Colter's 5th Birthday Party

Wow, I can't believe I have a 5 year old. Where has the time gone? I have too much to write about for one post so this post is just his birthday party at Golfland. For the past year, he has been talking about having his birthday party at Golfland. He's had his guest list made for about 6 months now. All of his favorite friends were going to be there. His actual birthday was last Saturday, the 11th, but we had his party on Thursday the 9th. He invited his best friends Mason & Noah, his cousins Kaimen & Danica, his friend Tate from church, Sydney, and his 4 friends from preschool, Trevor, Grant, Jackson, & Gabe. For the last month this is been mostly what Colter has been talking about. Excited would be a huge understatement! I don't think I've ever seen Colter more excited than he was for this night. About 20 minutes before we left the house, he was bouncing off the walls talking super loud and saying a million words a minute. When we pulled up, his friends Grant & Trevor were already waiting with my mom. They were just about as excited as Colter was. They ran up to each other and gave each other a giant group hug. Soon after, all the other guests showed up. Each and every one of the kids were overly thrilled to be at this party. I have never seen so many excited kids in one room. It was so much fun!! I really feel like it was the perfect party. We first got to play in a private game room. There were probably 50 arcade games the kids could play for free. After that we sat down and ate pizza. The kids were already having a blast and would of been content w/ staying in there all night.

After pizza, the kids played a round of miniature golf. There was no order to it, we had about 4 different groups with adult helpers.

With Colter being so excited, he also had a couple meltdowns when Jeff freaked him out with a toad and when he couldn't get his golf ball in the hole. Luckily he bounced back quickly to enjoy the rest of his party.

This was after Colter's meltdown w/ the frog. Mason was so sweet to Colter & was trying to make him feel better.

The whole group!

After golf, we had cupcakes and Colter opened his gifts. This was my favorite part of the night. Being that he was so hyper, he was very enthusiastic about his presents.

He probably said "What the heck!" about 20 times. He was overly thrilled about every single one of his presents. This video is just a little example of how excited he was.

After present there was a outside jungle gym the kids played in until we left. I was soooo happy with how this party turned out. Colter was happy & in a great mood, the kids had an absolute blast, the weather was perfect, and everything ran so smoothly. Thank you Shelly for being my personal photographer at the party. She spent almost the whole time taking pictures for me...she is soooo awesome! Thank you to all the adults that helped sooo much at the party: my dad, my mom, Kristin, Richard, Tracy, & Shelly. There is no way we could done it without them.

Cute Sydney

I have a few cute pictures of Sydney that were taken last month. They are totally random.

Sydney got her first Texas Longhorn shirt. We finally found one on clearance. She is trying to do her hook em horns hand signal in this picture....just like Daddy & Colter.

She is quite the social butterfly at preschool. She has so many friends. I LOVE watching her interact and participate in all the preschool activities. She takes preschool very seriously.

She loves to play Colter's game system. I found her in the corner by herself the other day. She looked so cute!

She loves her Daddy and she loves reading books and doing puzzles with him.

This was her first trip to the dentist. She was very timid and not very happy during the appointment, but they were able to do a quick cleaning. She was very happy after the appt when they gave her princess stickers, a pink shirt, and a princess toothbrush.

A few Sundays ago, my sister Tracy took out her extensions and put them in Sydney's hair. You looked so adorable. I have to admit, I like her with long hair. She looked like a little woman.

Whisker Shaving

For Christmas, Colter got a Captain America grooming set. It came with shaving cream and a fake razor. Colter took shaving his whiskers VERY seriously. Of course after Colter shaved, Sydney had to shave her whiskers. They were both very cute!

Cousin Reunion

So I'm STILL catching up on blogging. I want to get caught up before Colter's birthday which is this week so I can start fresh with his birthday stuff. I'm almost there!

My sister Amy and her family moved to Arkansas this past July b/c her husband Marcus got into PA school there. Her daughters Bailey (6) and Livvy (almost 4) are super super close with Colter & Sydney and my kids absolutely adore baby Blake (1). Bailey & Colter have always been best buds. They can get into some crazy fights, but they also have an absolute BLAST together. Since Sydney has gotten older, she has also grown close to Bailey & Livvy. They are so cute with her. They treat her like a little princess and are so sweet to her. I've been able to chat on the phone with Amy on a regular basis, but I have REALLY missed her kids. They were able this past Christmas to drive here to AZ for the holidays.

Colter was counting down the days. He was beyond excited to see them. We planned on seeing them for the first time on a Saturday, but when we heard they were going to be in earlier on Friday night, we surprised the kids last minute. We met at my parents' house before they arrived. All of the grandkids wanted to wait outside so they got in the back of Papa's truck and waited. A picture says a thousand words. This is how excited they were!

