Fourth Birthday Party

For Caden's fourth birthday, we decided to have a small party at our house. We'd grill hotdogs, eat cupcakes, and play outside.

Before the party, the kids opened presents from the family. Here are a few of their presents.

We are ready for a party to start.

Aunt Angela made a happy birthday sign.

The kids would eat in the kitchen and the adults would eat, well, anywhere else.

We planned to spend most of the party outside. We were a little worried about rain but it ended up being a beautiful day.

 We had games setup throughout the yard.

Here is Caden playing some baseball with Grandpa. Caden hit this one really close to the camera as I was taking a picture.

And of course, we had the playscape for everyone to play on.

 Baby George was excited to be in the playscape with the big kids.

 Here is the food Amy planned. Uncle Michael manned the grill and cooked up some good hot dogs.

 

Caroline insisted on sitting close to her big cousin Ella.

Silly Cousin Will

Cousin Cal

It was time to sing Happy Birthday.

Amy planned for the kids to decorate their own cupcake. This was a great idea and was a huge success.

Caden was looking forward to his cupcake. It was about to be covered in sprinkles.

Caroline covered her cupcake in gummy bears.

My favorite kid decorated cupcake was this one. Do you think she got enough candy?

Here is the best cousin picture I managed to take. George wanted to go play and Will thought, "if George doesn't have to stand here, why should I?"

We opened presents on the patio. It was too nice a day to go inside for this.

The kids fourth birthday party was a ton of fun.

 

Welcome Baby George!!!

We are very happy to announce the arrival of a new nephew/cousin! My sister gave birth on Wednesday, February 29th (yes, "leap day") to an awesome little boy! Angela and Allen named him George Beasley Shank. George surprised everyone by coming four weeks earlier than expected.
My family and I packed up and headed to Dallas for the occasion. We missed the birth by a few hours but were happy to be in Dallas soon after. George needed to spend some time in the NICU but I can tell he is a strong guy and will be out very soon...hopefully, tonight! I was one of the lucky few who got to go back to the NICU to see the little man.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of George.
George is my sister's first child and is the first baby in the family younger than the twins. I guess it is official that the twins are no longer babies.

Seattle -- Part 6: Our Kids Learned From Their Cousins

While in Seattle, our kids learned some things from their older cousins.

Caroline learned to eat! She has always been an okay eater at best but she turned into a great eater while in Seattle. She basically tripled how much she eats. We think it was from watching the big kids eat. Caroline loves fruit (pretty much any type we give her) and blueberry waffles. Now that we got home, she has even started liking green beans. And in case you are wondering, Caden is still a horrible eater. He obviously did not pay attention to the Bakers well enough...or he paid attention at the wrong times. :)

Cal loves playing with small cars and trains and would push them all around the house. Back in Texas, Caden started playing with his little red car, just like his big cousin, and would push it all around while crawling. Before watching Cal, Caden would normally play with it in his hands or push it around his body a little.

Seattle -- Part 5: Mostly Pictures of the Family

We started almost every morning with the kids eating breakfast together. Cal was still sleeping when this picture was taken.
Our kids loved exploring the Baker house and playing with their toys.
Caroline loved playing with a Hokey Pokey Elmo. For some reason, Caden was scared of Elmo when he started dancing. Eventually, he warmed up to it and he liked it by the end of the trip.
Here is a picture of the kids exploring the kids chairs.Caroline loved the stairs. The first day we were there, she climbed two thirds the way up. The next day, she easily made it to the top. It is amazing how fast she climbed the stairs. We often put Ella in charge to make sure Caroline didn't head over to the stairs. With Ella watching her, we know we didn't have to worry. Ella paid a lot of attention to Caroline.
Doesn't Caden look good in this Aggie hat. Amy and I bought this for Will years ago and now the Bakers let us take it.Caroline also enjoyed the hat.Here is a picture of Amy and the twins on the trail at Mount Rainier.
Ella and Caroline got along great.
Ella is so good with our kids and couldn't be sweeter to them. Here is a great example. Caroline can be a little rough pinching and pulling faces. However, this did not phase Ella. She let Caroline do whatever she wanted. Amy and I know this can hurt.
Another nice thing Ella did for our kids was read books to them. She would read baby books sounding just like her mom. She made sure both twins saw the pictures and would even point out items mentioned in the book. For example, the book would say "can you find your knees" and Ella would ask them to find their knees and then she would point to them. Sadly, we did not get a picture of this. But here is another girl cousin picture.
Will was also good with the twins but his specialty was definitely Caden. They were buds. We didn't get as many pictures of the boys. The girls enjoyed getting their picture take way more than the guys did.
Cal has definitely warmed up to our kids but not to the level of his older siblings. Like Will, Cal also preferred Caden mainly because Caroline was a girl and Cal doesn't like girls. :) Here is a picture of Cal pushing both twins around at the dock. He was pretty excited to do this.
It was definitely cooler in Seattle than in Austin. Our little girl would be sweating if she wore this in a Texas September.
Caroline was very excited about getting her picture taken.
Caroline and her Aunt Amy. You might notice that Amy is keeping her distance. Caroline had made a huge mess in her diaper just minutes before. :)
The Baker boys hanging out at the locks.
The Baker kids playing outside of Michael's work.
Cal taking a break.
Will has become a tree hunger since he moved to Seattle.
This is at a dock near one of the places we had lunch. Caden loved it there. If I wasn't careful, he might have jumped out of my arms into the water.
We wore the kids out almost everyday. And with all the driving, they got plenty of time to sleep in their car seats.
And I'll wrap it up with a little story.

One night, Amy and I stayed home with the five kids so Michael and Amy could celebrate their anniversary. While they were out, their kids could not have been any better! They played a computer game together giving everyone a chance to interact with it.

When I told them it was time for bed, there was not arguing and they brushed their teeth and headed up stairs. Amy and I tucked them in, filled up Will's water (Will said he was planning to call us back in a little while to fill it up so we just did it right away), and turned on the radio. I was pretty sure the the radio was not set to the correct station but the kids insisted it was. At first, there was only talking and commercials but it eventually moved on to playing some Stone Temple Pilots, Ozzy Osbourne, and then Pink Floyd. Finally, the kids admitted this was not the Christian station they listen to every night and let me change the station.