Evie's Magical 4th Birthday

Evie has been excited for her birthday for WEEKS.  This is the most excited she's been for her birthday yet!  Weeks before her birthday we discussed what she wanted to do for the big day.  She definitely wanted a friend party and when we talked through different ideas, a Unicorn party was the clear winner.

We started out her birthday right from the minute she awoke.  I had decorated the house the night before so she woke up to a fully decorated house and she walked all around saying with big eyes, "Oh my gosh!" about 10 different times.  Then, for breakfast she was given donuts that I had picked up on my way home from my morning workout.  She was more than thrilled.  

Beau stuck around throughout the morning to start off the celebration.  He ate donuts with us and then we let Evie open her gifts from us and Adeline.  She got lots of summer clothes, shoes, balloons, and a play chicken coupe with toy chickens.  Beau and I had one more BIG gift for her, but we decided to save it for her party.

  

I then asked Evie what she wanted to do during the day before her party.  What else?  Go to the park!  So, she chose the location of the park and we picked up some corn dogs and fries/tots on our way.  We had a picnic in the park and Evie, Addie and I played our little hearts out.  

After the park we headed home to put all the finishing details together for her fun party.

When the friends started arriving Evie was so elated!  She was so happy that all her friends came to HER house for Her birthday.  Here are all her unicorn friends.  :)

This was a girls-only party.  Evie said that boys don't go to unicorn parties.

We started the party out with opening gifts (Evie's wish).  Her friends brought her lots of fun stuff.  Beau and I gave her the BIG present we had saved for her and it was her very own saddle.  She couldn't believe it!

After gifts we had a dance party.  Evie loves to dance, sing, and lip sync so this was perfect.  She chose the songs and the girls danced away.  This was all followed by cake and ice cream.  Evie and I spotted a rainbow cake on the internet while we were looking for ideas for her party and we both loved it.  I recreated it and all the girls thought it was HUGE and AMAZING!

This was all followed by the anticipated activity of the party.  Unicorn Rides!!  Here is our magical unicorn.

Don't think for one second that she isn't real.  If you try to convince any of the girls that were at Evie's party that it was a "dressed up horse" well, good luck!  They all knew she was legit and the real deal.  They loved their rides and we loved giving them.  It was sooooo much fun!

Once the friends had all gone home we spent some extra time with Evie's grandparents.  They had all come to witness the unicorn magic and then they stayed around to give her gifts and extra love.  She received toy hamsters, cowboy boots, and talking toy parrots.  All of which was on her birthday wish list.  She also ate up their company like she always does!  

We then took Evie to dinner to her choice of restaurant.  She chose a Hawaiian place and we all loved it and loved spending that time with her.  

Afterwards we came home to play with all the birthday gifts.

Evie heard from various additional family members throughout the day . . . by phone and by special visits.  My heart is so touched by the amount of love that continues to be showered upon my sweet Evie Doll.  She is loved and adored by so many and the good news is . . . she TOTALLY knows it.  She feels of your love (because if you are reading this blog, chances are you are in the circle that truly loves her) and it means SO VERY MUCH to her and to me and Beau.  My heart is so warmed by the thoughtfulness that surrounds my children and our family.

This pretty much sums up Evie's big day.  She had a total blast!  And, now she is 4!!!  

A Perfect Birthday

My birthday just rolled around and I gotta say . . . it was the nicest birthday I've had in years.  I didn't end up doing anything crazy or outlandish.  The day just went so smoothly, the weather was WAY better than expected, my girls were even more angelic than usual, and so much love was sent to me by so many of my most favorite people.

My sweet mother and father-in-law took me to lunch a few days before my birthday.  That was so nice of them and we had a great time together.

When the day of my birthday rolled around I was pretty excited.  Not because I LOVE my birthday, but because Evie had been anticipating it for DAYS and was so, so excited.  She definitely brought an element of magic back to my special day and it made it that much more fun.

Because she was so excited and loves donuts, we just had to have them for breakfast.  That is DEFINITELY a special occasion at our house.

Beau then had to scoot off to work (boo!), but the girls and I had more plans.  We met my parents up at Sundance for lunch.  Oh, it was so pretty, the food was so yummy, the girls were so well-behaved during lunch, we had no potty accidents, and my parents were a delight to be with.

