Wild parks and birthdays...

First and foremost, here is my little man at 6 months. I can't believe he's already 6 months! He loves to smile and laugh, and REALLY loves to pull hair. Especially Tatum's. :) He's also finally decided that solids aren't too bad so he eats twice a day. But that doesn't seem to help him sleep through the night. :(

Tatum and Daddy bought a basket ball hoop and it's been nightly fun! Here's Tatum slam dunking past Daddy!

She loves to use the chair for a jump shot. :)

Ty tries to get in on the fun but he has a hard time getting the ball away from Tatum and when he does, he just wants to eat it. :)

Jenny and Mattie came down to meet us at the Wild Animal Park for a day o' fun! We took the Journey into Africa...

and saw lots of animals, including the giraffe eating off their tree. So cool!

After walking around and seeing lots of animals and having lunch, on our way out we got this cute picture of the girls. Such great friends.

And we HAD to hit the carousel of course. Except for the fact that it was President's Day holiday which made the park pretty crowded, it was a fun day with our friends.

Then on Saturday we went to Keira's 1st birthday. Look at that cute birthday girl in her party dress!

Keira loves Elmo and she got a big Elmo face cake all to herself!

After some coaching, she dove into the cake. Mental note to all with upcoming 1st birthdays. Don't put black frosting on the cake. Wow, it was a mess! But soooo cute!

And then yesterday Ty had a play date with his friend Colin up the street. Colin is just 18 days younger and they're already the best of friends! :)

Birthday party part 2

Ty has become such a helpful little man. Here he is helping me with the laundry. :)

On Tatum's birthday we were suppose to go to a gym class with friend Ellie and then back to her house for a birthday celebration. Unfortunately, Ellie came down with a cold and we had to postpone. But we got to enjoy the gym and birthday celebration the following Tuesday which was so much fun. I didn't get any pics of the gym but Tatum loved it. She learned how to jump on a trampoline, somersault down a hill, walk on balance beams, and hang from bars. We'll have to think about enrolling in gym class in the future. But after class we headed to Ellie's house for a delicious lunch of heart and start shaped pb and j sandwiches, veggies, and a hard boiled egg in the shape of a car! After lunch came the yummy cupcakes and here's Ellie helping Tatum blow out the candle. :)

And here's Tatum blowing out the candle. Delicious cupcakes I might add, I had to make sure by having 2 or 3. :)

Then there was finger painting, coloring and sticker playing. We had so much fun and very happy to re celebrate Tatum's birthday. :) Thanks Mandy and Ellie!

Then Daddy went to CO to visit his step brother so we headed up to Irvine to visit Grandma. I didn't take too many pictures since we didn't do anything too exciting. But getting down this boat that Jenny gave us was pretty exciting. Ty loves it and could sit and play in it for hours. That is if he'd ever get a turn, since his sister feels it's a new toy for her and usually monopolizes it. Oh, poor Ty. Soon he'll be pushing her around but for now, I guess he has to sit back and take it. :)

Elephants, Tigers and kids, oh my!

On Friday Tatum, Ty and I met some friends (Ellie and Ramey in the picture) at the SD Zoo. We love the zoo and they have a new Elephant exhibit with large animals to play on. Here's the elephant...

and the saber tooth tiger...

and the baby elephant which all the girls loved...

and the real elephants of course...

and the cheetah. The best part about the exhibit is you get to ride the sky buckets over to see it. Not my favorite thing to do since I hate heights but Tatum loves it! She looks over the side (which gives me a heart attach since I'm gripping the railings tightly and not moving the entire ride) and the views of the zoo and Balboa park are amazing.

Then on Saturday, Garrett and I took the kids to the Wild Animal Park. I bought a new pass which allows me to bring a guest, any guest. So Garrett was my guest and we also get free parking at WAP which is awesome. The other thing is we've taught Tatum that if they ask her how old she is at the zoo or the WAP, she is to respond, "Two!". But in case that doesn't work out, she can always be my guest. :) While we were there, we took a new trail and saw the bald eagle, mountain sheep, elephants and the tigers. The tigers got frisky and had a little cat fight for us. It looked like two little kittens rolling around, batting at each other. Of course, they're actually huge tigers with large teeth and claws, but still cute! :)

After lunch we stopped at the play area and had to take a picture with the lion.

Since Ty is a Leo, he requested this shot. (just to let you know, I didn't leave my unstable kid perched on the top of a lion head, Garret's behind him holding him up) :)

And then Sunday morning, while Daddy went golfing, Tatum, Ty and I walked to a park. Tatum is always asking to walk to a park and I always tell her we're not close enough to one to walk to it. But yesterday we found a path, about a 20 minute walk, leading to our favorite park! Look at this little model, posing on the slide. :)

And here's Ty enjoying the swing. When I first put him in and gave him a push, he wasn't sure about it. But as he got his barrings and hung on to the side, he started to smile and enjoy it. Such a sweet little man.

Tatum turns 3!!

Tatum had her 3rd birthday party on Sunday and she had a very bouncy day in her bounce house with her friends. The bounce house arrived at our house at 9:00 am and didn't leave until 9:00 pm so we got lots of bouncing out of it!

Tatum had lots of friends join her at her Tinkerbell themed party and everyone enjoyed her fairy cake.

