Isla's Birthday Celebration---Part 1

This weekend we had our family birthday party for our birthday princess and she loved it! It was a birthday party full of Sofia the First including a "Birthday Princess" banner. Isla told me I was the best mommy ever for getting all of the decorations so that's a win in my book for sure :) We were happy to have so many family members take the time to celebrate Isla turning 4. It's crazy to believe that so much time has gone bye since we welcomed her into this world. She has brightened our lives and brought us so much joy. She is beautiful, funny, smart and so loving and caring. I couldn't have asked for a better daughter and we cherish every moment with her. The good, the bad and the ugly! Each moment is a moment we learn a little more about her, a little more about ourselves and a little more about parenting. I'm thankful for her every day!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the party and the link to the rest of them is below!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BbuGTlo1Ys3tw

Nicolle 

Christmas Pictures

Here is a link to our Christmas pictures from ALL of our celebrations with ALL of our family! Enjoy!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BbuGTlo1Ys3pg

Nicolle

Back to the grind

Well last week was our first week back to a normal schedule. I did manage to accomplish quite a bit on the never-ending "to-do" list with the help of my sister last Monday. We did get out of the house on Wednesday and met one of Isla's preschool friends who happens to have a brother just a couple months younger than Aiden at a play place called Fun Run. It's basically a bunch of bouncy type things...good to wear the kids out so they'll take good naps! And with everything there was to do, Aiden chose to drag/push around and old beat-up lawn mower and vacuum.

  

I'm trying to keep the TV and Disney Jr from being our main source of entertainment because the kids become rotten TV zombies and it's just not pleasant for anyone! They did get some craft things for Christmas and Isla loves to paint with her new paint. Aiden stays interested for about 5 minutes and then he starts eating whatever craft thing he has : )

Isla refused pictures during craft time!

This past Friday was a big day for me... I turned 30! I'm officially out of my twenties and much wiser now I'm sure! Josh and I enjoyed a kid free dinner at Olive Garden on my actual birthday and then the kids went to my mom's Saturday because we had Josh's company holiday party at Boulevard Brewing Co. I splurged and had some diet coke ;) We had a good time and it was nice to spend some time together before he started back to school this week.

The kids and I went to Aunt Gina's house to spend time with Nannie and Gina and do a little sewing while the kids played. It was nice to have something to do because Josh had class last night so we enjoyed our outing!

Baby "BOY" Downing!

As most everyone knows now, we are expecting a baby boy in May! We didn't find out the gender with either Isla or Aiden and it was such a wonderful surprise but this time we had a little more to consider as the baby and a sibling will need to share rooms while they are young. I felt just as excited as I did on delivery day and now we know how to plan for the arrival of the baby. It's a little different being able to pick out things for the room and know that I can start cleaning out all of our baby girl items that we don't need anymore. Josh is excited because he didn't have a brother growing up and he is anxious to see the dynamic between the boys. We actually both grew up with 2 girls and a boy in our family so this is new territory! We are happy the boys are just two years apart and Isla will stay our little princess :)

We will be doing a baseball themed room for the boys... I know, surprise, surprise right?! We are going to be getting bunk beds for Aiden to switch to around the time he is 2 which is the same time the baby is due. I'm excited to get started on the room now that everyone knows the big secret!

Our handsome boy! On a side note...His sono picture looks very similar to his brother's!

The Holidays are Over

Last weekend we celebrated our last Christmas with Josh's mom and step-dad and once again the kids were spoiled! I even got a little spoiled :) We have really enjoyed all of the time we were able to spend with our family over the holidays and as sad as I am that the month of December is over, I think the kids are in desperate need of a little routine again. Our drive home on Sunday took quite a while because we had to drive in blizzard-like conditions(I may be exaggerating...but not much!). The kids were ecstatic to get out of the car when we got home and they just ran around the house. Not playing with toys, just running!

I'm still working on uploading all of our pictures to an album and I'm hoping to have it posted this week for everyone to see.

