Wyatt is 4!!!

Wow! It seems like just yesterday that my life changed forever. I can't believe that it has been 4 years since I became a mother. Wyatt is constantly conducting science experiments and cooking with or without adult supervision. Once I came down from upstairs after putting Adeline down for a nap to find him trying to make a cake from scratch. He had a large mixing bowl full of flour, sugar, eggs, various spices, sprinkles, and who knows what else. He always wants to be my little helper in the kitchen and is always dreaming up new science experiments to try. He is so curious and such a sweet, smart boy! He loves people and is very social! He is constantly striking up conversations with anyone he meets and everyone is his friend. I can't imagine my life without him.

Here are some quick shots I took of my little charmer in our living room. Isn't he handsome?!

Christmas 2012

 This year's Christmas was quite exciting. Wyatt was in his very first Preschool performance. They sang some Christmas songs and performed the Nativity. Wyatt was a shepherd.

 It was also Adeline's very 1st Christmas. I don't think she liked Santa very much.

 Here are a few of my favorite pics that I took just outside our house. These ones made it on the Christmas card.

This year we got to stay home for Christmas, which was so nice since traveling with kids is tough. We had some special visitors this year: Nana and Uncle Mark.

 Adeline was so excited to open presents. I think this was her favorite toy. I just love the look on her face.

And of course we had to get a shot of the two kiddos in front of the tree before we took it down. Boy is it hard to get both of them to look at the camera. Do you guys have any tips/ tricks?

We had such a wonderful Christmas and feel so blessed to have such great, healthy kids. Here's to a Happy New Year!

Adeline Olivia- She really does exist. Promise.

So, Anyone who knows us know that we have two kids, but our blog would indicate otherwise. The truth is, we have been so busy with our (not so new) addition that we haven't had much time for blogging. But, she is just so darn cute that it's never to late to at least share some pics of the past 10 months of her life, right? Like they say, some things in life are worth the wait:

Adeline Olivia Dray born Easter Sunday 4/8/12 @ 3:54am

Newborn pics. Precious.

 1 month old in her baby blessing dress above and below all bundled up with big brother, Wyatt.

2 months old and starting to lift her head up. She's smiling now, too. So fun!

3 months old. I love this gorgeous shot I got of her below. For now, her eyes are still blue.

4 months old. She is getting so big!

5 months old (below) She can sit up by herself now and has a great sense of humor. Wyatt was pretending to trip behind me to get her to laugh for this pic. Love it!

6 months old. Of course we had to take some pics with all the fall leaves.

 And another 6 month shot below. She is just too cute. I can't stop taking pics of her.

7 months old and growing up so fast. This girl loves her mama and I cant get enough of her either.

8 months old now. Wyatt has been teaching her mischief. Can you see it in her eyes? lol.

9 months. She loves pizza and climbing the stairs.

And finally 10 months old! Where has the time gone?

Wyatt's 3rd Birthday Party: Superhero Smash

Once again, Kristin went all Supermom and did a whole themed party for Wyatt's 3rd birthday. This time it was superheroes, and she had a whole superhero training program set up. One of the stations was for learning to fly, pictured just below and in the 1st video, where the kids used a table as a slide. Other stations involved punching bad guys (2nd video), dodging speeding bullets (3rd video), jumping over tall buildings, hitting targets, running fast like the Flash, etc. The last event was a scavenger hunt - The Joker stole the cupcakes and the little superheroes had to follow the clues to recover the snacks. Although not all of his buddies could make it because of a major snowstorm, Wyatt had so much fun he just about lost his voice.

Halloween 2011

I don't remember Halloween being a week long event when I was a kid, but Wyatt took advantage of every opportunity to put on his costume. Although he had fun trick-or-treating on Halloween night, that wasn't nearly as exciting as handing out candy (once he came to grips with the fact that yes, we were going to give away that huge bowl of candy). For the first few batches of kids, he would frantically stuff fistfuls of candy in every bag and bucket as quickly as he could while shouting "What's up, Halloweenies".

He became more thoughtful about the process as the night went on, though, peering into each kid's collection and dropping one piece in at a time. He was sure to pause every time he handed out a Tootsie Roll, explaining to the recipient "This is chocolate", as if to emphasize the value of the gift.

Picture Dump

Since we've been neglecting the blog lately, the least I can do is share some pictures of Wyatt. More below the jump...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Wyatt!

Lately Wyatt has been obsessed with rocket ships. He loves anything having to do with rockets and outer space, so it only seemed natural that his birthday party should be a rocket ship theme. I proposed the idea to Wyatt who enthusiastically said "yeah!". He was so excited. I tried to keep him involved throughout the planning process. It's so much fun to see his excitement and his little opinions about everything.

Here we are doing our first ever paper mache project. I wanted to make planets to hang from the ceiling for his party. This was super messy, but he didn't seem to mind at all. Note to self: next time do this outside.

He actually got really good at dipping the strips of newspaper in. I had to help him smooth them out on the balloon.

Once the paper mache was dry, I painted a white base coat on all the balloons, then Wyatt got to help me paint them to look like planets. he's quite the little artist. He loved squirting the paint on the balloon then rubbing it in with his brush. Again, next time I would do this outside but it was freezing this week, so it was a good way to keep busy.

A little more here.

Inspecting his work.

Here they are hanging at the party. I hung some stars from the ceiling, too. It looked really awesome. Wyatt already wants to hang them up in his room.

For the party, all the decorations were red and blue. We made cosmic sandwiches.

We also had some blue chips with red salsa. Some blue limeade. Notice the goody bags in the background. I custom designed the rocket ship logos to go on them. I wish now that I had taken a close up picture. They turned out really cute. Wyatt helped pick out the items to go inside and we put them together. He loved helping me use the stapler.

Wyatt also helped me make the cake (I decorated it) It turned out really cute. I was so nervous. Notice the candles coming out the bottom like rocket ship flares. So cute!

 And it tastes delicious, too.

 Wyatt picked out rainbow chip cake when we were at the store. He is so funny and so particular about some things. It cracks me up.

 Mmmmm....frosting.

I think he liked it.

Playtime. I got these foam swords from the dollar bin at Target. Best purchase ever! Wyatt loves them. Here he is fighting his buddy Matthew. He goes for the leg chop.

Matthews reaction. lol. He was totally hamming it up. Don't worry, the swords don't hurt at all.

Wyatt showing Zane around.

Here Wyatt is showing all his friends how the kitchen works. He has a little oven mitt on and is showing Logan the proper way to remove a hot item from the microwave. Funny kid. He loves to cook just like his grandpa. He is a big "help" in the real kitchen, too.

Wyatt got some great presents. Here he is checking out his new play-doh puppy from his friend, Logan.

And his rocket ship from Zane. He loves this toy!

We also had a giant playhouse rocket ship for the kids to play in. Thanks, Mom. We played freeze dance. We played meteor shower where the kids had to try to keep all the balloons off the ground. That was fun! Then we read some rocket ship books. I think Wyatt was the only one totally into it. I'm telling you, this kid loves rocket ships. We had so much fun hanging out with friends and celebrating Wyatt's special day. Happy Birthday Wyatt!