My Baby Turned 2!!!

3 years ago, Don and I weren't sure if we wanted to try for another baby after loosing Reese, but lucky for us, God had other plans. Two years ago we had our happy ending when Taegan was born. What a perfect addition to our family!! He is energetic, SO happy, and the most adorable little boy EVER!!!! He can be doing something incredibly wrong, but he just looks at you with those big blue eyes and blond hair and he melts your heart! He is very stubborn and very spoiled by his two sisters that dote on him 24/7 and don't like him to ever get in trouble. He is very talkative and is just growing up more and more every day!! I look forward to seeing what he becomes, but I'm also scared that it's all going to go by way too quickly. In the mean time, I couldn't be happier. Happy Birthday Taegan!! I love you so much and I'm so happy to be your Mommy!!!!

This is the day of his birthday party. We had a monkey theme and had the party at our church. Here is Uncle Eric letting Taegan make a basket!

I bought his second birthday party supplies before he was even 8 months old. I saw them online and fell in love with them. We call him our "monkey" and these were perfect!!! Here was his cake.

We also had Patti, the balloon lady, come and make balloon animals for all the kids. She is a professional clown and did a fantastic job!! She also does face painting and plays games with the kids!

Here are the kids playing one of her games.

After the party we came back to our house and my parents and Uncle Eric and Aunt Tiya gave him this John Deere ride-on toy. It is battery powered and he LOVES that he can go anywhere he wants!!

Here he is in the grass riding along!

Tuesday, May 25th, was his actual birthday. We had a relaxing morning, if you can't tell. He and Lily made a "bed" for him to watch TV in out of my laundry basket. I guess it at least gives me a excuse for not doing laundry that day!! =)

Before heading to lunch we went to SportClips and tried round 2 on getting our hair cut. It did go better than the first time, but still not great. He cried the whole time and REALLY hated the clippers, but we got through it and here is the end result. I love it and it is so cute on him. Although it does make him look a little too old for this mommy's liking.

That evening we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Taegan had a couple more gifts to open. Here is his baseball glove and ball from Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian and Elsie.

Grandma and Grandpa got him some more collector John Deere tractors.

When the waiter at Chili's saw him opening gifts, she asked if it was his birthday. We said yes, so the next thing you know, we have lots of waiters singing "Happy Birthday" to him. He was most impressed with the cake. Look at that look on his face!!

Here is his other gift from Aunt Jenn - a golf set. As you can tell, he loved it!!

When we got home we gave Taegan his gifts from us. Here he is with his new baseball tee, bat and ball. He loves anything to do with balls if you couldn't tell.

Don is teaching him the proper way to hold the bat...

They swing...

He was so proud of himself!! He played golf and baseball for a long time that night. What a great day!!

A little behind...

So, obviously I'm a little behind on my blog. We have had an eventful couple of months - a visit to my parent's house over spring break, Easter, our niece Elsie's birthday party at Wonderscope museum, the Kings Kids Choir at our church had their performance the end of April, we decided to put our house on the market, got it ready to be listed and then took it off the market all in less than 2 weeks!! Then I immediately went into garage sale mode. I always tell myself I'm not going to procrastinate, but in the end I always do. So, I had to price a huge amount of stuff and then get it all organized. The sale went great, but it is such a big, messy process!! Throw in Don's birthday and Mother's day and wow, I'm exhausted just typing it all up!! I think that pretty much gets you up to date with the Engel family. Here are some pictures to help you get caught up, starting with the most recent event (because I'm too lazy to move them all around).

We met my parents at Cheesecake Factory on Mother's Day for lunch and attempted to take some pictures.

Here are Don and the kids on his birthday. Poor Don always gets shorted because his birthday falls the same weekend as our garage sale and I'm always so busy! We went to Carlos O'Kellys and his mom and the kids made him a cake.

Madison had a school field trip to the zoo. They had such a great time!!!

Madison had her first part in the KKC musical that Don and I direct at our church. She was a cheerleader and had a solo too. She did SUCH a great job!!

