About Brianna

Brianna is a fun girl! She has a little baby doll that she calls white baby. It is her most favorite baby. She often talks about white baby in public, whether or not she has white baby with her. I have gotten some rather strange looks because of all this chatter. However, she also has another doll that she calls purple baby. White baby wears a white shirt and purple baby wears a purple shirt. See? I've tried to get her to call white baby something else, but nothing sticks. Her current name is "Sophia," but no one but me calls her that. Not even Eli. I find myself having to explain on a regular basis the reason for white baby's name.

...

A recent conversation Brianna and I had:

Brianna, with a big sigh: "Mom, I'm never getting married."

Me: "Why not?"

Brianna: "Because my feet are too short!"

About a week later:

Brianna, very excited: "Mom! Guess what?"

Me: "What?"

Brianna: "I'm going to marry Eli when my feet are bigger!"

...

Brianna is also very brave. There are a lot of things that Eli is afraid to do that Brianna doesn't hesitate to do. I'm excited to see how her personality will develop as she gets a little older!

Happy Birthday Eli!

 Eli wanted a batman cake for his birthday. I think when he saw this one, he was a little disappointed, since it is the bat symbol instead of batman. It tasted really good though! It is a caramel cake with dark chocolate ganache for frosting.

Opening presents!

Here is the already broken pinata. I accidentally made it too soft this time. Last time it had too many layers and they couldn't break it. This time, only one person got to hit it.

Eli, the time is flying way too fast. Already five years old? How could that be? We love your inquisitive mind and all your smiles. You can make both your sisters smile and are so very friendly. You always find other kids to play with at the park. And on the way home tell me about your new friends. Although you often forget to ask their names. We love you Eli!

Miniature Golf!

We played mini-golf the other day! It was so much fun! I laughed so hard watching these two little trouble makers. And the whole time I was thinking, "Why did we wait so long to introduce them to this game?"

Brianna would get down on the ground and hold her club kind of the way a cue stick is held for playing pool.

Eli held his club backwards quite a bit of the time, and would sometimes push the ball into the hole instead of hitting it in.

They had a blast! Eli asked as soon as we got in the car, "Can we play again tomorrow?" We told him we might come back for his birthday.

Random side note: Is this game more commonly referred to as "putt-putt" or "mini-golf?" For some reason I've always called it "putt-putt" but when I was telling people here that's what we did, they didn't know what I was talking about until I said, "mini-golf." What do you call it?

Happy Birthday Brianna!

Brianna had a birthday a couple of weeks ago! I can't believe she is already three! My kids are growing too fast. Here is the birthday girl in all her glory.

It was a princess party theme, so this is her castle piñata I made. She is wearing a flamenco dress that I found at a garage sale. I'm not entirely sure why she chose to wear this one. She also has some princess dress up dresses.

 We played pin the kiss on the frog. Brianna won!

 And of course, she wanted a princess cake. This is the first one I've ever made.

 I doubt it will be the last.

Here she is opening her favorite gift. She refers to it as, "my Dora baby."

Thanks, beautiful girl, for being part of our family. We love you and all the smiles you bring us! 

Some of your favorite things right now are:

your babies (dolls)

your dollhouse

playing with your brother

riding on your balance bike

drawing pictures and coloring

singing!

Keep being the wonderful sweet girl you are!

More Pictures!

Paige on her blessing day! Isn't she adorable?

And she likes the camera.

Maybe she doesn't like to share the spot light? 

She does have to put up with a lot of love. That's mostly a good thing but sometimes hugs and kisses can become kind of smothering when they come from an over-exuberant 4 year old and 2 year old.

And they decorated her with stickers. 

Like I said, they love her!

 Brianna got a little tired during the Judd family party.

 Grandma and Grandpa at the party.

Yes, I'm posting about Christmas in February

I know, I know, I'm behind. And generally speaking, I'm not a "catch up on past events" kind of blogger. However, there are several cute pictures that I thought grandmothers would like to see, so here they are.

 We started out Christmas Eve by decorating cookies for Santa. Brianna had a lot of fun. Don't worry, she did save a few for Santa.

There's my blue eyed girl!

 We've maintained the tradition of letting the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.

 Oh the suspense...

 Which is always a pair of pajamas.

 Time for bed so Santa can come!

We also started doing my Aunt's silly tradition. We leave cookies for Santa and Santa gives the kids presents. We leave carrots for the reindeer and they give reindeer poop (chocolate covered almonds). Eli was afraid to eat it at first.

 And then the real fun begins!

Such excitement over just a pack of gum! 

Here is Paige in her Christmas pajamas. 

And a pair of socks!

Christmas is so fun with kids this age. Everything is so exciting and magical. There were more gifts other than just socks and pajamas, but the excitement on their faces was pretty much the same throughout.

Tomato Soup

Not too long ago, we had a small case of cherry tomatoes in the house. Brianna LOVES tomatoes and had been snacking on them. Thus while Cameron and I were doing some work in the basement, the case of tomatoes was left out on the counter for Brianna to eat. Upon returning upstairs to make lunch, Eli informed me that he had made lunch already. Tomato soup.

"Mom! It's so good! You should try it! It has three ingredients. Tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and water."

The whole time that he was explaining his method of making tomato soup to me, Brianna was greedily keeping the soup all to herself. Yes, she ate it all. A few days later, Eli and I had this conversation:

Eli: "Mom, can you buy some more tomatoes?"

Me: "Why?"

Eli: "So I can make some more tomato soup."

Me: "Why do you want to do that?"

Eli: "Because I didn't get to try any when I made it before."

Me: "Why didn't you try it?"

Eli: "Because it has tomatoes in it! I don't like tomatoes!"