Party Time

Miss R turned two years old!!!

The night before her birthday (for a Family Home Evening activity) we all pitched in to help make the cake. This year I decided to do The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I'm not a great cake decorator at all, but I was very happy with the way it turned out.

Since we made it the night before, we had to cover him up--in a cocoon.

Miss R LOVED her cake.

And she loved the attention.

Miss L & Miss A made decorations for the party. Can you tell what they drew?

Miss R received lots of small presents, and some fun things for her baby dolls. She loved everything she received. Here are a few pictures. We tried to capture her excitement, but getting a 2 year old to smile and look at the camera is pretty much impossible.

She has been playing non-stop with her new stroller. It's so fun to have a girl who will play with dolls. For years our doll stuff has been collecting dust. And of course, now that Miss R is interested in dolls, Miss L & Miss A are too! :)

Happy Birthday Miss R!

My Beautiful Rose

Two years ago I had a very quick (and somewhat traumatic) delivery--ending with the most beautiful result.

It has been such a joy watching her grow from an infant....

to a toddler...

to a beautiful little girl.

It took us 3 days to come up with a name for Rose, and we feel her name fits her perfectly. She is tiny, delicate, and beautiful, but a tough little gal who has survived all the abusing of two older sisters and still holds her own---just like a rose! Happy 2nd Birthday, Rose. We love you!!!

P.S. So much for keeping her anonymous. I just couldn't write this post without using her name. :)

Mother's Day

Well, I've been TERRIBLE at blogging lately. I have composed at least a dozen posts in my head, but have yet to actually put them in writing. :) So today's post will include Mother's Day along with a billion other thoughts I have had in my head lately.

My girls made me these adorable gifts at church today. I LOVE THEM!!! The Primary kids decorated pot holders--so cute AND useful! :) And I love what the nursery did with Miss R. It is so precious!

Miss A's potholder (a picture of mommy & Miss A)

Miss L's potholder

Miss R's handprint. The poem says:

Sometimes you get discouraged

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls

But every day I'm growing-

I'll be grown some day

And all those tiny handprints

Will surely fade away

So here's a little handprint

Just so you can recall

Exactly how my fingers looked

When I was very small.

It made me cry. I love my children and I don't take enough time to enjoy them. I often get involved in the planning and organizing side of motherhood and forget to LIVE in the moment. I hope to improve on that this year.

And of course I have to mention my OWN wonderful mother, who taught me EVERYTHING I know. She is such an amazing woman. Shortly after giving birth to Miss L, I realized I will never be as good as my Mom. She continues to be my perfect example. :)

On a completely unrelated note, here are some things I have wanted to post recently.

Miss L: Mom, when I get older I want to be in a show and be on the stage and make people cheer for me.

Mom: Wow! That's sounds like a good idea. Miss A, what do you want to be when you get older?

Miss A: Ummmm, I want to be a MUSKETEER! (thanks Barbie)

Listening to the girls talk in the car--

Miss L: Did you know Hannah Montana is a rock star?

Miss A: Yep.

Miss L: I mean, she is a REAL rock star. She plays the banjo and everything.

Listening to Miss A, playing house--

Miss A: Just a minute, I'm nursting (nursing) my baby.

Three weeks ago we started a TV/movie strike--no television on school days. I have to admit that I have caved on occasion, but my kids haven't watched more than 30 minutes--and it has been an educational show as opposed to Barbie or Disney. I can tell a big difference in our house. My kids are back to spending more time reading and pretending--which I LOVE to see! One morning I woke up to find my kids like this:

It was so nice to find that they had voluntarily brought out books to read instead of putting in a movie. Yeah, we're forming better habits!

Also, we had a near ER visit. Miss R fell and hit the corner of her eye on a picnic table. The picture is kind of washed out. Believe me--it was purple! Poor little girl.

Baby C is growing fast. She is in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. I can't believe how fast time flies when you get old! She continues to be a very relaxed, easy going baby. I just wish she'd sleep better at night. Actually, her Mother's Day gift to me was sleeping 13 hours straight last night! She has never slept that long, and she hasn't slept through the night in months, so it was definitely a NICE night of sleep! She is not very interested in baby food, but she is SLOWLY getting the hang of it. She is also pretty mellow when it comes to reaching and playing with toys. She is getting there---but takes her time.

And last of all, here are some recent pictures I took of the girls. It is pretty much impossible to get one of them all together--so here are some individual shots.

