Viva...

    Apparently, my three-year-old daughter is amazing. Or just really, really lucky. Just three posts ago, I described how Jaye won a Wii bowling tournament at the public library. Well the little rascal has struck again! I received a call from our local Maverick Gas Station saying that Jaye was the winner of their coloring contest and we needed to come pick up her prize.

     After I heard the news, I excitedly announced it to the family. Jaye was beaming. But tears started brimming in Grayson's eyes as he said, "that's not fair". He ran to his room so I went in to console him. I told him how both Daddy and I worked really hard to carve pumpkins for a local contest, but only Mommy won. And although Daddy was bummed, he was still happy for me.

    Grayson thought about it for a while and said, "but Jaye's picture was really silly. And mine was really... really awesome." I didn't know what else to say, so I just told him that we need to be happy for members of our family when they do good things, and then we let him sulk for a while.

    The next day we went and claimed Jaye's prize- a $5 gift card to Maverick. Along with the card, the gas station worker handed both kids a sheet for their new Christmas coloring contest. Great. More competition.  Grayson is determined to color the single most amazing snowman you have ever seen. And I wish him luck.

But really, if I gambled... I'd take Jaye to Vegas! She is a little lucky duck!

So on to Grayson's story. Jaye picked a Disney Princess book about their dresses from the library. (Such a shallow message for young girls, but that's a discussion for another day.) The book describes each princess deciding which dress to wear for her date with the prince, and the last page asks:

After Jaye gave her answer, I jokingly asked Grayson... "So, which dress is your favorite?"

He just looked at me with his eyebrows scrunched together and said, "None of them. They all look like they want to marry me."

    I laughed so hard.

Going for Gold

     I've been sick for a few days, and I think it is doing things to my brain. This morning I lost my phone and didn't know if Barry would be waiting for me when I dropped Grayson off for preschool. He usually is, but sometimes can't make it. When I arrived at school, I left my girls in the car with the car running while I ran Grayson into to the building. (Don't judge me, ALL the moms leave their kids in the car!) Walking back to the car, I didn't see my husband, so I got in and started to pull out of the space. But I thought, "what if he's running behind?" So I stop and wait a few minutes, just in case. While I'm waiting, I look down on the floor and see a random stack of water bottles. That was weird. Then I look back to check on the girls, and Jaye isn't in her carseat! And there's not even a seat where Laycee usually buckles!

     I was in the WRONG car!!!! About to drive away!!! There were a ton of people outside, I can't believe not a single one of them noticed the crazy woman getting out of a gold caravan laughing ridiculously, then get into my gold caravan and drive away.

    Words can't even describe how embarrassing that was! And I am sooooooo lucky that the driver of that other gold van didn't come out in those few minutes I was just hanging out in her vehicle. So yes, I am blaming my slip-up on being sick, because I would never do something like that on a normal day. (Insert sarcastic voice.)

   

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

(Our awesome, expensive camera isn't working, so until it is fixed... in the distant future when we might be able to afford it, all pictures will be crummy quality cell phone pics. Boo.)

What a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday we were able to have this year! It was sad not to see our families, but SOOOOO FUN to just be together in our own little family. So, some of the things that we did to get ready for the holidays. I got a few fun ideas out of a "Family Fun" book my mom sent me. I sent the kids outside with a grocery sack to fill with leaves and sticks. While they were out, I lightly wrote letters on colored paper, and then the kids used glue to stick all their collection over the letters. The final result:

      A cute banner my kids were soooooo proud of! And I accidentally deleted the other picture, but I was trying to teach my kids how to understand the holiday (in little kid standards). So instead of really focusing on the history, I just focused on what it means to be thankful. So we made these SUPER cute corn cob poppers out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. The kids filled the rolls full of goodies (candy, a little tube of bubbles, and a turkey coloring sheet they printed), the we wrapped them in green paper. (This idea was also out of Family Fun.) Both of my kids got to pick three friends they were thankful for, and then the day before Thanksgiving we walked and then drove (because it started pouring rain) the little treats around to their friends.

So, at our house... we have a tradition. Every Thanksgiving Eve, we leave out "Turkey Food"... also known as Candy Corn. We leave a small trail outside and a bowl of turkey food inside by the door. We keep trying to catch one of those special Thanksgiving Turkeys that only come out one night a year.

