Bentley's 2nd Birthday Party!!

We threw big 1st Birthday Parties for the girls. (Kiley's & Presley's). When we had Bentley, we decided to wait and have a big 2nd Birthday Party for him. We felt like since he would be older, he would have more fun and he certainly did! Leading up to the big party, we would ask Bentley how old he was going to be and he would hold up his hands and say "two". We would ask him if he was going to have a big birthday party and he would say "cupcakes", "popcorn", "movie", "pizza" and "football". Well, he got what he asked for!

We decided on a football theme since the party fell on super bowl weekend. Everyone came dressed in their favorite team jersey!

We were able to fit a couple of pictures in before the party started!

I had so much fun making the decorations!! Special thanks to Mom/Marmee for helping set up for the party while we were at Annabelle's Party.

We had adult beverages.

And kid friendly drinks too!

All of the kids got their own sport bottles to use during the party and then take home after the party!

We ordered pizza and wings for dinner!

And we ordered a cupcake cake for dessert!

With Bentley's birthday being in February, we knew we couldn't do anything outside, so I had to get creative to entertain everyone inside. We setup a craft station, a coloring station and turned on a movie in the media room. We hired two teenagers to keep an eye on the kids, so that the parents could enjoy themselves downstairs. It could not have gone more smoothly. There weren't any big spills, or injuries, or tantrums. All of the kids played upstairs and the adults mingled downstairs. Bentley got his movie and popcorn and could not have been more happy!

Mikey refilling the popcorn maker!

After the kids decorated their boxes upstairs, they came down to "Make their own S'mores Snack Mix" to take home.

The chocolate chips and the marshmallows sure disappeared faster than the golden grams and pretzel sticks!

Towards the end of the party, we brought the kids downstairs to sing Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes!

A few friends stuck around for a while after the party, so Bentley took the opportunity to open presents....pantless...

It looks like these are the only pictures that you can barely see the slideshow in the background. I have to give myself credit for a 200 picture slideshow that played during the party.

Bentley had plenty of helpers to help open his presents!

Uncle Joel always ends up with the kids!

This is what it looks like after a good party! We ended up having about 40 adults and 20 kids.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate Bentley's 2nd Birthday with us. It meant so much to us to have you at our home and we hope you had as much fun as we did! We are officially done with adult/kid parties.

The Perot Museum

The morning of Bentley's birthday party, we were invited to Annabelle's birthday party at The Perot Museum. We were so excited to experience it. They have a really cool kids area and we tried to look at the other floors as much as we could.

We experienced an earthquake.

And played in the water.

After we played, we went in and had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Annabelle. We had so much fun! Kiley apparently needed to rest up for the next big party!

Stay tuned for the big 2nd Birthday Party Blowout!!

January... into February

Where to begin....How about with a picture of Mr. Bentley....Enough Said.

One Sunday morning, I took the girls to their friend, Brooke's birthday party. We had never been there but the girls had a blast. There were little rides and a bunch of bounce houses. The girls loved it!

After the birthday party, we rushed home and went to our neighbor's house to watch the second Cowboy playoff game. It was a devastating loss, but the kids had fun!

Bentley helping Riggs with dinner.

One morning, Presley asked to get Bentley dressed. Well of course you can!!

The Clifton's came over one night for dinner and it was so cute to watch Bentley and Riggs play together.

One beautiful day, we took the kids to the park to play.

On another pretty day, Amy had heated up their hot tub for the girls, so we brought the kids over to swim. It was cold when they got out, so we put them right in their PJs.

We put Kiley to bed right when we got home. We let the other two stay up a little while and watch the iPad. Presley had her baby and Bentley insisted that Mickey Mouse join them.

I was watching the news one afternoon and saw my Father In Law! I sent him a picture of the TV.

Bentley had opposite day at school and he loved it!

Not sure who took this picture....

I took this picture of a very rare occasion of the girls cuddling in our bed watching a show before bedtime.

This is a picture of Presley sleeping in bed. She got a Bitty Baby for Christmas from Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathy and every night she puts her in her box to go to sleep.

