Birthdays Galore...

Daddy's birthday dinner!

We have had so many birthdays to celebrate over the past few months. Not one of which I ever got around to posting about(well besides Hayden's of course!). So, this is my birthday post for everyone! We have gotten together and celebrated my birthday, Gigi's birthday, Grandaddy's birthday and Daddy's birthday all without me blogging about it. Shame on me huh?!? The most recent was Daddy's birthday on the 25th. This was the first year ever that he has had to work on his birthday, so the boys and I went down to the pharmacy and surprised him with a little cake and a few gifts. He loved it! We also did a celebration with the whole family at a Japanese Steak House last weekend when Grandma and Grandpa were in town for Sawyer's dedication. It is very rare that we are all ever able to get together on his birthday as one big family because his parents live in Valdosta, so it was such a nice treat to have us all in one place. Everyone had such a great time. I just knew Sawyer and Hayden were going to be scared to death at the restaurant with the fire and everything, but surprisingly enough, they both did great. Sawyer didn't even realize what was going on, and although Hayden did get scared initially, he ended up doing great!

Enjoying the chef's show...

Sawyer had a blast with Grandma!

Hayden loved having his very own chair and big boy fork!:)

Daddy's Rite Aid family!

Hayden and Ms. Jess!

Mr. Wayne helped Hayden play with Daddy's new light up frisbee!!

The yummy cake...

Daddy at work with his boys!

The boys had such a great time visiting Daddy at work. He is at a really busy pharmacy, so we don't get a chance to go see him at work very often. It was a nice treat for everyone and Daddy loved the surprise! Speaking of surprises, Matt threw me a little surprise party back in November for my 30th birthday that was in December. Everyone knows I am not big on surprises, but this one was great. I had absolutely no idea and it was so nice to get together with friends and family. He had it at the same Mexican restaurant I had his Surprise 30th back in 2009 which I thought was pretty cool. Oh, and he had our neighbor Kate make the most incredible cake. It fit me to a tee!:) We also went with my family to The Cheesecake Factory(my favorite!) on my actual birthday and to see the lights at Lake Lanier. So fun!

I told you I was surprised!

Check out this awesome cake! Y'all know I love to shop!:)

The whole group!

We let Hayden drive through the lights at Lake Lanier.
BIG deal for us and he LOVED it! I guess we'll
have to let him do it more often!:)

One of the pretty lights we saw...

Birthday dinner at Cheesecake! Check out Hayden and Uncle Danny!!!

Can you tell I love a good ornament?!?

This next picture has nothing to do with family birthdays, but we attended some friends of ours joint 30th birthday party back in November so I just had to include a pic from that as well! It was a nice night out for Matt and I with no kids!!! Doesn't happen very often around here, so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Happy Birthday Heather and Justin!

Now on to Gigi and Grandaddy's birthdays. We got together to have them a joint birthday celebration because their birthdays are really close together. Normally we do it separately, but this year we had to do it together because there was only one time everyone could do it. We usually celebrate by going to dinner somewhere, but we decided to do something a little different this time since we were celebrating both birthdays at once. The whole fam got together and went bowling, and then we all went to lunch together. It was nice to change it up and do something different. Everyone had a blast! It was Hayden's first time bowling and he had a great time. He was over it by the time the 10 frames were up(really probably the 5th!), but he really enjoyed it to begin with.

I guess I get my present opening skills from my Momma!
Look how excited she was over some coffee!!!

Happy Birthday Gigi and Grandaddy! We got them some cupcakes
from a place called Gigi's cupcakes in Roswell. Of course I
went there just because of the name, but it turns out
the cupcakes are out of this world. So yummy!!!

The many bowling poses! Why is it that men
always look better bowling?!?

And get way more of these?!?

Of course, I thought Hayden looked the best!

We started off trying to show him how to push it with it on the floor, and that didn't go over so well. Eventually, Grandaddy saw this little contraption and boy did Hayden have fun with it! He could push it all by himself and he would watch the ball all the way until it hit the pins. So cute!

Can you tell how tense he would get right
after he did the initial push?!?

He didn't stay tense for long! He would dash to
the side as quick as possible so he could
see where his ball was going!

Cheering it on...

Yes, he is so excited his feet are actually OFF the ground!

We will most definitely be trying bowling again sometime in the future! I can't wait until Sawyer can join in on the fun!:)

Bowling fun!

I promise I will try my best not to get so behind on the birthday blogging next time! That doesn't mean it will happen, but I will TRY!:) Happy Birthday Everyone!!!

No Pinching!

Green or no green... who could pinch these cuties?!?

