Happy 3rd Birthday Joseph!!!

My kids just love going to Chuck E Cheese's for their birthdays. Especially at age 2-4 and then all the siblings love going along as well! Joseph picked Chuck E for his birthday on a Monday night and we had a great time since there are hardly any kiddos there.

They are so nice and flexible there so we make a cake and take it over... here's Jo's truck digger cake! I was trying to write Happy Birthday Jo in green frosting and it just smeared everywhere so it turned into grass, and actually this scene looks much like our backyard since it's more dirt than grass! We still have a ton of Halloween candies so I crushed up some Kit Kats to be the dirt and wala...professionally decorated birthday cake!

Singing to the Chuck E dance and waiting for the ticket splash

Birthday Boy!!

Benny was finally old enough to play and ride on some of the rides... he did not know what to think of this at first and then refused to get off!

Haha she wanted to get on since she's so big and it looks funny!

Eating pizza!

More games with daddy

Opening presents

Redeeming our tickets for prizes

Joseph's 2nd Birthday!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Joseph!

Beepa V got him his very own Toys R Us gift card to go on a shopping spree so we went a shopping... here are all the kiddos, Beno included : )

The kids love having their turn for the Toys R Us balloon

Some new trains... and wearing one of his new shirts from Meema!

My fancy way of decorating cakes... wash and dry kids toys and place in a scene : ) Amelia got to help with this one and she was very happy to do so!

Happy Birthday to me!!

And this is what happens when you get older and become a parent and it's no longer about you and your b-day... you get tagged on to a post of your kiddos b-day... so Happy Birthday Adam : )

Joe's First Birthday!

We had a fun little birthday for Baby Joe... we went as a family to Little Monkey Bizness to celebrate! They have an awesome family night on Friday nights with discounted admission and $1 pizza slices! So we decided on the snowy freezing cold night to get some wiggles out and celebrate this little blessing!

Wearing his "My First Birthday" bib

His birthday present... what's inside?

These awesome pop up tents and the pop up tunnel for hours of crawling fun!

And a new tractor toy from Beepa among some other awesome Toys R Us shopping spree finds!

At Monkey Bizness... he's so excited! ; )

They got this great new climbing structure right in the middle of the room... he loved going up and down

Big sister helping guide the way

Here he is giving little sister a little push... looks like they dead ended!

And a little break for a cupcake!

We also made some art in their art room : )

There's his first painting!

He grabbed the brush and tried to put it in his mouth right away!

Good painting Lydia!

Milestones!

An end of the year compilation of milestones that occurred the last couple of months! 

Baby Jo started eating his first solid foods in August!

He liked it! Here he is so sad that I'm just not feeding him fast enough!

Next up (sorry for the graphic nature) Josh's busted chin! The kiddos were playing a friendly round of America Ninja Warrior in the house and he missed his jump off the kitchen counter and slipped on the kitchen rug and busted open his chin!

Waiting for stitches! Facetiming with everyone else at home!

Kisses for the boo boo!

Don't worry girls I'll be just fine! And look at this awesome truck I got!

Rolled up in a burrito for the stitches...

6 stitches later and we're headed home! Go figure this happened during my week long orientation to my new job! I had just come back from all day orientation and headed back to work as a patient's family member! I got to see some friends in the ED I knew. I was so sad not to be home with him the next morning and the rest of the week to help him feel better... he needed pain medicine and soft foods for awhile and special cream and bandaids but our babysitter Kaylyn did amazing helping him feel comfortable! He did so good!

I love my pediatrician office because they will see almost all of my kiddos at the same time! Here are the 3 biggest in their "doctor's gowns" ready to be checked out!

Jo's first tooth! The bottom 2 came in about the same time

 And around the same time Amelia finally lost her first tooth in October a few weeks after her 6th birthday : ) 

Yay! I've been waiting so long to smile like this!

Of course the tooth fairy visited that night!

 And left a dollar!

It's amazing what a dollar can get you these days : )

 

And last but certainly not least... this little girl is learning how to go on the potty!

 But wait! There's more! This little man started crawling up stairs before all the baby proofing began! Remember those bottom 2 teeth he got? Here they are busted a little loose from falling down the basement stairs : ( Jo's first urgent care trip and not even 1 years old! No need to worry... they ended up being fine and it looks a lot worse than it was. His gums were just cut and needed a bit to heal and the teeth would tighten back up in place!

Whew! That was a lot for the last few months of the year... we'll see what happens next year!