Sarah had a birthday at the beginning of March. I can't believe that she's a year old. She has been such a joy, and my best sleeper thus far. I remember being completely shocked when she started sleeping through the night, not waking up to eat, at 8 weeks old. Although she still won't let anyone else hold her, she's becoming more daring and likes to go off and explore things. She's not yet walking, but pulls herself to a standing position on everything and can stand for a few seconds on her own. (She's not a huge fan of this so it's really rare to get her to do it.)
She has some of the craziest hair. It's really long in the front and she can wake up with some of the funniest hairdos I've ever seen. Here are some pictures.
Although Michael and I were not here to celebrate her birthday (Michael had to go to Las Vegas for work and I decided to join him), she and her sisters had a great time hanging out with Michael's parents who came to our house to stay with the girls. Happy birthday, Sarah!
Here are lot of videos of what Sarah's been up to.
Easter weekend was a blast! I think what made it the best was absolute gorgeous weather we had. I think this is the first time in the 5 years that we've live in Rexburg that we've been able to have an easter egg hunt outside. The kids got a bunch of candy, glittering sidewalk chalk, colored bubbles, plastic jewelry. We had a great weekend.
We also attended the baptism of one of my piano students. It was so fun to see him take that important step. We had lunch at his house afterwards and I got to had out with his awesome family!
The girls looked so cute in their Easter dresses. I especially had fun experimenting with Annabelle's hair. I'm so glad she loves her long hair and doesn't ever want to cut it.
In her three years of life, Jillian has never had a hair cut. I might have trimmed her hair once or twice, but that's it. I wanted it to grow out long. But recently, I realized it was time to chop a lot of it off. She was so excited about getting her first hair cut. I'm no expert at cutting hair, but I figure if I'm just cutting straight across the back, it should be no problem. I've been cutting Annabelle's hair since she was born and that's why she doesn't have a cute hair style, just a cute hair do.
Annabelle is 6 years old! She's come a long way from the 4 week early 5 pounder baby she was. She's tall and bright and happy. She's such a joy to have in our family and she's the greatest big sister. On the day of her birthday, she told me she wanted her hair done to look like the number 6. She was so ansty and bouncy from excitement that it was her birthday that she could hold still for me to figure out a cute way to make the number 6. So, I did a quick job that didn't look as cute as it could have, but hey, we accomplished the goal of making a "6" in her hair.
This year, we decided not to have a big birthday party with friends. Instead, she got to pick one friend and we went to a place with an indoor bounce house and climbing tunnels. We stayed for several hours, the first couple of which we had the entire place to ourselves. It was great. There was a nice leather couch for me to sit on and a big screen tv. The kids went crazy running around. Sarah eventually fell asleep and slept in her car seat, which I put in a dark hallway. She slept for over an hour, which was amazing.
After, we had Annabelle's birthday dinner, her choice of stromboli, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. Annabelle was probably most excited about her presents. What kid isn't at her age? She received some books, clothes, art kit, large coloring activity book, a new hat, and a scooter. Overall, I think she was pretty happy with her gifts. Now, on to the cake.
Annabelle kept changing her mind about what kind of cake she wanted. One day it was a marshmallow cake, the next day, she wanted a rainbow cake or a unicorn cake. When I told her she had to choose only one, she decided on a basketball cake. Now, remember, I have no cake decorating training nor do I have any cake decorating tools. Nevertheless, I did the best I could to make a basketball cake and this is the result.
After our scrumptious dessert, Annabelle and Michael headed to the church to play basketball while I gave the little girls a bath. When the ballers came back, we popped some popcorn and watch Ice Age 4 as a family.
It was a great day. One of the best days of her entire life, according to Annabelle. Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter.
This was her cool hair that we did for her first Sunday as a 6 year old.
It's hard to believe that Jillian is 3 years old already. Sometimes, with her drama, I think shouldn't she be like turning 16 or something? But other times, she so sweet and kind and, well, just little, that I'm glad she's only 3 and I have another 15 years with her.
We started her birthday celebration on Friday by going out to lunch at McDonald's and playing on the playland there. We then did some birthday shopping (yes, I was a little last minute on getting her some presents). Saturday, we continued the fun by going bowling. Annabelle and Jillian kicked my butt. But that's not surprising considering they had bumpers and I did not and I'm a really bad bowler (I mean, really bad). Sarah just loved looking at all the neon flashing lights.
