Back to School!

In celebration of Alia going to Kindergarten on Thursday and Elijah going to Preschool on in a week I made these super cute chalkboard cupcakes!! I found the instructions at FamilyFun.com . I ended up using candy melts (I LOVE THEM!!!) instead of going out and buying the cookies for the chalkboard and candy for the piece of chalk. So, I had everything on hand, which was great! The kids had a lot of fun helping me and watching the creation come together.

Here's to a new school year!!!

To Infinity!

Elijah is starting preschool on Aug 17th! It's so hard to believe that he's going to be going to school!! :) I can't wait to see how he learns and watch him make friends. He's a big boy now, that's for sure!

At his preschool they have a rest time...so I decided to use the pillow that Alia used when she was in preschool but it needed a new pillowcase. Pink would not do for Mr. Elijah! We went to Joann's this morning and Elijah got to pick out his own fabric for his pillowcase. Then, this afternoon, while the kids were napping I got to work. I think I was more excited than he was...but once it all came together (Elijah woke up and got to see it in it's final stages) his little eyes lit up. It was pretty cute.

Here's Elijah with his new hand made Buzz Lightyear pillow!

Ducky Tub!

Another Backlund baby takes the plunge into the oh so fun ducky tub! Ethan loved it! Keep your eyes out for a video soon. :)

4th of July

So...we went to the Bandon, OR 4th of July parade. It was fun...here are some images.

There was a Coast Guard boat and they were letting kids take little tours. Jason took Alia and Elijah to look around.

Portland Zoo

My parents took the kids and I to the Portland Zoo. We had a great day walking around and looking at all the animals. It was fun to watch the kids faces when they saw big animals.

We went to the Portland Children's museum...SOOO fun! Here are the kiddos in the building area. The "dirt" was made out of recycled tires (i think)-they looked like bark but they were rubbery.

We got to visit with our friends, the Nealons and Stroms, while we were in Portland. Here's the best I could do at a whole kid picture (the Stroms didn't have their kiddos with them).

Beach pics

We had some great mornings hanging out at a beach nearby. It was called Sunset Bay, I think. Since it is a bay the ocean waves weren't rough so the kids could put their feet in the water. It was fairly cool so we bundled up. It was great to relax and let the kids play in the sand!

Ahhh...the peace of the ocean. I took this pic...and I really like it. It says a lot about Jason and I.

We found some tide pools and the kids had fun looking at the animals. There is a group of sea anenomes in this pic.




Me and the kids on the beach.

Grammpa did a great job helping the kids around the slipery rocks. Elijah fell a bunch and got so dirty. He doesn't like his hands to be dirty so he had a bit of a hard time.

Ohh...little Ethan on his first swing! Gramma Barb sat and swang him for a while at the park. Ethan LOVED it!

Here, here little fishies!

We went on a little fishing trip with my parents while we were in Bandon.

This was how the kids fishing experience ended up. :)

They had a lot of fun tossing rocks into the lake.




Their first fish! After this picture grammpa threw him back into the water since he is so little.

I'm getting bigger!

In the past month or so both Alia and Elijah had their annual well check DR appts. They are both doing really well...both on the small side of things-in the 20th percentile for height...but doing good. :)

Here's Alia-she went for her 5 year appt. She got about 4 shots and was so brave. She wanted to watch the nurse give her her shots. I tried to convince her not to but she wouldn't put her little head down. She wimpered a bit but then was fine. She did great! Now she's all ready for Kindergarten! Hard to believe my little girl is starting grade school.

Elijah had his 3 year appt! Here he is trying to put up 3 fingers :) He can actually do this by himself now-he's had lots of practice . No shots for Elijah-horray!

Ride that bull!

Alia this morning eating her waffles on our birthday plate. Her shirt has little cupcakes all over it. We thought it was fitting. :)

We ate dinner tonight at Big Bubba's. Yes, I rode the bull. Enough said.

Alia's friend Jenna (and her mom and dad) had dinner with us. They had a lot of fun playing in the tree house. They worked up a sweat, that's for sure!

Happy Birthday Alia!

Today my little girl turns 5! It's so hard to believe that she's already 5 years old! Such a big girl she is. I still clearly remember the day she was born...what a day it was.

On Sunday we had a little birthday party for Alia at the Build A Bear store. She had so much fun with her little girlfriends. It was fun to watch them.

Here's Alia with her new little bunny.

Since we were having her party at Build A Bear I decided to put bear heads on Alia's cupcakes. I made these out of candy melts...they were so fun to make. The frosting ended up melting off so on Sunday morning I had to do a quick fix em up...so for her party the frosted ended up being brown-which I didn't like as much. The white makes the bear heads pop so much more. :)

And, here are my boys. :) Please excuse the pacifier...Ethan hadn't slept very long so he was sleepy.

Here are all the kids listening well and getting ready to make their animals.

Characters!

Goofy's Kitchen!

We met my parents at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel before we went ot Disneyland for Elijah's Bday. It was so much fun to have personal one on one time with a good amount of the characters.

Here are the big kids with the star of the show, Goofy.

They sang ot Elijah and he got a special cupcake and an "It's my birthday" button. He actually got another button when we went to get him his annual pass. He wore one the next day when we were at Disneyland and it was great! People were saying "Happy Birthday Elijah" all day long and he felt so special. During the parade one of the singers on a float even noticed the button and told him happy birthday over the microphone! So special! :)

Ethan even enjoyed the characters! Well, their noses, at least. :) He grabbed their noses and was trying to get them into his mouth. He loved looking at all the characters.

At the entrance to the hotel.



Here we all are with Pluto. I'm not so sure when Goofy doesn't do this picture...since it's Goofy's Kitchen. But I guess if he stood here the whole time he couldn't be in the restaurant roaming the tables. I think they do a rotation for this pic.

Ethan's Dedication

Ethan Oscar Backlund was dedication to Jesus on May 31st. Since Jason's the pastor, he got to dedicate him.

Ethan is doing really well. He's sitting up all by himself and he loves that. The other kids do, too. He is almost crawling...he's trying so hard. but he can move all over! He rolls and pushes himself to get to what he wants. He spend lots of time in the crawl position rocking back and forth...and trying to get somewhere :) He does have a bit of reflux-just like Alia & Elijah...so he spits up quite a bit. Some days are better than others. He has some meds for it but I'm a bit leery of them because of how groggy they made Elijah when he was a baby. So long as he's gaining weight and doesn't seem like he's in pain, I'm not too worried. It's more trouble for the carpet and mommy & daddy's clothes! and the couch...and, well, whatever the spit up lands on! :)

OH! He finally is saying "mamamamamama"!! Yeah! I love hearing that. He's also said "dadadada" and lots of other sounds. He loves it when his brother and sister play with him. He's all smiles and giggles lots.

He's 3!!

Elijah turned 3 on May 31st. Hard to believe he's 3!! Here are a few pics.

Here's Elijah at Gramma Barb and Grampa Jim's house. He loves his new baseball T!

Vroom Vroom! Grandma and Grandpa B sent Elijah a Big Wheel! Have you ever seen anything like this? He loves it, although he's not quite tall enough to reach the pedal :( But one day he'll be "that cute boy on the fancy big wheel". :) All the girls will have eyes for him. teehee

He got to eat his breakfast on our special BDay plate. He's showing you 3 fingers-that's how he says how old he is.


We had a little birthday party for him. He had a good time with his little 3 year old friends.

He had a dinosaur party...so here was his cupcake cake. Can you see the T-Rex? :) He really liked his dinosaur party.

Happy birthday to our little boy! We love you very much!