Andrew's Volcano Party... and more

Like I mentioned before, Andrew informed me that he had ideas of parties he wanted to have for his birthday. I managed to cover most of them and he was pretty satisfied.

After his Lego party, we cleaned up a bit and then later that afternoon we had a little family birthday party that he called his Volcano party! The Heymans came to join us for pizza, ice cream and cupcakes, and some play-doh volcano making.

Elise & Dan (plus kids) and my mom and dad were also in town for the weekend and celebrated with us. We loved getting to see Maddie and Olivia!

After the party festivities were over, we moved into the Angry Birds portion of Andrew's day. Kevin and I got him this Angry Birds game and wow was it a hit. He wants to play it ALL THE TIME. We are about ready to hide it now.

We also went to the San Francisco Creamery in Walnut Creek for some dinner and ice cream sundaes later that evening. Andrew loved playing with Grandpa.

The best part of the night was when they brought Andrew a birthday candle with his ice cream. He was amazed and couldn't believe that they celebrated his birthday at the restaurant. He talked about it for a long time!

When we got home we opened presents (and opened more the next day too). Our fabulous friend Liz made Andrew this adorable Lego shirt. He loved it and said, "Wow, Liz did a really good job on my shirt!" Andrew figured out how to open presents this year and just ripped and zoomed through unwrapping them. It was so fun because he was so genuinely excited about each present! Now we need to start writing Thank You cards!

I think Andrew had a pretty awesome birthday. We still have one more birthday celebration before it is totally done... We believe in having a "birth month" celebration in our family. :)

I am exhausted and am so glad that life is slowing down now that it is March!

Happy Birthday Scott!

It was my brother Scott's birthday yesterday. Jessie and I coordinated a little family party to celebrate.

Scott requested burgers, waffle fries, and milkshakes for his birthday meal. I attempted to make Julie Smith's famous milkshakes ;) and they didn't turn out too bad. Kevin made his special hamburgers and homemade BBQ sauce too. Dinner was delish!

Afterwards we lounged outside in the amazing Bay area weather (I am so glad we pay insane home prices for this weather... it really has been worth it lately). Then we played some games that Jessie organized.

Pass the package was hysterical. Whenever Andrew had to open a new layer of wrapping paper he would yell, "I am so confused!!!!" It was so funny. I think the presents were wrapped 10 times each. It was worth it though. Scott's Angry Birds flashlight will keep him happy forever and Andrew's Angry Birds squishy ball was a hit too!

We also played "Pin the Technology on Scotty." Jessie made an awesome picture of Scott and then we worked together to draw some technology accessories. I'm very proud of my iPad and MacBook. :)

We ended the night with a mini cake (since you have to blow out candles on your birthday... even when everyone is too full to actually eat any cake).

Such a great night! I am so grateful to have Scott, Cat, and Jessie living so close by! Happy Birthday Scott!

Caitlin at 15 months

Catie had her 15 month doctor's appointment today. She actually turned 15 months on March 1st.

Taking both Andrew and Cate to a doctor's appointment feels like running a marathon... so I definitely didn't get a moment to snap any photos. Thank goodness for the iPad and my phone though... at least Andrew wasn't jumping off chairs. Cate was challenging enough to deal with :)

She is such a big girl now!

Here are her 15 month stats:

Height- 32.5 in (95%)

Weight- 24.37 lbs (75%)

Head circum.- 47.50 (90%) 

I am so glad that she's just a good walker (and kind of a good listener) now so that I don't have to carry her as much. She is heavy!

This is a picture that describes Cate at 15 months well- moving, messy, and loving her animals!

I call her the dog chaser. She has the most amazing eyes for dogs. She can spot them from like a mile away. She is also IN LOVE with all of her stuffed animals.

She is also the cutest cuddle bug ever. She will read books and sit on your lap forever. I love how she'll just fall into my lap and want to cuddle all the time.

Catie also throws some mean tantrums... the sort that have her head, arms, and legs all kicking. It makes me laugh so hard. Fortunately she must realize how silly she looks, because if I can't figure out what she wants, we just laugh (quietly) and ignore her and she snaps herself out of the tantrums and tries to communicate in a better way.

Catie is also learning some words... you know, only the most important ones though :)
Dadda, Mama, Elmo, Doggy, Duckie, Woof, Quack, Kiss (the chocolate kind), Hi, and M&M.

