Happy Birthday Briley

A couple of weeks ago Briley turned 7. We went to a place where she could make her own animal after school. She got to pick out the animal she wanted, stuff it, dress it and name it. She picked a unicorn, gave her pink eyes and a pink fluffy dress with matching pink satin slippers. Her name is Sara.I decided that 4 birthday parties a year is too much for me. So we just decided to have a small family thing-just us. I made her own little cake just for her with bright pink frosting.




Then on Saturday, we took her to her favorite place in the world (besides Hawaii)-the Padres game. It was brutally hot and we only made it to the 7th inning but Briley was just in heaven playing in the sandbox while watching the game. Only Cameron was as equally happy as Briley at the game. There was a play right in front of her and she thought it was the greatest thing to have the Padre players that close. The bad thing was that Brian Giles and the center fielder miscommunicated and neither caught the ball! She was sad about that but thought it was so exciting that they were literally separated by the chain link fence.

Part of Your World

About a month ago, we had ward talent night. Briley's voice teacher asked her if she would perform. She quickly refused. So when the sign up sheet came around in Relief Society the next week, being the kind and loving mom that I am, signed her up anyway. She was really angry with me for a little while. I finally figured out what she was afraid of and we worked through that. The two things she was concerned about were forgetting the words and being alone on stage. So I typed up the words and Andy went on stage with her. Once on stage we had a few challenges. The music that her voice teacher brought was not the same arrangement as the one we had at home that she had practiced with. The version we had at home had the melody playing throughout the piece so if she got lost, she could pick right up. The arrangement at the talent show did not have the melody and she had a lot of trouble following the music. Then we had technical difficulty. The music started and stopped at least three times. But she kept going. She persevered through the whole song. Her courage was so amazing to me. We are so proud of her for doing her very best, even though it didn't turn out perfectly. I tried to upload the song for you to listen to her, but I think the file is just too large and I am too impatient. So you only get her picture!

Airplanes

I walk a couple of mornings a week with a friend of mine. We pile the kids up in the stroller and head out. Well, I'm the only one piling 3 kids in a stroller meant for two. She just has one. Anyway, her son loves airplanes like Cameron loves fire engines and Logan loves trains. We decided to spice up our morning walk and head to a great spot I discovered while in college.

It is right in the flight path as the planes descend and approach the landing strip. The planes are huge and loud. We were certain that the kids would be terrified of the sound. But I think they were more in awe of the size of the airplanes! Emma was so patient with the boys, not so interested in the planes, but trying to make it a good experience for them. In trying to make it more fun for Cameron, she showed him how to make binoculars with his hands and then they could see the airplanes that much sooner. I am not certain if Logan was trying to copy their gesture or if he became less certain about the sound as nap time approached. Regardless, this was pretty darn cute! Cameron became more and more excited the more airplanes he watched fly over his head. I could see the airplanes coming before he did and would let him know when to start looking. He would stand so still watching, waiting. And then, as soon as the airplane was in sight, he started yelling and jumping in circles. It was hilarious! This proved to be an exciting outing for the kids. I am sure this won't be the only time we sit under the airplanes as they approach the airport!

Where do I begin?!

Where do I begin?! I can give a little background, and then you just have to smile and admire her independence and creativity! She is performing in a talent show at church in a couple of weeks and singing "Part or Your World" from the movie The Little Mermaid. All afternoon after her voice lesson today, she was wearing Emma's Ariel costume. She was about to add the wig when I told her it was time to change for dinner. Earlier in the day, while Briley was dressed as Ariel, the other Halloween costumes came out. Cameron was Buzz Lightyear, Emma was Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty) and Logan had the gun belt and boot covers from his Woody costume. After dinner, I was reading the boys a story and Briley came out of my room like this. I had difficulty suppressing the laughter as she said, "Don't I look cute, Mom? You should take a picture." And so I did. I am sure that this will work to my advantage one day as some sort of blackmail!

She adds a little sparkle

We spend a lot of our time during the summer in water. Knowing that summer is coming and camping at the beach next month, I wanted to make sure that they each have a couple of swim suits. We were at Target and Emma found one she really liked. It was pink and had more pink ruffles on it. It was her, just perfect. We moved on to the next on item on my list: church shoes for Logan. As we passed through the girl aisle to get to shoes for Logan, Emma stopped dead in her tracks. Turning to see what had stopped her, I saw them; the most perfect little shoes for her. She already had a pair out of the box and halfway on her feet before I could mention that we were here for shoes for her brother. "Mommy, they fit perfectly!" was her response to my impatient sigh. The shoes were actually 3 sizes too big. I don't think she saw that. The shoes fit her perfectly, meaning that they were pink, sparklely and very fancy-something Fancy Nancy would be proud to wear. I caved, giving her the choice between the swimsuit she needed and the shoes she wanted. I actually expected her to chose the swimsuit she had just been gushing about not 5 minutes before. To my irritated surprise, she chose the shoes. The choice to her was actually between the shoes she needed and the swimsuit she wanted. She has not wasted the money in any way! She wears them faithfully every day (and night), sometimes with socks, sometimes without.


