A Lego Cake for Hunter

Didn't he just turn 5?! Hunter is 6 already! I look at him and wonder where my baby went!

This year we are having Thanksgiving with my husband's brother's family in Cheyenne, WY. They've been living there for a good 5 years, and we've yet to visit them. Originally we planned to come down for their son's 1st birthday in August, but it just didn't work out. So we opted to head down that way for Thanksgiving and make a vacation out of it. We may as well since it's a 11.5 hour drive (at least) one way! 

Anyways as the dates would fall, Hunter's birthday was on a Friday this year, and since we wanted to be able to ride on the Polar Express, we had to leave on Friday to make it to town with enough time to not be rushed to get to the train on time. Since we left on Friday, we had a little birthday celebration with my family the night before by taking him to his favorite place to eat, Buffalo Wild Wings, and then opening a few presents. Some how between all the chaos of making sure everything was packed, I managed to make Hunter cupcakes for a snack at school on Friday. It was so much fun hanging out with his class for the last half hour of the day. Turns out Hunter is the 3rd oldest in his class! Because of all the scrambling around, I knew I wasn't going to have time to make a cake at home for his birthday so we agreed to make him one in Cheyenne. 

This year's theme was Legos. Easy enough! After arriving Saturday afternoon, and riding the train on Sunday, my sister-in-law, Erin, and I set out to make his cake on Monday. I didn't think it would take all day, but it did. The elevation of Cheyenne really through me for a loop with the frosting, which made frosting his cake a challenge... that's when I got out the wine to calm my nerves!

I had so much fun teaching Erin how to use fondant and was SO thankful she was there to help cut out the blocks!

 I normally don't bake in my glasses because they slip off my face when I look down (I'm blind problems) and they give me a headache when I wear them all day...hence the wine...

 Here's the final picture of the cake. It didn't turn out quite how I would have liked it, but Hunter loved it. It's a little hard to see with the white on white, but it's suppose to look like the Lego guy unrolled the fondant to see the Legos underneath. We should have make more Lego blocks, but everyone was getting antsy to eat it. 

 He wanted to decorate it with real Legos...

 JP liked it too. I think he was a little jealous, and more anxious for his birthday to come!

 After singing "Happy Birthday" Hunter opened up a few more presents. He was SO EXCITED at the coupons grandma gave him. One to go to the movie with her, one for bowling, and one for a weekend at the cabin with her. 

The kids finished the evening with Bible stories read by Grandma. 

A Ride on the Polar Express

We left an evening earlier than planned for our vacation to Wyoming so we could hitch a ride on the Polar Express. For those who are unfamiliar with the Polar Express, it's a book/movie about a boy who rides a train to the North Pole to see Santa on Christmas Eve. I haven't read the book yet (it's on our reading list for December) but the boys *love* to watch the movie. Needless to say, they were so excited to hear that we were going to ride on not only a train, but the train to see Santa.

 The train left Sunday afternoon and departed from Georgetown, CO, about 45 minutes outside of Denver. Upon our arrival, I *made* Hunter take a picture with the gingerbread man who was wandering around outside. I tried to get JP in there too but I couldn't pry him off of my leg.

 The view of the river with the snow on the banks was breath-taking as we crossed the bridge to hop on the train.

 Because we bought coach tickets, we had two cars to choose from to sit in. We opted for the end car because Santa was riding in it. What we didn't realize was it only had one heater in it so it wasn't terribly warm. We weren't freezing though!

 As soon as we settled in, we had the babes take pictures with Santa, and they hated it.

 You couldn't even pry her fingers out of her mouth when Charlotte made it back to daddy's lap.

 I even managed to hand off the camera a few times. For some reason, JP has been refusing to have his picture taken lately, so I was tickled to get a picture with him, even if he looks a little mad about it.

 At one point on the train, we went over a VERY HIGH bridge that looked to be a million years old. The view was nice, but my nerves weren't...

On the way back to the station, Mrs. Claus stopped by to say hello to the kids. Again, JP wanted nothing to do with her, but Charli warmed up to her. An elf had passed out bells to all the kids on the way (along with cookies to everyone!) and on the way back, Charlotte was able to fit the entire bell into her mouth! Talk about a mouthful!

Little Stevie had a fun on the train ride too! 

Hunter and JP didn't want to sit on his lap when we boarded the train, but by the end of the trip, Hunter really warmed up to him. JP was still a little iffy, but he sat on his lap anyways...because I put him there and Santa didn't let him down without a picture :) Thanks Santa! 

Hunter even had some quality one-on-one time with him where Santa helped him re-tie his bell.

By the end of the trip, JP willingly gave Santa a hug on the way off the train. Such a fun trip! 

Monkey Shiner Babblings

J - We should get dad some new shoes.
M - Why?
J - So he can go running.
M - Why does dad need to go running?
J - So he can get extra-size because extra-size makes people feel better.
M - That's nice of you, but dad has a head cold.
J - Oh.

