The Big FOUR!

Forget the fact that I'm still three months behind in blogging; it's time to document my little man's 4th birthday!  One of these days I might actually get caught up with Christmas, my FL trip, Valentine's Day, and lots of cute kiddo happenings and great news!  MJ's birthday is too special of a day though to make it wait months for mommy to finally catch up. 

I won't hash out all my feelings like I seem to do year after year, but the point is MJ's birthday is a VERY special day.  Mat and I are both quite emotional leading up to it, and when the day arrives we are just so thankful in celebrating his life knowing how terribly different that day could have gone four years ago.  His birth always will be something to be really treasured.

In case I haven't shared before, we're actually heading to Florida with the kids next week.  Probably by next winter, I'll actually getting around to blogging about it.  ;)  We are taking the kids to Disney for the first time in honor of MJ's birthday.  Because we're taking this special trip, we didn't do a birthday party per say this year, but we still made the day so very special for little MJ.  He woke up that morning to a house decorated in his honor with banners, balloons, birthday clings, and presents.  He woke up at 6:30AM (about an hour earlier than normal) to scope out the house.  In fact, when I crawled into bed with him the previous night around 11. ( Side note:  this is kind of my tradition in ringing in his birthday with him.  As a baby, I liked to take him out of his crib and rock him around the time of his birth.  Now that I'm more tired and he's bigger, I settled for an 11PM snuggle in his bed), he asked me if he was now four and then proceeded to ask me if I'd decorated for his birthday.  He knows his mama well.  :)  

 

 

 

 The day before his birthday, he received a special delivery:  balloons, juice boxes, and animal crackers from Gigi and PopPop!  He felt like quite a special boy receiving a delivery!

 

 Some of MJ's birthday decor and all his gifts and cards awaiting him on his birthday morning.

 

 

 

After we all woke up and got dressed, we got straight down to business...the obligatory birthday photo, and then MJ got to pick one present to go ahead and open: 

 



 

After that it was time to hit the road.  We have a Family Pass to the Dubuque River Museum and Aquarium (one of our favorite local spots), and we had received a special invite for the grand opening of their new turtle exhibit.  It included breakfast and just so happened to be on MJ's birthday, so it seemed like the perfect outing.  We let MJ choose one friend he'd like to ask to come with us.  He picked his friend, Halia.  Her mom just happens to absolutely adore Charlotte, and since we can't fit 3 car seats in our car, we did a kid swap for a few hours.  She was thrilled to get to babysit Charlotte, and MJ enjoyed some special big kid time with Halia for a bit. We missed Miss C, but I think she was probably happier being spoiled on herself. 

 Up close with turtles

 Cheesing for mom

Love these smiles at the water table!  MJ and Halia sure got wet!

 

At the aquarium, MJ and Halia explored all the exhibits, petted turtles, played in the water table area for quite a time, picked out snacks, and each picked out a stuffed turtle to bring home.  Before returning Haila home, we hit up McDonald's for lunch and some playtime at the indoor playground.  Then, it was off to retrieve Charlotte and head home! 

 

 

While Charlotte took her  afternoon nap, MJ opened all the rest of his presents and cards.  He even got to Face Time with Uncle Jeff and make some thank-you phone calls to several family members. 

 

 Showing off his loot from Mema and Papa

 Face Time with Uncle Jeff



MJ received Hungry Hungry Hippo from Charlotte ;), and I must say this has got to be his favorite gift.  We've played it at least 101 times already.  :)

 

After a little down time for the birthday boy and once little sister woke up from her nap, it was cake time!!

 

 I got brave this year and tried making MJ's birthday cake.  I've never made one of my kids a birthday cake before, unless cupcakes count, and although it's far from perfect, I was quite impressed with my "4" cake.  I found an idea on Pinterest...go figure!  My little man was happy to dig in to his cake and of course ate the important part first-the icing. 

 



This picture of Lil Miss just cracks me up.  In case you can't tell she's clutching her whole piece of cake in her hand next to her chest.  She's giving me the look of death as if I might try to pry it from her little baby hand.  Girly loves her sweets!

 

As if McDonald's and cake wasn't enough junk food for one day, we had to have a special dinner of course, so off for pizza it was!  We went to Happy Joe's, which is a local pizza place with some arcade games...nothing fancy, but little ones seem to love it, and they made a big deal over MJ's birthday which was all the better. 

 



Birthday sundae lit, and the birthday boy standing while we all sang Happy Birthday to this sweet 4 year old!

 



It had been a cold, rainy day most of MJ's birthday.  We knew the weather was going to be even worse the next day and we'd likely be stuck indoors, so we stopped by Redbox for a kid flick.  By the time we pulled into the garage, MJ was wet from the rain, totally knocked out, and clutching his Redbox.  All signs of a great birthday, right? 

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!  We are so blessed by your life. 



The Big ONE!

Bueller? Anyone?

Seriously...I'm majorly stinking at this blog thing lately. To be honest, I was kind of stinking at the whole life thing there for a bit and blogging seemed WAY down on the list, but I left off at such a huge milestone, and I'm determined to get back to my blogging, as I am also feeling like I'm getting my mojo back. Thanks to my 3 or 4 dedicated readers who actually enjoy following along with me, but mostly this is for my kiddos in hopes that one day they'll be able to read back on these mostly great, and some not so great, memories. 

