Catch Up 2014, er... 2013

Egads. I'm the worst. Smart phones and Instagram have killed my blog. I mean, I've had a freaking baby that my blog doesn't even know about. Sorry, Hugo, SO! Let me try four blog posts to sum up the year. If I make it reasonable like that, it just might happen. Right? RIGHT? Here are a few shots from 2013 to finish up THAT freaking year. Oh brother. I may have posted a few of these before, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Blogger for life!

My mom took me to see So You Think You Can Dance Live in November! We are mega-fans of the show, because it's awesome. I think we both pine for long lost dancing careers... snort. I've always loved to dance, but enjoy watching truly talented dancers even more.

Eleanor started Pre-School in the fall of 2013 and freaking LOVED it. Miss Julie with Alphabet Adventures was a perfect fit for our social girl.

Eleanor holding her cousin once removed (or something), Eva Thueson. Pretty little dolls.

Halloween happened and Eleanor was our Ariel.

And Winston was our Sebastian!

Right before Christmas we sold our trusty car, Geoff, the Focus. I had him for 10 years! We bought a bright blue Ford Fusion and have yet to take a picture of it. Or give it a name! I guess it's hard to get over old relationships.

I took the kids to go see Santa and ride the carousel and Eleanor was as photogenic as ever.

Winston didn't fall off!

Christmas Eve they opened their pajamas and I got really good pictures of them together by the tree. Oh wait, that's right, I totally didn't. Tried and failed. Eh. They were happy.

The kids were suitably dewy-eyed and adorable on Christmas morning.

Eleanor was delighted to find an orange amongst all the chocolate and candy canes in her stocking. Ever our health nut, I don't know where she learns it.

Here is my project I made for my mom. Each branch is a month and each leaf or apple is a name with the birth date engraved on it. I still haven't finished it a year later, ha. Typical me, sorry, mom.

 

Clayton and E at Grandma and Grandpa Firth's house for Christmas.

Winston fell in love with his cousin Caleb King. He talked about "Cabin" for ages afterwards. During their stay he just followed him around and quietly stalked him like this. 

Caleb was super-sweet about it.

Winston did NOT enjoy the fire show at Tepanyaki for Clayton's birthday. Eh, kids.

Oh, the horror!

Adam and Marie. They had just been dating a month or two here. Now... well, I don't want to take all the fun news away from future blog.

Shagan!

Mom and Dad.

Clayton's cake! I think he made some good wishes, as we've had a really good year.

Winston's 2nd Birthday!

 Sweet Winston! Our smart, athletic, energetic, hilarious, little man. He turned two mid June and we celebrated in true second-child fashion: half-heartedly! Just kidding, but I definitely put a little less worry (not thought, just the stress) into the whole thing. I took them to McDonald's for lunch and we went INSIDE! Hey, that's a big deal for us. And the play-land was surprisingly clean and kind of fun. They had all of these cute instrument-themed toys that made music when you danced on them, slid down on it etc...  The played for about an hour and I felt like we did something that they actually wanted to do versus what I want them to do. And it was air-conditioned, so, yay.

 Geetaah! (According to Winston.)

 Opening some presents while Eleanor and neighbor Charlotte look on. He got a train set, a bunch of cars, a road play-mat carpet and a motorcycle from the Dollar store that stole the show. I love that a dollar can make his life.

 Blurry picture, but oh man, is that they cutest face ever? It is.

 I bought cupcakes. I bought cars. Voila, he was happy.

Again, the $1 motorcycle stole the show.

  My parents got a swing-set for their backyard. Or, actually, my dad got Winston a swing-set for their backyard.

 

Despite the look on his face (hilarious) he loves the swing. It's been a real shame that it's been so miserably hot outside that I rarely let them out to play on it. Come onnnnnn Autumn!

Eleanor's 4th Birthday!

Before the birthday post, I thought I'd show a few of her "dimnastics" pictures. Allie is in an advanced tumbling class (Jolley's in Draper, if you're curious. They're freaking amazing!) and Eleanor loves to pretend she can do what Allie does too.

 

 Luckily, little people are still naturally bendy, so Eleanor can do the scorpion thingy here and the back bend thingy above. I know, I should write books about gymnastics!

 P.S. We had a fun time at Tom and Jenni's house once having adults try this move. You take a tape measure and measure the distance between the toes and the back of the head, the smallest number wins. Most people were around 27 inches. I don't think I even tried, I mean, it was my game and all...

 Our little Pro!

 Allie, teaching Eleanor the ropes. I love these girls!

 Another self portrait to mark her last days of being 3.

 March 12th is Eleanor's birthday, a day she starts getting excited about around March 13th. I went more low-key this year (for me) and decided on a theme of Sprinkles. Here are the invites, I blurred out the address in this picture as I am super web-savvy and cool like that.

