Allie turns 4

On Sunday April 15th Allie turned 4.  She is such a sweet girl.  We are so grateful she is part of our family.  Some stats about Allie at 4:

She weighs 40 pounds

She has blueish green eyes

Her favorite food is tacos and beans.  She also loves macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickles, orange yogurt, fruit snacks, muffins, pumpkin bread...well the list goes on.  She is a really good eater

She loves playing with Brailie, swinging in the back yard, playing in water, digging in dirt, singing and dancing and playing dolls and dollhouse

She loves having a bath and usually doesn't want to get out

She still likes me to help her get dressed though she can do it herself

She loves nightgowns and princesses and strawberry shortcake

She loves to play with friends.  If I could have one wish for her it would be for her to have more friends.  I wish we could have a family move in with a girl just her age who would be in her class at school and church.

She knows how to spell and write her first name and spell her last name

She knows her address, phone number and the country she lives in as well as the pledge of allegiance

She is learning to sound out and read words like cat, hat, pot, dot, sit

She is really good at counting, cutting and gluing.  She knows all her colors and shapes 

She does not like to color

She loves to have stories read to her and to go to the library

She knows lots of primary songs and really loves Nephi's courage and The Armies of Heleman

She is a good helper when she wants to be and is excited to have a new baby at her house



We wanted to get a few pictures before church and the girls were willing so we snapped away.  100 pics later we had to weed down our favorites.  Here are mine:

Even though she isn't looking at the camera I like that this picture shows her calm quite side-which we see occasionally.

We had to include Brailie

Cute little sweet girl

Doing a crazy picture

This one looks like she is leading the music.  She is really cute when she does that in FHE

Giving daddy a kiss

The blue eyed girls

Giving mom a kiss

Proud dad with his sweeties.

A Rainbow Birthday Party for a super cute 4 year old

My little girl turned 4.  For months I have been asking her if she would just like to stay 3 and every time she would get quite defensive and tell me that she wanted to turn 4.  I offered stay little pills and get small pills and told her being 2 or 3 would be fine but to no avail-she just had to go and turn 4 on me.  I actually like 4-I am hoping with 4 there are less melt downs and tantrums (if you know otherwise please don't pass the info on to me and let me live in my dream world a little longer).  She is so smart and funny and a good helper and a good big sister.  Her and Brailie are playing so well right now it makes every day of frustration with a newborn and a 19 month old worth it. 

We had a rainbow themed party for her.  I couldn't really think of what she is into right now so rainbows seemed happy and springy and that is what she is (most of the time).  I don't get to throw parties very often and that is one of my favorite things to do so I had to do as many cute and fun things as possible in one night.  It turned out perfectly-even though we had to have it in the house instead of inside.  We had a few friends and Greg's parents and my aunt and uncle from Springville.  It was the perfect amount of people and Allie was thrilled to have them all here for her.  I am going to post the details on my Small Fry blog as I have been missing that a bit.  Here are just some highlight pictures.

 1. These are cupcakes in a jar-the rainbow version-pretty much my new favorite thing.
 2. Rainbow banner made with paint chips
 3. A second rainbow banner made with paint chips (they are the best thing to use for rainbow parties)
 4. Rainbow cake pops made by my fabulous brother and best uncle ever.  They aren't even the cheaters method cake mix pops-these babies were homemade cake and homemade frosting and Greg summed them up perfectly when he said, "these are the most wonderful, delicious thing I have ever had.  I need 40 more."
 5. Rainbow napkin rings
 6. In all the festivity planning I forgot a little cake to put the candles on so my aunt and I went to the store and bought this very over priced mini carrot cake.  I scraped the carrots off the top and sprinkled it with colored sugars I had.  It was perfect for Allie to blow the candles out on.
 7. Rainbow sugar cookies.  These were made with a recipe I found for edible playdough (check the small fry blog for the details).
 8. Rainbow punch (cheaters method).
 9. The party spread (before the punch).