So here it goes, my baby turned ONE.... Yes, it was like almost 2 months ago, but bear with me as I catch up to speed.  After all, any baby that dives face first into her cake like this deserves a great post from her mommy to document it:

We celebrated Charlotte's first birthday in St. Louis.  Since most our family and close friends are there, it made sense.  We rented my parents clubhouse just like we had for MJ's first birthday party a few years ago. We invited all Charlotte's family and just a couple close friends.  Since it was right near Christmas, I went with a gingerbread theme with colors of hot pink, turquoise, lime green, and purple.  It was colorful but so fun and easy to decorate for!  I never knew there were so many Xmas decorations in that color scheme.  We had her party at 1PM and served a baked potato bar, a couple little munchies, cupcakes, punch, and water.  She seemed to be soaking it all in.  She was rather serious and inquisitive about it all.  She wasn't yet walking at the time but was crawling and cruising all over.  One thing was for sure....She LOVED cake! 

  It's my party, I'll eat my cake how I want to! 

 

 

Invitations to Miss Charlotte's birthday party

 



Her coordinating thank-you notes.  Thank you Etsy!

I found an Etsy designer I loved.  She was so incredibly cheap and made .jpeg images for me for the invites, thank you notes, this banner, and water bottle covers.  Made my job a cinch!

 

 

Decorating the clubhouse and ready for guests to arrive 

 



Charlotte's month-by-month photos

 



Goody bags and decor

 



Our precious birthday girl

 



Thanks to my mom for peeling and sticking all of these water bottle labels.  ;) 

MJ sure was happy to see his Mema arrive! 

The birthday girl arrived with her daddy

 



Goldfish cups and carrot/dip cups ready to be eaten

 



Baked Potato Bar..mmmm

So pleased with how adorable Charlotte's cake and cupcakes turned out.  Thanks to my friend Jill for the wonder (and cheap) recommendation!  :)

 



Charlee's cute smash cake

Our little gingerbread birthday girl!

 

Mema and the birthday girl

 

Gigi, Meg, and her cuties-Haylee and Rylee

 

Daddy and the birthday girl

 



Mindy, mommy, and Miss C (Mindy was very newly pregnant with her own little one here)

 



Birthday Buddies!  Charlotte and Bennett, Stephanie's son, were born just 4 days apart. 

Time to blow out the candles!

 



 Mmmm...I think I like this.

 

 

 

 

 

Time for birthday presents, and big brother MJ was happy to help.

 



 

I love this picture of all the kids gathered around looking at the presents and Charlotte just taking it all on.  Her dress didn't stay down the whole party I don't think.  I'm glad I added the bloomers at the last minute.  She was such a busy girl!

 

PopPop reading with Charlotte

 

MJ had quite a grand time at his little sister's party.  He was such a great helper and loved playing with his cousins and little friends. 

 

 

The following day, December 23rd, was Charlotte's actual birthday.  It was nice and low key and just quietly celebrated.  I dressed her in her sweet little birthday outfit and we spent the day at my parents just playing with new toys and enjoying the kids.  How in the world did my baby girl already turn 1 year old?  Seems like it was just Christmas time in the hospital with me snuggling my newborn.  One year later I can't even imagine how my life seemed complete without her.  I know it's so cliche', but it goes sooo fast and even so much faster the second time around than it did with MJ.  

 

 Melt my heart!

 

Officially a one year old cutie!

 

 

That night we went to Crown Candy Kitchen, in St. Louis, to celebrate.  It had been years since I had been there, but Mat and the kids had never been.  My parents had taken me several years ago, and while it was fun to go there with my own kids, I think it left a much bigger and better impression on me when I was younger.  Ha!  Charlotte had a grilled cheese and special little birthday sundae (her first ice cream) to celebrate.  She then opened a couple presents from mommy and daddy. 

 Big smiles for her new drum!

 



She received her first little purse with pretend money, keys, and lipstick.  She now likes to walk around pretending to put her lipstick on.  :) 

 

After Crown Candy we headed to Wild Lights at the St. Louis Zoo.  We did this a couple years ago when MJ was little and had a blast.  Somehow this year the crowd was MUCH larger.  When we saw all the traffic as we approached, we were about to ditch the plan all together, but MJ was about to go into meltdown mode.  Little guy had been looking forward to it all day, so we pushed through, and I'm glad we did.  It was definitely a great time, despite the large crowd.  I also vividly remember that Charlotte began to make her wishes known that she did not want to be in her stroller and she was ready to walk like a big girl.  She still needed help with this task and just did a few steps at a time, but her independence definitely began to be asserted.  Within just a few more days, she was walking on her own! 

 

Thanks to all who celebrated our sweet girl, and thanks to all who have prayed for her, loved on her, and celebrated her over the past year.  We are so blessed by this little girl.  Sometimes I still feel in shock that we even conceived her and now here she is charming us all!  God's plan for our lives never ceases to amaze me!  

 

 

11 Months

I'm not even sure where 11 months went, but I know that Charlee turned 11 months on November 23rd, right after Thanksgiving. Between holiday prepping, and thinking ahead to her 1 year birthday, it seemed like 11 months came and went faster than any of the others. A little proof that she was indeed 11 months old, even if it did fly by...

Now a days, this is how pictures commonly go. She is either trying to peel the sticker off, eat it, pull her hairbow out, grab the camera, etc. Gotta keep it real! :)