Happy Birthday Dalton!

We celebrated Dalton's birthday all weekend long. On Friday, John and Dalton enjoyed a "Dad and Dalton Day". They ate breakfast at Krispy Kreme, drank hot chocolate and played at McDonalds with Uncle Jeff and Austin, lunch at Taco Bueno, good nap, and then taking Mom out to supper. On Saturday morning, he was surprised with a visit from Gran and Pop. We got to spend the morning with them and ate lunch together.

Do they know this boy well, or what?

They got him a pirate kit equipped with a telescope, pirate patch, hat, and earring. Arrg!

What little boy doesn't love a flashlight?

Pop and Pirate Dalton.

As you can see, Dalton loves to run around in the mornings in his pajama shirt and underwear.

They also got him a pair of binoculars. Watch out neighbors!

After his afternoon nap, we surprised him with a birthday party at the Little Gym in Little Rock. It was a great party with tons of friends and family.

Walking on the balance beam

I caught glimpses of this sweet and happy smile several times during the party. One time, he looked at me and said, "Thanks for bringing me here, Mom!" Priceless!

"Red rug time"

My big 4 year old!

Fun with friends

The instructors at the Little Gym were AWESOME! I loved that they handled it all and I got to just sit back and enjoy the party.

This is the life.....surrounded by all these sweet and beautiful girls!

It's bubble time!

The parachute was a huge hit.

The "birthday tent". All the kids are under the tent together and Dalton is sitting in the middle of all of them. Several times during the party, the instructor told them to say the 3 magic words, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALTON!" When they said it this time, the tent flew off and I caught the sweetest smile on his face!

My college friend, Arlyn Howard, made his cupcakes again this year and I ordered the cake toppers from etsy.

I think I counted 23 or 24 kids at the party....the more the merrier, for sure!

Passing out party favors to his friends. They were tootsie-roll pops with Curious George tags that said, "Thanks for making my party so sweet! Love, Dalton".

Another great thing we did was opening the presents at home. It gave all the kids more time to play and also took the pressure off the whole gift opening time. I have learned you never know what a 4 year old is going to say. I did catch this great response to a gift he got.

Snow Day January 10, 2011

WOW! Hello snow! We got about 3-4 inches of snow Sunday night. This just absolutely thrilled Dalton's soul! Sunday, after church, we went to eat lunch and we saw one of the first grade teachers at ABS, Ms. Morton. She brought her cell phone over to show Dalton the weather map and the snow that was headed our way. His face lit up and he started making plans. He said, "Mom, if it snows a little bit during my nap, don't wake me up. But if it snow a lot, wake me up!" Needless to say, actually getting him to lay down at all with the thought that snow may be coming soon, was very difficult. He was more excited about the snow that he was about Santa coming at Christmas! I think he closed his eyes for maybe an hour and then it was SNOW TIME! (For some reason, my setting on my computer was set wrong and it uploaded them all to the right. I did not want to upload them again, so I have numbered the captions. Hopefully, this will make some sense!)

1.) Snow Angels!

2. )First ride on his new sled

3. )Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!



4.) Catching snowflakes on his tongue

5.) So the worse part about getting snow at night, is having an almost 4 year old little boy that remembers it in the morning and wakes up at 5:45 in the morning to go play in it. I held him off until 8. I had to take his picture under the clock to proove why we deserve the "Parents of the Year" Award :) Let's go play!

6.) So this is our 4th winter in the this house and every year it has snowed and the hill we live on has been great for all the neighborhood kids to sled on. Wouldn't you know it.....the year Dalton got his first sled, someone totally plowed our street! We could not believe it! We had to get in the car and look for a hill with snow to try out the new sled. We found this local park with hills and had so much fun sledding.

7.) Sledding with Dalton. Not sure sledding at 6 months pregnant is highly recommended, but how could I resist? Baby sister loved it too!

8.) Now this is THE LIFE! My turn!

9.) Big boy sledding by himself.

10.) Boys will be boys!

11.) The park we went to had a great bumpy metal slide. It had snow piled on it and when he went down it the first time, he went down the first 2 bumps and then flew off and landed in a huge pile of snow. His bottom never even touched the bottom of the slide! He got up and said, "That was FUN! I wanna do that again!" Dare devil!

12.) Our snowman made with random Mr. Potato Head pieces.

13.) Dad firing a snowball at Dalton in the great "Dad vs. Dalton snowball fight".

14.) Man to man combat!

15.) Now that's just cruel....hitting them while their down!

16.) Look at their faces....A picture of pure snow delight!

23 Weeks!

Can't believe we are 23 weeks! It's going so fast. This pregnancy has been great. I am feeling great and growing bigger and bigger by the minute! Do you know how fabulous it is to be pregnant during the holidays with all the great food? Heavenly! People are just now starting to tell me that I am "looking pregnant". Dalton is so funny....he loves watching my belly grow and wants to show it to Dad. I have been noticing that my hair is acting different.....it's wanting to be straight for once in my life. I have to work hard for it all to curl. Parts of it wants to be curly, while other parts want to be straight. Maybe baby girl is getting all my curls! I also think she is going to have some great finger nails, because mine are chipping like crazy. I finally just cut them all short. I have not really had too many food cravings, but there are some days that all I want is GREASE! Bring on the burgers and fries! We have some names simmering in our minds, but have not officially committed to one. We are getting accustomed to the idea of having a little girl in our house. I have overheard Dalton randomly telling others that he is "having a little sister". I love hearing him tell that! One more thing.....My sweet friend at work, Lauren, loaned me so many of her maternity clothes and for that I am SO THANKFUL! It has been such a treat to get these cute clothes! You are a lifesaver, Lauren! THANK YOU!

Funny Dalton story for my "mommy blog"....The other night, after all the crazy Christmas stuff, Dalton is asking Dad where his "cash" is that he got for Christmas. John told him that he put it up for safe keeping. Dalton said, "But, I need it!" When John asked why he needed it, he said, "I need it for college!" John said, "What will you do with it at college?" He said, "I need it to buy my lunch at college!" Silly boy!

Christmas with Gran and Pop

The last stop for the wild whirlwind of Christmas was at my brother and sister-in-law's house in Bald Knob. Spencer and Kim had a great lunch for us and we always enjoy spending time together.

Uncle Jason and Jameson

Kim and my Mom

My Dad. getting an early start on his Christmas present from me and John.

Gran and Pop got Dalton a Nerf gun. The boys had a great time playing war games outside. This little girl on the way is gonna have to toughen up quick with all these rowdy and crazy boys!

Tanner and Jansen

We always take a family pic every year. Getting this bunch posed for the camera is not easy! The boy in the orange on the right is a young man from Soaring Wings Ranch that my sister and her husband help with. He was a very sweet addition to our family this year!

Hillis Family 2010

Uncle Jason and Sweet Tucker. He will be one in a few weeks!

Loved this pic of my Mom and Dad....BEAUTIFUL!

Jansen and Tanner

Spencer got a new camera recently and practiced taking pictures on all of us! We are still working on looking at the camera and not being so silly.....don't think we're there yet! One of my favorite parts of Christmas this year was my Mom giving me a crocheted shawl for baby girl that Gina and I wore when we were little girls. She also game me a knitted toboggan that Spencer and I wore. Can't wait to put these sweet things on her! She also got her little white panties...I can tell this "girl thing" is gonna be FUN!