Kaden's 4th birthday party!

Saturday, September 10th, was Kaden's 4th birthday and we had a monster truck party!  He has been begging since February for one and I'm surprised he never changed his mind.  :)  I think everything turned out better in my head than in reality, but hey, Kaden still had fun.  ;)

When the kids got there, they got to choose a monster truck to paint.

All lined up - ready to race!  Kaden decided he didn't want to race, so he sat and cheered the girls on.  :) 

This was our racetrack.  :)  It was so flippin' hot outside that the balloons kept popping.  Awesome.

After the race, I asked Kaden if he wanted to do cake or presents next.  He, of course, said presents.  :)

Always lots of little helpers to open presents.  haha

Kaden kept asking for a hero cape so I found one at Quilted Bear that was Superman on one side and Batman on the other.  He's IN. LOVE. with it.

What's in here?

A scooter!  Grandma and Grandpa Porter bought this for Kaden and he is mildly obsessed with it.  He rides it all around the house ALL day long (while wearing his hero cape - hahaha).

Okay, so in the above picture, see the adorable little girl?  That's Liz, Kaden's betrothed.  Enlarge the picture and look closely at her face.  See her cute little tongue sticking out?  Remember that.  You'll need to know what I'm talking about later... 

Some of the guests.  From left to right: My little sisters, Jacquelyn and Natalie, my mom's husband, Kent (sleeping in the background), my mom holding my other sister's baby, Serenity, my Grandpa Ozminski and my Grandma Ozminski holding Ari (who eventually fell asleep in her arms--it was adorable).  :)

Next up was time for the cake!

Yes, I know the writing wraps around the side.  Whatever.  Everyone said it tasted great and Kaden LOVED it.  :)

I was worried there wouldn't be enough cake (there wasn't), so I made cupcakes, too.

Nom, nom, nom...

There was a storm rolling in at this point, but I wasn't letting anyone leave until we played the last game:

Pin the Wheel on the Monster Truck!

 My good friend, Kelly, drew this FROM SCRATCH for me.  She is hands down AMAZING.  Thank you so much Kelly!!!

Speaking of Kelly (don't kill me for this because you know I love you), she is Liz's mom.  Remember Liz from above?  With her tongue sticking out?  If you're wondering where she got that from....look no farther:

hahahaha  Love you Kelly!!

You might have to click on the pic to make it bigger, but totally do it because it's worth seeing Kelly's "concentrating face."  ;)

All done!  Who got the closest?  I think it was Liz...even when she didn't cheat.  ;)

 It was a fun day!

As I was tucking Kaden in bed that night, I asked, "Did you have a good day, bud?"

He said, "Yeah.  Can we do it again tomorrow?"  :)

Four years old!

Happy birthday to my Kaden!

Four years ago today Shane and I truly became parents.  It's been amazing and I'm loving almost every minute of it.  ;)

Kaden had his 4 year check-up yesterday.  Every time we see the pediatrician I'm reminded just how much I love her.  She is so beyond fantastic with the kids.  Kaden wouldn't even look at her at the beginning and a half an hour later he was inviting her to his monster truck birthday party.  :)  Anyway, he is doing fantastic and, in case you missed his stats on Facebook, here they are again:

Height: 42.5 inches (95%)

Weight: 40 lbs (75%)

Weight-to-height ratio: 50%

Doc said he's perfect and now Kaden is walking around saying, 

"I'm perfect!"  

hahahaha  

We're having what I hope will be a super fun party for him later today.  I'll be sure to post pics after!  :D

P.S. Since Kaden misses the cut-off (by ten measly days) for school, he will turn 6 a week after starting kindergarten.  SO, not only will he be taller than 95% of the class, he will also be a year older than all the kids to give him even extra height.  My friend, Christy, has a son a few months younger than Kaden who is also crazy tall.  So, we're going to move next door to her so our kids can be in the same grade and Kaden won't be the tallest one!  :D

I just know Christy will LOVE for us to live next to them for the next 18 years.  ;)

Always be my baby

Ari is 11 months old now (as of the 4th).  :(

I'll be honest with you, ever since having Kaden (almost 4 years ago), I've never been baby hungry.  I wanted him more than anything, but when my friends were asking me after if I was "baby hungry," I was thinking, "What the heck?!  No way!  I like to sleep!"

Before I could even think about having another baby, I was already two months pregnant with Lexi.  We'd planned on having them close together, but not quite that close.  ;)  I cried and cried to my mom, since my older sister and I are 15 months apart, I knew that my mom would know what to do and how to handle this.  She told me that the first year is the worst, but get through that and you'll be fine.

