Happy 2nd Birthday, Daniel!

Dear Daniel,

Happy happy 2nd birthday to an amazing son! Your birthday was two days ago and we had a big day filled with fun and going, going, going! :o) We were at a Master Plan college retreat in Durango speaking Saturday night so you spent your birthday with about 50 college students who pretty much all love you so it made for a great day! We all sung "Happy Birthday" to you that morning before breakfast and you tried blowing out your candles that were placed in a piece of yummy chocolate sheet cake... You "blew/spit" on the cake a few times before your friend, Shelby, finally had to help you blow the candles out! Then you enjoyed your chocolate cake for breakfast... hopefully you won't get used to that at all. Once a year is fine with me! :o) You played outside with Daddy that morning, throwing sticks to the Kostreva's dog, Jenny... Then you went on a walk with Daddy and swung on the big porch swing outside the lodge, where we were. While all the students were in on a talk, Daddy, Mommy, Lydia and you played outside in the beautiful weather which was so much fun! You had a few bites of chimichanga for lunch and then on our drive back to Grand Junction we stopped in Ouray at a coffee/ice cream shop where you had half of a yummy cookie. :o) (Yes, you had WAY too much sweets, my dear little boy!) Once we got back we headed over to your Aunt Amanda's where you played outside a bit before your Uncle Bryan took you and Daddy to Murdoch's to look at the little chicks, duckies, and baby turkeys I think... I heard you really enjoyed that, especially seeing some kind of blue turkey or duck or something! Lol. ;o) After all that we headed over to the bowling alley where your Uncle Wayne works and you played your first two games ever of bowling! We met all of our family and lots of your friends there for a fundraiser for the March of Dimes team we are putting together to walk on Saturday in memory of your cousin, Makaio. You really enjoyed bowling and did awesome pushing the ball down the ramp! You got quite a few strikes - much better than Mommy, that's for sure! :o) We had pizza for dinner there, although you ate more of Jessica and your friend Connor's French fries than your pizza! Such a silly boy! That was your birthday... a long day full of fun and you slept REALLY REALLY well that night which was very nice for Mommy and you!

Your birthday party will be Sunday which will be a lot of fun for you I'm sure! You are having lots of your little guy friends over - Connor, Colsen, Miah, Ezra, Liam, just to name some of them... - and many of your little girl friends too! We are having a construction party for you and it'll be fun to watch you play with all the trucks in the sandboxes and build things with your tools and all the other fun things we'll be doing! (I'll write about all that later on I'm sure!)

I can't believe you are already 2 years old, Daniel! I was thinking back to last year and I can't believe all the things that have changed since then! Not only do you look so much older and taller and skinnier, but you also talk so much more (and I can actually understand you much of the time now!) and you have learned SO many new things like how to walk, run, go down a slide by yourself, swing by yourself (even in a big swing), do puzzles, say and recognize almost half of the letters in the alphabet, say all the main colors, recognize and say the name of most shapes, dance (you've always been a dancer, though... even before you could walk you would move to the beat of a song), and be an amazing big brother to your little sis! Those are just some of the things you've learned since you were a year old!

You are around 29 or 30 pounds now... goes up and down depending on what you eat before we weigh you. ;o) You LOVE to eat and now that you are down to only two milks a day, you have been eating much more each day! Snack time is definitely your favorite time of the day when it comes to eating, so I have been having to get very creative with what I feed you for snacks so you get more healthy foods somehow! Your favorite snacks are crackers, pretzels, or fruit, but little by little you seem to be eating more veggies as snacks which is great!

You moved into a booster seat for meals a few weeks ago... We bought you a sweet "Cars" booster seat and you love climbing in and out of it and sitting up with us "big people" while Lydia sits in your old highchair.

Some of your favorite things to do during the day are playing outside (you are getting much more independent at play time out there which is nice for me to get some things done or be able to read while you play), reading lots of books or being read to (you could be read to for hours - you LOVE books!), playing with sister (lately you have loved playing with your Thomas the trains and your barn and animals... she sits beside you and plays with whatever you share with her), matching colors or shapes with all of our activities (you are doing SO great at saying your colors and love stacking pictures together by color or shape), helping me wash dishes (now that is a fun and messy, or should I say wet, time!), helping cook (you drag your chair all over the kitchen helping me with every step of cooking), coloring, playing with your play dough, watching your new favorite show - "Leapfrog Letter Factory", and so many other things! You definitely stay super busy all the time, that's for sure!

We love you SO much, Daniel! I'm excited to see what all you will learn and how you will grow this next year! You are such a joy in our lives and such a wonderful big brother and son!

