Gauge is 3!!

(Another post after this one too)

Bonus for the siblings! A birthday means new toys all around! :)

Pappy putting together the train set for Gauge after the bday...

Happy Birthday Bud! (why oh why do I have to make the face like I'm blowing them out too?? Thanks Chris for this photo...)

Yay for garbage trucks!

Mr. 3 Year Old!

Present time!

They loved pushing the trains on the track which I didn't even think of. He is so smart!

Decked out in their Thomas outfits...

I made these trains out of boxes with beanbags so they could throw them in the middle...

He LOVED the tracks!

Yummo! I finally found a yummy icing recipe!

How did this happen?! I have a 3 year old?! Whoa!

My sweet Gauge Garrett is three! He isn't a baby anymore! He is a big boy! A potty trained big boy I might add! (Well perfect on the pee but still refuses to poop...oh well, soon I hope!) We had a fun Thomas the Train birthday at my parent's church. (Thank you dad and mom for letting us use it!) It was perfect because they have a playroom and I wanted to do the track on the floor with tape so on carpet is was easy! And they have big tv so we could play a Thomas video. It was perfect! I went the night before and decorated with my mom and dad and the next day we baked our cookie cake. (Gauge's request) Which was so yummy so good job Gauge! :) We had fun just playing with the other kiddos and I love how excited he was this year. He was thrilled when he walked in and yelled Thomas!!! He loved every toy and was so into it. He loves his garbage truck and trains and trucks! Three is a fun age that everything little thing is so exciting to them :)

Gauge I love you! You are the sweetest boy a mommy could ask for. You love to hug and you are so fun. You really enjoy each new thing in life and I love having you as my buddy. Who's Gauge are you? Mom's Gauge! I pray you always stay so excited about life and that you would grow into a wonderful boy who loves God with all of his heart. You are so special bud!

Today is his real birthday so we are going to go to Chuck E Cheese to play and then exchange a present at Toys R Us. Oh the life of a kid! It's grand!

Teagan and her Cast...

Good times with Pa!

My dad started this little game and they don't ever want him to stop! Talk about a work out!

Gauge will probably never break a bone. He is NOT a dare devil...He is his momma!

Painted her toes for the first time :)

I put a sock over it to keep dirt, food and junk out of the cast as well as keep it dry and clean from food. Works like a charm!

With her soft cast...

So yes...My little Teagan has a cast. You know it really shouldn't surprise me right? Anyone who knows or has met Teagan knows that she is a wild monkey. She is Teagan Evil Knevil...The child has NO fear of anything. She walks straight off slides (who needs to sit right?), she runs with no fear any and everywhere, and when she falls (which is often) she bounces right back up and keeps doing the same thing she was doing! If she ever cries it is only for a second and she finds something better to do than cry...(normally it's doing the same thing that got her crying in the first place! Good golly!) We all know the story of Teagan falling down the 15 stairs at the children's musuem without one bump or scratch. Well Saturday was the day...April 17th....

The goober fell off the side arm of the recliner (which mind you is not high AT all) and landed on her arm just right and fractured it. I knew she was crying a little odd for her and her arm seemed limp so we grabbed her and ran up to the Dr office which is right next to the Children's hosptial. I didn't want to go through ER and then have it be nothing but sprained and thankfully on Saturdays the Dr office is open until 12. This happened about 10:30am...So we run in there and there is no wait, walk right in and they send us immediately to the Children's hospital for xrays. There was no wait there either. (funny note: As I am registering her, my mom is playing with her over by some video games and she is using both hands on the controllers and acting like nothing is wrong...I almost made the decision to leave but thought no we are already here lets just do this) We go right up, get the xrays, run right back over to the Dr office which is closed but they go ahead and see us for the results and bam. Two fractures and she needs a soft cast until Monday when she can go get a cast at the Orthopedist. Awesome. Only my Teagan. :)

