Derek's Birthday!

We can't believe Derek is 4 years old! ...Well, unless you ask him! He keeps saying that he is turning 3 again!

Derek helped me bake his cake the day before his birthday, and when this happened - boy was I glad that Ryan had bought 2 cake mixes! haha! (...and I can't even blame this on anyone, haha! It was totally my fault that this first cake literally fell apart! Luckily we had that 2nd cake mix! And even luckier that this hit my funny bone instead of my go crazy-stressed ballistic bone! haha!)
Big helper! Derek helped me decorate the cake- and we had a lot of fun! He's such a great kiddo - so full of energy and always wanting to help! We sure love him!
Happy Birthday Kiddo!
Aaaarrgg Matey's! Scooter has been really into "pirates" lately - so one of the things he got for his birthday was a treasure chest with an eye patch, gold coins and a bandanna!

Oh my goodness- we just LOVE these two sweet boys! I don't know how we got so lucky to have them in our family, but we are SO glad that they are ours!!
Opening presents! ...and boy, were there a lot of presents! Scooter sure is lucky to have such amazing grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who love him so much and gave him such fun stuff for his birthday!! Thank you everyone!! :)

The (second) cake!
Playing in his new sandbox! This boy would play outside in the dirt all day if he could! We have this little patch of dirt next to the patio and he was always digging in it - so we got this little sandbox for him. I think he had a really fun birthday - and we're so grateful that we could spend the day (in person & on webcam!) with so many of our AMAZING family members!!
Another really fun thing that happened at Derek's party was that Mauri lost her first tooth!! She was super brave & let Papa pull it out with pliers! What a cutie!!
And while we're talking about Mauri, I have to share the cutest thing she said a few weeks ago! She said to Lins: "Mom, I had a thought... What if Amber & Ryan didn't want another kid, and we got Cooper!!" haha! When Lindsay told me that I laughed so hard! She's so cute & funny! (I told Lins to make sure & tell her that we definitely want Cooper though!!)