Strummin' Azure turned Two!

Azure, our baby turned 2 on the 25th!!! Wow, it has really flown by with him! He is our LITTLE baby still only weighing in at 21 pounds, but is talking up a storm and catching us by surprise with his feistiness.

We struggled on what to do for his cake as he is obsessed with wearing Elmo pajamas nearly every night and reading Elmo books. He also spends every second with his almost 4 year old brother who demands we listen to The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack when we get into the van. Thus, there have been some fights over who gets to sleep with the stuffed Jack Skellington at night. Weird, but true.

However, even given these loves of "Elmo" and Jack, whom he calls "La," he is above and beyond addicted to his dad's guitar, his dad's two ukeleles, Boston's play guitar, and his own ukelele which we bought in Hawaii for him. And I'm gonna brag - he's plays better than I do!!

A MUST watch video of his ukelele skills - the beginning shows some of that feistiness too!

Here's the link if this isn't playing:

http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=6283075299c30a68&type=video/mp4

So we celebrated his 2nd birthday with a ukelele cake!

We had the local cousins over to help us eat it and help him celebrate his big day.

He also got showered with some amazing Elmo gifts, which he LOVED.

And here he is with his first electric guitar. (And a new Elmo shirt!)

Happy 2nd birthday to our snuggly, funny, loving, little Azure!

Car Crazy Kayden is 9!

Kayden turned 9!! It's so crazy how time is flying by and our little train-toting toddler has turned into a responsible boy who still loves to delve into his favorite subjects with every fiber he has. He has taught our family all about trains, oceans, dinosaurs, dragons and now we are learning about cars.

Lucky us, the Utah Auto Expo came to town on his birthday exactly. We found discount tickets and didn't tell him what we were doing until we walked up to the door. On the way there, a commercial was advertising the show and he got all excited, but we just flipped it off and told him we'd look it up on the internet when we got home. Needless to say, he was an excited 9 year old!!

Jeep course that Chad, Kayden and Boston rode on.

They had ride on Jeeps for the little ones. Lucky Boston fit in both categories.

After getting home and resting up, we had the cousins over for cake and ice cream and presents.

Chad and I created a Lamborghini cake for him the night before the big day. I did all the baking of cake and frosting and fondant. Chad shaped the car and did the main fondant decorating and I helped with details. It was a fun 3 hour date night after the kids were in bed.

Holiday Season 2011

We had a wonderful holiday season, as apparent to my non-blogging. Here's a quick recap...

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving was spent in Oregon (thanks to some very helpful family members) and was a wonderful vacation. We were able to eat tons of yummy food, go shopping and even spend a day swimming. No snow made for perfect travel as well.

PRE-CHRISTMAS EXCITEMENT

We came back ready to begin our Christmas season with our local light parade that sadly lasted all of 5 minutes. One positive thing - we were able to take home still warm children.

We also made it to the festival of trees this year. Chad and a group from work played their ukeleles at the festival. The picture below is when the boys were helping them sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

McCoy's (and Azure's now because he spends all day with McCoy) favorite people were at the festival of trees - Sally and Jack Skellington.

Even without snow, Christmas was constantly on all of our minds. Boston made a Lego scene, we took all of them to visit Santa, and Kayden sang a solo in the 3rd grade Christmas program.

Kayden is bottom left. Before the show, he said they had to wear toilet seat covers, but Chad showed him a picture of what old time carolers wore and then it seemed doable.

COUSIN FUN

Two days before Christmas, we were able to play and exchange gifts with the local cousins. An ideal thing for this bunch (especially my kids) would be an indoor trampoline room, but we managed to have them all gather for a short time for present exchanging and a picture. They are all close friends.

In order of age and size (for now). Kayden, Carson, Elijah, Boston, McCoy, Clarissa, Azure.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve day we took the kids swimming for almost 4 hours. This needs to be a tradition, as no kid (or adult!) had trouble going to sleep that night. In the evening we did the nativity, gave them new pjs and an ornament and read a story before tucking them into bed.

Kayden - the wisest wiseman

The first year I didn't have the be Mary! McCoy ASKED to be Mary and did a fabulous job!

I think this photo was the only time that Azure was actually laying still to be baby Jesus. Boston was Joseph.

Kayden: Dragon pjs and Hawaii ornament. Boston: Mario pjs and Angry Bird ornament. McCoy: monster pjs and Jack Skellington ornament. Azure: Elmo pjs and Elmo ornament.

Chad reading The Littlest Angel

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas morning was magical as always with little ones. They woke up and saw that Santa came. We opened their Santa gifts and played with them for a little while before eating some cinnamon rolls and attending church. The minute we got home from church, we changed back into pjs and opened presents and played the whole day! It was perfect!