Disneyland here we come!!!

We've been waiting so long for this moment.... He is crazy excited and has been filing his backpack up with goodies every since he got the call from Mickey and Goofy. He still has no idea what he is in store for. WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!! (Don't forget to turn off the music at the very bottom so you can hear the video)

Andrew @ 5

I'm doing this early because we will be leaving tomorrow morning for Disneyland and won't be here on Andrew's actual birthday. Yippee!

Andrew LOVES:

Superheroes, transformers, playing with his friends, wresting with Daddy (always), swim lessons, his new school and teachers (they are wonderful!!), going to the movies, riding his bike or scooter, being goofy and making others laugh.

Random thoughts....

1. Andrew has been asking me for over a month now if he is 5 yet. At first it was 2-3 times a week, now we are up to 5-7 times a day.

2. He has no idea we are going to Disneyland. We are so looking forward to surprising him!!

3. Everyday he does something to make me proud of him. He has such great manners and is a kind boy.

4. He's 5. Wow. Kindergarten is right around the corner. sniff sniff

5. Andrew is becoming more and more independent each day. Some days it drives me crazy but I know he's just trying to be his own person and doesn't need me as much (more sniff sniff)

Okay enough babbling about how he is getting bigger and I can't stand it. I am so thankful he is healthy and growing and thriving. How blessed we are to have this boy in our lives. My sister was just writing on her blog about her cancer and she talked about Andrew being born two days after her diagnosis was a blessing and he put a smile on her face. The thing I remember most about her diagnosis is wishing I wasn't pregnant and this was the worst time to have a baby because I just needed to be with my sister. How was I ever going to do that with a newborn? (Now I don't mean to say I didn't want a baby because everyone knows the issues I had with my first pregnancy and I was over the moon excited to be pregnant again.) Looking back I realize Andrew was the best thing that could have ever happened to me during that time. Without him I would have fallen completely apart. Believe me, there were times that I wanted to and a few times I did but it didn't last long because just looking at my baby made me feel there was hope. One day I will make sure Andrew knows just how much he changed my life the instant he was born. He'll know how much a blessing he was to me in so many ways.

Andrew, drewbie, chewy, poodle, chew chew.....MOMMY LOVES YOU!!!!

My mini me

So, I was editing a photo of Andrew that really reminded me of my Kindergarten photo. So, I drug out that old picture and was so surprised to see how much Andrew looks like me at the same age! Can you see the resemblance??? LOL He definitely has all of Blake's mannerisms but I have to say we look a lot alike. Eyes, cheeks, smile. It's not my nose and it's not Blake's. Not sure whose nose he has yet. :-) Hmmm... maybe he has Andrew's nose.

Just thought I'd share this fun little thing I discovered today. (Back to packing for Disney!)

What a "super" party!

This may be my favorite photo from yesterday. I just love the look on Andrew's face when everyone was singing to him. We had over 40 people there and it was pretty cool when we sang Happy Birthday.

This may be my favorite bday party to date that I have done for Andrew. The kids got a cape as soon as they arrived and headed either downstairs or outside to run around and be superheroes. We had 75 red, yellow and blue balloons blown up downstairs, a batman punching bag and lots of red spidey webs with spiders and bats stuck in them. We played one game with the kids but for the most part they just ran and played for the party.

When it was time for cake they came running and we sang Happy Birthday and headed back outside to eat (thank goodness the weather was nice!!) Apparently we were not fast enough with the cake because we had 20 kids chanting outside "WE WANT CAKE!! WE WANT CAKE!! WE WANT CAKE!!" I loved it! I tried to grab the video camera but no memory card- dangit!!

Andrew opened up his gifts after everyone left and was so excited about his new Transformers that were still not all opened by the time he went to bed. The last thing he said to me is "Mommy, don't open my new Transformers. I will get them when I wake up." Blake went in a few hours later to check on him before we went to bed and Andrew woke up when he walked in and again he told Blake "Daddy, don't open my new Transformers. Okay?" LOL

I have so many more photos to go through and edit (not a ton of edits but I just can't put a photo up without running a few things on them :-)

Check out his cake. I was so impressed with Coldstone! It was so yummy too!

We are counting down the hours until Andrew's birthday party here! More cleaning and errands will be done today. In addition to a cape for each child, I also created Superhero Supply Kits. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Note: I completely stole the supply kit contents from birthdaypartyideas.com. That place is full of awesome ideas!!

Here are the kits...

Teacher's gift - Halloween

Just one more quick post today. I just had to share the little gift Andrew gave his teachers this morning. ( He couldn't wait to give it to them!!) I found these plastic pails at Michaels and decorated them a bit with my Spook Sweets II stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I got this stamp set last year for Andrew's bday party. I LOVE this stamp set!

Then, I threw some halloween crinkle paper on the bottom of the pail and put a yummy Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory carmel apple in the pail and Voila! a super easy, inexpensive and cute teacher gift.

