A Preschool Graduation

So, this little super funny, adorable mess of a child decided to go and graduate from preschool today!  Really!!???!!  I could hardly get this image out of my head as the little lady, who is very ready for kindergarten, walked across the stage to accept her "diploma!"  You know how very unemotional I am...that was NOT the case today.  A couple of tears made their way out as I realized that I have run out of time with yet another of my precious children.  This happens way too fast, in my opinion.  But, as I mentioned, she is very ready.  I would argue that she was ready for kinder when Maci started two years ago.  They probably could have done it together just fine.  So, she is thrilled to be starting school in the fall.  Congratulations on a year well done in preschool, sweet girl!  You did a phenomenal job and have made us all very proud!

 On the way to graduation.

 Waving to her fan club as she walked down the aisle!

 Accepting her "diploma"

 Ice cream party afterwards!

 Payton shared her ice cream sweetly with her seriously persistent brother.

 A photo with our star!

 A pic with her teachers.

 My beautiful little lady!

Precious Little Friends

I got to go over and watch Allie Kate today for an hour or so and took Blake and Payton with me.  This picture is not the least bit staged, I promise!!!  (Its not quite as sweet as it appears either!!  Ha!)  So Allie Kate was watching tv while sitting on this little stool.  Blake thought it looked like a great place to sit and proceeded to walk over and was about to shove her off of the stool when he caught a glimpse of his mother's "look."  He slyly smiled at me like, "what mom, I wasn't gonna do that??"  Then he very gently sat down beside her and wrapped his big, chubby arm around her!  He thought he was pretty stinkin funny!!!  (I did too!)  Anyway, I begged him to stay right there until I could grab my phone and he fully cooperated!!!  Hooray!!  Cutest moment of the day, for sure!

The Party!!!

Ron and Cindy let us have Blake's 2nd birthday party at their home yesterday!!  We are officially homeless so we were thrilled to get to use their pool for a swimming party.  We had a couple of friends and our families and really had a great time!  You will see from the pictures, that a highlight for Blake was certainly the cake!!!  Oh my, did he enjoy that!!!  Happy birthday, my sweet, sweet son!!!

Happy Birthday to The Other Man in My Life!!!

Well, this precious little guy turns 2 tomorrow so we had his picture taken.  He is not so much allowing me to take many pics of him lately, so I turned to good ole Portrait Innovations for the big two year picture.  :-)  Can I just say, he was a total goof ball for the photographer.  It was hard to select pictures at the end! 

Blake's year has been one of the best in my life!  His personality is simply precious.  He is really funny, very sweet, and he is so good-natured.  We have loved watching this phase of his life.  He is my shopping buddy, and the girls' playmate, he is Alan's right-hand man.  We all get such a kick out of him. 
Our favorite things he does right now are:

*he doesn't talk a lot, but he says cookie perfectly every time, that's his favorite food group!
*he loves all trucks, but especially construction vehicles, and as we drive down the road he very excitedly yells at me as he sees them and asks what they are
*he only ever runs, never walks anywhere
*he's almost always in a very good mood
*he still uses a pacifier to sleep (and i have no plans to take it away anytime soon) and has started calling it his peepee (can we say embarrassing!!)
*he spends a lot of time pretend playing with Payton and is a very good little brother, obeying each thing she asks him to do
*he is starting to sit while being read entire books now (that is kinda huge!!)
*he insists on having me sing one round of "rock a bye baby" every night before putting him in his bed
*he adores playing outside, and insists on wearing his Spiderman helmet while he's out
*he is very polite, usually saying please and thank you without even being prompted
*he also now responds to "I love you" with "I love you too"---melt my heart!!!

Blake is most definitely the icing on the cake in our family.  He is an amazing little man and we are all 4 head over heels for him!!!  Happy Birthday, Blake!!!  We are so proud to be called your family!