"Me So Big"

I can't believe my little man turned 3 this month! I can still remember every single detail of his birth. I remember when they first placed him in my arms and the overwhelming love I felt for him. Love filled the room and I absolutely felt like my heart was going to explode. I bawled like a baby...and I mean not a cute girl cry. I was sobbing. Ben video taped it, so there is proof that I was totally emotional. I wasn't the only one crying. Ben and my Mom were both in the room and we were all welling up. He was beautiful. He was perfect (minus the extreme cone head). Kai changed my life. He rocked my world. He gave me perspective.
I never knew love like that existed until he was born. He blessed my life and continues to bless me every. single. day.

Kai I love you to pieces! You are my favorite little man. I love your sweet kisses. The way you tell me, "I wuv woo." I love the way your fingers wrap around finger when we hold hands. I love how excited you are about EVERYTHING! You love life. I love how you wake up in the morning and jump into bed with me to watch "cawtoons" in the early mornings. I love that you think my kisses are magical and make everything better. You are so handsome and still so perfect. You have taken up a huge part of my heart and I am so glad that you are mine. You are mine! I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, but I will take it.

Kai finally understood what a birthday meant this year. All week long he kept telling me "Fiday is my bithday!" He knew that meant that he was going to have a party with cake and presents. All week long he would ask me if it was his birthday yet.
I thought long and hard about his cake this year. He is still totally into Thomas trains and I was going to do a train cake. I spent hours researching Thomas images and trying to decide how I was going to do it. A few weeks before his birthday he decided that he wanted a "Spidimon" (spiderman) cake. Then it was a blue cake, then it was a red cake...I could go on and on.
I decided not to work really hard on a theme that he may or may not be into on his birthday. Instead I decided on a more generic cake...one that didn't focus on just one of his many obsessions. Who doesn't like presents on their birthday, right?
I took the easy theme but it turned out to be a time consuming cake.
The good news is that Kai LOVED it. It made all the time Ben and I spent well worth it. He was so excited. (He was pretty much excited all day long).


I told Kai I wanted a "big smile". I love this picture.
I am so grateful that Ben is willing to help me with some of my cakes. He knew this one was going to be time consuming. (Even though he swears this is the last one he will ever help me with.) It is just nice to have a second opinion on things.


Kai and Cic waiting for the party to start...
Both kids were decked out in clothes from my Mom. I love her...She has good taste. (So glad that it has improved since I was little.)
Right before the candles were lit.
Soooooo excited!

Loving being the center of attention.
Blowing out the candles.
YAY! I love this pic. He just has the best smile.

Baby Landree, Mollee, and Margot
Aaron and baby Liam

Omar, George and Deedee
Kaley and baby Olivia
Matt and Ben cutting the cake and scooping up ice cream
I know...Why does Ben need such a HUGE knife for such a small cake?
Colton and Kai ready to open presents.
I just had to include this shot. Kai got soooo many presents for his birthday and I told him he could only take one to bed. This is what I found when I checked in on him before I went to bed that night. Thanks for the Spiderman toy Jackie! Kai loves it.
I cannot talk about my kids birthdays without mentioning how much we love our neighbors Nick and Jackie. We don't live close to any family. (I am emotional just thinking about this right now.) They have become our family here. Nick and Jackie have been to all (yup, every single one) of our kids birthdays. That's a lot of birthdays! I think that as the kids are getting older, we appreciate it more and more. We have come to rely on them. Nick is always the cinematographer and Jackie is always the photographer. They are the social butterflies at the party...always making sure that everyone is happy and taken care of. When we are walking people out, they are helping to clean up the house and put things away. They are the people that you always want to be. I cannot wait...CANNOT WAIT until they have a kiddo of their own so that I can return the favor and spoil them way they have ours. We love you guys more than you know. Thanks for everything Nick and Jackie!