We then headed home for naps and awaited Beau's arrival.  He made it home for dinner.  I didn't want to worry about cooking or doing dishes, so we decided to go get take-out and head to a local park.  With the weather being so nice, we had to take total advantage of it.  It was SO fun.  We ate and then played.

After we had lots of play time and dusk was upon us, we loaded back up in the car and headed to a fabulous cupcake shop for dessert.  It was SO yummy!

When we got home, I was given my stack of gifts.  I was given balloons, flowers, and a new Kindle Paperwhite (and all the gear to go with it).

I was definitely spoiled in all sorts of ways.  My favorite thing is to be able to spend quality time with my family and that is what made this birthday so awesome!  Here's to another great and exciting year!

Adeline is 15 Months Old

Well folks!  She keeps on a-growing!  It seems all-too-fast, but what can I do about it?  She's SO much fun right now.  She has the warmest heart, the sweetest cuddles, and the biggest melt-your-heart smile imaginable.  Yeah.  She has us ALL by our little fingers.

Here's what she's up to now.

• She's walking well now days.  She finally prefers walking over crawling (yay!) and it's so fun to watch.  She still has that little waddle/toddle walk that's so adorable with babies.  
• She still loves to be chased.  It's fun to go after her and watch her try to "run" while she is giggling the entire time.  It's infectious.
• She loves purses.  She'll find them, put them around her neck or over her arm, and walk around the house.  
• She also loves shoes.  She loves to bring them to me to put on her feet.  
• Along with shoes, her next favorite item to wear is a jacket.  She'll also bring me her jackets and ask me to put them on her.  I'm guessing that she also knows that jackets mean we go "bye-bye" and that may be part of the "love" of the jacket too.  
• She loves anything with a lid that she can remove or pop open (toothpaste, lotion, hair gel, hand sanitizer, etc.).  She thinks it is fun to pop those lids open, but then she also thinks it fun to try and suck out the contents.  That is NOT fun for mom/dad and at that point she usually has to relinquish the item in hand and she proceeds to get a little mad.
• And, speaking about the little mad part  . . . . She is starting to get REALLY frustrated when she doesn't get what she wants.  If we take something away or won't let her have something she wants, she'll scream quite loudly.  Sometimes she'll even break down into an awful cry and melt into the floor while doing it.  Silly little tantrums.  :)  The great thing about babies at this age is that they get over it SUPER quickly and move onto something else in no time.
• She is a hit-and-miss eater.  Some meals she is a champ and eats SO well.  Others, she barely picks at her food and then just wants her bottle.  She still loves her bottles and drinks a ton of milk.  Another funny thing with Addie is that she'll just spit her food out when she's done with it.  This happens when she doesn't like the food, or when she's chewed the good parts and doesn't want the "bad" parts (like when she chews cherry tomatoes . . . she'll eat it all, but spit out the skins), or if you happen to put something in front of her that she wants to try right away . . . she'll just spit out whatever she's eating to make room for the new option (heaven forbid she just finishes and swallows what's already in her mouth).  This gets tricky if we let her "snack" while not in her highchair because she'll seriously just spit stuff out wherever she is.  It makes for some crazy messes sometimes.    
• She still hates to be tied down or locked into anything.  (This is part of the eating problem some days.  She just doesn't want to be stuck in the highchair.)
• She is still a little cuddle bug.  She'll just walk over to me or Beau, hold out her hands for us to pick her up, and then she'll just sit in our laps.  We both will NEVER get enough of that.  I hope she wants to sit on our laps forever . . . even when she's all grown up.
• She also loves to hug and cuddle with Evie.  She'll just go up to Evie and wrap her arms around Evie or snuggle up right next to her.  It's so darn cute!  Sweet sister love!
• She LOVES to wave and say hi or bye to people.  She also knows the social queues for when someone is leaving.  If any of us put on shoes and a jacket, she'll start waving and saying "bye" before we can even think about getting out the door.  It makes us smile.
• She loves to go down slides!  She'll kind of play on other playground equipment, but the slide is, by far, her favorite.

