Rainbow

Little Grace has renamed herself Rainbow. And she is pretty serious about it! She'll catch you if you call her Grace and remind you that her name is now Rainbow. A little while after I dropped Rainbow off at preschool I got a text from her teacher that said the following: "Grace just changed her name to Rainbow." I laughed and I also laughed in the middle of the night when she came into our room and I asked who it was and she paused and replied,"Rainbow."
I have to say how proud I am of this little girl! A year ago she was hardly talking and now it seems like she has been talking forever. Her speech therapist calls her his miracle girl because she has made such an incredible improvement. She went into speech a month before she turned three and was only in the first percentile for language and articulation! Way to go Grace!
Here are a few pictures from her Birthday Tea Party. It was so fun! Hats, gloves, pink lemonade, and real sugar cubes are what little girls are made of! Happy Birthday Rainbow! Jason made her cute teapot cake! I actually sat back and let him make it and I'm glad I did because he did an amazing job!
Four Things I love about Grace:
1. You are a mommy's girl! Sorry Jason!
2. Your cute sense of humor. I hope I always remember that when I dropped you off at preschool you yelled to me,"Bye Alvin!" You love those chipmunks!
3. The adorable things you say. Emma asked what kind of gum you were chewing and you said,"Chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy bubble gum!"
4. I love your obsession with Max and Ruby! You have to watch it everyday!!!

I've been wanting to blog about this cookbook for a long time! I love it! If you are looking for a good, basic, family friendly cookbook than this is a must have. I find myself going back to this cookbook constantly and she gives great ideas for menu planning as well. Love it, love it, love it!!!

Just Wondering???

Okay everyone. When you visit my blog does it take you to my most recent post or is it an old post. A couple of my friends have told me they always get an old post first. Let me know so I can fix my blog. Thanks!

Happy Birthday To Carissa!!!

Here are a few pictures from Carissa's birthday. We celebrated a day early so daddy could spend the day with her too. She woke up to a big balloon tied on her crib and she played with it ALL DAY! She knew it was her special day and she kept giving us all of these funny little smiles that you can see in EVERY picture we took! Baby Cinderella was the theme for the day and she loved every minute! Happy birthday Crissy!

Christmas

I have to admit I'm going through a little post Christmas depression! I love all of the Christmas traditions we enjoy as a family and it is always sad to see it end.
We were lucky to have Jason's parents with us for Christmas this year and the girls loved it of course!
Christmas Eve was busy. We made candy and sugar cookies. I loved watching the girls decorate them! I hope this is a tradition they will remember and do with their own little ones someday. We had lots of sprinkles and frosting everywhere but it is worth it! Grace frosted every one of her cookies with blue frosting of course! After a fancy Christmas Eve dinner the girls dressed up and acted out the Christmas story. Carissa stole the show as the wise man! We sang Christmas songs, read "The Night Before Christmas", and tucked the girls into bed. I'll never forget how happy Grace looked tucked into bed and how she said she saw a red light from Rudoph in the sky. Or Emma on her knees praying that she wasn't on Santa's naughty list! It was pretty funny and I really wish I had more than a mental picture.


Christmas Eve Jammies!

Jason's mom and Carissa. Gayle made her little handprint ornament for me.

Our little Nativity

Christmas morning! Santa brought a tea trolley!

A new Barbie car!

Julia with her zhu zhu pets

Emma serving up some hot cocoa for Christmas breakfast!

Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa

After Christmas morning we drove to my parents house and arrived just in time for Christmas dinner. It was a treat to eat my mom's food and she always has her table so pretty. The girls had a fun time playing with all of their cousins! We had a big family party the next day so I was able to visit with so many loved ones I rarely get to see. And to top it all off two of my sisters announced that they will be having new babies this year! It was a fun surprise for all!


My dad came out wearing these to block out some of the noise from all of the little girls running around!

My Grandpa Joe with the girls

My mom and dad with my girls

Our Christmas Tree Adenture

This year we decided to cut down our tree. Our good friends Mike and Danielle take their boys every year so we decided to tag along. We had so much fun and made some great family memories! Mike grew up in these mountains and knew where to take us to find beautiful trees. Danielle and I stayed with the little ones while the dads took the bigger kids to find our trees. It was so exciting when they came walking back with big Christmas trees in tow! I think we may make this a new family tradition!

Family Picture Day

I've updated my blog with our new family pictures. This is always an eventful day to say the least. It is up there with Sunday mornings, only a little worse I think. After I dressed my girls and curled all four of their little heads we headed out the door to meet Holly O'keefe, our photographer. She was GREAT! This is the second year we have had her take our pictures and she is wonderful. Thank you Holly for all of the pictures and moments you captured of our family!

Here are a few more pictures I love!