Saturday, March 19, 2016

Ross Turns 5!!!! Star Wars Birthday

Well we were lucky and got some Grandpa and Grandma and Auntie Meghan time for Spring Break.  Grandpa had the unfortunate event of tweaking his already bad back, so he opted out of going on a business trip and we got to have more time with him, and lucky for him, his son is an excellent PT who worked wonders on him every night.  ;)

I put Auntie Meghan right to work with me raking our thousands upon thousands of rocks to get ready for the truckloads of dirt coming....and then when the truckloads couldn't make it all the way into our gate, she helped shovel and shovel the mounds of dirt out of our alley and into the yard.  It was some HARD labor - and I am a wussy!!  We made it though, even with a bit of a broken fence in the end, that Steve fixed pretty easily.  :)

Ruby with her namesake Auntie Meghan chillin' in the morning :)

So my blow dryer was slowly dying, and Claudia decided it was "the worst blow dryer in the world" so they got me the "gold" kind ;) Score!

Our first load we were shoveling...with a broken wheelbarrow...Don took pity on us and bought us a new one too!  Megs and I got to know each other pretty darn well with all our conversations while shoveling...maybe too well ;)  a few deep dark secrets may or may not have come out while you shovel dumb ol' dirt all day long! ;)

And this was just day 1!!!!

Almost ready for the second haul....

Ross and Ruby helped load and take away all the "dinosaur eggs" (dirt clods) to a rock nest for us!

Catching up on their reading...


For St. Patrick's Day the kids got tricked by leprechauns by turning their milk green when it was poured into their cups!!  Those little stinkers!  Mom was busy shoveling dirt all day so the traditional green eggs and ham was dispensed until next year. ;)



Happy St. Patrick's Day!  No pinching here!  The other leprechaun was taking his morning snooze. ;)

BUT - Ross had a pretty rockin' 5th birthday!  He got to go to McDonald's for his birthday lunch and then got to go to the movie's to see Zootopia that night.  He got a brand new bike from mom and dad, an awesome BB-8 backpack from Grandpa and Grandma, some robots and dinosaurs from Auntie Meghan, and awesome clothes and a block robot from Grammy Joanne and Grandpa Stan.  


This boy is READY to be 5!

Birthday muffins are a MUST.  Ross is showing Auntie Meghan how it's done (in Santa Claus PJ pants).







Figuring out the robot with Grandma!

Auntie Meghan was dying to play on the slides...good thing she has little kids to give her the excuse ;)


We sure love aunts around here!



Love this sweet boy!

Silly face!

Presents from Uncle Young!  We named Ruby's Minnie Pillow Maxie...for obvious reasons ;)  They loved them!
He had a super fun birthday party on Saturday at the Wild West Athletics Gym complete with foam light sabers, running around, jumping on trampolines and in foam pits, and then cakepops and presents to boot.  I think everyone had a great time.  
 
Made our traditional cakepops!  Star Wars Style




A BB-8 Cake!

The party favors :)




Our friend, Avery, brought her storm trooper mask that Ruby wore for a good 20 minutes straight!

Light Saber fights...Steve may be outnumbered!



Ruby - ready to fight!

Rowly - ready to defend the rebellion!



Birthday wish time!!


Love this first born of ours! 


The crew that came!



The aftermath during clean-up.  Father-son jump offs.

Ruby too!


Happy Birthday Ross!!!


Since our only resource of Wal-mart didn't have their pool noodles yet to turn into light sabers - I cut up foam cushion and wrapped them in duct tape to make our less-violent-of-mass-destruction light sabers. :)  I think they were a hit.

Too close!


Lovin the batman costume he got too ;)
And then it was time for a blissful nap - Maxie included ;)

I also discovered I still have a few kicks in this 32 year old body of mine....