 This year, we were sooooo close to catching one! It came through the front door, ate all the candy corn, and left a trail of feathers all over the house! We all followed the feathers, and some how the turkey sneaked into Mommy and Daddy's room and climbed out the window! Grayson was soooo bummed, he's been talking about his soon-to-be pet turkey and all the eggs we were going to hatch, but they had fun picking up all the feathers. What a mess, that turkey was! My favorite part was Jaye. While we were looking for it, Jaye kept saying excitedly, "I hear the turkey! It's saying cockadoodle-doo!" 

     Grayson is so smart though. Later in the day, he ran around the apartment complex to our window and came back saying, "That's weird. There weren't any feathers outside of your window!" Try making an excuse for that one! This tradition might not last long with my super-sleuth. But I love how excited they get!

After collecting the feathers, we went on a "turkey hunt". I actually got this idea off of Pinterest, one of the RARE times I actually use what I wasted hours looking at. Anyway, the kids colored a few pictures of turkeys. I then taped them to folders, and worked it out so the turkey pictures stood straight up on the table. Our whole family took turns with some nerf guns shooting the targets. Grayson kept trying to try different skill shots, like laying on his back and trying to shoot! He is such a goof! I'm not sure if Jaye actually ever hit a turkey, but she had fun anyway!

Next was the scariest part of the whole holiday! Cooking this fifteen pound sucker! It was my first time to cook anything of this magnitude. In other words, I felt extremely intimidated! Prepping the bird the night before was horrific. Seriously, look at this picture. It almost looks like a headless humanoid! UGH... so creepy! and although I had been thawing it forever in the fridge, it was still slightly frozen on the inside so I had to literally claw the poor humanoid's innards from it's chest cavity- with my fingers. Like a horror movie!

 Then I must've gotten the time wrong, because after 3 and 3/4 hours of cooking, it still wasn't the right temperature and we had to put it back in the oven. So my BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, FLAWLESS rolls sunk into pancakes, and we ended up jumping in the car to kill an extra hour while the turkey finished. My husband suggested the drive... I think my stress-crazy was starting to come out. But the drive was nice. The turkey turned out beautiful. My pancake rolls were still delicious, and everything was sooooo YUMMY!!!

Even with the three paper cuts I got from the tin foil- (who knew that could even happen!?)... I declare this first Ricks family Thanksgiving a SUCCESS! Woo!

Hidden talents! Who knew?!

    Unbeknownst to us, our Public Library was hosting a Wii Bowling Tournament this past weekend. Barry and I just wanted to go pick up a few new books, but our kids got excited when they heard shouting from the "Community Room". We told them they could go check it out while we were browsing, and when we went to find them, they were holding Wii Remotes and playing a round of Bowling. We let them finish their game and then had to rush off for other various appointments.  

But a few days later, after finishing up a story time, I went to check out new story time books and saw a poster hanging over the front desk saying that my THREE YEAR OLD had won FIRST place in the Youth Division of the tournament! You can't believe my surprise as I claimed her prize: a box of candy, a free book coupon at their little used book store, and a five dollar gift card to Walmart. (Jaye doesn't know about the gift card though... Santa needed a donation to his Christmas fund).

When I brought home her prize, Jaye lit up like Christmas! And she shared her candy with all of us- now that's a REAL winner! :)

Grayson was pretty bummed, but today after finishing another story time, I looked at the poster again and at my kids' places. Grayson had won 4th place, so I asked the librarian, "there didn't happen to be a prize for 4th place was there?" And sure enough, Grayson won a bag of M&Ms. So yay for happy kids and their mad Wii skills! :D



SCARY!

     Yesterday, my kids were quietly in my room for well over an hour. I was told not to come in because they were working on a surprise for me and Barry. (I was praying they weren't taking scissors to my bedspread!) Finally, they excitedly invited me to enter the "Scary Halloween Room".

      Here's my bedroom wall. (Ignore the lack of decor and style.) They worked forever to draw, cut, and tape "scary" pictures and objects (like the ax, haha! that is kind of creepy!)  to the wall.

                                                        
                                                         Here is Grayson's skeleton

                                                                             His Spider

 Now here is Jaye's contribution. She is strangely into drawing flags. (random, right?) But here is her Halloween flag, and apparently that is Grayson's face on her flag. There were a few flags taped around my room. Silly girl!

 This was the scariest part. Grayson said, "Moooommy, close your door!" And Oh, how I screamed. There was a big scary snake on the door!

