Dino Birthday Bash

We celebrated Roman's Birthday with a Dino Bash at my parents house. THANK YOU Nana and Pop for always providing your beautiful house and gorgeous backyard. We lucked out with the weather and had sunshine. Never know with March, but we were blessed. 

I had a lot of fun decorating with the dinosaur theme. We had dino themed snacks and even did a dinosaur egg hunt. Most importantly I think the Birthday Boy had a happy day and fun celebration, 

so that was the most important. 

Dino Snacks

Gotta love the Oriental Trading Company for all the dino stuff. Found lots of cute stuff to decorate with.

Tyler is digging for dinos. Thank you Grammy and Papa for coordinating some fun activities. 

Pop's Dino Cake Masterpiece. Always so impressive. THANK YOU POP!!!

Excited with their Dino Egg Hunt LOOT

The jump house slide was the best!  

Paisley and her Grandma's

Ethan got some eggs! 

Hunter Rae checking out what is in her egg. 

Kaitlyn is a happy girl 

Paisley collecting some eggs 

Roman having fun with his friend from school Kenzie

Roman was so happy to have Great Grammy at his birthday party

ROAR! 

Paisley didn't want to go on the jumphouse until everyone left. Then she didn't want to get off. 

Happy Birthday Big Boy! 

Roman would not leave my parents house until the jump house was gone. I stayed with him until 6pm when they arrived to deflate it. We bounced together for hours and I got quite the workout. My legs were actually sore the next day. 

THANK YOU to our family and friends who celebrated with us. We had a wonderful and happy day! 

Roman is FOUR

My little boy is now FOUR! WOW...sometimes it just goes by all too fast and I get kind of sad. But then I remind myself to just cherish it all. Roman was having some anxiety before turning 4 and kept telling me the week before that he wanted to stay 3. I tried to talk with him about why he didn't want to turn 4 and I just couldn't figure out what was the main issue. I told him that he could have a special sleepover in our bed the night before his birthday. This made him very happy and then he started to actually look forward to his birthday. Before going to bed that night he finally opened up and said, "What happens when I turn 4?" I explained to him that each and every day he grows a little and his birthday is just a celebration of the day he was born. He then said to me, "Does it hurt when I turn 4? Will I still be able to talk?" My heart hurt a little knowing this is what was going thru his mind all week. I tried my best to comfort him and snuggle with him a little extra that night. When he woke up the next morning, I said to him. How do you feel? He felt great and quickly realized he was 4 and all was OK. The worries and anxiety about turning 4 were gone and luckily he was able to enjoy the day.

Dear Roman,
You make our hearts so full and have brought such love to our family over the past 4 years. From the moment you entered our lives, we have never been the same. This past year has been such a fun adventure and we are so proud of the sweet boy you have become.

 You have such an amazing imagination and we have loved seeing it come to life this past year. You love role playing, hearing stories and learning about new things. You are fascinated by how things work and why things happen. We can imagine that you are going to be our little scientist. You also love to be the Chef. You ask us if you can cook something with ingredients since you love to mix everything together and then see a finished product. We can't wait for the day when you serve us breakfast in bed (maybe in another 10 years).

You have gotten so good on your new big boy bike and love riding to the school or in the backyard. You love playing with your action figures and still occassionally play with your Cars. On your birthday I let you open a few gifts before your Dad got home from work and when you had 1 left, I asked, "Do you want a toy or a book?" Of course you picked the book. You LOVE your books and are starting to get into longer length stories. One of our favorite things to do is sit in your bed and read stories with you. You also love playing Board Games, which have become a new nightly ritual after dinner. Candyland is your favorite (OK...you are obsessed with it), but we are starting to find some others that you like. You get such joy out of playing with your Dad when he gets home from work and love when he chases you around the house and you throw imagineary fire balls and lasers at each other.

You go 2 days a week to preschool and you love your teacher Miss Paulina. You continue to give your Mama a hard time occassionally when I leave, but the teachers reassure me that after a minute you are back to smiling. Please don't continue to do this for the next 15 years, it may just break my heart. You started going to Promiseland Sunday School this year at Saint Matthew's and have the sweetest, most wonderful teacher, Miss Sherry. I love that you will grow up with a wonderful group of friends from church. We feel very blessed to be part of such a positive church community.

You started going back to My Gym and it is the perfect class for you. It gives you independence and confidence that you are able to do a class on your own. We are so proud of you for trying so hard and keeping with it. We know these things don't always come easy for you. You are really excited for swim lessons to start and ask me every day how many days until you get to swim. Our little waterbug. You decided you didn't want to play soccer, so I'm looking into some classes at the Lindsey Mueseum for the Spring.