Some of Ross's favorites:

Robots
Spaceships and rockets
Dinosaurs are a new interest
Still airplanes, trucks, tractors, cars, trains, etc.
He has recently discovered Legos....heaven help us! ;)
Any sort of marine life - sharks are his favorite and Octonauts a fav show
Rescuebots
Hide-and-Seek
Playing cars
Working outside with Dad
Reading books (he loves to point out every motorized vehicle/toy in every picture)
Goldfish
Spaghetti is his favorite dinner
Bun hotdogs
Carrots and Green Beans
Blueberries, Strawberries, Apples and Bananas
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pre-school is a favorite - he loves his friends, Caleb, Jace, Ezekiel, and Nathaniel
Jumping off things (and always yelling for mom to watch)
Riding his scooter
Hunting for cool rocks or "dinosaur eggs"
Doing jobs like emptying the dishwasher to earn stickers to buy toys he's working for.

We were so excited to have family come celebrate Ross's birthday with us.  We are enjoying the time we get since Grandpa and Grandma White have been called to be Mission Presidents in Kennewick, Washington starting in July for three years!  We will visit them, but they will be pretty busy!  We're enjoying the time with them that we have. :)  It's always nice having family!

Ross is a wonderful older brother.  He is always wanting to help, especially with his siblings.  He's always concerned for them.  He loves to trick us and laughs really hard after he "got us!" He's responsible and reminds me all the time the things he needs to bring for school or remembering his scriptures for church.  He has a great memory, remembering things from a few years ago even!  He looks so handsome in his glasses and is such a sweet, fun loving boy.  I'm so glad to be his mother and love that he is MY boy!  Happy Birthday cute Ross!  We sure love you in our family!


Friday, March 11, 2016

Marching Along...Someone learned to...

Rowland decided his speedy crawling finally wasn't as efficient or comfortable as walking.  I will definitely miss his bear crawl, gorilla crawl, and speedy gonzalez bum moving at light speed across the room, but he sure looks cute with his Frankenstein arms and completely-pleased-with-himself expression on his face all the time now. :)


My baby is growing up!!  He decided to take the month of "March" literally.  ;)

I went to my MOPS group and Rowland refused to go in the baby room so I held him...and this happened to melt my heart and remember he STILL is somewhat little!


I love soaking up moments like that :)  Cute bug.

So a long time ago on a boring Saturday of nothing but chores, Steve and I entertained ourselves by matching Disney characters to family members.  Steve's brother Michael thought it was funny enough that he photoshopped faces onto all the characters (in honor of us going to Disneyland this summer) and sent it to us. Pretty hilarious :)



Claudia-Fairy Godmother, Meghan - Ana, Don- The King on Cinderella, Rowland-Jack Jack, Steve-Gaston, Me-Elastagirl, Thomas-Hiss, Nate-Milo, Alex-Winnie the Pooh, Beka-Perla the Mouse on Cinderella, Ross-Mike Wazouski, Michael-Flinn Ryder, Young-Chi Fu from Mulan, Ruby-Tinkerbelle




A few other happenings...

Paid tribute to Dr. Suess by reading all the books we had of his along with adding a couple more including Green Eggs and Ham, and Ross celebrated at school. ;)

Ruby does a good kiss face!

Rowland just has a good face ;)

Banana FACE!

Ross and Rowland have a very sweet brother's bond that makes my heart happy!  Ross loves snuggling his "baby."


Two Peas in a Pod

Ruby LOVES wearing Snow White...somehow we've accumulated three Snow White dresses (good thing too with how often she wears them). One from Grammy (super nice one) and two from friends who's girls were too big for them.

Hoping to get this girl to take a nap....I gave Snow White an apple.  Does that make me the witch???

Our weather in Colorado is on and off all the time.  We'll have 86 degree weather and then 32 the next day...it's like Colorado is going through menopause or something!  Anyway - this cute naked baby is enjoying one of our warmer days.


And we are replanting our grass - it is QUITE the feat.  These boys worked to get rid of the railroad ties (Ross thought that was pretty cool) and start raking our thousands upon thousands of rocks!

Snow White helped too :)

Here's our "Before." Wish us luck!



I can somewhat squeeze Ruby's hair into french braids now...and then get this awesomeness the next day!!!  I love her poofy hair!


Ruby's crazy forced smile. ;)


And Rowland gave the thumbs up for Grandpa and Grandma White and Auntie Meghan to come visit us for Spring Break!! :)

 Marching right along. ;)