Happy 2nd Birthday Freddie!!!

See...I told you I'd be back.  I'll have to work on catching up, but as for current events Freddie celebrated his 2nd Birthday on Sunday...and in turn, so did we...here is his 2nd Birthday, in pictures!!!

It started out with a bath, because EVERYONE needs to be clean on their birthday...we even let them draw with the bath crayons and they both had a blast!!! And surprisingly, cleaning up wasn't as bad as I had imagined!

We gave Freddie this neat "pop up" Cars tent for his birthday and he and Karyl quickly found spots right in front, grabbed a few snacks, and sat down to watch...wait for it...CARS....

Amazingly, this year Freddie picked up on the idea of anything wrapped was his to tear open...unfortunately for him, his 4-year-old sister already knew this all too well and just assumed he needed her help with every single present.  Needless to say, the presents were opened in half the time because she was opening them too....

Freddie's dreams came true...he got lots and lots of cars...he was in HEAVEN!!!!

Then, when all the presents were open we let Freddie and his buddy Jaxson play with the bubble gun....why is it that kids LOVE chasing bubbles??

Here's Freddie and Jaxson...they are only 6 weeks apart and had such a fun time playing together!! A huge thanks to Claire and Sterling for coming by and "partying" with us.

This was Freddie's cake...it was my first time trying to make a cake from a shaped pan and it worked pretty well.  I've learned for the next time though, so I can't wait to try again with another shaped pan!!

And here's our happy little family....Freddie already had frosting on his face from sticking his finger in the cake.  He'd been bugging me to eat the cake since seeing me decorating it the night before.  I'm only posting this picture because we don't get many "family" pictures...but I didn't bother to think about the fact that I was standing sideways, which of course makes me and my 6 month baby belly look like two people...ugh....

Freddie LOVED eating his cake...luckily he wanted a spoon to eat it with, for some reason he wasn't into digging his hands in...thank you!!!

Greg got Freddie these balloons...he was SOOO excited when he saw them....the big one is in his room and whenever he sees it he gets all excited, says "Ka-Chow!!" and then starts naming off all the characters "May-May (Mater), Shally (Sally)" we giggle every time.

Of course, it's like he KNOWS his mom is deathly afraid of balloons...he tried to jump on that thing more times than I could count.  Luckily it never popped....

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY FREDRICK!!!!

I can't believe 2 years ago this was you...all tiny and quiet....

And now we have this big boy....from almost 8 pounds to over 35 pounds in 2 years...you toughed your way through your skull surgery and even have an awesome scar to show for it!!!  Look at you now..beautiful blue eyes, gorgeous blond hair...and a face that melts even your mom's worst moods.  What would we do without you?

Just in the past few weeks he has really done some growing up...he recognizes almost all of the capital letters and gets REALLY excited when he sees them...he talks in sentences (although sometimes I'm the only one who can understand them)...he tells me "poo-poo out"....he LOVES any toy with wheels....he loves to mimic Karyl and whatever she does (which isn't always helpful)...he gives me a big hug every morning when I get him out of his crib, and then he asks where his cars are....he finally can count to 10 (we worked and worked!!)...

But most importantly, he is healthy, almost always smiling, and growing faster than we can keep track of.  We wouldn't have him any other way!!!

Sorry, we're still here!!!

Well, for those who haven't figured it out yet we are still alive and here...I just honestly have not had the time or energy to update the blog.  I guess I just needed a break.

However, that does not mean that I don't have months and months of pictures and witty comments and general obnoxiousness to share!! Heck, we had that roadtrip in November that needs to be documented, and Karyl's 4th birthday party...and the holidays....and everything else up until now.

I am finally at a point where I feel like I can spare the time to do it, so be on the lookout for backdated posts (after October 15th) of our life.  I will try and remember to post a new post with links to each of the back-dated posts to make it easier to see the ones you want (if any!!). 

Just in case you can't wait, I will say that our roadtrip in November was AWESOME!! We took a week and travelled from here to the Grand Canyon, to Four Corners, to Utah and back down through Vegas.  That's right....the 4.25 of us, in a minivan, for about 1500 miles....I'm not going to lie, it was cold and it was before I had discovered the wonder of Zofran for my morning sickness, but we survived.  And more importantly, we can't wait to do it again.  Although, by the time that happens we will need a carrier for the top of the van because we're gonna need that third row seat for that other car seat!!