Even Logan has taken a liking to them! Ok, so he will wear anyone's shoes, these are just the pinkest shoes he's ever tried on!

What can I do? She does add a little sparkle to our lives!

Logan's new naptime routine

We moved Logan into his big boy bed a couple of weeks ago. Cameron convinced him one night that he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed. That was all it took. Logan decided at that moment
that there was no going back to the crib. Until the next morning...
I decided that I was not done with his naps and so he slept in the
crib for his naps for nearly two weeks. Then one day Cameron
suggested to his brother that he take a nap in his big boy bed.
Darn kid! Logan agreed with his brother and refused (screaming
hysterically at me when I tried to put him in the crib). When I
could understand him, he was shouting, "big boy bed! big boy bed!"
What do you do then?! We told him he is a big boy and now he wants to be one! So for a few days he just did not take naps.
By about 3:30 every afternoon, he reached his point of expiration. But instead of falling asleep, he just turned into a bear. So the next day we tried a new trick. I gave him his passifier and his blanket and put him up on my bed to watch the movie he can't live without (Go, Diego, Go when Diego saves the elephants from an evil magician-Logan has this thing for elephants). After a record setting 3 minutes, he was passed out (he literally fell over when he could no longer hold his eyelids open!) I thought this certainly had to be a fluke, but tried it the next day. Amazingly, I got the same results! So we now have a new nap time routine!

movie night

Andy was camping this weekend with the youth, so we had a movie night. This was such a special night for the kids that I decided to take some pictures. I just thought this picture of Briley is hilarious. She is so intent on the preview for the movie Spiderwick. The preview was really scary for the kids. Logan even stopped shoving popcorn in his mouth! Cameron was terrified and so he was covering his eyes, but still curious enough to peek!

Easter

I couldn't help taking a few pictures of the kids all cute and dressed. Ok, so I took over 50 pictures in about a minute and half! But I got a cute one and I didn't have to do anything in photoshop! My dad sent the little wind up rabbit Briley is holding. She felt it was an important addition to their little portrait!







The kids had a great time with their Easter egg hunt this afternoon. They found jellybeans and Rolos in most of their eggs. Logan only picked up about three eggs. He was really in it for the candy. As soon as he found an egg, he opened it, ate the candy, bailed on the egg and moved on!




Briley had a great time chasing after eggs. She is getting so big so fast. But she certainly still enjoys running around the backyard picking up eggs!
Emma was so great at sharing her eggs. When she saw that she had more than Cameron, she gave them to him as she found them. Or she pointed them out to the boys so they could pick up their own eggs.


Cameron really got into finding eggs. Most of his pictures were blurry because he was so fast and paused long enough to toss the egg in his basket and move on!

A new Easter tradition

We started a new Easter tradition this year. I hate coloring Easter eggs and then, what do you do with them all? The kids were grossed out by the dye that bleeds through the shell and so no one eats them. It seemed so wasteful. So we decided to do Easter cookies this year.


I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to give Logan his own bowl of frosting and spreader. The only reason that frosting made it to these cookies is because I put it on!



He really got into decorating his cookies. Ok, so he just ate some of everything rather than decorate!!
This was his plate of cookies when he was all done.



Cameron had a great time decorating his cookies. He had his own little bowl of frosting and after two cookies told me he needed more frosting. Those two cookies had about an inch of frosting each. So he had to take some off for his other cookies and then Briley gave him her extra frosting.Cameron actually went to bed with tummy ache later that afternoon. I kept telling him to quit eating so much or his tummy would hurt later. Does that make me a bad mom that I still let him do it?!

You can tell from this picture a little bit just how thick the frosting was.



Needless to say, they both had to go in the tub when finished!




Emma decided that the spreader wasn't necessary. Her fingers did the trick!

Here is her plate of cookies-a little less frosting than Cameron's, but not much!




Briley did great with hers-perfectly frosted and sprinkled!




And here is the mess left behind...
They decorated and bailed on the cleanup. I guess that makes them smarter than me!

My favorite hobby, revisted

In case you have been wondering where I have been and why there hasn't been any updates for a while, I have found a new hobby! I have been scrapbooking for a number of years now, but I have branched out into digital scrapbooking. I love it!!! It is so much faster (once I figured out a few tricks-some on my own and some from a friend who braved the waters first). This is just one layout, but I have done several others. The files are large so they take a long time to upload. So there is only one sample for now. I will share others in future posts.