catch up - Hawken's party

On December 10th (our last Saturday before we moved), we had Hawken's 2nd birthday party!!!!

He requested a "cars and candy" themed party. Turns out, that is pretty easy to do. With "Cars 2" memorabilia everywhere, I got lots of fun things, my favorite find were these juicy juice boxes with different characters on the side. The kids noticed them right away. So fun. (Matix lined them all up for the picture)

We had it outside at Salvadore park in Coral Gables. It is the same park we had Matix's party in just a few months ago. Having a party at a park is GREAT. The built in entertainment was wonderful!

Hawken had tons of friends come. Lullaby stayed with Paul most of the time. Matix ran laps around the park with other Maddox. Hawken bounced from one thing to the next and was SO excited to finally have HIS party.

We played a few games. Racing the cars down the slide was one of the games. Race a car, then slide down, then get a prize. A very 2 year old appropriate game. :) Then Hawken wanted his friends to draw him pictures of cars, so we said for each of them to color a picture of a car for Hawken and in exchange, he would give them prizes. Perfect, right? Then the last game happened spontaneously because I had gone a little overboard on the prizes (more candy), so I scattered it all out on the ground and told the kids they all had to be speedy race car drivers and pick up all the candy. They each got extra loot bags and went for it. Each kid left with TONS of candy, which was the idea. I'm glad they had fun.

I think this is the only semi-decent picture I got of Matix the whole day. He was SO busy at the park, I couldn't keep up. But he was there, see? :)

We had cupcake decorating, as usual, and it perfectly fit the candy part of the candy and cars birthday party theme that Hawken had asked for. The kiddos were in heaven (all the parents had been forewarned that this was going to be a candy filled event, don't worry). I love this first picture. Can you tell how much this little guy loved it?

Paul made the fruit bouquet, didn't he do great?! I love it. It got devoured, despite the ridiculous amount of candy everywhere. :)

Then it was time to sing to Hawken. He was so excited. (Since then, I have posted the video to youtube, and he requests, "Mommy, me see happy bird-day to Hawken, happy bird-day to MEEEEEE! song?" He loves it.) For the cake, I made a race track in the shape of the number 2. Carla Velosa crashed, and Mater is towing her away, and Lightning McQueen is winning the race. Hawken thought it was great.

Saying good bye to his wonderful friends. In the first picture he is saying good bye to Alex, then in the second picture he is saying good bye to other Maddox.

Family picture, of course. Lullaby was there, I promise, she was just well hidden. :)

Hawken was completely spoiled by his friends. We didn't open them at the party, partly because I think it's awkward for the people who didn't bring anything (like I had asked them not to, but some people did anyway), and partly because there were plenty of kids at the park who were not part of our party and I didn't want them to feel bad, but MOSTLY, I wanted Hawken to take a nap first before the new toy hoarding began. :) He was so happy with all his gifts. His friends really thought about him and gave him things he really loves. Thank you to everyone who came to the party, and thank you to those of you who also brought gifts, it was so nice of you. :) Hawken had a great day.

tiny toilet

While shopping one day, we discovered this TINY toilet in the "family bathroom" at Walmart. I love it. Keep in mind, Hawken is not even 3 feet tall. The toilet seat was only about a foot off the ground. Cute little bum shot too. :)

catch up - Other Maddox

"Other Maddox" is the name for a little boy we met at the play ground one day. His real name is just "Maddox", but it sounds pretty similar to how we say "Matix". We heard his mom calling "Maddox, come here." and thought, no, she isn't calling her son Matix, is she?... Well, long story short, we became friends, she and her kids started coming to play group with us, and that's that. :) I don't have any really good pictures from this particular day. These 3 boys are trouble together. Matix started this little game of who can scare their mommy the most:

The other 2 followed of course. And even though Hawken was in his cast still, it didn't slow him down in the least, as you can see. He climbed everything just like he normally would.

We miss "other Maddox" (and his mom and baby brother too), it was nice to get to know them, even though it was just before we left Miami. Boo for bad timing. Hopefully they will move again to wherever we end up next. They are super fun.

Oh, and Lullaby was making some great faces that day. Here are a few.

catch up - good byes

Our last day in our Miami ward was bitter sweet. Bitter because we had really grown to love our ward, our callings and the friends that we made there. Sweet because it meant we would soon be moving on to Georgia and another step closer to being finished with this whole 'up and move when Ross says move' thing. I got a few pictures, but missed even more. :( Hawken was pretty emotional about it. It was just before nap time, so that probably has a little to do with it. Matix was okay until we got home and explained that we probably wouldn't see those friends again.

This is Anna. Oh Anna, how these boys love her. She always came and found them and gave them kisses. They loved that and would search for her if church started before she got to them. She was sad that it was our last Sunday too.

This is Javi. He is Anna's little brother and just the right age to be a cool big kid, but still want to play little boy games. The boys loved him.

Megan is my friend and fellow play grouper. :) Andrew was one of the first friends the boys made in Miami. They are so fun, we will miss them a lot.

This is sister Garcia. She was the boys' nursery leader. She didn't speak very much English, but she loved the boys and took very good care of them. I'm sure they miss her.

Mara, the primary president. I love her. She is so sweet and is so enthusiastic about teaching the kids.

This is Lamat, one of the "big boys" Matix chased around with after church. They were always so sweet to play with the little kids.