Love,

Mommy


P.S. Here are pics from your first week of life, first birthday, and second birthday! :o)

Daniel Mason Slade - April 22, 2010

First week...

1 Year Old

On your birthday - April 22, 2011

2nd birthday - April 22, 2012

Enjoying your chocolate birthday cake for breakfast!

Waiting for Daddy to get Home!

It's Friday which means Scott is coming home today! We are SO excited although instead of flying like he was originally planning and getting in around 11:30 this morning his plane broke down (thankful they saw that it wasn't working BEFORE he was on it!) so he is driving instead because they couldn't get him on a plane before tonight anyway! Praying the roads are all clear for him and that he gets home safely by this evening (it's a 9 hour drive). It's been a good week overall and the kids have been great for me, but we just all miss him so much when he's gone! Poor Daniel was up several times last night crying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy"! :o( So sad!

We have had a good week though! Let me think through what all we did!

Sunday was Easter Sunday and my sweet little kiddos looked so cute all dressed up! As did my handsome hubby who has decided to start growing a beard - lol. ;o) It is the one thing I've never really wanted him to do, but I have decided to get my hair cut short to maybe my chin length which is short for me (which Scott did ask me to do...) so maybe if I like the beard when he gets back today we can both change up our looks a bit. ;o) But we'll see after I see him today! ANYWAY! We got the kids all bathed and dressed Sunday morning and we were able to take some pictures before church. Church was great! Daniel was in the nursery (showing off his suit and tie we heard afterwards) but we kept Lydia in with us and she enjoyed all the music we sung throughout the service. After church we headed home for naps (not our naps... the kids') and while they napped I went over to Walgreens and got Daniel some Easter candy (which I ended up eating most of - imagine that!) and I got him some bubbles and Lydia a bunny for their Easter gifts! Then around 3:45 we headed over to Amanda's for an Easter egg hunt and Easter dinner with my family. Daniel had an awesome time egg hunting with Vienna and Lydia enjoyed being held by Daddy and holding her egg. :o) It was a good time with our family eating a delicious ham and fixings dinner and enjoying the beautiful day outside, but it was also really hard because our little Makaio wasn't with us... It was hard seeing Lelia and Wayne go through their first holiday without him but I'm so glad we were able to be there with them!














Monday morning Scott left for WY for the week and the kids and I had a fun day keeping busy! Daniel and I worked on some activities that morning (which we haven't done for awhile because he always wants to play outside usually)... That was a lot of fun! He knows his colors so well now (for the past month and a half or so he has been learning more and more of them) and so I am now trying to work on his shapes and some numbers... He loves to "match" everything so we matched all the shapes together from his various puzzles, blocks, legos, etc. and he actually got most of them in the correct stacks! We also counted out some of his blocks and put them in stacks by number 1, 2, and 3. Then we cut out pictures of things starting with the letter D (a dolphin, a duck, a dog, a picture of Daddy and Daniel, and some other things) and he helped me glue them to a page with the letter Dd on it! He loved doing that! He has been recognizing so many letters lately and even though he doesn't always say the letter itself (except for D and W which he says all the time when he sees the letter), he will say the name of the family member that starts with that letter (A - Amanda, L - Lydia and Lelia, etc.) It's so much fun as he is learning more and more! Anyway, back on track... Monday afternoon after naps we went into town and went to Wal-Mart for me to get some gifts for a few of my friends who are having and had babies and to get some other random things I needed. It was the first time in awhile that I have gone shopping with both kids and even though the shopping cart got a little full with Daniel sitting it it, also, it worked out great and it was fun! :o) We went to TacoTime afterwards and picked up some dinner which we ate at the Little League ballfields before watching Vienna practice her baseball. It was fun hanging out with Amanda and Tyler and Vienna! Daniel is so ready to start baseball... Too bad he's not even 2 yet! :o)

Tuesday after Lydia's morning nap we went into town and met some friends at the park. Daniel played with his friend, Shelby, and I visited with her mom, Rhonda, while watching Lydia play with her little friend, Amelia, who is 3 months older. It was such a nice day and lots of fun hanging out and eating lunch on the grass together! I LOVE spring time weather and picnics at the park! AND, it's so nice being able to just let Daniel play with his friends now without following him all around the playground equipment. He loves sliding and climbing everything now! I can't really remember what else we did on Tuesday... I know I made a yellow cake for a baby shower the next day. Oh! And I cleaned the house! I think that's the majority of what I did! :o)

Wednesday was a busy but fun day! My friend, Kacey, came over with her little boy Connor and while Daniel and Connor played and Lydia hung out with us or napped, Kacey and I made icing and frosted her cake and mine to look like ladybugs! We were part of a group from small group who were hosting a baby shower for our youth pastor's wife, Lacey. It was so much fun hanging out and talking and decorating the cakes together although I am NOT going to be starting a cake decorating business anytime soon! Lol. ;o) After Scott's mom came over a little after 4 that afternoon, I headed over to the church to help decorate for the shower. Everyone did such a great job with the decorating and the food! It was all so cute and I LOVED the ladybug theme! It was a dessert shower so all of us hostesses brought desserts and fruit... It was a great shower and Lacey enjoyed it. I'm so glad we were able to throw one for her!