This is a list of our smoke detectors and here is the reason why. One morning at 4am, we were woken up by our smoke detectors. All 11 (I missed one on this list) were going off at the same time. It was so loud and so scary. Mikey and I ran all over the house looking for smoke and even ran outside to see if we could see anything. Presley immediately ran out of her room and we had her open Kiley's door. I remembered a friend telling me that this had recently happened to them. We called the fire department directly to see if they could help us over the phone. After about 15 minutes they decided they needed to come out. It took them almost 30 minutes to find the source of the problem. We had a faulty smoke detector that shorted out so it set all of them off. All of them except the one in Bentley's bedroom so he miraculously slept through the entire thing. It turns out that after about 5-8 years, smoke detectors need to be replaced, so the very next day Mikey went to Home Depot and bought all new ones. If you are going to get woken up to a fire alarm, I guess it is best to be a false alarm but it sure was scary and we were exhausted the next day. It was a good Fire Drill if you will.

Bentley looking sophisticated.

I sent that picture of Bentley to Aunt Karen and she wanted a picture of Presley and boy did she get one...

Apparently, Bentley was into wearing glasses that day.

And we will end with another silly picture of Mr. Bentley. He is such a crazy kid.

The Cowboy Game

Our very dear friends, Brandon and Sara, called us and asked us to go to the Dallas Cowboy Playoff Game!! We gave an automatic YES! before even looking to see what day it was or if we could get child care. It all luckily worked out and we had a blast! It was an awesome game!! We never sat down and have never yelled so much during an entire game!

Walking into the stadium.

The view from our seats!

We got caught up in a little selfie action.

We always have a blast with the Rhine's and cannot thank you guys enough for inviting us to such a big game. We love you!!

Around the same time as the game, my cousin Mason and his girlfriend Mackenzie came to stay a couple of days with us. We had so much fun spending time with them. We went to lunch when they got in town and got in the hot tub at night. We had a bonfire out front one night.

And Mikey and Presley took them to visit Cowboys Stadium.

We love you and we hope you guys come back again very soon!!

New Year/New Bed

Over Winter Break, we hit a very big milestone in the Baird Household. Kiley is officially sleeping in a big girl bed! We are so excited and so proud of her. You may remember a couple years ago when I was pregnant with Bentley, we bought all new bedroom furniture for Kiley so that we could give her furniture to Bentley. Kiley was not ready for her new bed, so we moved it into Presley's room and put Presley's crib in Kiley's room.

Kiley started sleeping in beds when we were at my parents house, so we thought she would be ready. I wanted to try it over the break so we didn't have to worry about her getting up for school the next day. It is basically sleep training all over again. It took a little over a week and some different tactics before we were finally successful.

We tried to let Presley sleep with her to get her used to her new bed.

Ok, on a side note, here is another picture of the girls sleeping in Kiley's bed. I sent this to my girlfriends and they asked who the 3 person was in the bed. Do you see it on the left? Bentley was fast asleep in his bed. It looked so real. My Mom was staying with us and I got so freaked out, I asked her to go upstairs and check. To this day, I still believe it was my sister, Rachael, looking over the girls.

Mikey and I would take turns laying with her until she fell asleep. This made for a cute picture.

I had Presley and Kiley spend "quiet time" in Kiley's room to help get her used to her bed.

We would let her cry it out. She would come cry by the door and then go fall asleep somewhere on the floor. This one broke my heart. I would go up and put her back in bed.

We went to my parents for Christmas, which gave us a little break from the sleep training. When we got home, we continued to let her cry it out and she started staying in bed and then eventually it clicked! Most nights she still sleeps in her bed like it is her crib, but she is in the bed!!

I have been working on Kiley's room since we bought her new furniture and it never felt complete until we converted her to her big girl bed. Now her room is finally complete!

Since Presley was such a trooper 2 years ago we let her go ahead and keep Kiley's original bed. Luckily all of the furniture is white!

As I said in the beginning of this post, it is such a huge milestone for us, since we were unsuccessful the first time. It is a huge weight lifted off of our shoulders and we are so incredibly proud of Kiley!

Back Up & Running!!

I apologize for not yet posting in 2015. I was having an issue uploading pictures and I finally fixed it! I added some pictures to Thanksgiving 2014 and My Little Cuties and a Couple of other pics. Please check back very shortly as I am starting to catch up on my posts!!