Here are some stats about Kai~
Height~32 1/2 inches (50%)
Weight~29 lbs (20%)
Favorite color~still blue (but red is a close second...ever since he saw the movie Cars)
Favorite shows~Little Einsteins, Phineas and Ferb, Micky Mouse Clubhouse
Favorite movies~Cars, Ice Age
Best friend~Andrew Hoopes
Favorite toy~Depends on the day. Still totally into trains, but now LOVES Lightning McQueen and Spiderman
Bedtime~7ish
Wake-up~6:30ish
Nap~most days he still takes one from 12:30-3:00
Proudest accomplishment (this month)~Learning how to do a somersault all by himself
Funny saying~
"Me so big" (Getting weighed at the doctors office)
"Peese bess Baby Noah. Baby Noah sick" (EVERY SINGLE PRAYER) (Noah is my friends kid)
"I wan you be happy" (Anytime I am not smiling. Maybe I have a sad face?)
"Dat's awesome" (When we ask him if he likes his new birthday toys.)
"Sun go nigh nigh. Now it's dak" (Every night he says this before bed.)
"Moon boken" (On nights when there is not a full moon.)
"I dying" (Mimicking what I had just said about being so excited about something.)
"O my's gosh" (I guess I say, "oh my gosh" a lot. Either that, or the Usher song is on the radio waaaay too often. I am working on not saying this now.)
I love that Kai is starting to communicate more and more. He says the funniest things. I am learning that I need to be more careful with what I say. Who knew that I had such horrible expressions?!
I can't believe that Kai is three! It has absolutely flown by and though it is so fun, I don't want him to grow up. I always want him to be my little buddy.
Love you Kai!

BuSY WeeKeND

My friend asked me to make a ladybug cake this weekend for her daughters first birthday party. I was flattered and absolutely terrified at the same time. I am definately no expert. I learn something new everytime I make a birthday cake so I decided to go for it.
This is what we came up with and though it isn't perfect, it is one of my favorite cakes (that I've done).
Hope they liked it.

LaBoR DaY 2o1o

This year for Labor Day we were invited to go to Colorado Springs with some of our friends. Even though Colorado Springs isn't too far away, we booked a hotel and made a weekend trip out of it. It was so fun!
We woke up first thing in the morning and hit up the hot air balloon launch. Kai and Cic were star struck and didn't quite know what to do. The weather was perfect though and we were able to get up close to so many cool balloons. We got to see the entire process they go through before getting blown up and launched. It was AWESOME! Yup, it was a little chilly at 7:00am. Once the sun was out it warmed up quick. Hot air balloon humor...

Love these two shots...

This one was so HUGE...
Cic was so content sitting in the stroller and soaking it all in. There was so much to see.
Rogers Family. (The Smarts were the ones who organized the entire weekend and I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them.)



Oh how I love sun flares...


Kai was so tired so I had to make Cicilee trade places with him b/c I seriously thought my left arm was going to fall off from holding him.
Yes, the sky was that blue!
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
We usually just go to the Denver Zoo (which I think is an awesome zoo). Since we were in Colorado Springs we decided to tag along with the Smarts and Rogers and try out a different Zoo. I mean, we have lived in Colorado for over 4 years now and never made it to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo yet...when would we have another opportunity to go?

It is so different from the Denver Zoo. We got so close to the giraffes you could actually feed them.

I bathed the kids in sunscreen and thought I was really careful about not getting in it their eyes... Guess I wasn't careful enough. (At least that's the only explanation we could think of as to why she had such a bad reaction.)

Poor Cic. Click on this picture to better understand just how bad it was....


Kai looking at the alligators (maybe they were crocodiles...not sure really).
Yes the animals are always fun to see, but while Kai and Ben were checking out the elephants the view was breathtaking.

Just one more reason why I love living in Colorado.
We had to take a few shots of all the kiddos together right before we headed home.

It was such a long day, but so much fun. (Note to self, if the Smarts invite you ANYWHERE, always say YES b/c you ALWAYS have a great time with them.)

We loved every minute of it and had a blast spending the weekend with great friends. Doesn't get much better than that!

Can't wait for next year. We want to make it a tradition. Here's to next Labor Day in Colorado Springs with our friends again.