(That's Annabelle-81
Jillian-85
Lindsey-56)
Today, after church, we decorated Jillian's Dora the Explorer birthday cake. Now, I am not a cake decorator in the slightest, nor do I have a single cake decorating tool, but I must say, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I don't think anyone really understood how proud of the cake I was. Well, maybe Annabelle did. She watched me decorate it and kept saying how cool it looked and how I was the best cake maker in the world.
If you can't tell, Dora and Boots must go "over the hill, across the bridge and that's how they'll get to Jillian's birthday bash".
After having her birthday dinner of spaghetti and breadsticks (and a couple of her tantrums caused by her exceptional stubbornness), we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream. As soon as she had one present open, she would lunge for another one before even looking to see what she got. It wasn't until she was done ripped off the wrapping paper of each present that she even cared to see what new things she was given.
Annabelle's friend came over yesterday and they decided to build a snowman. Annabelle and I have tried building snowmen in the past, but they never really ever turned out well. Perhaps that's because I grew up in a place where we didn't get much snow and so I never learned good snowman-building skills. So I was skeptical that these little kids would make anything that resembled a snowman. But boy, was I wrong. They spent hours rolling snow around to make the different parts of the body the exact size they wanted. Once they had the second layer ready to lift onto the bottom layer, they immediately realized it was way to heavy for them. Annabelle opened the door to the house and asked if Michael could help them.
Michael was not in the least bit dressed to go out in the snow, but did that stop superdad? Heck, NO! He slipped on the first pair of shoes he could find (his church shoes) and went immediately outside in his basket ball shorts, light jacket and no socks and he helped shape that snowman a little more, then lifted it on top of the bottom layer.
By the time the kids were ready to come inside, they had a pretty darn good snowman. Way to go, girls! Please note the different sized eyes. They used a racquetball for one eye and a tennis ball for the other eye. They're going for a more modern, creative look.
Annabelle lost another tooth. That makes 4 teeth lost before she's even turned 6. She has 2 more that are loose and 5 weeks before she turns 6 so that number could go up. This front tooth came out while she was brushing her teeth. She started freaking out because when she went to spit out the tooth paste, there was a bunch of blood in the sick. (And Annabelle doesn't handle blood well. If she sees it, she starts to gag.) After we washed out her mouth, we realized that her tooth was gone and we figured it had gone down the drain. Annabelle was very concerned that the tooth fairy wouldn't come if we didn't find the tooth, so Michael spent the next 30 minutes taking apart the pipes under the sink (and removing the disgusting gunk that builds up in them) looking for the missing tooth. He did eventually find it. He definitely earned the name "Superdad" for that. We put the tooth under her pillow and she went to bed.
The next morning, she looked under her pillow and found a tooth from the tooth fairy and a dollar bill. She was thrilled. But as she was getting ready for school, she happened to see her tooth sitting on her dresser. Annabelle was very upset that the tooth fairy didn't take it. I explained to her that probably what happened was the tooth fairy took the tooth out of the bag it was in, put it on the dresser so she could put the note and the dollar in the bag, and then left, forgetting to take the tooth with her. We decided to put the tooth under her pillow that night so the tooth airy could come back and get it.
Well, darn that blasted tooth fairy. She forgot again to take the tooth. We decided to try one more night. That night as I was going to bed and Annabelle was still awake, I asked Michael to make sure the tooth fairy was coming before he went to bed.
The next morning, the tooth was gone and there was a gold dollar and the following note:
That might be too small to read, so here's what it said:
Dear Annabelle,
You are growing up so quickly! You lost another tooth. I am sorry I forgot to take it with me the first night you put it under your pillow. I feel so silly! I want to put to rest any concerns you may have about the integrity of the operation I run, so I have left a special Sacajawea dollar coin for you. I hope you like it!
Love,
The Tooth Fairy
P.S. Thank you for being a goof helper to your Mom and sisters.
When Annabelle read it, she had to ask what about 4 words meant. I had no idea the tooth fairy was such a logophile. Oh well. The tooth has finally been collected and that's all that really matters, right?
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