Happy 3rd Birthday Jax!



Jax turned 3 at the beginning of April....and in true Sarah fashion, I wanted to throw a fantastic party for him. I love going all out on my kids birthdays....and hopefully I'll be able to keep doing it for a few more! This year was actually not as stressful as parties in years past have been. I think the reason is because we used my parents backyard {instead of our front yard} and I used the decorations from church that we use for our Pinewood Derby {perks of being a Primary Pres....AND I was totally able to add to it, new decorations for this year's derby!}

I have to say...our ward has acquired some really neat decorations...lots and lots of these giant oil banners that totally look authentic. Not to mention, the yards upon yards of black and white banner.

We held the party during lunchtime...so we "sold" nachos, hot dogs, popcorn and chips at the Concession Stand.

The road to the backyard party!

Everyone's a winner. I found these cute mini trophy's on Oriental Trading.

After the party, the kids got to take one home, along with some Cars tattoos and stickers.

Those tatt's were a hit with my kiddos...that afternoon they each had at least 5 on each arm.

When guests first arrived, we had a table set up for them to color their own racecar.

And then the rest of the party was spent doing different types of racing...one of the favorites being running around the track spraypainted by my parents and sister!

Run, run, run! Get that energy out!!

Jax has some great buddies....who love cars just as much as he does!

In lieu of a cake, I went for a more Jax-appropriate treat: a donut cake.
Jax loves himself a donut.

Can you tell??

And thanks to Daniel, he was able to get all 3 candles blown out quick quick!

The most popular gift of the day....a monster truck!

Boys and their toys...it starts so early.

I commisioned Hannah to spray paint the side of the shed {disclaimer: she had been waiting and waiting for something to spray paint on there}. She had fun and it was perfect...we just need to work on where the red goes on the stoplight! She has a few more weeks till she's 16 to study up!

Happy Birthday, sweet Jaxxy! We love you!!

The Trashy Party (3)

What would a party be without cake and presents!?

I made Jax his very own dump truck cake....chocolate cake, chocolate icing, gummy worms and oreo cookies on top! For all the kids, I made dirt cupcakes in cones!

The whole time he's like, why is there crap in the back of my truck, yo?!

This picture melts my heart...

And I'm just so glad I made a huge chocolate mess for a boy....who doesn't really prefer chocolate. Oh well....more for mommy to eat, right?!

All the friends dug right in, getting nice and messy.

After cake....Jax opened his presents.

Lots of cool stuff....wrapped in trash, my genius friends!

He wouldn't let that cupcake cone go....all thru unwrapping his gifts. 

Mom and dad {mainly daddy...mommy talked daddy into getting a trampoline, so that was her gift, booyah} bought him a cute little no-wheel bike. Yes, that's right....no wheels. Big Daddy said it's supposed to help him learn balance....soweshallsee.

At the end of the party.....the garbage truck rumbled down the street....perfect timing!

I think this was the funnest party I've ever thrown, and it was so much fun to put together and really got the creative juices flowing :). It also got me nice and excited for the girls party in October!

The Trashy Party (2)

We held the party outside in the front yard....and the set up work great....

we even roped the yard off with caution tape leftover from another little fella's birthday.

I had a whole area with wadded up trash...and bins for the kids to separate Paper, Plastic and Aluminum. Another one of the favors was a trash grabber, or whatever they're called. My sweet friend Shellie found them at the Dollar Tree! I was so excited she found them for only $1!

We had such a great turn out of friends....birthdays for ages 1-3 really do seem more for the parents. And I happen to be lucky enough to have a great group of friends all with toddlers Jax's age! He gets kinda grumpy around them....unsociable....but they still like him just the same! 

The kiddos also did some drive way art for me.....

Friends...aren't they cute??

I was SO happy that Emily and Jed were able to come up from San Antonio to spend this special day with us. I couldn't have done all the prep the night before or that morning without her!

The dad's tagged along with their families....and found a great spot in the ever-receding shade to sit and chat. 

Hannah, my baby sister....made herself friends with cute little Wyatt.

He's a little bit of a sweetie.

This is actually the first birthday party for my kids that I've been able to have family at!

Carl and Jax have a great love-hate relationship....they love to tease and pound on each other.

