Eliana's 4th Birthday

Since Eliana was turning 4 years old on May 4th, we had a "golden" theme birthday party... Essentially, that meant Tangled theme.  Here are the invitations I made.

Here are just a few photos of the decorations. 

 

 These flags were fun to make but took a while.  I just used felt sheets cut into quarters, fabric paint, a stencil I created from the sun symbol, and a sponge brush.  Once they were dry, I used a hot glue gun to glue them to some string.

All the games were Tangled themed.  For the first game, I had the kids pretend to be Maximus who loves apples, but since he doesn't have hands he could only use his mouth to get the apples.  Not many of the kids could do it but they sure had fun trying!

 Next, we played "Pin the Nose on Flynn Rider" and used Rapunzel's braid as a blind fold.

 For the last game, we played Tug of War (again with Rapunzel's hair). 

Then we sang "Happy Birthday," ate cake, and opened presents.  What a fun day!

Hooray!

Merely a few seconds ago, I completed and emailed my last final exam to my instructor.  Well, my last before SPRING BREAK anyway.  Yay!  A much needed two-week break has begun!  Even though I have a much-dreaded class beginning after the break, there's no use worrying about it right now.  This is a HUGE sense of relief.  My mental and physical capacity had nearly reached a breaking point and I could no longer find it in me to keep going.  Perfect timing.  Yes, a vacation would be nice but can't happen this time.  Instead, I'll just spend the next two weeks with these awesome little girls.  Ah... It's nice just being "Mom".

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

I feel especially grateful for my incredible husband and sweet girls on this valentine's day.  After waking up to heart-shaped pancakes and Eliana's repeated "Happy Valentime's" (no, that's not a spelling error- it's how she keeps saying it), I feel so LOVED!  I am so lucky! 

In addition to feeling and sharing the love on this Valentine's Day, I'd like to also say "Happy Birthday" to my incredible home state of Arizona.  The state song illustrates "your sunsets put music in us all."  Any time I've gone away, I'm always welcomed home by the most incredible sunsets in the world.  Happy 99th birthday, Arizona!  :)

A Year Later (Almost)

I can't believe I let nearly a whole year pass since I last posted.  So much has happened since then I'm not even going to try to catch up.  As for the big events... Brandon graduated from NAU and we moved to Gilbert where he is now working as a licensed speech pathologist... YAY! 

Perhaps the biggest event from within the past year... We had that baby previously mentioned.  Brynlee Mikelle was born June 23, 2010.  She's a wonderful and sweet addition to our family.  It's hard to believe she's already seven months old!  Eliana loves her little sister (sometimes a little too much).  I'll update more later... Hopefully in less than a year from now.

Funny Eliana

Eliana has been saying the funniest things lately.  I really need to do better at keeping track.  Seriously, I'm laughing about something she says every single day.  The other day she was watching Snow White and commented about the part where the dwarfs think she's dead by saying, "The Hi Ho's are sad!"  I just love how she called the dwarfs "Hi Ho's" so now we call them that all the time!

She's been asking "Why?" about EVERYTHING lately.  I always knew we'd someday get to this age but somehow I thought I would be able to satisfy her curiosity by answering every question.  Little did I know, there are MANY questions that I have no idea how to answer!  I end up getting somewhat annoyed and asking her in return, "What do you think?"  She absolutely hates this.  She responds with attitude, "Nooo!  I asked YOU!"  So then I'm forced to make up some completely ridiculous answer just so she can relax.  Some of these questions (usually during movies) include:  Why is Cinderella crying?  Why did her dad die?  Why does she have step-sisters?  Why do they make her work so much?  The list goes on and on an on.  It's like watching a movie with my sister-in-law!  (Love ya, Shari!)

Another cute thing she's been talking about lately is how everything was made by Jesus.  I LOVE this little reminder.  At home, looking for a toy, "I'm looking with my eyes 'cause Jesus made them!"  Outside in the cold, "I can see my breath!  Jesus made it!"  Driving in the car, "Look at the pretty sky!  Jesus made it!"  Oh how I love how observant she is and how she credits Christ for everything she enjoys.  Thank you, nursery leaders!

P.S.  I would've posted a recent picture of Eliana but I haven't taken any since Christmas.  The only pictures I've been taking lately have been for my photography class.  This one I'm including with this post is one of those.  I know, I have A LOT to learn in photography!

It's a GIRL!

That's right!  We're having another girl!  Sorry about the picture; it turned out to be kind of crooked and it isn't very clear.  Anyhow, we're excited to welcome to our family another little female.  I'm not going to lie... We were hoping for a boy but we knew that Heavenly Father would send us whatever little being was meant to come to our family.  And she is absolutely precious!  Eliana was excited for either but when she found out it was going to be a girl, she was ecstatic!  So... No need to get anything blue or any new baby items at all for that matter.  It's a GIRL!