Today I'm 3!

Tool Party!

Jack is 3 - can you believe it?!?!?!?!?!?!

For this birthday he wanted a tool party.

This is the tool cake I made for Jack.

It only took me 3 days of rolling, dying and shaping fondant.

It turned out so much better than I expected.

Of course Jack loved it.  He asked to look at it all day.  Imagine how excited he got when I told him he could actually eat all the tools!

And then, because he's my boy, he ate all the eyes off all the tools (It must be a Carlson thing - I eat the eyes off Peeps and Ryan thinks its freaky).

 Jack got his very own bounce house from Mom and Dad this year.

 Construction looks good on Nate.

 Some crazy party guests!

 Wow - stay back from the wild animals as they open gifts.

 Baby Nathan always picks out the best gifts for Jack so this time he gets a big hug.

 Mr. John Deere tool himself.

 And we were sooo delighted to find out the bounce house fits perfectly into the living room (note sarcasm here).

 Happy Birthday to my 3 year old!

 The only way to get him out is to collapse the house on him.

"Whew, made it out just in time."

Irish Eyes are Smiling

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Our biggest leprechaun.

 Daddy and Nate.

 We McGuire's like to celebrate!!!

 We had an awesome Irish dinner with the Phillips.

Look what we found at the end of the rainbow this year!!!

Daddy's Funny

This Week at the McGuire's

 Jack and I did some serious cookie baking.

 Ahhhh I can't believe we let you crack the egg in the bowl either!

 Mmmmmmm

 In other food news... Nate has taken a liking to peas...against both of his Grandmothers' wishes.

 "I'm so happy when I'm full."

 And something we didn't see coming, Nate has taken up sword fighting.

"On guard!"

I'm 6 Months Old!

2-for-1

Sweetest part of Nate getting older?........one bath = two clean little boys!!!

Bike Ride

It was 74 degrees out and such a nice Sunday afternoon that we had to go on our first bike ride since Nathan was born. What a great way to burn off some energy since we had been hibernating all winter!

Nathan's head was still a little small for the helmet, but it worked... after we stuffed a barf rag in it to take out some of the slack.

Since Nathan took Jack's old bike seat, he got upgraded to this ingenious little trailer. He didn't even fall off once and got to pedal along with his mom the whole way. He loved it!

Jackalope

So I (Ryan) just got back from a work trip over to Flagstaff, AZ and decided to bring Amy back an incredibly rare find- a mounted Jackalope buck! These fearsome critters are what happened when jackrabbits mated with a now-extinct species of pygmy deer (No, seriously...). The result is an antlered rabbit. I have only seen one of these before so I just couldn't pass it up. Price was no concern. Besides, Ronald Reagan had one. Amy does not appreciate my gift at all and will not let me put it up in our house (lame) so I thought I would share it with all of you. Jack, however, does love it and has decided that he is a Jackalope. Mommy is also a "Momalope" and I am a "Dadalope." Unfortunaly, "Nathalope" didn't make the cut. Maybe I will hang it above the crib...

Scary looking, isn't he?

Imagine my surprise when the restaurant in the Phoenix airport which we ate at on the way home had a Jackalope table in it!

Jack's Gun Show

I'm pretty sure this video speaks for itself.

Thursday Night Fun

Nobody was sure where Jack had managed to find sugar the other night, but he was WOUND UP! Here are just some of the highlights from the evening's festivities!

Jack learned this song at his preschool and sings it constantly. Usually his performances don't involve quite so much spinning and running, but I suppose that's just the mystery-sugar at work.

 It seemed like a good time to finally show Jack the trick of making it look like you've had your arm cut off. He thought it was hysterical!

 Look at that nub!

 Checking to make sure it's actually gone.

 Only cool people have a cut-off arm!

 At some point in the night, Jack decided to lose his shirt and then kept crawling through "the hole." I guess his clothes kept getting in the way because he finally yanked everything off. Look carefully at the picture below:



Nate the Great!

Here is Nathan going on his first tractor ride with Grandaddy! My thought was, "Where is his helmet? That thing looks like it could tip over at any moment!" (See Tippy Tractor post for further clarification.)

Mommy got home a little late one night so Daddy had to do dinner. On the couch in front of the TV seemed like the best idea- until things got a little messy!

When did you say Mom was coming home???