Maya's 2nd Birthday!

My little princess has turned two! It's amazing how fast time has flown by. I still feel like she's my baby. Speaking of babies, this girl is absolutely obsessed! If you give her a baby you have won her heart. Unfortunately the first gift she opened at her party was this little baby and she wouldn't open anything else after that. I ended up opening her gifts trying to get her to look and be excited but it really didn't work. Nothing compared to her new little babe.
Here is big brother Hayden, Maya and her perfect little baby, and Kennedy (the girl who gave her the doll and who probably has about 30 of her own!)
Maya giving her daddy some lovin. She really is a daddy's girl!
Hayden just loves his little sissy. He just had to give her a big birthday kiss.
Here Maya is with her Hello Kitty birthday cake. I took her to the store the day before and let her pick out her own cake. I just knew that this was gonna be the one she wanted....she LOVES Hello Kitty!

Maya's 2nd Birthday!

This is Maya's best friend Evelyn, or Evie. They are together at least a couple times a week and when they aren't together Maya will ask about her. I think it's so cute that she has found such a good little friend.
Here I am with my sweet little kiddos. I am such a lucky mommy!
This picture shows just what a little girly girl Maya is. She's content with her shades, baby, purse with lipgloss, and her bracelets. What a great birthday :)
Maya learned her ABC's a few weeks before her birthday. Her little voice it just too cute. Happy birthday my little Lou....I love you!!!

Hayden's 4th Birthday Party!

Last year when we moved to Bloomington we didn't know anyone at the time of Hayden's third birthday, which meant...no party. I promised him I would make it up to him for his fourth and I think I achieved my goal. There were 35 people that attended, pizza, cake, and of course a pinata. The pinata was the highlight of the party for him. I made the mistake of purchasing it a month in advance and everyday he would ask me when we were going to bust open the "panana".

After busting open the panana it was hilarious to see 15 little kids scurrying as fast as they could to fill their bags. Hayden made out like a bandit of course and couldn't of been happier.
I generally make all the cakes for my family but the thought of making a cake to feed that many people was not appealing. I'm glad I decided against it because the car cake that we got was incredible. It was a race car doing a burnout and looked identical to the picture that Hayden had picked out. He loved it!
Here's my sweet boy doing what he does best....getting messy! A day would not be complete if Hayden could not cover himself in some type of item that annihilates him and his surrounding. He obviously enjoyed his cake immensely. When we went home that afternoon he revealed to me that he was extremely shy when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him. I thought it was adorable!
Happy Birthday my little baby boy. How on earth could you already be four! We love you!!

Merry Christmas

On the "square" downtown there is a unique mall called Fountain Square Mall. Every Christmas they decorate the gorgeous interior with beautiful lights and Christmas trees. It's so hard to get a decent photo of a 1 1/2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old, but this one turned out as a perfect holiday shot. They really do love each other.
Also at Fountain Square Mall they have Santa Claus. As soon as I even headed towards the bearded man Maya started screaming and grabbing at my neck. I set the poor dear down and ran as fast as I could so they could get a shot of the two of them. It turned out pretty classic. Hayden is smiling and soooooo extrememly happy and poor Maya acted like she was dying!
Hayden got several gifts for Christmas but amazingly enough one of his favorite things was his new sunglasses. Go figure.....train table costing $90.00 got beat out by sunglasses costing $5.00. It really is the little things isn't it.
Another gift that my two sweet children fell in love with are the kitty cat I made for Maya and the owl I made for Hayden. This was taken shortly after they opened both of them. I just love the expressions on their faces. Maya's cat is now named Mr. Pusskins and Hayden's owl is Ice Cream.
Here's another shot of Maya with Mr. Pusskins....too precious!!!

Musgrave Apple Orchard

The Musgrave Apple Orchard is just right out of town and I finally took the kids to check it out on an extremely gorgeous fall morning. There was a nice little pond at the bottom of the orchard that Hayden loved.
Unfortunately Jason was unable to go with us since he was in class. We went with this mom's meetup group that I joined and one of my friends took this picture of us in front of the barn and a bunch of apple trees
Here's Hayden being super sweet to his little sissy. Behind them is the building where they make apple cider. Hayden was just enthralled with all the big equipment they used to make the juice. He still talks about it.
Maya is the funniest little thing. She is incredibly animated and has started to talk quite a bit lately. In this photo or in any photo really you can tell her to say cheese, and well here she is saying it.

Recent Pics of my Babes

There are many times when we are driving around when I'll look back to see my sweeties holding hands from their carseats. I love that my two little kiddos can love each other so much!
Every Saturday we will take Hayden and Maya to the Saturday market. It has turned into a ritual for us. We will buy a small bag of kettle corn and two containers of organic grape tomatoes since the two of them will eat one whole container just as we walk around the market. I love that my little kids love veggies so much! Hayden will also require that we buy him a little bundle of fresh flowers which he is holding on to so dearly.
Here is a cute little photo of my dear little scowling Maya as she sits outside the Saturday market.
We recently took Hayden and Maya to the county fair which they both loved. Hayden got to ride a few rides which Maya was just envious of. She was just too small to get on any of them. Just being there was excitement enough which is shown in this cute sponge bob photo.
This was a photo taken shortly after their first eye exam. Suprisingly enough they were both dialated so they gave them both these eyeglasses to wear outside the builing. In children they use different drops so their eyes were dialated for a whole 24 hours. Poor Hayden was still squinting in the sun the next day. Luckily they both have perfect vision. I guess they were lucky enough to get my eye sight. They still looked pretty darn cute in their makeshift sunglasses.