Thursday I babysat another friend's little boy and so Daniel had another friend to play with! He LOVES having kids over! :o) They were so cute watching slide and swing and run around outside... Then they came in and played at our little picnic table with play doh and puzzles and then they ate their lunch at the table, too. I took all three kids on a walk in the wagon (while I was holding Lydia in the front pack) which was nice, although it turned cold fast and rained on us a little near the end of the walk. Last night I took the kids in to Canyonview and we were able to watch the softball game that Scott would have been playing in if he was here. It was a great game! Everyone played awesome even though it was freezing cold (just over 40 degrees) and it was raining for a lot of the game! We were all huddled in the dugout watching the game... Lydia as happy as can be in the front pack (keeping me warm) and Daniel was walking around doing whatever and not too happy about having to stay in the dugout since it was all wet and cold out... :o( So glad we were able to go watch it!

Today has been the more tough day so far, especially this morning. Lydia must be getting another tooth in because she's been so unhappy this morning, although right now she's doing great playing with Daniel's barn and animals on the floor. :o) We didn't do too much this morning but once they went down for their naps I made chocolate chip cookies (with dark chocolate chips) for Scott and I made a baby gift for a friend and some peanut butter cream cheese apple dip for a ladies' tea tomorrow morning that I'm going to. Daniel has been down for his nap for over 3 hours now! Poor guy must have been super tired! I love my little kiddos and I'm SO thankful that I have them to hang out with when Scott is gone, but I'm SUPER excited to see Scott in just two and a half to three more hours!! YAY! :o)

Don't even know where to try to catch up!

Goodness! I have decided I am officially NOT a very good blogger! I can't believe how fast time goes by especially when I realize each month how little I've written on here! So since the kiddos are sleeping and I have nothing extremely pressing to do at this moment in time, I think I'll write one of my rambling posts about nothing in specific but about everything all at the same time! Sorry in advance for how long and all over this might go! Just remember, it's called catch up from almost a month of not writing on here!

First of all, I can hardly believe that yesterday marked the first month since my precious little nephew Makaio went to be with Jesus... I don't know why it still seems like a dream at times. I have gone on here different times wanting to write about my thoughts and feelings especially on the hard days, but I haven't kept anything or posted anything, as you know. All in all, I am doing okay although it is still hard to see my sister and her husband and to think about the little one who is missing who should have been there each time they come over and each time we go visit them! Two days ago, on Monday, my sisters and mom came over to spend the day scrapbooking sweet Makai's pictures. It was such a wonderful day to hang out, talk together, cry together, and just remember together. I'm glad that we were able to get pictures of him and I'm also glad that we were able to have that time to work on some books for each of us to have. I want to continually remind Daniel and Lydia about their little cousin who they were never able to meet, and having this little book will be a great way for them to be able to remember him! Lelia and Wayne overall have been doing pretty good lately, although they definitely have their really hard days from time to time. Lelia just got a job at Applebees which she is training for right now... Praying that that will be a place where she enjoys working but that at the same time we all hope and pray that they will be blessed with another child not to far into the future so she can stay home and be the kind of mom that she so wants to be! We have a March for Babies 5 mile walk planned on April 28th which we are all excited for! We are making some "Team Makaio" t-shirts with a picture of his cute little feet and it will be such a great time for all the family and lots of our friends to get together and walk in memory of him! Also, I wanted to share a couple of pictures of him! Here are two that the professional photographer from "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" took shortly after his birth... Wasn't he such a cute little boy?! I love him so much!




