Jackson's Third Birthday!

It's Jackson Ryan's 3rd Birthday today!!!!

I don't know where the time has gone.

We had a really fun party on Saturday.

 It was a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme-you probably can tell by the shirt!

I also took a LOT of pictures of him.

 He's just so funny it's hard not to!

 Today (his actual birthday) we had a birthday lunch at my parents' and I took even more pictures!

 By the end I think this was how he felt about them!  :)

I'll have to post details about his birthday soon.  I need to keep up because we'll have lots of pictures of our kindergartener in just a week.  A WEEK!

Adoption Update

I've had a few people ask me where we are on our adoption and realized I hadn't posted about it in awhile!  A few weeks ago we finally got our 1800-A approval (which is something to do with immigration  and the approval to bring an orphan into the US-I think.) and so we immediately mailed it off to our agency.  They are now certifying it, and once it's certified then they'll mail our entire dossier (which is all of our paperwork) to China.  Once there they will log us into their system.  Then we're considered logged in.  Which means we are eligible to then receive a referral!  Unfortunately it could take as long as a year I think, I'm going to ask our agency once they send off our dossier so I know what to expect.  So far everything is going well so I'll keep you posted as I know more!

My Birthday (and Laura, Aunt Amy's, and Uncle Ross's!)

Laura and I celebrated our birthday at the end of July, along with my Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross.  We didn't see them on it unfortunately but it's fun we all share a birthday! 

The boys wanted to have an army birthday party for me.  They really know the way to my heart! :)  (Please ignore me in my glasses, I had just woken up!)  They made me breakfast in bed and woke me up to have a gun fight.  They bought army hats, army decorations and candles, and bought the boys army whistles.  They got me the lei I have on my neck because they said that was for girls.  They are so funny.  We are showing off our tatoos here.

We have a tradition of meeting my parents for lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  This year our birthday fell on a Sunday so our husbands were able to come too!  Here are the best buds Ben and Cooper.

I just thought it was funny that the boys were playing with army men at the dinner table.  Yes, they got those too for my birthday.

Afterward we went to see the fountain and take some pictures.

I think he's either really excited or dancing, one of the two!

The four cousins!

 Our family.

 The Grands with their grandkids!

This little boy turns three in two days?!?  Where does the time go?  We're having a Very Hungry Caterpillar party here tomorrow, I'll have to post the details soon.  I just got done decorating and I'm ready to go to bed!

I had to end on these two pictures.  Jackson fell asleep in the car WHILE eating animal cookies!  I purposely gave them to him to keep him awake...didn't really work!  Isn't that hilarious?

Aww, and last but not least, my cutie Cooper.  A kindergartener in just 9 days!!!!

A Day of Fun

I just thought this picture was so funny and cute, I had to post it.  Jackson sleeping with his blanket all tucked around him...so cute!

This is also just funny.  I'm one of three girls who are in charge of the crafts for the moms in MOPS.  So we met to discuss ideas while the kids played.  There were 6 kids and we pretty much just let them have full-reign while we were in the kitchen.   This is what 6 kids can do unsupervised...

They somehow got up high and got most of the games down with ALL the game pieces all over the place.   Ahhh kids.

The day of fun I was referring to in the title was a day a few weeks ago when we had Eliz and Ben here all day, and our friend Henry here all morning.  I knew they would all be here so I tried to plan a few activities to keep them all entertained.   First up, wet sponge tag.

Then I realized the only sponges I had were "used" and that would NOT work, so it became "wet washcloth tag."  Still fun!

What a cutie pie!

Then I had this idea to freeze these tiny soldiers in ice and I thought they could slowly chip away at them and it would take them forever to get out of there.  I had to put the straws in as well to hold the soldiers down in so they wouldn't float to the top. 

Well I realized I didn't want them to all have adult hammers b/c that would just be an accident waiting to happen with me all by myself, so I told them to be creative.

They threw them on the ground and it took all of 2 seconds to get them out. 

Here's a group photo of them all!

Elizabeth used some art supplies to make a very cute crown for herself. and dressed like the queen.

Last but not least, we played with our mini parachute.  The kids LOVED it.  We don't use it much but when we do it's a blast!

Oh, I guess that wasn't really last.  We then made fruit pizza...(Just cookie dough and then cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting with fruit)

and then made a giant robot out of boxes.

Jackson helped by reading :)

I had been planning to do this all summer and had saved some boxes, but finally gotten around to it when E and B were here.  Thank goodness I did because my boys really could have cared less.  They participated a bit and then were off playing.  I just need to realize they don't love crafts!!!!

Elizabeth did though, and so did Ben to an extent. Here she is with our finished product. They named him "Bostin."  He's still sitting in our family room!

Phew, the end to a very fun, and slightly exhausting day!

Lazy Summer Days

I borrowed Laura's sewing machine and Cooper begged me to make him a ninja mask.  I have no idea how to really do it so I just cut out the mask and then sewed the ribbons on.  Cooper informed me that usually ninja masks have their mouths covered up.  Whoops.

They sure look cute in them though!

He is ready to fight crime!

He was excited to pose for mom (not really!:).

Here's one of the curtains that I actually SEWED, I didn't use my usual fabric glue!  I figured it would take forever to glue all of it together so I just crossed my fingers and was able to actually figure out her machine.  Actually easier than glueing!

Jackson thought he was hilarious to get dressed like this. 

 Just some pictures of a lazy day at home.

Cooper and Jackson got into the craft supplies and Cooper came to me and showed me he made a cross!  Then he asked me how to write Jesus. 

He sounded it out all by himself!

Our family reading books before bed that night.

We tried a fun little art project one hot afternoon.

We used q-tips and did a "dot" picture.

I love it!