Keegan's Birthday

We had fun celebrating our 3 year old last weekend!  On Saturday morning we partied with friends and family at Jump Street.  This may be Keegan's favorite place on Earth.  He had so much fun jumping with his friends and eating his "Dusty cake" that he had requested for three months :-)

Best Buds

Sweet, Sweet Kiddos!

  We were so happy to celebrate our little guy with our sweet friends and family.  It's hard to believe he is three!

 

Three years old!

Today our Keegan is 3 years old!  It's hard to believe that it's been three years since we held our little guy for the first time.  And now he is 30 pounds of busy, funny, unstoppable little boy!

He is such a little character these days.  He is so silly and already loves potty humor.  But he is also so sweet and lovable.  He will randomly walk up to one of us and say, "Hey Mama, or Hey Daddy....I love you.' out of the blue.  He loves to play outside and the park (any park) is his favorite place.  He loves to run.  He will just randomly crouch down on the ground in a 'set' position and say "Tell me when Mama!" and take off when I say GO.  He is so fast!

 

He loves to play with his airplanes and superheroes.  His Dusty airplane is in hand most of the day and he loves to fly him around making plane noises and acting out scenes from the movie. 

He loves to pick out 'Thomas' books at the library and read them before naps and at bedtime.  He has finally started drawing a little with dry erase markers on Ava's easel and it looks like he may be right handed even though he bats left handed.  He likes to draw lines and circles and attempts other shapes too.  He will draw his heart out and come and get me to tell me "Look, I wrote my name!"  Hmmm...Maybe in another language?  Ha!  I'm happy that he is showing a little interest though :)

He is so excited to go to preschool in the fall!  I took him to register last month and he insisted on wearing his backpack.  He walked the halls waving and talking to everyone and when we went to Ava's preschool teacher's classroom he said 'ok, bye! you can come pick me up.'  Then he pulled his sandwich out of his backpack and sat down at a table to eat!!  The teachers and I could not stop laughing.  He proved to be more than ready and I was so happy to see how much he loved it there.  Mrs. Sherri and Mrs. Sharon were so sweet with him. He was not happy that he didn't get to stay.

Keegan has his first t-ball practice on Wednesday.  He's talked about playing for a year and I can't wait to see him out there running around in his little baseball pants.  I have a feeling 3 year old t-ball is going to be pretty comical.  As his coach said in an e-mail "It's a lot like herding cats."

This is going to be a big year for our little man!  And while it's sad to me that his baby days are behind us, it's so exciting to think of the days ahead.  This little guy has blessed us so much.  I'm so proud to be his mommy and we are so, so thankful for him. 

You stole my heart 3 years ago and you still hold it in your hands today.  We love you so much Keegan Reese!

5.5

I'm a month late in posting this but I thought I would share some pics and updates of Ava at five and half.   

She has learned so much in kindergarten this year.  The curriculum has been shocking to us as parents because kinder is so not what it used to be!  Ava is writing sequential sentences creating her own 'short stories' and reading everything around her.  She's learned a lot of math like geometric shapes and addition/subtraction via objects but she tends to love the reading and writing homework the most like her mama :)

Here's a pic of her first short story that she wrote on her own called 'The flower and the Weather.' 

Not sure if it was the sad ending or the fact that my little girl is big enough to write this but I was a little teary when she showed me.

She loves to spend her time mostly creating cards, books, pictures, etc. at her craft table.  She also loves to play school with her dolls, reading them books and teaching on her easel.  She says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up - either a dance teacher or school teacher.

She loves to ride her bike all over the neighborhood and down to the park with me on sunny days after school.

She is so much fun and such a little person with her own ideas and dreams.

Her smile is contagious.  There is so much life in this sweet girl!  Never a dull story or activity....She is animated with every word and a joy to watch.

She makes us so proud and happy but most of all thankful for the 2,000+ days of joy she's brought us so far.  Oh, how we love this girl!

A Valentine Weekend

We've had such a fun weekend!  I always feel like January and February are the calm before the storm for us.  Spring sports and recitals are right around the corner but there hasn't been a lot going on other than our daily routines. 

We had a fun weekend planned that began Friday morning.  My kiddos talked me into making heart pancakes for breakfast a few days ago.  It took a few days for me to commit.....Morning person I am Not! But it was worth the early morning alarm :)

We had sweet friends join us for breakfast and play!

 Keegan had so much fun with sweet Kenlee.  They cracked me up with their conversations. He already has a hard time saying no to the ladies......

Ava was soooo excited that I could come to her class party. It was great to see her having so much fun with her friends and teacher. 

They had a really fun time!

It's still a little surreal that she is a kindergartner- And it's February!

Ava & her teacher

I have to say that I had my heart set on a different teacher last summer.  I prayed with all of my heart and God put me in my place and gave Ava the perfect teacher for her little personality.  Ava is encouraged, challenged and loved on daily and we couldn't be more thankful for this lady.

 

We decided to make our own heart pizza because Ava was not impressed with our Papa Murphy's heart pizza last year.  Jeff worked his hardest on the dough and we cut pepperonis into little hearts.  It was actually really good and Ava thought it looked much more "like a real heart."

We made and decorated heart sugar cookies.  Maybe a little much?  I realized at the end of the day we had not eaten anything that wasn't in the shape of a heart.  But they loved it.

And because their Daddy can Never wait until an actual holiday to give gifts....This was the night before...

Crafts and flowers for this girl

And stickers and a baseball bank for this guy

Valentine's Day last year...They are growing so fast

Yesterday we went out to lunch and took the kids see the new Lego movie. 

Oh these kids!  So thankful for our little family and weekends like this :)