I didn't get a picture of Lucas, but the boys have asked for him each Sunday here, and they wonder where their "best friend" is. There are tons more people that we love and will miss terribly from our Miami ward. I wish I had a picture of each of them. That church ward was amazing and we will miss it for sure.

catch up - Hawken getting his cast off

Hawken broke his leg in the end of November. He had his cast on for just over 3 weeks, and he got it off 2 days before we left Miami (just in time). Before he got it off, he had gotten really good at walking, running, dancing, climbing, even jumping in it. He is very impressive.

The only thing he didn't really care for was having a sponge-ish bath. We tried to make it seem as fun as we could, but that only really convinced Matix that it would be fun. There were a few days of all three kids (one by one) taking a bath in this baby tub.

Last picture in his cast. They wouldn't let me take pictures while they were taking it off, but it's just as well, he just sat there and watched. Not very exciting, or scary like I thought it might be for him.

Right after he got it off, the doctor explained that he would probably favor his used to be broken leg, and not want to put any weight on it for a while, even though it was okay if he did. Well, Hawken jumped down from the table, walked over to the stroller, climbed up into it, turned around and said, "Me leg tickles. We going home now?" First post cast picture.

We went over to "other Maddox" 's house to pick up our Matix (thank you thank you Sarah for watching Matix and making that time at the hospital SO much better). We stayed and played for a little while and Hawken was using his leg just the same as he always had, except he kept it turned outward like it was in the cast. Show off. Here are Matix, Maddox and Hawken.

That night the boys had a bath in the REAL tub and had so much fun. It was a luxury we had taken for granted. Who knew that baths were so special and such a fun time of the day? :)

catch up - library in Miami

Story time ended at the Coral Gables library branch in the beginning of November, so we started going to a new branch that had an ongoing story time for toddlers. We LOVED it. They did a coloring activity, books, songs, and movement activities, perfectly geared toward toddlers and preschoolers. Even Lullaby had fun listening to all the excitement.

My favorite part is always the singing. Not because I am a good singer (because actually, I am a really terrible singer), but because my boys think they are the BEST singers, and this day Hawken had all the people around us giggling from his rendition of "the wheels on the bus". He had actions that he made up, and always ended each verse with an overly emphasized "TOWNNNN!"

Lullaby's baby blessing

Lullaby had her baby blessing on Sunday the 18th of December (a day and a few hours after moving here) in our new ward here in Decatur, Georgia. We were a little sad that we couldn't have it in Miami with our wonderful ward family there, but the timing just wouldn't work out for our real families to be there. Since everyone was coming to help us move in and unpack in Georgia anyway, it was perfect to just have her blessing here. There are some cute pictures of us getting Lullaby dressed, but those are on Stacy's camera (Stacy, you should send those to me if you get a chance). Stacy made this beautiful blessing dress, bonnet and slippers. It was so cute, and Lullaby looked adorable. Here she is getting her bonnet on, so sweet. To give you some idea of the detail that went into this outfit, Stacy padded the back of the bonnet so Lullaby would be more comfortable when she rested her head. I love it. Lullers loved all the attention.

Everyone took turns holding Lullers and snuggling her on her special day. It was so nice to have some family there with us (even if we wished everyone could have come). Paul's parents Lee and Stacy were there, my dad Chuck was there, and my sister Jolie and her son Bradley were there. Thanks for coming, it meant a lot to us. :)

Paul blessed his little girl with such sweet things. One of my favorites was for her "to be able to see all people as Heaven Father sees them and love them just the same".

Lullaby really is such a sweet little girl, and we are so happy that we get to have her in our family. We love you Lulla Baloo!

After church, she wanted to take a nap snuggled up with her daddy. Awww!

mistletoe

This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, kissing under the mistletoe. :) I love it, and I love HIM.

funny face

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. There is nothing special about this moment, or some cute story to go along with it. Just Lullaby sitting with grandma Stacy, making this awesome face. :) Filling her diaper maybe? She is so expressive.

24 hour shift

Well, I had a large dose of single mommy-ness today. I think I did alright, although there was a lot of thinking and calculating to be done on my part to make sure church wasn't a complete failure. Matix had his first day in the 3 year old class, called "Sunbeams", which he hated at first and then loved. Typical Matix. :) Lullaby is teething, so she was cranky. And Hawken was my shining star and loved going to Nursery, even though he had to go alone for the first time. Hooray! Naps after church were a success too, but by dinner I was too tired to do much of anything. So they had Spaghetti-O's and fruit for dinner. Not the best, but they were full and ready for bed. They all have the sniffles too, so I got called into the boys' room a few extra times tonight to help blow noses. I miss you Paul! :) Paul has been gone since 6am today for his second 24 hour shift in 2 weeks. Yuck. Last time he was able to deliver a baby and a placenta (a little gross, I know, sorry). Although I wish he didn't have to do as many of these 24 hour shifts, I am glad he is at least getting such a good experience out of it. He started his OBGYN rotation 2 weeks ago (has it been that long already?!). Here he is ready to go.

He is still a bike commuter, but the intense hills here, and the COLD weather may be slowing that down a bit. We will see if he gives in and takes the car sometimes. I love how his snowboard pants are over his regular pants and rolled up to keep off of the chain. :) Paul, you are awesome. So far he is really liking this rotation. Once he got to actually participate in a few things, he was happy. The first few days, no one wanted a MALE student to come into the room with the doctor he was following, so he basically sat and did nothing for his entire shift. Hopefully he will have more participatory days in his future. I think it's so exciting that he actually got to deliver a baby! :)