Phew...We Survived

Well I have neglected the blog once again and to all of my northern relatives I offer an apology. These last few months have been crazy. And that is the understatement of the century. I directed and Michael stared in our church play, Michael has been coaching freshman basketball, meanwhile we have two small children and one in my belly, and oh yeah then there was thanksgiving and Christmas. Anyways, somehow, we survived it all and quite honestly as tired as we were we have had a blast. I will post some more pics of the play as soon as I can lay my hands on them but for now here are a few shots we took of some of the set pieces. Like I said, they aren't that great but something is better than nothing...right?

A New Photo Shoot

We did a photo shoot with Auntie Steph and Uncle Stephen in late November but I have been waiting to post these pictures because I used them to create a calendar for the grandparents and others so now that Christmas has passed I thought it was time to put them up.

As always Steph and Stephen did an incredible job and we are, as ever, so thankful to have them to document our lives at this stage.

I also wanted to mention that I took the kids to the doctor for their three year and eighteen month check-ups. Although I have already forgotten all of the exact stats I can tell you that they were only 2 pounds apart. Wesley weighs 26 lbs. and Oliver 28. And that Welsey is in the 52nd percentile for weight and the 90th for height. Oliver is in the 32nd percentile for weight (we were all happy with this considering he hovered around the 3rd for a good part of his life) and the 75th percentile for height. So they are growing as they should be and have hit all of the appropriate benchmarks for their respective ages or exceeded them. Let' s just say when doctor asked me if Oliver was stringing three or four words together to make sentences I laughed. I didn't tell her he knew his presidents, I didn't want to brag too much:)

Star Wars Party

Yesterday we celebrated Oliver's third birthday. Yes, third. Is it as unbelievable to you as it is to me? Seriously, how did he get to be three? And when it came time to plan the party there was no doubt in my mind just what kind of a party it had to be- Star Wars. The great thing about this theme is not only was Oliver "so cited" for his party but I am pretty sure every other boy invited and, for that matter, man there thought it was awesome. We had a scavenger hunt (this was a staple in my parties growing up so we had to do it), Star Wars cookie decorating, Star Wars coloring, a Star Wars cake, a Darth Vader pinata, and a lot of lightsaber batteling. Here are a bunch of pictures.

The morning of Oliver wore his Star Wars PJ's and opened a few of his presents. Including a new blue lightsaber as shown below.




After he woke up from his quiet time we let him decorate a cookie before anyone else got to the party. When he walked outside and saw all of the decorations he said, "Woah, this is awesome." Which made the hours and hours of prep totally worth it:)


We also snapped a few shots of Oliver before the other kids came over in his Obi Wan jedi get-up. This one below might be one of my favorite pictures EVER.

Everyone dressed up for the party (well at least the kids, parents, and grandparents). Thanks Dad for going to Chik-fil-a to pick up the nuggets plater dressed up as a storm trooper:)

Most of the girls were Princess Leia sporting the trademark Leia buns.



As I mentioned above we did a scavenger hunt. The kids each had six bags with goodies "hidden" in the backyard for them to find. Some of the items inside included stickers, tattoos, candy etc. and MOST importantly a lightsaber which lit up with all sorts of different colors (this was by far the biggest hit).








Also, as mentioned, there was much dueling with the lightsabers. The girls mostly opted for the cookie decorating station:)

Except Sophia was happy to finally have her own lightsaber instead of being forced to play with Oliver's every single time she comes over.

One dead Jedi.

Oliver opened presents...
And Wesley ate candy. They both were happy.

Oliver's friends Bella and Tyler decorating cookies.

Wesley, or should I say Chewbacca, took a short moment to groom Papa G.
Did I say all of the candy was a big hit? You're welcome parents:)
Our youngest Jedi in attendance, Bella who showed up with Leia buns but unfortunately they didn't last too long, and her proud papa.

Michael getting Sophia to cross her eyes. This one is a classic.
The Star Wars cake with Darth Vader candles.
It was a fantastic party. Thanks to everyone who came and helped:) We love you all!