Matt Turns 12!

DISCLAIMER: we are not old enough to have kids - let alone a 12 year old.

Matt woke up on his birthday to this...

...12 balloons (Patriots colors, of course) with notes attached to the bottom from different family members wishing him a happy birthday (thank you to all who sent a note... it really meant the world to him, he LOVED it!).

Matt's birthday fell on a Saturday (during his basketball season) this year, so he had a game. That is where he received one of his favorite presents of the year - A WIN! This may seem "nice" to many, but the poor kid had gone winless on his basketball teams for the past 2 and a half seasons. He hadn't been on team that won since 2009! Hooray for happy things!

Later that night, we had a small party with a few of his friends. First pizza, presents, brownies and ice cream and a Mizzou game...

Then bowling - til midnight! Here are the boys... 

And Matt bowling - the socks are just.too.awesome.

The weekend ended with the Super Bowl - in which Matt's very favorite team the Patriots played this year. Apparently, we were only able to order up one win for his birthday, they unfortunately lost and subsequently saddened our dear birthday boy. But there's always next year when we will have - gulp - a teenager!

Happy birthday sweet Matthew. I cannot believe how fast 12 years have flown by. It may embarass you, but I still look at you every now and then and see my little baby or toddler. You are and will always be that little one to some part of my heart. I am amazed to watch the young man you are becoming, and can't wait to see all that you will grow to be. I love you and I am so, so thankful to have you as a forever part of our family. Love you for always!

Phil's Birthday Party - Zelda Style

We celebrated Phil's birthday (in January...) this year with a suprise Zelda birthday party!

First we had to put on all our gear - hat, sword, sheild, and belt with pouch for collecting rupees, and other items along the way. Cody was kind enough to model the astoundingly authentic costuming of the evening.

For simplicity (and 'cause it was more fun) each of us had our own color.

Then it was off to fight the horrible monsters (each of which had a color coded tri-force & rupees you earned for fighting them - but you could only pick up the tri-force or rupees of your color, but I digress...).

Aren't the monsters scary?!? I don't know how we survived!

Along the way we could spend our rupees to upgrade our shield at the blacksmith, or purchse items (like boomerangs, magic rings, health potions, hearts and arrows) at the trading post. 

We could also have the fairy re-fill our hearts when we visited the fairy pond.

 Once all the monsters had been defeated and all the tri-force pieces placed together, the door opened and we fought the final monster (using only arrows).

Ok, now that we got all that straight... the eye rolling may commence. Siffice it to say Phil was suprised, we had fun, and silliness (and fearsome fighting) abounded. And yes, I have almost completely lost my marbles. But I think my goal of Phil feeling special and loved was successful. Why else would someone go to such ridiculously obsessive lengths, right?

And the final picture for your viewing pleasure... (totally makes me laugh!)

Cody is...

Cody's actual birthday (Thursday) started with doughnuts and getting big brothers off to school. Then, Mommy and Cody went to the zoo! We saw all his favorite animals - hippos, rhinos, elephants, girraffes, lions and crocodiles. We also rode the merry-go-round (or "round and around and around") 3 times, the train 3 times and the tram 2 times. It was HOT, but oh so fun!!! After a quick nap followed by big brother pick up - we went to the pool for one last summertime swim.

  That night, cupcakes & presents...

The next night (Friday) we had a party! Grandma Sheri, friends, pizza and cake - and although we had to wait almost 2 hours for the pizza (ordering mix-up... in the end we got the pizza for free...) - we still managed to have a rockin' good time.

This is the before picture.

Never let it be said that this 2 year old doesn't know how to party hardy!!!

Nolan's Summer

I'll start with Nolan, just because I have a lot of pictures of him since summer includes his birthday... (special birthday cupcake - compliments of our very dear friends - thank you!)

Nolan had a great summer, we celebrated birthday #6!

There was going to be a big pool party bash, but it sort of fell through. I was going to try throwing together some kind of friend party, but Nolan was being Nolan, so in exasperation, I asked him if he would rather have a party and invite his friends or get a "big" Lego set.

Any guesses on what his answer was?

Clue: we now have this at our house...

So we just had a "family" party - which was pretty great because Grandma Diane & Grandpa Dave were in town! Good Times...

Moving on - the boys got the chance to catch a new (to us) reality show... I dare you to guess what it was...

(if you guessed Deadliest Catch - you're good!)

We spent a good amount of time at the pool where Nolan learned (on his own - because we all know with Nolan there is NO other way) to swim! Yay Nolie! (sorry no pictures...)

Nolan also spent TONS of time outside this summer - our next door neighbors get a nanny for their 3 kidlets in the summer so they can be home - and that suited Nolan just fine, he had almost unlimited access to his BFF Hudson (& crew) and LOVED it!

This is one of the (many) times they flooded the sandbox... There was also MUCH scooter riding.
And, we added a new obsession to the mix - Super Mario Bros. - specifically this guy...

All in all Nolan's summer was fantastic!

Watch Out World...

this little guy is now officially one!

Happy Birthday Codes! =)

Matt turns 10!

Can you believe it? My Matt is 10!

We celebrated as a family on his actual birthday -

Cake #1 - an homage to the Indianapolis Colts

(pre-Super Bowl loss - that was a sad day for some members of Team Armadillo...)

then Phil, Nolan, Matt and 2 of his bestest friends got to go see -

and then hang out, eat pizza & play PS2 & Wii on President's Day.

(cup) Cake #2 - sorry, no picture...

but imagine a cupcake with 10 candles... can you say porcupine?

I can't believe we're in double digits...

Nolan's Party

So, here are a few pictures from the chaos (12 kids) that was Nolan's birthday party - we decided to take advantage of our large yard, the warm weather & children's general love of anything involving water & had a back yard water party! Good times...

Count 'em! Not one, but two crazy sprinklers!

An obstacle course, complete with inner tubes...

Over 150 water balloons!

Nolan's boat cake (he picked it himself... "I'm having a water party, so a boat would be good.")

He got spoiled with many thoughtful & wonderful gifts! Thanks everyone!

I don't know - but it looks like he may have had a good time.

Afterwards we asked him if he had a good time - "Yeah, pretty good."

Sigh, I guess that's better than No, it was terrible...

Sister Sarah!!!

Oh, my...

My "little" (read 6' tall) sister Sarah turns 20 today! She is such an amazing person. I love her dearly and thought I would do a list of 20 things to know & love (in no particular order) about Sarah - in honor of her birthday.

#1

She is a princess. She just is.

#2

She is funny!

#3

She is smart - she can pick up anything (that interests her) so quick it'll make your head spin!

#4

She has the most beautiful green eyes!

#5

She is a loyal friend.

#6

She is strong minded.

#7

She and I shared a place of employment... 10 years apart!

#8

She is an extremely talented photographer.

#9

She does fun things with her posse, like dress up in funky wigs and disco clothes and go bowling...

#10

She is #4 of 5 girls.

#11

She is quite fashion forward.

#12

She loves... (yay!) and once got taken up to the orchestra pit at one of their concerts... how cool is that!

#13

She is thoughtful.

#14

She loves pink!

#15

She is a cool & loving aunt.

#16

She is adventurous!

#17

She is always smiling.

#18

She doesn't like lemon water at restaurants.

#19

She is very technologically savvy.

#20

She is beautiful!

Happy Birthday Sarah! I love you and miss you lots! Your present is (almost) in the mail & I'll see you soon! YAY!!! =)