6 Years! Cheers!

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our six year anniversary. Saturday was Matt's 29th birthday too! I had to shoot a wedding and was gone all day/night so we didn't get to spend much time together Saturday.

Sunday we hung out at my moms a little bit to see them before they leave on vacation, then we both worked, etc. before we headed out for a date! 

We borrowed the Mustang and cruised downtown!

I love this man!

                   

In between us is the CW Moore Plaza building - see the green windows? We got married on the roof! It was the best!

                                  

Matt took me to dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory! It was delicious. One of my favorite restaurants.

After dinner Matt discovered Space Bar. It's a little bar full of old school, retro video games! It was so fun! This was us playing pinball

                                      

Frogger!

                                      

Tron!

                                      

I am so glad to have Matt on this life journey with me. He's my better half and keeps me laughing at all times. I had SO much fun last night, a couple hours of just being husband and wife. I sure love you Matty! :) 

Here was my facebook status yesterday :) 

Happy 6 year anniversary to my partner in crime! 9.5 years together, 6 years married, 2 apartments, 3 houses, 6 cars, 2 college degrees, countless jobs, 2 dogs, and 2 kids later I still love you as much as the day I met you. I still picture you walking to my apartment in your tan jacket.  I sure love you. Here's to six more. 

Q-U-I!

A couple stories of my smarty pants kids! 

Today Matt walked by the pool table t his parents house and found this: 

The balls arranged in a semi circle and in numerical order. Our little girl genius was hard at work. 

Also lately Quinn has been trying to spell his name. He will say "Q-u-i" over and over. I didn't know how he did that until tonight when I put him to bed. He faces his "Quinn" graphic on his wall. He pointed to it and said "q-u-i!" :) 

I could NOT be more proud of these babies!!!

My Second Shooter

Sometimes I will take Paiton to photoshoots with me. She loves to help me (she makes the kids smile and giggle) and we like to have time just the two of us. 

This weekend she came with me for about three hours (she's a champ!) and brought her own camera! 

She was thrilled to get to take pictures while I was and was so fun to have with me!

 Oh I love this girl so much.

 We shot one of the Mrs. Idaho girls that night, and Paiton was over the moon when Tina asked her if she wanted to take her picture! 

Paiton's (2nd!) Graduation

On May 31, 2013 Paiton graduated. 

From Preschool. 

For the second time. 

There will be a third time. 

Sigh. 

Poor kid and her fall birthday. Had I known I was going to birth a genius I'd have planned better ;)

Because of her birthday she will have three years in Preschool, when really she's probably ahead of most Kindergartner's right now! But we love her preschool teacher and I'm SO not ready for her to be gone even more, so we are happy for the extra time with her! 

Here she is on her first day of preschool this year! 

And here are some pictures from throughout the year at field trips! 

This wasn't a field trip, but this picture of her playing air guitar cracks me up :)

Grrr. Upside down, but covering their ears at the firestation when they set the smoke detector off.

And last but not least, preschool graduation, 2013! :) 

 Quinn was thrilled to discover a bunch of tractors underneath the playhouse!

 She changed so much from her first day to her last day. Her baby face is GONE. That breaks this Mama's heart, but I do love watching her grow!

Here are some Paiton facts: 

-She still loves school just as much as ever. However, she always makes a point to tell me that she loves non-school days too because her favorite thing is just to be home with her family! :)

-She knows her WHOLE address and my phone number, and how to call 911 from our phones.

-One day she just started reading. Reading signs, reading books, etc. I bought her some early readers off Amazon, which she flew through. It still catches me off guard when she reads a sign and says something like "Mom I know that says 'land for sale' but what land are they talking about?" or "Mom that says "Hot food to go! we should take some home!" etc. She's a smartie pants and I LOVE it. Matt and I are both bookworms and I know she'll follow suit.

-She is constantly making up and singing songs. She dances ALL the time and is a very musical/performing type of girl.
-She talks non stop. No really, she never, ever stops. Even when she's alone!
-She has a great imagination. She can play forever by herself making up stories, names for her babies, etc., etc.
-She is the best big sister we could ask for. So loving and helpful to her brother. So helpful to me. She often calls Quinn her "boo boo" and makes sure he's always ok. She's such a good cheerleader to him as well with his walking.
-She is full of sass. Full of it to the brim. Her mouth often gets her time outs and yet, she doesn't seem to stop. I just don't know where this comes from...
-We love her to absolute bits and pieces. I can't imagine my life without these kids. They are simply amazing.

Quinn is TWO! {And then some....}

I don't even know where to begin!
So much has happened! 

Quinn turned TWO. Where did the time go!? 

Here are some pictures from his Bubble Guppies themed birthday party. He LOVES Bubble Guppies! 

