A Little Bit Of Everything

Well this is just a cluster of pictures with no tie in to anything. Just random photos. This last Sunday James was working and I was miserable/sick from allergies. My Mom was nice enough to take Lizzie to church with her (for some reason my kids LOVE church, and I love that!). Well all her dresses were dirty, so we pulled out a skirt I got on clearance 2 years ago that she was finally old enough to wear. She looked really cute!

I have a cousin that always does her daughter's hair beautifully. She inspired me to try something new on Lizzie's hair (mostly because I was bored with pig tails, pony tails, and just pulling it up). I mean Lizzie has SO MUCH hair I never know what to do with it. This was the final product (minus a blower bow). I thought it turned out pretty good, but I definitely could use a lot more practice.

She thought the hair style was cute too.

In the process of picture taking with Lizzie, Clay chimed in that he wanted a picture taken too. This kid is so cute. He gives the best hugs right now and kisses. And he's so inquisitive. He asks questions about everything and anything.

No pictures of Analyn this time. Weird I know. She's crawling around now, which made me pretty sad, but I knew it was inevitable. She's giving kisses now too. It's so fun to kiss her and have her look at you and kiss you back.

Anyways, I have so many projects I always buy stuff to start and never get a chance to actually do them. Like last week I went and bought some tulle to make the girls some tutus to dress up in. Well now I have about 6 yards of tulle sitting on the table and I'm thinking I need to do another project first and get it done. So I buckled down and did it. I shadowbox framed the bonnet that Anna (my mother-in-law) made for Analyn. I wanted to keep it as a special keepsake, but didn't want it sitting in a drawer or hope chest. I love it and now am determined to get Lizzie's done too (have to get the wrinkles out of hers first). So now I need to finish Lizzie's and then on to those tutus. Oh if only I was as diligent in my scrapbook projects.

Birthday Bashes!

Well this week has been super busy again. My birthday was this week and it was fun. I didn't have to cook at all and went to Lizzie's preschool class with her too (I have to go once a month to help out). It was low key and it was a good day for me.

Lizzie's birthday party went really well. I still don't know how I feel about parties though. We didn't even have a full blown party and I thought it was a lot of work. Lizzie was so impatient waiting for the party to start.

This is her asking me who each present was from.

Analyn sat in the high chair most of the time, but she enjoyed being able to see what was going on.

Finally the party started and it was time for pizza.

Our new friends came over for the party. Mason, Jana and Eva.

And of course Tiffany and Brooke were there too!

Lizzie understood it was her birthday this year so when we finished the pizza she wanted to do present right away. She got a lot of nice things. She loved her Hello Kitty shoes. This kids is growing so fast! She already in size 10 shoe.

A leapfrog tag reader.

Puzzle

The cake. I opted to just buy a cake this year. Glad I did too because after making cupcakes for her class at preschool I was not in the mood to make an decorate a cake. Her final decision was a Tinkerbell cake.

She picked out her own candles when we went to the dollar store. They were sparkling candles. They didn't sparkle that much though, but Lizzie loved them!

She definitely had a good birthday. I still can't believe she's 4! Soon it will be Clay's birthday and then he'll be 3 and then the baby will be 1 almost soon after that. It all goes by so fast!

Thank you to everyone who remembered Lizzie on her special day!

Elizabeth's Day To Shine

Once a year each child at preschool gets a special day. For obvious reasons most people have that day on their child's birthday. So yesterday was Lizzie's special day at preschool. She was so excited!

Normally they want healthier snacks for the kids. But on the child's special day you get to bring in a special treat. Originally I was going to try and make Hello Kitty cake pops. Thought twice thinking it would be way too much work (and probably more expensive than just buying something). Instead I decided on making ice cream cone cupcakes instead. You would think they would be pretty easy, they proved difficult though. Lots of trial and error. But they turned out cute, and Lizzie loved them. The one thing Lizzie wanted was the cake to be purple, so per her request I made the white cake mix purple. Got to love food coloring.