SUPERHERO snowman

Continuing our superhero theme, we created a spiderman snowman today. Don't ya just love his yellow eyes?

It snowed all day today and I mean all day. I wasn't in the mood for it when I woke up but as the day progressed it kind of grew on me. We ended up with about 6 inches which will be gone by Friday. Just in time for Andrew's party! Speaking of, I have to get busy making the goody bags. Have a great day!!

Shaking the trees seemed like a good idea ....

until the snow got all over him. :)

Mr. Almost Five Year Old

Just a quick post today. My to do list is a mile long today (this week) but I've been itching to edit some of the photos from Andrew's 5 year session I took on Sunday. I haven't even scratched the surface. I took over 600 photos! Granted they aren't all keepers but sooooo many came out great. I don't know how I'll ever decide which ones to print.

Here are just a few of my little model... (He was surprisingly happy to take these photos for me and was a complete ham. I got so lucky!!)

Yippee!

So, I drop Andrew off from school and come home to edit photos but before that I must check my daily blogs. So, off to Pioneer Woman's website I go. Last week I entered a contest she was having with textured photos. I submitted a couple and didn't think much of it because she gets 1,000's of photos. Plus, I looked at her blog this weekend and saw the round 1 and 2 submissions. Well round 3 was up on the blog and I'm scrolling and scrolling and drooling over all of the beautiful photos that were chosen when BAM!! There is Andrew in his superhero cape!! Holy photo batman! Really? Really? I'm so excited!! Mostly, because I LOVE the Pioneer Woman's blog and am in awe of her photography. So, for her to choose one of my photos is just plain cool.

If you have time go check out the cutest superhero there ever was..... here.

Alright, I'll shut up now. :)

I'm spoiled.

So, I was driving to a photo session yesterday morning and had to stop to get gas. I could not remember the last time I got gas for myself. My hubby always fills my car up for me. Then I got to thinking it's just one of the many things he does for me without me asking him. He also cleans my car, starts laundry when we run out of towels and will unload the dishwasher. One time... are you ready for this? He cleaned my out of control messy closet for me when I was out of town. All of this made me realize I'm spoiled. Although I think I prefer to say I'm well taken care of. :)

How about you? I bet if you think really hard you'll realize you are spoiled too. Whether your kids spoil you or your husband. Maybe your sister? (I have one of those.)

And because a post without a photo is too boring. Here is a picture of my two boys... We've had a couple photo sessions over the past few days for our Christmas cards. More on that soon. But, I won't be sharing all the photos because the card has to be a surprise!

Snow Fun & Pumpkin Pie

Hey Andrew what do think Santa is going to bring you this year? His response.... This is SO Andrew. He always makes this crooked smile when he's thinking about something.


So, we got a bit more snow yesterday and it was COLD all day long. Like 20 degrees cold. BRRRRR... Thankfully today is supposed to be warmer and it is going to be warm all week. I love winter and the snow but I'm not ready for it to get this cold yet!

So we had one of the lazy snow days and stayed inside working on crafts, went outside and took lots of pictures, came back inside for hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows please) and watched movies and played board games. Then we had to bake, so we made pumpkin pie Paula Deen style. YUMMY!! You can get the recipe here.

Here are some pictures of Andrew throwing snowballs at me and our pretty pumpkin pie.





He launced a ball at me and it came out all over him. Not so happy about the snow on his neck...

Mmmmm.... whip cream anyone?

Hello winter.

Yes, I realize it's not winter yet but it sure looked and felt like it yesterday! It was cold and snowy all day. Of course today is supposed to be sunny and 60 and then another snow storm is moving in on Saturday. Yippee! Andrew has been so excited about the snow this year. I took my camera out in it (all protected by plastic - thank you!) to capture his joy.

Warning: lots and lots of pictures to follow. Do you expect anything less of me?

Our poor fall leaves.. They better stick around for another week. I have three photo sessions!

Not sure our little green pumpkin is going to make it. He's got a lot of growing to do in 20 days!

He just got finished throwing a snow ball at me. :-)

Pure Joy!

We got snow today! Snow that actually stuck around so we could play in it a bit. I took lots of pictures (and this time did not delete them!) and will post them tomorrow. I just had to share this one though. His face says it all...

3 weeks till...

I can hardly wait to take Andrew to Disneyland! He is going to have so much fun and just be in awe. I'm doing the happy dance right now.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

These little Pumpkin Pie Bites are soooooooooooooooo yummy! I got the idea from the wonderful Bakerella (love her!) Not only do they taste great, they are the perfect size for the kiddos. Also a fun baking activity to do with the kids - super simple! Andrew piped on his own pumpkin faces with the chocolate frosting. Go to Bakerella's blog for all the instructions and recipe.

My ultimate taste tester...