Birthday Season

I guess you could say it is "birthday season" for our families. We have a few others scattered through the year but the majority are at the end of the year and September is the big month.
My dad starts it out with his birthday on September 9th. We had a big birthday celebration for dad, SLH, Suzi and I at mom and dad's last Sunday. Dad got gift cards to Home Depot to use for some home improvement projects.

And then of course there was our little two year old who had his own birthday party on September 11th. EMH got lots of toys!
Since I have already showed his birthday pictures, I thought I would share this picture that I took this morning before church. I had gotten my shoes out to wear and I turned around and he had them on. Sporting them in his pajama top and diaper. I could just eat those cute little legs up! :)

We went to Uncle Todd's and Aunt Toni's on Labor Day weekend and they had an early party for EMH and SLH. Granna and Granddaddy were there too. We had a great time! There will be a blog post coming up with more about that fun trip.

Meme's birthday was on September 14th and we got take out from PF Chang's and celebrated on her birthday. SLH and AEH made a homemade birthday cake. I am so mad that I didn't get a picture of that "masterpiece". :) Meme got some Bath and Body Works soap and some Yellow Box sandals.

Next up was SLH's on September 15th. We celebrated at Pizza Inn and then came back to our house and had his favorite cake that Meme makes for him, "Sock it to Me Cake".
He got two LSU shirt's, gift card to Malco Theater, a Polo button down shirt and some running pants.

Aunt Suzi's was on September 20th. We celebrated at the big celebration last Sunday at mom and dad's. She got MONEY and a gift certificate to one of her favorite stores, "Judith Lee's".

We went ahead and celebrated my birthday with my family since it is October 8th and I am leaving that day for my annual "girls trip". I got money to take shopping with on my trip!! :)
SLH is holding his money up that he got at the big birthday celebration at my parent's.

That is all for now. Next up will be my official birthday October 8th and Granddaddy's October 9th.

EMH is two!

EMH turned the big 2 this past Saturday. He is now an official toddler and not a baby. It is sad to leave the baby years behind but it is exciting to watch him grow and learn new things. He learns new things everyday and if asked, we can tell a funny thing that he said or did everyday. He is having some of the toddler fits and testing us to see what he can get away with. He told me today when I picked him up from school, "I pull Ms. Leta's hair". Ms. Leta is his teacher. I asked her if he did and she said no. He will tell you he did something wrong even when he didn't just to see your reaction. He did get in trouble for the first time at preschool last week for pulling hair. His teachers tell me that he has not done it again but we do realize that he probably will. :) The sweetest thing he is doing lately is singing. He can sing several songs in their entirety... "Kum Bah Yah", "Jesus Loves Me", " The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Happy Birthday". He also told me tonight as I was rocking him before bed, " I hold AM's hand". This is a little girl at his school that he likes and talks about a lot. I met her mom the other day in car pool and she told me that she hears about EMH a lot at her house too. Wow, they sure do start this stuff early!
We had a party at our house for EMH on his birthday. We rented a train and he LOVED it! Actually he wasn't so sure about it at first...



but he ended up really liking it and has talked about it a lot since. Meme found him a cute Train Conductor outfit. He wouldn't wear the outfit but he loved the hat! We also gave out train whistles to all the kids for their party favors.





He had the cutest cake that our friend Gayla made for him.

He loved being sang to and blowing out his candles. He keeps telling us "I blow out two candles".

EMH loved all his gifts!

He was a wild man on his truck that Juju and Granddad got him. We have definitely got to work on how to steer and drive it.

The kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and just playing around in the backyard. It is neat because EMH's friends (and our family friends) have children that are EMH's age and AEH's age. So AEH had just as many of her friends there as EMH. So much so that when everyone left she said "I really enjoyed my birthday party". This gave be an idea. I may have to combine their parties sometime. :)


Our friends/neighbors let us borrow a blow up jumper that they really enjoyed.

As the shirt says, "This little monkey is two". He had a great time at his party and so did we!!!

A big thanks to Aunt Suzi for taking the pictures. It was so good to not have to worry about taking pictures during the party and she has a much better camera and does a much better job than I do. I just hate that we didn't get any pictures of her. :(

"AEH's Tea Party"

It is probably no surprise to anyone that AEH loves to dress up and adding a tea party to it is just icing on the cake. She had been telling me that she wanted to have some friends over for a tea party. So the week she started school, they split the alphabet for their first day and AEH went the first day and was off the second day. EMH went to his preschool that day that she was home, so we made it a special day for AEH since this was a such a special time with her starting kindergarten. We invited some of her friends over, got some flowers for the table, laid out the tablecloth and had a tea party!

We ordered a cookie cake for her desert.

AEH, being the sweet lover that she is, REALLY enjoyed her sugar cookie cake.

Juju had a cute tea set that we used and AEH picked Milo's sweet iced tea for the drink. They even did a little toasting.

They mostly enjoyed stirring and sipping their tea with their teaspoons.

Two of the girls came dressed in their own outfits, but RB chose to dress up with some of AEH's dress up clothes. We loved what she chose. The horse just made the outfit!!

They had a great time and it was all that AEH wanted it to be!