Shortly after, the Webbs arrived. When Colter first saw Bailey & Livvy he was almost in shock, he didn't know how to react. Within 5 minutes, they were back to exactly where they left off: running around, playing, laughing, and no fighting. Colter & Sydney were all over Blake, kissing & hugging him. It was a dream come true seeing them together again. I could tell Colter was in heaven. It made me sad that night thinking about them leaving and the kids not being together for another year...they were having so much fun and I didn't want that to end.

Sydney wanted to ride in her cousin Kaimen's wheelchair. She looked so cute in it.

They were here for 3 weeks. Even though we had to share them, we got to spend a lot of time together. We were shocked that the whole 3 weeks, they didn't get in one fight. One night we had the Webbs & Faivas over to hang out. The kids spent the whole night dressing up and singing karaoke. I love watching all the cousins together having fun.

Sydney thought she was really big singing with her older cousin Bailey.

It was a sad day when they had to leave. Bailey & Livvy were very emotional and Colter was just quiet. I could see how sad he was, but he was trying to hide it. He seemed down the whole rest of they day...it broke my heart. He loves them so much. I'm soooo looking forward to reunited again with them & watching the kids together.

Christmas Day

So I'm finally posting about Christmas day. It was a perfect day. Shopping for the kids this year was so much fun because they are both so into certain things. The last couple months, Colter has become obsessed with superheros. He never has really been into the Toy Story characters or Cars so it's fun to see him get excited about Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, etc. Sydney is into anything and everything girly. She loves dolls, dressing up, barbies, princesses, etc. Her latest fascination is Tangled.

The kids were in great moods and had so much fun. Sydney was the first one to wake up so we had her hang out in our room until Colter woke up. They surprisingly didn't have much reaction when they first walked in the room. Colter was still half asleep. It didn't take long for them to get excited though. They opened their presents at the same time. Colter got a handheld game system, a captain america grooming set, a couple dvds, art stuff, & a race track (which we ended up taking back b/c it didn't work). He loved all his presents. Sydney got a magnetic doll set, art stuff, Tangled figurines, & a few other girly toys.

I think this picture is hilarious. They are both so out of it....especially Colter.

Sydney got a chocolate Santa in her stocking and b/c it was Christmas we let her eat it at 8 in the morning.

The kids played w/ their toys for a while and then we got ready for church with Jeff's family. After church we went to Jeff's parents house for a wonderful lunch, opening presents, playing the Luke 2 pass present game, and visiting. We had a relaxing, enjoyable, fun time. Colter loved his art kits & play dough sets and Sydney got a Aquadoodle kit which both of the kids love and still play w/ all the time.

After the Talley's house we went straight to the Brown's house for another great time. We spent about an hour and a half opening presents since there are so many kids and grandkids (which I love doing). Sydney loved the dolls she got from her grandparents and her cousin. Colter got a Captain America shield from his cousin Bailey and a matching mask from his grandparents. He was absolutely thrilled! We hung out and ate dinner and then headed home and just relaxed for the rest of the night. Such a great day! I love Christmas!

This was a book that a couple of my siblings put together for my dad. Every once in a while my dad will say something that completely shocks us so my siblings starting making a list of some of the things he's said. They transformed it into this scrapbook type thing. It was pretty funny.

Here is one video of xmas morning. After every present Sydney opened, she said, "I want to open it."

Polar Express

The Wednesday before Christmas we decided to head up to Williams to go to the Polar Express. This was our first year going and the kids were soooo excited. They luckily were in the BEST moods. They could not even hold still for a picture they were so excited. I thought Sydney would be super clingy the whole time, but she was bouncing off the walls.

The kids loved riding on the train and we had a fun little conductor. We sang Christmas songs, drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, and drove to "The North Pole" to pick up Santa.

When Santa came on the train, Colter was so excited. Sydney was absolutely terrified of Santa. Santa came around to each kid and gave them a bell. Colter loved his bell and kept talking about it the rest of the trip. Overall, it was a fun little experience. The kids had the time of their lives and it was worth it just to watch them and see them get so excited.

That night we stayed at a motel. Sydney decided at 2 in the morning she wanted to get up and color, read books, and eat pretzels. She was wide awake for about 3 hours. On the way home we stopped by to play in some snow. It was really hard snow so we couldn't really play in it, but we still had fun. There was an already built snowman that Colter was trying to finish. Then we headed home. This was a fun little trip to take right before Christmas. It got the kids even more excited for Christmas day.

Preschool Christmas Program

The Tuesday before Christmas we had our preschool program. It was a lot of work, but the kids were so cute and did great so it was totally worth it. Colter was probably the loudest singer and was super hyper. I was actually glad because last year he was the opposite.

The kids told Christmas jokes at the program. It was pretty cute!

After the program we had a special guest....Santa Claus (aka my dad). The kids were thrilled. Colter & Bailey (my niece) were on to him. Colter was sitting on his lap and giving him a weird look like, something isn't right here. He told me later that Santa talked just like Papa and looked like him. Later Colter & Bailey thought they were so funny calling Santa 'Papa.'

My sweet nephew Blake w/ Santa. He loved him!

I hate this picture of myself.