Easter 2014

I know Easter was awhile ago, but I'm still trying to catch up on this rapid year. We made Easter eggs, went to an Easter egg hunt at Isabelle's school, and had a visit from the Easter Bunny. They were in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Isabelle also had a Spring Fling parade at school where they all made spring hats to show off and then a few fun activities throughout the day.

 

I don't think I ever posted this picture of Isabelle on St. Patrick's Day. She LOVES to dress up and insisted on wearing this to school. Who could pass it up? She looks so darn cute!

Ski Trip to Winter Park

We hit the slopes a few times with the kids this winter. Isabelle is a full on skier. She rides the lift, cruises down the hill with a few crashes, but laughs and gets back up, and even skiis through the trees with dad!! She loves speed. She pumps her arms on the flat sections to build up speed. It cracks us up! She absolutely loves skiing. You can capture a bit of her winter love here....

 

 

 

 Mark gave it a shot too. He sort of likes it, depending on his mood. The magic carpet hill gave him no speed and he just kind of stood there and always wanted to go into the lodge to eat (he likes to eat). He didn't really love it, so we took him on the lift thinking it would be more exciting. He enjoyed it for the most part, but it was a back pain for us trying to help him down and after a really long time, we eventually made it to the bottom of the mountain.

We're still so proud of him and he still had a smile on his face after all his hard work. I think next year will be the year he learns to love it and will be able to catch on.

 Both nights he barely made it through dinner. He was ready to hit the sack in our hotel room.

Mark's 3rd!

Our little guy turned three last month! It's hard to believe! Even though he is such a tall boy and everyone thinks he is older, he is still our little baby in every way! We celebrated his birthday with the family at the White Fence Farm.  He played on the playground, fed the animals at the petting zoo, and ate a huge fried chicken dinner.

 

 

He was a little uncertain about the staff singing Happy Birthday to him with sparklers. He was too shy to look up at anyone.

But once home, he loved every second of his birthday cake and the singing. Mark wanted to pick his cake out, not make it. So, we went to Whole Foods and looked at a gazillion delicious cakes. He decided on a chocolate mousse pie. The cakes were of no interest to him.  We added raspberries to the top and he was so happy!

 

Mark also got to do a little skiing for his birthday. A day with Nana and then a day with the family a couple weeks later. More pictures to come from that trip.

 

Mark is such a happy boy and very talkative around people he knows well. He LOVES to help us around the house with pretty much any task: cooking, cleaning, building, gardening, using tools to fix anything, sorting laundry, you name it.

 Here's what we'll always remember about Mark during his third year of life:

• He is a complete sweet tooth. He loves anything involving candy, chocolate, gummy, juice. Thank goodness he lets us brush his teeth really well.
• He is the sweetest, most loving boy. He gives the best bear hugs, the wettest kisses, and is a complete snuggler!
• He can throw a royal tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants. This usually occurs when we deny him any sort of sugary treat that he wants.
• He is madly in love with the Dollar Tree and asks to go everyday. He literally cannot get enough of the animals that grow up when you put them in water.
• Rescue bots and these robot dinosaur toys are also one of his favorite right now.
• You usually see him running around pantless.
• He will talk your ear off when he has a story to tell and he uses his hands and eyes so dramatically when he talks.
• We have to limit the number of books we read at night or he would keep us up all night reading. We often find him sitting in his room just looking at books quietly.
• Pretty sure he will be some sort of mathematician or engineer. He is so good with numbers and can fix/change/build so many things. He wants nothing to do with letters or colors.
• He cannot say the /k/ sound and it usually turns into /t/ and he eliminates the /s/ sound at the beginning of words. This makes deciphering conversations quite interesting at times.
• Some phrases lacking the /s/ sound: "I'm piderman," "You be uperman," "I want you 'it down," we go wimming pool?" "help, my hand 'tuck"
• phrases lacking /k/: "I play tat with Ibelle," "otay," "Mom, I have tarrot please?", "tan you play with me now?" "tan I go with you?" 
• The list goes on and on. Let's hope we conquer this soon or I imagine we'll be making visits to a speech pathologist.

• He is the clumsiest kid around. I credit his long legs and big feet for this. Although he trips about 3x a day, he gets right back up and keeps on going. His knees are a disaster.
• His best friend ever is Isabelle. He wants and does everything she does. They are starting to play really well together although we have our moments where the girl play vs. boy play just don't agree and it becomes an argument on what to do.....play kitty cats or play power ranger.