This one's my favorite of the scary Halloween room. It's an "Apple Monster". (He's learning about apples at Pre-school, so I'm assuming that's where the connection came from.)

I am so grateful for my creative little kids, and I love my SCARY HALLOWEEN room!

And I am so grateful they used tape this time, instead of Elmer's glue...  like last time.



Little Laycee Bug

    A while ago, Laycee found a doll on Jaye's bed, and adopted it. She has been OBSESSED with dolls ever since. It amazes me that a 14 month old innately knows how to nuture a little baby. She loves to put her baby in a stroller and push her around, she loves to wrap it up in a blanket and snuggle it. I tried to give her an adorable stuffed animal to play with and she kind of squawked at me angrily and then insisted I get her a doll instead.

    I think it's so funny. The other day we were at Walmart and Laycee just started freaking out while we were in the toy aisle, so I got her out of the cart to look at stuff. (I'm a brave Mom, I know.) And she went right over to the wall and started whacking this box that she could reach until it finally fell on the floor. Satisfied, she just carried the box around and looked at the twin dollies inside.  Kids definitely come with their own personality, because Jaye could care less about dolls.

Here are a few pictures as proof:

This is Laycee first thing in morning

 Here she is in the afternoon with her baby. (Did I mention she loves to wear hats and necklaces too?)

 She was quiet forever in her room so we went to check on her, expecting to see marker on the wall or something shocking, but she was just sitting quietly, playing with Jaye's barbies, putting them into the stroller.
 Such a sweetheart!

BOO!

Where has the time gone?! My little JJ has turned THREE!!! So of course it was time to party!!!

Jaye wanted to have a Halloween party, but since it was the beginning of the month, I didn't want to stress out parents by getting a costume in order. So we had a "Halloween Hat party" and invited everyone to wear their crazy hats. In retrospect, it wasn't that great of an idea, because five minutes into the party, no one was wearing their hat anymore. BUT, as my mother taught me, a party has to have a theme, so the Hat idea was it.

So the families arrived and we had a haunted dinner, with a veggie pumpkin tray, Hot dog mummies, and apple monster mouths (not pictured). The kids and I also cut out Halloween shapes in tortillas and made tortilla chips with dip. It turned out pretty yummy!

 So then on to the games. (SHOUT OUT TO MY MOM for some fun ideas!) We gave all the kids a sheet of stickers and then had them race to see who could get all their stickers on the other players the fastest. This was a GREAT game for little kids! And for my husband too apparently.

Then we did a Witch race. The kids had to ride their brooms to the line and then throw hoops (glow stick necklaces) over a pumpkin (orange soda with pumpkin faces drawn on).

 Pinatas are a TRADITION with our family, but I didn't have time to make one, so we played an alternative game I found online. We hung a candy bucket from the basketball hoop and gave each kid a few pieces of candy and then they raced to see who could toss their pieces in the fastest. This turned out to be a great game for little kids too. After everyone got their candy in, we just gave them their goodie bags and dumped out the candy just like a pinata.

NEXT: Presents! Jaye was pretty spoiled by her Mema! But we loved all the gifts given and are so grateful for our friends! (And for all the birthday cards and money from family... THANK YOU!)

                          Jaye wanted her cake to say "BOO" instead of "Happy Birthday"

 And here's our little three year old after the party. Hatless. I didn't get a single picture of her wearing her tiara. Oh well. It was a Huge Success and so much fun! I'm sad there won't be another birthday party until April. :P



Sorry Jaye

I had company over nearly every day last week. Which, in my book means: AHHH! NO TIME to do laundry! Hide it all in Jaye’s room!


And we did. And we enjoyed all the company that came over to our "clean" house. Then Sunday hit, and Jaye had an accident in her LAST pair of clean panties.

All I could think to do was put her in a pair of Grayson’s. So I did.

I never realized how much Jaye enjoys hoisting up her dress and parading around for the whole world to see. But the whole world, or at least EVERYONE at the church fireside got to see her blue Sponge Bob briefs.

She got a lot of looks. And I felt the need to explain to anyone and everyone that Monday was a BIG laundry day at our house.

I’ve said it before… but maybe someday I’ll know the satisfaction of GOOD homemaking skills.

Go Jaye, Go!

We have owned this seat for over a year, and I just now read the print. What a strange message to put on a toilet seat....

