Carter's 3rd Birthday!

Our Carter turned 3 on March 28! He has known for months now that March 28th is a special day and will excitedly respond with "March 28!" when asked when his birthday is. This year, Carter's bday was especially meaningful because he got potty trained about a week before. We had been promising Chuck E. Cheese for getting potty trained so it worked out perfectly to celebrate his special day there.

We are so grateful that David and I both have siblings out here and it's so nice that they can be help to make our celebrations fun! We certainly do miss the ones that are not here, though! Here are some pictures of the festivities. David made this T-rex cake. Carter had been asking for a T-rex cake since his last bday and he was not disappointed!

Finally!

The other day, I doing the dishes and the kids kept yelling at me from the playroom for various things, water, help getting off of a shelf that he had climbed on (Carter), etc...this time Mason yelled, "Take a picture of us, Mommy!" Well, I was a little slow in responding, but can never resist a picture opportunity so...I came in and found this. Of course I took the picture and when I saw it, I was in shock. I can honestly say I don't think I have one other picture of all three looking with normal looking smiles. and I didn't even try!! Of course I wanted another...this is what I got: a little atypical in that Mason is actually smiling and looking, but more typical of my normal shots. I guess my hundreds of attempts have paid off. We even tried to get a group pic at both JC Penney and Sears and Kaci would not cooperate. I'm pretty sure I'll be framing this one! :) I guess St. Patrick's day really is lucky...as you can see from their outfits...that's what day it was. :)

Leprechauns...

came to our house last night! and they left some sparkles with treats hidden inside...the trail led to the window, as you can see. Happy St. Patricks Day!

Pearls and Pajamas

Every day when I get off work at 9:30 a.m., if we don't have anywhere we have to be we usually hang around in our pajamas for a bit and spend some time together. Here are some random pictures.








































and because it's just so cute, here are a few pictures of pretty Kaci wearing her pearls. She loves them so much and never plays with them when they are on her. She just wears them like the little lady she is. She really loves them and always wants them on when she sees them.

Kacianna's first birthday

Kaci's first birthday was pretty low key, but we tried to make it special for her. We wanted to take her to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake, but the weather and roads were really bad, so we decided to postpone that (pics of that to hopefully follow).











We have a tradition that we unintentionally started with Mason's first birthday to get helium balloons to celebrate. The kids always love them and get hours of play from them. Kaci was so enthralled by her balloon and always had to have it near her.

















The boys never grow tired of this tradition and I'm glad that we stumbled upon it! They always beg to get helium balloons and since they sell them at the dollar store, it is a treat that I don't mind getting them! You can't see the actual balloons in these pictures, but you can see their strings and imagine how fun they are!


Since Christmas was just five days before, Kaci was ready and excited to use her new present-opening skills again. She really seemed to enjoy opening her presents and understand what was going on.















Kaci is already showing a love of shoes and despite the look on her face in this picture, was VERY excited to see the new boots Grandma and Grandpa got her. The look in this picture is because we aren't putting them on her feet quick enough. I have a pic somewhere of her wearing them that I will have to add.












And then of course, what first birthday would be complete without letting the star of the day devour as much yummy cake as they want?












































Big brothers had to get in to it, too of course! We are so happy that we have such a sweet, beautiful one-year-old in our home now! The years are just flying by. David was able to make one of his famous personalized cakes a few days later so that we could celebrate again with Kaci when his family was passing through and that blog post is due up next!

a few pictures..

I decided th at I wouldn't do long explanations like i was planning 'cuz that was keeping me from posting. Here are some pictures of our Christmas. We had a fun first Christmas without any family besides ourselves, but hope that next year we will be able to be in Colorado!