Happy Birthday, Carter!

Today was Carter's first birthday party. The little cowboy was busy being held by everyone all day, so I'm going to have to get a pic of him on here later.

Here are the kids digging for treasure. Madalyn is in the cutest little cowgirl outfit.

Mason, chillin' in the wagon.
Shootout!

Daddy trying to get Adam with a water gun. Adam has one thing to say to you, Daddy: Can't catch me!

Cutiepie Annabelle

Lots of Cake

Jackie and the birthday boy

Adam does not like being interrupted when he's eating cake.
Mason's first taste of cake. He loved it.

Gym Party

Adam and birthday girl, Rylee

Jack thought it was fun to throw himself off of the rings, so all those shots are blurry...like a lot of the shots today, since they didn't stop moving!

Adam had no fear of anything and of course found a ball that he didn't want to let go of.

The kids lying down on the bouncer, as it was being inflated. Jack freaked out as soon as it started moving and jumped off, while Adam wanted to jump up and down on it.

Caught them both in mid-air:

Golfing Party

The boys went to a glow-in-the-dark mini golf birthday party for one of Jack's "girlfriends", Mackenna. The first pic, I took with my flash on- Adam had the best time running around with his golf club and ball. The others, I took without my flash- you had to tell who was who by what on them was glowing. The second pic is Adam, who had white trim on his clothes and the third is Jack, who had white on the bottom half of his sleeves.

Adam's phrase of the day was "I could play!" Said pitifully in the morning, when we dropped off Jack at a camp day at My Gym, when Adam realized that he wasn't going to be able to stay and play, too. Then, said excitedly at night, when he realized that he was able to play golf.

Dino Hunt

Today was a very busy day for Jackie. Early this morning, he went to the "Elf Shop" at the YMCA to do his Christmas shopping for the family. He went into the store with his list and a helper. He told me all about every one's presents, though I didn't see any of them, since they are wrapped. So, everyone who is getting a mystery present from Jack this year, keep in mind that it was completely picked out just by him and we have no clue what it is.

Right after that, we went to a birthday party for Jack's friend Zane. I don't know if it was because we were about five minutes late and the party had already started or if he was tired from being out late last night or what it was, but he did not want to leave my side at first. This is the same child who told me when we were driving to the party that he wanted me to drop him off and go somewhere instead of staying with him. But, for the first 10-15 minutes, he wanted me to sit with him and hold his hand. So not like my independent child.

Once they got started doing all the cool dinosaur hunt things, he was in to it and I don't think he would have noticed if I had walked out the door, but I stayed to watch. They searched around the room for dinosaurs, made fossils, and made a volcano erupt. The volcano was Jack's favorite part and he's talked about it all day.

More Cake!

Adam trying his hardest to get more cake after inhaling his piece, even licking the plate when he was done to make sure he got every last crumb. All these little ones turning two recently; they used to be the babies of the group and now they are all running around with the big kids. Adam has some cute little girlfriends around if he decides to be anything like his big brother.

Jackie's girlfriends

Jackie likes to tell us that he has "two groups of girlfriends": his school girlfriends and his other girlfriends. Here he is with two of his "other" girlfriends.

Zoo Party

We went to a birthday party at the zoo today for Jack and Adam's friend Zachary.

Adam and Christopher, looking down at the fish. Adam later tried to climb that fence and jump in with the fish!


The kids were able to see some animals up close and get to pet them. They both liked the chinchilla. We had to hold Adam back from the animals- he wanted to open the cages and get them out by himself.



It was a different story with the snake. Watch Jack's reaction. After he yelled, "Aaaaaah! It's a snake!!!!", he jumped up and ran out of the room.




A tired Mommy with Mason, who hasn't been sleeping so well at night any more.


After the party, we walked thru the zoo for their "Zoo Boo," different Halloween events for the kids, including trick-or-treat.



Adam was feeling like a real monster by the end of the very long day.