Hayden's First Day of School

Hayden has been excited about going to school forever now. I think it was the last final push to help him get potty trained since he couldn't attend until he did so. Here he is walking proud with his sweet little penguin backpack equipped with his swim trunks, snack, and water. Unfortunately I was under the impression that since his preschool was at the YMCA that they would provide them a towel. Well, when I went to pick him up all the kids filed into the locker room wrapped in a towel and poor little Hayden was shivering...toweless. I was pretty ticked off since the facility has plenty of towels and they could have gotten my poor little boy one since his mommy wasn't smart enough to pack him one. Needless to say I won't forget that one again.
Maya seemed every bit as excited as Hayden. She acted like she wanted to stay there with him, but I know as soon as I was out of sight she would start screaming her little head off. She still has problems with me not being around. Someday I will be able to go work out without being called out way too early.
This was quite the hot item. As the tiny little children poured into the classroom, several of them ran for the macaroni including my two dolls. We were only there a few minutes with them but by the time we left, half of that macaroni had made it's way to the floor. Those poor teachers.
Here's my sweet little boy, or I guess I should say my BIG boy since that is how he refers to himself now. After all he is potty trained and going to school. Luckily he absolutely loves it and looks forward to going every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have to admit that Maya and I are enjoying those three hours together as well. How easy it is when you only have one to watch over! Hopefully he continues to love school as much as he does now.

Hayden's Soccer Debut

Now that Hayden is three we were finally able to put him in soccer. He began in the spring and just finished up with a week long British soccer camp. This was before his very first practice. He was excited but also tired, which made for a pretty interesting 45 minutes.

Though Hayden loves soccer it was difficult for him to focus his attention on the game for more than just a few minutes. Here he is looking cute just passing the ball on by. Several times during practice he would just sit down on the grass, follow a butterfly flying by, or join us on the sidelines for yet another drink break.

Here he is stretching out getting ready for practice. Don't want to pull any of those little muscles while you're running down the field.
This was the last kick into the goal for the summer. The gal standing in front of him was his coach and was so great with Hayden. She just loved him and was always there behind him to coax him along. She also kept telling him to quit sucking his fingers too which was fantastic.
They gave all the kids at the end their very own trophy. Hayden was so excited, that night he asked if he could sleep with it. He call's it his "prote-mean". We love you little buddy and hope that you continue on playing soccer!

Last week was Jason's birthday and we spent the afternoon at the Charles C. Deam wilderness area. It is very close to Bloomington and it is absolutely gorgeous. Jason's favorite place to be is the outdoors and this area was perfect.

Since we weren't even allowed to use the stroller on the trails within the wilderness area, we went slightly south to a trail that would allow it. When we arrived there were several horses and when their owners met Hayden and Maya they just loved them. One lady took Hayden from Jason and asked if she could show him her horse. She gave him some carrots and treats and let Hayden feed the horse. Hayden was just thrilled and Maya couldn't stopped staring. They both loved it!

At the start of the trail there was an old church that was built in 1881. Inside there were pews, a piano, and bibles. It looked as if this church was probably still in use. I don't know how anyone could stay in there very long though since it smelled horribly like mold and mildew. Right next to the church was an old graveyard that we walked through with tombstones dating around the same time.

I made Jason an eyeball cake for his birthday. I thought it would be appropriate since he just finished his first year of optometry school. Anyone who knows Hayden knows how much he loves "happy cake" and his daddy was sweet enough to let him blow out his candles. Happy birthday sweetheart, we love you!!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we decided to check out another beautiful Indiana state park called Mccormick's Creek. There was a short two mile loop that we took with the kids. Maya traveled in the Kelty carrier and I pushed Hayden the majority of the way in our Jeep stroller. We had Hayden get inside this tree that was completely hollowed out at the bottom. It was amazing that it was still gigantic and healthy.

We tried several times to get a decent shot of the three of us and this was the best we could do :) It's still a cute shot of my two little sweeties but them again they always look good!

We chose this hike not only because it was shorter but also because of the cave you could enter. The cave actually goes all the way through the hill but we could not of made it without flashlights. I think the jogging stroller probably would've had a tough time as well.

One thing that Hayden wanted to see when we got to the park was a waterfall. It was a smaller one but still gorgeous. He sat and threw rocks in the water with his daddy, which made his day. He really is such a little nature child.

This was one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Now if only Maya could've been thrown in there! I just adore my two children. What a fantastic Mother's Day. I love being a mommy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYA!!!

This is my little girls first pinata and she just loved hitting it. I guess it was really me who was hitting it, but I had a great time as well :) I decided upon a butterfly theme so of course we got the butterfly pinata. It's so sweet I wish this was a picture from the front (both the pinata and my little girl).






I got all the kids little butterfly nets to put the candy in once the pinata was broken. Maya must've been pretty excited because this picture was taken right as she pushed herself up from the ground to standing position for the first time! The next day she ended up taking five steps too!

I decided to try and decorate a cake for the first time in my life, and it didn't turn out too bad. Maya seemed to like it anyway.










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I guess she ate her birthday cake too quick to even drop any on her bib. By the time she was finished there wasn't even a crumb that fell on it. That's the first time that has EVER happened!










Happy first birthday my little darling, I love you soooooooooooo much!!!!