i came out blogging: April 2009

i have reconnected with one of my old leaders from ward youth group and he is now doing a lot of photography work. he was looking for someone with a toddler that he could shoot (with his camera, not a gun) so he could add it to his portfolio. so i volunteered talan and we were able to get some GREAT shots out of the deal. they were taken towards the end of march so i was even able to use them as his 2 year pictures.
it was a great experience and we love how they turned out. paul said he was even going to come back and try to get a few pictures with the boys together since talan was NOT having hayden be anywhere near him for any pictures that day.
here are a few of the pictures from paul manoian photography:

this was the theme of talan's 2nd birthday party because, well, he's a rock star. talan LOVES music, especially rock. many times with him, the harder the better. and he loves the drums and guitar.
so we sent out concert ticket invitations and invited everyone to the big bash that took place on talan's birthday, thursday, april 9th.
mom and dad, jenn and rainah, tina, melanie, chadd, ashton and lorelei, and jack and caroline skiver all came to celebrate talan with us that evening. jessica and justin are out on the road touring again so they weren't able to make it. jenn did try for quite awhile to get her on the computer but it just didn't work out.
we had a table set up where people could get tattoos and hayden decided he wanted to provide that service to his customers. hayden isn't the biggest "outside of the box" thinker at times, so when melanie asked him for a skull tattoo on her neck he said "noooo....you can't do that!" we finally convinced him it was really ok. tattoos don't always just have to be put on your hands and arms! the first one he gave melanie didn't work out so well and as he peeled it off and was asked how it looked he said "it's not good." so he moved to her other side and that time it worked out much better!
i made 3 cakes for talan this year. a flying v guitar, an electric guitar and a small drum set. they turned out alright, but i am no duff goldman from ace of cakes. we also had a snack table, some pop and punch.
after everyone was tattooed and had some food talan was more then ready to get the ball rolling and open some presents. he kept grabbing one and running off to try to open it so we finally decided it was time to just let him go at it. he did require some help from dave, but he did pretty well.
he kept getting sidetracked after he opened his new guitar and keyboard. he just wanted to play with those instead of opening more presents. but he eventually got through them all. aside from his guitar and keyboard he also got 3 new pigeon books, a little einstein submarine bath toy, a new skull sweatshirt, a yo gabba gabba dance mat, some yo gabba gabba bath toys and cd, a set of scholastic books, money, a diego camera, some new puzzles and an elmo live. hayden also spent a couple of hours making him a bunch of presents. he drew him a bunch of pictures and then he also wrapped up a little scooter toy of his that he said talan could have and also a lunchbox that was filled with blocks. i'm still not sure if he gave them to him for good, or just for the day. hayden got a red light at school that day and was very concerned he wasn't going to get any cake and ice cream that evening, so he was doing all he could to be a good boy so that he could earn some! but either way, it was very sweet of him.
elmo live was a HUGE hit with talan AND hayden. hayden has actually probably played with it even more than talan has so far.
after talan opened his presents we moved on to the singing and the eating of cake and ice cream. talan was able to blow out the candles all by himself pretty much on his first try. he then sat in dave's arms telling dave what kind of cake he actually wanted. i'm still confused by which one he really chose as i think he picked them all, but he ended up eating chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. something he got from dave and not me!
once everyone was about done with their cake, i sent mom upstairs with talan so that we could bring out talan's main gift that dave and i got for him.....a new drum set. i had decided we would need to do everything first before giving him the drum set because once he got it, i knew he wouldn't break away from it. so instead of letting him open it during presents, i chose to do cake first so we actually could sing to him and have him blow out the candles. it never would have happened otherwise!
so dave set up the drum set and we called him down. at first he didn't notice it as i believe he was headed back over to the snack table to pick up some more chips (something he and rainah had gotten very good at that evening). but mom turned him around and we pointed it out. he ran right over, got behind it, sat on the stool and started playing. he didn't stop playing for quite a long time. all of the other kids were so good and patient as i know they were all dying to play but talan would have none of that. anytime someone else even touched it he would yell "no!" at the end of the evening, he did end up moving on to other things and allowing the other kids to play it.
the next morning as soon as i got him out of his crib and started changing him he just kept telling me "downstairs" and "drums." he went right down and played for a bit. he doesn't play for long extended periods of time, but he does go back to it over and over through the entire day. i know that it is something we will definitely get our moneys worth.
people gradually started leaving but we were able to hang out with tina, melanie, ashton and lorelei for awhile. talan didn't get to bed until after 10pm but was still up just after 7 the next morning!
he had a great time at his rock star birthday party and so did we! thank you to everyone that came and to everyone that sent presents. you helped make talan's 2nd birthday so special.

he could not wait to get his hands on the balloons. especially the guitar balloons: