B and J’s Birthday Present

I was trying to think of good gifts for Brecken and Joelle that didn't involve toys.  December through February is an overwhelming amount of toys for us.  Adelyn usually ends up with books for her birthday.  Which is totally fine by her.  Anywho.  Our friends have a fun little store in the basement for their kids and I decided to commission Mark to build one in ours.  Birthday present=done.  I told him all he had to do was build it and I would do the rest.

This was the mess after he left.  It extended into the corner by the store (opposite corner) but I already vacuumed that up before I thought to take a picture.

The finished product!  It took me 6, I repeat 6, coats of paint to cover it.  In hindsight I would have primed it.  Oh well.  I also painted the picnic table to match.  It's always something I meant to do but never wanted too.  It was obnoxious red before.

We hung up some bars I had gotten at Ikea a year ago for all their pots and pans.

I also just realized all my pictures of the kids coming down in the morning and seeing it got deleted off my camera.  I am not a fan of how this computer imports pictures.  It does it in groups and if it thinks its already been imported, it doesn't select them.  Alas, I thought I had imported them and reformatted my memory card.  So no pictures of the kids.  Roar.  Regardless, they love their little store and spend LOTS of time playing in it.

bUmPdate::10 weeks

Try not to be jealous of this hotness.  I had just taken my hair done from my pony tail and I was headed to bed before I remembered a picture.  Yesssss.

Highlights::

How far along: 10 weeks  
Weight Gain: .5 lb

Movement: Nope.  
Symptoms: Tired.  Uber Nauseous at night.  Sweets and vegetables do NOT sound good.  I am very cranky.  I take a nap every.single.day.  If I don't, I'm out by 7.
What I miss: My energy level.
Cravings: Eggs.

Best moments this week: Seeing our sweet little baby on Ultrasound.

What I am looking forward to: Announcing to our families!

Names: 3 boy names, 1 girl name.  We hate girl names.

Sweet little babe.  Part of a little foot sticking up and a pretty good profile shot.  S/he had their little hand up like they were waving.  The doc tried to catch it but it went down too quickly.

Arms behind his/her head.   It's little heartbeat was chugging along around 170bpm.  Don't be trying to tell me if that's a boy or a girl...all our kids were exactly the same the whole time.  Starting off in the 170's and ending up in the 150's.

The Most Stubborn Girl. Ever.

Joelle had some peas on her plate for lunch and she got mad at me about something so she threw the plate.  Peas scattered all over the table and I promptly told her to pick them up.  She refused.  I told her if she didn't, she was going to get spanked.  She still refused.  A half hour passed, while she sat there crying and it was time for naps.  She got spanked and told she could pick them up after naps.  She said ok.  She wakes up and I asked her if she was ready to pick them up.  "No."  Oh.  Ok.  I buckled her in her chair and there she sat.  She alternated between crying loudly and quietly sobbing.

**I took the pictures on my phone without her knowing.  She will thank me someday.**

She sat there from 3:00-5:15 before she picked them up.  No threats at that point.  She just had to pick them up.  She quietly picked them up and proudly said "All done, Momma."

Mommy for the win.  This time.

B and J’s 3rd Birthday Party

We had to celebrate Brecken and Joelle's 3rd birthday in style.  Last year they had a horrible cold and we had to cancel their party.  Knock on wood, we haven't gotten sick yet.  Brecken wanted a train cake and Joelle wanted a Tangled cake.  She hasn't even seen the movie..

The start of B's train cake.  I did this during nap-time and had Eric assist me.  It's a good thing he did or we would have had some "attention to detail" issues.  He informed me what a RR track actually looks like.  I put parchment paper on top of my graham crackers because I had horrific visions of setting my cake on the graham's and it getting soggy and falling.

The finished product.  Eric had lots to say about my OCD lining up of the gummy bears.  None of which is internet appropriate.

The finished product of Joelle's Tangled cake.  I really had no idea how I was going to do it.  Then I decided to use her little doll and make a tower.  The tower base is made up of rice krispie treats and the top is a cone dipped in pink chocolate.

Cousins at the party;)

Crazy Kobe;)

Presents!

Joelle got some princess stuff that she is obsessed with and they both received lots of kitchen items for their new store.

Joelle and the cute little baby she got.  She is in love with it.  Except she takes the baby out of the pea pod and then can't get it back in.  And then gets mad.  So that's fun.

Cakes again.

Lighting of the candles..

Doesn't Adelyn do a great job singing?!

And Brecken does a great job spitting.

He also thought it would be completely necessary to decorate his face with frosting.  Don't go cross-eyed there, little buddy.

Joelle doesn't do so well without a nap...she promptly fell asleep in all her cute princess glory.

So thankful for all our family members who were able to make the trip to celebrate with us.  We are blessed.

Church Christmas Program

We had our church Christmas program the same morning we had Brecken and Joelle's birthday party.  Before I knew that I was planning on skipping church so I could get ready.  Then, when I found out, I decided we HAD to go.  Note to self::birthday party at night next year.

Adelyn's class filed in first.  Then they filed in the 2-year-olds.  Ha. Ha. Ha.

Adelyn was pointing us out to her friend McKenna.  Then she promptly waved like a crazy lady ;)

Singing "Christmas Bells."  You better believe Adelyn rocked it out.  She knew all the words and all the motions to "Away in a Manger."  Brecken knew most of the words and motions.  Joelle was mainly interested in shaking her bells.

Jack sat there the whole time.  Cracks me up.  Joelle was making sure everyone behind her was listening.

Notice the trend with Joelle?!  Adelyn doing her motions.

What a bunch of little cuties!

The little program was SO cute.  I'm glad we made it work.  I ended up leaving right after the program was done.  After the 2 songs the 2-year-olds filed out and the other kids sang another song and recited a couple verses.  When Brecken and Joelle walked past me, they were NOT having continuing on with their class.  They ended up sitting with me for a little bit and I walked them back to the nursery when I left.  Only the poor nursery volunteers were in a panic because they thought B and J were lost.  Whoops.

Pretzel Making Fun

We made some homemade pretzels the other day.  They turned out deliciously.  We made quite a few things that morning that I didn't get pictures of.  Despite my best attempts at entertainment attitudes were to be desired.  We made Christmas sprinkle cookies and mint chocolate chip cookies too.

I knew I would have a win with the kids rolling the dough.  I was right.

Brecken and Joelle more smashed than rolled...but they still loved it.  I had them tell me what to make and I made it for them.

 Adelyn's "4," Brecken's "2" and Joelle's flower.  She wanted a flower and no amount of trying could convince her otherwise.  It's supposed to be a tulip but when I dropped it in the boiling baking soda it kinda turned into a heart...oh well she doesn't realize.

Nearly impossible to try to get a decent looking picture of all three...;)

The pretzels were super yummy.  Eric even gave them his seal of approval.  We made 8.  The 4 of us had one for lunch and then we were saving the other 4 for lunch the next day.  I had given Eric a piece of mine, that night.  He enjoyed it so much he snuck the remainder to work the next day.  You better believe he got a phone call.

Proof.

This is proof.  Proof that I DO take my children outside.  Despite it being, literally, 5 degrees out AND super windy.

Brecken is saying "It's coooooooldee."

Joelle is saying "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese."

Also, proof that I DO feed them junk food.  This would be the first time that my children have ever had tater tots AND, obviously, tater tot casserole.

Adelyn loved it.  She is always asking if I can make "That thing with the beans in it again."  Brecken picked out the beans and Joelle thought it was ok.