Dakota's Four!

I hate how tardy this post is, but it's finally done. Our baby girl turned four in April, and despite her Daddy being deployed on her birthday, she had a great time celebrating and she was made to feel very special! Jason's parents came up to help us celebrate.

She got a brand new bike from Ouma and Oupa:

She got on and took off immediately. She's a natural and LOVES to ride!

Snuggling with Ouma

She might be a little excited about the Frozen CD from Memaw!

The beautiful birthday girl at church on her birthday.

New clothes from Mommy and Daddy

Super excited about her Hello Kitty scooter from Grandpa and Grandma Hager

Mice!

You might remember my post last year about our Early Childhood night with a Drive-In Movie theme. This year the theme was: Mouse Race. It was extra fun this year, because the kids had their three boy cousins in town! I didn't get very many pictures, but the night consisted of wind-up mouse races, face painting, make your own mouse ears, decorate a mouse cookie, and a giant mouse maze (made of empty dishwasher boxes) for the kids to run through.

Princess Party

It's not a secret that one of Dakota's very favorite people in the world is their babysitter, Brittany. Brittany just finished her first year of college, so they haven't seen each other as much, but every time they get together, they pick up right where they left off. Last summer, Brittany won a local pageant and was crowned, Miss Marigold of Pekin. One thing Brittany decided to do as Miss Marigold was host a Princess Party for girls ages 3-12. She sent invitations to churches, schools and had advertisements all over town. I don't remember the final count from that day, but there were hundreds of little girls who came that day to be treated like a princess. Brittany encouraged the girls to dress up and she had activities set up to make the girls feel like a princess for the day. It was a really cool experience and just last night a little girl came to our church for the first time and said she came because she remembered having so much fun at the Princess Party with Miss Marigold.

Dakota and Miss Marigold, Brittany.

Getting her hair done by another favorite babysitter, Libby.

Princess Dakota

There was a cupcake decorating stations, of course!

Dakota felt so much like a princess that day, that she came home and immediately got dressed up in a princess costume. She also found "her" red lipstick from Halloween.

Her babysitter that night tried her best to scrub that red lipstick, but when I got home, this is how I found her:

March 2014

Well, I didn't plan to make the whole month of March one big post, but that is how the pictures uploaded and it will take more time to separate them into smaller posts. So, here it goes...

Our church had its annual Early Childhood Party in March. And it happened to be the weekend Jason's sister and family came up to visit (not sure why I don't have a single picture of the cousins!). Last year you may remember my post about the The Drive-In Movie Night at church. This year's theme was Mouse Race. The fun activities included; a wind-up mouse race, making an oreo look like a mouse, super cute mouse ears, face painting and the favorite; a mouse tunnel made from several huge boxes.

Jaxon the mouse.

Dakota the mouse.

While Memaw was visiting, the kids both wanted her to sleep with them. So, we compromised by putting the blow-up mattress in Jaxon's room and they each took turns sleeping in the bed or on the mattress.

More pictures of my crazy girl! With Jaxon in school this year, I got a lot more time to spend with Dakota and her personality really came out. Without her brother home to play with, her imagination grew immensely and I constantly found her talking to imaginary friends.

Lunch date with my girl at McDonald's!

Posing with her Bitty Baby, Ali, in matching PJ's.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I find selfies of Dakota on my phone every day. Here are a few of my favorites:

I have tried taking Dakota's nap away, but I still find her asleep in random places late in the afternoon. So, back to letting her nap on days that she wants to.

Found Dakota asleep on the couch.

Love these two crazy kids!
Dakota is ready for gymnastics class.

More pictures of Dakota...

This is a hand-me-down dress from hockey friend, Allie.
After her 7th day in a row wearing this, I had to sneak
it from her to wash it!

Beautiful Dakota at the Easter Egg Hunt at school.

The kids and I drove to Kansas for Jaxon's Spring Break (Jason had already left for deployment at this point). We had a great week seeing family! Took them to Cosmic Jump, Kaleidoscope, and Fritz's Railroad Restaurant.

Dakota on the trampoline at Cosmic Jump.

Jax at Cosmic Jump.

Kaleidoscope is owned by Hallmark Cards and is free! It's a large room filled with many opportunities for kids to be creative. Hallmarks gives all their card scraps to Kaleidoscope and kids move around the room creating things from the scraps. It's a fun place to allow kids to be creative. I remember going as a kid, so I was thrilled to bring Jax and Kota here. It was a super fun morning!

Jax creating something super cool!

Kota working on a necklace.

And of course, there was some time spent in the hot tub!

Jaxon is 6!!

What feels like awhile ago (since I have neglected to post anything on this blog for a very LONG time), Jaxon turned 6. There was a lot of snow this past winter and the day of his birthday party showed us no mercy. He decided on a roller skating party and the morning of the party the snow started. And the wind was blowing hard. And we drove 20 minutes to his party in a mini-blizzard. The whole drive there I was praying that his friends would dare to get out in the awful storm (I'm such a terrible person) because I couldn't stand the thought of his heart breaking if no one showed up for his big day. Turns out, everyone who RSVP'd made it! So grateful for friends who understood how important his day was. It was such a great party!

Dakota was hugging the walls. She insisted on wearing
Bubby's skates that are 2 sizes too big for her!

Hockey friend, Allie, stopping for a picture.

Another friend, Ali, taking a break to smile.

I made Jax this hockey rink cake with figurines I had ordered from Amazon,
complete with four (over-sized) hockey pucks made from brownies.

Friend, Nora. 

It would appear that only girls came to his party, but I think I just
couldn't catch the boys for a picture!

Back home on his actual birthday.
Super excited about the Legos from Grandma and
Grandpa Hager! 

Protective Gear from Aunt Ninny, Cousin Page and
Uncle Austin, to go with his new roller blades Memaw and
Papa Schu got him!

This kid can't get enough Legos!

Chocolate and Target money from Aunt Nat,
Uncle Jeremy and the girls!

Royals!! From Aunt Jamie, Uncle Nick and
the boys.

We celebrated his birthday again the next weekend with
Ouma and Oupa. A hockey puck cake this time!