Well, my little boy is growing up.  He turned 3 the day after Thanksgiving.  Because we went down to Missouri for thanksgiving to visit Jeffrey's family this year we had a little birthday party for him before we left.  Both my boys are REALLY into cars, but more specifically Race Cars.  So that is what he got for a cake (hand made by his loving mother:).  This year's celebration was the best, because Knightley actually realized it was his special day.  He may not have understood exactly why we celebrate someone's birth day, but he knew it was all about a "special boy's special day."  Every present he opened was his "special present," and he still treats the toys he got on his birthday with extra special care and attention.

Enjoying the cake batter (Knightley likes cake batter more then actual cake).

My beautiful creation.

Complete with rear spoiler.

All race cars have a lightning bolt across the side,

and racing stripes.

By the time we ate the cake, the tootsie roll windows melted :)

The cutest little cake eater ever!

Knightley mostly ate the goodies off the cake instead of the cake itself.

We went to Florida in the middle of October, but are just getting around to posting about it :).  It was a fantastically fun, magical time!!  We hung out with Deb's parents and her brother and sister-in-law and their family.  We went to an alligator farm, the beach, and just enjoyed the wonderful weather.  We then went up to Orlando and went to Disney World for the magical experience, and the next day we went to a children's science center which was great as well!  We loved it and our kids loved it.  It is all documented in the video below that Deb put together.

Florida Vacation 2011 from Debra Jacobson on Vimeo.

Back at the beginning of November we had our good friends from Utah, John Kylee and fam, come and visit for a long weekend!  We had an absolutely joyful time together!!  Knightley and Mason had a blast playing with their old friend Ellie, and loved making their new friend, Baby M, laugh (they can't pronounce her name so this became her new name).  While they were here we saw the sights of Madison, and played a lot.  The weather was perfect the whole time, so we were able to do everything we wanted.  It was so much fun.

We went to the Zoo

Saw the giraffes

Became apes

Played with blocks

Played at the coolest park ever

Don't they look like best buds.....well, they are

We went to the capital (which is pretty awesome)

Our kids, the East Side Gangbangers on the streets of downtown Madison

Knightley's favorite treat to date (and the best tasting big cookie I have ever had in fact)

Every night we played games, a lot of games.  We played multiple rounds of all the games pictured here (note: guesstures is not in the picture but should be).

Our families together (minus baby M)

Halloween was so fun this year.  We actually went trick or treating in our neighborhood, which we have never really been able to do before.  Knightley and Mason loved it!  They ran from house to house and thought it was magical that they got more and more candy.  We got to go with Dave and Brianna and was a blast!

On Saturday we went up to Devil's Lake Wisconsin with my brother David and his family.  They usually go up there every year and love it.  On our route to Devil's Lake we traveled across a river where you cross by ferry.  The kids loved riding the ferry and frankly so did Jeffrey and I!  When we got there we all had a picnic lunch and the kids played in the leaves and then on the beach.  The whole area was beautiful. I felt I was walking through one of God's paintings the entire time.  

Mason was wearing pants which very quickly got soaking wet. Cousin Elsie is in the back.

Dave, Brianna, James and Wesley in the paddle boat we rented.

Our family on the paddle boat.

I love this picture.  This is what we did all day.  Enjoy the beautiful scenery and watch our kids and their cousins play at the beach.  The little girl in the picture is my niece Clarine.

For those of you who don't know, which will probably almost everyone, Sheboygan is a city in Wisconsin right on Lake Michigan.  And last week Jeffrey and I had our first weekend away from our children in Sheboygan.  The only time I  have been away from Knightley overnight was when I was in the hospital with Mason.  What encouraged us to leave the kids (with Jeff's wonderful sister Ashley) was none other than BRIAN REGAN!  One of the best comedians ever!

We stayed at a family resort called Blue Harbor and this was the view from our room.  Who says Wisconsin isn't cool?!  The resort also has a large indoor water park, with 4 decent sized water slides, large pools, and hot tubs!

Then the main event, Brian Regan!

This is us in our seats, which were incredible.  The very very front and center!  I kind of talked my way into getting these awesome seats.  You could see every facial expression, so funny!

Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures of Brian Regan but this is the view from our seats.  We were literally 5 feet away from him.  Joe Bolster performed first for about 30 mins and he was so funny too (he is now also a favorite)!  Then Brain performed for about an hour.  By the end of the show our faces hurt from laughing so hard! The whole event definitely goes down in our personal history books!