         But I guess it's true, because some magic has been made at our house! Jaye is officially potty-trained... again! She was potty-trained for a few weeks last year, but changed her mind, I guess. But since she turns three next month, and the price of pull-ups went up exponentially a few weeks ago, we decided to really lay down the law.

    Jaye was already using the facilities about 50% of the time, so I decided to kind of try that "potty train in a day" kind of thing. When she woke up, I told her "today is a big day!" We stayed at home and I set the alarm to go off every twenty minutes. Every time it beeped, Grayson and I would march behind Jaye shouting, "Go Jaye, Go!" And we did a victory dance every time she did her business. Then Jaye would receive a prize of four chocolate chips.

     By the end of the day, I was getting pretty burnt out by the 20 minute thing, but Jaye absolutely loved it! Grayson's cheering died after a few hours and by 4 in the afternoon, I just told Jaye to go by herself. Every time though, I heard her sitting on the toilet cheering, "Go Jaye, Go!"

     So the next day, we did the timer for 30 minutes early in the day, and then lengthened it to 45 by the end. And the rest is history! She has had only ONE accident in two weeks and it was only because she didn't get out of the car fast enough.

So..... HOOOOOORAY!!!!!! Just one kid in diapers!!!! Hooray, for saving money! 

                                      Hooray for making magic!!!

Grrr...

    This season, Barry is coaching Grayson’s little soccer team of five boys. “The Ice Bats,” as the boys so named themselves. Today, we were scrambling to get the whole fam in the car for our nine o’clock game. We were all buckled in and pulling out of our apartment parking lot, when Grayson started freaking out that he forgot something.

    We pulled back in, and Grayson begged his Daddy to go get the pages he colored. Really? Turns out, instead of going to bed last night, he stayed up and colored a picture for each of the boys on his team. A little obnoxious… but how cute, sweet, and adorable is that?!?!

     Even though we were running behind after retrieving the random Christmas Bear coloring pages, we were the first ones on the field. Whenever a teammate showed up, Grayson excitedly ran up to the kid and thrust a hand-signed picture in their arms. The last little five year old kept telling him his Mom wasn’t there to hold the picture so he wouldn’t accept it. (Uhhh... Where's your family?) 

     At the end of the game (we lost by one point), Grayson once again handed his picture to the kid… and how did the ungrateful little stinker respond? “I don’t like this and don’t want it,” and gave it back to my aspiring artist. Grayson came up to me heartbroken, crying. (He might have been a little more dramatic than usual from staying up waaaaay too late last night.)  

    A fellow Ice Bat mother overheard his lament and saved the day. She told Grayson that her three year old daughter really wanted one of Grayson’s pictures, after gushing about how great a job he did. Gray proudly handed over the page and all was well.

   I was really glad, however, for this brush with disappointment. It reassured my decision to wait one more year before Grayson starts kindergarten. He has a mid-August birthday and could’ve started this year… but now I’m glad he didn’t. This mama’s not ready to see my child have to deal with any punk kids. Not yet, anyway.

For now, he can stay young and innocent and color his little heart out.

It's ALL true!

Someone posted this on facebook yesterday. I laughed when I read it-

MURPHY’S LAW FOR MOMS

1. If you wear black, they will have runny noses

2. If you wear white, they will have muddy hands

3. If you change their diaper, they will immediately poop in the new one

4. If you mop the floor, they will spill something

5. If you put on fresh socks, you will immediately step in what they spilled

6. If it is perfect, they will fix that for you

7. If you say it, they will repeat it

8. If it’s important, they will forget it

9. If you’re tired, they will not be

10. If you love them, you will see the beauty in it all

                  But I laughed even more when I saw myself in the mirror after reading it.

My girls have colds.  Murphy's Mom law # 1 is sooooooooooo true.

"Hole"y Moley!

     I read this murder mystery recently, and the main character said, “People underestimate the satisfaction of good homemaking skills.” I love that quote! In a world that downplays housewives, I try so hard to enjoy and appreciate all the house work, but this was the THIRD time, while doing the dishes, that I held up a strainer and used the sprayer to wash it out. Naturally, water shot through all the tiny holes, all over my kitchen. THIRD TIME!!!!


     Maybe someday I’ll know the satisfaction of good homemaking skills.

Kids do the darndest things

You may have already seen the video Barry posted on his facebook page, but I had to share the story anyway. After church this past Sunday, we were all sitting around in the living room. Out of the blue, Jaye starts wailing and saying, "My nose! My nose!"

