CAKE, GIVE ME CAKE

Seeing as everybody seemed to like the cake images best, here are a few more.

Dylan definately had a GREAT time with the cupcake.

Dylan's 1st Birthday Party

It was a long day yesterday, but so well worth it.

Everybody had lots of fun.

First off, let me say a big thank you to my best friend Jeni who came over at about lunch time to help me set up for the bash. Don't know what I would have done without her.

Here she is with her son Zach, who decided it would be fun to run the cozy coupe off the putting green. Very dangerous if you ask me, but then again he is 3 :)

We played a few games througout the day, including musical hula hoops.

The kids had loads of fun bouncing around the backyard trying to be the first in an empty hula hoop when the music stopped.

Then it was pinata time. Talk about some kids that can hit...it only took everybody hitting once to get the pinata busted up.

Even Dylan had a turn and as I was the one taking pictures it was Aunt Jean that helped him out.

Everybody got playing in the sandpile after that. I have never seen soo much sand on any one child. Not sure the parents were too excited, but the kids had a blast building forts, making tunnels and of course adding water to make mud waterfalls.

Then it was present time. Dylan got a lot of dumptrucks, which of course he loves. He also got some books and several other toys. I still think the paper was his favorite again though.

Dinner was served at 6:30. It was quite the feast.

Chicken legs, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Pasta and Potato Salad, Corn Salad and Beans.

I had to make everything yesterday, as I woke up with muscle spasms in my back the day before and ended up at the doctors who prescribed an anti-infamatory and a muscle relaxant.

It all got done and everybody enjoyed it.

The best part of the party was the cake of course.

Dylan loved it. He had everybody in stiches when he would smush the cake into his face and then shake it off.

He just love that everybody was laughing at him.

I can't believe my little boy is 1.

And no..he did not learn to walk by his first birthday as my husband predicted.

Swimming and a load of sand

We got to go swimming for the first time this year.

The boys loved it.

Brent was brave and just wore his swimmies and after a little while even took them off. I'm proud to say that he did really well.

Dylan took a little while to warm up to hte water, but then had a blast.

Can't wait to go swimming again.

Also, the sandpile for Dylan's Birthday Party was delivered yesterday.

10 tons of sand.

Of couse the kids had a blast trying it out this morning.

Brent had to have a shower already.

6 KIDS, 1 POOL

This is Brent with his cousins enjoying the kiddie pool for the first time.

What do you guys think? Is it itme for a new pool?

I'm thinking of maybe getting a suare inflateable one.

We also had our first bigger boo boo with Dylan yesterday. He was emptying my DVD tower and fell. He hit ear right on hte corner of thte subwoofer. It looked bad, never bled but swelled up quite nicely.

It looks much better this morning though.

If you look real close at this picture you can see it on his left ear.

Oh yeah and then there was the hot dog incident.

Appearently Dylan hadn't quite had enough dinner, so while I was showing the Aunts something on my computer he decided to climb onto the little tikes table next to the counter and help himself to a hot dog.

Thank goodness Brent saw him.

Didn't get a picture of it as I was completely freaked out, but the cousins thought it was funny.

Silly guy. I think I need to change his middle name to TROUBLE.

Opening day

Brent got to march in a parade today with his T-Ball team. He loved it as you can see in this picture.

After the parade the teams were announced and got to walk onto the field.

Then it was picture taking time. Firts individual shots, then team shots.

Here are the ones I took. Of course he's not looking at me, as there was an actual photographer there taking the pictures.

After all the pictures were taken they got to play a quick game. It was so much fun.

Can't wait for the next game.

Here is Brent on his way "home"

T-Ball

Brent had another T-Ball practice last night.

He just loves palying hte Game. He will be on the Ashby Raptors.

Originally he was going to be on hte storm, but due to some sponsor ship errors is now on the Raptors.

I love the T-Shirts. Especially the big #1 on his back.

Here are a few of the pictures from yesterday.

Here he is throwing the ball. He's got quite an arm.

Up to bat.