• She's still not talking in words.  She'll attempt to say "hi" or "bye" as she waves and she'll say mama or dada occasionally, but usually she'll just babble, grunt, and/or point when she's trying to tell us something.  Heck, it works and we can usually decipher what she wants.  The words will come soon, I'm sure.  That all being said, she understands the English language very well.  I can say, "Addie, go over there and get your bottle and bring it to me."  She will look over at the bottle, walk to it, and bring it right over to me. 
• She recognizes prayers/praying.  She doesn't have the arm folding down, but she'll clasp her hands together.  When we say, "Amen" she smiles bigger-than-life.  And, before meals, she'll sometimes put her hands together to remind us that we need to pray.  
• She tries to comb/brush her own hair.  And, speaking of hair, it seems to be growing in fast and thick.  It's beautiful!
• She did have a cold that lasted nearly three weeks this past month.  I'm happy to report that she is healthy and well at the moment.  Hooray for healthy children!
• When you ask her what a dog says she'll stick out her tongue and pant.  :)
• She loves driving our Cozy Coupe car.  We say, "Brrrmmm, Brrrmmm, Beep, Beep" and she smiles or giggles all-the-while.
• She is starting to feed herself with a fork and spoon.  She is quite good with a fork if she's picking up easy stuff to stab (like hotdogs).  For other things, we'll load her fork or spoon for her and then hand her the utensil.  She'll gladly take it and feed herself with it.  She loves doing this.
• She still takes two naps a day (most days).  This girlie loves to get her sleep.  :) 

Needless to say, she's coming right along and is such a joy.  I still kiss all the day long and can't get enough of her sweet cuddles.  

Easter Fun

Our little family had a great Easter weekend.  It was filled with family, egg hunts, good food, candy and Christ.  What more would you ever want?  

We started out Saturday with a family Easter egg hunt on my side of the family.  The girls were SO excited.  Evie went right to town finding all of her eggs (her eggs were marked with the letter "E" on them) while Addie just cared about how many pieces of candy she could hold and then eventually eat.  These two!  They are so fun (and funny!).  I just love them to pieces!!

It was a tad bit chilly, but the sun eventually peaked it's way through the clouds and warmed up a smidge.  It was at least warm enough to shed off the coats for a little Easter picture of my two cute chicks!

I just had to make their shirts with chicks this year since we're in the baby chick business.  LOL!

And, we got a little family shot too.

The following day was Easter Sunday and we try to make it as much about Christ as possible.  We try to keep it relatively simple too.  Their Easter baskets are mostly Christ centered.  They each got a book about the true meaning of Easter.  They also got a new dress/outfit to wear to church so they can show Jesus how much they appreciate and love Him.  And then, they each got one toy and a little candy.  And guess what?  The girls were more than thrilled with the result.

I had promised Evie that I would color eggs with her this year.  We hadn't done it yet, so I obliged and we did that little activity before church.

We then dressed in our best, Easter colors and all, and headed off to church.  It seems as if the true meaning of Easter gets so lost in all the egg hunts and candy, but the miracle of Christ's resurrection is just that.  A miracle.  One that we all get to benefit from.  I mean, what a joyous occasion that was when the Savior rose after that third day.  After all, this is God's great plan . . . that we will all get to be resurrected.  This offers so much hope.  So much hope when this life gets hard and sometimes unbearable.  As Elder Oaks said so well, "The assurance of resurrection and immortality affects how we look on the physical challenges of mortality, how we live our mortal lives, and how we relate to those around us.  The assurance of resurrection gives us the strength and perspective to endure the mortal challenges faced by each of us and by those we love.  Because of the resurrection, we know that these mortal deficiencies are only temporary."

The assurance of the resurrection will also include the opportunity to be
with our family members forever.  Oh what joy and comfort that brings to my heart!
I just love these people with all that I have and never want to be separated from them.

After church we went on to visit more family.  We had a nice little Easter dinner with part of Beau's side of the family.  They also had a little egg hunt for the littles.  And, the following day we visited the other part of Beau's family.  

We had a fun-filled and meaningful Easter this year.  We hope you did too!

St. Patrick's Day Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!  While the girls are still a bit young to understand or appreciate any of the fun that can be had on this green holiday, it's still fun to dress them in green and snap their picture.  This little photo shoot was so dang funny . . . as you can witness in the photos.  We were all laughing.  Oh, how I love these pretty girls with all of my heart!

