The best thing ever

Believe it or not, this is him smiling and saying cheese.

One of Dane's favorite things to say lately is "Mommy nice." It completely comes from him; I've never suggested he tell me that. He says it at random times throughout the day, when we're reading books or just when we're walking around or hanging out at home. It just kills me every time and I have to smother him with love in response. I try and say, "Oh, Dane, YOU'RE nice!" But he won't hear it--he insists over and over again that "Mommy nice" until I give in and have to agree with him.

I'm so glad he thinks Mommy is nice, because I know there are plenty of times when I am not very nice, but at least his overall impression of me is of how nice I am. I am recording this for posterity and so that 10 years from now, I can prove to him that I am a nice mom and he is the one who said it in the first place.

the BIG 2--Dane's birthday

And just like that, our baby is 2. And officially NOT a baby any more... although I don't know if I can break the habit of calling him "my baby" that quickly. I guess that won't happen until we have another one and he is no longer the youngest one here. 

Just like last year, for Dane's first birthday, I did NOT want to overdo it or work really hard to have a birthday party for him. He doesn't care, and why stress about something that doesn't matter to anyone? So we decided to just find something fun for us to do as a family for his birthday weekend--and we found the Celina Hot Air Balloon Festival, just 20 minutes north of us. Dane loves all sorts of vehicles, especially in the air, and he was super excited when we told him we were going to see some hot air balloons. So it was a big bummer when we showed up and there were NO hot air balloons--it was too windy for them to go up! But we had fun with the little festival on the ground and Dane didn't even seem to notice that there were no balloons--especially when his friends the Myres cousins showed up to play with him. 

We got a little kite since it was so windy and Dane had a BLAST running around with it. Later, Ethan adopted the kite and had it at full-length for about an hour. 

Did I mention that in addition to being windy, it was freezing cold?? It was in the 100s last week and then all of a sudden on Saturday morning it was 55 and windy. We had to wear jackets until at least 11:00. So weird!

He just looks so old running around with his hoodie on!

They had some fair rides, and Dane and Ava went on the merry-go-round.

Great photography, Tommy! I love this one!

Dane really loved the little (and I mean little) petting zoo. He was running around after the baby pigs and the duck in there, cackling with delight. While we were in there, the cow pooped basically right in front of us, and he seriously has been talking about "cow pooping" ever since (seriously, his favorite thing from the whole day). 

Being chased by Ethan and thrilled about it!

Just hanging out with Katelyn and Ava.

We got a little funnel cake for Dane and all sang happy birthday to him together. He LOVED it and started grabbing funnel cake while we were still singing. He wanted to get people to sing happy birthday to him all day long. 

All in all, we had a great time at the Celina No-Balloon Festival. Dane had a great time, and that was all that mattered. 

After his nap, we got to Skype with both sides of Dane's family--all of his grandparents and a bunch of his aunts and uncles (whoever was available). They sang happy birthday and watched him blow out his candles and open his presents. I really liked having them get to participate!

He got really good at blowing out the candles and now thinks that any time we have a cupcake he should get candles to go with it.

Without a doubt, this Thomas the Train was the favorite present of the day. And we got it at a thrift store for $4! Definitely worth it. He's barely put him down ever since he opened it up.

Opening other presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma Murphy, he opened your pillow pet present today and immediately started snuggling with it and wouldn't put it down all afternoon. He LOVED it. (We will call you soon!)

This is Dane's complete haul this year. Can you say spoiled?? And really, only one or two are from Tommy and I. He got presents from all of his grandmas and grandpas, and great-grandmas and great-grandpas! And even some of his aunts and uncles. Seriously, he has been SO happy with his presents. Every single one of them has already been put to good use. I wanted to spread them out some more, but I couldn't help just having him open them all up on his birthday. 

The only other birthday-related thing we did was to get some pictures taken of him at a picture studio. We had a coupon (50% off and no sitting fee!) and it was totally worth it--we got exactly what we wanted out of them. These are just screenshots of the online viewer, so they're not great quality, but just so you can see how absolutely adorable he was when taking the pictures. I'm so glad we did that! I definitely want to try to do that occasionally with our kids, especially if we can make it affordable. It was so easy and quick, and while I loved the family pictures we took in NC with our friend there much better, this is absolutely perfect for his birthday and to capture him at this stage of his life. 

The current (blurry) background on our computer screen. 

We ordered a print of this one--can't wait to hang it up on our wall. 

