happyBIRTHDAYS!!!

So, I'm a little late in posting that our little boys have both celebrated a birthday!!! Riley is now 5 and Reed just turned 2 (yes, Muri, that is 2 and not 3! hehe!)

Man, how time sure does fly!

Riley is still attending preschool at the little church down the way (which so reminds me of nursery school at the Baptist church where we grew up!). He still "enjoys" it most of the time - but would rather stay at home most days. We just started t-ball again for the spring and he is enjoying that so much! We can surely see a difference between this year and last year - the attention span is a little bit longer! :-) He LOVES being outside and going on adventures looking for bugs, ducks, frogs, really anything but snakes... we caught 2 the other day and he told me today that he didn't really like them that much! However... to know our Riley is to know that he LOVES Star Wars. We are always "pretending" to be one of the characters and we make up stories that go along with the chosen characters. Normally I am Queen Amadala, he is the "young" Anniken that needs to be trained, and Reed is either C3P0 or R2D2. However, he does also like to be an Ewok; thus what I was greeted with one night after coming home from the Clinic... priceless!!!




His birthday present from us this year was Star Wars sheets and man, you would have thought they were GOLD. He loves them! Our Rilester is the sweetest thing - he comes out with some of the sweetest comments to us, especially at bedtime. It is like he winds down and just tells you what's on his mind. We are so thankful for him and for his sweet spirit! Here is is surrounded by his birthday balloons!



And here is with his cake...



and here he is asleep, the day after birthday festivities - how peaceful!!!



Reed is in to all kinds of things now -- just the other day he asked what we were going to do today! He imitates anything you ask him to say - and is now listening SO MUCH better. So, on trips to stores he at least doesn't DART away when you are walking in. Phew, mom's, remember that first day when it clicked with the child to actually LISTEN!!! Now, don't get me wrong, it is not always, but I at least know that he CAN do it! HA! His personality is awesome - he is such a ham! He loves to flirt - loves to chase - loves to smile - and loves his blankets (yes, all THREE of them!) We are so blessed to have him in our family and I dare I go so far to say that Riley feels that way too. Yesterday Riley said, "Reed, I love you." And afterwards.... "Hey mom, I think that is the first time I have said that to Reed." Yep, takes a little longer with the guys!!! Here is a sweet picture of our 2 year old. He takes some good pictures on our steps!!! :-)



Eating his birthday cupcakes that were in the formation of a 2!


The traditional "jersey" onesie that the boys wear on their birthday!


And just a blast from the past picture... that seems so very long ago!!!



We got a FUN package from Idaho for the boy's birthdays and I wanted to share the pictures!!! The theme was artsy things - the package was AWESOME, including three different pain ts, markers, paper, a dry erase board, etc. It was so fun to open. Thank you girlies!!!



Check out the cards to Riley - soooo sweet!


We are soooo glad that the girlies are going to be a quick ONE flight away... long weekends HERE WE COME! Today Reed asked if we could go and see SaraKate and Riley chimed in and said, "Yeah, I miss them, let's just go!!!" Ready DD?