A Day Out with Thomas

So a few weeks ago we were some of THOSE parents who paid way too much money to go ride a train pulled by a life-sized Thomas the Train engine. I found out about this event last year when it came to the DFW area, but it was the week Graham was born (of course) so we didn't make it. And this year, I thought both of our kids would like it--because there are so many varying-sized Thomases around our house that Graham is fully indoctrinated into the love of Thomas. I don't mind spending some money on experiences that will be good memories and get some good pictures. And OH this was a cute day.

We didn't tell Dane what we were going to do, we just hopped into the car and started driving. It wasn't even a big secret; he just had no idea. And then we pulled up and saw Thomas the train standing in the train station--and Dane just about lost it. I WISH we'd had our camera on him when we pulled up. He could NOT believe it. "THOMAS?!? IS THAT THOMAS!?" We were there pretty early in the morning and got some good pictures with Thomas in the background (as good as we could with the lighting). I just love Dane's excited face in this picture.

We got to ride on the train pulled by Thomas, for about a 25-minute ride. Dane was loving it. It went much better than the last train ride we did where both boys were crying by the end.

And now some pictures of how CUTE Grahammy was on this train ride. So happy to just be standing on the seat and looking over the seat back.

Oh yeah, Dane was there too. He was too excited about the train ride and looking out the window to be bothered for pictures, though.

They had a whole ton of little activities going on after the train ride. Electric train sets, Thomas the Train trikes to ride, a clown walking around, a big sand box, even a little mini-petting zoo. It was like KID HEAVEN. They had literally every favorite thing of kids this age.

Dane really liked the bunnies. (I did too--if we were to ever get a pet it would probably have to be a bunny.)

Dane was POOPED out after just two hours of all this excitement. This was one reason why I didn't want to tell him and have him anticipating this exciting event--when he gets super excited, it drains him SO fast and he loses all ability to behave and be nice. He yells back at us and cries when we have to go. But it's pretty understandable if you take a step back--because when your expectations are up so high, any little disappointment becomes HUGE. This whole event was worth it just seeing his face and how excited he was to see his favorite train in real life. We probably won't ever do it again, but it was a fun one-time thing for us in this stage with two little boys.

Happy Birthday to Graham!

It is sooooOOO crazy that our baby boy is now one. It's so weird to see him acting more and more like a little person, with his own ideas and thoughts, and how he's starting to be able to act on those ideas and even to verbalize them. He officially says about three words, although on his birthday a week ago I would have probably said that he just said Dada and Mama. (Now he says "Itty" whenever he sees his stuffed kitty and it is the CUTEST thing in the world. Pretty sure he also tries to say Dane too but I'm not 100% on that yet.)

I am not a big birthday person! I don't do much to celebrate, on purpose. For Graham's birthday, we got a blow-up baby pool for us to use during the summer, and we bought some ball pit balls to fill it up with. Sadly, we got 200 balls and somehow they only filled up about 1/3 of the pool! But I'm glad we restricted ourselves to *only* 200 because they are all over the house as it is. (I knew we would put them up in the attic after not that long, and I think we may have already reached that point after a week.) We decorated the dining room the night before.

And the little birthday boy was so excited he woke up at 5 that morning! It was such a wonderful birthday surprise!

This is the money shot for the birthday morning. He only wore that hat for approximately 8.9 seconds but we got this cute picture and that's ALLLLLL we needed.

I went to the store after Graham woke us up at 5 and got doughnuts for his birthday breakfast. He approved.

We opened his few presents--just a couple of books from us in addition to the baby pool.

We spent the day doing things Graham likes, like pulling things out of cabinets and off shelves.

We spent the beautiful afternoon out in our backyard, in the sandbox and on the trampoline.

And then we had our friends the Hornes over for hot dogs on the grill and cupcakes. I made little smores cupcakes, with marshmallow frosting and graham crackers on top (in honor of our little Graham cracker). We didn't do a great job documenting the cake moment--I didn't really get a picture of him with the candle on his cake... but oh well.

We DID get a picture of the messy aftermath at least!

It was a perfect low-key first birthday for our boy. He is a sweetheart--a very opinionated one. In the last few weeks, he has decided he HATES getting his diaper changed, and it makes my life so difficult. I dread every single diaper change. He also likes to scream during meals quite often, when we're not bringing the food fast enough or exactly the right food he wants. But usually, he is a sweet, happy guy! He is much, much happier now that he can crawl and get around so quickly and easily--and I can't wait to see what he thinks about walking once he manages that. (Or maybe I can...) He has started to LOVE LOVE LOVE on his blankie and kitty and is always snuggling with them whenever he gets the chance. He also loves his daddy so, so much. My favorite thing they do is Graham likes to nibble on Tommy's chin and just laughs and laughs because Tommy's stubbly chin tickles his mouth.

Graham, we love you. Stop growing up. You're the cutest one-year-old that there ever was.

Easter 2016

This was kind of a unique year--Graham still hadn't turned one yet but he was getting to celebrate his second Easter. He was born the night before Easter last year. It's kind of hard to believe that last Easter we were doing this:

This year, things were a little different. We did an Easter egg hunt with our ward on Saturday afternoon, and it was very cute to watch all the kids lined up to find their eggs.

This is Dane and his two best friends: Preston and Ben. He was thrilled to hunt for eggs with them.

Dane lost interest after about 8 eggs and we had to pick up the last few for him.

Then right after our ward Easter egg hunt, we drove out to Nathan and Kristin's house for ANOTHER Easter egg hunt with the cousins. Dane was in total heaven. Their backyard is amazing, with huge oak trees all over--the perfect place for an Easter egg hunt.

Graham really got into the egg hunting spirit. He just wanted to shake the eggs and listen to the candy rattling around inside.

Dane the Easter egg hunter.

We did dye Easter eggs too. They didn't get too colorful though. Maybe next time we'll follow the instructions better.

On Easter morning, the boys woke up and "found" their Easter baskets (with a couple of dollar toys and Peeps in them). It was cute.

I tried to get some Easter pics of them before church, but I'd just woken up Graham from his nap and it was pretty chilly outside and it did not go well. But his little sad face was so cute!

We tried again after church and things went a little better. Not perfect by any means, but at least showing them in their cute Easter shirts. Dane got pretty sick with a fever on Easter so he stayed home from our Easter dinner at our friends' house with Tommy.

We tried this year to spend a lot more energy talking about the Resurrection and the real meaning of Easter. For FHE before Easter, we filled up Easter eggs with symbols of the Resurrection and opened them and talked about it. We also watched some of the Church's Bible videos and Dane really got into it. I know we could do better next year... I think we will try to do more of the reading of the scriptures about Easter week throughout the week. We had a very nice week, and especially a great Easter weekend.