Party Preps

This weekend, we celebrated Nicholas' birthday with our friends. Since Aunt "Ange" (as Nicholas now calls her), Uncle Jim and Dillon could not make it last weekend, they joined us Friday night for the weekend. That meant we had lots of helpers to pull off Round 2!

We got the artists of the family working on the balloon animals...

what nice work guys!

Nicholas has been obsessed with the party favors since last week - walking around the house with his arms up and asking "where are tractor snacks?"
Good thing our animals were on good behavior for the party.

Birthday Cake - Round 2

This time, Mommy had an assistant...and his name was Nicholas!

He calls the mixer - "the frosting maker."

Thank goodness I had this frosting taste tester!

This time, we added crushed Oreos to look like dirt - so cool!

Nicholas is Going to Be A BIG BROTHER!

We are super excited to introduce the newest member of the Relyea Family....Baby B!

This little one wasn't still for a second of our sonogram today. He or she is 6cm from head to rump and is doing wonderfully! We can't wait to meet our latest addition in late May!

What a cute profile.

Hmmmm, one of a girl or boy?

What a difference from just 4 weeks ago!

Getting Used to the Role of Big Brother!

Our little man has been sharing our news with his "Future Big Brother" shirt. Today he wore it to Miss Judy's in celebration of the end of our first trimester.

He was mighty silly and nutty when we were trying to share the pictures with him tonight.

At dinner, he finally started to turn around and showed interest in the black & white blob we were sharing.

Finally he got it and even gave baby a kiss.

I think he'll be a fabulous Big Brother!

Look at all the cool tricks Nicholas and Daddy could teach a little one!

(seriously Daddy, where did you get this idea?)

Never too cold for this outside lover!

Its seems as though Nicholas doesn't even notice the cold...but I most enjoyed watching him struggle to pick up his envelopes with his mittens on!

My, What Nice Teeth You Have

Yesterday, Nicholas showed-off his pearly whites to Dr. Dillingham for his second visit. Nicholas was really excited about the visit and repeated, "dentist...teeth...fish... boat..." all the way to Fayetteville. After the dentist pryed open his tight lips, he was rather impressed with his cleanliness. They kept reminding Nicholas he'll get to choose a prize after his exam, but this boy found his new toothbrush to be the best prize of all (we all know how much he loves toothbrushes!).

Showing-off his toothbrush to the fish...

...and he even "brush fish" - which had the office staff in stitches.

When we got outside, Nicholas found this little pile of leaves and was in heaven! He ran through them, jumped and just laughed his little buns off.

Although its nice not to get blisters from all the raking we used to do in Eastwood, we sure miss having trees at this time of the year.

Hitting the "Big Kids" School

Today we brought lunch to Gammy's school. Nicholas loved watching the "big kids" head to lunch and got to greet Gammy's co-workers with a "hi friend!"

As you can see, he was rather enthralled with their technology system.

Officially A 2-Year Old!

Last week we were fighting to get any sort of outerwear on this boy, and last night he fought to "wear best" to bed. Before wrangling it off him at 11:00, I figured we might as well snap the flash to remember this one.

Oh, he is definitely entering the willful 2's.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

Daddy & Nicholas have a little game of their own.

Daddy gets the "jelly side"

...and the "peanut butter side!"

Oh no, peanut butter and jelly!

Mommy's silly boys!

Cake Monster

This morning, I was in the other room and heard Nicholas say, "mmmmm, tacter cake!" This is what I found!

(look at the feet - he was dancing on the stool!)

He kept saying, "mmmmm, black frosting Gammy!"

Each bite got more and more aggressive!

Poppy and The Birthday Boy

Nicholas asked for ice cream but I guess now only accepts Mint Chocolate Chip. He was really disappointed in the vanilla and cookies & cream options I was offering at the party. Thankfully, we had his mint sundae from Friendly's to save the day.... or maybe it was the kisses from Poppy that made everything better!

This boy just loves his Poppy!

Party On the Farm!

We had a big 'ol hoe-down with the family to celebrate Nicholas' 2nd birthday! He was so excited to see Poppy's tractor in the front yard.

(notice its nice and bright when he got on the tractor)

Poppy took him up and down Congleton Circle - Nicholas never let go of the wheel.

Cousins Ciara and Dominic jumped in the wagon for a ride too!

After the need for a hat & mittens, it was getting even colder (not to mention dark!), but Nicholas was not ready to give up the tractor ride.

Yes, the tantrum continued indoors (the two bags of tractor snacks didn't even help!).

Cousin Johnny took Nicholas' baby for a spin around the house with Mema...

while cousin Dominic trimmed the carpet for us.

He was all dressed-up for our farm fun!

Cousin Colby and Nicholas really seemed to hit it off. We realized Nicholas has that tendency to follow trouble with the proper role model. LOL!

Nicholas tried his best to share his piano with his cousins.

Time for presents!

Nicholas did pretty well for the first couple of presents...

...he even got training pants from Aunt Patty & Uncle Dan...

...but with all the excitement of the night, he was really distracted. We even reigned in Poppy for motivational help.

Nicholas was so ecstatic to make a sound out of his new harmonica from Aunt Elaine and Uncle John.

The night was a little too much excitement for our Zoey - but she was well-dressed for the occasion.

Mema and Grandpa John gave Nicholas this awesome John Deere....the only problem was it came in a bunch of pieces! We let him sit on the center piece, but Rosanne had to hold it up and Daddy had to hold the steering wheel in place. He knew it just wasn't right!

Some Assembly Required, Daddy - get to work!