Kelsi's turning 3!!!

Kelsi's turning 3 this weekend and I thought I would write some of the many reasons I love this little girl! When I found out I was pregnant with her it was such a surprise and even more so when I found out she was a girl. :) I was so excited because I had always said how I would love to have at least one girl in our family.
She came into this world early, quickly, and full of life. She was literally trying to move off the scale when they were trying to get her birth weight after she was born. Here is some pictures of her when she was one day old.




She has been a totally different child from Kendall which has taught me an enormous lesson since she has become part of our family. I have come to realize that her need to be a part of everything and always know what's going on is just who she is. She hates to take naps and has pretty much outgrown them since she started climbing out of her crib last year. (Kendall never climbed out of his crib ever!) She also has started getting up at the crack of dawn every A.M. regardless of what time she went to bed the night before. We never have to set our alarm clocks anymore. :)



Kelsi was also my chubbiest baby, but I loved all that baby fat. To this day she still loves to eat all the time. One of her favorite phrases that I hear all day long is, "I still hungry Mommy" even if I just fed her. Kelsi must always be the center of attention and she always has something to say. She has got some pretty strong opinions. For example, when we are kneeling together for family prayers Marcus will ask her to say the prayer & she most times will respond with, "I thinking it's Mommy's(Daddy's or Kendall's) turn." Many of her sentences in conversation start out with deep thoughts such as these.



As you can see, Kelsi is definitely a girly girl. She loves all things princess and one of her favorite activities is to play dress-up. I love to put her in cute outfits and do her hair. Kelsi also is always singing some little made-up song or ditty. Mostly she will sing full conversations, but that girls mouth is always moving usually in a LOUD volume. Her nursery leaders love her because they say she is the "life" of the nursery and full of energy. She is also very social and loves to see her friends and go to school to learn.




Although sometimes I am plain worn-out at the end of the day because of her I know my life wouldn't be the same without her. I love her sweet spirit, smile and all her adorable, innumerable expressions on her mischievous face. I look forward to many more great birthdays and memories to come!
Happy 3rd Birthday Kelsi! I love you bunches!!!

{ Erth-day cake }

So Kelsi's birthday is coming up this weekend and for the past month all she's been talking about is her "erth-day cake." When I ask her what kind of cake she wants tells me "ice cream & brownie chocolate." She also loves anything that has to do with princesses, esp. Cinderella. Here are some cakes I have made for past birthdays for my kids.








So does anyone out there have any great & easy ideas for Kelsi's 3rd birthday cake?
I'm kind of hitting a creative block right now so I'll take any help I can get. :)

Amazing faith

So I wanted to write this little encounter with Kendall down before I forgot. This blog is part journal for me to record the cute and even not-so-cute things my children do. I hope it will put a smile on a few of your faces.

So last night, actually this morning at three I heard Kendall knocking on our bedroom door. (We've finally got him trained to knock!) He comes in whimpering that he had a bad dream and that his heart is "beeping" too fast. I give him a hug & tell him I'm sorry that he's had a bad dream. He then proceeds to tell me that he wants to say a prayer to Heavenly Father to help him sleep better. So we kneel down by my bed and say a little prayer. He then says, "ok mom I'm ready to go back to bed now."

To me this is amazing because when Kendall was much younger he used to have bad dreams quite often so Marcus & I suggested that he ask Heavenly Father in his personal prayers to help him not have bad dreams. So for months after, every night in his prayers he would say "please help me not to have bad dreams" and he never did. Of course as he has gotten older he rarely has bad dreams anymore so he usually does not repeat this request in his prayers too often anymore. This has always amazed me that the faith in his request & his belief in a Heavenly Father who loves and cares about him is enough to always keep the bad dreams away. He knows that if he asks in faith that he won't have bad dreams. Simple as that. I know I need to learn from this experience and express more faith in my Heavenly Father who knows and loves me as well.

a day of firsts

This past Saturday Marcus got back his hair clippers from his brother & so he decided to take the boys out back and cut their hair. This will be Oliver's first haircut & Marcus's first time cutting the boys hair. I must say that they turned out looking pretty good & I was relieved! Here is Marcus & Oliver before the cutting began.



Oliver's hair had all these funny wispy, long strands all over his head and the back looked like he had a combover so it was time. Oliver did well just standing up on the patio while getting his hair cut although he kept unplugging the clippers. :0





Kendall on the other hand had hair that had needed a haircut for quite some time! He was even growing some serious sideburns. I kept hearing him out on the patio giggling because he was being tickled by the clippers.





I have to say that Oliver did great for his first haircut & both boys look pretty handsome. Marcus did a great job cutting their hair for the first time & it won't be the last time he cuts the boys hair. :)

Snow Trip & Mitten Mystery

So...for those of you anxiously awaiting my first blog post. Here it is:

Right before Christmas we went with some friends up to the snow. My crazy kiddos had a blast, esp. little Oliver. He wanted to dive right into the snow. Of course he was the one kid in our family that didn't have snow clothes - thanks Crowders for letting us borrow them!



The pic above is us posing up near Christopher Creek. Notice all that beautiful snow!
We pulled off to the side of the road when we finally found a clearing & a little hill to take the kids sledding. :)





These are our friends the Newtons - they are some of our oldest & best friends! Thanks for bringing the hot chocolate. :) After we took these pics, a park ranger came and told us that we could not park on the side of the road so we had to find someplace else to play. Unfortunately, there really was never a good place to pull over safely which was fine with me since it was 21 degrees & freezing! I enjoyed the beautiful view from inside the car & I could have driven around enjoying it for awhile.




So as for the mittens...I bought Kelsi some mittens for $1 at Target and she used them for the first time on this snow trip. Well, as you can see from the following pictures she pretty much wears them all the time. In fact, if we are having a difficult time getting her to sleep all we have to do is promise her she can sleep with her mittens!