In the outfield.

And here is Dyaln wondering when it's his turn.

OUTSIDE

Finally it's nice enough to go outside.

I had invited a few friends over to play and the kids had a blast.

I took the watertable out for the first time this year.

Even Dylan had a nice wet time, as you can see.

And how is this for climbing. Yes, that is the kids picnic table.

Wonder who he's going to call.

Looking forward to lots more days like today. Dylan took a nice 2 hour nap too after being outside for 1.5 hours.

Now he's back outside pruning peachtrees with daddy.

It's about time.

Wow, I can't believe how fast time flies. Has it really been since March 6th since I last posted.

Have to definately get better about this.

Anyway, here is what's been happening.

Dylan is officially a climber will climb everything in sight.

Stairs, Chairs, the fireplace hearth and so forth. I've finally blocked off the stairs, but not the hearth, so here is a picture of him on top of it. Doesn't he look proud?

He's also finally popped two teeth. I'm thinking the two top ones can't be far behind. I can almost feel them coming through.

The bathtub is definately his favorite place. He's been trying to get into it by himself and I have to say it won't be long and he'll have it figured out.Here is a picture of him during a bath. Doesn't he look like Albert Einstein?

And last but not least, here is a picture I took of him yesterday as he was playing in his Sandpile. He had so much fun.

Kindergaten

I registered Brent for Kindergarten today. I can't believe it's already that time. Before I know it he will be out of the house every day.

I'm sort of looking forward to it, but I know I will alos miss him very much.

I got to meet some of the school staff last night during a parent meeting. Unfortunately both Kindergarten teachers are retiring this year.

Brent is very excited to be able to go on a bus. We had the chance to pick up one of his cousins twice from the bus now and he loved it.

On another note I finished my parent Slide Show today. Now I just need to figure out how to burn it onto a DVD. Any advice out there?

I've done it once before, but can't seem to remember how anymore.

Anyway, here is a picture of us that we took this morning. It will be the last slide on Oma and Opa's DVD.

RUB A DUB DUB

Dylan got to go in the big tub with Brent for the first time yesterday. He loved it, Brent loved it and so did I.

Recently he started to splash so much in the sink that I had to mop up the water of the floor after each bath. That got really old very fast.

Here is a picture of the two of them from last night.

Okay, I’m going to be doing something different today.
I will be participating in one of those blog things that spreads like a virus.
I got it from Alissa over at Life’s Little Adventures. Here’s how it goes:
If you’d like to take part, be one of the first three to comment mentioning that you’re signing up for the PIF exchange. You’ll have to agree to this pledge:
I, [insert your name here] will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blogs.
Let's see how many people actually read my blog.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I know I know it's been a long time without an update. It just seems like I never have more hten 5 minutes to myself, which doesn't give me much time for anything.

I can hardly keep up with the household, never mind take care of myself.

Anyway, enough with the pitty party. We had a great Christmas. It was nice to have Dylan around. he's just old enough to enjoy the lights on the tree, the paper on the presents and the needles that are soooo soooo prickly.

Yes, he loved the tree. Especially playing bumper cars with his walker. Once he hit the tree he loved trying the needles. Never much liked them though.

Next there were the presents, or should we say the paper. Seems like all I ever did is take colored chunks out of his mouth. Here he is with the tasiest one.

All in all I'd say he had a great time.

Now as far as Brent is concerned, he was sooo much into Christmas this year he couldn't even wait for us to get out of bed to open presents. Yes, by the time I got into the livingroom he had already opened 3 presents and was so very excited about all of them. But who could be mad at a 5 year old boy that was grinning from ear to ear? Not me anyway.

Here he is with Dylan under the tree.

Can't wait to see what 2008 will bring for the Pierce Family.

But one thing I'm sure of is that it will be filled with lots of love for two precious little boys.

BRENT'S ANATOMY

We went to a playdate yesterday and the two older cousins were playing Silly six pin bowling. After playing for a little while htey decided they needed and audience to cheer htem on, so they sat down at hte table and started drawing. Suddenly laughter broke out. I was feeding Dylan so I couldn't check it right out.

