Just Playing

My parents have this awesome little playroom underneath the stairs that is just chock full of toys. Even with tons of fun toys to choose from, this was what Emmitt (who is 8 months today!) was most interested in...

...the texture on the wall! Go figure! You may as well not buy toys.

Mila eventually gave him a ball to play with that he found a little more interesting. I was getting a kick out of his fascination with the wall though.

Ouch! He got his finger pinched. A smile is never too far away though. Wait for it...

wait for it...

Ta Da! There it is again :) What a sweetie!

Mila was busy cooking up something special for me while wearing Brielle's sparkly shoes on the wrong feet. Mila wears these shoes more than Brielle!

Mila brought this plate over to me and said, "Here Mom, I made you chocolate ones." Huh, how'd she guess! :)

We had a really fun day today just playing together. The kids have been sick for a few days so the last couple days have been a little rough since they haven't been sleeping well at night, which means I haven't been either. They woke up a few times early in the night last night, but then they both slept for a solid 6 hour stretch. That made a huge difference in our day today. I hope they let me sleep tonight! 

"Pretty like a Princess"

Sort of happy to be a Princess.

Really happy to be a Princess.

When Mila wants to dress up, she says she wants to be pretty like a princess. When she is wearing something frilly, girly, or especially twirly, she says she is pretty like a princess. It's so cute how she says "princess," too, because she has a little lisp. She got this cute little dress for Christmas from Sam's mom.

Mila decided to swap her plastic dress-up heels for a pair of Tori's real heels. Almost every day while Tori is at school, Mila goes in her room and raids her closet of shoes. Reminds me of my little sister days of sneaking into my oldest sister's room while she was at school and playing with all the stuff that was banned from me :)

There was no school on President's Day for most schools (poor Tori had to go for a make-up day), so Mila was really excited to play with Braelynn and Brielle for an extra day since they usually only stay Saturday and most of Sunday to go to church. Mila loves Braelynn and Brielle!

Baby Love

I love these! These are just some of the pictures my sister Terra took when Emmitt was 3 weeks old. I think she did awesome, especially considering I arrived about 2 hours later than she wanted me to and we missed the good light in the room. I can't believe how little he was, and it breaks my heart that he's growing up so fast. I feel like time is just whizzing by with him. Mila's first year felt so much longer. He continues to be such a delight. He smiles so much and is such a sweet boy. I love having him in our little family! Especially now that he sleeps like 12 hours at night :) 

Much Celebrating and Much to Celebrate

Whoa! These last few days have been exhausting! I love holidays and birthdays, but I'm glad we don't have one every day. I don't think I could do it! I have been working since Friday to prepare for Mila's birthday and Valentine's, and I put in mental energy before that to plan. And here I am staying up late to blog about it all! I am certainly lucky though to have a beautiful daughter and a lot of love in my life to celebrate! I have decided that I really need to try and update more often because I just get too overwhelmed by the amount of pictures and things that happen so I end up not blogging because it's too much to catch up on. Plus, since I'm a horrible journal writer, this is a great way to keep track of things and pictures are included too. So read on. In my usual fashion, there are a number of new posts ;)

Valentine's Day!

Sadly, I did not get to spend Valentine's with my sweetheart :( He left for Kentucky this morning to do some training for work. Even though he had to leave very early, he still managed to have flowers and a card on the table for me when I woke up. What a sweet man I have! However, I did get to spend the day with the two little Valentines he has given me! I just love my little cherubs!

Every year since I can remember, my dad has gotten all of his girls a Valentine's gift, and we have had a special Valentine's dinner usually consisting of red and heart-shaped foods. It's always been something I've looked forward to, and I'm glad I got to be here again for it. Our gifts this year were cute earrings and chocolates. My gift to everyone was the third installment of my Ultimate Love Mix. I made the first one for the first Valentine's Sam and I were together. Making this mix has been a source of stress for me because I started making it too late, and because it can't be done until I feel it's perfect. I made it on Friday, but it just wasn't right, so I made some revisions today and burned new copies. Here was our beautiful table. Notice the flowers from my love on the table :) Perfect.

I made a delicious heart-shaped pizza. Erin and her kids were here again, and Megan and her kids were supposed to come, so we figured that pizza would be something the kids would eat. I'm always in the mood for pizza anyway. I have to say I've gotten quite good at making tasty crust.

Mom made heart-shaped Jell-O jigglers which Mila could not resist. She hadn't even had any food yet. Between the jigglers and the chocolates sprinkled over the table, she certainly spoiled her dinner.

For dessert, we decorated heart sugar cookies.

The frosting knife had more contact with Mila's mouth than it did with her cookie. Big surprise.

She's not even pretending that she's working on a cookie!

Later, while I was busy feeding Emmitt his food, I caught Mila serving herself a big bowl of Jell-O. I hope she doesn't go into a sugar coma tonight.

