John Deere Birthday

I may be the world's worst blogger.....this is my attempt to catch up.

In June of this year I asked Matthew what kind of birthday party he wanted for the BIG 3. Then I proceeded to ramble off a list of his favorites....Sponge Bob, Thomas Train etc. He told me, "NO MOM, I want a John Deere Tractor Pool Party at Aunt Nette's house!" Hmmm.....that could be fun. What does it take to create the best darn John Deere Tractor Pool Party I asked myself.....and here is the answer:

(1) Adorable John Deer Tractor Cake..........thanks Summer!

(+) John Deere party paraphernalia

(+) John Deere Pinata

(+) Presents

(+) Kids to help open the presents

(+) More present opening

(+) Off key birthday singing....thanks Uncle Brynt!

(+) Everyone's favorite Grandma who is happy to be in the middle of the swimming pool action

(+) The best pool party house around......thanks Aunt Nette!

PLUS MOST IMPORTANTLY.......the people we love.

Thank you all for coming......what a great day!
Who knew a "John Deere Tractor Pool Party" could be so much fun?!

John Deere Obsession

We are still not quite sure where this obsession came from, but Matthew is absolutely obsessed with John Deere and tractors in general! In fact, now everything green is "John Deere". Sprite is now officially called John Deere Coke in our house. For his birthday we bought him this adorable battery powered John Deere Tractor. He loves it!

His FAVORITE place to visit is the John Deere tractor dealership near our home. Now, this is a kid who had flown 12 times by the time he was 3 years old and has been some pretty cool places, but to him the JD dealership or the "tractor store" as he calls it, is better than Disneyland! Here he is on a BIG tractor at the "tractor store."

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day....we celebrated family style!

Dinner at our favorite Mongolian BBQ

My cute boys!

Matthew opening his Valentine Presents

Doesn't he look surprised??

Our new family tradition is to toast V-Day with Sparkling Cider

Matthew LOVES drinking out of these Champagne flutes.

Christmas 2009

I know, I know........I'm so far behind on updating our blog. I'm finally getting around to adding Christmas pics. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and now it's about 100 times more fun with this little guy in the picture. Here he's posing in front of the tree at Summer's house. One of our family traditions is for everyone to open a present on Christmas Eve. Magically, that present is always new PJ's and slippers. Here's Matthew tearing his Christmas Eve present open.Matthew and Cooper in their matching Christmas PJ's. They were so cute!My neices in their Christmas Jammies. Aren't they adorable?Christmas morning.......6am is really early, even for present openingMatt and Matthew opening presents.......yes, those are Sponge Bob Square Pants Christmas PJs!Matthew and Cooper both got these cool new cowboy hats. And Coop got new toy guns. I love this pic!Cooper showing Matthew how to shoot his new guns.Matthew using his grandma as a step stool. She's such a trooper. She's always doing something fun with the kids. They are lucky to have her! Matthew and his Grandpa were playing trains and having a man to man discussion. What a fabulous grandpa!

Our family "gamers" trying out the new Nintendo DS's that Santa left. My cute neice opening presents.
Cooper and Matthew watching a Christmas movie from their VIP seating!We had such a fun time this year. We all stayed at Steph and Brynt's house. It was like one giant Christmas slumber party! I can't wait for next year.

I know, I know......I'm so behind on updating our blog. I'm finally getting to Christmas pics. I've always loved Christmas, but never us much as I do now watching our little man get really excited about Christmas.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

Matt and I took Matthew to Hawaii for Thanksgiving this year. We spent 10 fun filled days there with Mel! We did about every tourist-y thing you can do with a 2 year old! We spent a lot of time at the beach. Here's Matt and Matthew at Hunama Bay...Matt's favorite snorkeling spotWaiting for dad to come back from snorkelingWaikiki Beach....have you ever seen a 2 year old swim in the ocean with nobody holding on to him??

The best game in Hawaii.........chase the waves into the water

and run from the waves chasing you back out of the water!Hawaii has great sand for building sand castles............And coating yourself in from head to toe...................Cool beach on the North Shore.....we saw a lot of surfersMatt and Matthew at the Luau at the Polynesian Cultural CenterMatthew was diggin' this little guyTHE DOLE PLANTATION.........Mel and Matthew checking out the tiny pineapples.

Our own little pineappleRiding the Dole Pineapple Express.....our little train fanatic loved this! We did the submarine ride this time..........Matt and Matthew are patiently waiting for the boat that takes you out to the submarineMatt and Matthew on the submarine......it took us down 120 feet!You could see some really cool stuff from the submarine windows...fish, turtles, wreckage. We all had a lot of fun doing this!We went to the aquarium in Honolulu. They had some really cool fish there.....The sharks were the highlight for Matthew. We couldn't drag him away from the little shark in this tank. He kept running back and pressing face up against the glass to get a closer look!We went to the Temple on the North Shore.....I couldn't seem to get Matthew away from the Nativity Scene. This shot is from the Sea Life Park. Mel, Matt, Matthew and I all swam with the dolphins here. It was so fun to watch Matthew. We got down into the pool with the dolphins.........and we could hardly contain Matthew. I thought he'd be a little cautious around them, but I was wrong. He was mad that I wouldn't let him just grab on to one and swim away. FEARLESS!

Matt and Mel exploring a little cove we found. They had to hike down the side of a cliff to ge to it.Humauma Bay........Matthew wanted to get in and snorkel with his dad. In a few years!I love this picture of Matthew. We were just relaxing on the beach, having a great time!Lunch at Matt's favorite Hawaiian hang out......Big Kahuna'sStickers are so entertaining! I think Mel's probably still finding them in every nook and cranny of her house.
Our little island man.......all dressed up and ready to swim!
We had such a great time in Hawaii!!! Thanks Mel!