Alli's 5th Birthday {Preschool} Celebration

Alli is much like her Mommy in that her birthday celebrations tend to last a week!

The Tuesday before her birthday, she was special person at preschool,

meaning she got to bring in a treat and something for show and tell.

Since we were headed to Disneyland soon, we went with a Disney theme . . .

I made Mickey shaped Rice Krispy treats that I dipped in chocolate, wrote the #5,

put them on a lollipop stick, and made a cute little Mickey bouquet.  The perfect gluten free pop!

Sticking with the Disney theme, for her show and tell item

Alli decided to bring in her new Princess Aurora doll from Ducky Gramma and Papa.

Alli loved the kick off of her nearly week long birthday celebration.

You only turn a whole hand once!!! :-)

Cute kiddos

Before school, the kiddos decided to be extra snuggly and cute, requiring lots of pictures ;-)

Sweet Alli snuggling with Hugs and Tugs (my Care Bears when I was her age!)

Eli "borrowed" this hat from Preschool ~ he loves it so much!

It even says Lightening McQueen,

 not sure he really knows who that is even though he does like the movie Cars :-) 

Eli is so into hats right now.

Since they were being so sweet, I attempted a picture with all three . . .  

Wasn't exactly the most successful as the boys were not cooperating too well ;-)

Oh well, Alli's smile was precious!

Of course, each of the bigs wanted their own picture with their little bro . . .  

Eli thought it was great fun to snuggle and

the boys just kind of melted into one another while they watched Curious George. 

Yep, I may be biased but I definitely think these are three cute kiddos!

Happy Birthday Garrett!

On January 11th, we celebrated the birth of my handsome hubby.

Given that we are not brave enough to go out to eat with three munchkins, we celebrated at home.

Garrett wanted Qdoba for dinner and was nice enough to pick it up on the way home from work!

He requested chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for his dessert and informed me that he likes my cookies but my mom's are the best!  Thankfully, my wonderful mom was kind enough to make not only the cookies but she assembled the ice cream sandwiches as well ~ thank you Mom!!!!

I thought the tea light candle was quite creative ;-)

While Eli and Luke napped, Alli and I had decorated the house and made/wrapped presents.

Alli made and wrapped her presents for her Daddy all by herself and did a fabulous job!

She was so proud of her work and G loved it all . . .

She is such a creative and artistic little gal!

Eli had to get in on the unwrapping action too . . .

We attempted to get some cute pictures of G with the three munchkins but Eli was less than cooperative :-)

 All in all, it was a great celebration for the world's best (in our opinion!) hubby and Daddy!

The Smile That Melts Mommy's Heart

Snow Much Fun!

It started snowing on Sunday and finally stopped today, making for a very cold and pretty week.

So what did we do while trapped in our house all week???

We played in the snow and built many a Frosty . . .

We played snow soccer and ran around . . .

We played Queen of the snow mountain . . .  

We shoveled lots (and I mean LOTS!) of snow . . .  

There may not be any pictures of me shoveling, but I was in charge of it the first couple days,

G just wasn't as excited about documenting the snow with pictures ;-)

We snuggled with siblings . . .  

We baked yummy, candy cane brownies . . .

We worked, crafted and enjoyed yummy food . . .  



We may be going a bit stir crazy but it has still been a fun week!

Not sure he'll be smiling about this in ten years . . .

but he sure thought it was fun this morning!!!

Luke had his follow up with Dr. D this morning to check his growth and ears after his illness.

Great news all around . . . ears are completely clear and the little guy, at 2.5 months, is now

12 lbs 13 oz and 23.5 inches

For those keeping track, he gained 1 lb 1 oz and 1 inch in the last two weeks, two days!

Not bad for being sick ;-)

Bike Rides in January!

We had an unusually nice day, somewhat warm and clear, blue skies

so it was the perfect time to play outside (or do yard work).

Garrett went outside to do some work in the backyard and pretty soon Alli and Eli joined him.

When I went out to find them, Alli was off "helping" our neighbors in their yard and Eli was playing.

Pretty soon, our neighbors (wonderful saints who do not have children!) had loads of little ones playing in their yard :-)  We met one of the new families in the neighborhood who have four boys, one of whom is only a year older than Eli.  Eli was so excited that his new friend had a bike like him so he begged to ride his bike.

We got this for him last summer and he had no interest.

But seeing the "big boys" riding one just like it was all he needed. 

He now LOVES his bike and wants to ride it everywhere ;-)

Little Mommy

a.k.a. Alli

She refers to herself as the little Mommy and has decided she can take over many of the duties with Luke!

I have happily relinquished diaper changes any time she wants to take over :-)

The Boys

One of my favorite parts of being a Mom is seeing my little ones interact.

Since Luke was born, we find ourselves referring to "the boys" a lot

and it is so much fun to watch their brother relationship grow. 

 Although Luke isn't quite sure what to think, Eli is convinced having a brother is the coolest thing ever!

How precious are these boys????

The Many Faces of Luke

It was a rough weekend in regards to Luke crying but you'd never know it by these pictures ;-)