My Four Year Old

My Lilly is one of my greatest joys in life. In honor of her turning FOUR, this post is all about her. She is the most observant little girl I know and you can't get much past her. You can't trick her because she can figure you out. Her memory is so amazing, it shocks me the things she can remember. She was only taught one time her Left and Right sides. Days later, out of nowhere, she showed me which was which. We ask her periodically and she always gets it right. Plus, she can remember things from a year or more ago. She is so sweet and loving to her brother and sister. She loves having siblings and tells me she wants me to have two more kids so we can have five. And, yes, she does the math. She is so funny about the future, she tells me she wants to drive her kids in my car when she grows up and points to a house she wants to live when she grows up. She talks about all the kids she wants when she's a mommy and it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job when she wants to do things just like me when she grows up. She didn't seem to care about the fact that she will not live with us forever. But when I started talking about her growing up too fast, she didn't want me to be sad and started worrying about growing up, so I assured her it was going to be a long time before she gets big. She loves to dress up. She is so girly and makes the best expressions. She has a great personality and sense of humor. She loves to draw and color and build with things. She loves to be read to and snuggle and she always tells us she loves us. I can't imagine my life without her and she has definitely made these past four years wonderful and precious. I asked her some questions and here are a few of my favorite ones: Favorite animal: Unicorns Favorite color: every color Favorite fruit: watermelon What do you want to be when you grow up? a ballerina and a zoo keeper What are you good at? dancing What are you not good at? dancing on my tippy toes.

Lilly's 4th Birthday

My beautiful, fancy daughter just turned 4. I wanted to make her day super special, so to start the day, I filled her room with balloons in the middle of the night for her to wake up to. The funny thing is, she told me that when she woke up and saw them, she thought "Who made this mess?" But then she played with them and was excited for her birthday to start.

I planned a Fancy Nancy dress-up party because she loves those books and she loves dressing girly and pretty. We invited a few of her little girl friends. We played a scavenger hunt where each clue led to another accessory to put on until they were all extra fancy. Then we had a fashion show to prance around in our beautiful attire. All the girls were giggling and having a great time. We painted nails and ate cupcakes and parfaits (ice cream sundaes) and played pin the tiara on Fancy Nancy and we popped balloons full of candy, which was a hit. It was such a great day and Lilly really enjoyed herself and loved having all her friends with her. And thanks to her cousin for being our fancy helper. I love my Lilly and I love making her feel special on her day.

Family Pictures 2011

My wonderful sister took our family pictures for us. Didn't she do a good job? All Lilly really wanted to do was climb around in the rocks and Tristan wanted to play in the dirt, so they weren't being very cooperative. But I'm still happy with the ones we got. And what more can I expect with two one year olds and a four year old. Can't blame them for wanting to play. I love my wonderful family and I love these pictures. Thanks again Melodie.

Halloween 2011

We had such and awesome day yesterday. I took the kids to two different Library's parties and we got together with my sister and her kids and our friend, Missy, and my brother and other sister, to go trick-or-treating. We all had a fun time. I always make Lilly's costumes. Last year my hands were a little too full to make 3 costumes, but this year, the babies can entertain themselves alot more so I got to sewing. I was going to go for something more simple, but Lilly wanted to be Rapunzel and I sort of wanted a theme. So I just did a Disney theme. I found both Bella's and Tristan's costume tutorials on Pinterest from two different blogs, and Lilly's I just made up by looking at the movie. People say I should have done Bella as Cinderella or Tristan as the Beast but I'm OK not having them be love interests, just like when naming them I didn't want to go with Tristan and Isolde (kinda weird). Lilly loved her dress so much and Bella liked hers but poor Tristan kept crying when I put his on. I realized soon after, why this was. One day, while fitting Bella's dress to see what needed to be tweaked, he wanted to try it on after her, putting his arms out and fussing. Of coarse, being bigger, I could only put the sleeves over his arms. But he was so happy. He had the biggest grin on his face. So days later, when all the costumes were finished, I put Bella in hers and as I went to put his on, he cried. Once I let him free, I watched and followed him to discover him chasing Bella down. I then understood what his problem was; he preferred her sparkly bright yellow dress to his costume and thought I had put the wrong ones on them. Luckily, by Halloween he had come to terms with it all and was such a handsome prince, ready to protect his princess sisters.

Fun Leading Up to Halloween

My little bone babies in their cute jammies. And all the fun we have been having to celebrate this spooky holiday. We've made lots of spooky foods, I carved a pumpkin while Lilly and her cousin and Aunt Holly painted some, but I forgot to take pictures of theirs. We also made a craft together that I got the idea form Pinterest- Ghost feet. Such a fun time of year.

Pumpkin Picking

For Family Home Evening last week, we went to the Stahli Farm to pick out a family pumpkin and play on the farm. The kids all loved being outside and running around and playing in dirt. Tristan would try picking the pumpkins up. They danced like crazy to some music and saw animals in the petting zoo. they especially loved the tractor rides to and from the pumpkin patch and seeing all the cows. It was a great night.

Dog Lovers

Clifford's brother and sister-in-law came to town for a visit this month and brought their dog and all the kids love him. He is such a calm dog and let them love all over him. Bella loves him the most and would follow him everywhere. And Jake the dog loved to sit under their high chairs to eat their left overs that fell and the babies loved to feed him. Almost makes me consider getting a dog, if it weren't for the hair everywhere, the clean-up and the cost. Someday, maybe. I think every kid deserves a pet to love. We had a wonderful visit (though I didn't take any pictures) and we love having a house full of loved ones. Thanks for the great week Aaron and Ruth.

Tristan Loves to Sing

My Cutie Patooties are Walking

They are walking everywhere. They have never been happier than when they learned to walk. They are so proud of themselves for accomplishing something new. And they look darn cute doing it!

End of Summer

Before my sister's kids and Clifford had to go back to school, I wanted to do some fun things to take advantage of summer break. We've been camping, swimming, to the fair, hiking and to splash pad water parks. We all had a great time with each other. This was a really great summer for me.