Jase's 3rd Birthday

Think he had a good time? I'd say, "YES."

Still having the same "images not in order" problem. I am usually able to copy and paste them around, but for some reason it's not working. Whateva.

Ok so my baby boy just turned THREE. Yes, three. I can't believe it! He's getting so big so quickly! He loves the show Curious George, so I decided to go with that as the theme. Besides, it's kind of fitting since Jase is also very curious and gets into lots of mischief! :) I had grandious plans for this party, but I'm learning that time always gets ahead of me these days and I had to throw a lot of them out the window. However, it was still cute and Jase had lots of fun being the center of attention! My brother Nathan and his wife, Meredith, chillin' on the couch.
Jase's cousin, Emmi, loved helping him open gifts. And actually, he was okay with it. LOL.

Another gift to open!

Cousin McKayla, being silly!

I went to the library and checked out a few Curious George books to place around the house. Turned out cute. Also had to get a few balloons! And yes, we have Curious George playing on the TV, too.

Emmi playing the little horn blower thing. I'm spacing what these things are really called right now...

Here's the two cakes. I was happy with how they came out. It looks like Curious George, right??? The big one is 4 layer chocolate mousse cake, topped with whipped ganache and covered in crushed Heath bar. I do not mess around when it comes to cake! This thing is the BOMBdiggitydog of yumminess!!! I thought it would be fun to do a little banana cake just for Jase on the side.

Better view of my Curious George cake. It's so stinkin' cute! I love it!

Quick pic of one of the table spreads. The lighting is terrible but the food was actually really fun. The marshmallow pops were my favorite part. I just stuck lollipop sticks into them, rolled them in chocolate, then in different crushed candies. Stuck them in some potting foam and covered that with easter grass. Other fun foods were chocolate/banana/peanut butter shakes (forgot to defrost these so that is why the straws are not in them), chips, cut out PB&J sandwiches, and cut out tuna fish sandwiches.

Oh, here's some carrots and ranch, dipped nutter butter cookies, and the sandwiches. I wanted them to be monkey faces, but I ran out of time for that, as well.

Another photo of the birthday fun table.

All in all it was a really fun party! I felt like I took a lot of pics, but apparently, not. Good thing Reuben's brother brought his camera! I have to get a copy of his pics bc mine are surely lacking! I hardly have any of the guests in photos! Well, I am sure I'll get them eventually and can add to this post later on.

And a Happy Halloween it was!

Captain Jase Sparrow and his parrot, E-Boppers.

I don't even have the patience to rearrange these pics. Google put them in here all out of order, and when I try to copy and paste them around it's giving me trouble. ARGH! Ok so I'll try to make this make some sense. Jase's cousin had a Pirate themed birthday and he got a cute pirate patch and earring at the party. It gave me the idea to build from that and let Jase be a pirate for Halloween. Ian could be his parrot! Hardy har har. And so it was. Found this cute Jack Sparrow costume for him on ebay. I looooved the dreads/braids, but since it kept touching his cheek, Jase refused to wear them the rest of the evening. Lame. BUT he was still cute! :)

Another pic of Jasey the pirate.

This is both of us. I'd like to call my costume "what-I-found-in-my-closet-Pirate." It's classic.

He's so silly!!!!

We first went to the local library to check out their Halloween party. It was cute, but in my opinion they either needed to have more game options so the lines for the kids would be shorter---OR give the kids less "turns to try" when it was their turn to play. I ran out of patience quickly. But Jase had fun. So that's good.

Here's a pic of Jase, Ian, and the dad trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This house always has a cool spook "alley" you can walk through.

It went from moderately raining to POURING raining while we were out. Blech! Because of the rain/weather, I did not get as many pictures as I had hoped. Trying to manage an umbrella, baby and toddler plus a camera is near impossible. Thank goodness Roob was with us. This is a pic of Jase and I riding in the back of the Explorer with the hatch open! Roob drove us house to house and we would jump in and out. Lots of Jase's candy got wet, so I finally dumped it into the car to keep what we could dry. You think I would have thought of this sooner. Actually, it was Roob's idea.

Jase being silly in the back of the car. He's so funny! He was really having the TIME of his life, despite the rain. Of course, rain is FUN to kids. Not so fun for moms. And all I could think was "I knew I should have sprayed these suede boots with the waterproofing spray." Maybe next time.

After trick or treating, we stopped at the local restaurant to get some BBQ. Ian was just chillin' on the floor in his car seat and parrot attire. And yes, it's a pink binky. I forgot to switch it out for green before we left the house. Oops. The restaurant had free popcorn and hot chocolate. That was cool!