In typical two year old form, he wouldn't sit still for pictures.

(Thanks Cami, for taking some of these for me!)

 The drum set from Nana and Papa was a huge hit! Quinn drums all the time, he uses his utensils on the table, etc., drums constantly and everywhere. This gift was so appropriate and he's actually really good!

Before his party we took the kids to the aquarium, which was a huge hit! I wish we could afford year passes, they really loved it! 

GOOD MORNING TWO YEAR OLD!!

 The kids LOVE whipped cream. It would be bad news if we didn't have it in our house!

 After getting dressed we headed out for birthday donuts!

 Then off to the aquarium for the first time!

 Feeding the fish:

 This is what we look like upside down. For whatever reason I can't flip some of these pictures!

 Quinn cries because it's his birthday!

 Paiton was beside herself that she got to meet a real life mermaid! It was a dream come true! ;)

 Then it was party time!

 Hands down my favorite part of his birthday was watching him be sung to. I think that was his favorite part as well. It was the cutest thing EVER. He smiled so big and just watched everyone sing to him. He wanted "More! more!" It was so sweet!!

 Uncle Brent was here for Quinn's birthday! Yay!

 Quinn cries because he has to take a picture with his parents on his birthday.

 I am so sad that these won't flip. :( Quinn made us light a candle and sing to him for DAYS after his birthday! It was soooo cute. He would say "More happy happy? Please mommy! More happy happy!"  Naturally I obliged, as I did every time he wanted a piece of cake!

 His birthday night we had a family bonfire at Nannie and Papa's! So fun!

 No seriously, this went on for daaaaays.

 The next week Quinn had his 2 year check up! I can't remember all the details. I think he weighed around 24 pounds.  (He's catching up to his 29 pound sister!) He got two shots which he reminded me of for the rest of the day. Poor guy.

Things about 2 year old Quinn: 

-He has a full vocabulary of words. He is very talkative and hysterical. Such a great sense of humor

- He loves to make animal sounds. Moo, Baaaah, etc. His bird noise is everyone's favorite, it's absolutely hilarious. He loves Angry Birds and thinks all birds makes their noise. 

-He calls birds either chicky, or eagle.

-He is very specific when saying what he wants. One of my favorites is when he asks for cereal. He will say "Want cereal. With spoon. And milk." He will lay it all out. "I want yogurt. And a spoon." 

- He loves flamingos like his sister. He calls them "Mingos" and points out the yard ones anywhere we go.

-He loves to get the mail and makes sure I check it every day! When we pull out of the garage he says "Mail Mommy! Mail!" 

-He has already learned that I have no memory. Most of the time when we leave the house he says "Keys, Mommy?" 90% of the time I don't know where they are and he helps me hunt for them. 

-Quinn loves all animals. He gets very emotional over them and will say "Ohhhhhh! Mommy a puppy! Ohhhhh cute!" 

-Some of my favorite things he says: animal, beanstalk, welcome, hold you (when he wants me to hold him, P said this too and I love that he does as well), I do it. 

-The way he sleeps is hilarious. He has to have his sound machine on. Just today I forgot to turn it on at nap time and over the monitor I hear "Ummm, Mommy. My noise?" :) He also sleeps with two binkies - one in his mouth and one in his hand, a little tiny Gil (a character from Bubble Guppies), his monkey blankie, his lambie, his blanket, and his "whoo-whoo's" (a blanket I made him with cars and ambulances on it) When he's ready for bed he'll say "Go night-night. My two binkies. My Gil." 

-His favorite number is two and whenever possible he wants things in twos. Two pretzels, two binkies, two of everything. 

-He only uses binkies to sleep. When he wakes up and we get him he throws them in his crib without being asked. 

-He is such a boy through and through. Right now he is obsessed with trucks, tractors, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. He asks to go see them all the time. Luckily there's a lot of construction around here right now and he knows right where it's at. If I go through an intersection that turning at would take us to tractors, he yells at me from the back seat that he wants to see the tractors! He knows where there are and is not happy when we don't go see them. Another funny thing is that when he's lucky enough to see them actually digging, he thinks they're eating! He will say "Oh Mommy! Tractor eat! Tractor eat!" :)

-Quinn knows all of the alphabet and recites them back when we show him. He's so smart! I had worked with him on some letters, but the rest he just picked up! 

-And the biggest update of all:
HE'S WALKING!!!!!
One day he just stood up, and walked away from me. The PT kept telling us it had to be on his time, and apparently that was true. Since then there's been no stopping him! He is doing awesome. He walks a lot more than he crawls now, but still goes through crawling spurts. He still falls, a LOT, but gets back up and keeps going. We are soooo proud of him!!!!!!

I will continue updating, watch for one with an update on Paiton's second preschool graduation to come! :)