How can he be four?

I can't believe it. Nolan turned four on Saturday. How? What happened? Why? It just doesn't seem possible. It's like you have children and you suddenly bought a time machine and didn't know you bought it.

Nolan's party was a "hit" ...literally. We went with the baseball theme since that is his newest obsession at church where they have a huge field. I normally book a lady I know to do our cakes and she is fabulous but this year I called too late and she was already booked. Note to self, don't attempt to be crafty and make your own cakes, Andrea. I stayed up until 11:00 two nights in a row making what seemed like 1,000 cupcakes and then icing them the next night. I had been fighting a cold all week and felt terrible. So once we finally finished icing and decorating them, I put them in the Tupperware and sacked out without thinking of putting them in the fridge. The next morning I woke up to find half of them with their tops gone. The humidity had caused the icing and decoration to slide off and leave a pool of icing around every cupcake. I told myself that the kids won't care, they just want cake to make myself feel better.

So apparently we didn't have enough stuff planned in one day so we squeezed in soccer practice right before the party. I stopped by the house to pick up the cupcakes and ice cream. We get to the church and then I noticed that I left half of the topless cupcakes at home. The party is about to start in 15 minutes and Justin makes a mad dash to Sam's to get some cupcakes. Tell me again why didn't I just do that in the beginning? Besides the cupcakes debacle the party went well and Nolan had so much fun. We had a bat race, baseball pinata, and my dad looked like a baseball game vendor shouting "hot dogs" to everyone like a real baseball game.

I don't think he cared about the cupcakes, just that they tasted good!

Pop and Gram got him his own Louisville slugger made with his name inscribed!

Party favors with peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and Baby Ruth candy insideI think Campbell thought it was his party.

And the "no" game begins...

Campbell is definitely a toddler. How I know, you ask? Because besides him being into EVERYTHING, the word "no" seems to come out of my mouth at least 10 times in an hour. I know that all the books tell you not to say no but they don't have this boy as their kid! He has ZERO interest in toys. He would much rather play in the pantry and gets cups, plastic forks and dog treats to play with. His all time favorites include dumping the folded clothes or his books off the shelf out on the floor . I guess all this talk of "no" has really got him into learning the word. Not so much what it means just how to say it.

Got Milk?

Or maybe just some other dairy product like yogurt?

Wanna eat?

My boys are so cute I just want to eat them! Let me first state the obvious that I'm not really being literal when I say that I want to eat my kids so don't pick up the phone and make a CPS call on me. But they're just so dang adorable that I just want to savor every moment and squeeze them! Before you go thinking that I'm too weird, I was so relieved one day on a shopping trip to Target to overhear a mom tell her daughter, "I'm going to eat you." Nolan heard it too and said, "Mommy! She said 'I want to eat you' like you want to eat me!" I was so excited that I wasn't the only crazy out there that I went up to her, stranger and all, and told her what we had in common.

Well I guess telling Nolan all those times that I want to eat him have finally made an impression. Besides him telling me, "you can't eat people, you can only eat dinner," we've been pretty safe up to this point. Well tonight Nolan was helping me put Campbell to bed. He's so wonderful...he reads books to him, turns on his night light, and sits by the rocker as quiet as a mouse while I sing Campbell a song . Well right before we put Campbell in his crib we had a little snuggle moment and Nolan put Campbell's hand in his mouth. With Campbell just getting over strep and Nolan coughing like a barking seal, I told him that wasn't such a good idea. He responds, "Well he's just so yummy, I want to drink him." Hmmm, I've never thought of that one, but he's right!

The proposal

You don't expect to hear a proposal from your 3 yr old. So it wasn't exactly a proposal with a question but he definitely said he wanted to marry me. Oh I just treasure these years with my boys so much. When they hug me like crazy and say or do things that make me roll on the floor. Nolan often asks me, "Mommy is your heart smiling?" It's like he knows! Talk about intuition in that kid. How can your heart not burst when you hear something like that? Here's a couple of proposal videos I got of Nolan. Someday, I'll be watching these and crying especially during those years when he's embarrassed to even hug me. Thank you God for this memory.

Wagon Ride

We bought Nolan a wagon for his 1st birthday and I must admit we have been terrible about using it. So we dusted off the cobwebs and put both boys in for a walk last week. Wow, talk about a work out. We're talking about 60 lbs of bubbaness going uphill, downhill, and turning. It was definitely a short walk.

They were both great and just looked around. Although, I heard an occasional, "I want to go faster, Mommy" comment from Nolan as he watched the ants pass us. During one of my much needed breaks, I was able to sneak some of these photos. Nolan took Campbell for a short walk down the sidewalk and Campbell only banged his head once. We're prone to accidents in this wagon. At Nolan's first birthday, he fell out on the sidewalk and got his first big boo-boo right smack on the forehead. Maybe that's why we don't use the wagon very often?!?

Nolan after 1st birthday with a boo boo as a present

I just love this picture. It totally captures his funny little walk.

Scrappin' summer

At the beginning of summer I had this huge to-do list to accomplish that I just knew that I could do because of all my time off. I'm so funny sometimes. Little did I realize how there was very little free time this summer. And if I did have some, it was nap time to recover!

So my last week of summer I panicked and got as much done as I could and was a super scrapper. Here are some of my favorites that I finished this summer. It's hard to take a close up picture to fit it all in so you might have to click on the pic if you want to see it better.

I pledge allegiance (burp)

The other day on the way home from school Nolan said, "There's the American flag!" I gave him a little quiz because it frightens me that some of my 5th graders don't know what country we live in. So I asked him what state we live in. I had to give him a little hint with "Fort Worth..." and he screams "TEXAS!" Then I asked him what country we live in and give him the hint "United..." and he screams "STATES OF AMERICA! AND TO THE REPUBLIC...." and recites the pledge word for word. Immediately after, he breaks into song with God Bless America. It was so cute, I just had to capture it.

Please pardon his belching in the middle of the pledge and nevermind him mixing up a few words here or there. That's what makes it so cute! And his baby bubba sure was a good cheerleader.

Ringling Brothers Nolan & Campbell

Justin makes fun of me because I act like a kid (literally) at Christmas, watching fireworks, and the circus. I don't know what it is about it but I guess my inner child comes out during these moments. We took Nolan to the circus two years ago but I don't think he really remembered it. So he and I were really excited about going this year. I was really nervous about taking Campbell and how he was going to last because let's face it, his attention span is that of fruit fly.

We walk in and the lights were off with spotlights and pyrotechnics going on everywhere. Immediately Nolan starts crying. Oh boy. He refused to take off his sunglasses. I guess he thought they kept him safe from the lights. He calmed down really fast though but sat on Justin's lap for the first half. Meanwhile Campbell is going nuts for it. I mean I've never seen this kid dance like he did or clap so hard. He was crazy for it! I was trying really hard to keep him in my lap. He was trying to dive into the center ring! I think he wants to grow up to be a circus act!

I never realized how long the circus is...after two hours we realized it was 7:45 and we hadn't fed out kids yet. They usually eat around 5:30 or 6:00. We waited for the infamous elephants and jetted out right after that. They were both so great though and especially for such a long show.

Funniest thing since the show...anytime Nolan hears anything that resembles disco music he says, "This sounds like circus music!"

Sad on Command

Like I said before, this kid is going to be an actor. Check out how he can be sad within seconds. What a faker. I can't help but laugh though.