I asked Brent's cousin what was going on and she started laughing even harder.

Then I asked Brent to show me his picture and he ran away with it.

Now I knew something was up.

Here is the picture he drew. Guess he's figured out that people are built differently. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We had a great day today. As usual we went to my inlaws house to have turkey. We had a full house. 28 people in all. We were supposed to have 36 but some dropped out.

We had two turkeys. One 31.5 lbs, the other 32lbs.

Of course we have more then enough left overs for the next few weeks now.

Dylan had a great time at his first Thanksgiving. He got to try a few things, but I think the food had too much texture, as he made quite the faces.

I also took some pictures for a friend of mine for her Christmas Cards. I don't want to share the one she liked as I don't want to give it away. However I took this great picture of her husband with her son that I am

totally in love with.

Hope everybody else had a great Thanksgiving too.

Helping one horse at a time


So I just got off the phone with a lady who runs a theraputic riding program. My vet told me about it when Quinn had his shots on Thursday and I thought, what a great idea for a wonderful horse.
They are coming out sometime next week to take a look at him and if they like him would take him on a trial basis for at least 60 days.
I will be able to visit with him once in a while.

I am feeling really good about this, so I'm hoping this will work and he will be able to do some good. He's been a great friend and companion to mee. for 12 years and it will be hard to let him go, but knowing he will be able to help other people might make it easier.

Here is a link to the program if you are interested.
http://miracles-in-motion.org/

Rain, rain go away

Kind of feeling blah today too. It's been raining all day so far and I feel tired and annoyed.

Need to get the barn done so my horse has a clean stall to come into tonight.

Speaking of my horse. I love the guy, but lately have been having a hard time to get the motivation to go do something with him. He's 26 years old and pretty much retired.

He lives in a "castle" that my husband and his business partner built for me and my neighbor.

Both of our horses moved in there in the fall of 2002.

Unfortunately her horse passed away in the spring, so only my horse is living there now.

I keep playing with the idea of leasing him out or sending him somewhere to become a companion horse. Well, Brent overheard me the other day and got very upset.

I think he still misses Babe, my neighbors horse and doesn't quite understand the difference of Quinn living somewhere else and Babe passing away.

Needless to say, I'm pretty torn of what to do with him.

I just keep thinking that it won't be much fun having to dress the kids 2-3 times a day to go to the barn and take care of him.

Here is a picture of him.

And here is one of Babe and him together when they first moved in.

Halloween

Another year has gone by.

Brent had a lot of fun trick or treating yesterday.

What a loot he collected.

Here is a picture of him and his friends in our town.

Dylan ended up spending the evening with Nana and Grandpa while we went out.

Doesn't he make a great pumpkin?

My, my, my it's been ages since I've written in here.

I've had great intentions, but my 5 year old and my 5 month old are keeping me quite busy.

Seems the only time I get a chance to really get on the computer is after they both go to bed.

Then of course there have been the late nights of watching the World Series.

I am so excited the Red Sox pulled off another title. Now lets resign Mike Lowell :)

Anyway, here is what's going on in my life. Eric has been in Missisippi building houses for some families that lost them during Katrina. He's finally coming back after a 10 day trip. Last I talked to him he was about 3 hours away.

Before that he's been on several short trips to Arizon and Maine.

His feet are getting better, although he will probably never be the same. It's really hard on him too as he feels very useless at times. Hope that his new business takes off and gets his mind off his "handicap".

Me, I've been trying to take care of the kids, my horse, the house and for the last week my friends cats as they were on a trip too. Can you say busy mama?

Also last week I did a photo shoot for Brent's preschool. I think the pictures came out great.

Here are a few samples.

Now to today. It was just gorgeous outside so I took the boys into the yard for a photo shoot. I got so many nice shots, I'm not even sure which one I like the best.

Here is one of Brent

One of Dylan

And one of the two of them together (which may turn into my Christmas Card picture this year)