Elizabeth got a crown at the beginning of class. The crown said, "Elizabeth's Day to Shine". She thought that was great and then she got to stay up front with her teacher and help with all the activities for the day. I'm sure she loved that. And I was glad I was able to stay a little longer after I dropped her off to see her get her crown (thanks Mom!).

Grandma, James, Clay, Analyn and I all went back for the last 30 minutes of class. Lizzie got to wear this fun hat and have James and I sit with her during snack time. They even sang happy birthday to her.

Showing me her treat. See the cake is purple.

Grandma was a good sport and kept an eye on Clay. Clay is a busy little boy so we had to watch him closely.

On the way home I told Lizzie that a package was waiting for her at home. She was so excited to get something, that we had to call James and ask if it was okay for her to open it while he was at work. Poor James misses out on a lot, but he was happy that she was enjoying herself. She loved going through the package and opening presents. Thanks again Anna, Dave, Mike and Tiffany. That really made her day!

A My Little Pony. Makes me smile that she's getting toys that I played with as a kid.

She thought these band aids were so cool. She can't wait to use them.

And a cute necklace, that had to go on immediately after being opened.

She definitely had a great birthday. She's a little grumpy today from all the sugar, attention and excitement that came with yesterday. But I'm just glad she had fun. Birthday celebration is tomorrow. Pictures to come :)

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Wow, I really can't believe I've been a mother for 4 years! I remember I was so excited to get pregnant, especially after trying for 7 months (yeah I know that's not that long, but it seemed like an eternity to me). I was so happy to have Elizabeth, and I still am. She's so smart (her preschool teacher tells us that daily), she's beautiful and of course her eyes are always my favorite feature. My biggest wish was that I have a blue eyed girl. She's aware of others around her and is always concerned about our feelings. She's quick to tell me she loves me, and that always makes me smile. So Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl. We love you!

Elizabeth the day she was born.

First birthday...she's still a Daddy's girl!

2nd birthday

And her 3rd birthday...

We aren't having her celebration until Saturday so I will get those up as quick as I can.

Fair Parade

In Elko the county fair is always during the weekend of Labor day. And we always have a parade the Friday before the fair officially starts. Well at the last minute James and I decided to take the kids to the parade. Clay and Liz were excited to go. Clayton was so mad that we made him ride in the stroller though. Here is a picture of us all set up next to the road. This is another reminder to me why we haven't ever had family pictures taken. No one is looking at the camera.

Analyn had no idea what was going on. Especially while we just sat on the curb and nothing was happening. But she's a good baby and was content to just sit and take in all the different things that were going on around us.

Once the candy started flying Clay became a little more happy. It's great what a sucker will do for an upset child. He really just wants to be a big boy, but is a little too eager to try new things. We set up our stoop on Commercial Street around where the parade begins. It gets done much quicker and we got SO much candy.

Since this was Analyn's first parade I had James take some reaction shots. She really didn't know what to think about any of it. But I was impressed that she was so good especially since we had two marching bands walk pass us.

Me and my kiddos. I hardly ever get my picture taken with them, so I was touched that James was willing to take pictures so I could be more hands on with the kids. This is James' first parade with the kids. He had to work today but luckily it was late enough that we were able to have this little family outing.

Lizzie was pretty timid about grabbing candy. We gave her and Clay a stern talking to before the parade about where she could go and not to run into the street. Well she listened well because we had to coax her into the street to even get some of the candy.

Luckily we put the camera away before the firetrucks came by. We were sprayed with water from two different firetrucks. That's initially when Analyn lost her cool and would not calm down until James took her out of the car seat. The sirens didn't help either, that just made her a little more upset. Clayton liked the noises for sure. But by that point he had eaten so much candy he would have been fine with anything. After the parade we were heading back to our car and this elderly couple that was sitting on the other side of the street stopped us and offered Lizzie all their candy. They said she was so cute gathering up all the candy during the parade that they thought they would enjoy the candy that people had thrown to them. That made Lizzie's day for sure!