My Baby's Growing Up

It was a joy to celebrate Micah's birthday this summer! But I have to say, "I can't believe my baby is growing up!" He keeps telling me it won't be long before he'll be taller than me. And I'm sure he's right! I love to remember those days when I could hold him in my arms and everything was so new! But it is so much fun to have a 7 year old to interact and have fun with. Every day is filled with adventure and crazy new ideas. I love his imagination!

Anticipating our traditional birthday breakfast cake!

Wow! Look at all those candles!

Ready to EAT!!

Blowing birthday kisses

After breakfast, Micah was sent on a scavenger hunt to find his birthday present...

4 clues later he ended up at the front door to find his new bike!

It didn't take long for him to start trying new tricks

Daddy even got in on the trick action

And Ashlyn was eager to join in on the bike riding!

He was surprised to find out we would be going to see Cars 2 at the theater. He loved the movie!!

For his birthday dinner, Micah picked triple mac/quadruple cheese

We had a great day celebrating our special birthday boy!

She's Growing Up

I can't believe our little girl is growing up so fast. Ashlyn turned 3 last month and she had so much fun celebrating. Here's a few pictures from her birthday season...

She loves Minnie Mouse so we went with a Minnie themed party this year

Her favorite part of the cake was licking the icing off the feet of the characters

Daddy and the birthday girl

Yum! She much preferred ice cream over cake

Yay!!! Time to open presents!!

All Minnied up! Thanks to Joshie and Josiah.

Micah was an eager helper for Ashlyn

So determined to get that paper off.

We got to celebrate Aunt Bonnie's birthday too. Here the boys are quite eager to see the goodies in her basket.

It was fun to have both dads with us... a rare occurrence these days.

We were excited to have Miss Olewiler join us too!

So excited about some matching teacups from Aunt Bonnie! She was ready to use them that night.

Later we got to Skype with Papa and Nana while they watched Ashlyn open some of her presents. Modern technology is so much fun!

Ashlyn and Josh

Here's the birthday girl on her birthday... all decked out in purple. So cute!

Checking out some fun treats at her place setting in the morning.

Ready for breakfast birthday cake. Ashlyn loved blowing out her candles...

but she loved licking them off even better.

How old are you now?

A few more presents

We had a our homeschool group on her birthday so we took some little cupcakes to celebrate with her friends. They were a big hit!

Her favorite thing to do in the nursery is playing with a stuffed animal in the swing. She straps Mickey in...

and then swings him for a bit before taking him out and starting the process all over again.

Mama and the birthday girl

For lunch we met Daddy and work to eat in the caf. Ashlyn picked Froot Loops for lunch. What fun!

Ashlyn was quite surprised when the ladies who work at the caf brought over a special treat for her. They called everyone's attention to the little girl celebrating her birthday and then everyone proceeded to sing to her. We were shocked at how embarrassed she was. She just looked down at the table and her face got quite red. I guess she's not always too keen on being the center of attention.

Finishing off with an ice cream cone with Daddy

Back at home getting herself ready. (Thanks for the lipgloss Nana!)

Yet another round of singing for the birthday girl

We had Daniel and Andrew with us to celebrate that night. So fun!

Reading the Bible and getting ready for bed.

Ashlyn got a sleeping bag for her birthday so the kids were excited to try them out that night. She didn't last long in there though. I guess it takes a little time to get used to sleeping in a bag. She thought it was much more comfortable to sleep in her bed.

Legoland Fun

We had a great time at Legoland last week with the Thomas family! It was our first time there, and we were blessed with a beautiful day (which has been a rarity for Southern California this year). And as we were waiting in line to purchase our tickets, we were blessed by a woman who gave us a free ticket that her family wasn't going to use. What a blessing! Praise God!

On our first ride at the park - a cruise around the lego world

Ashlyn and Wendy (the figures here were amazing! All made out of legos!)

Micah and Bob the builder

Getting ready to fly around legoland!

Micah and Josiah

Bonnie and Josh

Daddy and Ashlyn

Feeling pretty good after his first flight!

Josh and Bonnie coming down the slide. The slides looked like so much fun, but were not very much enjoyed by Josh and Ashlyn. Josh did go down, but Ashlyn cried her way down the other way. Since they make every slider ride alone it doesn't make a very good toddler slide.

Here come the big boys - they love it!

Making each other laugh and being silly together. Such fun!

Coming out of a really difficult video game ride. This one was much harder than Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland!

Having fun together in line

While the big boys headed off to the roller coaster we went back to ride the airplanes again.

Bonnie and Josh... all ready for a safari!

Ashlyn loved that she got to drive the jeep on our safari!

Joshua and Bonnie. We were in another helicopter next to them. I think this was Ashlyn's favorite ride! She kept talking about it the rest of the day.

Ashlyn loved "driving" the little lego cars!

And Josh had fun too!

Mama and Ashlyn

Cousins... having fun together!

Getting ready for a ride on the pirate ship. This was one of my favorite rides!

Swinging near the water play area. It was a little too cool for our kids to enjoy the water area. We've been sick too much this year and didn't want invite it back.

Micah did a great job driving his own boat! I kept trying to pass him, but he always cut me off and beat me to the finish line.

Ashlyn wanted her picture by this lego man

This was our last ride. Ashlyn saw it when we came in the park (it was elevated and in the middle of everything) and kept asking to do it, so we finally waited in line for it. Notice that it is a rider-powered ride?

Aaawwww, siblings... so sweet!

After dinner, I realized that I never got a picture of the two big boys at the park. So here they are relaxing on the bench outside Denny's after a crazy game of tag. All that running around did them some good... it was a quiet drive home!