Birthdays

January is quite the month for birthdays in our family! Our most favorite, by far, however, is Ken!! He turned 32 this year!!! We love him SOOO much! Here are our January Birthdays!!

Eli Cutler 3rd

CJ Lindsay 6th

Michael Cutler 9th

Ken, Nick Cutler, Gene Corson 11th

(and we keep finding more and more people whose birthday is on the 11th! :) )

Eleni Corson 14th

Grandpa Cash 17th

Nic Delgado 19th

Samantha Cutler 28th

We started our celebrating on the 6th with CJ at his pool party. Our kids LOVED the pool and it was such a good time! We can hardly believe that CJ is 7 now!! It all goes SOOOO fast!! We love you, CJ!

Daddy's little mermaid

Usually Bailey it really upset and fighting us the whole time we're at the pool because we won't just let her go. This time I think she realized she is mortal and she hung on pretty tight to Ken the whole time. She was brave enough to jump to him from the side though, which was pretty cute! She was VERY upset when it was time to leave and she kept asking to go back swimming the whole next day! She woke up from her nap saying, "Get Daddy a go swimming!!"

Taysum had a blast as well! He was very brave and started jumping into the pool all by himself with no one catching him! He had a lot more fun once we taught him to hold his nose. He did really well with just the floaties. We're excited for him to take swimming lessons this summer!

Here's a fun picture of the birthday boy!

Quinn-man

Another mermaid princess, Carissa

CJ pasta

Taysum with some noodles of his own

Here is our birthday boy!!

Actually, this picture was taken a couple days before his birthday. We were trying to figure out something with the camera and this is the test pose he decided on! :)

I just loved this picture of Bailey. I bought this blanket for her when I was in Korea last year, but she never really liked it. Only recently has she enjoyed her Panda blanket and actually wanted the hood on as well. It's so cute, because there is a little tail on the back as well.

Taysum and Panda B

All bundled up to go outside

Now for the birthday boy!! Ken's birthday was on a Monday, but he had a great day. His co-workers took him out to lunch which he really enjoyed. The kids and I sent him some balloons and he said those were fun to get. (Not as much fun as the kids had with them when he brought them home!) Then he came home and we let him open his presents. Bailey was a "great" helper!

He got some MUCH needed pants (and shirts) from his parents (thank you so much!)! It was great timing, because the package came on his birthday!

Then we had a fun family party. We had my parents and Tyler and the Lindsays over. We had all our favorite party foods: BBQ Beef Nachos, Bruschetta (my first attempt and it turned out pretty good), bread and spinach dip, chips and onion dip, veggies and other yummy snacks. Then we played some games (one of Ken's favorite things to do). Celeste was so cute...she had a great poker face that said, "Deal me in" as she pounded the table.

It was pretty funny because all the little girls were in purple! (Grandma A's favorite color) and Bailey found a new love...OREOS!!!

And now for the piece de resistance! Lemon Meringue Pie is Ken's absolute favorite. In the nearly 10 years we've been married, I've never had the courage! I usually have some one else make them for me...well this year I did it! I actually made 2 of them and they turned out pretty great, even if I do say so myself! :) However...it may be another 10 years before I try it again!

Because I'm so far behind...I thought I'd just add to the end of this post. Over the past couple weeks, Taysum has been asked to go to a friend's house. We've gone to play groups and birthday parties, but this is the first time he's been asked to a friend's house to play on his own. Kyle is a fun little boy with special needs. Kyle and Taysum are in the same class at Preschool and they really get along well. I actually used to babysit Kyle a couple years ago...but they were kind of young and just played "around" each other rather than with each other like they do now. Every day they come running up wanting to know if they are going to Taysum's house or Kyle's house! The first day, I was excited for him and it was a lot of fun! Plus, that was Ken's birthday and it REALLY helped to have him at Kyle's so I could get things done while Bailey was asleep! They asked him over the next day as well, and that time I was a little sad for him to be gone! Then I realized that in just over 6 months he'll be starting school and he'll be gone that much all the time! It was really kind of sad! I can't believe my baby I waited for SO long is already going to be gone so much!! (Yes, I think I'm going to be one of THOSE moms ;) ). I am happy for him and so proud of all he's overcome and has learned! He's such a wonderful little boy and I feel SO blessed to have the kids I do...I couldn't ask for more loving, amazing kids!!