Those bright green eyes hold such wonder and curiosity. You tend to be a worrier and I wish I could take that all away (sorry you inherited that gene from me). You are compassionate, sweet, loving, emptathetic and so smart. I've noticed that 4 might also be full of some sass and attitude, but we don't let you get away with too much. You are such a loving Big Brother and treat your sister so wonderfully. She is one lucky girl.

Roman, we love you so much! We are looking forward to another happy year ahead. Thank you for being our little prince that always makes us feel so loved.

Our Disneyland Adventure

We had been planning to go to Disneyland in March for Roman's Birthday, but had to expedite our trip  due to Jason getting a new job (WOO HOO...more on that one later). The trip worked out perfect and was just what we needed. We picked up Jason from work on Friday afternoon and headed on our road trip to So Cal.

Our first stop was to visit Jason's good friend, Jon. We loved visiting his house and exploring the adorable neighborhood of Playa Vista. What an amazing place to live in So Cal.

Then on to Disneyland. We were staying in Anaheim for 3 nights and were excited to have some fun, relax and just enjoy being with our little family. Here are some of our highlights...

Roman's 1st request: The Haunted Mansion

This boy cracks me up. This was our 1st visit when there were a few rides he did not want to go on (Pirates, Ariel and The Jungle Ride). All for very specific reasons, but he insisted on The Haunted Mansion as being our first ride. 

Paisley is at the adorable age of loving life. Here she is giggling in the Haunted Mansion. 

We are pretty sure she is going to be our little Dare Devil. 

Our 2nd Ride had to be Paisley's Favorite, Winnie The Pooh. 

Paisley's favorite method of transportation, her Daddy's shoulders. I don't know how men do this? 

I've tried a few times and just can't do it for over 5 minutes. 

Roman recently fell in love with the movie, Peter Pan. I loved watching their two smiles on the ride. 

Always a favorite, The Carousel. 

Pure Joy! 

Roman's favorite character, Pluto

He carried around his Pluto stuffed animal the whole trip and was so excited to meet Pluto (multiple times). 

This little sneaky girl. She found the leftover cotton candy right before bedtime. 

The next morning we headed to the character breakfast "Goofy's Kitchen" at the Disneyland Hotel. This was the first time doing this one and it was magical. Roman is at the perfect age for this experience and this was our true highlight of the trip. He got so excited to meet each and every character (even the ones he didn't know). Paisley on the other hand would hide under our table (no joke) when most of the characters came to our table. 

Dale

He kept asking me if Pluto was going to be here. I didn't know and my heart just melted when we saw Pluto was there. His fav! 

Mulan

GIANT BEAR! Roman loved, Paisley not so much. 

Minnie is ready to go! 

Rocket ships

Buzz - Always a favorite! 

Roman loved Autotopia, especially crashing into us. 

Love these smiles

Getting ready for the Pixar Parade. 

1st time seeing this one and it is adorable. So many memorable characters. The kids loved it! 

Cars Land at night

Paisley was much more excited to meet all the Cars than Princesses. 

Lightening McQueen

Paisley is all ready for Toy Story Mania (my favorite ride)

We loved this ride so much that we found time to do it twice. Roman surprised me with how good he was at it. 

Paisley loves carousels. She would ride it a dozen times if you let her. 

Roman loved meeting Buzz. 

He really wanted to ask him a question and was so excited to get a high five. 

Took an hour break at the Redwood Creek Challenge in California Disney. It is quiet, peaceful and full of ropes courses, slides and play equipment. The perfect opportunity for the kids to get some relief from over stimulation and just run free. 

So proud of Roman. He made it thru the whole course on his own. 

We finally made it to Radiator Racers. During our last trip the ride broke down during our Fast Pass time, so we were so excited to go this time. Roman got to ride twice - THANK YOU stroller pass. 

Ready to Go! 

I wanted to cry (no joke) when I was on the ride. The ride is so sweet and all the characters really come to life. Knowing how much Roman loves Cars and seeing his face was just priceless. The ride also goes pretty fast and afterwards I think he may have been in a little shock. But I was so happy that he wanted to ride again with his Daddy. 

My favorite duo

Jason and Roman

Another Maddox Favorite. This ride is great and so fun. 

Almost Birthday Time for Roman

Teacups - They like going fast since they know their Daddy hates it. The faster the better

Minnie's House  

Lucky Boy

We Love You Minnie!

Wanted a little Mar Mar love

Good Bye Disneyland (until next time) 

We had a magical and wonderful time. This trip actually really felt like a vacation (which isn't always the case when traveling with kids). It was so nice to have some fun family time and just be on our own schedule.