Happy 6th birthday Karalee!

Karalee is 6 years old today! She has been so excited about her birthday. Her party was on saturday at a bouncy place in the supermall. Here are a few pictures from her party.That's Evie sliding down on her belly.I planned to make her cake wednesday night, but the power had gone out, and by friday it was still out, so Ben ordered her a cake from safeway. I was happily surprised that they were able to make it by 10 the next morning. I had a really fun idea for her cake, but this one was really cute.All the kids liked sitting up in the birthday chair.Last night Kara stayed up a little past bedtime to decorate cookies to take to school today. Her teacher always makes sure they are class helper on their birthday. She had a hard time deciding what to take for show and tell because she got so many fun gifts at her party, and also has her christmas gifts to choose from.She chose to open her gifts from us and family this morning before school. She decided last night right before going to bed, so I didn't have too much time to get everything wrapped, and the table decorated. but if it looked lame, she didn't seem to notice. I thought she should open in her jammies, so she could pick out new clothes to wear to school (as that's all she got from us, after so many toys at Christmas). But she just wanted to wear the t-shirt Ben brought back from St. Louis so she could match with Kiersten.I stuck a candle in her muffin for her to blow out after we sang happy birthday to her.All she wants for dinner is mac and cheese. She even specified, "the kind in the box. NOT the kind mommy makes in the oven!"

Christmas morning

Christmas morning is sure fun with 3 excited little girls. Ben was woken by Evie at 3:30, and never went back to bed. It was nice to have the dishes all put away out of the dishwasher, and everything else perfect when I woke in the morning. Kiersten was up at 7. she was able to wake Evie and me successfully, but Kara didn't want to get up. So I went down and got Ben, Kerry and Lana, who were watching a movie, and we let Kiersten and Evie come find their stockings and gifts from Santa. I was worried about that shopping cart Evie got. She loved her last one, but it just kept falling apart, so Santa brought her a new one. She wanted nothing to do with it when she saw it. But today she has loved it, and pushed all her things around in it, so I guess she likes it afterall. She only cared about those tubes of mini m&m's. once she saw those, she wanted them opened, and didn't care about the rest of her goodies. She carried them around til after breakfast, I think Ben distracted her long enough to make them disappear.

Kara woke 45 minutes to an hour after the other girls. She was really cute and excited about everything. Kiersten had her stocking emptied, and tried to show her everything in there in about 15 seconds.

Evie kind of loves/fears this bunny from Grandma Howard.

I knew Kara would love this doll, but I am surprised how much. It hasn't left her side since she opened it.

The girls were opening everything so fast. Kerry and Ben had a hard time keeping up with getting things out of the packaging.

Evie's new baby doll is probably her favorite gift. It is constantly being fed and put to bed all day long.

Kara's big gift from us, was her own camera. I was looking through it this morning and she has some pretty cute pictures. I got her a memory card today, so now she'll be able to take as many pictures as she wants.

We gave Kiersten this story telling Belle. She is pretty fascinated with everything it can do. She's also worried about her perfect curls getting smashed.

We gave Evie this fun discovery table. She was getting sleepy, and laid on the box, so I couldn't get it open for her. She wouldn't get off for quite a while.

Being a little tired, she was not cooperative for her picture with gifts. This was the best we could get.

Kiersten with all of her fun things. I know a few things got left out of the picture, in the chaos of our livingroom, or Kara playing with her stuff. you can kind of see her santa gift in her lap. It's a set of little disney princesses in wedding gowns marrying their princes. She is in love with those things.

Kara is pretty pleased with her spread as well. Her santa was that my little pony next to her on the couch.

the girls made all of us play twister.

This morning Evie kept wanting to wear the little glasses that came with one of her baby dolls.

Her new favorite toy. Kara has the cutest picture on her camera of Evie kissing her baby this morning. I guess she was carrying it around and stopping every few steps to give a kiss.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas this year!

Ben's 30th

What kind of guy brings his wife breakfast in bed on his birthday? Ben is that kind of guy. Yesterday was his 30th birthday, and I got to start the day with a delicious breakfast in bed, and all 3 girls up and fed first. It was even sweeter, because the reason he was up and cooking early, was due to Evie waking up at the crack of dawn. And since she had been a stinker, and kept us up most of the night, Ben got up with her and let me sleep in. Just another one of those small things that reminds me why I love him so much. People always say that you love someone because of the small things they do, and I agree. I love my birthday boy, and I'm so glad I married him. I married him because he's the kind of guy who makes me breakfast on his 30th birthday, and because he's the kind of guy who gives up his beloved football watching saturdays to take his daughters out for daddy-daughter time. He's the kind of guy that remembers to compliment Kiersten's pigtails, because she requests her hair that way just for him, and the kind of guy that calls Evie in to let her help take off his socks, since he knows how happy she is to help him. He's the kind of guy who plays nintendo with Kara, even though she slows him down, and messes him up. And when he unexpectedly beats a game after she's gone to bed, he doesn't save the game, so he can beat it again the next day so she can watch. When we got married I didn't know he would do any of those things, but I knew he was that kind of guy. I knew he told me on the first night I met him that his hero was his dad. I knew he was the kind of guy whose Grandma is one of his best friends. I knew he was a sweet, caring, and thoughtful guy, and I feel lucky to have snagged him! Happy Birthday Ben!

