Happy Birthday, Jay/Daddy!

Dear Jay:

Wishing you a wonderful 32nd bday. You mean the world to Holden and me. I love you as a husband, as my son's Daddy, and as my best friend.

Love, Katie

Dear Daddy:
Happy birthday! Thanks for all of the fun stuff you do with me, like paddle boats and living room sleepovers. You are my best buddy. Plus I get my awesome looks mostly from you. I "wuv" you!

Love, Holden (with a little help from Mommy.) :)

Holden and his girls!

I haven't done a post with Natalie and Corinne in a few weeks, and I feel like using pink and purple today, so here we go! :) Plus they are just such good post material.

Holden and Natalie love "sharing" her Mickey Mouse riding toy. Every now and then they actually do a good job of taking turns pushing each other around, which is very cute. (Or more accurately, Holden remembers to let Natalie have a turn without screaming or yelling, "HEY!" at her!)

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Holden gets a kick out of some of Natalie's toys that he doesn't have at home. One of his faves is her little pink stroller. He will put a dolly in it and run around the room. To him, it's just another vehicle! I think he looks so cute with it. Besides, real men do pink, right?

Two of my favorite baby girls: 'Lil Miss Natalie Marie showing off her walking skills, and Corinne Paige in all her infant cuteness.

Split shot! I love the picture of Natalie on the left. I don't care how much she may look like her Daddy (which is a good thing, Ryan, I'm just saying...) this is her Mommy and Grammy's scrunched up grin here! Holden loves eating at Natalie's house because he can play the "throw the food to the dog" game. Zoe is happy to oblige.

Ummmm, can we say CUTE?! Corinne is really filling out, and I love her chubby little cheeks and the sweet smile she is starting to grace us with. She makes the best little coos and babbling noises, too.

LOVE this picture! She knows she's a stinker! My guess here is she's either a) planning to spit up on Mom's shoulder, b)planning a mad diaper blowout, or c) thinking of how she's going to stay up late tonight!

Talking to Mommy

Do you see Julie Chen in the background? Yes, it's that time again! An 11th season of that ridiculous, mindless, completely guilty pleasure Big Brother has begun! Do you think babies are going to slow us down?! Ha! Although we do thank God for DVR nowadays. The three of us have watched all 11 seasons (I won't calculate how much of my life that means I've wasted) and got together for the premiere episode at Bridget's new house. Corinne got to join us. (Natalie was asleep and Holden is not part of the "girl's club" so he was home with Daddy!) Mainly because he would never sit and be quiet so we could enjoy it! :)

Holden adores both of "his girls" and had a bonding day with Corinne while Nattie was napping. I just adore the pictures I got of the two of them together! They are so precious!

I could seriously eat them with a spoon for dessert. They are that yummy!

Don't want to leave out my Nattie Girl. A girl after my own heart, she is a big fan of mealtimes! Here is a collage dedicated to her snack time. :)

"Aunt Bridgie" with the three amigos. Sorry I cut your head off, Bridget! Note Holden insisted on wearing a bib because Natalie was. Do you think he wears them for me at home? NOOOO

I just added this one because he's cute. And I love him to pieces. And it's my blog. :)

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

Happy Birthday, Grammy! I hope you have a wonderful day. I can't wait to help you celebrate with french fries at Chili's tonight!

Love,

Holden Jay

I chose this video just for you! Mommy gave me some choices and the chimpmunks made me laugh and laugh.

Holden's first trip(s) to Grady's!

Our town is blessed with a very tacky, very fun place called Grady's. It features a pizza restaurant and delivery, putt-putt golf, an arcade, bumper boats, go-karts, batting cages, carnival type food stands, (think lemon shake-ups, corn dogs, and ice cream-yum!) and a bunch of kiddie rides. As kids, Jay and I both loved visiting this place (what kid wouldn't?) and now it is fun to introduce Holden to its charms. He is a bit confused with the name, because it sounds so close to his buddy, Brady's name. :) I love that each age just gets more fun with him; he is able to do and understand new things all the time, and I know it will get even more fun as he grows.

The classic Grady's pirate shot. I think everyone in our town probably has one of these!

What is it with boys and their arcade games? This one boasted a digger and a "win every time" enticement. Of course the prize was silly putty...so the kids may win; the parents, not so much! Ha!

Holden loved the rides! We cheated a little with the bumper boats; you're supposed to be 3...Shh, don't tell anyone! We knew he was safe with Daddy and a life jacket, and nobody asked. He thought it was great to be able to help Daddy squirt water at me, but he was not a fan of going under the dragon sprayer and getting himself wet! He also loved the "choo choo" and thought he was hot stuff on the motorcycles.

In typical Jay fashion, he decided he needed to enjoy the action (he is just a big kid!) and persuaded Holden to ride on the very fast Himalaya. I refrained from telling him "I told you so" when the attendant had to stop the ride after a few seconds due to Holden's high pitched shrieking. Okay, I didn't refrain from saying it. :)

T

he ice cream stand wasn't open yet, so Holden and I twisted Daddy's arm to buy us DQ. Holden was a fan.

