Another Pickle Annie (Anna)

What are the odds, right??!!

I was in a parking lot at lunch today and as I was driving through I saw this:

I thought "Wow!  Somebody has the nickname Pickle!  That's so random because MY daughter's nickname is Pickle!"

Then I saw the back of the car:

Um, HELLO!  "Honk 4 Anna's B-day!"  Are you kidding??!  What are the odds that a girl named Anna is also called Pickle?  Then couple that with me actually being someone seeing this!  So crazy  :)

Q&A with a 4-year-old on His Birthday!

Dex is 4 years old today!!  Woah.  Time, where have you gone?  He is so sweet and so loving, it just blows my mind.  He still adores his little sister and copies a lot of what I say to her... I hear him say "hey, sweet girl... what do you need, honey?" in a sweet little baby voice and it just melts my heart.  He likes to make her laugh and will pet her head.  He calls her "Pickle Annie" and the whole family has taken to calling her that now.  He can't get enough of his trains (still).  That is pretty much all he does in his free time.  Well, that and ask to play with his friend Cooper.  We read a book or two every night before bed, and it's one of my favorite times with him.  Sometimes Pickle will come with us and swat at the pages.  If she accidentally kicks him, he'll say "Aaa-NNA!!" and once I remind him that she doesn't know what she's doing, he'll pat her head and say "that's okay, sweet girl."  So funny :)

I could honestly go on and on and on and on.  He is my favorite little boy ever (duh) and we could not be more blessed!!

I asked Dex a few questions and video'ed it.  The video is pretty funny, but it's really long and I don't think I need to post it all here.  I'll keep that for our personal family viewing :)  Here is the transcript (minus lots and LOTS of wiggling around in his chair and laughing and jumping).

What is your name?  Dex (Me: What's you full name?) Declan Doug-a-las O'Neal
How old are you?  4
How old is Daddy?  8
How tall is Mommy?  7 (Me:  7 what?)  7
What is your favorite color?  Red
What is your favorite toy?  Trains
What is your favorite thing about your sister?  Giving her toys
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Chicken nuggets
What is your favorite snack?  Milky Ways
What is your favorite animal?  A nice tiger and a nice lion
What is your favorite book?  Corduroy & Jesus
Who is your best friend?  Cooper
Where is your favorite place to go?  To the toy store to buy trains
What does Daddy do at work?  He works at his work. (Me: Do you know what he does?) Umm... well, he doesn't bring me candy.
What does Mommy do at work?  She brings candy to me!
What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?  (Dex to me) What's your favorite thing to do??  (Me: What do YOU think my favorite thing to do is?)  Do you like to play with me and my trains?  And pet my sister?
What do you want to be when you grow up?  I want to play with all the trains.
What do you like to dream about?  I like to dream about everybody!  (Me: Who did you dream about last night?)  You... I dreamed about just Mommy, but not Daddy.
Who is your hero? A real Superman that flies in the sky by himself. 
How would you describe your family?  Mad boys and girls

Birthday Par-tay!

We had Dex's 4th Birthday Party at JumpforFun! on Saturday.  All of his friends from school came, along with our neighbor and a few other friends and cousins.  I think we ended up with around 15 children there!  I was so happy they could all make it.  I know Dex had a BLAST.  

This place was so awesome.  It was huge, and for the first 30 minutes, our group was the only one in the bounce house area.  They only run two parties at a time and they stagger them by 30 minutes.  Even with the other group, there was more than enough room for everyone and it wasn't crowded at all.  It was perfect.

I couldn't get many pictures in there because the kids were moving so fast and a lot of the tunnels were hidden, so I couldn't see them once they were inside.  But here are a few that I caught of them coming down slides.  

SCORE!!

Cousin Brooks playing air hockey with Cooper.

Love this... looks like he's riding a wave!

Silly Cooper...

Group gathering at the bottom of the slide.

Dex's Thomas birthday cake!  Is this two years in a row now?  :)

Glenda Kennedy made the cake for us this year (she's the same lady that did our wedding cakes) and it was deeeeee-licious!

Dex had to sit between his two girlfriends from school...

Somebody's flirting... 

...and I don't think Dex minds one bit!  :)  

She's looking at his scratch on his chin.

Dex on his Birthday Boy Throne!  He was super happy up there :)

Just look at that face as everyone was singing Happy Birthday!!

We had a blast!  So happy we were able to do this for our little 4 year old :)  This is his first actual birthday party with friends, and it was worth it to see his happy face all afternoon!  So thankful to everyone that made it!  

Trimming the Tree

We got our tree up last weekend!  Dex helped so much this year, I was very excited :)  I was hoping he would get into it a little more than he did last year.  Now every night and every morning, he wants to "turn on the tree lights."  And then he'll go look at himself in the shiney ornaments and make faces :)

 

Notice Lily found her spot under the tree...

 

 

Checking out his reflection in the ball...

 

Aunt Susan gave us this bird's nest a couple years back.  It's good luck to have one in your tree!

 

Tongue out = concentration...

 

He got tickled about something :)

 

Finished!!  Notice the ornament placement... a tad bottom heavy??  Yep, that means a short person helped!

 

A closer look at his handy work...

 

Dex has started climbing on EVERYTHING.  He climbs up to the top of our shelves and then jumps onto the chair.  Never gets old.

Neighborhood Christmas Breakfast

We had our annual neighborhood "Breakfast with Santa" this past weekend.  One of our neighbors is a firefighter so we get to use the old fire engine and take rides around the neighborhood.  We eat donuts and see Santa and just socialize.  Pretty fun!  

Dex in front of the fire truck (with his goofy fake smile) :

Mimi got to come with us.  Anna was pretty happy about that :) 

Anna went right to Santa and probably would have stayed in his soft squishy lap all morning if we'd have let her!  Does she look like Whoville Who with that hat and polka dot outfit??

Dex and his neighborhood BFF.  Contemplating if he should go sit with Santa also...

This is the 3rd occasion we've seen Santa, and Dex FINALLY went in his lap this time.  And even that took some persuading.  But we did it!!

Telling Santa everything he wants for Christmas!

All of our neighborhood friends about to go for a fire truck ride:

These two... peas and carrots.  So glad they live so close!

Bass Pro @ Christmas

Our family (plus Pop & Emi) went to Bass Pro to see all the Christmas festivities!  Dex focused in on the trains, if you can believe that.  This would have been the second time we'd seen Santa, and Dex still wasn't too keen on getting close, and he definitely wasn't going to sit on his lap.  But he stood by the barriers and waved!!  :)  

Picture of the girl...

Dex has to help with everything these days.  I don't know how many times I hear "I will do it!" in one day.  It's nice that he's growing up and becoming more independent, but boy does it ever slow down the process.

Trains!!

"I'm sick of the trains!!"

Haha  :)

We spent a lot of time in the tents, too.

Kinda blurry, but he kept sticking his hands up the buffalo's nose so I had to get a picture.

Racing cars...

And one of his favorite things to do, the carousel!