Party Under Construction!

We celebrated Chalin's 2nd birthday a day early this year on February 6. As you probably know by now, Chalin LOVES trucks and vehicles of ANY kind, so we decided to throw him a construction themed birthday party. I started looking up ideas probably back in December to plan this party, and I ran across some great ideas, most of them coming from a girl I now follow on my blog, "Blue Eyed Blessings." She is so creative, and I'm very glad I found her blog! Chalin, unfortunately was cutting his 2 year molars during his party, so he stayed attached to my hip the entire party; however, I think he still had a good time. He woke up the following morning saying with a smile, "Cha Cha birthday party?" and then going on to tell me who all was at his birthday party. I think his little friends had a good time, too.

"Happy Birthday Chalin!"

The Invitations
The Birthday Boy

Since we had Chalin's party in our Church gym, we had lots of great space. We used 1/2 the gym to set up tables for eating and the other 1/2 we used to set up 4 different "centers" to keep the little ones busy and having fun. The first picture is one of Chalin's b-day presents, the sand table, or the "Digging Site," which included all different kinds of scoops and trucks.

This rug was another one of Chalin's birthday presents. We put baskets of cars next to it and the children were able to drive the cars on the street. We called this the "Traffic Site."

The 3rd center was called the "Creative Site," in which we put out crayons and colored pencils, along with plain paper and stencils (different vehicles). As you can see, it was a real hit with the girls at the party! The 4th center was the "Building Site" which included a Mega Blocks table and Mega Blocks to build with.

We had a ton of Chalin's favorite snack foods for everyone to eat, including: strawberries, black berries, pinapples, green apples, fruit dip, vegetable tray, green and black olives, goldfish crackers, club crackers with cheese, pretzels, etc! Drinks (fruit juice pouches for the kiddos and pop & water for adults) were off to the side of the table in a wheel barrel with ice.

Singing "Happy Birthday to You" made Chalin a little embarrassed.

Chalin had 2 birthday cakes. Here is his first one that we put his number 2 candle in.

And here is the 2nd cake....A YUMMY dirt cake that I made in the back of yet another one of Chalin's presents, a huge dump truck. From the remains of it, everyone at the party loved it, too, because it was scraped dry!

Cake and party favors
A close up of the party favors, which were actually a tool belt with TONS of things: blow up hammer, stickers, coloring book (trucks for boys, princess for girls), tool filled with candy, truck fruit snacks, truck pencil, a truck, etc. Also, when the children arrived, they were given a construction hat with their name on it (I printed their name on a label and placed it on the hat). Thank you, Patty, for putting these together!

The gift table--Chalin got so many great gifts!

A few pictures of Chalin opening gifts. Also, I found this adorable shirt on Etsy. It was a dump truck with the number 2 on it and his name just below the truck.

Whether it was giving me ideas, helping set up, buying the materials, taking pictures, helping clean up, purchasing a gift, or just blessing us with your presence, THANK YOU!! You helped make Chalin's 2nd birthday party a success, and we are very thankful to have you in our lives. Love you all.

Chalin is T-W-O!

Dear my sweet little Chalin,

It’s been several months since I have typed a letter to you. We just celebrated your 2^nd birthday. I can’t believe I have already been blessed with you in my life for 2 whole years. My goodness, does the time fly. With the help of many special people, we were able to throw you an awesome 2^nd b-day party! Of course, the theme was construction because you LOVE dump trucks, garbage trucks, tools, etc. I’ll tell you more about your party a little later.

My, my, my, are you a smart little boy! You know almost all your capital letters. You love to practice your letters by playing with your Magna-doodle and having Mommy and Daddy write letters on the bathtub with your bath crayons. You also love to play and eat off of your alphabet placemat.

You can count to 10 all by yourself! Whenever you finish, you like to say “Yay!” and clap, along with having all your listeners clap and cheer for you, too. You’re quite the little performer. You can tell us how old you are, although we’re still working on holding up 2 fingers.

You can recognize a few colors, such has orange, green, blue, red, pink, and purple. Sometimes you recognize yellow, but we haven’t worked much with black, white, or brown.

You love to sing “Jesus loves me” and the “ABC song.” Once you are finished, we all clap and cheer along with you, which you love.

You went from signing all the time, to signing and saying one or two words, to barely signing and saying 4-5 words at a time! You still like to use your signs for more, milk, and eat, but you say the words, too. It amazes me how much you say and understand at only 2 years old.

You still LOVE school buses, well, any buses for that matter, along with dump trucks, garbage trucks, mail trucks, concrete mixers, UPS trucks, 18 wheelers, fuel trucks, ETC. You also, much to Mommy’s enjoyment, still love, I mean, LOVE to read books. It makes my heart so happy to see you sit in your chair in the living room and dig through your basket of books, trying to find exactly what you’re in the mood to read, and you just flip through the pages, enjoying every moment. I can just see your little mind at work.

You are not only a smart little man, but you are also very funny! You love to “pass gas” and you get a kick out of Mommy saying “What was THAT?!” You laugh hysterically and continue to “pass gas” until your little body won’t allow anymore. I’m really quite amazed at how long this can go on…your Daddy is so proud. Although you attempt to say almost anything, even repeating some phrases you hear that I would rather you not repeat (nothing bad, no worries), you still insist on calling chicken, “bock, bock.” When I say, “Chalin would you like a hot dog or chicken for lunch?” you say, “Bock, bock.” It’s pretty funny and cute.

Chalin you are such an adorable, sweet, wonderful, funny, smart, precious little boy. I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store for us…and I hope you enjoy sleep more this year!