This was when we first arrived at the library. Yes, out of order.

Ian getting ready for the library party. A few people mistook him for a jester or clown. I don't think they realized he had a parrot beak on his head. Oh well. Small misunderstanding. :)

Jase waiting while we strapped Ian into the stroller...

After years of waiting, Jase finally had his turn to play the golf game.

All in all it REALLY was a FUN night. It made both Roob and I sooo happy to see Jase having so much fun! Made it all worth it. Wonder what Jase will want to be next year???

Nathan & Meredith's Wedding

So Nathan (my bro) and Meredith got hitched! Hooray! I'm so happy for them both! Their son is only one month older than Jase (FUN) and baby #2 is on the way! Congrats y'all! Everything about this wedding was so "them;" I loved it. I'll have to post a few pics of the details so you get to see how cute it was. And get this--it was my mom's neighbor's backyard!!!!! He has the coolest backyard I've ever seen! I'll say that much! I grabbed a quick photo-op with the groom!
How cute is this?? There were quite a few outbuildings, etc, with pictures strung on them. Look how cute the fabric is on that bench! And the little mason jars everywhere with tea lights in them! Darling! I am in love!

This is Hibbin, their 3 yr old boy (my first nephew). Can we say, "adorable?" Yes, very much so. He is showing me the beignets he's about to eat (New Orleans style fried donuts). That was part of their New Orleans/nature-ish theme. I think I have a pic of them being made later on in the post...

This was taken toward the end of the night. Just feeding each other the cake. They were both so nice about it. The cakes were traditional New Orleans cakes called "dorberge." It's yellow sponge cake cut into lots of thin layers, then filled in between with chocolate custard. Tasty! They were able to have a NOLA (new orleans, louisiana) bakery ship 'em up here frozen. Cool.

Ah, yes. Here it is. How cute is this? The servers were all dressed with black aprons. Cooking hot beignets fresh to order!

Saying the vows...and yes, that is MY son throwing rocks into the pond during the thing. I was so embarrassed. It was kind of funny, though. Of course I did make him stop! (after I snapped a picture, LOL)

Jase would not leave this table of "owl" cookies alone! Oh my goodness. And the blackberries. He was too funny "stealing" blackberries during the entire reception.

Gotta get a pic of Reub with the Jasemeister. Eating owl cookies. Shocker.

This little area behind where Jase is standing is what they used for a "photobooth." Such a cute idea! They had a photographer stationed back there who took quirky pics of all of the wedding guests. We won't discuss my family's photobooth picture, because it was THAT bad. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes when I first saw it. I was in the WORST mood bc I was so frazzled chasing after Jase and having him not listen to a thing I said. I made a poor effort to be funny, and my face is just absolutely hideous. It is THAT bad. On second thought, maybe I should post the picture so all of you could have a real good laugh. I'll think about it. :) Ah-hem.

Well here we are. Pictured left to right: Nathan, me, Michael. The siblings.

Another detail. The drink table. They got these "Blood Orange" drinks from Costco that were out of this world. In fact, note to self: go to Costco and see if they have any.
Jase waiting for his drink :) And a side note--I bet I know someone who would like this fabric--Sharstin? Hee hee.

More cute things. Jars hanging from trees with birdseed and tea lights. Love.

Another picture of the owl table and cute owl cookies.

You can better see the dorberge cakes here. I love how they are displayed on this old, wooden crate.

Overwhelmed.

Ever since my laptop busted I have been slacking BIG TIME on my posts...I used to have it set up on the kitchen table, so when I had a couple minutes here and there I could sneak on some pics...but now it's terribly hard to get online. Reuben is working like a mad dog, so when he's here he's on the desktop computer. Anyways. Blah blah. I have like 1,000,000 pictures to post and I HOPE I can catch up sometime! I just realized I never posted Ian's 4 month stats and now he will be 6 months old in just another week. Good gracious. He is getting so big! Anyways, hoping to find some time to post soon...

For now enjoy this picture of probably the only time EVER you will see both of my boys completely crashed on me. Ha haha! Luckily Reub was around to take the shot! Jase has NEVER fallen asleep on me like that before. I think we were out late for some reason (can't remember now bc this picture is a few months old) so the poor thing was just exhausted! Guess Ian was, too!

Our Summer Fun

Before next year rolls around I figured I better get some summer pics posted on here! I am going to try to cram in as many as I can because it's getting late and I need to get to bed! These may or may not be in order...

