Masterpiece...

Kambria has just recently started writing her name (and lots of letters) on her own. I just found her drawing this at the table and thought it was too cute to just stuff in a drawer. It is only missing 2 letters (and 1 finger)...genius!

An Otherwise Un-eventful day...

...had a few highlights:
#1: The puppet that Brynlee made for school. She was supposed to make a puppet from a brown paper bag to go along with the nursery rhyme that she would recite in front of the class. This is HER creation and we just can't help but smile when we see it! I especially like how everything had to match the polka-dot dress...including the MOUTH. I also like how she put the eyes on crooked on purpose so that it would look like it was looking at her. :)

#2: Apparently, HE prefers Honey-Mustard...

...for his HAIR!!! I could smell him from a mile away! I knew he was up to something when it was WAY TOO QUIET! He was NOT happy when I took it away.

#3: I asked the girls to go upstairs and get jammies on. This is what Kam came up with. The funniest thing about it was that when she had her shirt half-way on she said, "Daddy, is going to think I look Yummy!" Then she freaked out and ripped it off and said, "I don't want him to eat me!" (It took me a while to convince her that I wouldn't let him eat her). I am cracking up just thinking about it.

Letters to the Birthday Girl...

Dear Aleisha,
I love you. I wish I could be with you. Happy Birthday Aleisha! My favorite thing to do with you is play games. It would be fun if we played Duck-Duck-Goose.
Love, Brynlee

Dear Aleisha,
I love you. I like to play with you. I want to play Duck-Duck-Goose with you. I love you. I want to go to your house someday. I want to play with your kids. I want to come to your house.
Love, Kambria

Dear Aleisha,
bbvn n n fvx ni ol mjb ubvv s mjb ncj .kjmvj m.,jjjjjjmj..jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlmjikjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjn.,h,mh,hnn mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Love, Gavin

Dear Aleisha,

We love you so much!!! You are such a beautiful and wonderful Sister/Sis-in-law, and Aunt to us! Thanks for all of the fun times and hugs. Apparently, we would like to play Duck-Duck-Goose with you sometime, that must be the COOL thing to do! :) We are wishing for you a GREAT day... You DESERVE it!

Love,

Aletha, Brian, Brynlee, Kambria, and Gavin

Determined little girl...

Brynlee has been trying to get her loose tooth out for a few weeks now. 3 days ago, she stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom for 45 minutes, experimenting on the best way to get it out. She attempted just pulling with her fingers, biting repeatedly into an apple, and even using her baby brother's new toy pliers. She finally asked me to try and I said "OK, but I might scream!" (Poor girl was born with a mom who gets weak in the knees over things like that! :) After several attempts (and screaming fits, from me of course), I was not successful. Last night she asked Daddy if he would try, but he just could not get a good grip on it. She got frustrated and just reached up and yanked it out. She is my hero! Seriously.

Her motivation for getting that tooth out???... $$$MONEY!$$$

Smart girl.

No more naps for me!...

Christmas Eve-morning, Brian worked at the office until noon, I was really tired that morning so I decided to take a nap while Gavin had his nap. I told the girls they could watch a movie while I did so. About 10 minutes into my nap, I smelled SMOKE!!! I ran downstairs into a cloud of smoke filling the WHOLE main floor of my house! I scanned the house and found Brynlee standing on the counter putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I asked. "The first bag of popcorn got burnt," she replied. "NO KIDDING!" I found the first bag of popcorn in the garbage and it was hardly recognizable as popcorn...just black powder! Brynlee then noticed the smoke that was surrounding her and she started bawling. Her eyes were stinging badly and she felt like she was going to throw up, as did I. I opened up all of the windows in the whole house and opened doors. I quickly bundled the girls up into their snow clothes and sent them to the backyard to play so I could quickly get myself and Gavin dressed and ready to leave the house. We decided to go out to lunch, although I knew that we STUNK like smoke (someone told me :)! After lunch, our house STILL smelled horribly, so we decided to go see the movie "Bolt" at the theater. It actually ended up being a lot of fun, but definitely not what we had planned for the day!

