Dear Hayden,

Today, you are 4 years old! We had a very special day. Dad stayed home from work, so we got some really good family time together!

You went to school, and they celebrated with you there:
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You handed out bubbles to your school friends as favors:
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After school, we went to “Old McDonald’s” for lunch (your choice).

Tonight, Nana and Papa and Meggy came over for dinner. We ate the food you chose (Mac and Cheese, chicken and edemame).

After dinner, we ate cake:
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You opened presents, too! Nana and Papa got you a bike:
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Barbie can ride with you:
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Megan and Jeffrey got you a mini bouncy house and a ball pit:
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Then, we watched a slideshow of your fourth year:
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It was a great day!

Most of all though, tonight I’m reflecting on how four years ago tonight, I became a mama. You made me a mama. You’ve taught me so much. I love you more than I could ever tell you — more than I ever thought was possible… before four years ago tonight.

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Love you,
Mama

Dear H and O,

Dad and I spent the last week in Hawaii! We went to see Emilie and Josh get married! It was such a good time — your dad and I have such a great time whenever we are together! We missed you both so very much! We had a few video chats (thank goodness!) and the time passed very quickly! You make my life so good — I was so happy to be on vacation with your dad, but I was so excited to come home, too, because of you!

Love you,
Mama

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Dear Hayden,

Today we had your birthday party! This year we did things a little differently than we have in the past — we invited only kids your age (plus your cousins!) to join us for your party. It was nice to have a smaller party this year — although it still seemed HUGE! We asked an awesome lady named Jungle Jill to come with some of her animal friends! It was a crazy and fun time!

Love you,
Mama

Invitations:

You played with Dolphin Trainer Barbie while we got ready for your party: (You are CRAZY about this Barbie, You talked about her for a month before your birthday and Grandma and Jiddoh gave her to you this morning!)

Zebra striped cupcakes:

Goliath the Kimono Dragon:

You got to feed Pringles (the goat) because you are the Birthday girl!

Jungle Jill also brought this ENORMOUS turtle, Mama Shelly:

Your favorite animal, by far, was the chinchilla:

You made a wish and blew out four candles:

You also opened some fun gifts from your friends:

Dear H and O,

We’ve had a lot of backyard adventures. This one was particularly fun.

Love you,
Mama

PS — Wonder Boy, you are getting a lot of hair!!

Dear H and O,

We went to Tucson for the long weekend. We took Meggy, Jeffery and Jojo with us, so we had a great time! The highlight of the weekend for me was getting to take you to the U of A football game. This was so special to me because it takes me right back to being a child myself. I used to go to U of A football games and tailgate with Grandma, Jiddoh and Uncle Ramsey all throughout my growing up and we’d always have such a great time! So, as you can imagine, I loved being able to share something that was so fun for me, with you! Now, in this particular game, the wildcats took on the NAU Lumberjacks, so Dad and I happily cheered for both sides, since we met at NAU and we are both NAU alumni!

Love you,
Mama

Dear Owen,

This morning I took some pictures of you and your good buddy, Josiah (aka JoJo aka The Joge). You two spend a lot of time together, and I just know you will be the best of friends!

Love you,
Mama

Dear H and O,

Today we skipped church. We skipped church because we went somewhere else instead, to be the church. Jeffrey got a teaching job and he starts tomorrow. He needed a LOT of help in his classroom today, so we decided that we needed to go and help him get ready! We are part of a church family, and that means we help each other and work together to do what needs to be done. At our church, we call this “doing life” and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Love you,
Mama

Working on a coloring project with Amanda:

And other projects with Abby:

Helping Dad put up a bulletin board:

Cleaning desks with Abby:

Owen, you took a nap in the room next door:

And you got passed around and played with toys on the floor, too:

Hayden, you had a lot of fun crawling under desks:

And pretending to be a teacher:

Dear H and O,

This is the four hundredth time that I have sat down to share thoughts with you! This blog has become so special to me — an important place where I will be able to reach you — even after I’m gone and you want to show your great-grandchildren different things you did as a child. You are worth every moment I have spent here! I realized though, that I am usually behind the camera — which means I’m sure not in very many of the pictures! So, here’s an image for you — your crazy mom, sitting at the computer, writing a special message to you — one that, no matter what it says, is really meant to say that you are loved more than you will ever know.

Love you!
Mama

Dear H and O,

Dad and I have been working hard on our front room over the last two weeks. We want it to be a place that is casual, and where you and your friends will enjoy spending time someday! We have people over a lot, so we like the idea of having a casual “game” room of sorts, but we also added some furniture to store our fine china so that it is accessible when we have others over and we can use the “special” dishes whenever we’d like. This room also reflects a lot of who we’d like our family to be. We have words and phrases, a family tree, photos and other examples of our family. The only thing we have left to do in this room before we’ll call it “finished” is to change out our formal dining table for a counter-height table that seats 8 — that way, if we do have a lot of people over, they can sit and enjoy each other’s company there, and if there’s not a lot going on, it’ll be a nice, big square table where we can have a puzzle going, or play games. Well, long story short (or kind of long — sorry about that!) it’s going to be a place where we can be comfortable, casual and together. Honestly, there’s not a lot more I’m looking for in life.

Love you,
Mama

Here’s our family Scrabble grid — it uses our first and middle names — I love it because it’s a physical reminder that we are all connected.

PS — This is our three hundred and ninety-ninth blog entry! Whoa!

Dear H and O,

Most mornings, one or both of you will wake up right as Dad is heading out the door. Usually, I am still asleep! Hayden, when you wake up, you come straight to our room to say good morning and hang out. Owen, when Dad hears you, he goes and gets you and you come join in the fun! I love that this is what we do first thing in the morning — we check in with each other and spend some time together before we do everything else that has to happen each day. I love these fun, sweet moments we share.

Love you,
Mama

PS — Owen, every time you see my camera strap hanging down, you grab it! I cannot tell you how many photos I have just like this one!