Birthdays!

Wow, I feel like this week has been crazy (but fun) busy.  Monday (St. Patrick's Day) started out with some (last minute) green sprinkly cinnamon buns.  Not going to lie, the Pillsbury "flaky cinnamon rolls" with butter cream icing are WAY better than any of the other quick cinnamon rolls.  Plus they are only $2, so we eat them weekly :)

 Happy camper

 On Wednesday, Ryan turned 30!  Jaxson was a sweetie helping me color daddy's birthday card on Tuesday in prep for the big day.

Wednesday morning, I told Avery to go get her shoes on, and she came out in my new nikes.  Cute girl.  

Jaxson wanted to wear daddy's

 Jax has been working on his letters and numbers lately.  He is going to love pre-school when it starts up in the fall, and he is going to do so well.  It cracks me up that he tells people that ABC mouse.com is where he does his pre-schooling.

 Before daddy got home on his b-day, Jaxson got a suprise in the mail from Guh oh Harbor. Angry bird space puzzles, he loved them and begged me to help him put them together.

 Our big surprise for when Daddy came home from work. 30 presents for the 30 year old.  We also surprised him at work with balloons and donuts. After work we met him at BJ's for a yummy dinner.  Ryan got a delicious salted caramel pazookie because it was his birthday.  The waitress brought it out with a candle.  Before Ryan had a chance to look down at it, Avery had blown out the candle for him.  It was so funny/cute.

 The kids did most of the opening and loved it.

 Ice cream cake!!

 We started celebrating Avery's birthday a day early .... more cinnamon rolls - white icing this time ;)

 getting ready to go to Sea World

 We scored some great deals on Sea World passes this year - glad we don't have to stand in line again ( it took over an hour)

 Jaxson was super brave and rode some of the rides

 This was his favorite one.  Glad daddy went with him on it, I don't like the spinning ones.

 Avery went on this one and loved it.  Look at how little she looks!!

 Both kids thought this one was fun

 We love the playground/jungle gym area of Sea World.  The kids spent a lot of time playing here

 It wasn't very warm, but the kids loved running around the splash pad.

 After warming up the kids, we walked by the "Journey to Atlantis" ride and the line was so short.  So I ran over and went for a ride.

 Ryan and Jaxson went after me (we always had to have 1 person staying with Avery and the stroller).  Ryan is in the front right (when looking at the photo) and Jaxson is sitting next to him.  I was (somewhat) surprised Jaxson went through with it.  I am glad he did because he thought it was fun.

 Avery's 2nd birthday was yesterday.  Naturally, we went to our favorite kid-friendly place.  Chic Fil A. Most of you probably don't know this, but I am so OCD about messes.  Well, it took quite a lot of will power to let my kids eat these ice cream cones (it was dripping everywhere and getting sticky everywhere). I think it was a step in the right direction ;)  I need to do better about not being so uptight.

 Avery hasn't really been into cakes lately, so I decided to make a cookie instead.

 Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

 Blowing out the candles.  Best part of birthdays.

 "Messy Mommy, Messy!"  Avery doesn't love getting her hands messy.

 Opening presents.  Thanks to both Guh Goh's and Papa's for Avery's gifts - she loved them!!  We ordered her a table and chairs, but it hasn't come in yet :(

 We did give her a cupcake lego set though, and she has been loving it.

March Vistors

Life has been pretty crazy for the past couple of weeks.  My brother's 3 month old triplet boys have all been diagnosed with a rare eye cancer.  To follow their story (updated frequently) click here.  If you would like to donate to their family to help with expenses, click here.  The bad news about all of them having cancer came to us on Thursday - the day before my parents and sister were going to fly out to see us.  They decided to make the trip down to Texas anyway, and we enjoyed the time we were able to spend together.

Mom, Dad, and Julie + her girls got in late Friday night.  When Claire got to the house, Jaxson immediately said "Claire, do you want to go upstairs and play?" and they walked hand in hand upstairs and played forever.  It was cute that they got along so well.  

Saturday morning, we got up and went to the zoo.  The kids all loved the animals and had fun being with their cousins. 

 Zebras

 Elephants

 Big smiles! Yes, Claire is a big taller than Jaxson.

 Avery and Annie both loved the elephant.

 Outside of the zoo is a shallow road that cars can drive across.  Jaxson and Ryan love walking across the cement path.  Claire and Julie had fun walking across too.

 After the zoo we were really hungry and heard there was a good BBQ place close by. Avery loved the pink and yellow (her 2 fav colors) car out front.

 There was also this bright pink pig walking around that all of the kids LOVED.  After sitting down to eat, we even lost Faye (for a couple of seconds) when she ran off trying to find the pink pig.

 I ordered a bacon cheese burger - yum. It was huge!

These kiddos were so excited to be in their OWN photo with the pig.  Claire may or may not have photo bombed 2 other photos with the pink pig and other customers.

 Riding home from the zoo - long day for the kids!

 We grabbed the famous giant cinnamon roll after leaving the BBQ place.

 Size reference to a regular fork.

Jaxson and Claire had fun dressing up as super hero's.

 Avery joined in too with her pink cape.

 We tried to get all of the kids together for a photo (if you can see above, it didn't work.  Avery walked towards the camera and the kids wouldn't scoot together.) At least these 2 cute girls looked at the camera!

 This was a common scene at our house.  The kids all loved the ipad, but Avery had a hard time sharing.  She kept saying "Babba" meaning Bamba (ice cream and burger - she loves those games).

 Jaxson and Claire eating breakfast and playing with stickers.

 We met up with my missionary cousin Mary for lunch one day. If you want to learn more about my church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, click here.

 Faye managed to get into the restricted area in the play room.  She needed some privacy to fill up her diaper.

 The kids also loved sitting on Grandma's lap to play games.

 We all found it slightly ironic that when my family came to Texas, it was actually fairly cool outside.  We decided to bundle up the kids anyway and go to the park.  The kids loved the swings and enjoyed the walking trails.

 It was fun watching these three amigo's laugh and mimic each other.  There were many times they were all doing the same thing and laughing.  Wish we had Addi (the 4th cousin their age - all born within a month of each other) here to play with these cousins.

 We celebrated Claire's 4th birthday (and my birthday which was yesterday) with pink cupcakes and pink n' purple streamers.  We also went out for a delicious steak dinner with the adults that night :)

 Last day with family in town - sad!

 Jumping on the tramp before the cousins leave.

 Mom bought all the kids some matching "I love Grandpa hugs" t-shirts.

 We tried to get a photo of them all with Dad, but the kids screamed the whole time.  It was actually quite amusing trying to take the photo.  Here are the best ones I got.

 Cute photo of Avery and Papa.

Thanks for the fun visit guys - come anytime!!