Da New Pad

Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray recently moved a few miles out of town to get some more land and a bigger house. Since they just moved not too long ago, we hadn't seen their new place until this past weekend. We knew it would be nice, but we were amazed to see how much work they had done and how great everything looked in such a short amount of time! The pictures really don't show off all the details of their hard work!

Coming up to the front of the house. We love the little fenced yard and flower beds (which you can't see very well in this picture).

As you walk in the house, the laundry room is straight in front and the kitchen is off to the right. They completely redid the floors, countertops, cabinet hardware, and painted the walls. It looks so good! (Hehe - Ian and Aunt Kt are hiding from the camera!)

Off to the right of the kitchen is the guest bath. So peaceful in there!

Just beyond that is the guest bedroom. If you look carefully, you can see Ace giving the grand tour.

Not pictured is a wall that Uncle Tray's amazingly talented parents built that now separates the guest room from Ace's room (it used to be one huge room). Ace's room looks FANTASTIC! The pictures really do not show how cool this kid's room is. The furniture is awesome - we love it!

Here's the armoire that goes with the bed, nightstand, and dresser. Ian is totally going to get an armoire now when we redo his room!

Back in front of the kitchen is the dining area. I love this place! It's soooo clean!! If you look carefully, you can see the table matches Ace's furniture. I love that!

And even cooler is the fact that this table becomes a poker table! Poker party this weekend at Uncle Tray's!

To the left of the dining room is the living room. It's so big and spacious!! (Again, the photos don't do this place justice!)

The view from the couch. I love the rock fireplace!

To the left of the living room is the master bedroom...nice, large, and comfy cozy in an elegant way!

I love all the decorations!

Then, of course, there is the master bathtub. Talk about luxury!! (And more awesome decor!)

The other side of the master bath.

Out back is a nice comfy deck.

That now leads down to this amazing deck Tray's parents built!

Love the reds!

This must be every little boy's dream - a big dirt pile in his own backyard!

And a great place to climb under a large shady tree...pure bliss!

Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray (and Dee and Kirk and everyone else who helped!), we are MUCHO impressed with your new pad. It already looks and feels like home. We felt so comfortable hanging out there this last weekend and can't wait to come back and play!

P.S. Dee - I still wanna hire you to do our house someday! Love, love, love your decorating skills!

Cousin Time

We really did have so much fun this past weekend visiting family for Ace's 2nd birthday. Ian and Ace don't get to hang out near as much as we would like for them to, so we are always glad to take any opportunity for the cousins (and adults!!) to hang out. The cousins have fun together and we enjoy getting to spend time with Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray. This last Thursday, it was already after dark by the time we arrived, but that didn't stop the cousins from having a great time catching up and playing with each other!

Ian had a blast trying to tickle his big cousin! Kichy-kichy-kichy-koo!

And, of course, our two little fish had a great time in Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray's new big bathtub!

Running water is such a great toy!

Yum, yum! Watering can bathtub water.

Here, cuz. You should try this stuff!

Siblings getting their babies clean (hehe...love Ace's tongue!).

Time to get at least half-way dressed!

Friday brought Ace's birthday and party time! We had to decorate for his birthday breakfast!

Ian loved getting all the balloons ready while the birthday boy slept.

The birthday boy did it right - he slept until 11am! Then he woke up and came to find his Momma carrying this cell phone. He has such a sweet Momma - she made everyone chocolate chip pancakes!

Hehe...a bit later, Aunt Kt left on errands and Ace put on a fashion show for Aunt Laura and Uncle James.

When Aunt Kt returned, she brought the most amazing thing for a two year old...tons and tons of balloons!

Ace had a BLAST! He ran all over the house with those balloons.

In the meantime, Ian took advantage of the tractor being free and set out to work on his farm.

At one point while Aunt Kt and I were working on the cake, Ian wanted up to see what was going on. The next thing I knew, he was grabbing my ear while holding on to his ear. What a funny little boy!

Gramma K showed up early that afternoon and got to work putting balloons out while we finished up the cake.

The boys went back to Ace's room to play in the Pack N Play. They had so much fun!

For a just-turned-two year old, Ace has a fantastic vocabulary! As soon as they were both in the Pack N Play, Ace grabbed the blankets and said, "Ace go night-night. Ace sleep." Ian decided that meant his cousin needed a bedtime story. It was so sweet to see them playing together!

Of course, going "night-night" didn't last and it wasn't long before Ian was tickling his cousin again!

Peek-a-boo!

Stay tuned...more pictures to come! Ace, thanks again for being so sweet to your cousin! We love you and your Mommy and Daddy very much!

Night-Night

This post is really a continuation of the last one...it's "The Good-bye's" after Ace's party. Unbeknownst to me, my little boy has started saying "night-night". Except for it sounds like "niy-niy". I found this out the night of the party as we were saying good-bye to family. Ian was very tired and ready to go. He waved good-bye to everyone and told them "niy-niy!". I couldn't believe it! I didn't even think we told him "night-night" that often (although we really do use it a lot).

Of course, when we brought out the video camera, it took a just a little bit before he was ready to show off his new words, but we managed to catch him in the act!



We weren't even in the car for thirty seconds before Ian was ready to go night-night!

Sweetheart, you continue to amaze Momma with all you can do! Have a wonderful night-night! We'll see you in the morning!

Ace Turns Two!!

Ace and Ian are only eleven months apart, so just a month after Ian's 1st birthday party, it was time to party again!! We headed down to see Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray's new house and celebrate Ace's 2nd b-day. We were so glad we could be there. Ace had a great party - we had so much fun with everyone!

Here's the rundown on how his construction themed party went down:

The Favors
Aunt Kt (Ace's Mommy) is super creative and came up with these fun little party bags. We found candy-filled bulldozers and cars and Aunt Kt added fun little squishy toys, stickers, and a few other fun goodies.

The Cake

Aunt Kt and I had soooo much fun making this cake! We started off with the same basic cake recipe and humongo cake pan that we had used for Ian's cake and went to town!!

Close-up!

Another close-up!

The backside (more details on how we made the cake coming soon to a blog post near you!).

The Entertainment

Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray had some very nice family members who brought over a huge jump house and a huge inflatable water slide. The adults kids had a great time on both!

The birthday boy getting his groove on. (Haha...he woke up that morning with that cell phone in his hand and carried it around all day with him!)

The water slide was a huge splash too! Tatum, Ace's other cousin, and her sweet Momma, Kelly, showed all the kids how it was done. Isn't Tatum adorable?? She's going to be getting a little sister in September and we can't wait to see pictures of Tylar!

The Presents

Need I say more? ;-)

The Fun Stuff

Foreman Ace did a great job blowing out his cone candles! He even taste-tested the icing for us to make sure no one would get sick.

I know construction workers aren't supposed to be cute, but this one absolutely melts my heart! Cutest construction worker I have ever seen!

Foreman Ace drove up on his tractor to see how the project "Open Presents" was going. After noting Boss Kt was doing a good job, he looked over all the goods and took a few off for closer inspection.

Happy, happy birthday to our favorite two year old nephew!! We are so proud of you and all that you can do at just two years old! Ian can't wait to see you again (and thank you for putting up with him - you're such a good big cousin!). We love you bunches and oodles!