No matter what, we love our little guy more than the whole wide world. Happy Birthday, Mark! Here's to another great year together! This was when he was closer to 2 and we love when he sings around the house. Between him singing and Belle dancing, we have quite the concert hall.

Birthdays!

We had a big two weeks of birthday celebrations! First was Jamie's 40th! His sister flew in from Portland to surprise him and we had a big dinner celebration when he arrived home from work. The next night Belle and Mark stayed with Nana and I had a surprise celebration for Jamie with all his friends at a brewery/restaurant. I can't believe I pulled it off given I'm the worst planner ever. It was a great time.

  

Then came Isabelle's week long 5th birthday celebration. We didn't do a kid party this year. Belle was happy inviting her best friend to Skate City to celebrate. Here they are enjoying the cupcakes after doing some skating.

 

The boys enjoyed it too!

 On her actual birthday she woke up to balloons and her all time favorite, donuts!! She also got to open a present. She was so excited. 

Jamie and I both had to work, so she got to enjoy her big day with Nana. First some rock climbing, a Burger King lunch, and then a birthday celebration at school with all her friends.

 

To finalize the day, we all went out to dinner. She picked Red Robin which turned out to be a great choice for the family. We had a giant dinner and she opened all her presents!

 

 

Whew! Her week wasn't over yet! The next day, Belle had her father/daughter dance at school. It was about the cutest thing I've ever seen. She was so excited to spend the evening with Jamie. She got all dressed up and they danced the night away. Here they are just before leaving.

 

 She also did some dancing with her friends.

 Even though we didn't do a big kid party for her 5th, I think she had more fun than she could have imagined. Now for a few highlights about our big 5 year old!

• Belle loves cats and playing kitty.
• She still surprises us each night by coming in our room to cuddle and sleep. I have to admit, she is so cozy to sleep next to.
• She is always happy and loving life. She is full of laughter, imagination, and love.
• She is starting to read very easy books and loves to write, color, paint, and listen to stories.
• Belle is very active and hardly sits for longer than 5 minutes (unless she is watching TV at which point she is completely transfixed). 
• She is playing basketball, becoming a great skier, loves to help cook, spends a lot of time playing with her brother....they are finally starting to get to the point of playing together and not arguing about who gets what toy
• Almost every night she dances for us in the living room.
• She loves hugs and sitting on our lap.
• School is a highlight and she loves to go each day.
• She loves to make up knock, knock jokes that make no sense at all, but we all laugh.
• She loves to have tea parties, with real tea, of course.
• A day doesn't go buy without Isabelle dressing up as a princess, a ballerina, or a chef.
• She is very independent and wants to try everything on her own.
• She is shy around strangers, but NEVER stops talking at home or in the car, literally.
• And last, she is very intuitive, remembers everything, and asks a thousand questions a day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!We love you!

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

I would have to say that the happiest times in my life occur over Christmas. There is nothing more specials than seeing the excitement in the eyes of Isabelle and Mark. The buildup to Christmas and the day of Christmas just make my heart melt because of the laughter, love, and pure joy that they have. We had such a wonderful Christmas!

We were so happy to have my sister and her family around for Christmas. The kids had a blast opening presents and playing with all the toys.

The newest game, Kids on Stage (charades), was a total hit. We play this game about every night with Mark and Belle. It's one of the funniest things ever to watch Mark. He runs off, turns his back for about 2 minutes and studies what the card says-it has pictures, then turns around and tells everyone what it is, then acts it out. We still all pretend we're guessing, even though he told us what the card said. When we guess correctly, he runs over and gives us the biggest hug ever because he is so proud of what he did.

Making and eating cookies while writing our letters to Santa on Christmas Eve!

 

Word for word, their notes to Santa.....

Santa arrived with all sorts of gifts this year!! They just raced around, tearing open every gift as fast as possible.

Mark's top favorite gift-a Power Ranger helmet that talks to him and gives him missions to accomplish.

Belle had a lot of favorites, but she sure loved her new kitty cats. (Unfortunately Santa couldn't bring her a real cat which she wanted so badly! I don't believe Santa will ever be able to succeed in getting her that gift.)

Mark getting his work belt all put together.

Sierra even found her gift amongst all the other gifts. No joke. She pulled it out and started tearing it open. I love our dog. She is amazing.

Belle also tested out Mark's work belt as they talked on his Power Ranger walkie talkies.

And all the cuties performing some Christmas songs for us...

Or dress up performances....

Riding on Papa's back and crashing down.

Before we made it to bed, this little girl was all tuckered out (even with all the screaming, crazy kids jumping over her). We are so lucky to have had such a happy Christmas. I can't wait to do it all over again next year!