Andrew swears she knows how to say his name (and told the doctor that today), but I have never heard it. He loves telling me about the different new words that she says... I think he must speak "Catie" though, because I can't decipher any of the words he is hearing.

I can't believe my baby is 15 months old!

Lovin February

February was probably the busiest month we've had in awhile. It might have even been busier than December, if that's possible...

I blogged about some of it, and then missed a whole bunch of fun things... so I'm just going to share some highlights that I managed to snap pictures of.

Valentine's Day

I spent the morning decorating for the Valentine's Day Stake Dance with some friends.

The decorating crew and some of the little helpers.

Andrew had preschool and brought home a stash of valentines- 30+

We went to church for a little kid's Valentine's Day party that I put together.

It was pure madness, though lots of fun. 20+ kids ages 0-5. 

We ate treats, made a love bug craft, played games, made valentines for the missionaries, and hung out and socialized.

Catie thought she was such a big girl. Throwing a party with a clingy 1-year-old is tough. :) I felt like I got a great workout carrying her around while I played party coordinator.

Andrew checked out his stash of Valentines and then never looked at them again other than when we did a few crafts with them (though he didn't want me to toss them). There was no candy, so he wasn't overly interested. They are still on the counter. I need to recycle them.

In the afternoon on Valentine's Day we went to a basketball game for one of the girls from church. She scored a bunch of points. Andrew forgot his shoes, so he went shoeless. I was embarrassed for sec and then got over it. The iPad made him so popular that no one noticed.

Valentine's Day evening Kevin and I chaperoned the Stake valentine's Day dance.

We even got a couple photo in the "photo booth." Below Andrew & Cate are modeling the photo booth props I made and bought for the night.

I also came up with an idea to have a graffiti wall at the dance. I think the kids liked it.

Later that same week Andrew got a sweet shiner when he fell running on the playground. Ugh! It was so huge and ugly for over a week (this barely shows anything). So glad it is gone. I was worried all week that someone was going to call CPS on me.

Anniversary Trip to Florida

On Friday the 17th Kevin and I left the kiddos in the care of Scott, Cat, and Jessie and we flew off to Florida for an anniversary trip by ourselves!! It was heaven!

In Ft. Lauderdale we met up with my cousin Allison and her husband Rick for a night on the town. We went to a yummy steak restaurant that had amazing double baked potatoes. I am still dreaming about them.

We walked around downtown and went to the beach.

and we ended the night by hitting up Jaxson's... a delicious ice cream place with huge sundaes. Rick told the waiter it was our anniversary, so they brought out our ice cream with a big sparkler. So fun! Ignore the fact that I look hideous in this picture. By this point we'd been up for over a day (since we took the red-eye to Florida).

Cute Rick & Allison! Wish they lived closer!

Doesn't that look amazing? We couldn't finish it.

We spent another day in Ft. Lauderdale exploring via water taxi. We did lots of shopping, ate good food, rode the boat all over, and walked a lot.

On our last full day in Florida we drove down to Miami- South Beach area and went to the beach, went shopping, and had some delicious food... and more ice cream.

We basically looked up all the best ice cream spots in Southern Florida and tried to hit them all. This one was pretty yummy.

After we shopped till we dropped (literally- I had such huge blisters that I practically had to get carried to the car).... we drove from Miami to Orlando (3-4 hours) to check into our new hotel at Walt Disney World.

We stayed at The Grand Floridian. I could've relaxed there for another week.

We grabbed the shuttle bus and trekked over to Downtown Disney for dinner at The House of Blues. I had no idea how big Disney World was. Oh my goodness!

Afterward we bought presents for the kiddos and went to the mini Ghirardelli Square in Downtown Disney and felt like we were back home :)

The next morning I woke up bright and early to fly home and Kevin got to work (the reason we went to Florida was bc he had a business trip there... so we flew out a few days before his conference).

We were so grateful for Scott, Cat, and Jessie for taking such good care of our babies while we were gone. They did such a great job that the kids revolted when I got back and were crazy for me for a few days :)

Thank goodness for the wonderful and relaxing anniversary trip that I could think about every time the kiddos started driving me totally batty!

There are a few more items to share about for February, but I'll put them in another post. This one has become insanely long!