Miss L. Is it just me, or does she look like she's posing for a 80's fashion magazine? haha. When we curl her hair, I have to make it poofy, because it loses it's curl in about 10 minutes. My sweet husband says (in remembrance of Joe Jr.), "Her hair is looking awfully BIG tonight." :)

Sweet Miss A. She was SO excited about the glittery pink headband in her hair. She looks so grown up to me in this picture. I can't believe how much she has matured in the last few months. She's turning into a school girl too fast!

Miss R. It is impossible to get her to look and smile at the same time. And of course she has cheezits in her mouth. This tiny girl eats constantly and still isn't on the growth curve. She will turn two next week and she's still wearing 12-18 month clothes. And check out those curls!!! I LOVE, and I mean LOVE her curls. On a side note, my family is living proof that genetics play a huge part in determining one's metabolic rate. Some people (like my husband and Miss R) are just DANG lucky. :)

And here is Baby C, so proud of herself for sitting alone. She can't wait to crawl--but we're not encouraging it at all. If you're a mom, you know why! haha.

Happy Easter!

We just came home from a wonderful Easter celebration. We went to my parents house. Gma O and Gma N also joined us, along with my younger brother and his family. We spent the entire weekend celebrating and eating and eating and eating and eating. Seriously, I cannot remember the last time I ate so much food. My mom is the most amazing cook, and always goes "all out" during the holidays. On Saturday we dyed easter eggs, had an egg hunt (100+ plastic eggs filled with candy for only 5 kids---pretty obnoxious--haha), and went out for pizza that night (a family tradition). On Sunday morning the girls found their Easter baskets filled with fun things from mommy and daddy. We had a delicious brunch and then we watched General Conference (enjoying our conference box from my parents). After that we hunted for our dyed eggs. We each had one egg with our name on it, and my dad hid them and wrote clues for us--another family tradition. Then the kids frosted and decorated sugar cookies. That was followed by a yummy dinner and then a review of the Easter story (opening plastic eggs and reading the scriptures).

Two days after Easter we went to visit G's parents (sans G, who was working nights back at home). We spent 3 days there. The girls jumped on the trampoline pretty much non-stop. They also dug a gigantic hole in the backyard (to go and visit Wonderland). They had a blast. :) It was nice and relaxing for me...and it made me even more anxious to have my own backyard. One day....one day I will have a backyard! I can't wait!!! We also had a chance to visit with Gma A. I'm kicking myself for not getting out the camera! But it was so great to see her and chat for a little while.

It really was a wonderful Easter! We had such a great time! And like all family gatherings, it went by way too fast!!! Here are some pictures from our week. Of course I didn't take enough. I always forget to bring out the camera when I'm with family. I'm just too busy having fun. :) The outdoor ones were taken by my sis-in-law who is a professional photographer. Man, the differences between her photos and mine are embarrassing. :) I'm so grateful her wonderful talent has added to my family history. Thanks J!!!!

Gma N frosting sugar cookies.

Gma O and Baby C

Cousins after the hunt

Miss R enjoying her first Easter stash

The Challenge

Most of you probably saw this on Facebook, but I had to put it here so that I have it documented for posterity. :)

Last night we had chocolate chip cookies for our Family Home Evening treat. The girls each had 2 cookies, which I felt was more than enough. But of course, as kids always do, they wanted more. Miss L specifically asked why daddy got to eat more cookies than her. I nonchalantly replied that he exercises more, so he can eat more. Then, in complete jest, I said, "If you do 500 jumping jacks, you can have another cookie." Her eyes lit up with the challenge.

So she started jumping and we started counting. After about 125 or so, she was pretty tired! She exclaimed, "My pores are pouring!!!" (She was talking about sweating, of course). Once she reached 200, she was a little winded and had to stop every 25 or so to take a few breaths. As her body became more fatigued, her jumping jacks became less and less coordinated. I WISH I had thought to get out the video camera!!!

Needless to say, she has her daddy's blood. She was issued a challenge and by golly, she was not going to pass it up! When she reached 500, she ran straight into the kitchen (as if she had all the energy in the world) and devoured her hard-earned cookie. Then she said she needed go outside to cool off. Haha!

Miss L is such a cutie! We love her!!!

Some fun recent shots

THE GIRL TRAIN

I LOVE MY TONGUE

PASS THE DESITIN PLEASE

The Inevitable

Today Miss L and Miss A decided to cut their hair--by themselves.

Having four girls, I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened.

This was the damage:

Not too bad....could have been A LOT worse. But I had to come up with a good consequence so that they didn't try it again--with more disastrous results.

Their consequence was a haircut. As wanna-be princesses, they love having long hair. I've been wanting to chop Miss A's hair for years.

This is the end result:

I think the disaster turned out completely adorable.

What do you think?