Trip to Bear Lake...we met our friends Chris & Kami (and their 2 kids) up at Bear Lake. They reserved a KOA cabin for us. I was definitely wary about this at first, but when I got there it was actually pretty cute! Only downside was community bathrooms. Less than ideal. BUT they were relatively clean and remodeled, so I dealt with it just fine :)

This is the cabin. Cute, right? It had a double bed and a bunk bed inside. Small desk for a computer, free wi-fi, a very LOUD ceiling fan (kind of hot in there during the day but at night it was great), some coat hooks, a garbage can and a broom. Ha ha ha. Oh and a swing on the porch. Ca-ute!
Here's Jase chillaxin' on the beach. He actually fell asleep in this chair (bonus) after a while. Don't ask what happened later. Ok, I'll tell you. It got VERY windy. Long story short, the boys were out on the boat (including Roob) and it was just Kami, her daughter, Jase and I on the shore. I heard Kami yell "Aimster!" and I just knew it. Our BRAND new $80 "EZ up" canopy blew away. OMG. I am sure the sight of me running down the beach after it was pretty hilarious. Needless to say the wind broke the frame in a couple of places. Ah, adventures. Oh, and while the boys were out on the boat, they managed to rip open our tube. So 2 things got ruined at the same time. Wah.
Jase hanging out in Kami's super cool floatie (I want one). Isn't his UV swimsuit so fabulous? Yeah. I hate putting sunblock on him and this helps a lot :)
Had to throw in a pic of the boat. Hee hee. Ok really I wanted you to see how gorgeous the lake is! It's soooo blue (just noticing the picture really doesn't do it justice)! And freezing!
Ah, here's a pic of the EZ up canopy BEFORE it blew to bits...oh, and notice anything strange? Yeah, there are CARS on the beach! WHAT! Only beach I know of that you can actually drive on! Random!
E-boppers chillin' in the bumbo on the double bed. He and I slept here. It was actually pretty comfy. Surprised me.
Jase was totally diggin' the bunk bed. Good thing, too. Because one day I am SURE both he and Ian will have one.
He was so funny on this thing! That's his favorite blanket and "baby" (small bear beanie baby) cuddled up right next to him.
Pic of me and Ian on the boat. We were just pulling into the dock.
Cutie patootles in his beach hoodie. Love it.
Ha ha ha! This face is a crack up. He loves to suck his fingers!

The County Fair

Wow I love blogging but trying to do it with a crying baby and a 2 yr old climbing all over me sure takes the "fun" out of it! ARGH!

We went to the county fair Saturday night with the boys. It was SUPER crowded. The parking situation was pretty bad, but we finally scored a spot in one of the lots closer to the entrance. After we had the stroller and the boys unloaded, a cop drove by and told us that this lot was for police only. What!? Argh! So annoying! We almost left and went home (well Roob wanted to but I refused) until Reuben had the genius idea to take our chances and stay parked there. He had some good points: 1) There were other "civilian" cars in that lot (out of state license plates), 2) No one had any special passes or stickers on their cars, 3) As soon as we pull out one of the 5 million other cars looking for parking is going to nab it, 4) The lot was not marked in ANY way that it was reserved or special parking. So we stayed put! Yikes! I just knew our car would be towed or ticketed. Just in case Roob took a pic proving that the lot wasn't marked. LOL.

We went inside and it was total craziness. We watched these funny souped up tractor races (kind of loud for Ian), then we walked around a bit.Jase saw this huge bungee jump thing and wanted to ride it. I just assumed someone his size could not do it. Well the sign said "20 to 140 lbs" (he's about 38lbs) so Roob and I got in line to wait. And wait we did. I bet it was at least a 45 minute wait (boring!). Here's a pic of Ian I took while waiting in line--he was being so stinkin' cute!Anyways, we were both really worried that Jase's turn would come and he would totally freak out and not do it. Here's what happened next:

I actually stopped recording before the guy made him go SUPER DOOPER high! But I did snap some quick pics to prove it! Jase was LOVING it and yelling "higher! higher!" Both Reuben and I were so shocked! It made standing in line totally worth it! Check him out! My brave boy!He was sooo sad when his turn was over and didn't understand why he couldn't ride again. I had to snag a bit of video of it b/c it was too cute (and sad, aww):



Here's a random pic of Jase standing on a tank! Not sure if we were supposed to be on that or not?? Oh, and by the way, we didn't get towed or ticketed! PHEW!!!