Day 28: arrested development party!

We have been super excited about the new season of arrested development season coming out, so we had a bit of a themed shindig with our friends who were equally excited.  

woo hoo!

 SANDWICHES for the kids

"it's like we finish each other's... sandwiches."

STEW

We thought about just having hot ham water, but this was way better.

"now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato.  baby you've got a stew going."

CORN CAKES

We didn't have a cornballer, so we did our best, and they were delicious!

ICE CREAM SANDWICHES

"well, why don't you marry an ice cream sandwich!"

and of course, drumroll please... chocolate covered bananas.  

the kids liked them, but had no real appreciation for them. :)

*I should note that we stole most of these ideas from the martha stewart website. :)

3!

We cannot believe it has been 3 years since E was born.  A lot of it is kind of a blur.  He has grown into such a little man and we love him to pieces.  He has such a fun personality.  He loves to say things dramatically and with different facial expressions.  He remembers EVERYTHING - especially if its a rule that someone else is not following!  He remembers somewhere we've only been once or how to walk home from the park, or something that happened months ago.  He has such an eye for detail - if a picture of the toy is on the box, he expects it to be not only in the package, but the same color and facial expression as the picture on the package.  Talk about quality control!  :)  He loves to read books, laugh at silly things, play rough with daddy (which B says is tackling practice for his future football career), see what his baby brother is doing, and do things 'by myself'.  He is such a sweet boy, and caring big brother, and a lot of fun to be around.  It is exciting to watch him grow up and see who God has designed him to be.  We definitely can't take any credit!

We won't have a big party every year, but he really enjoyed it this year and it was fun to do.  And all about Cars of course!

Decorations were pretty low-key.  I printed some signs I found on the internet, and hung some balloons. 

 Party favor bags I scored at the dollar store with some favors from the dollar spot at Target.  I used some pictures off the internet to make Pit Crew Passes for all of his friends.

And we taped a road on the floors throughout the house. 

birthday boy ready to greet his guests!

 the food table!

 we were thankful to have lots of friends join us to celebrate!

 

 

 We had cake doughnuts instead of cake or cupcakes. They were a hit! 

 E enjoying his birthday treats

and way too many presents. :)  

It was so much fun!  We are extremely blessed and thankful. 

halloween!

As I'm sure you all know, Halloween was several weeks ago... We went to the fall festival at our church and then took E trick-or-treating.  here are our pictures!

 

 Our football player and little football. :)

We went pretty low-key this year.  E is so picky about what I want him to wear on a daily basis that I knew dressing up was going to be interesting.  He watches football with B sometimes so I talked him into wearing his football shirt and then I just put some black face paint on him without saying anything.  Surprisingly he didn't throw a fit!  

he had fun this year playing games with daddy

he was pretty good at the fishing

and liked the petting zoo 

he's got 'saying cheese' down... now if we could just make eye contact

this time he got right up in the camera and still didn't really look at it. :)  but he's a cutie!

riding the train with Jonathan!

trick or treating with our friend Mia.  

E was excited this year and had fun going door to door.  However, I think B might have been more into it than he was... after a while when the people would try to put candy in his bucket he starting saying "no, I have enough". :) I think his pumpkin was getting too heavy.

Then we did our first family pumpkin carving!

E was all about helping 

 

but didn't like the ewwwy stuff

once there was a 'fire' inside he really liked it

 

happy halloween!

lucky number 7?

Well, it's been 7 years since these two crazy kids got hitched at a church in San Antonio, Texas. 

We know for sure this next year will include the challenge of finishing our home remodeling projects and learning how to parent two little boys.  Pray for us!  :)  Seriously though, we are so thankful.  Here's to many more years ahead. 

baby shower

Some sweet friends from our super duper amazing Bible Study class threw a little baby sprinkle for me and baby boy.  We had such a good time.  :)

everything was yummy!  

and beautiful!

here's a sneak peak of the nursery bedding!  

the talent of Amanda 

sweet friends!  

I am so thankful for each one of these ladies 

they knew I love a little friendly competition

and presents :)

me (making a weird face) w/ my hostesses: Rachel, Melissa, Ellen, Susan, Amanda

Melissa is due a week or so before me so we wanted a pic together.  something funny happened and I thought it turned out cute. :)  

thanks so much everyone!  we feel very loved. 

E turned 2!

and in classic fashion I'm posting pictures from several weeks ago.  :)  but they're still very cute. 

The night before his birthday he picked out his footy fire truck pajamas that Uncle L & Aunt C gave him.  It was really funny because he never picks his pajamas out - actually he usually tries to avoid putting them on.  But it made for some cute pictures the next morning. :) 

We had our favorite breakfast - waffles! (and birthday signs around the house for the birthday boy :)

And got to watch some Clifford with all of our trains. 

And we had a birthday party with our friends Caleb and Noah who were also turning 2!

and we got them to wear their conductor hats for a few seconds.

enjoying some pizza with Nana

This year he was much more into opening presents.  But it was hard to explain that he couldn't take time to play with each one right then.  

yay!

Thomas!

we all attempted to blow out the candles together. :)

sharing some cake with Pops

We had such a fun time and the weather was great!  We are so in love with our little man.  (another post coming soon about all the funny things he's doing)