Besides the bounce house, dress up station, crafts table and ride on toys, there was a pinata! Everyone took a few whacks at it...

but then everyone pulled a string or two and Tatum happened to pull the winning string which let down all the yummy candy! Now, as an adult, I would have been diving in there with my candy bag, grabbing up as much candy as possible and I fully expected all the kids to react this way as well...

but shockingly all the children just stood there, watched the candy fall, took a few pieces, and then requested to get back into the bounce house. I guess candy appreciation comes later. :)

Ty even got in the bounce house and had a fun time. :)

On the morning of Tatum's real birthday, she couldn't wait to open more presents! After all the gifts, Daddy made her a special birthday pancake with chocolate chips and bananas, yummy! When I asked her what she wanted to do, she said shopping. Oh the trouble. :) She took some money she got from her Great Aunt Diane and Grandma ($3) in her purse and we went to the 99 cent store (one of our favorites). She got two books and a Dora doll and then we were off to another favorite store, Target. She wanted to eat lunch there and then shop with some more birthday money. (have I trained this girl well or what?!) She bought a few more books and decided to keep the rest of the money till later.

Then when Daddy got home from work, we bought a bunch of yummy pizza toppings and made our own pizzas! They were delicious!

Tatum and I made cupcakes earlier in the day so after dinner, we had fun frosting and decorating them...

and then eating them! :) Happy birthday my beautiful little girl!

Ty is finally eating solids!!

Ty's doctor suggested we wait to give him solids at 6 months. But since Ty is a TANK and he eats almost every 2 hours around the clock (sad for me!) I thought we'd start solids at 5 1/2 months. Here's his first bite of rice cereal. I really thought he'd react just like Tatum and love it...

and by the looks of this face, you'd think he does. But nope, he hates rice cereal. After two different kinds, and three attempts, we had to move on to...

green beans, which you see he likes about as much as the rice cereal. We were able to get a few spoonfuls into him...

but after two nights, he still hates it and gets very little down. But at least he slept from 9:30 pm to 4:00 am! Much better than up three times a night! Tonight we'll be trying rice cereal mixed with fruit and maybe carrots. Come on Ty, you can do it!

Football and rain!!

We had a little football party for the Cowboy game and the Charger game on Sunday, lots of fun. Just before this picture, the house was engulfed with smoke from the fire in our oven! Garrett had to cook wings in BOTH ovens (even though we'd never used the bottom one nor cleaned it out!) and a grease fire erupted! After trying to blow on it with no avail, Garrett finally got the fire extinguisher and put it out. It definitely cleared out the house! :)

Here's Tatum enjoying a game with one of her favorite people, Kyla. She enjoys Nick too, of course. :)

And here's Keira showing her Charger support. Such a cutie!

Garrett tried to get Ty to start drinking early. No no Daddy!

And here's everyone enjoying the game. That is, until the Chargers lost. Boo! :(

Then Monday came and the rain began! Sadly enough, Tatum hasn't experienced much rain out here in San Diego so the rain was quite a treat! We got dressed in our rain jackets and boots and played in the rain...

... and ate the rain...

... and danced in the rain. So much fun! Of course, after our 5th day of rain here, we were all going stir crazy. We also had a flood in our garage which wasn't fun but we got everything to higher ground so I don't think too much was damaged.

An AMAZING day at Disneyland

Before I start in on our trip to Disneyland, I have to post a few pics of my big boy. Here he is sitting up in the bath like a little man. He loves the bath and water, so different from his sister.

I can't believe he's already 5 months! He's always got a smile on his face and he absolutely loves his sister. And he's such a big man! We weighed him the other day and he was 17 1/2 lbs!

Here's Tatum pushing her little baby around in her doll stroller. The little baby barely fits. :)

And now for the most amazing day at Disneyland. It started by arriving at the parking structure and being sent out to park in the Pinocchio section, right next to the trams! Then we took the tram in (which was wide open) and didn't even wait in line to check purses or get in! We went straight back to the Princess place since we'd never been before due to the long lines we always see there. After a short wait, it was our turn to see three mystery princesses. We were really hoping to see Cinderella and who was the first princess? Cinderella! Tatum was overjoyed! She got her autograph and everything!

Then it was on to see Sleeping Beauty...

and Snow White. They were all so sweet and beautiful, what a wonderful experience!

And then Tatum had her face painted. She got to sit in a special chair in front of a mirror and felt like a princess herself!

Look at that face!

Ty enjoyed the day as well. I had forgotten to bring a stroller from home so we used the pink umbrella stroller we had at Grandma's. Ty didn't mind but was a little offended when a passerby picked up his dropped slipper and said, "She dropped her slipper." :) Does this look like a girl?

Tatum and Grandma enjoyed Dumbo and the park was so uncrowded that we enjoyed Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Buzz Lightyear and The Pixie Hollow!

We had never been to the Pixie Hollow so we weren't sure what it was. It turns out it's just like the princess area where you get to meet some of the fairies! Here's Rosetta, the garden fairy.

And here's Tinker Bell and Terrance (I think). Tatum was a little afraid of Terrance. She'd never seen a man in wings and tights before. :)

On our way out of the park, we saw Pluto at the Fire Station and Tatum said she wanted a picture with him. I was shocked since she's normally afraid of the characters. But Pluto was so nice and it was a great ending to a wonderful day at Disneyland. Can't wait to go again before our pass runs out!