H - Mom, you really need to talk nicer to dad.
M - I'm not talking mean to dad. I'm just upset that I don't have any friends and I'm just expressing that to him.
H - Well mom, I'll be your friend.
M - Oh thanks Hunter.
H - And James and Charli are your friends too.
D - Who are also her children...
H - Dad, do you need friends too?
D - [Looks at him with raised eye brows]
H - Okay, Roxy [the dog] can be your friend.
M - Boom. Hahahaha!

M - Oh my gosh. I do not feel good today boys.
J - You'll feel better if you take us to the park...

M - You know what we need to do? Start thinking about Hunter's birthday.
D - You know what you and I need to do, Hunter? Go pick out your birthday present together.
H - Yeah! And get a nurf gun!
M - More like something to help you play your favorite sport. What's your favorite sport? Football, hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, volleyball, running...?
H - Dodgeball.
D - No, what do you like to play outside with me?
H - Croquet. No no golf.
D - No, golf isn't a team sport. What's the one you have to have others to play with?
H - Ohhh. Duck duck goose.
M - *face palm* We're looking for baseball, Hunter. You like to play baseball...

From Crib to Toddler Bed - Already?!

This little girl is growing up faster than I can fathom! She'll be 18 months in a few days! 

I'll admit, I'm not ready to give her crib away. And I didn't think she was old enough herself to give it up yet, but she's proving me wrong so far! If I recall, we moved Hunter out of the crib when he was about 15 months to make room for JP. JP stayed in the crib until he was about 20 months, I think. We had a heck of a time with Hunter, probably because he was too young, but we didn't have much of a choice. JP was a rock star at it too, like Charlotte.

For right now, she's using the same bed the boys did, except I painted it. It was royal blue but I wanted it to match her room. I need to touch it up a bit because it gathered a few scratches when I was assembling it. 

Because we are going to be giving our crib to Perry's sister, who is due with her first (A GIRL!!) in January, I thought I'd start moving Charlotte to a bed now. My plan was to just do naps in the bed, and sleep at nigh in the crib. But she did so well, that we let her try sleeping in the bed at night too. 

Words cannot explain how cute she is either! On her first night in her bed, she only got out of her bed once and *very* quietly walked down the hall to the kitchen and just stood their with her blanket in hand. Adorable! It's even cuter to watch her try to get onto her bed. Because she's so little, she kind of struggles, mostly because of the white railing on the side. She likes to get on at the end of the bed, but her knee hits the bars when she's climbing. Now she has a little step stool.

Last night I checked on her before I went to bed, and it was painfully obvious that she had fallen out of bed and then went back to sleep. This morning Perry and I were awoken by the sound of something crashing, followed by baby cries. Not what you want to wake up to...After she woke up and couldn't pull the door open, she became curious and started pulling out the drawers on her dresser until it tipped over...on top of her. Perry made it to the room first and started screaming, "NO! CHARLI!!! NOOO!! CHARLI!!" All I could see was a toppled dresser with a leg sticking out. I think Perry was on the verge of tears as he heaved the dresser off of her. She was clearly shook up, and could have been severely hurt, but her guardian angels saved her. She was running around a few minutes later with nothing but a scuff on her noggin. Thank goodness! Now I remember why we had the dresser in the closet...Hunter did the same thing before, except it didn't land on him. 

Isn't she adorable?! If she keeps this up, we might have to put the crib away for good!

A Functional Closet for JP: A Closet Makeover

Toward the end of summer, Perry and I went on a "get-things-done" spree, where we worked on finishing up projects that we had started, or intended to start. One of them was finishing JP's closet doors. It was an easy project that I headed up. The look on Perry's face was price-less when he saw me coming up the stairs with the doors in my hand. The plan was to sand and stain them in a weekend and be done with the project. But one thing leads to another and then I'm on Pinterest looking at how to make the boys' closets...

 

If I would have known JP would LOVE green, I never would have painted his room, but I did. Anyways, his closet just wasn't cutting it for me...Who stores their wedding dress in their kids' closet? I DO... But my main concern was that JP couldn't get his clothes down without using a chair, and since I'm all about fostering independence, getting dressed was fairly hard for my short little munchkin. 

With a little extra time, Perry gutted the closet and worked on making him shelves, while I painted the inside. I'm impressed with my closet doors. They look so much nicer in his room! JP now has two bars to hang his clothes on. The upper bar is for out of season clothes, that still fit but I don't want to pack away. On the right side, he now has shelves to store his stuff, like his big pillow, suitcase, and the *large* number of puzzles he's acquired. Added perk for JP - he now has two knobs on his doors instead of one ugly one! Now to get Hunter's closet done...

Hunter's Room: Before

We've lived at our home now for almost 5 1/2 years. I cannot believe it's been that long! When we bought this place, I wouldn't have called it a fixer-upper, though it HAD to have new paint throughout, but it's turned into one. 

Hunter's room downstairs is really the only room that we haven't touched. The color on the walls wasn't horrible, and for a kids room, we dealt with it.

 It was the carpeting that was in need of an update. It didn't even have a pad under it...

 When we finally moved Hunter downstairs to have his own room, I added a few cars to his walls to make it more kid-friendly. Painting those things took *a lot* of time! Since there is a ledge in his room, I painted it black and added a center line to make it into a road. I was always tickled when I'd see him and JP driving their cars on it!