The girls were anxious for him to open his gifts.

His favorite birthday gift. He really wanted this hat, and kept saying he was going to just order it for himself. I knew his mom had gotten it for him, so I had to keep telling him just to wait and see if he got it as a gift. So he had a good idea he'd be getting it. If he looks trimmer in this picture than last year, that's because he has lost over 30 lbs in the last few months. He makes it look so easy!



Kiersten was the only one that wanted to help me make his brownies. She's a great little helper.

I completely intended to put 30 candles in his brownie, but he got to it too quickly, and started eating it. So after dinner, Kara said, "we haven't sang happy birthday to dad." I told her to go sing to him, but she said he needed a cake so he could blow out his birthday candle. I didn't want to make one, and he doesn't even like cake, so I made this candy cane out of apples and bananas. He was pretty surprised.

singing happy birthday to daddy.

12/17/11

Friday was Kara and Kiersten's last day of school until January 9th. They had a Christmas open house at the end of the school day for their parents and siblings. I still can't believe I forgot the camera, but I did, and got no pictures. Some of the other parents had cameras, so I can probably see if someone will email me a few. They got to perform their dances again from the recital. So we got to see Kara dance with her partner this time. Kiersten was so cute strong arming her little partner, and telling him what to do. They also sang some Christmas songs for us, and then gave us gifts they bought for us on their field trip on wednesday. Then they had their gift exchange. They each had to bring 12 gifts earlier in the week, and the teacher wrapped them all up, and put them in giant gift bags. So each kid got a big bag full of little gifts to open. She also had gifts for the siblings. Evie was thrilled to get her own little bag with a few books, a ball, a stuffed owl, and a sucker. As soon as we got home, they all got into their goodies, and spent most of the evening coloring, and doing projects.

I really appreciated their teacher for having something for Evie. It truly made her day. I tried to get her picture playing with books, but of course she insisted on standing up in her picture spot.

They got mostly the same things, but a few things were different, so they made a good effort to share all the things that were different. Their teacher sent home a packet full of worksheets and projects for them to do over the break. Kara is almost completely finished with hers. I'm not too worried about them getting bored, though. I have several projects planned to do with them, and Ben came home from playing basketball and football this morning with another bag full of little projects he found at the store.

I did get this picture of Ben reading with Evie. This was before she noticed the camera.

These are the girls' pictures with santa. You may notice a difference between the two santas! I took Kara and Evie a few weeks ago, and Kiersten the following week. Kara and Evie were with me when I took Kiersten, and Kara definitely knew it was a different guy. She had been so sure the real santa was there when I took her and Evie, and as soon as she saw this guy, she whispered to me, "mom, it looks like Kiersten doesn't get to see the real santa. She should have come with us last week." I told her not to say anything to Kiersten about it. When Kiersten was on his lap, he kept trying to talk to Kara too, and asking her questions, but she really wanted nothing to do with him. It was hard not to laugh, and he was definitely confused by her. He gave her a candy cane as we were leaving, and she handed it straight to Evie.

Happy FIRST birthday, Evangeline!

My littlest girl turned one year old yesterday. Doesn't she look so cute napping quietly in her bed? While she was napping, this is what the girls and I were doing. With moving on friday, I had planned to just blow up a few balloons, but Kara wouldn't let up about decorating. I had some pink streamers, but that wasn't good enough, so we ended up cutting some pictures out of a my little pony calendar which Kara had 2 of. They were so proud, and excited for Evie to wake up from her nap.

We emptied the livingroom for carpet cleaning. Then we decided to just leave the couches in the dining room, and we brought down the beds so the bedrooms can be cleaned. We found a renter for our house, and she is moving in the day after we move out. (she'd move in sooner if she could get us out any faster). So I am doing as much of the cleaning this week as I can. The girls thought it was fun to have a family sleep over in the livingroom.

When Ben got home from work, we played some party games, and then Evie opened a few gifts from us. She is also getting her own chair, but we didn't want to buy it to move it, so it will be arriving at our new place after we move. Kara took all the gift opening pictures. I think she did a pretty good job!

She liked the 2 toys she opened, but the clothes barely got glanced at and then thrown as far away as she could get them. this puzzle was her favorite thing. she played with it all night.

I didn't want to bake another cake, for many reasons, so we found this little fudge cake at wal-mart. Kara didn't think it was birthday enough, so I let the girls put sprinkles on, and I wrote Evie's name on it.

I made tacos for dinner. Something that Evie can eat, right along with the rest of us. I told her to smile, and this is what I got. she was pretty tired, and fell asleep in her highchair soon after this.

I had to hold the cake just out of her reach while we sang "happy birthday". she kept trying to grab that flame.

her first task was to pick off, and eat as many sprinkles as possible.

once she got a taste of the chocolate fudge icing, she dug in. I cut some cake off for the rest of us, so that is the part that's missing. Evie mostly stuck with the icing. she did eat some cake, and she did rub some into her hair.

she kept showing me her hands, and waiting for me to clean them off. I'm usually pretty on top of that. But I was letting her get good and messy. Before too long, she started trying to wipe the chocolate off herself, and then started getting a little upset.

I love this chocolately little girl. Here's a picture of her showing us how old she is now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVIE PIE!