My youngest is 2!

I officially no longer have an infant!  And although we tend to treat him as our baby, my little guy is growing up.   Since his birthday is right after Sissy's, I was kind of birthdayed out.  Good thing he's too little to care if he didn't much attention payed to his birthday.  I did try to make him a dinner that he would love-- so I made plain beans, perogies, applesauce, and sausage.  It was a big hit-- I don't think I've ever seen him eat everthing on his plate before!   Here he is blowing out his candles (on a cake mix and left-over frosting cake):

Oh, and apparently he didn't get enough applesauce on his plate, so we let him help himself from the jar!
A couple of simple presents, and he was as happy as can be.

A few days ago I decided to see if he'd sleep on the toddler bed that has been up in his room for a while.   No problem-o!  I had to snap a picture of his first big bed slumber.  And yes, his face really is that red because his room was very warm.

And here he is just being his typical self-- climbing on something.
He is one adventurous kid.  I keep meaning to bring my camera up to the school playground because for a few months he has been climbing up to the top of a big A-frame structure.  It scared me to death at first, but I am now confident that he can do it without falling.  Sissy can climb it as well, but still gets scared at the top.

We also had his doctor's appointment and his doctor is referring us to the Progress Center because of his lack of speaking.  He actually has picked up a few more words lately, but is way behind for his age.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I think that he will catch up eventually, but I also want to give him every chance to do that.  I'll see what they say at the center when I talk to them.

Anyway, here are some of his favorite things right now:

Rocks

Bike trailer rides

Climbing

Anything sweet

Animals, especially cats and birds

Snuggles

His pacifier (unfortunately he's formed a new even stronger attachment to it)

Nursery at church

Hair clips

May days

I'm finally getting a chance to blog.  We went a couple of weeks with no internet, and then the weather has been so beautiful that I've spent all my time working outside in the yard and garden.  It's been an incredibly dry and warm May.  We could use some rain, actually.  Anyway, we had a couple of birthdays.  I post pics from Sissy's here since that was the first event.  I can't believe my baby girl is 4!  We had a great princess party.  Here are some pictures, in random order.  

Here is the castle cake.  It didn't turn out too badly, considering how little time I took to make it.

We played "kiss the frog prince."  The girls got to put on lipstick and try to kiss the frog.  Great fun!  Sissy refused to play, however.   This is a blurry Rachel:
Russ was trying to capture a picture of BJ licking ice cream off the floor.  Because that's so much better than cleaning it up and getting him some more ice cream in his dish. :)

The princess feast!  All sorts of fun finger foods that made a great lunch.  The kids had made the princess hats earlier, by the way.

Presents!


One of the things I got for the party was this giant cardboard castle that the kids got to color with markers, and of course crowd inside for a picture.
Overall, the party was a big success.  I was a bit worried and we had all spent much of the previous two weeks being ill and the planning was very last minute due to that.  It was quite a bit of work to prepare.   This is why I will only let the kids have a friends party every other year.   And starting with the 4th birthday.    It was worth it because Sissy had such a great time.

Okay, more May picture coming soon, hopefully.

I'm in hot water... or cold mud.

I'm feeling a bit bad about making my dear husband go out yesterday to take a load of compost to our community garden plot.  

Here is what I knew:

It was raining.  (big deal, we live in the Northwest)

Russ was off work and was a little sick.

I had scheduled to borrow our friend's truck with trailer.

Here is what I didn't know:

It was freezing rain.

That the trailer was going to blow a tire.

That we would get stuck in the mud.

That the truck was 4 wheel drive (until someone that stopped to help us pointed it out.)

That there wasn't proper tools in the truck to take off the trailer tire.

That the kids would be screaming in the back of the truck while we tried to fix it.

So our load of compost made it to the garden.  It only took a few hours, soaked us in rain and mud from head to toe, and left my dear hubby with a very pneumonia-like cough.  

Oops and Sorry Russ! is all I can say.

Other stuff from April

 We went on a fun little family hike and picnic a couple weeks ago at Seaquest Park.  The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast.

Even though he looks a little scared up there, he would get upset if you got close to him.  He was sitting a trying to slide down the side of the log and didn't want to be caught.  Of course, we caught him anyway to avoid the 6-foot drop.


Sissy really was scared up on the log.  She, unlike her little brother, has a little fear of heights.
The kids did great hiking, even BJ.  He walked by himself for at least a half a mile.

The day after our hike, Russ and I got to go to the temple while the kids stayed with Becky.  As a bonus, the kids got hair cuts while they were there!  Thanks Becky!!