Of course we asked, "did you put something in it?" And she sheepishly nodded. Really? We both looked in her nose and couldn't find anything, so then Barry went searching for the flashlight. What was that? Something green was stuffed up there pretty deeply.

Thinking back on what she had been playing with earlier in the day, I realized it was a flower bud from fake flowers, about the size of a kidney bean. Seriously, how did looking at this weird green thing connect to the thought, "hey, this would be fun to painfully shove up my nose"? We tried the old trick, plug one nostril and blow, but apparently Jaye doesn't have a strong pair of lungs. It didn't budge.

Immediately, my thoughts were, "well, I guess we have to go to the Doctor on a Sunday." But my husband, in his stubborness assured me, "I can get it out." (I didn't believe him, but let him try anyway.) With a pair of tweezers he manuevered the bud around until he found the hole, where it was attached to the plant. He said, "I need something that would fit in there," and left in search of something.

When I saw him pull out my sewing box, I started protesting. "You are NOT going to shove a needle up our daughter's nostril!" But Dr. Dad was supremely confident in his skills, and chose to ignore me. As he walked closer, I (in the calmest voice I could muster at the moment) told Jaye to cover her eyes and don't look. I held her down,while she covered her eyes, and watched as my husband started the removal.

All I could imagine was the social services questioning us at the hospital, while we tried to explain that the bleeding from her nose was caused by a needle that we put in there! But while I was fantasizing the worst-case scenario... POP! The bud came out with a beaming proud smile by my husband with that look of "I told you so."

Jaye was so shaken. She just laid there for a few minutes silently.

Well good. I'm glad she was shaken. Maybe that'll will stop her from doing that again.

Dedicated to my friend.... Virgil's

If there's one thing I've learned about parenthood... it's that you WILL make mistakes no matter what. When you're pregnant with your first born, you idealize about being the perfect parent. But the perfect parent doesn't exist. Not in the terms of NEVER making a mistake, anyway. 

There comes a time when your kid will do something that makes you think, "wow, I shouldn't have taught him/her that" or "maybe I shouldn't have let them do that."

For example, we allowed Grayson to jump and climb all over our couches. At the time, we thought, "my parents never let me play on the couches and I never understood why. MY kid is going to play on the couch." But NOW, I understand why.

Our couch looks like a rabid puma came to play with it. Plus, NO OTHER parents let their kids play on the couch, and that concept is really hard for my kids to grasp at other people's houses. 

Parenting mistake # one million- Letting my kids play on the couch.

Probably going to be parenting mistake # one million and one- teaching my son to belch while drinking soda.

Substory- Barry and I discovered the most amazing root beer here in Rexburg. It's frothy, and delicious, and amazing, and suddenly no longer in production. We're devasted, like a member of our family is gone. So we've been on an expedition to discover the next best root beer. At least once a week, we come home with a case of bottled root beer, in hopes of replacing our dearly departed friend, "Virgil's".

Back to original Story:

So we're sitting together eating lunch and trying out our new root beer (which failed in the flavor department), when Barry accidentally releases a carbonated burp. Naturally, our five year old, with a sense of humor like a five year, old starts giggling his head off. And so naturally, my husband (with the sense of humor of a five year old) has to show off his skills by letting another one fly. Grayson is absolutely dying... and so of course, I just have to get in on this action. (I have some pretty mad burping skills myself, I was raised with all brothers after all.)

Now everyone at the table is laughing, even the one year old (bring on the emotional scars, poor girl!). Grayson is just begging to try the burping soda and so finally I let him take a swig. And just like magic, out pops a sweet novice burp. It might as well have been a gold medal in the olympics burp, Grayson was so proud and excited.

So we kept going. And kept laughing. Until I thought, "Hmmm... probably shouldn't have taught him that."

But for the moment, it was disgusting... and magical.

(And for the record, my son told me I was a "Super Burper Man". Apparently, I have a super power. Jealous?)

# 5

So after Barry got paid for donating plasma earlier this week, we headed to Idaho Falls to a party store so Grayson could pick a theme for his birthday. We were there for what seemed like FOREVER (stores always feel like forever with three kids in tow), and Grayson just couldn’t make up his mind. We were all leaning toward a “knight” party, so we browsed through the costumes for cheap swords. After seeing everything, Grayson asked, “can I have a costume party?” And so the long drive to Idaho Falls was not in vain… we had a theme. Finally.