It was cute because she didn't want to have anyone sing Happy Birthday but then when it started her face just lit up.  I don't know what she was expecting to have happen but she was all smiles as everyone sang and knew just what to do after the song ended.  Cute girl.

The picture caption says it all.  She is a beautiful 4 year old and was so sweet to make sure Brailie was included in party stuff.  It was really cute.


Here are a few pictures of Allie opening presents.


Showing the 4 wheeler she got from mom and dad and opening a book of Beatrix Potter stories from Aunty Helen and Uncle Doug.  They also gave her 20.00 and gave Brailie 5.00



Opening a box from Grammy.  She got a set of 3 more sweet streets houses and a big bag of accessories.  The girls love these little houses and people and they are a big hit at basketball games.

Thrilled about this little pack of ice cream erasers

Opening paper dolls from Grandma and Grandpa.  She loves these

A great set of mini strawberry shortcake dolls from Uncle Steven.  They are a huge hit also.

Here she is displaying her cowgirl skills with her new cowgirl hat and gun from the Hunt boys.  It is the most appropriate gift from them as every time we go to Coby's (which is the number 1 requested place to go) she plays guns with the boys.  She was so excited to have her own gun to shoot Kole with now.  Pf course now Brailie needs one too. 

Look at those gun skills.  Ahhh I've been shot.

Brailie Turns Two

Sorry to be so behind on blog posts but my mom and dad have been here and so I have had many other important things to do.  Now I am catching up starting with Brailie's "Hoo's Two" birthday party.

The cake

Take home prizes for kids and adults

Owl masks for the little kids

Candy bars for the kids

Cupcakes

Graham crackers (note-don't make the night before-oops)

The birthday girl

We love Dora-so thank you Aunties that bought this.

Plate and cup set from Auntie Cathy-she loves the cup especially and is so cute when she uses it.



Princesses from Grandma and Grandpa-she loves those (as does Allie)



She loves her new baby doll (I finally got it right and bought the right gift that has been played with more than 5 minutes)

Baby accessories from Uncle Steven-so much fun for the girls.



Loaded up with all her gifts



This picture was taken on Halloween-her actual birthday. 



Things we love about Brailie:
-She has such personality-she keeps us laughing and snickering in moments when we should be serious like saying prayers, family home evening and during time outs.
-She loves her sister
-She has beautiful, sparkly eyes
-She loves to sing songs and currently loves ABC song, Three Little Witches, I am a Child of God, and Scripture Power
-She loves food and is so independent in eating
-Her adorable little gallop
-How she loves to be tickled and laughs
-She loves to give slobbery kisses and big hugs
-Her facial expressions are the best
We are so grateful to have Brailie in our home and as part of our family.

Brailie's 2 Year Old Pictures

I wanted to take some pictures of Brailie so i could use some for her birthday invites and announcements and the weather here is gorgeous and the leaves are gorgeous so it just turned out perfect and she was so sweet and totally herself but I still managed to get some great shots.

 Allie kept asking if I was going to take pictures for her birthday as well and I said, "you bet I am" so here are a few of her too.

She can climb all the way up this thing and to the top of the playground and even though last week she fell from the top (which was super scary) she keeps wanting to try it so I am proud of her for that.

Happy Birthday to Daddy (sort of)

On Thursday Aug 27th, Allie said during our breakfast that today it was Daddy's birthday and instead of being an adult and saying, "no it isn't his birthday, his birthday is in march" I said, "it is!!! Wow, we better throw him a birthday party."  So that is what we did.  We baked cupcakes (the girls helped with the liners), the girls "shopped" around the house for gifts, we blew up some balloons and even found some party hats.

Dad got a new doll, and a touch and feel book.

He also got a Rapunzel book and he got some super cool paper weight rocks that the girls painted for him the day before.

He had no idea about the party and was tardy getting home from school so we only had a very short time to celebrate.

Here he is in his party hat.  Oh and did I mention he got his favorite dinner of spaghetti and meatballs too.