Friends travelled from far away to celebrate with us!

Jetta and her kiddos, including Aubree's best friend Sarah, drove down from Wylie, braved the traffic and even stayed after to clean up and rub my feet.

All of these pictures are courtesy of the gorgeous Danielle. She saved me by taking some {214} pictures of the event! I'm always running around like crazy at parties, so it was nice to have someone take that responsibility on! Thx, Sweet Dee.

Cake and gifts up next!

Keeping it going...

I got a new iPhone. I love my new phone, like probably too much. It's so much fun.

Instead of toting my camera around....I just snap shots and use Instagram to filter it, making it look super cool. The only problem....pictures are on my PHONE, not computer, making it hard to get them TO my computer and uploaded onto blogger. And what is a blog post without pictures?! 

So I'm going to make the effort {to not be lazy}....and get these awesome pictures all loaded up!

Cause there are some good ones!

Like this of the family on New Years eve/day/week?? I'm not for sure.

Isn't Emily's smile so cute? And James covering his face there in the background....priceless.

 Hula Hooping has been all the rave over here lately....until we {we: as in my middle girl child} broke the darn thing all over the carpet. I need to go buy a new one {preferably one without water inside of it!} cause it's so fun to watch them hula!

 Our next door neighbor has chickens that used to come over and eat all the bugs in our yard visit, but we haven't seen them all that much lately. The other day, we were playing outside {since the weather has been goooooorgeous lately...} and this scraggly little chick comes wandering over.

The kiddos were quite enthralled....especially since the chick was so friendly and wanted to play! It almost let Jax pet it....crazy chicken.

Randomness at its best....



IloveyousomuchIcouldsquishyou

I'm so glad the hubs remembered to snap a picture of this little stud yesterday!

I left early for church with the girls to attend choir....and totally forgot to set out clothes for Jax, which can sometimes spell disaster (James thinks black and blue can be worn together, and I submit that they cannot!). Welp, I had ALSO forgotten that I bought this little gem of an outfit at Target. Holy smokes, when my boys walked in, I about died from the cuteness. What a little MAN.

 Daddy also snapped this sweet little pic of my munchers. Saturday was quite the lazy day...

What's up, Buttercup??

Well....we were lame in the birthday party department this year. With everything going on {the new calling, the maybe-job, Jax and his shenanigans} I skipped over the big party this year...even though I totally started planning one {hello....Princess and the Pea, such a cute idea!}. Instead, we had us a little family party....which was our FIRST birthday party with family, since Bella's 1st. We waited until Em and Jed could come up for a visit....and we partied!

 My cake was only semi-ghetto....but it tasted fantabulous. And the numbers DO add up to their ages: 7 and 5. Woot, go me!

 Sunday .... Jax was dressed up way too cute.

And was, for some reason, standing on a serving tray, holding a pumpkin.

Nice.

 Handsome little stud.

Complete with a boo-boo on his chin.

Crazychildofmine.

The newest thing...

Jaxson loves to climb now...

On chairs, on stools...

and especially the fireplace.

Then he will sit there and look happy as a clam
{not in this picture....he looks kinda crabcakes here....but this was back when he first started doing this, and he would look surprised that he could be up so high}

lording over his kingdom. 

The cutting of the hair....

So...the other day, I put a tiiiiiiny ponytail in Jax's hair. I did it right before James got home from work, just to see if he would notice. ♥ Then....I put Jax's high chair with the back facing the door, so the first thing James would see.....is the ponytail. {or...mulletail, as rightly named by Aube}

And did he see it??

Oh yessireeee. Ü

He didn't say a word....just walked back into the bedroom, changed, grabbed the clippers and went to town! Yaya!

Poor Jax-man....

kinda looks like torture, yeah?

James obviously never went to hair school...and neither he, nor I, has ever cut boy-hair before!

As these pictures rightly describe:

So I told James that since he messed it up and had to go way short, he BETTER GIVE THAT BOY A MOHAWK, yo! Ha!

Please excuse the ragamuffin, messy face! But you can really tell the difference around the ears.{which seem to be migrating away from his head, an unfortunate trait passed down from daddy}

He looks like such a little man now! With his bald head.

And chunky bow'd legs.