Birthday Fun

I have always been a firm believer that you should make a big deal about your child's birthday. It is the one day in the year that is their own personal special day, when you shower them with extra praise, love and presents. Who doesn't love that, right? Since we only get three special days for our five kiddos, you've got to make the most of them. And now that we know this new little one in my belly is a boy, I will only get one day, once a year that can be totally pink. And I'm going to live it up as long as I can.HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYNN AND KAITLYN!They requested balloons and party hatsThe pile of goodies and presents. Rich was working nights, so I knew I had better leave a few things unwrapped in an attempt to delay the gift opening until Daddy arrived.They knew exactly which gifts were theirs."Oriole" and Tink for Brynn. Tinkerbell was going on top of her cake.Snow White and a purple horsey for Kaitlyn. The My Little Pony would be on the top of her cake. (I am all about easy cakes....)The princess party hat were just what they wanted. I had gone to Walmart the day before and got the supplies while Rich and the girls slept. They were thrilled by what I had picked out.After a trip to the hospital for my now routine two week ultrasound, we did drive thru McDonald's to celebrate. Happy Meal= Happy Girls!I had hoped we could save the present opening until the boys returned home from school, but that certainly wasn't what Brynn had in mind. She began sneaking off with presents and trying to open them upstairs. She was so eager I had a hard time finding the video camera and cord and get it up and running before she had tiny tears in nearly every package. It's just so fun, who wants to wait!

Kaitlyn with her new purple princess nightgownKaitlyn LOVES Fisher Price Little People. Thanks to Kristi for giving us this set when she was cleaning out her house for her move.Princess ArielNew books from Grandpa and Grandma NanceShooting poppers in the backyardPrincesses in the rainWalking in her daddy's shoesKaitlyn giving our Easter Bunny some lovesMy helpers got the cakes before I did.....You can never have too much frostingPapa Johns for dinner!Josh made these cards for the girls during his free time at school. New princess shoes Decorating timeHappy Birthday to "Brynnie and Kay-en" they sing."Purple horsey cake"
"Tink cake with frostene" Best FriendsHappy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!Lovin' the dolls Grandma Blackhair sent(I think Brynn changed her clothes about 5 times that day. All the different outfits in the photos make me laugh. She is seriously quite the stylish little lady.... at least she thinks so)What a birthday! Thanks to all who made the girls feel so special and loved.

My Birthday Girls

March 25, 2009- My little girls turned three. How fast they have grown. I love seeing their personalities emerge. I marvel at their friendship and laugh at their quirky ways. I cherish their sweet loves, hugs and kisses and appreciate their differences. They are my ever present buddies. I look forward to a lifetime of making memories with my sweet baby girls. BRYNN: Older than Kaitlyn by 9 minutes. 5 lb 6 oz- my smallest baby by far. A better sleeper than her sister at first, but nowadays seems to find her way into our bed on occasion.

Nickname: Brynnie Brynn, Mini Brynnie

Favorite sayings: " I don't want to EVER!" "I love my Mommy." "I do it myself!" "Watch me!" "I a monkey." "I NOT!" "Ah, I tink (think) so."

Favorite foods: Pickles and mustard, "Mac" (Big Mac), tomatoes, sour cream, salad, french fries, ice cream, toast ("no crunchy" (crust)), nuggies (nuggets), strawberries, pears, bananas, popsies (popsicles), chocomilk (chocolate milk) and Fresca

Favorite colors: yellow and pink

Loves to: Twirl, climb, do "flips" (somersaults), play mommy with her babies by rocking them and tucking them in bed, change her clothes over and over and over, wear her Ariel dress and shoes, put on makeup, cut paper with scissors, pet dogs and cats, suck her thumb, drag around her yellow blanket, read the animal book, watch Giselle, Dora or Little Mermaid, our future possible TV junkie

Favorite Disney Princesses: Ariel and Tinkerbell

Personality: Hyper, independent, strong willed, yet silly and sweet

Dislikes: Going to bed, lightning, fireworks, doing her hair, wearing wet clothing

Wish list: To wear swimsuits around the house 24/7 and go swim in our neighborhood pool daily

Funny stories: Rich has been working nights this past week, so I was flying solo trying to get all the kids to bed. After I got the girls in their jammies I handed Brynn the dirty clothes pile and instructed her to put them in the dirty basket. Ten seconds later she returned with the laundry measuring cup 1/8 full of Tide. I told her to put it away, I wasn't going to start the laundry yet. A few minutes later I realized I could hear the laundry washing. I went in to discover Brynn had added the soap, closed the door (front loading washer and dryer) and had properly pushed two buttons to get it working. I was surprised, but not shocked by Brynn's handiwork. I stopped the load, put in the rest of the clothes and started it again.

I then went downstairs to deal with the kitchen. Brynn climbed out of bed and appeared next to me just while I was cleaning up the table. I was in by the computer gathering items when I heard the sound of the 1/2 full dishwasher going. Brynn had been my helper girl once again, even though I wasn't quite ready for her valiant efforts.