Alrighty...I'll be back to post...until then leave me a comment to let me know that at least 1 person cares about the past 4 months of our lives.  If you don't I might cry...and then I'll post a picture of that...and nobody wants to see that....

Happy 5th Anniversary....to US!!!

It's been 5 years since we got married....

Since then we've:

Had 2 children, with a third on the way...which means that 3 of our 5 anniversaries has seen me in a different trimester of pregnancy....

Discovered that you can't wash and dry a bluetooth headset and expect it to work again...

Discovered that kids will eat just about anything if you tell them Spongebob/Minnie Mouse/Elmo eats it too...

Moved somewhere completely new to us where we knew no one....and LOVED it!!

Learned that marriage is not easy by any means....but COMPLETELY worth it!!

Visited Hawaii, New York, Utah and Minnesota...

Laughed, cried, laughed again a little louder....over and over for an infinite number of reasons...

Bought a house....and completely renovated the outside...

Given in and bought a minivan....and sworn to never own another type of vehicle until our kids are grown...

Learned that we're both a little crazier than we first thought...and decided that we don't mind at all...



Exactly 5 years ago we walked out of the Temple, hand in hand while I hyperventilated, smiling so big that it hurt....because we knew that we were starting the first day of the rest of our lives. 

And 5 years later I still feel the same smile coming when I see him!!

It's been an amazing 5 years - and I'm looking forward to the many, many more anniversaries we will spend together in the future.  Let's see how many more crazy adventures we can create together!!

How time flies...

Yes, I'm aware it has been an entire month since I posted anything on this blog.  I think that's a record for me as far as the longest time inbetween posts.  I wish I had a good excuse, but the best I can give is that I just haven't had the time to sit, upload pictures and then write about them.  Now, I wish I suddenly had the energy and willpower to want to do it, but I don't....at least not at this very moment.

I will start later on today and try to catch up from September all the way to the book signing I went to yesterday for Bakerella's Cake Pops book.  She is the sweetest, most down to earth lady you will ever meet!!

I should say that while I haven't posted anything in a while, that doesn't mean I haven't been blog stalking all of you...or that I wasn't sneaky in changing a few things on the blog.

Next time you check, make sure to go back to the beginning of September, I will be back-dating the posts so that when we print out the book everything is labeled correctly!

Until then =)

Family fun

Today we headed over to Downtown Disney to meet up with some extended family (Greg's dad's brother and his family).  This little girl in the pink is named Chloe and once she and Karyl met, they were inseperable!! Don't they look like they could be twins?? Proof yet again that the Baun gene is strong in our kids!!

The girls sat together at dinner and even though Freddie was screaming. They ate Mac and Cheese together...

They even danced together and then had some lollipops.  It was great, the whole night people kept getting them confused!!

Lowe's and the Fire Department

Today was the Kid's Clinic at Lowe's and they also had the Firemen there with their trucks and lots of other fun stuff.  The kids loved the Fire Trucks!!



JumpNJammin

JumpNJammin

We had been planning for weeks to head to Wild Rivers today with Claire, Sterling and Jaxson....

Unfortunately, we woke up and it was a little wet and a little too cold for toddlers to be running around in a waterpark.

So, we put our heads together and Claire told us about this great little place in the Kaleidescope Mall in Mission Viejo that is a giant indoor playground for kids...and she pointed out that they even had guns that shoot balls (I think that was so the men would be willing to come and play).

So we decided to head on over...and look at all the fun we had for $15 (that was it for the four of us in our family!!)

Even Freddie was having a blast...and he had gotten shots just a few hours prior at his 18-month checkup!!
What a stud!  I'll post the stats below....

Also, Freddie insists on proving to us that he is all male...I swear this kid has NO FEAR when it comes to trying to climb and being curious!! Luckily this little play area was all soft...that made things a lot less stressful!!

Poor Greg, these kids apparently felt it was totally appropriate to pelt him with those foam balls...they were chucking those balls like they were major league pitchers!! Yeah, it was fun and Greg was throwing them back...but he had to keep reminding them to be careful of the little kids.  It's all fun and games until you pelt a grown man's child with a ball...then you're asking to die.  I'm just saying...

