Charlie is 5

We celebrated Charlie's actual birthday as a family.  We believe that birthdays need to start off feeling like a birthday.  Tony and I decorated the house the night before with streamers and balloons.  We filled Charlie's bedroom with balloons on his 4th birthday and he has talked about it ever since.  We had to do it again this year.

We had a special breakfast and Charlie got his new bike.  He was a little hesitant about it at first.  He liked it once we took it outside for a ride :)

 balloon fight before daddy left for work

Even Peter got in on the balloon fight!  We loved sticking the balloons to his head :)

Out on his new bike!  Doesn't he look so big?

I took the boys to Charlie's favorite park for a picnic that day.  Charlie loves to go to the park.
 

Charlie at 5

He is learning lots of sight words in preschool.  He reads his books to me everyday after school and I love it.

Loves to look at library books

His favorite shows are Wild Kratts, Arthur & Curious George

He loves to eat meat & cheese sandwiches for lunch

His favorite games to play are ones where he's pretending to be a police officer, dog or some other animal.  Always an animal without "no name, no collar and no owner."  

plays great with Joey

needs lots of one of one time.

likes to help cook dinner and lunch

We even got to watch some construction going on at the park!  Happy birthday Charlie!

These boys are such fearless climbers!

That night we had a special family dinner.  My parents and Trent were even able to come!  Charlie got to pick so of course dinner was...pancakes!

I love seeing Charlie grow up.  He's a wonderful kid, a great friend, brother and son.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Charlie's 5th birthday party

 helping mom make the "dirt" for the cake

Charlie had his birthday party the weekend before his actual birthday.  Charlie invited two friends to go to Cornbelly's with him to celebrate his special day.  He didn't have a traditional birthday party, but he still had an awesome cake!

I let Charlie pick whatever he wanted for his cake.  He thought it over and wanted a bug cake.  He wanted something really gross that would "trick" his friends.

Nixon, Noah, Charlie & Joey in line for Cornbelly's

Cornbelly's is a kid's dream!  We had a blast playing on all the awesome toys.

The corn house was definitely a favorite!

We came home for cake, ice cream and presents afterwards.

It was a great day and Charlie is a great kid.  I'm so lucky to be his mom.

Peter at 8 Months

I call Peter my "sunshine baby."  Seriously, this child is pure joy in our home.  It's so fun for us to watch all three boys interact together.

 

 

Joey adores Peter.  I expected Charlie to adore Peter, which he does, but Joey dotes on him constantly.  He's constantly saying "come get me, come get me!" "teek-a-boo! teek-a-boo" "you want mommmmmmy?  you want mommmmmy?"

 Charlie is such a big helper and great big brother.  He loves to make faces and play with Peter while we're in the car.  I love hearing the two of them belly laugh while I'm driving!

 He still loves to eat.  You can't keep the food coming fast enough!

 

 This was him pre-crawling.  He could plank forever!  Perfect form too-- so proud :)

Peter has one bottom tooth and is cutting another right now.

Peter has one bottom tooth and is cutting another right now.
He is completely crawling now.  He's even pulling himself up on all furniture as well.  He wants to keep up with Charlie and Joey so badly.  I caught him trying to climb up the stairs, after Joey, this morning.  He couldn't lift his knee high enough so he wasn't successful.  My baby wants to grow up too fast!

My heart aches just by looking at him.  We love our Peter!

Battle Creek Falls Hike

One of our family goals for the year was to go on 4 family hikes.  We met our goal last month when we hiked Battle Creek Falls.  It was an awesome hike and perfect for little kids.  It was beautiful, not too long or steep and we ended with lunch at a waterfall.

 
The boys wanted to wear their new school clothes on this hike.  They begged and begged and I almost gave in.  Thank goodness I didn't because both boys were covered in dirt in the first ten minutes.  Their favorite part of the hike was crawling up the sides of the trail the entire way.

 I love this picture of Charlie

 

Teri gave us this child carrier and it made all the difference!  Peter LOVED being in this pack.  He was smiling the entire time.

I imagine this was our last hike of the year.  We have a list of Utah hikes we're wanting to do while we live here.  Already looking forward to hiking next year!