HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!

My sweet sister's birthday is today, and I thought I'd share some pictures of her! I wish I had more from when she was little and had those "chipmunk cheeks", but unfortunately most of those are at Mom's house. She is doing a great job with her school, work, church and everything else she does to stay busy. I am very proud of her! Happy Birthday, Heather Foo Foo Snappy!

Nathaniel Turns 3!

Our sweet son turned 3 toward the end of May! We went to the beach for the weekend with Grandma and Pop and celebrated there just with the family. He kept telling me that he wanted a fire truck cake - even though he had one last year, too! I usually don't get a second shot at making these cakes, so it was kind of fun to work on improving from last year's (which I believe I accomplished). After a LOT of red food coloring, we finally got a red fire truck. I made it the night before, and I think it actually got redder overnight! Nathaniel was very excited when he saw the cake, and we had a very hard time keeping him from eating it all morning - it's a good thing we had planned the birthday stuff for after lunch instead of dinner for my sake! :)

Just a little help from his sister with blowing out the candles!

With a 3 year old, quantity of presents is really more important than quality, so instead of one big gift from us, I got him a bunch of small things. Grandma and Pop got him a fire station to add to his Thomas the Train set. I was really amazed - it seems like usually when the kids open presents on Christmas or birthdays when they get a number of them at once, they usually take to one or two right away and the others sit for a while. But after Nathaniel opened his presents he and Hannah Beth played with every single thing! It was fun to watch. He is growing and learning like crazy and we are so proud of our son!

A Little Gosling

Hannah Beth had her big dance recital last week. The whole dance studio presented a ballet called "The Proud Princess." Hannah Beth was a gosling, and was very cute. This was her second year doing ballet. I kept asking her for a couple of weeks before her performance if she knew what she was doing and felt comfortable with it. Her answer every time was, "I don't know." (And she's not even a teenager!!) So, I was not sure what to expect, but she did great. You can see from one picture that she was looking over to her teacher for direction, but that is the only time I remember her doing that.

She continues to tell me now that she wants to do gymnastics next year instead of ballet, so we'll see. Maybe we'll get to see what she can do in the gym and if that is something she'll enjoy.

You might be able to see in this last picture that she lost her other bottom tooth - just a couple of days before her recital.

Davis Household Rules - According to Hannah Beth

The other day Hannah Beth and I were watching one of those TV shows where a group of people come into someone's house and help them get rid of their enormous clutter and then they sell a bunch of their stuff in a garage sale and make their house look great. Hannah Beth thought it would be great if they came to our house. I thought it would be tragic if my house got so bad that someone like that had to come in! I wouldn't mind the room makeover, though! Then Hannnah Beth started telling me some rules that she thinks we should follow in our house. Then she went right into what shethought Daddy should make (which amazingly sound an awful lot like what we've read in a Berenstein Bears book that we have called "The Messy Room"!)


Rules for the Davis House (According to Hannah Beth)

1. If you get something out, then you need to put it away when you are done.
2. Don’t go outside without asking an adult.
3. After you put your plate away you should pick up anything off the ground that you might have dropped while you were eating.
4. Put your shoes away after you come inside.
5. After you sit on the couch fix the pillows.
6. If you pop a balloon you have to put all the pieces of it in the trash.
7. Don’t turn on the TV without asking.
8. No TV until the afternoon.
9. Don’t stand on the carpet when your feet are dirty.
10. Don’t go in the pool without asking a parent.

What Daddy should make (according to Hannah Beth):
1. A big storage closet and we could make boxes out of cardboard and we could paint or color them and we could put some toys in them.
2. Toy boxes for upstairs.
3. Make a peg board to hang our coats on.

A Double Surprise!

Thomas is out of town for a few days, so to keep us busy and having fun I decided to surprise the kids and so after we picked up Hannah Beth from school yesterday we headed to the zoo. Hannah Beth was very curious, of course, and kept trying to figure out where we were going. She made a lot of guesses, and finally figured it out. She was very excited. Nathaniel had fallen asleep in the car (which was a good thing, since we did a lot of walking!), so he didn't find out until we were actually there.

For some reason the kids LOVE these statues of animals that are all over the zoo. They spend more time on those than watching the real animals! I was trying to figure out why, and realized that it is probably because it is something they can touch, climb on, etc. instead of just see from a distance. Kids love to be up close and be able to play, explore, etc., don't they?! After we got home I asked Nathaniel what his favorite part of the zoo was, and he said it was feeding the goats. Again, something up close and active! I didn't get any pictures of feeding the goats because I was helping them and my hands were yucky.

Our zoo has a carousel, so we took a spin.

Nathaniel was convinced that this alligator was not real, and would not believe that it was a real one... until it finally started moving!

Other times we have been to the zoo, the gorillas have not been very cooperative, but today they were right there and lots of fun to watch!

As for the second surprise, we were heading into the Aquarium and we ran into Hannah Beth's best friend from school, Brooke and her brother, Cable (just a little older than Nathaniel) with their grandparents. So we spent the last couple of hours with them. Everything is more fun when you have a friend to share it with (and be silly with)!

Another Mother's Day Gift

Hannah Beth gave me this sweet book for Mother's Day. She made it at school, and it is a precious keepsake. I was just thinking about the fact that blogging it not only lets me share it with you, but it also helps me save it for even longer than the book will last! :) She may want to show this to her kids some day.

A Wonderful Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day this year, I received:

Homemade cards from the kids (thanks to Grandma for help!). It was all Hannah Beth's idea to make hers into a butterfly. She loves art projects!


Nathaniel was so proud of himself that he made an "H" on his (and a "T").

My indulgence is these DELICIOUS cream cheese muffins. I won't even go into how many calories are in them, but I love them and was very excited to get these! :)

And some beautiful and very colorful flowers! The kids and Daddy did a great job spoiling me. We also went out for lunch to a yummy buffet. Lots of veggies!

Right before church Hannah Beth and I were in the dining room and I looked up at her and she looked like this:

I was concerned at first - I thought she had a bloody nose! But no... she smelled my flowers a little too closely and got pollen all over her face! I had to laugh. It was actually a little hard to get off! :)

Then later in the afternoon we all got a treat! Our first swim in our pool! It was a warm enough day, but I often don't go swimming the first few times we go because I like warm pool water and the kids and Thomas are much more willing to brave the cold water. To my surprise it wasn't bad - cold at first, but I was able to get in and get used to it and really enjoy it. The biggest joy was seeing the kids and their excitement over finally getting to go swimming in our pool. Hannah Beth loved practicing all the things she just learned in her swimming lessons at the YMCA. Isn't that one of the best things about being a Mom? Just seeing their pure joy and excitement over things! It was wonderful family time together, and I also got some sweet pictures!