SIX

My little man is SIX now.


What? What happened to this tiny little bundle?


Or this messy little one-year-old?


Oh wait, he's still about that messy when he eats. I guess not THAT much has changed.

(age 4)

In six short years, he's learned how to walk, talk, read, write, do math, ride a bike (still with training wheels), and just continually amaze us with how smart he is. He is still a little guy, just about 40 pounds and 44 inches tall. (That's over 3 1/2 feet tall! He's really shot up in the last year!)

He still loves garbage and recycling trucks, but his obsession is quickly turning into Legos. He has so many legos and he just wants MORE MORE MORE. He has a tattered Lego catalog which I find him reading anytime he has a spare minute. Thankfully most of his legos belong to my brother and I when we were kids, so he has plenty of blocks for the ultimate creative inventions.

To celebrate his birthday, we went to Steak 'n Shake the Friday night before Chris went on his trip to Nicaragua. We met Jennifer and Beth there and go to hear about their trip to Guatemala! The next morning when Chris left, Mimi and Pa gave him his #1 wish list item, the Lego fire rescue helicopter.



He played with Legos for 5 straight hours that day, and came out at 6:45 with a major headache. I gave him Tylenol and he crashed in his bed for over an hour. Then he woke up, re-energized and hungry at 8:30 so he ate his dinner and we made cupcakes for him to take to Sunday school the next day. He was up until 10:15 that night!

On his birthday, we went to church and had a pretty normal Sunday. For his birthday lunch, I took him to Wray's, a catfish buffet, which serves some of his favorites: fried catfish, hush puppies, fried okra, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. We took long afternoon naps and went to a church potluck for dinner. A low key birthday-day, but Daddy was out of town, and his birthday party is later this month--a combined party with Claire at the treehouse. It should be a great celebration! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Claire's 3rd Birthday

Every day when Claire says her prayers, she said, "Deaw God, thank you for...Maylee, annnnnd Allie Rae, annnnnnd Emma Kate." These are her three little best friends. Allie Rae goes to church with us and has been in her Mother's Day Out class for two years. She met Maylee this past year in Mother's Day Out, and Emma Kate goes to church with us as well. So when it came time to plan a birthday party for Claire, I knew it would be just perfect if we invited her three best friends, plus family.

She requested a Dora cake, which my mom and I had fun making together. The little girls were thrilled with all the Dora!


We did pedicures on the little girls!




Almost all of the girls chose sparkly pink!








Happy Birthday!




Claire with her 3 best friends--Emma Kate, Maylee, and Allie Rae!


The boys had fun too!




Present time was fun--one of Claire's favorite things was a Dora birthday card from Ed and Ginger--when you open it, Dora sings Happy Birthday in English and Spanish!










And all of the pictures are in this slideshow!


I can hardly believe it's been 3 years since our sweet Claire Bear joined our family. Happy Birthday baby girl!!

A beautiful song...

One of my favorite sounds is a group of kids singing "Happy Birthday" to their friend. I have watched this video many times since Saturday, and sometimes I like to just close my eyes and listen. Such a sweet song!

Oh, and Aaron was getting on to his friend Sydney for trying to blow out his candles. She'll get to blow hers out in just a few days--they are only 11 days apart and have known each other their whole lives. So special!

Aaron's 5th Birthday

Aaron has been looking forward to his birthday since the day after Christmas. It's a good thing he has a birthday in the middle of the year, so we can spread out the gifts evenly! When he found out it was June 1, he could hardly contain his excitement because he knew his birthday was only 5 days away!

Since his birthday was actually on Saturday, we decided to do his birthday party ON his birthday, even though I was only 11 days into recovery from having Hannah. I knew I could count on help from family and friends, and I was planning a pretty easy party. I had bought almost everything in early May, so the only thing I really had to do was make the cake--because like my mother did for me, I insist on making birthday cakes for my children. Aaron chose a construction theme for his party this year, and he wanted a dump truck cake with dirt and worms in the back. Here's how it turned out--a little hoopty but he loved it!


Aaron was soooo excited when he woke up on his birthday. He came to our bed just grinning, and announced that he was now FIVE! Then he said to Daddy, "But I think there is a problem. I don't seem to be any bigger than I was yesterday." We cracked up laughing, as Daddy assured him that he was indeed just a little bit bigger.

He spent the morning playing in the mud while Chris cleaned up the backyard for the party. What an ideal way to spend the morning!

When he saw he had 2 presents from Mom and Dad, I tried to get him to wait until the party to open them, but he talked us into letting him open one present. He chose the one that rattled--which turned out to be a Lego Recycling Truck set that he has been wanting for quite a while. He's never had an official Lego set--all of his Legos are hand-me-down from my brother's collection--and we were amazed at how well he did following the instructions to put the truck together. He and Chris (and Claire!) worked on it while I finished the last minute details for the party.


When all our friends and family started arriving, the backyard filled up fast! I had hoped to have some of the party in our side yard, but it was hot and sunny and just too miserable out there. I'm thankful for a shady backyard! The kids had fun in the sandbox (and we now need more sand as it got spread all over!) and on the swingset.


I never knew so many kids could fit in a turtle sandbox!


When a bunch of kids start swinging on our rickety swingset, an adult has to hold one side or it start rocking!


I had also brought out several of Aaron's construction and garbage trucks to use as decoration, and those were a big hit.


Hannah enjoyed sleeping through the entire party, in Aunt Ginger's arms.


Uncle Ed came dressed as a construction worker, complete with "Taylor Construction" hats--one for the foreman (Aaron), and one for the gopher (Ed).




Aaron had a couple of games planned, but it was kind of difficult to coordinate all the kids for the game, especially as hot as it was. This was "dirt scoop relay" which we did in the sunny side yard.






We went back to the backyard (and lost the attention of most of the kids) for "tool belt relay".


The kids had to put on a tool belt (made by my friend Amber--aren't they cute?) and fill them with tools, then hand it off to the next person to do.




Time for cake and ice cream!


Mama with her big boy!


The family, minus Hannah.












Now for Aaron's favorite part...PRESENTS!!!




He had lots of helpers!!






His big present from Mimi and Pa--a digger!!


Then just as we were finishing up, Hannah woke up, and got to meet her cousins and some of Aaron's friends.


After the party, Claire, Hannah, and I crashed on the couch! I got teary eyed at the sweetness of the moment. Post-pardum hormones have me crying alot these days!


We are so blessed to have three beautiful children, and I can hardly believe our first baby is now a 5 year old little boy. Happy Birthday Little Man!