This week we are just working on getting things back in order. Which is hard when preschool is cancelled because its 0 degrees outside! Isla does have dance class today so she is pretty excited about seeing her friends. We have play date tomorrow with a friend from Isla's preschool class so I'm excited to get the kids out and about.

We are also working on keeping Miss Isla in bed at night so last night I started a sticker chart for her and every morning, if she stayed in bed that night, she gets to put a sticker on the chart. Once she gets 5 stickers in a row, she gets a surprise(to be determined)! She has been so bad about getting out of bed multiple times before she falls asleep and we have scolded her and talked to her etc. And the first night I switch it up and offer a "surprise", she stays in bed. I wish I would have thought to do that a while ago ; )

I hope everyone is staying warm!

Nicolle

Christmas!

Christmas was full of fun and memories and we aren't even done yet! We still get to celebrate Christmas with Nannie and Paw(Josh's mom and step-dad) next weekend. We have so many pictures from Christmas already so I'm going to create an album and share the link on here for everyone to view instead of uploading them individually onto the blog.

The kids got so many wonderful gifts from everyone and Santa was good to them as well. We did have a few hiccups along the way thought. For the last two years, Isla has stumbled upon the gifts so we had to shuffle some gifts that were supposed to be from Santa and make those from us and vice verse. And then when Santa(Josh) was setting up Isla's new kitchen... we discovered we were missing a part! So Josh being the wonderful father he is went outside at 1:30 in the morning, found a board and cut it to fit the missing piece and continued putting it together. And you can't really tell and the new part is already here :)

After Christmas day, we couldn't even walk from one end of the house to the next because of the mess but the mess was well worth the smiles on their faces. Isla had quite the list for Santa and she received most of what she asked for. Aiden's Christmas was full of Mega blocks and hot wheels and he loves all of it!

Now if only there was a magic fairy to clean Isla's room....................... Any takers????

We hope your Christmas was wonderful! Pictures to come!

Tis the Season

Tis the season of Christmas! When we get to pick out our tree, decorate the house and look at Christmas lights. All of the things you want your children to enjoy so much so you can create everlasting memories for their childhood. Does it ever end happily? Not around here! Although the journey to do all of these things wasn't what you would call picture perfect, we do have memories :)

The quest to find our Christmas tree

For the past 6 years I believe, Josh and I have gone to Pumpkins and Pines in Pleasant Hill MO to pick out our pumpkins and our tree. The trees are big and beautiful and the family that runs the farm is so nice and friendly. We now live a little far from there so I looked up some new tree farms and we headed out on our journey to find the perfect tree. Or as Isla said, "The best tree ever!" We first went to Excelsior Springs and almost immediately realized that we would not be getting a tree there, but I encouraged everyone to stay positive and search for a tree. Thirty minutes later we were back in the car and on our way to the next tree farm. We decided to try the farm in Lathrop. Luckily, we did find one tree that we liked and that's the tree in our living room now! This place was completely opposite from the first. It was like walking through the forest to find a tree. If they don't see a tree, they just let it grow! We have decided that next year we will be going back to Pumpkins and Pines, the place we know and love.

Aiden was very serious about his walking stick!

Decorating the Tree

Once we got the tree up, we attempted to decorate the tree. Maybe it was the sickness, busy weekend or kids just being kids but this did not go as I imagined. What I imagined was a warm cozy house, Christmas music, smiles and laughter. What really happened was crying, fits, time out and some more crying! I know, it's my own fault right?! Well in the end, everyone calmed down and the kids helped put ornaments on the tree and the tree looks beautiful :) 

 The Christmas bead thief!

And the Christmas decoration thief!

Christmas Light Cruising 

Last Thursday Josh was home early so we loaded up in the car to look at Christmas lights. We are still new to the area so we just drove around. Some neighborhoods had lots of lights and some were a miss. On our way, according to Isla, we saw a mustache (Holly with berries) and a snake. Aiden just said "wow" when he saw some lights he enjoyed. Here is a picture of the most festive house we found!