these two.

these little boys of ours would be lost without each other.

they are the best of buds.

day in:

and day out:

thrilled to be FIVE!

our sweet chet turned 5 on march 17th.

and, my goodness, is that boy ever excited to be 5 (like his cousin, haden!)

chet has been counting down the sleeps until his birthday for weeks.
we made a special birthday calendar and he checked off a square each day.

every morning he would let me know how much longer it was until he would be 5.

and on his big day, when i went into the boys room, chet had a big grin on his face and he proudly announced that he was officially a 5 year old!

i can hardly believe it.

a whole lot has happened in the past 5 years, but it's still so hard to believe.

happy birthday chetty.

i hope being 5 is as magical as you think it will be!

i know this year will bring lots of big changes for you - i am both excited, and terrified!

you are a sweet, smart, goofy boy.

we love you to bits and are so grateful you are all ours. (obviously!)

(holden asked if i frosted the cake with cheese.. unfortunately, it does look a whole lot like cheese whiz! my bad.)

i did a birthday interview with chet where he answered questions about himself.
here are the answers:

what is your name? chet! C-H-E-T.

how old are you? 5. (with a really big, cheesy grin on his face)

what are you most excited about being 5?: getting presents. and going to school.

do i go to school today?

what was your favorite part of being 4? being little.

what can you do now that you are 5, that you couldn't do when you were 4? lift heavy things.

favorite color? orange.

favorite food? pickles.

favorite treat? popsicles.

what is the healthiest thing you like to eat? strawberries.

favorite show? paw patrol.

favorite animal? giraffe.

how come? because it's got the longest neck in the world.

favorite season (spring/summer/fall/winter)? christmas. 

favorite song? 'you are my sunshine' and 'jesus wants me for a sunbeam'.

favorite book? the one about ned the worm. (ned's new home)

what is your favorite thing to do outside? play at the park.

what is your favorite thing in your room? my bunkbed.

what do you want to be when you grow up? a pirate.

how come? because i want to get treasure.

who do you like to spend time with? grandma. and haden.

what is something that you are good at? playing with toys and doing puzzles.

what is something you want to be good at? play my ukulele.

what are you afraid of? ghosts and monsters.

what makes you laugh? tickling me.

what makes you happy? going to haden's house.

what makes you sad? holden hitting me.. really hard.

what is your favorite thing to do with dad? wrestle.

what is your favorite thing to do with mom? making cakes.

what is your favorite thing to do with holden? playing with toys and having sleepovers.

what is your least favorite thing to do? when people are being mean to me.

what are you most excited about starting school? playing with toys and eating snacks.

if you had a millions dollars, what would you do with it? buy toys. lots of toys.

we had his official birthday party on friday night. (march 13)

we booked our stake center for a bike themed birthday party.

this was the invite:

i think the invite suited his personality so well!

all the kids brought a bike, or a scooter, or a skateboard.

then we decorated those modes of transportation and rode them around the gym.

i pictured it being slightly less chaotic then it was, buuut we had 21 kids there so my hopes of more organization were a bit far fetched!
(chet has a whole pile of cousins - that's why there were so many kids there!)

oh well, the kids seemed to have fun.

and chet definitely felt special, so it was a success!

i have to give a big shout out to my parents for making the party so great.

not only did they make my vision come to life, but they also added their own creative touches and were the ultimate cleaner-uppers at the end, as per usual.

i plan on scheduling all our birthday parties for when they are here visiting ;)

unfortunately, i was super bad at taking pictures of the party (remember how i said it was a wee bit on the chaotic side?!) and i am sad that i don't have much proof that the party actually happened.

hopefully i will do a better job at the next party.

nevertheless, here are a couple not-great pictures:
(decorating bikes)

(we made a track around the gym with balloons. my parents made the carwash and hotdog stand - haha i wasn't planning on feeding anyone, even though the party was right during dinner!)

(this was the extent of my decorating..)

(and this is what the cakes looked like. i wanted them too look more 'pinteresty', but that just never happens. and chet was seriously so thrilled with the way they turned out, so that made up for their homemade-y appearance. and they tasted dee-lish!)

(we gave my grandpa the assignment of being the official car wash sprayer, and he took the assignment very seriously! the kids were soaked. and, when they retaliated, so was he! i am so happy that my grandpa could come. he has been spending a lot more time with our family lately and i love the relationship our boys have with him.)

on chet's actual birthday, we met up with his leavitt grandparents for a mcdonald's lunch.

grandma and grandpa did an excellent job of making chet feel special.

that is where we gave chet his presents from us and holden.

we got chet 2 gifts this year:

1. a bluejays baseball hat.

he lost his old one in the fall and has been asking for a new one ever since.
(we actually got one for holden too because he was such a good sport during the week of chet's festivities).

2. a scooter.

we took the scooter out of the packaging, assembled it, and wrapped it, from top to bottom, in wrapping paper.

i was kind of bummed that the wrapping paper made it super obvious what the gift was because then it wouldn't be much of a surprise for chet.

but apparently, even though the present was the exact shape of the scooter he had been asking for his birthday, chet did not catch on.

he was 97% certain we had got him a letter L for his present.

and he wasn't even the littlest bit disappointed by that thought!

pam: if we did get you a letter L, would you think that is a good birthday present?

chet: ya, i like the letter L. and that one looks super big!

pam:.... well, great.

luckily, chet was just as thrilled when it turned out that the letter L was a scooter.

he also got lots of fun things from his friends, cousins, and grandparents.

talk about spoiled!

although the celebrations were a lot of fun, i am grateful to be done.
..and very grateful that holden's birthday is a healthy distance away!

first spider intruder of the year.

i don't like spiders.

i have a pathetic amount of nightmares about spiders.

this is how i dealt with our first spider intruder of the year:

(those dorky books belong to my husband, by the way!.. my brave, spider-killing husband.)

we caught that dang spider at 10am, and the boys were given strict instructions to NOT touch the jar until dad got home (7 hours later).

i need our boys to learn to kill spiders for me.

but i also need them to learn that, although they don't need to fear spiders, they cannot play with them, keep them as pets, tease me with them, etc.

it's a fine line!

sleepovers.

isn't that pretty cute?

our boys sleep together most of the time these days.

they are happy going to bed when they are going together, so matt and i are usually pretty accommodating to their sleepover requests.

plus, i love sneaking in and checking on them while they are asleep because they are always doing something cute.