Officially Four

Last week my baby boy turned 4! It's amazing how quickly time goes by. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing that adorable little boy home. The older he gets the funnier he gets. I love his little personality. He brings such fun and laughter into our home. I just love my little guy!

For his 4th birthday he decided he wanted a CARS themed party. I didn't think I would have so much fun throwing a boys party! I made box cars for the kids to look like Lightening McQueen. When the kids got there they colored pictures of Lightening McQueen. Then once everyone got there we made licence plates for their cars. Bill was working in Guido and Luigi's Tire Shop. We had a relay race and they had to make a few rounds, get gas and their tires put on, afterwards everyone got medals. After that we played musical cars. From there we opened presents and went downstairs to Flo's Diner for lunch and cake. The kids seemed like they enjoyed the party! It was a lot of work, but so worth it!

Right after we had a little birthday party for Tristan with my family. Then on Monday we had a party for Tristan as well as Calder - who is now officially a teenager. It's been fun to celebrate with everyone!

Thank You!

I know I have Tristan's birthday to blog about, but I know that will take me longer to journal and download pictures than this will. I just wanted to express my gratitude for good friends. Today I been feeling pretty crappy and my amazing friend Melissa called me and told me to send Tristan down. She willingly took him pretty much all day as well as Stella when she got home from school. She supplied me with saltines and drugs as well. I feel so blessed to have such amazing people around me who know just what I need and so willingly offer help when I am reluctant to ask. So I just want to give a quick and very sincere thank you to Melissa for being such a great friend!

One Fun Week!

Stella has been off track for the past 2 weeks and we have had a very busy and fun week together as a family. We are total movie fanatics(as you'll see by the end of this post)! Last week we took the kids to see Gnomeo and Juliet. Then this week we took them to the Jump 'n Bounce house as a their reward for getting a whole punch card complete. They had so much fun! We seriously need a few of these to release some of Tristan's energy.

Staticky Hair

Patiently Waiting


Valentines Day was pretty relaxed. We woke up to love notes on the mirror from Bill. Stella thought that was pretty cool. Then we spent some time with our play group friends, which is always enjoyable! Then we came home and made pink heart-shaped waffles for dinner. Followed by some V-Day Bingo.





Then last night Bill took Tristan to the Monster Truck show along with Bart, Kaden & Tyler. Bill said Tristan was so excited he didn't want to eat anything when they were waiting for the show to start and said he couldn't wait when he heard the trucks revving their engines. I love his passion for everything! Bill took him to the store afterwards to let him pick out a new monster truck.



While the boys were out doing their thing, Stella got to choose what she wanted to do. She decided to see Never Say Never - yes, the Justin Bieber movie. I'm not gonna lie, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would! Mostly because Stella was so into it the whole time and I enjoy seeing her that happy and excited about stuff! Plus just learning about other peoples lives fascinate me. I love our girls-night-outs!


Today Tristan had his first ever soccer practice/game. It was just a practice today, but they had a little game with the other team that was there practicing. Tristan totally rocked if I do say so myself! Once he learned you couldn't touch the ball he tried really hard to be aggressive without touching the ball. He even got a goal which he was so thrilled about! Me too! When the game was over he came up to me and said, "I was awesome Mom." I laughed and agreed. Such a fun week! I'm so proud of my kids and love seeing them grow up.

Life's Journey's

All because THESE TWO fell in love!!!

The whole shebang



My brother and his family are moving far, far away to Atlanta, GA the end of this month. I certainly wish them the best on their new journey and hope this is the change they have been wanting/needing for some time now. However, it will be very weird not having them around! We have had so many good times together. Almost every life-changing memory I can think of involves them! We have had Sunday dinner together every couple of weeks ever since they got married almost 15 years ago. We love to play games and laugh at one another. I don't know many other families that laugh as much as we do when we get together. I will certainly miss them!

This was the last weekend we will all be together as a family before they leave so we of course had to do some family pictures. Here are a few of them!


Jason, Suzanne, Aberdeen & Geneveve

Shaun, Mistee, Makayla & Luke

Us

Emily, Cole & Dylan

Just because I don't have many pictures of just Bill & I

The Robbins Originals

Crazy suckers that joined our family!
(This was an awkward moment for them)

Quality Time

Today Bill and Ron took the kids ice fishing for the first time somewhere by Strawberry. I was wondering how the kids would do - especially Stella. She usually gets pretty bored with fishing, so adding cold weather to it I was sure was a bad combination. Much to my surprise both the kids loved it despite the fact they didn't even get a bite! Tristan stepped in a hole once, but didn't complain about cold feet. The weather was good and the kids took turns pulling each other around on the sled. (Tristan did most of the pulling) Next time I will definetly make the trip. I was able to get a lot of church stuff done that I am in charge of so that was a huge relief for me!

What the...

Two days ago Bill and I had quite the experiences as far as parenting goes! I swear the kids woke up that day and decided to gang up on us. At dinner time Stella asked what was for dinner and when I told her Hootenanny Pancakes her temper tantrum began. She wanted me to make her something else, but I told her no because every other time I've made pancakes she loves them and will have seconds! I will usually make something different for her if I know it's something she won't even try, but that day I wanted to stand my ground since I knew she was just being a diva.

As she was pouting in her room and yelling profanities at us (not really profanities, but still yelling at us non the less) Bill being the kind, softie that he is gave her another chance. More like a dozen chances. We had promised to take the kids out for ice cream if they finished their dinner. Stella decided to calm down and eat her dinner. She actually loved it until Tristan started gaging on the bigger pieces. (He has really bad gag refluxes)When he started talking about how he didn't like the big pieces Stella decided she couldn't even swallow the rest of her food and started spitting her food out.

When we told her she couldn't go get ice cream, Oh, here go hell come!(my favorite line from the Soup) The tantrum continued. She went on, and on, and on, and on. And on. It got to a point where I stared video taping because it was so dramatic and entertaining! It went on for at least 10 minutes! All she had to do was eat 3 more bites and she just couldn't do it. Bill having compassion fork-fed her the last 3 tiny bites and she was able to go for ice cream with us. I don't see this side of Stella very often at all, but it's quite the show when I do!

Continuing on, later that night when Bill was putting Tristan to bed Tristan was in an unusual rush to go to bed. Bill saw him playing with something under his blanket. (Get your mind out of the gutter people) Bill asked what he had and he confessed it was candy. Bill asked where he got it from and Tristan wouldn't tell him. Neither one of us bought it for him so Tristan laughingly confessed he took it from Auto Zone. When Tristan saw how mad Bill and I were he started bawling and apologizing. We explained to him what he did was wrong. The whole rest of the night Bill and I couldn't stop laughing at the events from that evening. What the! Why all at once?

The next day I took Tristan back to Auto Zone to apologize and pay for the candy with his own money. I'm sure the guy behind the counter thought it was pretty funny, and was very understanding. Hopefully we get all of this drama out as young kids where we have some control of the situation as opposed to when they are older, taller, and stronger than us! Hopefully this is not a glimpse of what is to come!

Temper Tantrum

This is the end of the tantrum. I tried to capture the worst part which was 3-4 minutes before, but did it wrong. I wish I had the few minutes that led up to it! She was throwing herself all over the chair and her face was beet red. I love watching Tristan and Duke in the back too. Pretty funny!