Birthday 101

Go to your favorite restaurant for lunch. For most kids that might be Chuck E. Cheese or some other place that has pizza and games, but for a more sophisticated palette Applebee's is the place to go!


Know how to show everyone your age...


Make sure you have all 4 fingers up when you are turning 4.


Act all cool and nonchalant when the employees sing to you. Or at least pretend to be..


Dig into your yummy chocolate cake and icecream. Once you've had your fill you can allow the others to have just one bite. It's okay to be stingy on your Birthday.


Take a quick photo op with Mom and Dad. Just make sure not to let the fork out of your grip.. once the picture is done you can resume eating the delicious chocolateness

Later invite family and friends over for a little party. Show your friend your newest toys..


Open your presents...


After you are sung to (yet again) you can blow our the candles on your cake. The goal is to do it all in one breath.


However if you are just 4 and don't have the lung capacity for that, one at at time will do.


When you have a paparazzo for a Mom she'll want to take a picture of EVERYTHING. Even if she forgot about the cake until after the first piece was cut.


Dig into some more delicious cake. Don't worry about taking bites, the whole piece is much better!


Don't worry about wiping your face... no time for that.


THE END!
Join me next year for another installment of Birthday 101

My baby is 4 today.

It's hard to believe that 4 years has gone by so fast. To me 4 seems like such a big age. It's so different from 3... now he's preschool age. Pretty soon he'll be 5 and going into kindergarten. Aghh! I don't want to think about that yet. LOL.

This time 4 years ago I was starting to have contractions. By 9 that night they were getting pretty regular. I wanted to wait a little while until we went to the hospital but Matt insisted that we go right then. Good thing he did! Shortly after we got there and I was hooked up to monitors the nurse saw that Holden's heart rate was going down with each contraction. I was rushed to the O.R. for an emergency c/s. It was such a whirlwind... before I knew it I heard my baby's sweet cry. He was perfect (and still is).

Now 4 years later:
*He talks up a storm (Thanks to Speech Therapy- which he has to go today on his Birthday but he is excited about that.)
*He loves loves loves his trains. He spends endless hours playing with them. He has such an imagination.
*He loves food. The way to his heart is definitely through his stomach! For his birthday he wanted an Applebee's gift card. True story.
*He is such a loving kid and his smile can melt anybody's heart. He is a sweet, caring, beautiful boy. And a total Mama's boy. (I love that!)

I'll end this Birthday post with pictures from each year of Holdie's life..

His "first" Birthday


Turning 1...


His 2nd Birthday


Birthday Number 3..


Number 4 coming up!!

Happy Birthday Holden!!!!

A Look Back at 2008

Last year I did a similar post and thought it would be fun to do it again this year.

There was a lot of change in 2008. There were some great things that happened: moving into our new house, Holden improving with his speech and becoming potty trained, and Tiffany having a baby! Overall it's been a great year. For 2009 I hope for good health for everyone.

January 2008
Holden's 3rd Birthday! (I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 in 5 short days!)


February 2008
Hanging out with his cousins.


March 2008
Another cousin picture... I don't know how many of those we are going to have this year since they are now living in California.:-(


April 2008
Washing Mama's car!


May 2008
A busy busy month. We bought a house... Here's our attempt at taking our own picture in front of the sold sign.


June 2008
Potty Training! Holden started using the potty consistently in June. He learned so quickly. (P.S. We have since painted that bathroom.. we hated the color the previous owner had painted it.)


July 2008
We went to Six Flags on July 4th with Angie, Chris, the Kids, Mitch, and Debra.


August 2008
Hanging out at the pool..


September 2008
Going to an Emerson Drive concert with Tiffany. It was totally awesome!




October 2008
On Halloween Holden dressed up as a pirate.


November 2008
Holden playing with leaves on Thanksgiving with Aunt Tiffany and Grandpa.


December 2008
I can't pick just one for this month! Since I haven't shared many Christmas pictures on my blog.. I'll pick a few of my favorites.:-)

Putting Santa's cookies and milk out (and the reindeer's carrots).




He loved his GeoAir toy!


A family picture..


And of course a picture of my newest niece, Penelope Lea, who came into this world on December 26th~


Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2009 is a wonderful year for all!

My sister had her baby!

Penelope Lea made her arrival on December 26th at 6:45 p.m. She is 5 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She is such a pretty baby.

My sister ended up having a c-section (after nearly 12 hours of labor). I was in the OR with her during the surgery. It was such an emotional experience. I love my niece so much and am so pround of my sister!

I took a plethora of pictures. I couldn't help myself. I told Penelope that she better get used to it with me as an Aunt. There are many many more pictures to come!

Here are a few some of my favorites...

Merry Christmas!

Well as usual I'm one of the first ones up. I can never sleep late on Christmas!

Last night we drove through Ransom Canyon to look at the lights. It was so pretty.

As I was clearing the memory off my camera this morning, I realized I have A LOT of pictures from the month of December.

Here are some of my favorites...

Wearing the hat Nana made him-


Enjoying his hot cocoa


The Family


Making Christmas cookies-


Hanging out with Daddy.. Those socks he got from his Grandma and he wanted to wear them all the time.:-)


With his cousin Albert at Albert's Christmas concert.


Our new found addiction... Rock Band!


Santa and a miniature horse! (I'll share more pics from that later.)


And last but not least a picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus~


Merry Christmas Everyone! I'm off to wake up my guys who are STILL sleeping at almost 9 o'clock!

The Polar Express

We've been very busy this Christmas season. I have a lot of pictures I need to put on here. I'm very excited because the day after Christmas my sister is having her baby!! I can't wait to meet Penelope.:-)

Anyway, the Sunday before last we went to The Polar Express. It was really cute! Holden loves the movie and book so he was really excited about the whole experience.

We all dressed in our pajamas. Funny thing is I didn't think about it until the drive there but I think the wearing pj's part was only for the kids. LOL. But oh well...we're all just big kids, right?



Holding his ticket, about to board!


Getting on the train..


Looking out the window


The helpers passing out hot cocoa and cookies..


Holden enjoying his cookie.


The North Pole (not the greatest picture because it was taken from the inside of the train, but you get the idea.)


And lastly Holden admiring the bell he got from Santa.


Since I probably won't post again until after Christmas, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!