Greg finally got a bag to hold all his ammunition in....there were two punk kids and only one of him...he needed something to swing things in his favor!!

This ball area was so much fun...Freddie couldn't get enough of chasing the balls, picking them up and putting them into the different tubes and buckets - and Karyl stood up there shooting those air powered guns forever!!

Freddie absolutely LOVED this bounce house!! He couldn't do much jumping, but he would constantly try to stand up, stay upright for about 3-4 seconds and then fall back down and squeal with excitement!!

Oh, and we have no idea what it was about this game, but the boys couldn't stay away from it!!  Every chance they got they were both climbing all over it.  Maybe it was the lights??

My question is who thought it was smart to put just the men in there with the kids...that's like asking for a trip to the emergency room!!!

Now...as I mentioned earlier, Fredrick had his 18-month checkup this morning...here are the stats:

Height: 34.5 inches

Weight: 30 lbs. 6 oz.

Ah, yeah....he was pretty much off the charts as far as weight and height...

But luckily Dr. Tang praised us for having such healthy kids and reassured us that despite his size, he is proportionate - so he's just fine!! He's just not going to be a skinny kid when he gets older - we have a future football player folks!!

The past month....

We've been to Wild Rivers at least one day each week with our friend Claire and her son Jaxson...

The kids love it!  Believe it or not we haven't been there since, well, since before we were married, or even dating for that matter...and we never went at the same time even back then!! People always wondered why we had that whole waterpark at our disposal for free and never went....well, now we know how much the kids love it and will be going again before they close for the season, and will be there next season!!

This is what happens when you let your child pick out their own outfit....As she pointed out to me "mommy, at least the boots and hat match"

Our passes expired on August 22, so we went on Friday the 20th to get one last round with the park before we couldn't go anymore since we aren't renewing our passes for a few years.

We had so much fun...and I got a picture of myself that I actually approve of.

You can actually see that I'm losing weight in this picture in my face (that's the first place that shrinks in the rare event I start losing weight!).

We also had a blast going on a shopping spree with all the Disney Gift Cards we had from our birthdays in 2009.  Since we weren't renewing the passes we didn't need to use the money for the renewal costs and it was all ours to blow on anything and everything Disney!

And LOOK...

Nope, your eyes are not deceiving you...

There is CEMENT in our backyard again!!

Greg, David and a friend from work laid all that cement down, on one of the hottest days of the year.  At one point it was over 105 degrees out there, but they stuck to it!!

And before you start thinking Greg is crazy...those pillars are the base of the posts for the deck/covered patio he's putting up.  It was easier to start the posts now so they could pour around them and get them in the foundation - then he can finish them later when he gets to it!

So, that's our lives for the past month...along with a few Kid's Clinics that we have been lazy about taking pictures at, a lot of extra blood shed from all the construction, and my 10 year High School Reunion back in July that I helped plan and actually, despite a few whiny people, ended up being not too bad (we had twice as many people show up than we had originally thought would be there). 

I'm not posting any pictures simply because to all of you reading this I wouldn't look any different...and honestly, I really didn't take more than 3 or 4 pictures.  I did have a great time seeing some old friends, most of which I had already been in touch with and seen a few times in the past 10 years thanks to the magic of Facebook.  David came as our required "Security" so he and Greg were able to entertain each other for a few hours and we ended up leaving early anyways with our friends Claire and Sterling to get Golden Spoon.  Funny enough, the time AFTER the reunion was the most memorable part of the night.  I swear we all laughed more during that short time than I have in a long time....even David came with us and had a blast!  And the guys got to talk about guns and motorcycles and explosives in the desert...I think that made up for having to sit through those few hours at the reunion.

Oh, and a tip for all you parents out there...when doing laundry always check the pockets of your kid's pants.  Otherwise you could end up washing, drying and subsequently melting a RED crayon all over your children's clothes.  Luckily we recently started washing Karyl's clothes with Freddie's and not with ours....otherwise all our clothes would have been streaked with red crayon.  We only had 2 white shirts (one for each of the kids) that were total casualties, everything else is just kids of oddly tinted or streaked.  Luckily a lot of their clothes get put in the laundry inside out, so that helped A LOT to minimize the damage.  Although the drum of our dryer is now a red hue....