The next night as I was getting them to bed, I realized Brynn had not finished her hamburger and told her to go and get it off the kitchen table where it was in a baggie. A minute later she returned with a piping hot burger. And I knew it wasn't hot when I left it. She worked her magic with the microwave and nuked it all by herself while in the plastic. Yummy.

Kaitlyn: Youngest in the family (until August). 6 lb 8 oz. Hardest of my babies to push out because she was over a pound heavier than Brynn. I pushed more with her than I did the other four combined (and that only lasted for nine solid minutes....). She started out a bit more fussy than Brynn and my mom and I joked that the little onesie that said "It's all about ME" was made for her. Over the years she has shown her true colors- sweet, soft, gentle and much more relaxed than her feistier sister.

Favorite sayings: "Yeah!" "I love my daddy." "Want to play my toys? It Fun!" "Scary doggie/kitty."

Favorite Foods: Chicken nuggets, french fries, milk, hot dogs, ketchup, strawberries, frozen or cooked peas, grapes, cheese, chips, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup

Favorite color: Purple

Loves to: Spend time with her daddy, play with her toys, push her dolls in their stroller, dress her Barbies, go to class (nursery) with daddy, suck her thumb, cuddle her blanket, picnic in the backyard, throw a ball (she has a seriously good arm!), read the animal book, look at catalogs (esp American Girl Dolls), and I love that she will wear whatever I pick out and leave her hair in all day long. What an angel!

Favorite Disney Princess: Snow White

Personality: Sweet, obedient, funny, shy around new people, but can stand her ground when Brynn pushes her buttons

Dislikes: Touching or being near animals, spicy food, going to the dentist, Brynn teasing her, clipping her toe nails

Wish list: Buying a toy shopping cart just for her and that our neighbor's cat Monroe will stay out of our backyard when she is out playing.

Funny stories: I told her to go up to her room and pick out a shirt the other day. She looked at me point blank and said, "I can't. I no climb." (Referring to Brynn's crazy scary scaling of the closet shelves every day. We lock the door now....)

She is the most expressive child. Just her facial expressions make me laugh. She raises and lowers her eyebrows, puts on a cute smirk and shrugs both shoulders. She's a hoot.

She doesn't use the pronoun 'she'. Everything is 'hers'. "Hers daddy (husband) went working."

She LOVES her daddy. "My daddy" she calls him.

She is perfectly honest. Who spilled the milk? "ME!" she exclaims. Who cut the paper into a million bits? "ME!" Who ate the cookies on the carpet?"ME!"


I could go on and on.... Love you sweet girls. You have blessed our lives for three wonderful years. We can't wait to see what adventures and fun we will have in the years ahead.

Christmas in Kentucky

Christmas Eve: December 23, 2008Santa was one smart fella this year. He got our email we sent to him and made good on his promise to bring Christmas a day early to Kentucky and then leave a few presents for the kids to open in Utah on Christmas morning. He spoiled us and then some! This was the first time ever we had part of Christmas in Kentucky. We have always flown to Utah for Christmas and had him deliver our gifts there. Rich had to work on December 24th so we had to change our plans a bit. And no one seemed to mind.I finally had a reason to buy Christmas stockings for everyone and they boys were so excited to see what he would fill them with.Brynn helped put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.Santa's sleigh seemed to have tipped over in our living room and left a pile of presents!The boys were up early. Very early. 5 AM. Did I mention we had to fly to Utah that night and land at 12 PM MST? That is 2 AM EST. Yes, we were VERY tired when we finally got there.A little breakfast to kill time until Rich agreed to come down.The boys woke up the girls (I wasn't pleased by this....) and they quickly began opening their gifts.New princess shoes. (She was SO excited that she had to take of all her clothes to try them on.)Brynn rushed upstairs and got dressed all by herself. She is modeling her new shoes and holding her new Webkinz dog and Tinkerbell Build-A-Bear.Kaitlyn loved her new Sleeping Beauty doll set, complete with "hers daddy." (aka: Prince Phillip)It was hard to get the kids to wait to open their presents. They just wanted to rush right into, and Rich was still asleep upstairs. We started with a few small gifts first that were found in their stockings.

Once Dad was awake, it was a mad house of wrapping paper and boxes.

Josh and Matt check out their new DS game.

Kaitlyn was thrilled with her Snow White barbie and Dora doll.

We had to watch Brynn. She would open ANY present that was near her, even if it didn't have a big "B" on it.

Her new Belle doll set

Matt with his new Star Wars sets and Josh and Trey with their new Nintendo DS.

Josh loves clothes and immediately tried on this new Nike sweatshirt Santa left him.Rich was the expert at getting the toys out of the boxes. He had to put in a full day of work before we flew out ot Utah that night. No break, even on our early Christmas morning on the 24th.

And the girls loved this new doll port-a-crib. The only bad part was that Santa only left ONE to share. Bad idea. After Rich left we got dressed, cleaned up the house and ran to Wal-mart and got another doll bed and trade's Josh' bat for a shorter one at Dick's. It was awesome to do our returns while the rest of the frantic shoppers were still buying their gifts. Huge perk for celebrating a tiny bit early!