We invited just a few friends over this time, as opposed to the usual GIANT barbeque we traditionally have. But it was a lot of fun! While driving home from I.F. (as the locals call it), we asked Grayson what kind of cake he wanted. He was looking out the window and saw a tree… so his answer was, “A tree cake?”

Uh, yeah. Not happening, dude.

I wanted to resurrect the dragon cake I made a few years ago, but Barry told me to keep it simple (He knows me so well), so I went with a basic, number 5. It turned out pretty cute… although I really need to invest in some better food coloring. That blue color just wasn’t working for me.

So, there were ten kids in all. We were pleased to see that some of the parents even dressed up (we invited them to on the invitations). Grayson wanted to be a pirate, Barry wore his batman shirt with Grayson’s little cape, and I wore Jaye’s little angel wings, halo, and a whole lot of glitter. Oh and I should explain, originally Jaye was dressed as a princess, but when she saw Grayson pull out HIS costume box, she wanted to be Jinga, this guy from the cartoon “Beyblades”. So that’s what Jaye is dressed up as… I’m sure you couldn’t tell.

After everyone arrived ( a half hour late, haha), we announced, that since Grayson was a pirate, the kids needed to find his pirate treasure. I gave them the first clue, a picture of the basketball hoop, and thus they were off on a quest for treasure… AKA- a bag of goodies hidden behind the dumpster. (Classy place to hide stuff, right?)

Then they did a race that Barry and I created. Two kids had to race each other on those little push car toys to some buckets, in which they then had to throw two wiffle balls. After they got the balls in, they ran over to a water bucket, filled up their squirt toys and had to knock down a stack of cups with water. I was surprised at how big of a hit, that little race was. The kids wanted to keep playing that, over and over. Barry was such a trooper and reset the cups every time.

Afterwards, we did the traditional piñata. (I just looooove Pinatas! You probably didn’t know this, but we made a piñata for the adults to hit at our fourth of July Party. Awesome! Anyway...)

Grayson seriously wanted a Pikachu piñata (from Pokemon for you non-nerds), so his awesome mama made this pretty good one (for a first try), Pikachu. Even though the handle fell off after the second hit, masking tape saved the day, and all the kids got a turn.

Wow, Grayson’s birthday is getting pretty epic… this is a long blog post! But anyway, following the piñata, we squeezed everyone back into our apartment for cake, ice cream, presents, and those little confetti poppers. And then to end the party, we gave out Costume Awards. So that’s it. Grayson said it was “the best birthday, ever!” I practically had to force the kids out of their costumes for bed time.

I will consider it a job well done then.

<-------Grayson's birthday present from us and Mema          and       B- Pa
               

(The prettiest Jinga ever!)

The big ONE

Look! After four months, I have written a blog! Crazy, I know! But after our family reunion last week, I feel a renewed drive to keep in touch with everyone. So I thought I would post a few pictures from Laycee’s FIRST birthday. I can’t believe she is one already! And I can’t believe we want MORE kids! I thought for sure we’d be done after her… but we just love our family so much, I guess it needs to be bigger. (And no this is NOT a pregnancy announcement, I’m just rambling.)

Anyway, I am soooo grateful to my Mom (and Dad, but mostly my Mom) for always making a big deal about our birthdays (and all holidays for that matter). And I am so grateful that my husband has allowed that tradition to carry over into our family.

Since we were in Alabama so close to Laycee’s birthday, we originally weren’t going to do anything for Laycee’s birthday. But that just didn’t sit right with me, so last minute, we decided to have a “family party”. So, yesterday, we did a quick and stressful photo shoot then took the kids to this fun zone play place in town (because one year olds loooove jungle gyms and arcade games, right?) And then we went to see “Brave” (because one year olds just looooove sitting through movies, right?) Following the movie, we went home and had a little party. Barry had taken the older kids to the Dollar Tree to pick out presents for their sister, so Laycee unwrapped her presents and then we had cupcakes.

It was such a fun day… even if our ONE YEAR OLD had no idea how to party on her birthday!

Now onto to party number 2 this Saturday. Grayson is FIVE!!!! SHEESH!

                                          
                                  


                                                                          The photo shoot. I don't know how I missed that hair glued to her face :P

                                       At the Fun zone, riding the bucking bronco. This horse was crazy.

                                                        As you can tell, Laycee "loved" it

                                    Laycee with her birthday presents from Grayson and Jaye

                                                                  Lovin' the cupcakes