This and That

Some things we've been up to lately...

1.  Nana and Papa Swoop sent a package from Hawaii with Valentine's Day goodies for the boys.  Emmett immediately got to work coloring with his new crayons with his new hat on.  :)

Jackson is in love with the two t-shirts Nana sent.  He had to try them on as soon as he opened them.  One has Lightning McQueen on it, and the other has Buzz and Woody from Toy Story.  He especially loves wearing them to sleep in.

The next day he insisted on wearing his new shirt to school.  Don't worry... he didn't sleep in this one.  It was clean.  :)

And E insisted on having his picture taken, too.  :)

2.  The boys and I made red velvet cupcakes for V Day and I had to take a picture of them because this is probably the first batch of cupcakes that I've made here at high altitude that have turned out almost perfectly.  No craters or explosions at all.  I didn't do anything special to them, but I did use a new recipe so I guess it's a keeper.  I couldn't believe how well they turned out.

Emmett loves to eat just the tops of the cupcakes.  He buries his face in the icing and then eats the top off and then he's done.  :)

3.  We read Blueberries for Sal the other evening and then the boys wanted to eat blueberries.  And eat blueberries.  And eat blueberries.  They ate a TON!

4.  Here are J and E eating a yummy breakfast Daddy made a few weekends ago.  This was right after the table was finished and I wanted to document the first breakfast on it.  :)  Don't you love Reid's fat foot at the bottom of the picture?  I think that's the only part of Reid you'll see in this post!

5.  Later that morning we drove out to a golf course community near our house to ride bikes and walk.  It was gorgeous outside.

At one point the boys got a little far ahead and Emmett took a spill.  He was wearing his helmet but still got a cut on his forehead and chin and was bleeding everywhere.  Of course we didn't have a band aid or anything and weren't close to the car, so we just had to mop up the blood with Kleenex.  We were preparing to go back, but then E said he wanted to keep riding so we went a little further.  He was a trooper!

Then when we were almost to the car he pooped out and wanted to get in the stroller.  His bike fits perfectly on top.

Here he is with his boo-boos... sweet little tough guy!

We stopped along the way to visit with some friendly horsies.  They walked over to us when they saw us coming on the trail and J and E and I gave them some pets.

6.  I know my recent posts have been very video-heavy, but it is almost easier to take videos of the boys than pictures lately!  And I just love watching these little videos.  I took this one the other day to send to my mom and sister over the phone.  It is one of my very favorites.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

I cannot believe that one whole year ago today I gave birth to this precious baby at 12:40 A.M.  Where did the time go?  He is SUCH a joy.

He's always on the move nowadays, and he's very, very happy about that!

Here he discovered the presents that J and E picked out for him last night.  We hadn't wrapped them yet.

Notice that J and E picked presents that THEY wanted!  I figured that was okay, since Reid wouldn't know the difference anyway.

 

The big boys helped me wrap the presents later this morning and then we baked Reid's cake.  They are so excited for presents and cake after dinner!

(And P.S.... Check out this DIY table Phil made for us with plumbing pipe legs and plain ol' 2x10s from Home Depot.  I am so thankful for my handy hubs.)

I was trying a new thing where I say, "One, Two, Three... Freeze and Smile!" to try to get them to sit still, look at the camera, and smile.  It worked okay this time, but I'm sure it won't work again!

And here's a video I took the other day of our sweet birthday boy walking around everywhere.  He's getting pretty fast and, like I said, is SO happy to be able to go all over the house wherever he wants (well, actually, only wherever we allow him to go!).  Our bathroom is off-limits.

Phil and I have been sick for a week, so we're not having a party for Reid... just a quiet family dinner and cake at home.  Which, to be honest, I like just as much.  Happy Birthday, Sweet, Sweet Reid!

Family Visit

Two weeks ago my youngest sister (Leslie) and her husband (Charles) and their kiddos (Cameron and Olivia) flew out from Florida to visit us for a week!  I was so thankful to them for making the trip to our tiny little town just to see us!  It was so great to spend time with them and the kiddos (especially the three older boys) had so much fun together.  Here are some pics from their visit:

These three are such great buddies.  No fighting or arguing, just fun!

We had a little leftover snow that Cam loved playing in...

We drove up to Bend a few days after they got here and rented a house for three days.  Charles and Phil went snowboarding and skiing a few times and Les and I hung out at the house and at parks with the kiddos.  I just love Bend!  Here we are all walking from the house to an awesome little grocery store down the street...

Here are the big boys playing with some Target playdough...

Here Reid was coming in for a kiss from Leslie and Olivia was getting upset!

Probably the most fun we had while we were in Bend was taking the kids to the public pool there.  They had a huge 2 foot deep kids' pool that was super warm and also had a slide, lots of water toys, and a fountain that would shoot water.  The boys were absolutely fearless and absolutely in heaven.  We stayed there for over two hours and they would have stayed longer!  Oh how I wish we had something like this in our little town.

Reid had so much fun, too!

We couldn't believe Jackson... he was jumping in and going completely under the water without plugging his nose or anything.  I don't think he had ever put his head completely under water like that before.  He is getting so brave as he gets older.  :)  It was awesome to see him having so much fun!

Untitled from Phil Gilcreast on Vimeo.

Back at home...

These kind of crazy shenanigans happened almost every day and night!  The boys just loved playing together...

Charles and Cameron came out to the base one morning to watch the jets take off...

Eating Cheetos after a hard morning of walking around the squadron...

Since Leslie and I didn't have much alone time in Bend, we went out to eat together one night when we got back.  We are so much closer to each other since we've had kids and it is just wonderful.  She is such a special person in my life and one of my best friends.

And here are the babies getting into a little mischief.  Reid just loves tearing the wrapping and toilet paper off the roll.  I've since locked up all of the cabinets!

Oh, it was so wonderful having them here!  Thank you so much for coming to see us, Simpsons!  We love you so much!!