Here she is with the other 2 cheerleaders. They became great friends!

For Elsie's party we met at Wonderscope museum and then went to a hotel on the plaza and went swimming and had pizza. The kids had so much fun and loved seeing Elsie again!!

Madison dressed up in her scuba suit.

Lily and Don making a caterpillar plant.

The girls loved playing in the supermarket. They were shopping forever!

Taegan got bored shopping, so he went back to the ball room. They are his favorite things!!

Here we are on Easter. We were attempting to get a good picture of all 3 of them. We ate lunch at Don's mom's house and we tried there too!

My pretty girls!!!

The kids on Easter morning after finding their gifts.

Lily and Taegan at the church Easter egg hunt. As you can see Taegan wasn't too happy about having his picture taken.

Finally, our trip to my parents house over spring break! We had a great time with my parents - as always!!

Reese's Birthday~

She would have been 3 today. That is so hard to believe, but I guess time flies with your other children too, so why would it be any different with a child you don't get to see on a daily basis.

It is always really hard to decide how to celebrate her birthday. What do you buy, what do you do? This year we made t-shirts for Trisomy Awareness Month (March) and Reese's birthday. And today we bought balloons and flowers and went to visit her grave. It has become a tradition to release balloons on her birthday. The girls believe that the balloons will make their way to Heaven and Reese will get them. How sweet is that?

Here is a picture of her grave today after we decorated for her birthday.


Here are the balloons on their way to Reese.

The kids...

Both Madison and Lily said that they wished Reese was here so that we could have a big party for her birthday. What do you say to that? They really have handled this so well. We are blessed with 3 wonderful daughters and a terrific son!!

My brother took this picture of our family before we left. At least this year we are all looking in the direction of the camera. You should have seen last years picture!

After we left, we went to McDonalds to eat lunch. I figured what else would Reese have picked for lunch? She would have been 3 today. What do 3 year olds like? McDonalds!!

Happy Birthday Reese! Mommy and Daddy miss you and love you so much!!!!

Haircut Time

Today we had Taegan's hair cut for the first time. We were hoping he would do okay, but he did NOT! He screamed throughout the entire process! The only reason it turned out so great is because Bruce is so good at what he does. Oh well... at least it is done. Maybe it will be better next time?

Here we go... He didn't even like having the cape put on!!

Nope, still doesn't like it!

We took the cape off - didn't help!

It was about this time, I asked Don to put the camcorder down and help me hold him still. He is a very strong little guy!

Here he is after it was all over. Not happy and very red from all the screaming! What a sad face!

Bruce gave him a piece of candy and it didn't seem to help. =(

This morning when the girls found out that Taegan was going to get his haircut, they decided they wanted their haircut too. I was shocked! Neither Madison or Lily would let me even trim their hair, so it was a complete surprise that they wanted it cut. Lily had a couple inches cut off hers and Madison had around 5 inches cut off hers. She was tired of her hair always being in her face, so I hope this helps! Here they are, just like big girls!

And here they are when it was all done. What an exciting Saturday!

Hoedown Throwdown!!

Madison's Upward cheerleading squad performed this dance last Saturday during half-time. I thought it turned out really cute and she had so much fun!!

Cheerleading!!

It is that time again. Upwards Cheerleading time!!! Madison was so excited for the games to start again so she had a chance to cheer. She loves everything about it - the tumbling, the dancing, the outfits!! Don and I are really happy with her coaches and how organized and devoted they are for such young girls. These are pictures from her first game last Saturday. I will update with a video next week. (They are doing a halftime dance and I'm sure it will be cute!)

Taegan...

This is how I found Taegan one day last week. He apparently had backed into the lazy susan in our kitchen and then tried to sit down and got stuck! He wasn't making any noise, he was just sitting there. I saw him and started toward him to let him out, but then stopped. I had to find my camera and take a picture of him. He just looked so pathetic. One sock on, and one off - just sitting there with a sad look on his face. So I left the kitchen and found my camera, came back and took his picture. What a silly boy!!!