Messy Child

Bladen makes a mess wherever he goes. My house has never been so dirty in my life. It seems like as soon as I get one of his mess's cleaned up, he's already making another. But he sure is cute!

Happy Land is a very happy place. It makes my kids very happy, which in turn, makes me very happy too! Seriously though, it's one of those places you walk into & think "Oh man, am I going to catch some horrible disease from touching something in here?" It kind of makes me laugh. Talk about "GHETTO" but SUPER SUPER FUN!

Taya's favorite spot is the roller slides. You have to love Germany & their death-trap playgrounds. This is a slide made out of metal rollers (we're talking losing your fingers if they get caught in between the rollers) that you go down on a piece of thin carpet. We came here for a birthday party once & a kid slid off the carpet, fell face first, & the rollers knocked out his front tooth! I remember all us parents looking for the tooth between the rollers. But Taya & Bladen love it!

My personal favorite is the pull-swings. You sit in these metal seats (without any kind of seatbelts whatsoever. . . & completely open ends) & pull on the rope which in turn makes you swing. I LOVE THESE. They are scary as scary can be once you get going really high & you remind yourself that there is nothing holding you in, but for some reason I LOVE THEM. Taya likes to ride them with me. Cadence & Lorien are both "too cool" to ride with Mommy.

Lorien loves the trampoline area. There are 6 of the best trampolines in the world here. They are SO different than a trampoline you jump on in your backyard. It's hilarious watching adults jump on these. You literally can jump higher than you've ever jumped in your life. Lorien was doing little flips & what-not the entire time we were there. I was having a blast watching a bunch of drunk dad's try & out-jump each other. They literally looked like they were going to break something if they landed wrong. They were SO HIGH in the air! It was nuts!

Bladen had fun in the baby area obstacle course. Daddy helped him get up inside, but then he roamed around forever on his own. He was having a blast.

Taya found Cadence at Cadence's favorite place: the blow up obstacle course & HUGE blow-up slide. Taya would only go down the slide with Cadence. She was too scared to go down by herself. Cadence was going crazy on this thing though. Head first, feet first, rolling, bouncing, surfing. It's fun to see her getting braver as she gets older. She's a cutie pie.

I'm Running Away!

Well, I don't have any pictures to go with this one because at the time I needed to handle the situation in the best & most loving way possible. . . pulling out the camera would have been the worst thing for her at the time. But Trek reminded me to post the story because it's these memories that we have to hold onto forever.

On Saturday Lorien politely asked me for a brownie. I had made 3 dozen brownies for a church activity & had several left over. She had already had 2 brownies that day so I told her that she had already had enough & to please stop asking for more. For some reason, that was the last straw for her. She started crying & ended up throwing a HUGE fit over me saying no. I remember this phase with Cadence & I remember HATING it. It was only a matter of time before it hit Lorien. Luckily it was a shorter phase (maybe 9 months or so), so hopefully it won't last too long.

Lorien was so upset that she couldn't have a brownie that she packed up her backpack & told Trek & I she was running away. She didn't love us anymore & she was going to find a new mommy. Cadence has done this several times. She'll go outside, make it to the house next door, & come back bawling because she doesn't know where to go or what to do. I thought Lorien would be the same. I heard her open the front door & then close it again. I gave her a few minutes because I feel it's important for them to let the realization hit them that they're on their own making their own decisions. I peeked out the window. She was trailblazing it out of housing without so much of a glance back. I immediately took off running after her. As soon as she realized I was behind her, she started running too. I couldn't believe it!! That little pill didn't care what happened to her! I finally caught up to her & asked her what she thought she was going to do & she had a huge plan all mapped out. She was going to knock on doors & find a mommy with sisters to play with & if they didn't want her, she'd go to the next house & ask them. She said she'd be cute so that they would feed her & give her a bed to sleep in & toys to play with. It was so hard not to laugh.

I told her how much I loved her & how sad I would be if she left us. She hugged me & told me she really loved me too & we walked home hand & hand.

As soon as we walked through the front door. . . . "Can I have a brownie now?" (She was mad the rest of the day because I still wouldn't give her the brownie. But at least she knew I loved her.)

Trouble Has A New Name!

I tell you, between Bladen & Taya, I'm going to go nuts! They are both so stinkin' cute, but SO curious & independent. Today Bladen swallowed 1/4 of a yellow crayon while we were cleaning up Taya's crayon disaster. Then Lorien (dear sweet Lorien) accidentally "didn't make it" to the toilet on time. In the 5 minutes it took me to clean & sanatize Lorien, her clothes, the bathroom rugs, & the floor, Taya had somehow climbed up onto the top of the sink, grabbed a brand new bottle of baby shampoo, & gave herself, her clothes, & the entire bathroom a soap bath. I about died when I saw it. So then I cleaned that mess up only to find Bladen in this position. . .