Mila's 3rd Birthday! (Part 2)

Mila's birthday is the 13th, which was Sunday, but we had her party on Saturday. Since Aunt Erin gave Mila so many presents, we had her open her presents from us on Sunday, her actual birthday. It was funny because on Sunday morning when she got up and I told her it was her birthday, she didn't believe me because of the big bash she had the day before! Basically she just opened more presents, and we had some more of the massive cake. It was fun to prolong the celebration a little more.

Mila was quite ready for more presents.

She got this shirt from her cousins the day before.

Showing off her new stuff. She has totally loved the new tea set. It makes a pouring sound when you tip it over to "pour." I've actually had a number of tasty cups of invisible hot chocolate today. I'm sure there will be more to come :)

       Every birthday of Mila's feels a little bittersweet to me. I love watching her grow and learn new things, but I also lament that my baby is growing up and will someday not be my little girl anymore. I do have high hopes for this new year of her life though. I'm hoping that perhaps she will exit the terrible two's. I was hoping she would wake up on her third birthday, and they would be over! Alas, I was not that lucky. She is just a very stubborn and determined girl. Although these traits can be very useful in life, I have yet to find a good outlet for them at present.

      She really is a funny girl though. We were driving in the car this summer and suddenly she said, "Mom, do you like animals?" I said, "Yes, I do like animals. Do you like animals?" Mila: "Yeah, I like animals." Then she said, "Mom, do you like zebras?" Me: "Yes, I like zebras. Do you like zebras?" Mila: "I like zebras." We had this exact same conversation concerning every animal she could think of.

      One Sunday Sam was watching a game and Mila asked him to play with her, and he told her he would in a minute. So she held up her arms like she was holding something and said, "You want me to hold you? I'll hold you."

      She is a wonderful helper and loves to help me cook, set the table, do laundry, and just about anything else but clean up toys ;) She is also a huge help with Emmitt, and she often entertains him so I can get things done. She can get him laughing like no one else can.

Here's to you, Mila. You definitely bring adventure, laughter, and love to our lives. I'm glad you're mine!

Mila's 3rd Birthday! (Part 1)

My cute little 3 year old! She was so excited that I was having a really hard time getting her to just smile a little without scrunching her whole face up.

About a week ago Mila told me she wanted a "Princess Castle Cake" for her birthday, so I tried to deliver. I looked at a bunch of different cakes online and everyone used fondant as a cover to get smoother results, but I didn't have the time or patience for extra steps so I just used regular old icing. This is the first time I've ever made any sort of specialty cake, so I was quite pleased with the results especially since I made it the day of the party.

Mila excited about her cake and presents.

The party consisted of her cousins, of which only two are above age 3, so playing games with any sort of rules was pretty much out of the question so we had to get a little creative with activities. We did this fun painting activity that I got from Mel Whitacre. You put paper in the bottom of a box, put some drops of paint around the edges, toss in a few marbles, and roll them around to make a cool design. The kids loved it! They liked picking out their paint colors, and it was also cool to put different colors of construction paper in. Thanks for the awesome idea Mel!

One of Mila's creations.

They played a number of exciting rounds of Ring Around the Rosy. Can't beat the classics, I guess :)

This game cracked me up the most because it's not even really a game! I didn't even plan it, it just sort of happened, and it was the biggest hit. All I did was blow up some balloons, yelled, "One, two, three, GO," and they would throw a bunch of balloons in the air while I took a picture. That was it. But they LOVED it! We played this "game" for the better part of fifteen minutes.   

Oh the joy! To be a kid again.

You know you're at a kid's birthday party when the dinner is macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. Don't worry, we also had carrots and cauliflower :)

Cake time.

Blowing out the candles. I wish we had a better angle, but this will do.

How quickly all that work was destroyed :(

Mila learned an important lesson at her party. If you want a lot of gifts, invite Aunt Erin. Erin and her kids gave Mila at least 10 gifts. She had a blast opening her presents though, as most kids do. This was one of her favorites since one of Mila's current obsessions is ponies.

Mila also got a My Little Pony house, which she promptly filled with ponies, and it has hardly left her sight since. The kids spent the rest of the night playing. Mila had an amazing birthday party! I love how Caylee just suddenly doesn't have a shirt on in this picture! Reminds me of when her mom was her age.

Ice Storm

Two weeks ago or so we were hit with the huge ice and snowstorm that was all over the news. It was awesome! Schools and businesses were shut down so we all just hung out for a fews days watching movies in our pajamas. Well, we were lucky. Tons of people were without power for days, and there was some damage from the ice. Everything looked like it was make of glass. It was so beautiful! Here are some pictures.

The top of this poor little tree couldn't handle the weight of the ice.

This tree in my parents yard also broke because of the ice.

Ice about an inch thick covered everything. It was so thick on the grass that in most places it would hold Sam's weight when he walked on it. It was amazing!

Our car was totally encased in ice. Sam spent a lot of time trying to break it free.

Here is one little girl excited to go out and play in it all! She loved picking up the sheets of ice and throwing them down so they would shatter everywhere. Luckily she has a wonderful dad who went out with her every day to play.