Our whole weekend was so fun.  We played in the water park, walked around all the little shops in Sheboygan, went out to eat for every meal, walked on the beach, and all with no kids!  We were gone from Thursday afternoon till Saturday afternoon and it was such a nice small vacation.  Hopefully we won't wait three more years to have another adult only weekend!  

Knightley and Mason got a gift card at Christmas from the Pearsons for a fish.  And we finally went out and got one.  Knightley named him Blue.  I have never had a fish before and actually never completely owed my own pet so it is cool having one.  Jeffrey picked out, I must say, one of the coolest looking beta fishes.  Knightley and Mason love him and are often now bribed to do things with the reward of feeding Blue!  Thanks John and Kylee!

 

A couple weekends ago Jeffrey's company hosted a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo!  We have a zoo here in Madison and it is fairly small but it is free so I can't really complain.  The outing was a lot of fun.  There was a catered lunch with delicious ribs, and a magic show just for the company.  After the show the magician came into the audience and did magic one on one.  Since everyone dispersed except for us and my brother Dave and his family the magician came right up to our kids and performed for them.  Knightley thought it was so cool and Mason was merely entertained.  

We were given 4 free passes to use on anything extra we wanted.  This included the Merry-Go-Round, the Butterfly Museum, the Train, or the Sea Lion Show.  Being that our kids LOVE trains we decided to use them all on the train rides around the zoo.  Since our kids are still 2 and under they were free to get on anything, so one of us would take the kids while the other one waited in order to maximize the free passes.  They could have rode the train all day and been perfectly happy!  The day at the zoo was a blast!

They had a face painting station where Knightley and Mason got their arms painted.  For the rest of the day Mason was showing everyone his froggy.  Mom: "Mason do you see the Lion?"  Mason sticking out his arm: "Froggy" 

Knightley got the bear with the balloon first and then saw his cousin Wesley had a baseball on his arm, so he got that as well.

This Cheetah was the coolest animal there.  It was pacing around the pen (which is on the floor) over and over again.  He would stare you right in the eye as he was walking towards you up until he turned only 1 inch away from your face.  It gave me the chills

We are waiting for the train to arrive and Knightley and Mason are getting impatient.

They loved riding this train.

I am wearing the hat and hoodie because there was some rain in the early afternoon.  We found cover riding the Merry-Go-Round.

Knightley loved the aquarium.  He stood at these windows for about an hour before moving on.  Mason was passed out in the stroller during this time.

I was planning on getting this chair done for Mason's 1st birthday seeing as I have been holding onto the material since Mason was but a few months old.  Since February 3rd has come and gone maybe this is more of a half birthday present.  Originally the plan was to make one of these chairs for each child's 1st birthday, but I think 2 chairs are plenty because I am not making another one!

I know the kids both look like death, but let me explain.  They are both running a low fever with the flu, and the band-aids are because Knightley keeps picking at a scab from weeks ago and Mason fell nose first in the drive-way.  They are set up on our monster sack ready to watch "The Princess and the Frog," their new favorite movie.  

Talk about a summer that has come and gone!  We have definitely taken advantage of the beautiful weather that is a Wisconsin Summer.  There has been a Greer family reunion, exterior painting of the house, getting new toilets, Nana and Poppy Jake visiting, weekly swimming at the local water park a few blocks away, Superhero night at Culver's where the kids ate for free and we all enjoyed some yummy custard, firefly watching/catching, Jeffrey flying down to San Antonio to spend 48 hours with his older brother, daily visits to the park behind our house, several weekend getaways to Grandma and Papa Greer's empty cabin in the woods where the kids can play at the beach or swim in the pond, playing in the sprinklers, and simply going on walks or playing together as a family.  This list is not in any particular order, nor will it all be documented in this post.  Needless to say, we have enjoyed ourselves!

We couldn't pass up on matching swim suits.

When we moved in we didn't know we had crab apple trees in the front yard.  At the beginning of spring they blossomed and the kids loved the "popcorn trees."

Nor could we pass on matching pj's.

Our new friend Ali in the middle at the Superhero night at Culver's.

Enjoying a new favorite, Nutella on toast.

Giving the milk mustache a run for it's money.

Mason was so intrigued with the sparklers that he was always trying to touch the sparkle so we had to hold his one arm down most of the time.

This is the little park behind our house.