Brock's 5th Birthday

Brock's birthday weekend started with a trip to the Angus Barn. Our family loves steak and we've been talking forever about taking him to a nice steak restaurant as soon as he turned five - sorry buddy, had to change our plans from Daniel's Broiler to the Angus Barn because of the move. ;) (The Broiler is a DELICIOUS steakhouse in Bellevue, WA - which has a little better steaks in my opinion...)

Nevertheless, we were excited for him to join us on "date night". The steak was good, but I think a trip to the kitchen to make his OWN ice cream sundae AND a pound cake to celebrate the occasion was his favorite part.

The following day was Brock's birthday party with all his friends. We invited all the kids from his pre-school, but only 8 RSVPed (slightly ridiculous that the RSVP rate is 50%) and then 2 of those children ended up getting sick the day of the party! Glad that my good friend Beck was flexible and could join us with her two boys!

Brock LOVES to swim, so we thought how cool would it be to host a pool party in January! We love the heated indoor pool at the gym and all the kids loved playing in the water! After getting changed back in to street clothes, we met at the basketball courts for some pizza and cake!

LOTS of cake! We had enough cake to last a week of celebrating!

Came home to enjoy all the amazing gifts from the party - what a blessed little boy!

Sunday was Brock's official birthday and we started our celebration with Grandma. We headed there for lunch with part of the HUGE birthday cake from the party the day before so we could all enjoy cake again!

Kade is opening presents in these pictures because my mother had purchased some new things to replace duplicate presents he received from Christmas.

Besides a lovely gift he received from Grandma at her home, his other presents from her were waiting for him at home. Finally! Some snow boots and snow pants! We sized up so we can wear them this year and next!

We opened a few other presents, calling Aunts & Uncles and Grandparents so they could all talk to the big FIVE year old!

I think Grammy & Grandpa scored on this one!

 We took a break for..... Surprise! More cake!! Look at how much more cake we had even two days after!

 Back to more presents!!

Thank you to everyone for helping celebrate with us all weekend! We have a five year old!!

January 17/18 Snow Day

The day before Wednesday, January 17th, we were forecasted to get between 2"-4" of snow.... as the day went on, the number grew.... and the start time would also continue to be delayed. First at 4am, then 6am, finally at 9am. Of course when I woke up at 6am that morning for work and it was raining, I was grossly disappointed.  By 9am the snow had started, but it was definitely not sticking to the ground. About 2 hours later, it finally did and the above picture of Brent and Brock was taken at 3pm with at least 5" on the ground!

What would have happened if it all stuck to the ground when it started!!??!?

Still snowing at 5:30PM! 

All in all, we ended up with about 9" at our house. The best part - my company closed the office on Thursday, so I didn't have to worry about taking a PTO day or who was going to watch the children - we all got to go out and enjoy the snow!

Love that Carolina Blue sky! We walked down the street to the pool to check out the snow-capped trees and "if anyone was swimming at the pool" - Brock's concern.

A few branches that needed their snow pushed off.

Back at the house all covered in snow!

Brock and I made snow angels!

Kade attempted, but wasn't quite successful.....

Still missing our sled..... but Brock loved just running and falling down the hill in the snow!

Kade said he was done - too cold after 20 minutes of outdoor play. I didn't blame him! We all went inside and took a nice hot shower to warm up!

Yay for snow days that last two days and yay for the daycare place to open back up on Friday! :)

January 4th Snow Day

Immediately after our holiday break, Wake County managed to get 2" of snow (which proceeded to shut down the schools for 2 days!). It worked out great for us - it was my last Thursday "off" before starting full time the following week!

More than a dusting, but definitely an amount that forced you to go out and play in it quick before it all melted!!

Diesel was loving it!!

It was a bit hard for Kade to run in that full body snow suit!

Asked the boys to pose for a picture and the wind started blowing immediately after everyone lined up! Check out Brock's cool snow boots! ;)

Happy brothers!

Kade looked a little cold, so I added another garment. :)

Unfortunately, we had to get rid of our sleds when we moved and we have yet to replace them. This sufficed for awhile that morning, but a little hard to stay on with a big hole in the middle (for you to float in at the POOL!)

My snow dog!

Nothing better than coming back inside where it's warm and getting all cozy again!

Christmas Day 2017

Boys opening their first presents of Christmas 2017

Brock had been getting up earlier and earlier every day leading up to Christmas, so we were a bit fearful it would be an EARLY Christmas morning.... not too bad, he woke us up at 6:48AM. (We told him there were special rules for Christmas Day - no matter what time it was, he could come in our room Christmas morning and wake us up, but he was not to go downstairs at all!) Of course, he woke up Kade and THEN came in our room.

I went downstairs first to get a video of them coming down the stairs....

Per our tradition, the boys opened one present of their choosing, then we stop for breakfast. Brian, Nancy, Maddox and Riley arrived just in time to enjoy pancakes and bacon before opening presents!!

The #1 thing on Brock's list this year was chocolate coins!! What a delight to receive a VERY LARGE container of chocolate coins!!

Christmas went a bit faster this year..... Kade was tearing off wrapping paper just as fast as big brother! He may need a little help with how to correctly play with some of these toys....

Brock inspecting his Lego set from Great-Aunt Carol and Great-Uncle Jeff.

Christmas-Intermission!! Mommy & Daddy got the boys new tablets (technically new tablet for Brent, who passed his down to Brock, who passed his down to Kade.... with new cases, of course), which made everything come to a crashing halt while the boys checked out their new apps.

Brent looks ecstatic after opening his Squatty Potty! ;)

Hmm.... now Brock received a blue helmet just like he asked Santa for.... but what should go with it?

Meanwhile, Kade was unwrapping his large gift...

Ooooh, ice cream!!

Brent explained to Brock that Santa didn't have room under the tree for one of his presents, he had to leave it in the next room... and when Brock walked in the room, his mouth literally dropped!

Sorry so blurry, trying to take the photos fast!

SUPER happy boy!!

A few of us still had some presents to open!

Of course Maddox was sleeping through most of this craziness, probably for the best, but he didn't get to participate in the chaos of present-swapping.

But when Maddox did wake up, we attempted a cousin photo shoot with matching shirts!

So sweet of Aunt Nancy to get them for all the boys! They looked adorable! Thank you!

I think I know which little boy was the most cooperative in the photo shoot!

Grandma got in some cuddling action with Baby Maddox!

After an early dinner, Brock got to try out his new Batman bike with training wheels (a very important detail).

Looking down at his feet while he rides - we have to work on that!

A snippet from Brock's first day on 2 wheels (plus 2 little ones)!

Time to relax after another successful Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!