P.S.  Evie did inspect Beau for green and when she couldn't find any, she felt free to pinch him.  Ha, ha!  That ought to teach him.  Lol!

Baby Chicks Galore

It's been quite the month at our house as we've waited, and waited, AND WAITED for these baby chicks to hatch.  

Evie has been dying to hatch baby chicks again.  And, honestly, so has her father.  So, he did a massive amount of research and found an incubator that would do the trick.

Beau hand selected the eggs and then he and Evie set up the incubator and filled it with 10 eggs.  At that point, it was a heartbreaker when Evie was told that they wouldn't hatch RIGHT AWAY and that she was going to have to wait 21 days.  21 days is a LONG wait for a 3-year-old little girl.

Beau and Evie checked on those eggs every single day.  Evie told everyone she came in contact with (even strangers) that she was going to hatch baby chicks.  She was so adorable.  

I missed getting a picture of my most favorite part of this whole experiment and that was when we got to "candle" the eggs.  On day 8 Beau took them out of the incubator, put a bright light under each egg which then illuminated the egg, and we could actually see a baby chick developing in there.  It was like ultra-sounding each egg.  And, I tell you . . . you could actually see the shape of each baby chick as it moved around in the egg.  Extremely fascinating.

And then, right on schedule, the night of Day 20, Beau discovered two eggs with tiny peck holes in them. 

We could actually hear them "peeping" inside their egg (which is what Evie is listening to in the picture above).  Oh, this was exciting.  It can take most chicks anywhere from 6-20 hours to eventually make their way out of their eggs so we wondered when they would appear.  

We discovered them at about 6am the following morning.  And, throughout the day we continued to watch egg after egg hatch.

If you're interested . . . here's a time-lapse video of our fourth baby chick hatching.

By end of day, we transferred the hatched chicks to a box with a light in it.  This would allow their feathers to dry out while keeping warm.  We also provided food and water.  This was when the girls FINALLY had the chance to touch/hold them.  BOTH were thrilled, but there is no denying the fact that Evie was MUCH more excited about this than Addie.  Evie couldn't keep from smiling.  Addie would just touch the chicks (quickly) and then giggle.  

This all happened a week ago.  Eight of the ten eggs hatched, two of the chicks didn't make it.  The two  eggs that didn't hatch never developed.

So, we've been busy holding and playing with six baby chicks (four black ones, a brown one, and a brown one with stripes).  Addie still has no interest in "holding" one, but loves to touch them and watch them.  Evie, on the other hand, will hold them, watch TV with them, let them climb on her shoulder, etc.

So, there you have it!  We are in baby chick heaven over here!  It's been fun watching these chicks from day 1!

Wanna come play with us?

Family Stay-Cation

Beau is starting a new/old job this week!  His old firm threw him a great offer to get him back and we just couldn't turn it down.  It puts him closer to home (his commute just changed from 45-60 minutes each way to 10 minutes!) which we are ALL so happy about.  In between switching companies Beau took a few days off and we took advantage of it.

We thought about going on a vacation, but the reality of traveling with babies is just a little more work than we are up to.  So, we took a 2-day "stay-cation" to Salt Lake City.  We stayed at the Little America Hotel and then did stuff around the valley.

We had a lot of options planned, but when it came down to it, the babes could only handle so much fun before getting completely worn out.

We took them to the Living Planet Aquarium.  All four of us had a blast.  We got to pet a snake, starfish, and stingray.  We got to see lots of animals and fish (sharks, turtles, penguins, otters, Toucans, and much more).  We climbed through a bridge, saw a 4D movie, and "drove" a boat.  It was a lot of fun!

Next to the Aquarium, the hotel was the highlight of our stay.  The girls love jumping on the beds, exploring, watching cartoons, and much more.

Evie loved this vanity set-up.  She let me know that she was doing her hair and makeup.  So cute!

We spent a good amount of time in the hotel pool too.

Beyond that, we ate at some fun and more unusual places.  We all had a great time and were completely worn out.  We'll save some of the activities on our list for another day/time.

I love that we got this time together.  And, I'm excited for Beau's new/old job.  :)