Alex's 11th Birthday!

Alex started the day with video games, because who would sleep in past 7:00, right? But not too long after that,a couple hours or so Alex was lucky enough to have Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale come over, so he got to open his presents first thing! Lucky, ducky!

Right after presents we had doughnuts (his cake wasn't even baked yet). Somehow I didn't get a picture of Alex having one, but here's Timmy.



Alex's good and long time friend, Donovan, came over for awhile to hang out for Alex's b-day. Donovan was going to spend the night Friday but Alex got sick so it didn't work out. It was a good bonus to the day to have his friend over.

And the cake, Alex wanted (what he calls) the original Lego man. So there is my best effort at it. :)



We're not sure why but Henry has never really liked birthday candles being lit or the candles being blown out. Tonight while Randy lit the birthday candles, as we sang to Alex and then while Alex blew the candles out - that is what Henry was doing, covering his ears under the table. I wonder what he is thinking.

The best part of the day to me was, at the end of the day unprompted Alex said, "This was a great day!" with a big smile.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We got a new van!It's a 2011, Ford E-350XLT with 8,000 miles. As many of you know we've been talking about getting a 12 passenger van for a while now. Not too long ago we found a deal we couldn't pass up. So today we dressed everyone in green-for St. Patty's- and headed to Rochester and bought it. Now the kids can bring friends along and people can ride with us when we're visiting family or they're here visiting us.

Henry turned 3 today!

Henry's birthday started by finding his birthday signs. A tradition my mom started. On the morning of your birthday you find as many "Happy Birthday" signs as you are old. Henry loved it this year, carrying the first one he found around with him.

We had to grocery shop today, so Henry got dressed for that, but immediately he changed back into his Superman pj's that he wore all day. He also had speech and his teacher brought a wooden toy birthday cake to use for his lesson, he loved it.

Sophia was more excited than Henry to open presents. She went with me last night to buy his gifts and started asking at 8:30 - am - "How much time before Daddy gets home?" So Henry could open his presents. So the minute Randy walked in the door before anything, Henry opened his presents.


Henry had birthday Sherbet instead of cake. Complete with candles and "Happy Birthday!" He tried to blow the candles out once, didn't succeed and had lots of willing helpers.



Ending the big day with a superman cartoon.


Here's Henry with his brothers and sister and cousins Oliver (3) and Parker (1) for his first birthday party. We were blessed with Grandma Steffen, Aunt Sara (Randy's littlest sister), Uncle Eric and cousins Oliver and Parker company the end of Feb.through the beginning March. Since everyone was here we decided to celebrate Henry's birthday. Everyone's excited to get some cake!



Henry's cousins made Henry some very cool wrapping paper. Here he opening one of many very cool presents.


Here's his cake a train with Blue from Blue's Clue as the engineer.