So we barely make it through the weekend with the darn soft cast because the child likes to take it off and it also comes unraveled. I wait and wait Monday thinking surely they are going to call any minute so we can go get this hard cast. Well 4pm rolls around and I'm starting to get mad. They finally call after me leaving message after message and say that she can get in on Wednesday morning. I'm thinking, the kids hand is broken and you are gonna wait till Wed?! Are you kidding me. So I call and call and at about 5 I get a PERSON (not a machine) and say if you can get a Dr. to look at the xray and tell me she is fine until Wednesday taking the soft cast on and off then I will wait till Wed. Otherwise I want an appt. for tomorrow morning asap. I sit on hold FOREVER and then she comes back and says...Ok tomorrow 7:55am come in and by the way, don't let her take that cast off. Duct tape it if you have to because the fracture is clean but if she falls once with the soft cast off it will break all the way through. Oh wonderful. So thank you ding dong nurses who want to make you wait until Wednesday! For the love! I learned you gotta annoy a lot of people to get answers and get the right thing done! I did ask her at one point if her arm was snapped in two would they make me wait till Wednesday? I also left a kind message during the day that said if I don't get a call back that says I have an appt tomorrow then I will be sitting in your office at 7:45 and I WILL make the appt myself for right then. I should have been an orthopedic pediatric dr since there are only 2 in the whole stinking town and how many kids break bones? ALOT!

So there you have it! Miss Teagan isn't even 2 and has her first cast, I'm praying it's her last cast. But I will take a cast over blood and stitches anyday. Ok maybe not. We have to have this thing on for 5 weeks so May 25th she gets it off. Try keeping a kid who is a monkey out of water and clean for 5 weeks. Tough I say...But ask Teagan about it, and she could care less she has one arm. This didn't stop her one bit. She even stills likes to be her daredevil self and hang by the one good arm on the bar over the slide...Awesome.

Are you ready for a major picture post?!

Whoa....This is gonna be a lot of pics but we took a lot during Easter and I just love their cute little faces and expressions that I couldn't just pic one or two! :)

About two weeks ago Chris' mom (MiMi) came over and helped me and the kiddos plant some in the back. She got them each a strawberry plant. They are pretty little plants and I haven't killed anything yet! But unfortunately Gauge brought me a nice little handful of green strawberries the other day. I'm trying to explain that we can't pick them off or they won't finish growing...Tricky! I also planted some Roma tomatoes, Chives, Rosemary and Jalpenos. So far so good! Nothing is dead and I am super ecstatic. I even see a little bud coming out on one tomato plant. Woo hoo! :)

I also painted and clean up the back so we could enjoy more time there. The kids LOVE being outside so we just needed to get it done. Basically I just wanted bright colors so I would smile when I walked out :)

On to the next set of photos....I was working on some flower bows and the kiddos were in the courtyard where they play alot. I heard water running and lots of squeals and giggles. Sure enough I look out to see to soaking wet children playing with the hose. My first thought was I'm not stopping anything that the two of them are laughing that hard at because I love when they have a blast together. My second thought was get the camera. My third thought was, they are going to want to do this all the time now....;)

We had a great Easter. We had both sides of the family over for a little egg hunt and BBQ. It was so nice to sit outside and the weather was wonderful. Good times all around!

Now if I could just get my hiney motivated to finish painting our room that I half started! Goodness! I'm too engrossed in Food Nation with Jamie Oliver right now though! hehe

The kiddos strawberry plants...

And the sad green strawberries, whose lives were cut short ;)

Freshly painted backyard with plants and veggies!

I love this pic. You can tell he is really laughing a good laugh :)

Those pigtails are hilarious...

Singing their favorite "This little light of mine"

This looks like a pose I would do...."Oh my beloved cookie! How I love thee!"

Mom! Mom! Let's see the goods! They picked through the goldfish and cookies and went straight for the jellybeans :)

Teagan running to give her great- great grandpa, Papaw a cookie!

Wow! A cookie!

Gauge refused to go a get all the eggs to fill his basket. Instead he found it better to just open each one as he got to it and eat what was inside. Ha!

My silouhettes of the kiddos! I love how they turned out :)

Going to church on Easter... Bummer dad was working...