 In typical Hunter fashion, his room didn't stay nice for long. Only days after I finished the yellow car, he took the black permanent marker to it. (Because I hadn't put it away yet since I was still working on the other vehicles...) And a while later...

...he woke from nap time and dug into my cake dyes. Isn't that just a pretty spot on the carpet? We've since always kept something over top of it. Like his dresser. Which soaked up some of the green... Hunter was one big mess when I found him...

 But most recently, this is what his room looked like. If you look closely, you can kind of see the different shades of the blue/green above the yellow car. Perry was going to touch up paint once, and after painting the majority of the room, and wall with the cars, he realized the colors were different, and stopped... Since Hunter is *almost* 6 years old (when did that happen?!) we figured it was time to update his room. A lot. So here comes one big project!

Mom Confessions: I Need a Friend

Lately I've been feeling a little unloved. Maybe unloved isn't the right word to use because I know I'm loved by my husband and by my family. But I've been feeling unloved in a sense of friends. I vent about this to Perry far too often and I'm sure he's pretty annoyed by it when I get into these funks. Maybe I should say unwanted?

I supposed I need to learn how to control my mind a little bit better. This recent "no friends" sadness comes on the heels of my best friend's decision to leave her husband. When putting myself in her position, other than her, I have no idea who I could go to who would understand me as a friend, or who I could talk to without my family judging me. I know my family would be there to support me through whatever I would decide, but I think friends tend to fill a void. I drove two and a half hours to help gather her things from the house and was relieved to see how many of friends showed up to help her out. And then I wondered, who would help me? Would anyone drop what they're doing to help me out when I most need it? If something were to happen to Perry, I'd be lost. *On that note, no, Perry and I are not getting divorced, nor have we even thought about it.*

Perry knows I've been struggling with "being wanted" for a long long time. I'm embarrassed to admit that once I threw my engagement ring at him because he didn't invite me to hang out with his friends in our garage. I knew most everyone out there, but I didn't want to join in on the fun unless I was asked to. It was stupid of me, but we eventually worked through it between the two of us, but ultimately, I still want to be wanted by others. I want to be wanted in a way where people need me. Where people want to do things with me. I want to be that go-to person who someone calls just to talk to.

Last week my parents went to the movie together and told me they were doing so multiple times. I thought it was nice to see them go out together. Then my sister came over and informed me she was going with them. In that moment I was a little hurt because I wasn't asked to come along, regardless of if I could or not. The next day Perry left me at home to go to a movie with his mom and the sting of feeling unwanted stung a little bit more. Why am I not being asked to spend time with other people? I get that I have kids, but I can work around them!

Like I expressed to Perry last night, I don't understand why I'm having such a hard time making friends. I've invited numerous moms to come over with their kids for a playdate, which most have come, but that's where it ends. That's where I get frustrated. We seem to hit it off really well but then I'm never asked to do anything, whether it be to grab a coffee, or meet them at a park.  It usually goes something like me saying, "Would you want to meet up on Saturday at a park?" and them responding with, "I love to but we've got plans. I'll let you know when I'm free." Guess what? They're never free. Ever. I understand that people like to go do things on the weekends and spend time with their families because their weekdays are filled with work, but how many times do I have to ask before I'm just annoying? I'm not asking for them to spend the whole day with me, but give me an hour? Stay-at-home moms drive me crazy because they don't have a job to schedule around, but I've yet to receive an invite from one of them yet. I had once had my son's friends come over and the two of them played nicely together and his mom and I got along really well, to the point that she said "We need to have you guys come to our place sometime." Imagine how I felt when I overheard her inviting other people to come over to their house. Jealous much?

I will probably cry when someone finally asks me to do something with them, without me reminding them that I extist. I'm pathetic but I've been waiting and waiting for some one to just call me, or shoot me a text, or Facebook me something that says, "Want to come over for a playdate?" "I'm going to the park with the kids, want to join?" I know that friends aren't made over night, but I feel like every time I meet up with people, it's always one sided. Me putting myself out there and you just tagging along to entertain your kid for an hour. How do I get a call back after a playdate?

What am I doing wrong? Was my house too clean because I scrambled to pick up all the toys before you came over so I could make a good impression? Or was it too dirty because I hadn't mopped or dusted in a while? I feel like I've been going out of my way to try to make friends, even acquaintances. I purposely stand around the pre-school doors with a "happy" look on my face because happy people are easier to approach than mad looking people. If I don't then I feel like I'm suffering from Resting Bitch Face. (I know it sounds dumb - Perry laughed when I told him that too. Feel free to laugh with him but it's a real thing. Google it.) I'm coming to terms with the fact that if I don't approach people, they won't approach me. Coming from someone who has a hard time putting herself out there, approaching people isn't easy for me! I really have to psych myself up to do it. I've gone to the extent of buying new clothes so I would feel more confident in myself when approaching people. How dumb is that? It all leads me back to the questions of "What am I doing wrong? Why don't I have people who want to do stuff with me?"