, Emma started to tell us that her belly hurt. Uh. Oh. Yup. About an hour later, SPLAT!! Barf. Everywhere. Off to the bathtub she went with Daddy while Mommy tended to the kitchen floor. Ugh. She really perked up after that, until about an hour later, and an hour after that, and then another hour after that. So another three episodes later, late into the night. She was finally asleep in our bed.

Round three. Just as Emma stopped getting sick, I got it. We were dropping like flies. Luckily, I got a much more mild version but still felt really awful.

Sunday was pretty rough for The Squishy, he didn't want to eat or drink anything and you could tell he just felt terrible. Emma was exhausted Sunday morning, but had a long nap and was almost back to her self that afternoon. Wes had made it. Or so we thought.

We wake up Monday morning and guess who's stomach hurt. The Dada. And The Dada got it the worst. I stayed home from work to tend to all three of my sick babies and by the afternoon, I was on the phone with 911 because of how sick Wes was. Oh, and this whole time, Squishy was turning blue randomly. I'll keep try to sum up the rest quickly, but Wes was admitted to the hospital for a few days because his phosphorous levels were critically low. The babies were doing better, but Squishy was still having some serious issues. So in between visits to the hospital I took him to the doctors and got him all checked out. We both returned to work on Thursday and were quite happy to do so!

Oh, but we weren't done yet. The Mama got it again Thursday night and all of Friday.

Ugh.

We are finally all on the mend this week and were good enough to head to a Baptism that Sunday. Man did that feel good to have everyone back to normal and up and out of the house on a beautiful day celebrating. This week has been back to craziness at work with overtime, but no matter how crazy it got, all I could think was how much better it was then the previous week. Whoa.

I still would like to do a little photo-shoot with the Squishy for his upcoming first Birthday (MONDAY AAHHHH) but haven't gotten there yet. I did snap a few pictures of him after nap on Sunday while he was still dressed for the Baptism. The only thing missing are his new shoes and his first baby tie. Yup. Adorable.

I really wanted to get a picture of him dressed up because this is normally what he looks like. Notice the one sock missing. Yeah, that's his favorite thing to do. I'm pretty sure he spends 85% of his time with only one sock on.

While Mommy was busy sanitizing the house for the 15th time in a row, Emma did a little painting.

I promise. Our kids do actually wear clothes. Although now that its so warm out, Emma is a big fan of stripping off her clothes and running around in just her big girl undies. Which is the perfect time to get out the paint brushes.

So here we are, back in our "normal" lives again. And we couldn't be happier. March sure started off rough, but I am determined to turn it around with Squishy's upcoming Jungle birthday party. Complete with a one year old covered in cake and cupcakes, homemade banners, lots of balloons, homemade "Wild Thing" Birthday outfits and lots of fun and family.