Today is my little girl's 7 month birthday which is so crazy to believe! It's hard to believe she has already been here for over half a year - it has gone by so fast! She will be going in for her 6 month appointment (I know... we are way late!) in a few weeks so it will be good to FINALLY see how much she weighs and how tall she is again! I have not been very good at keeping up with those appointments this time around... She is still sleeping great, although, I've been trying to figure out her naps lately as she is definitely able to stay up longer in between naps than she was able to before and I still haven't figured out exactly how long. :o) She usually takes two one-hour naps in the morning and late afternoon and usually a one and a half to two hour nap in the early afternoon while Daniel naps which is nice! She has woken up at night a few times this month which is very unusual for her, but I think she has just been really hungry since she still hasn't been the greatest at eating her baby foods! :o( Her favorite foods so far have been pears and carrots, so I just need to make more of that for her to eat because squash, apricots/apples, and some of the other things we have tried are definitely not on her top 5 list! :o) She has two cute little bottom teeth, and I'm guessing her top ones will be coming in at some point of time, but I haven't noticed them yet! She still loves to sit and play but has also enjoyed "wheeling" around backwards in the bouncer/wheeley thing we have. She LOVES playing with Daniel's legos and dump truck and tools - lol - and also enjoys it when I read books to her and Daniel on the floor. :o) We have been trying to put her on her hands and knees from time to time but she won't stay up on them for long and doesn't really push herself up on them much at all! So, not sure how much longer before she'll be crawling... We'll see if she beats Daniel's 9 months or maybe she'll take longer! Either way we are good because although I know it'll be so much fun to watch her explore around and follow her big brother everywhere, it's also nice not to have to start the big-time baby proofing again yet! Lydia seriously has some of the best expressions and smiles I've ever seen on a baby girl! :o) She is very expressive... it's going to be so much fun to see those grow with her as she grows! She has such cute little dimples when she smiles, too, and I love cuddling with her and making her laugh when we tickle her! She doesn't "talk" as much as Daniel did when he was that age, I don't think, but she does still scream/shrill from time to time to just make sure we know she's there! Gosh, I love her so much! She is such a wonderful bundle of joy and I'm SO excited to see her grow and learn even more new things this next month!

Tomorrow night is Scott's first night back to softball this year! We had a practice night last week and it was so much fun to get back to softball even for me who doesn't play! Lol. I love taking the kids, though, and even though I can only make their 6 and 7 pm games because of the kids' bedtime (around 8 pm) I know it'll be fun watching those games this season and the next two seasons! We have a much different team this year because several people couldn't play this spring who usually do, but that has made it fun because it'll be nice to hang out and see some of these others more often! Daniel is so funny because he LOVES to pretend to play softball all the time! He makes almost anything a bat and has us throw balls at him as he tries to hit them with his bat! When we went to the field for practice last week he stood right there with everyone else holding one of the softballs. He SO wanted to join in the game! At least there is a park nearby because that will be a main way of getting him away from the fields during the games I'm thinking... He LOVES parks!

Speaking of parks... (See... my rambling is awesome!) Daniel has been having SO much fun playing at parks this spring! It's fun for me too because I finally don't have to climb up after him everywhere like last year! I still watch him pretty closely for the most part because he scares me to death at times when he gets up really high next to the drop-offs or when he decides to climb up bars or something... I know, I know... I know that he is a boy so I have been trying to let him do crazy, daredevil stuff from time to time, but sometimes it is still pretty hard for me to not be overly protective! ;o) He fell off something the other day and got a bloody nose which was so sad to see, but it was funny because he didn't even realize it and didn't cry much at all even as his nose was dripping blood! He LOVES to go down slides now, which is so funny to watch because he likes to sit and go down on his tummy over and over! At home he goes down on his tummy head down much of the time... He is so funny when he lands in a heap at the bottom of the slide on his head, laughs, stands up and does it all over again! Scott taught him how to climb up one of the climbing walls at a park the other day and now he LOVES climbing those! He did it over and over again and I was very impressed because he figured out which foot to go where and where to put his hands on the hand-holds. I love my little guy! He is so smart and makes me so happy that I'm his mommy! :o)

Scott has been working on our backyard a lot lately (hoping to finish this weekend...) shoveling up all the old rocks/mulch all around our yard and laying down new weed cover and new mulch! We have a small area done so far and it looks SO awesome! I'm super excited to get the rest of the yard done because the dark mulch makes it look so much nicer out there! Once our sprinkler system is turned on Scott is also going to re-seed some of our grass so once all that is done it'll be so nice to spend our evenings out there this summer! I just need to figure out what we are planting in our garden and starting getting all that planned out... For some reason my excitement about doing a garden last year is not here this year so I have really been putting it off! :o(

Scott is gone next week again with work... I'm getting better with dealing with kiddos and figuring out a good routine when he is gone since it's been happening every month lately, but it's still so hard and sad not to have him here! :o( I always like to have something big to focus on during the week and get accomplished, so this next week it'll be getting Daniel's 2nd birthday party all planned out and invites made! All I have done so far is decide that the theme will be construction/building and I have lots of ideas for decorations/food/activities to look through and narrow down! I'm super excited for it! I know he will have a great time and I hope lots of his friends are able to come!! :o)

Well, Lydia just woke up so I should go ahead and send this! I hope everyone has a great week and hopefully it won't take me forever long to write on here again!