He can pull himself up to standing now & he managed to pull himself up on our water tank. It didn't take him very long to figure out that when you pushed the blue thing, water came out. Now it's his new favorite game & Mommy has one more thing to clean up at the end of the day. I love my job!!! (I really do. These little moments won't last forever, so I have to cherish them while I can, even if it means TONS of work on my part. I love these little monsters.)

Bladen's 1st Father-Son Campout

So Trek took his son to their very first father-son campout this weekend. Trek was determined to be there with Bladen rain or shine. I was VERY worried when he first mentioned it. . . but when I read that the forecast was to be sunny & warm, I let him go.

It was a father-son campout for the entire stake & it was in one of our favorite castles to visit: Mandersheid. The Mandersheid ruins are 2 castles that were pretty much destroyed at some point or another that are right next to each other. We like to go there to go hiking because there's some great trails between the 2 castles. The Stake got permission for everyone to actually set up tent INSIDE the lower castle. How cool is that? Not only did Bladen get to go camping, but his first camping trip was INSIDE a castle!!!

Trek took Bladen everywhere with him. He took him to the top of the tower of the castle, to the fireside, hiking, to the campfire, etc. They had a blast together!

Trek said it was a cold night. Bladen slept in a sleeping back with Trek so Trek didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Bladen woke up right at 5:00 am (of course) ready to rock & roll, so poor Trek had to get up & play at the crack of dawn. But they had fun.

It was the first of MANY father-son campouts. Trek's already looking forward to taking Bladen camping again soon! (Maybe this time the girls & I can tag along!)

She's a Maniac, Maniac! (Lego Maniac)

Cadence LOVES legos! They are her favorite toy in the world. She builds the most amazing things with them. Sometimes she likes to use the big baby legos & other times she makes intricate things out of the small ones. Today she wanted to make Taya a Wall-E & Eve for Taya to play with. They turned out adorable!

Little Cutie

Tylee & Pierre sent Bladen this adorable shirt for his birthday & I had to get some pics with him wearing it. He looks like a miniature man. It's so funny how an outfit can make him seem so much older than he is. What a cutie pie!

One way ticket to the nuthouse . . .

I swear these kids are going to put me in the nuthouse. Between Bladen & Taya, I have my work cut out for me. There's never a dull moment! For example. . . today Taya managed to take off her own pull up training diaper & peed on the floor upstairs in the playroom. So off I go to clean urine out of the carpet & off of her & her clothes. I run back downstairs & THIS is what I find all over my kitchen floor. Bladen has been pulling the garbage over at least once a day for the past week, but this was the first time I had actual food on top. It was everywhere! By the time I got this mess cleaned up, Taya had managed to throw several of her toys in the toilet upstairs. What's a momma to do? (take pictures of course!)

Bladen's 1st Birthday Party

We had a blast celebrating Bladen's first birthday. It was extra nice because Mimi, Baba, Justin, Cari, Korbyn, Tylee, & Pierre all celebrated with us via computer. We all have Mac Computers so we had a multi-person conversation. It was WONDERFUL to feel like we had tons of family right there in the room with us celebrating.

Bladen had a Mickey Mouse birthday, so I made each of the girls their own Minnie Mouse cakes so they had a fun treat to eat while we celebrated.

And then the Birthday Boy got his very own 3 layered Mickey Mouse birthday cake. I chose Mickey Mouse because Bladen is totally addicted to Oreo cookies & Oreos make the best Mickey ears. The cake started out chocolate with white frosting, & then I made bright red frosting to pipe along the edges. Well, after that red set out for an hour or so, it turned BRIGHT PINK (see the minnie mouse ear cake above!!) It looked like a little girl's birthday cake. I about DIED! So then I scrambled & got some chocolate frosting & piped it over the pink to try to hide it, but it STILL looked girly. SO . . . I had to break out the red food coloring in spray paint form. So my nice white & black cake turned out to be a red & black cake. All is well. Luckily when you're turning one, you don't really care what the cake looks like. You just want it to be tasty! And it was.

I hung streamers over the door & let Bladen crawl in & out of them to keep himself busy until the party started. He loved it.

We also put some kids music on & let the girls take turns dancing with him. He didn't really know what was going on, but he's such a good kid. . . he just lets his big sisters drag him around.

Once we got everyone on the multi-video conference, we opened presents. He was hilarious! Every time he'd open something, he'd want to play with it immediately. When we'd put it aside so we could open another gift, he'd cry & whine for the last toy. Needless to say, he LOVED ALL his new toys.

And then it was time for cake. He was very timid at first, almost like he was going to get in trouble for touching it. But once he realized there was nothing stopping him from digging in, he went for it full force!

He was the happiest boy in the whole world. He was SO full of sugar, that he didn't know what to do with himself.

This picture is worth a thousand words. Rock On Baby!! This is the best day of your life!

He ate 3/4 of the entire cake. He was a MESS!! He had a nice long bath afterward.

And then he got to sit & play with all his brand new toys. It was a perfect day for little man. Happy Birthday little dude! Mommy & Daddy love you!!!