What a hoo-oot April 30, 2011

We celebrated Charity’s first birthday with a somewhat small gathering of immediate family.

We catered in a taco bar (no cooking and minimal clean up!) and I made some cupcakes based off a design from Disney’s Family Fun magazine.  It was way easier (and turned out way cuter) than Trevor’s Lightning McQueen cake from last year.

And speaking of Lightning McQueen…

Trevor loved opening Charity’s gifts and Charity loved the tissue and wrapping paper.  Big brothers are always so nice and helpful.

Uncle Kolby and Owen

She had her first taste of cake.  A taste. And that was about it.  I had to take a picture to show how not messy she was.

Two babes in a tub April 23, 2011

Cousin Owen and Charity

Crackin’ me up April 23, 2011

Sometimes he dresses himself somewhat inappropriately.  Backwards underpants and jeans = a little more than plumber’s crack.

A boy and a horse April 23, 2011

Over Easter weekend we were up at Derek’s parents for cattle branding.  Uncle Kolby and Aunt Tamra brought their horses down for sorting the calves and Trevor was totally captivated.

Here he is with Kate and Apache.

Even little Owen got in on the action.

Dinosaur Train April 22, 2011

Quite appropriate for a little boy whose first song he learned was the chorus to this PBS show.  I love T-Rex doing the Godzilla thing atop the rail house.

Palm Sunday April 17, 2011

We celebrated Easter with my mom’s side of the family on Palm Sunday, as usual.

We gathered for a delicious meal, as usual, and egg coloring.  Trevor loved dunking the eggs and removing them from the color immediately.

We completed our dozen eggs with a nice variety of colors.  But Trevor wasn’t finished.  So we dipped every egg once again, but every egg in red this time.  So we brought home a carton full of red eggs.

The Easter bunny stopped by Great Grandma and Grandpa’s a week early for us and hid some eggs in the back for each child.  Even Charity.  Trevor missed the concept of finding only the green eggs that belonged to him and he and the younger ones spent a lot of time finding each others’ eggs.

Our yard April 16, 2011

We are loving our new home and its yard.  Trevor likes to push Charity up and down the drive in his Little Tykes car.  He doesn’t seem to mind riding it himself.

Take the picture already, sheesh

He also enjoys drawing shapes and tracing his hand prints with sidewalk chalk and the hopscotch grid that Derek always seems to draw.  We enjoy watching him toss a stone and do his version of hopping through the squares.  Always good for a laugh.  We recently picked up some patio furniture at The Home Depot so we have been eating many meals outdoors, when we can stand the wind and the heat and when I can tolerate the wasps that zoom by occasionally.  Derek thinks my tensing at the sight of one is hilarious but I just remind him that my fear is justified.  These terrors in the sky have stingers while those creepy crawly snakes he fears are just that.  Creepy crawly.  He’s afraid of a sweet little reptile that does nothing but keep down the population of rodents.  I don’t particularly look forward to meeting a snake, but my point is valid.

In a potty-training craze April 12, 2011

I didn’t think he was ready.  Aside from the first day he got his potty chair about five months ago he has peed on it…um…let’s see…never.  Whenever I would let him run around without a diaper, he would pee and I wouldn’t realize it until I saw a big wet stain.  He never cared that he was wet.  So when Derek put his foot down and said, we’re doing it no matter how long it takes or how many accidents we clean up, I thought, oh boy, this will be fun.  After two days of some accidents and some successes we went five days without any potty accidents (pooping is still a battle).  We then had a few day streak with a few accidents but for another week plus we have been accident free.  He is still hesitant to go in public restrooms but either holds it or sucks it up and touches everything in the, I’m sure, very aseptic lavatories but then will relax enough to relieve himself.

His big new thing accompanying this big new learning adventure that Derek and I have been both battling and finding amusing is that he feels he needs to change his clothes every time he pees.  He loves dressing himself and some of his outfits are rather entertaining.

The 1980s I’m-too-cool-for-two-gloves look, complete with mismatched socks

And later that same day, with one shoe off and one shoe on (not to mention one sock, as well), what I like to call the diddle diddle dumpling

All dressed up for a trip to Sam’s Club, you can see the tag hanging out the front of his swim trunks

Cheese!!