Waiting for Daddy

SLH will usually call me when he is on his way home and one day last week the kids heard me talking to him and went to the window to wait for daddy. They got AEH's chairs out of her room and they pulled them up to the front door.
They were so cute! SLH always gets a big welcome from them when he comes home. He barely makes it in the door good before he is bombarded. :) They are much more consistent with thier nice welcome than I am. I usually am glad he is home but mostly because I need some RELIEF! Sometimes my welcome is not quite as happy as theirs. I am working on it though and trying to learn from them. :)

The Bus Ride!!

I have an update on the bus ride. I was standing out waiting for her and the bus went past our house and on around the culdesac. I saw and heard him make a few stops.

And then I saw him coming back down our street. I must admit that I was a little nervous at this point. Wondering if she was on the bus and if he was going to stop.
And then right after I took this picture, he honked his horn and I knew she was on there!


AEH then, stuck her head out the window and yelled "MOMMY!!". Can you imagine how happy I was!!! I wish I could have been quick enough to get a picture. He stopped right at our driveway and as you can see she jumped off!


She got home at 2:40, so that means our street was probably the first stop and that she wasn't on the bus more that about 10 minutes. So much better than carpool. It took me 1 hour from the time I left home until we got back home the first day and the second day it took me 50 minutes. That was also with a 2 year old taking part of his nap in his car seat. She seemed to really like it and wanted to do it again. So as long as she likes it and as long as we don't suspect or hear about any problems, we will let her ride home in the afternoon. But if for any reason she wants me to start picking her up again, I will most definitely do it!
One day I am going to have to wake EMH up early so that he can see his sister get off the bus. He will love it!!!

Kindergarten and Preschool

We had some exciting "firsts" at our house last week. AEH started kindergarten and EMH started preschool! It was physically and emotionally draining for their mom and dad. :) Our babies are starting new phases in their lives and although we are so happy that they are growing and blossoming it is still hard to see them move on and leave those baby years behind.
Our hardest thing is going to be going to bed and waking up earlier. We have never been good at getting in the bed early. AEH wants to ride the bus. First of all we just don't know if we can put her on a bus and second it comes by our house at 6:23. When I woke her up about 6:30 the first morning, I told her she missed the bus and she said "mom, your kidding" and then thought about it and said, "i'll catch it tomorrow". I don't want to have to get her up that early, and who am I kidding, I don't want to get up that early either. :) I also don't want her to have to ride the bus that long before getting to school, so I don't think we will ride it to school. But her teachers have told me how great her bus driver is and she would be the first drop off in the afternoons and she would ride at the front of the bus, so we are going to try letting her ride it home. It would also help because of EMH's naps in the afternoon.

AEH had meet the teacher night to start off our week. Her teachers were very nice and we have had several friends tell us what good teachers they are. In fact, we have not heard one negative thing about the school.
This is her with her teacher's. I just love how EMH just hopped right up in her teachers lap like this was all about him too.

AEH got a special treat from Ms. Staci and Meghan. They wanted to take her shopping for a new school outfit. They have been a very special part of AEH's life since the day we brought her home. AEH had such a good time with them picking out an outfit. Such a sweet thing to do at a very special time.

Ms. Staci wishing her a great year at kindergarten.

Ready for her first day of kindergarten! Her face shows a little hesitation but she looked so cute in her outfit!

She and daddy walking up the sidewalk to her school. I just about lost it here. :(

Mommy trying to be a "big girl" in this picture.

Daddy was holding up pretty good.

AEH saying to her teacher, "excuse me can I go play with those toys?"

EMH giving her a goodbye hug.

We left her coloring at her table with a new friend.

When I picked her up she ran out with all smiles and got in the car and said "I like school!". She was ready to go back. Her first thing she talked about was a song that they sang about popcorn. And then she talked about how she didn't go to sleep during rest time. That's about all the details I got.

EMH started two days a week at the Mother's Morning Out/Preschool Program that AEH went too.
He had his backpack on and he was ready for his "big day".

We were prepared for him to not go so easily but we were pleasantly surprised. He got right out...

and went to one of the nice ladies doing carpool without a tear in his eyes.

He was waiting with all smiles for me in the bye-bye buggy when I pulled up to get him. His teacher said he stole all of their hearts. She said he was so loving and liked to be held and cuddled. That's our EMH!


Well, we will see how this next week goes. Maybe we can ALL get into a good routine. :)

A Very Special Day!

It was just another ordinary Monday as I witnessed something that made me so happy that words can hardly describe.
We had just finished eating lunch and AEH came and asked me how much longer it would be before I put EMH down for a nap. She wanted to know because while he takes his nap she gets to watch a video and she was ready to watch a video. I told her to give me about 30 min. and I would put him down. I was cleaning up lunch dishes and I looked in her room and saw her trying to hold him. I quickly figured out that she was trying to get him to sleep on her own so that she could start watching her video. I didn't think much about it because he was squirming and I didn't think he would comply. About 10 min. later, I realized that I had not heard much coming from her room and I peaked around the corner and to my surprise, she was rocking and singing him a lullaby and he was sound asleep on her shoulder. I quickly grabbed my camera and video. It was the sweetest thing I think I have ever seen and AEH was so proud of herself.

Please forgive the mess in her room. We have been home all day and well, this is just what happens. :)
As she sings you will hear her correct herself as she sings the wrong words a couple of times and I am not sure where she got cotton roll for a part in this song???? I also like the way she is patting and shushing him (just like I do to him). :) What a priceless moment!!!

Our ordinary Monday turned into a "Very Special Day" that I am sure we will never forget!