Carolyn Turned 4!

Meet the Birthday Girl.

This is Carolyn. She just turned 4. She wanted to have a Princess Party for her birthday!

Step 1: Dress Up!

Julia donning her crown and skirt Emmaline putting on her royal gloves

Step 2: Apply makeup!

Carolyn having her make up applied

(I just have to point out how amazing my hair looks in this picture. Its not very often I see the back of my head so I must say I'm plesantly surprised at how good my hair looks!)

Step 3: Pose for glamour shots!

Emmaline, Emily, Cammile,Carolyn, Julia

Next up: Presents!

Emmaline gave her bracelets and stickers, Julia gave her some coloring pictures, a color chain and some home made books, Emily gave her some princess figures, Cammile gave her a dolly and grandma gave her the pretty dress she is wearing as well as a tea set!

Then: The dessert! Our princesses ate dainty brownie cakes and had lemonade from a fashionable tea service!

Make a wish!

Top left: Emmaline, Grandma, Emily, Carolyn

Bottom Left: Cammile, Julia The Entertainment:

The princesses passed the shoe to see who would get to go to the ball with Prince Charming!

When they were done with the fun, our princesses were exhausted and went home to take naps. After all, they need their beauty sleep!

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

What have we been up to?

Swimming!

A good friend of mine, Mrs Tracy, invited Emmaline and I to go swimming at her pool. I took her up on the offer because there is no way I can see taking a 3 month old and a 3 year old to the pool at the same time, by my self. I was worried about Emmaline because she typically hates water at home. She refuses to let me wash her hair because she hates getting her face wet! But when swimming with Mrs Tracy, she did amazing. She still didn't want to get her face wet but after about an hour she stopped clinging to Mrs. Tracy!

Lottie got her feet wet but otherwise I just kept her with me- mostly in the shade. She looks adorable with this little bonnet on.

The Magic House- Children's Museum

My mom and I took Andrew, Emmaline and Lottie to the Magic House. We bought a membership which normally cost 100$ for two adults and four kids. We ended up buying the same membership, adding an extra adult, for only 55$! Thank you Matt for being in the military. I love the discounts!

Emmaline and Andrew sitting in a plexiglass window box. This is the opening to a secret stairway that was found in this house when it was renovated into the museum. The house was originally built in 1905 and was turned into a museum in 1979. A window washer was counting windows when he realized that there was one less window on the inside than the outside. That launched an investigation where they ended up finding this stair way that had been boarded over. Pretty cool, huh?

This has to be my favorite picture of the trip. Something very interesting about it...

What Else?

Apparently this is how we play with side-walk chalk at our house...

The Village

I've been watching this site for a long time now. Its pretty cool. Several awesome ladies from the Salt Lake area got together and created this site so that women could ask questions, any questions, about kids, life, marriage, etc and get input and advice from other readers. It has been helpful in dealing with Emmaline's sleeping, potty training, and even made me think about things I haven't gotten to yet- like allowances and chore schedules. They also have different crafts every week and a recipe blog to follow- its a great resource! Check it out. Right now they are doing a give-away of a really cute onsie from Jess Koopmans' etsy shop. Here is the link to her site: www.etsy.com/shop/jeskoopmans And here is a link to the village: www.villageformoms.blogspot.com I hope you find something there to peak your interest. Bookmark their blog and jump into their discussions! Its always great to have more points of view!

Much Ado About Lottie

Interesting Lottie Facts

1 She hates being too hot or too cold. She's very picky about making sure the blanket is on but not too heavy.

2 She won't sleep unless she's on her side. She'll cry and cry and cry and the minute I roll her onto her side she'll quite down and fall asleep.

3 She smiles when other people smile at her. And she loves smiling at random people.

4 She loves being on her tummy. Even when holding her on her back in my arms she'll keep pulling herself up until I help her sit. Tummy time isn't an issue in our household!

5 Her hair is red. It started out dark, just like Emmaline's did. But the hair coming in is a lot more red than Emmaline's is. Here's to hopin' it stays that way!

6 She wakes up promptly at 5am every single morning, regardless if she woke up to eat at 2am or at 10pm, she'll be awake at 5am no matter what.

Its so fun to see how different Emmaline and Lottie are- yet they are so much the same! They really look a lot alike:

They get the funny faces from their dad! :)

I bought myself a birthday present

So I was at Walmart today doing my normal shopping. No, thats not true, I was doing more than normal shopping. I was also buying all the stuff I need for my birthday party this weekend. And I came across my birthday present. I've been complaining about wanting a new one for a while because every time I use the old one the batteries run out in about an hour. Expensive batteries for not much use. So when I saw it just sitting there- at a whopping 75$ off... I couldn't help myself. I bought a new camera. I haven't used it yet. In fact, its still sitting in the package because I'm scared to get into it then decide that I spent way too much and want to take it back. So I'm allowing myself to have a few days to think about it to make sure that buyer's remorse doesn't set in. Besides that, I think I have to get a new memory card...I wonder if the one from my old camera would work with it? But when I start using it, I'll put up more pictures. I'll have a full battery to take pictures with! Yeah for birthdays to justify last minute, expensive, purchases!