4th of July:post 3

The day before the 4th, Holden was so excited to help me decorate his wagon for our little neighborhood parade. It was really fun for me to see him grasp the concept this year. He is becoming such a little person! Unfortunately, the 4th dawned cold, wet, and gloomy. Yuck! My parents came to watch the parade in hopes that the rain would pass, but it started raining even HARDER right before it was time to start. Well, "the show must go on," so Mom and I pulled the wagon in from the garage and up the stairs, and Dad pulled him around the living room and kitchen. Fortunately he can't remember last year's parade, so he thought he was hot stuff and didn't know what he was missing! :)

"All Fired Up..." and no place to go! :( All of our plans on the 4th revolved around the great outdoors. Jay was working until 3:00 and my parents were over, and we were like, "Now what?" Holden didn't seem to mind. Love that goofy little grin!

We decided to head to the mall to hit the sales and hopefully entertain the little guy. Such a strange 4th for me. But it will be a memorable one because it was different. Holden rode the little cars, enjoyed the carousel with Grammy, ate pretzel nuggets, and had fun touring the mower section of Sears. He also got a kick out of riding the escalators at Macy's and Bergner's. :)

After Holden had his nap and Jay got home from work we headed to my parents' house for dinner. Dad pulled the grill under the garage overhang, and Holden had fun hanging out in there.

Jay grilled salmon that Dad had caught on his fishing trip recently, we had a little piano recital performed by Mom and Holden, and Dad helped him do sparklers all by himself like a big boy. He was very conscientious of the flame and looks so serious in these pictures, but he loved them!

We parked in the local community college parking lot and watched the fireworks since it was still rainy and cold. Holden was a real trooper, as the show kept getting delayed due to the dampness. We got there at 8pm and they finally started at 9:30! The pouty picture is around 9:15..."let's get this show started, already, Mommy!" At first he snuggled up in Jay's lap and kept hiding his face, saying, "Holden is scared. Too loud!" He came around though after he saw they weren't going to hurt us, and enjoyed the display. We thought it was hilarious that he kept saying, "Ooh! Smoke! Hot! Get the hose, buddies!" He calls firefighters buddies for some reason. Don't you wonder what is going on in their little heads?

Here is a cute video of Papa and Holden doing sparklers together. At the beginning you'll hear me saying, "Come on!" I just missed catching him saying it right before. He disliked having to wait for the sparkler to light and would say, "C'mon, Papa! Light it!"

4th of July: post 2

I am so happy that we did some fun activities a day early on July 3, because the weather was beautiful...which is NOT to be said for the actual 4th!!

We started our morning by heading to Anderson pool with Brady, Kylie, and Kam. Holden and Brady had fun in the freezing baby pool water, while Kylie sat pretty in her adorable patriotic outfit and matching bow, and was content to have her feet dipped now and then. Brady is MUCH more adventurous than Holden when it comes to water; he'll go down the slides, in all the sprayers, etc. Holden is usually my wild child, but he is not a fan of going underwater at this point, and hates the element of surprise of the sprayers. He does not, however, have an aversion to drinking pool water. As you can see in the top left picture. Gross!

I had seen the yucky forecast of a chilly, rainy day for the 4th, so I put him in his little patriotic tanktop outfit a day early. We had a cookout to attend that night, so figured he could show it off there. I just love Carter's little one piece outfits with snaps at the bottom, and I know this will be the last summer Holden can pull them off. They sometimes look a little "daisy duke-ish" on him, but I think they're adorable. I hate to give up on the baby things! He agreed to pose for me because I let him sit on top of the loveseat, which he thought was really cool and funny. My Americana theme in the living room works great for 4th of July pictures!

Our neighbors had a backyard barbeque which is a yearly tradition around the 4th. This year was so much more fun with Holden than last year! He could move freely, can navigate stairs, and really enjoyed playing with "the big kids." I noted the milestone of him sitting at "the kids table" in the living room. :) He especially liked playing with Hannah (in the purple shirt), and Josh and Kate, the cute twins making fish faces. He also invented some new uses for the bags game...! We had hot dogs, brats, burgers, deviled eggs, taco dip, baked beans, hot wings dip, green bean casserole, fruit salad, and about 4 different desserts. I am hungry just thinking about it!

4th of July post 1

As with all things around here, we started celebrating the holiday a little early. :) These pictures were taken July 2.

Holden's first experience with "snaps;" those little things you throw on the ground that make a popping sound. Pepaw came over and made a big show of running away from the snaps while Holden threw them at his feet. As you can see, Holden found this hysterical!

While at the store, Holden spotted some patriotic cupcakes and twisted our arm (okay it didn't take any twisting on my part! I love sweets!) into buying them. He was brave and ate it with his hands instead of a fork. Ummm....much messier! He enjoyed it until the end. Then he realized how messy he was, and if you know my little boy, he does not like being messy. See bottom right picture in collage for an example of this. :)