(This picture is from the internet, I was too upset to think about getting a picture before it was all cleaned up. When I look at this picture I can smell it all over again!)

Disclaimer:

(Brynlee knows not to use the microwave on her own, but Kambria told her that I said it was ok if she did it by herself this time. Kam and I had a looong talk about not telling the truth after that. Neither of the girls have any desire to use the microwave after this incident...Thank goodness.)

A few days after that incident, while in Pine Valley, I decided to take advantage of having Brian around and I laid down for another nap. This is what I woke up to:When I saw Gavin, all of the adults pointed fingers at each other. From what I gather, he did this to himself, with PERMANENT marker! Not sure of the look he was going for, but he was sure proud of it! I thought he did a very good job of making it very even on both sides.

I don't think I will be attempting another nap anytime soon. :)

She turned 4...

She turned 4...even though I told her NOT TO! Sometimes I just want to freeze her in time. On her Birthday night Kam put on her jammies and said:

"Mom, when I have class again, my friends are going to think I am bigger, but that is weird because my jammies still fit me!"


Kam wanted to have a Princess Birthday Party with her cousins this year. Janelle graciously offered their home for the BIG event, the kids always have a ball at their house!

It really was a wonderful day. We sure Love that little girl. She keeps things very interesting, and entertaining around here. Happy Birthday Kambria, Love you Sweetheart!

Happy Anniversary Brian!/ Happy B-Day Kambria!

8 YEARS, WaHOO!!! Love you Brian.
Kambria is the best Anniversary present we ever got!!! More to post about her when I have access to pictures. Happy 4th Birthday Baby!!!

Christmas 2008...

Christmas was magical for us this year. The girls are at the PERFECT Christmas age, where they are JUST AS EXCITED for Slinkys and Princess panties, as they are for the expensive stuff! Brynlee and Kam both asked Santa for a ring, they were excited to see that he came through with one for each of them with their own initial on it. Kam also asked Santa for an MP3 player which she has had strapped to herself and on play ever since she opened it (it has a speaker on the outside so we have all been enjoying the music with her)! Gavin is enjoying his new train set, and most of everyone else's gifts. He especially is interested in the music player and also his Daddy's new helicopter. Here are the girls enjoying Christmas breakfast which Daddy so lovingly made for the family...YUM! Bryn was hoping to get a visit from Santa AND the Tooth Fairy in the same day! Her last front tooth is REALLY loose, she kept singing the song "All I want for Christmas is my [3] front teeth!"

These are my favorite boys playing with Daddy's new toy!:

My ornaments of choice this year were the home-made ones, they are the Best kind!

This was our first Christmas at our own home this year. We missed our extended family, but will be able to see them soon...Thank Goodness! Merry Christmas!!!

It's your Birthday...

Do a DANCE!!!

DEAR CHELSEA,

I am so grateful that you are my sister, so today I am going to CELEBRATE the day you were born! However, I will try to forget that on the night you were born, (I was in my new yellow jammies that I got for Christmas), Grandma and Grandpa came to get me out of my warm bed in the MIDDLE of the FREEZING night! Then, they took FOREVER to let me come visit you and mom at the hospital. How dare they?! (I guess it's time to get over that!) You were/are so cute!!! I was grateful when we were finally able to bring you home from the hospital and be together as a family at home. You are a GREAT sister (not to mention, great friend)! Even though I am older and wiser...you have still taught me a few things... ok, maybe alot of things! :) Maybe someday I will be able to walk next door and wish you a Happy Birthday, but for now I will have to settle for a little singing (and dancing which you can't see) over the phone. I hope you have a WONDERFUL Birthday!

LOVE YOU!

IF I had sent out Christmas cards this year...

...I probably would have included these pictures. I also would have wished everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! As you can see with these 3 little Joys, we have MUCH to be MERRY about (also much to be very BUSY with)! Maybe next year I will be able to get out Christmas cards, I think I may need to start now though.

*Photos by Chelsea Rose Photography (my talented sister)