How did this happen?

How did this happen? How did we go from this sweet, handsome, and innocent little baby to...

Graduating Preschool, to...

First day of Kindergarten??

More to come...

helpers

I'm not going to lie, today was a rough day with the boys. They weren't totally awful in church, in fact they have come such a long way since we've moved. But I'm being really strict with them to keep the good behavior up, and they were scolded quite a bit this morning. Aiden made us a little late because he was goofing off with his seat belt. And Devin was pretty much the Devinator all day. They have been very whiny and demanding, and talking back. Devin has told me "NO!" so much these last few days-I feel like I'm on my wits end at times. A lot of the times I think this blog reflects on many of our happy times, as it should; but we are also human, and my boys are boys. They aren't all smiles and giggles. They drive me nuts too (and my neighbors below as many of you know).
So after having such a hard day, all I wanted to do was send them to bed for the rest of the night. But, we got out and went to the park, had a great dinner, popped some cookies in the oven, and played hard (since I knew our neighbor was gone as we ran into her leaving when we came back from the park) until Micah was called back to the hospital. I looked through some of my photos trying to decide what to post about when I came across some pictures my mom took that have the kids cleaning. And it made me think about some of the wonderful qualities my precious boys posses...like the desire to help. They really do love to help (most of the time) and often are asking me if they can "help" too. They love putting the clothes in the laundry, and stirring the pot of mac n cheese. They LOVE doing the toilets, and often I find the Devinator "cleaning" them without my supervision. Yesterday Aiden saw me mopping and practically begged me to let him help. I don't want to ever overlook these things, especially as they get older-because I know it doesn't always stay this way!! But really, it's been good for me to take a step back and reflect on what wonderful children I do have. They are pretty well behaved for the most part, they love us unconditionally, and have the sweetest dispositions. So many people here have commented on just how friendly they are...and they're right. I have some great kids.

Making noodles with Kiki-I'm sure they're better at it than I am!!

Cleaning up all the flour, and everything else that ends up on the floor. I think they swept for like 10 minutes!

Vacuuming at Grammy's house. Now this doesn't surprise me one bit considering the long list of chores she always had for me and my sisters! :) But I know Aiden does love to vacuum-like his Mommy. Not sure why, but that is my favorite chore to do.

Not to be outdone, Devin is wiping the tray. She taught him how to wipe the table when he was just able to pull himself up. It was cute to see :)

So thank you Lord for my wonderful boys, and that they continue to be such willing helpers for years to come!

Devin's Birthday Party

My baby boy has turned 2! It's quite unbelievable that it's been two years already...as so many have said before me, and many will say after...it goes by so fast! So here is how we celebrated. On his actual birthday we went out for pizza as a family and let him open a few presents. Aiden got him the Toy Story race track, Great Grandma and Grandpa got him some cute clothes, and my parents got the boys those zhu zhu pet hamsters, and other things to be opened at his party. We told the boys that Devin got his for his birthday and Aiden got one for being so brave getting all his shots earlier that week. They were pretty excited :)

After we had pizza, we went back to the condo and sang Happy Birthday with the ice cream cake and cones I got for him.

We weren't sure at first what to do about the party we had planned for Devin on Saturday after getting the news about the accident. We knew the boys were looking forward to it, and I had already prepared a lot of the food the night before. With Sandy and Larry having to immediately leave, we knew they were going to be disappointed enough-we couldn't bear to cancel the party too. And honestly I think the distraction was good for us. At least it was for me. I was then able to deal with my grief after the boys were put to bed. So here is what we did for his party.

I had some games lined up, but it was kind of unorganized because of what had happened, and I didn't have the initial help with having his parents there I was planning on. We have made some great friends here, and they were so great stepping in and doing what they could to help keep things running smoothly, but I was still caught a little off guard. I was also planning on having some more kids come from the neighborhood who are a bit older, so I had attempted to put together games that everyone could enjoy. However they really didn't show up until way later.

We hid suckers with basball cards taped on them as a little hunt for them. We played balloon volleyball and attempted mini basketball and soccer. The kids were a little distracted, and like I said the host was a little unorganized. I found my "awards" for them well after the party was over. Oh well...at least they got their treat bags!

We were so happy to have our new friends come and celebrate. Ryan, Makaela, and Mateo all were there to make this a fun party for Devin.

We also tried to play water balloon toss, but it was more like water balloon get your feet wet :) It was cute nonetheless, and it was warm water.

Micah did great manning the grill :)

We had a sports themed party-in case you couldn't tell ;)

Singing Happy Birthday. It was too windy and the candles wouldn't stay lit...but he got to blow them out on his birthday, so no biggie. He pretended anyway!

You thing he's enjoying that cupcake, well at lest the icing ;)

Present time!

He got a lot of wonderful gifts from everyone, and he really loves them all-Aiden too! haha :)

Yeah, that's hot! ;)

You think he likes soccer?

Thank you to all our friends who came over to celebrate with us, and for being so great and understanding of our situation.

Happy Birthday Devin!

And per the request of Kiki and Grandpa, we took the boys to Toys R Us and let Devin pick out his presents from them and his uncles. And Aiden got to pick out his boats that he really wanted. Thank you Kiki, Grandpa, Uncle Adam and Danno!