 I made a cute picture frame covered in sprinkles for her party and tried to take a sweet picture to put in it. 3 year olds are definitely hard to photograph easily. There is a reason you pay people to do this.

 20 pictures and I ended up using another picture I had on hand.

 Happy!

 The morning of her birthday, she picked out her favorite outfit (the slip) and got to open her first present, Wreck It Ralph. What a cute show. We didn't see it in the theaters, so it was fun to watch it at home.

 Her sprinkle cake! So cute and so easy. One of the darling things I saw on Pinterest and wanted to try, thus the "theme".

 Her adorable little friends! We did face painting and made "circle things" necklaces. Basically Fruit Loops, Life Savers- gummy and hard, peach rings and anything else I could find to string up. I lined them up here for present time. From left to right: Lucy H, Eva H, Charlotte G, Eleanor, Kherrington W, and Allie H.

 Princess makeup! And girl Legos, treats, nail polish, a bunch of helium balloons, a Doc McStuffin's toy set, a Cinderella doll and other magical things that 4 year olds live for. Thanks, friends!

 Girl Legos!

 It's so cute to see how happy they all are watching and how ecstatic she is opening. The time flew by and we had to send home some of the cupcakes as we ran out of time.

I bothered to make her cake extra colors inside for.... um, not any reason. I wanted to make a polka-dot cake, but didn't get the pans in time. Also- realized how little 4 year olds care about the inside of cakes. We probably ate 2-3 pieces and ended up throwing most of it away. Every year I think I am just going to make cupcakes and always end up making a cake too. They are just so fun! We got her art supplies, more girl Legos, some bug catching supplies (Why???) and other odds and ends. She had a fun day and I'm happy it went well. The only sad part was that my parents were in the middle of their cruise and missed it. Eleanor loved her party, and she's been steadily planning Winston's party ever since. Last night, her genius idea: "Mom! I've got it! Balloons!" Not even joking, she thinks she is making his birthday amazing. Ok, she kind of is.

Winston's First Birthday!

 Our sweet boy turned one! (Um, waaaay back in June, the 19th to be exact. Please ignore the fact that this is being typed in January.) Our cute little elf baby, the smiliest, happiest, chillest, fastest, wiggliest, cutest little baby anyone ever had- turned one! I always feel like he is getting so short-changed compared to Eleanor. She was first and got the fireworks and rockets while this poor guy has had to settle for Pop-Its and paper-planes. Eh, we try. Kind of. Such is the life for all second-born, right? Right? Anyhow, I wanted him to have a proper party so we threw him a robot themed party at Tom & Jenni's house complete with a piñata!

 Little man with all of his presents!

 Playing with his girlfriend, Megan.

 With Mom and Dad! He's so happy!

 And playing with his toys! He got this cute race-way from his cousin Allie and friend Jed. He also got a red truck just like grandpa's, Noah's Ark complete with 30 extra animals, egg puzzle thing and a whole bunch of other things I forgot as it was 7 months ago!

 

 Winston waving to his adoring fans with Allie's cousin Abby, not to be confused with his cousin Abby. However, we love them both.

 

 Trying his hand at opening his rocket. I looked everywhere for a robot piñata, but apparently they don't exist. I was so happy to find this one to keep it kind of space themed.

 Eleanor giving it a go. I think our cousin Abby finally opened it, or maybe Jack or Calvin. Again, it was a long time ago! Sorry Win!

 The goods! We had Fruities, fans, Chinese Yo Yos, robot erasers and other filler stuff in there.

 Look at his little frog-stance! I love how he had no idea on what to really do here.

 Starting to get it... with Jed and Allie.

 Eleanor knew right what to do. Piñatas in Michigan were a regular occurrence.

 Here is his cake! I really liked how it turned out. Originally I wanted to cut out the cakes and make them into the robot shape but then, you know, second child. In the pan is good enough.

 

  Oh man, that little dimple kills me daily!

 The rest of the pictures are of him with his individual cake. He did a great job devouring it and making a proper mess. 

 So at the end of the night, all hopped up on candy and cake, we return home. And I suddenly have a little boy with more energy than he has ever had in his long one year before. As we are getting the kids ready for bed he starts this hilarious routine of putting his head down on the ground, sticking his arms out and his bum straight up into the air for a few seconds then crawling off as fast as he can, going about halfway across the room and then turning around to head back and start it all again. He must have done this 7 or 8 times before I even grabbed my camera. Oh, and sorry for the nudity, he thought it was extra funny to keep his diaper off. And let's be honest, we did too.

I finally got a diaper halfway on him during the performance, thinking it would slow him down but nooo. He kept at it for another 5 minutes or so. What a goose!