Happy 2nd birthday to our boy! I can't believe he's two--and it also feels like he's been two for a while.

teeth and tantrums

Dane had his first dentist appointment this week! He was so excited to go, because we checked out a book from the library about going to the dentist, and in the book the dentist had a giant train set in the waiting room. He was convinced that was what a dentist meant. But he didn't mind when we got there and there wasn't a train there, and he liked lying down on the chair with a little TV over the chair. I felt a little gypped because they didn't actually DO anything--they just told me to brush his teeth twice a day and said his teeth looked good--but I don't think we had to pay anything (insurance?) so it wasn't too bad. He had a good experience and he got a TON of free stuff--toothbrush, toys, stickers, a sucker, etc. 

He built a car transporter with his trucks--he actually had three on top of each other and was so proud of himself.

I went in to get him from his nap and he was sitting there, with Sparky sitting next to him, and both of them "wrapped" in their blankets. Hahaha.

We gave him some new train tracks for his birthday (we gave them to him early so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed by all the new toys) and he is LOVING all the new tracks he can make. Seriously, he will spend hours playing with this (off and on). I LOVE THE TRAINS, almost as much as Dane does.

These two pictures make me laugh. I took them about five minutes from each other. Dane was SCREAMING and throwing this huge temper tantrum because he didn't want to get in his carseat going to the grocery store. Then we GOT to the grocery store, and he was so, so, so happy to get in this little yellow car grocery cart at the store. These two pictures perfectly exemplify what it's like having a toddler--fire and ice, five hundred times a day, all day long.

camping, and other stuff

We have not been the most exciting people lately! Part of that is coming off of the crazy summer travels that we were doing all June and July, so we were dying to just hang out and settle into a routine here. But part of it is the HEAT here in Dallas, and the fact that we don't know very many people still. A week and a half ago, we went to Austin for the weekend to see Tommy's cousin come home from his mission and to be there for his homecoming. It was really fun, and we had a great time, and we did not take ONE SINGLE PICTURE while we were there. My camera died the minute I pulled it out to use it, and nobody else used their cameras at all either, haha. So no proof that we actually went, unfortunately. 

But while we were there, we had a good time hanging out with Tommy's cousin Jon and his wife Sarah, who live in Fort Worth, and they invited us to go camping with them over Labor Day weekend. We accepted, thinking it would be some fun bonding time and that Dane would love it. And both of those turned out to be true, but there was a big problem with it being SUPER HOT (shocking) and there being fire ants all over our campsite AND our tent not having any ventilation and only being the size of our air mattress. We had an absolutely awful night of sleep--all three of us lying there, touching each other, sweating in our hot, hot tent. And it was just so much work to get all of the random stuff you need for camping, all for one night and one morning (we had to get back to speak in church at 9 am on Sunday). But hey--Dane loved it, thought the fire was amazing but knew it was hot and wouldn't touch it, had a great time playing with his second cousins, and loved sleeping in the same place as us. I'm glad (now, after the fact) that we went, because it was a good experience for all of us. And hopefully Tommy doesn't get called to be scout master here, because he has sworn to never go camping in Texas again!

The kiddos playing while dinner was cooking.

After the long, long night--Dane still has a big smile!

My hair totally looks like I was sweating all night long, haha.

Our campsite was a little ways away from this cute little beach, and we spent all morning just hanging out at the lake and playing in the sand and water. It was amazing.

Dane loved little Bianca and kept trying to give her hugs.

After all that trauma, and after being so thirsty and hot for 24 hours (we left our cooler, which was packed with food and cold water bottles, at home when we left, so all our water was 85 degrees), we decided we deserved something cold and delicious so we stopped at Sonic for shakes (and Dane got a free ice cream cone with a coupon we had). 

Other than camping and going to Austin, our lives here are so, so, so not exciting. Tommy has been working a lot (last week, he pulled a few very late nights trying to figure out things he's working on--another reason the bad night of sleep camping wasn't very fun) and Dane and I have been exploring the town. I laughed when I was looking at my phone because I have tons of pictures that I've taken of Dane playing at random stores and toy places. Anywhere we can go that's free and indoors these days! Like, the library (has a little play kitchen that Dane loves to "make soup" at):

The pet store:

Toys R Us--he didn't know that you could pay and make these rides move, and he was super happy just sitting next to Ernie in the fire truck:

IKEA:

and TJ Maxx:

Hahaha seriously, I just take him to these stores and let him play on their toy exhibits and take toys off the shelf to play with (don't worry, I do clean up after us). How much more exciting can you get? It's a great way to kill half an hour when you have some time in between things. And, I mean, library storytime was CANCELED for all of August--I mean, come on! No storytime for a whole month? In August??--and we have really not had very much to do, so this has been our go-to, in addition to swimming. We also went to Lantana two different days to hang out with the Myres cousins before they went back to school, which Dane absolutely LOVES (as do I), and otherwise, we're just keeping it cool and chillin' together.