Tanner's 3rd Birthday

The morning of Tanner's birthday I told him we were going to go to a playground at the mall. He thought I meant the park, so he ran and got his shoes, then ran out the door. I followed him to the park, where he soaked in the sun. He's so funny on the swings.

Then he wanted to go for a walk. 

At the mall he climbed on each and every animal. 

 

He loved the playground. 

We walked around the mall, and he ran into the Disney store, which we played around in for a while. Then we headed to Barnes and Noble for a while. 

We picked up his free birthday cookie at the Barnes and Noble café, which was as big as his head. 

When we came home he couldn't wait to make his cake. He loves helping in the kitchen, always pushing a chair over when he sees me making something. He tore open the cake mix. 

 

I told him he got to lick the paddle, and before I was able to take it off the stand, he was at it. 

 

 

 

 

 

The bad thing about having to pick the kids up from school is that I have to wake him up from his nap a lot. He didn't get a very long nap, and it's pretty funny waking him up. He can't even open his eyes, and he buries himself further into the blankets. 

He sat up and then fell over. 

He had been talking about his Hulk birthday for weeks. Pretty much everything he got was Hulk.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Tanner! Can't believe he's 3!!! 

Sidney's 7th Birthday

On the morning of her birthday, she wasted no time waking up. She was so excited.

Sparky greeted her. 

I brought cookies to school. Her teacher told me at parent teacher conference that Sidney is a little social butterfly. She couldn't be more different from me at that age. It is so fun to see her with her little friends. All these little girls were like little moms to Tanner, it was hilarious. 

Her latest toy craze are Shopkins. She asked for a Shopkins cake, and this was her reaction when she saw it. I promise, it was super simple and not even close to professional, but she loved it.

With her new Shopkins. 

 

For dinner we ate at Chick-fil-a at the mall. These two get along on occasion. 

We surprised her with a trip to Build-A-Bear. She's been dreaming of it for the last year. She was so surprised, it was fun to take her. 

 

 

It was a late night, which we ended with cake. She was way too excited about her bear and Shopkins, that I think she only ate one bite. 



Helen, Georgia

The weekend before my birthday we drove down to a little Georgia town called Helen. It's in the Blueridge Mountains, a little Bavarian town.

First up we went for a pretty little hike to Anna Ruby Falls. It was absolutely beautiful, so glad we stopped there. 

The pictures really don't do it justice, it looks a lot smaller in the pictures, and less colorful. 

 

 

 

 

Helen is a really cute town. Since it was the weekend after Thanksgiving Santa and Mrs. Claus were there, and there was no line. Jayden didn't want to sit on his lap, and neither did Sidney or Tanner, but when they saw they were giving out candy, these two changed their minds. Tanner only smiled because we said he wouldn't get candy unless he did. Love those big cheesy grins.

We had lunch at a little bakery, where we decided we aren't German food people. If only I could describe how Sidney was eating her hot dog, but it would be impossible. I was dying laughing, I was crying so hard! 

There were lots of little shops to explore. 

 

We get these looks from Tanner at least once a day. And almost always when I try to take his picture. 

 

 

 

 

When I was researching what to do in the area I found they have a cabbage patch hospital. At first I didn't pay it much attention, but then when I saw a picture of it I couldn't believe it. It was gorgeous! We decided to go only if we had time. Town started to get a little crowded for us, so we decided to check it out. Admission was free, so why not? This might sound weird, but I'm so glad we went because it ended up being my favorite part of the day. Not because I love cabbage patch or anything, I don't even remember if I owned one as a kid, but the place was breath taking. It's in the middle of nowhere, there were hardly any people, so right up our alley. Being decorated for Christmas made it like something out of a story book.

When you walk in there's a front desk where you sign in, just like a real hospital, and it was so fancy! The whole staff was dressed like nurses, hilarious. There's a small area with baby nurseries and dolls everywhere.

On the drive there we kept seeing billboards advertising the place and Sidney was so scared of the dolls. I had to convince her to go in when we got there. You can see her scared face down below. Can you blame her? They are pretty scary! Especially when they're covering every inch of the place. 

This is where the babies are born. I'll get to that soon. 

NICU 

The place was 90% toy store. It was really nice, but we didn't want anything. 

Sidney was so creeped out. 

Every few minutes a baby is born. A nurse comes out, does an ultrasound, and this whole thing where she measures the mommy cabbage and tells you how many cabbage leaves dilated, etc., and we even had to shout at it to push, not once, but three times. And then she pulled a baby out of a head of cabbage. The whole thing was super weird. 

 

All that is not why I'm glad we went. I loved the grounds, it felt like we were in a postcard. We sat on rocking chairs, the kids ran around, and we watched the sunset. 

 

 

Loved the wraparound porch and the rocking chairs. Sidney sat here singing to her little stuffed animal, it was the most adorable scene ever. 

 

This was the backyard. 

 

Our mini trip was my birthday gift, I love making memories over presents. I'm lucky Josh humors me with all the random things I like to do.

 

 

 

 

I loved the drive down there too. We passed through so many cute little towns with beautiful, little white churches, and really old ones built of rock. We saw this cute little Mrs. Claus sitting on a corner waving to the cars. Loved the cute little southern town charm.