She was right. (Like always)

Kaden and Lexi are best friends now and I'm so glad that we had them so close together.  I'd go back and do it all over again exactly the same (except maybe wait until I was 30 to have kids-haha).

We all know the story of how I thought I was done after Lexi.  Almost everyone reading this blog told me that I would regret it and want another baby.  After a sleepless Kaden and a colic-y Lexi, I knew they were wrong.  But whether I wanted another baby was a moot point when I heard Ari's heartbeat and knew she was coming in just 8 short months.

Ari has been the best baby of all my kids.  The older that Kaden and Lexi got, the more excited I was.  They could communicate instead of screaming when they were hungry/tired/wanted something!  It was awesome!  And I'm still loving it the older that they get.  Kaden is HILARIOUS and Lexi is turning into a total sweetheart (with a sassy side that I love/hate).

But Ari...

I want her to stay little forever.

She is growing up too fast.  She was my earliest teether (her bottom two came in at 9 months!) and she is SO close to walking already.  She can crawl to the middle of a room and stand up all on her own without holding onto anything.

Ari's frog pose.  This is how she watches TV.  :)

So intense.

This is her crazy face that she does when she's frustrated because she can't walk.

Silly girl

"Take a knee"  This is how Ari rests from standing too long.  haha

Surfing U.S.A.

Lots of falls...

...but she always gets right back up!  This is her "YAY!" pose.  :)

Trying to see around mom and the camera to watch TV.

 

I just want her to stay my sweet baby girl forever and always.  This is the first time in my life that I can truly say I am going to miss the baby stage.

Sweetie pie!

Late

No, I don't mean "girly-monthly" late.  Thankfully.

In the 7 years (tomorrow!) that I have known Shane (married for 6 1/2 of those), he has been home late exactly one time.  It was early on in our marriage and he was about ten minutes late from work.  I was a basketcase when he walked through the door and had been sure something awful had happened.  Since that overreaction, he has learned to call if he is going to be late AT ALL.

Yesterday, however, was a bad day.  He got home an HOUR AND A HALF late.  I was thisclose to calling around to hospitals and asking if he'd been admitted to the E.R.  Here's how my thought process works:

15 minutes late: Okay, maybe he went to the bank to pay our mortgage.
 

30 minutes late: Okay, this isn't normal and no bank is open this late anyway.  *I call his cell and it goes straight to voicemail--it's dead.  I called his work # and, of course, no one answers.

45 minutes late: Oh my gosh he's dead.  He has bad eyes and someone hit him crossing the street or something.  How am I supposed to plan a funeral and Kaden's 4th birthday party next week?  Kaden isn't going to have a birthday party.

That kind of positive thinking lasted about five minutes (while I sobbed-you'd think I was pregnant...I'M NOT) before I wouldn't let myself think like that anymore.

50 minutes late: It's okay, it's okay.  It was probably just a car accident (his fault because of his eyes) and they're waiting for the cops to come and do a report. *breathe!*  Oh man, we're going to have to buy all new car seats for the kids.  Why wouldn't he use the person's cell phone that he crashed into to call me and let me know what's going on??

An hour and 15 minutes late: Why are the cops taking so long?!  Oh no-he probably got hurt and the car is totaled.  I bet they're taking him to the E.R. right now and I'll be getting a call any second. *checking phone every five seconds* Who would I call first to come and watch the kids while I go to the hospital?  *goes through a list of names in my head* And I would need to borrow a car as well.  *more names* 

I tried calling his cell (even though, yes, I knew it was dead) a few hundred more times.

When he finally pulled into the driveway, I starting bawling.  He comforted me and told me that he's okay and he's sorry he was late.  Here's his story: There is a lot of construction on the Base right now and he was rerouted clear across Base to the South gate.  It is the CRAZIEST, BUSIEST entrance/exit of the whole place and that alone would have made him at least 45 minutes late during rush hour.  In addition, that meant he had to take the freeway home meaning he would again hit rush hour traffic.  And, yes, his cell was dead.
What made him that extra 30 minutes late?

He stopped to buy me roses.

AWWWW

I know, right?  Not because he was late.  He said that he was planning on buying me flowers the whole day.  Guys, I birthed children for this man and didn't get flowers out of it, so this was a big deal for me.  ;)

Anyway, yes, I overreacted.  I've always had an overactive imagination and Shane knew this before he proposed.  

The funniest thing of it all?  (Besides my reaction)

Shane walked in the door, saw me bawling, and as he handed me the roses said,
"Do you want to go shopping?"

HAHAHAHAHA  

He clearly knows how to make it up to me.