With all my love,

Mommy

Incredible Pizza

The Saturday before we drove to Dallas for Chad's surgery, our cousin Coyt invited us to his 6th birthday party at Incredible Pizza. Chalin had a blast! Here are some of the things Chalin enjoyed doing while at Incredible Pizza.

Playing skee ball with Daddy

Riding the Choo Choo Train

Riding go carts for the 1st time with Daddy and
almost giving Mommy a heart attack.

This probably made the list of favorite "daddy" moments so far.

Watching the balls shoot up and fall out

Winning tickets

Playing skee ball, again

Riding the train, again...

....and again, which totaled at least 20 times!

We had a great time, and as you can tell by the pictures, Chalin REALLY had a blast! I guess we know where Chalin will want to have his party in a few years...Thank you Mimi for taking these pictures on your phone, so that I could post them to the blog!

Potty "success"

Potty "success".......well, how do you view "success?" Chalin got a potty for Christmas from his Papa and Mama Dolly. He was so excited to get this new "piece of furniture." Rather than leave it in its new home, a.k.a. our front bathroom, he decided he needed to try out his new potty in the living room...while watching television. For several days, Chalin and his new friend were nearly inseparable.

"My new potty and book!"

"Hmm, this is pretty comfy."

"Nothing wrong with enjoying a little television while taking care of business."

"Jammies, a spoon, a cup of milk, and my potty. What else do I need?"

"This is GREAT!"
"Yes, it is necessary for my diaper, pants, AND socks to come off while practicing."
"This is pretty fun!"

"Awww, reading a book to pass the time."

.......Now, some of you may be wondering, "Well, has he actually used his potty?" And the answer to that is, "Yes. By accident. But, yes! TWICE." So, if potty "success" means (1) loving the potty, (2) spending large amounts of time on the potty by personal CHOICE, (3) insisting that all articles of clothing below the waist must come off, even if there is no plan to actually use the potty, (4) using the potty TWICE, although it was by accident, and (5) requesting that we read the potty book at least once a day, well, then my friends, Chalin has achieved potty "infatuation success!"

The Many Faces of Chalin

Yes, another post. I have so many pictures to share, AND I'm just really trying to figure out this whole blogspot website. SO, while I'm practicing, you get to view some pictures of my sweet baby boy--well, I guess he's pretty much my "toddler" boy and not quite a "baby" anymore--BUT that's a whole different post, and we're not going there tonight...

I got the step stool out from the garage to assist me in decorating the tree. It instantly became a fun new toy for Chalin. While he was on it, he decided to show us some of the many faces he likes to make....

My Annual Review

Ok, so I was reading my friend Kristyn's blog today, and I got this idea from her, which she got from another fellow blogger. I always like to write down a short list of "New Year's Resolutions," but this year, I decided to write my own Annual Review. I liked this idea because it actually made me reflect back on some positive things from 2009, rather than just list new goals for 2010. Here is what I came up with, although I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list later.

Things I did well in 2009:
1. Had lots of patience for many MANY nights of not much sleep. My sweet Chalin is still not much of a sleeper, but he is doing better…most of the time!
2. Trained and ran a ½ marathon at the OKC Memorial Marathon. In preparing for this, I ran a few other races that beat my previous race times.
3. Made some time for myself to do one of the things I really love—reading! I mostly read vampire books, but hey, I probably read at least 20 books, maybe more.
4. Started the Dave Ramsey Program, which encouraged me to save money –in one area in particular, food! By cooking more, we saved money, and it was healthier than eating fast food all the time. I also tried lots of new yummy recipes, rather than just cooking Hamburger Helper all the time—haha!
5. Joined a LTG (Life Transformation Group), which encouraged me to read my Bible more.

Things I want to do better in 2010:
1. BE HEALTHIER—Exercise regularly and stop eating so much junk food. I want to visit the gym a couple of times a week, along with taking Chalin for many jogging stroller rides.
2. Spend less time on the computer and more time reading God’s Word.
3. Learning new things: knitting projects, refurbishing/restoring the record player holder in our garage and other furniture, scrapbooking, etc. Life is too short, and there are soooo many things to learn!
4. Make more time for Chad and actually schedule date nights. We have had so few of these since Chalin came along, and I know how important they are in a relationship.
5. Actually invite friends over for dinner. I’m always afraid that the house isn’t clean enough or the food I cook won’t be good enough. 2010 is the year for me to get over these fears!

Now, aren't you just so anxious to write your own Annual Review? If so, I can't wait to read it! :)

Holiday Catch-up

Happy New Year! I can't believe it is officially 2010--this last year has had its up and downs, like any year, but I choose to focus on the good. Chad and I have had so much fun watching Chalin learn to crawl, walk, run, talk, and just GROW. He brings tons of smiles to our faces every single day. If 2010 is half as good as 2009, then we are good to go. Bring on the new year, new resolutions, challenges, hopefully some nights of sleep, and just good times with family and friends.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas 2009. Hope you all enjoy. Thank you all for being a part of our lives--you mean the world to us. May your 2010 be filled with lots of LOVE, much HAPPINESS, and many BLESSINGS!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New cool red bike!

Opening a few presents

Can you guess what Chalin really LOVES right now?!

Christmas Eve Jammies

Christmas Eve Bedtime Story

Isn't this hat from GAP the cutest?!

Taking a RARE nap on the way home from Ada, after celebrating Christmas there.

A few things from Santa, who made a special delivery to our house on December 26th--a Home Depot tool bench...

...a train set...

...and a tunnel!

Running around the house in his new Sponge Bob coat and worker's goggles.

Dressed and ready for the mall in new shirt and shoes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Robertson's!