No more crazy, baby hair!

Here's our little guy. He's the first one of my 3 boys to actually to make it to one year of age before getting his first haircut. I just love his curls! We took his one year pics yesterday & I wanted the crazy curls to be present for the photos, so we scheduled his haircut for the day after.

BEFORE:

From First haircut

DURING: (he was SUCH a big boy--no tears/no fussing)

From First haircut

From First haircut

And, AFTER: (yes, that is a sucker in his hand--what can I say, he's my 3rd???)

From First haircut

Doesn't he look sooo grown-up? :(

"Uncle" Ryan...

One of our good friends from our Columbus, MS days came back thru here on his way from Tampa back to South Dakota. He again brought his motorcycle with him, but since the weather was wayyy warmer than it was the last time he came through, the boys got to take a spin:

From Big kid pics

From Big kid pics

William was deemed big enough to sit in the back:

From Big kid pics

And, then all 3 boys posed on it once it was back on the trailer:

From Big kid pics

Ryan only went around the block with them, but for a motorically-obsessed 3 and 5 year old, it was the highlight of their year so far!

It was so great to see Ryan & he's now on his way out to Vegas for a few years, so there may be another Vegas trip in our future!!

Grant's Farm, take 2

So, we went back to Grant's Farm this weekend with Daddy & Colin as ordered by Master William! There was a late cold snap, so temps were in the 50s with a wind chill!! The boys told me that next time we went to Grant's Farm, we needed to bring out mittens :o This time, the boys were pros at goat-feeding. And, it was also amazing to see how much more aggressive the baby goats were in just a few days. Guess it doesn't take them very long to learn what comes out of those baby bottles!

From Grant's Farm

And, here is Daniel, looking awfully worried as the goats went after his bottle:

From Grant's Farm

We rode the carousel again:

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

We decided to let them hit a sugar high today, so we let the boys have cotton candy BEFORE the sno-cones:

From Grant's Farm

We got to see a lot of old-fashioned cars & wagons, stuff we missed with the school field trip. Here is an old-fashioned fire truck!

From Grant's Farm

Here is the Anheuser Busch wagon. The Busch family owns Grant's Farm. This wagon, they pull out for the pretty snowy pictures with the Clydesdales in the winter:

From Grant's Farm

And, lastly, we got to see the Clydesdales!! Colin was soo enamored with the very-tall horses.

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

Overall, it was a great family trip! Can't believe we waited over 2 years to head over there.

Grant's Farm, take 1

The boys' school had a field trip to Grant's Farm, over in St. Louis, today. We'd been meaning to take the kids, but hadn't made it over there yet. Biiiiig mistake on our part! They loved, loved, loved it! I'd gotten a sitter for Colin & she had to leave by a certain time, so we had to rush back & didn't get to do quite everything. The first thing William said when I told him it was time to go was, "Well, Mom. We'll have to come back with Colin & Daddy because they've never been here before & they're gonna LOVE it!" So, go back with Daddy we did--check out the later post :)

Here we are on the tram that takes you to all the fun stuff. The boys thought the tram WAS the fun stuff!

From Grant's Farm

First, we fed some baby goats. Check out what passes for William's posed "smile" these days :) Those goats sure knew what was in the bottles--they went after them like they were starving! And, if they couldn't reach the bottle, they just chewed on your clothes. One of them tried to eat William's shirt!

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

Next, we rode the carousel--a "must" for all zoo trips!

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

We finished the morning with lunch & some sno-cones!!

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

And, just some random, cute snaps of all of us:

From Grant's Farm

From Grant's Farm

Colin's birthday, take 2

In addition to the impromptu dinner we had with a cake for the birthday boy a few days ago, we had some people over to watch the Kentucky Derby and then A TON of people over to sing "Happy Birthday" to the little man in proper style! He knew what to do with his cake this time & dove right in. Just a couple of snaps of the birthday prince:

From BD bar-b-cue

From BD bar-b-cue

And, in his element--crawling around in the backyard with the big kids!

From BD bar-b-cue

Margaritaville!!

Scott & I haven't been to St. Louis to do too many non-kid activities since we've lived here. Having 3 little bitty ones and one loooong deployment kind of took the wind out of our sails in that arena. One of the guys Scott works with had a couple of extra tickets to Jimmie Buffet tonight. Of course, we grabbed them quickly & went in search of a sitter. Thankfully, our regular one was available & off we went. It was in the Verizon Amphitheater, which is a huge open-air concert arena. Wow, was it awesome, and the perfect place to see the Buffet. The temps were in the upper 70's and there was a strong breeze blowing--couldn't have been a more perfect night for it! Here are a couple of snaps of us tailgating before the event:

From Grown-up pics

From Grown-up pics

We'll definitely be first in line to grab tickets next time he comes! And, we're already looking at the summer concert schedule to see who else we can shoot over there to see. Date night, here we come!

Birthday gifts

Colin got a ball pit from his Nana and Grandpa Sam. Since he madly loves anything to do with balls & other things that roll, I just knew he was going to love it, and fortunately, I was right! Obviously, you can't tell from the pic, and I was too slow with the video camera, but as he sits inside, he kicks, kicks, kicks his little feet in sheer excitement & just giggles maniacally:

From Colin pics

From Colin pics

From Mommy & Daddy and the big brothers, he got a little chair to sit in while he watches his Baby Einstein programs. He's recently discovered that he LOVES "cow", or the farm one. He sits in front of the TV & just laughs his little heart out at all of the puppet antics on it. Guess we'll be trying a few more of them! Thank goodness he's got a chair ;)

From Colin pics

And, just because he got such a kick out of his own chair, I pulled out the big boys' papasan chairs & he hopped right in. Here he is giving me his "I'm being sweet" look:

From Colin pics