Two Little Hams

If only we could get them to both smile in the same pic :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Trace!

I can't believe it, but it really has been 3 years since Trace was born. Seems like just yesterday, we were going to all of our doctor's appointments watching the little guy on the ultrasound. Now he's a 3-year-old big brother.

Ever since the calendar turned June, Trace has been excited about his birthday party. Out of his friends, he has one of the later birthdays, so he's been to a lot of other people's parties. Now it's time for his. Ashley tried to help him understand how many days were left before his party with a calendar she put together for him and printed out countdown sheets. It seemed to work, either that or he just got tired of us telling him his party was still a few days away.

For the party, we went with the theme of his favorite movie Toy Story (Thank you to Jenny for a great logo and invitations!).

With Toy Story 3 coming out the week before his party, there was no shortage of Toy Story decorations or snacks to be found (but just try to find a Toy Story pinata a few days before the party. Impossible).

Toy Story 3 opened up Father's Day weekend, and as part of my great Father's Day with the family, we brought the boys see it. Trace liked it and has asked to watch the new Toy Story a few times since. His favorite part of going to the movies though is eating lots of popcorn. With about 5 minutes left in the movie, Ashley and I realized he was still eating his bag of popcorn:

With his birthday falling on a weekend (this past Sunday), we got to have his party on his actual birth day. Trace woke up that morning and knew right away he was the birthday boy. We let him open a couple of presents right when he woke up, and he even had one from his brother, Fisher.
We decided to have the party at his favorite park near our house, and it was a huge success. While it was a hot day, we beat the usual summer rain by a few hours. Trace had a great time playing with his old friends from day care and all of the other friends and family who came.

To go with all the Toy Story balloons and decorations, Ashley made an awesome Buzz Lightyear cake and delicious Toy Story cupcakes:

We had pizza delivered from Pizza Planet (or Domino's with a Pizza Planet Logo on the box) and a snowball stand to beat the heat:


To top things off, Buzz Lightyear even payed a visit to sing "Happy Birthday." Trace wasn't too sure what to think at first of "Buzz." He didn't recognize me and wouldn't even come near me. After I took off the hair cover, he realized who it was and let me hold him. He tried to push the buttons on Buzz's suit, but still wasn't sure what to think.

After we sang "Happy Birthday" and cut the cake, everyone had a few more snowballs, played some games and enjoyed the park a little more before the heat did us in.

So we loaded up all the presents and headed home for Trace to spend the next hour or so opening them. It was fun to watch him open his presents; he got so excited for everything he opened (even the clothes from Maw Maw, especially his new suit so he can dress like daddy does when he goes to work).After each thing he opened, he would check it out and ask if he could play with it. It was tough to get him to go back and open something else. He now has more Toy Story toys than we know what to do with and lots of other cool stuff like a Star Wars Play Doh set, tee ball set, books, games, etc. But the grand finale was his new Woody and Buzz toys. These had to be taken out of the box right away. They ended up taking a nap with him later, and haven't left his sight since.

It was a great day, and we know Trace felt so loved by all of our friends and family. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and for being a part of our family. We look forward to many more birthdays with the boys, but hopefully they don't grow up too fast. Before we know it, we'll be throwing Fisher's 1st birthday party and planning for Trace's 4th.

Go Fly a Kite

A few weekends ago, we brought Trace to the park and to fly his kite he got for Easter. It was his first time to ever fly a kite, but after only a couple of minutes he was a pro:

Sorry no pictures, but Ashley got a kick out of watching me run with the kite to get it in the air. Good thing the wind was blowing pretty good that day or I would have really looked like a fool, not being able to get the kite to fly.

The Past Two Months

Gees, alot has happened in the past 2 months, I don't know where to begin. Let's start with a quick update on Fisher. He went for his shots and 2 month checkup on Wednesday. He weighed in at 11lbs 12oz. (50%) and was 23 3/4 in. long (75%). He's a sweet, sweet baby and is really the easiest part of this whole transition from a family of 3 to 4. He sleeps well (5 - 6 hour stretch @ night), he eats well (every 2 hours during the day), and he's overall pretty laid back. He lets his big brother run and jump all around him and he doesn't seem to mind a bit. He's recently started lighting up the room with his smiles. My biggest fear in all of this was not being able to love another the way I love Trace; but somehow, the Lord made some room in my heart. And did I mention how cute he is? Most people never make it past how much hair he has, and yes, he has a lot; but when you look past all that hair, you see one of the cutest babies I've ever seen (and I'm not just saying that).


Now, to update you on the Ballard Family happenings over the last 2 months. We celebrated our first Easter as a family of four which began with an Egg Hunt, or "Egg Hunk" as Trace would say, at Highland Road Park with our church family. It was one our first family outings and although Trace was a bit sick, he still had a blast finding all those eggs.

It gave him good practice for the Egg Hunk's to come. A few days later Trace had an Easter party at school where they hunted eggs again and ate beyond his limit in candy and sugar coated snacks! :)

Then came Easter Weekend, where we celebrated with all the family in town on Saturday. Of course, the Easter Bunny ran several times including Easter Bunny Rhiannon bringing baskets for everyone.

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early to see what the Bunny had brought. Trace must have been extra good this year! ;)

That evening, we went to Easter service at the Ring. Here's one of our few pics as a family of four:

After the holidays, we had lots of fun things to do. We had Ernie’s 31st birthday then we went to Tiny Tiger Fest, which is held annually at Trace's school. It's always a blast and there's so much fun stuff for the kiddos. Some of the things we did: Sidewalk chalked, made sand art, pet animals, made a super hero cape, played play dough, got a characature drawn, ate, and ate, and ate, and jumped in the bouncies, of course.

We've also had lots of birthdays to celebrate! Beginning in April, all of Trace's classmates start turning 3. It seems like we've had a birthday party every weekend. Too bad Trace is the youngest and his is last. He keeps asking if it's June 27 and I tell him it's coming, but I'm starting to think he doesn't believe me. :( Poor Buddy. Also, our friend, Baby Cole turned 1 recently, and Trace got to test out his new swing set! He even did the monkey bars semi-all by himself!

Another big milestone in the Ballard family news is we all went on Trace's first class fieldtrip! We went to AgMagic at LSU and got to see all sorts of plants and animals. Among Trace's favorites were the crawfish, the new baby chicks that hatched while we were there, and a Madagascar hissing cockroach (I still get the willies just thinking about it). We took all the kids from the Child Care Center in wagons over to the Ag Center. It was a really fun trip and I'm definately looking forward to all the field trips yet to come!

Well, that's about all I've got for now. We're doing great, keeping busy, and enjoying life as a family of four. Hopefully, it won't be this long before another post. Until next time...here's a picture of the Ballard brothers watching Curious George together.