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone! I hope you all wore your green today... we sure did! No pinching any of us! Funny enough, I have never even really known why we all wear green on this day. I've never even paid attention to what the day is about, I've just always worn green. It never mattered to me why... I was told I would be pinched if I didn't wear green and that was enough for me. Well, not for Hayden. As we were picking out our clothes last night for today, I told him we were going to have to choose something green for St. Patrick's Day. He looked at me with his "huh?!?" face and proceeded to say "Why?"(pronounced Vhy by the way!) I gave him the answer I had heard my whole life... "because if we don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day we will get pinched." After a few seconds of silence I hear "peeeennched?" I reply to him "Yes, if you don't wear green tomorrow you are giving others permission to pinch you!" I just assumed the conversation would end with that statement like it had always ended for me, but no such luck. A few more seconds of him thinking about what I had said and again I hear "Why?" Well, instead of making up a story I decided to tell him the truth. "Ummmmm.... I really don't know why Hayden. I will look it up for you and tell you tomorrow okay?" He quickly reply's "Ootaaay, Momma!" Lucky for me he let the conversation end here and we finished our nightly routine before bed. Fast forward to 7:30am this morning. Hayden wakes up, comes in my room and says "Why green(pronounced geeeennnnn) today Momma?" Yikes. He must have dreamed about this last night. I am so thankful for the internet because without it last night I would have not had an answer for Hayden this morning. So, just in case you are like Hayden and want to know "vhy" we wear green today here is what I found out(Please keep in mind this may not be true at all because it is just from some random google search I did, but it sounded true enough for me so I went with it. I just didn't have it in me to find out if it was a credible source or not!). First of all, it is entirely an American tradition to get pinched if you don't wear green. Go figure, right? The tradition is believed to have started sometime back in the 1700's. St. Patrick's revelers thought wearing green made one invisible to leprechauns. Leprechauns were fairy creatures who would pinch anyone they could see, but for some reason they could not see green. Therefore anyone wearing green would not be pinched. People began pinching those who didn’t wear green as a reminder that leprechauns would sneak up and pinch anyone not wearing green. You gotta watch out for those leprechauns! I just knew this story was going to create even more why's, but I was wrong. He just listened to my explanation and said "Otay I vear geen now. No peeeennnching Momma" Phew. My answer was good enough for a 2 year old!:) Now for some fun pics...

Yes, we play with rocks and golf balls at the same time around here!

Aren't these just the cutest PJ's?!?

Having fun before bed...

I'm pretty sure we got out every.single.animal for story time!

Happy Hayden!

Drool anyone?!?

Sweet boy!

Laughing at his big brother...

Who was so excited he spotted an airplane!!!

A little leprechaun of my own!

And one very happy 6 month old!:)

An INK Celebration!

Our junior firefighter!

So, like I said in the last post, we took Sawyer to INK for his 1/2birthday celebration. Can't you tell by that first picture how much he loved it?!? INK stands for Interactive Neighborhood for Kids and it is located in Gainesville. We all had such a great time helping Sawyer celebrate there! There was everything from the post office to the hospital, and it was all geared to the kids. Oh, and it's all hands-on... such a fun children's museum for the little ones! There was even a Suntrust Bank branch where the boys got to use their very own ATM card to make a pretend withdrawal. It was so cute! Sawyer and Hayden both really enjoyed playing on the old plane they had on display. Between both of them I am certain every button, lever, etc was pushed, pulled or put in someone's mouth! Let's just say they had a great time in the plane! Sawyer also really enjoyed the huge fire truck and sitting in the big dentist chair. Oh, and he loved sitting at the pretend park with his Momma!:) I'm pretty sure that was his fav! Hayden had fun with the trains, monster trucks, playground and grocery shopping at J&J Foods. He had such a fun time pushing the cart around the grocery store and loading it with all sorts of yummy items! Especially since the cart was just his size. And he most definitely had fun pushing the monster truck down the ramp. If I'm brutally honest this was probably his actual favorite thing he did at INK. That's right... pushing a truck down an incline is all it takes to satisfy this 2 year old boy! Before I get too carried away with the monster truck I don't want to forget to mention the trains... lets just say he was mesmerized with all the trains! They even had a few trains put together on a display that did all sorts of neat things. Even Sawyer and I took part in enjoying that one! And, although the playground was a little advanced for short little Hayden, he still managed to thoroughly enjoy it. He loves anything with a slide! It is definitely a place that will grow with them, and I'm sure we'll be back one day. There was plenty for them to do at their age, but the older they get, the more I think they will understand the idea of role play and really be engaged by it. Enjoy the pics...

Grandpappy Airlines provided us with tons of fun!

I'm pretty certain I was leaning over to ask him not to "eat" the
buttons on the airplane again when Daddy snapped this
picture. Sawyer thought my request was hilarious!!!

New pilots!

I took this while Hayden was doing a little gardening. Man
did he have fun playing with the rubber mulch!:)

I guess the toothbrush was so big Hayden thought he should
use it to brush Daddy's hair instead of his teeth!:)

Although he has no teeth yet, Sawyer sure enjoyed
being up there on that dental chair!

Fun times on the park bench!

Peeking at me from the "Big" train!

Enjoying music time with the jingle bells!

The Hall County Sheriff's car provided Daddy and Hayden
with tons of fun... even looking under the hood was fun
to them! Me... I didn't even care too much about
sitting in the inside of the car!:)
Boys will be boys...

Don't worry City of Gainesville... Sawyer is on
his way with your 1927 firetruck!

Relaxing and enjoying every.single.moment.

Our little grocery shopper!

Waving "Hi" to us from his little kid size bench at the park!:)

I had to leave you with the monster truck pic... who would
have known a monster truck and an incline
could be SO fun?!?

Thanks INK... we'll see you again soon!