Sister poses

One of my favorite things is watching my girls be SISTERS.  I didn't grow up with a sister close in age-only brothers.  I loved and admired my brothers but we didn't always get along and I certainly wouldn't have been allowed to just lay on them while we watched Curious George or listened to music.  I would have been thrown off/punched/kicked immediately.  There's plenty of throwing off/punching/kicking that goes on with my girls but for the most part they genuinely love spending time together and are very affectionate.  

This is a common pose I find Anna in.  She loves to just go and lay on her sisters.  She also loves to climb on all of our backs for horsey rides during family prayer. 

Watching Curious George

Listening to a Pandora Disney station

Christmas 2012

    Christmas was super fun of course.  It was just our little family and we had a lot of fun together.  Of course it was a little hard to do anything too structured with a crazy 2 year old. On Christmas Eve

  we had a yummy dinner, ice cream sundaes for dessert, piano playing and carol singing, scripture reading, dancing, and lots more! 

Here is the Santa setup Christmas morning.  Left to right: Anna, Natalie, and Cyrena

Waiting at the top of the stairs....I made them each a pair of pajama bottoms for Christmas.  They weren't perfect but they were sure cute!

Loving our new dress-ups!

They really wanted 'wedding clothes' since they are always pretending to get married.

 

This girl was content with just her stocking.  Fishies and a necklace; she was good to go!

We surprised Cyrena with an ipod touch (we found it used for really cheap).  She was so excited!

She also got her own set of golf clubs so she could take some lessons from David.  He's a good multi-tasker, eh?

Natalie's favorite gift was a hair-styling set.  We've all had our hair done several times.

It was such a fun day hanging out together, playing.  We headed over to the Blounts (our surrogate family) for dinner that night.

Cyrena is 7

Cyrena is now a 7 year old.  I've probably been treating her as such for the past year or so.  My expectations are always so high for her--I need to back off! :)  Her birthday was the last day of school before break so they had a party and a half day. She wasn't that excited about her gifts at first.  In fact when she opened up a dress and a sweater she about threw a toddler worthy FIT.  Needless to say we had a big talk about gratitude.  But the birthday was saved by the Nerf Hoop with a laser ball and headgear.  It was a hit.  Oh, that and a book of magic tricks.  

That night we surprised her with a night out with just mom and dad--going to dinner and a concert.  The concert was The Piano Guys who she LOVES listening to and watching their you tube videos!!  It was a great night and she was very happy with her birthday.

Cyrena:  
-She is such a helpful little girl.  I know that if I put her in charge of something it will get done.  That doesn't mean she always has a good attitude about it but for the most part she is a happy helper.
-Cyrena loves loves loves school. 
-Cyrena can always make us laugh with her black & white logic and big explanations about how things work or why we should do something a certain way.
-She insists on prefers wearing a ponytail, jeans and sneakers everyday.
-Cyrena sleeps with socks on and the covers up to her chin.  She refuses to wear a nightgown.
-Cyrena is the dessert queen!  It is a struggle to get her to eat fruit but she will eat veggies.  Her favorite things to eat are: pot roast, potatoes, cereal, anything chocolate, anything Mexican, broccoli, and ice cream!
-Cyrena loves trying different sports and is doing so well with her piano lessons
-Cyrena is a great big sister and is always making up games and imaginative situations for her sisters.

Fall Soccer

Earlier this month Cyrena finished up another season of soccer.  We switched leagues and she really flourished with less kids on the field.  It was fun to watch!

Anna is 2

How did we let Anna turn 2?  I can't believe it.  So much has happened since I found out I was pregnant with her.  We are so grateful to have her; we don't know what we'd do without her to entertain us!

She loves to play outside with Natalie.  They are almost always on the plasma cars.  And yes this was taken on her birthday-December 19!

 She and Natalie are the queens of costume changes--here they are a few minutes later.  Santa needs to bring more dress-up clothes!

 We took her to Costco for a hot dog for her birthday dinner!  We're so classy!

She loves their hot dogs and almost ate the whole thing.  And then we took her down some empty aisles so she could RUN!  It was the perfect 2 year-old birthday. :)

 I made her some strawberry 'Santa hat' cupcakes

 We relit the candles three times so she could blow them out again and again, she loved that part

She opened up a Cinderella baby doll, a Hello Kitty flashlight and some princess little people.  Of course Natalie tried to sneak them away but Anna held her ground!

Anna:
*She bosses her sisters and the preschoolers around using 'mom' vocabulary.  Many times during preschool she calls the kids names for them to come. 
*Anna is somewhat of a picky eater.  Her favorite things are cheerios/corn chex, crackers, marshmallows, grapes, cheese, smoothies, hot dogs and orange juice
*She talks all the time but we understand about 75%.  I think she may have some speech impediments like Natalie that she'll grow out of.
*Anna loves Curious George!
*She likes to sing to her baby dolls, rock them and kiss them.
*She is 2 going on 12; she has to do everything her sisters are doing and MORE.
*She thinks she is a preschooler.  When they are working on a paper, she has to too.  And if I stack up the kids papers when they are done, hers has to be in the stack as well. 
*Anna loves princesses; Cindalella, Bale (Belle), etc.  She is Natalie's little shadow when it comes to all things girly; play makeup, dressing up, dancing, play kitchen, etc.
*She loves to make us laugh by dancing, tickling, making a goofy face, acting like a dog, or taking something from us and taking off on a dead run so we will chase her!
*Anna loves going to the nursery at church but almost always poops at least once and sometimes twice so she has to get taken out--her poor teachers, she is a very stinky baby!!
*Her favorite song right now is Jingle Bells
*Anna LOVES reading books with us!

We love our girl.  She was our easiest baby but now is our hardest toddler which I hear is typical of the third child.  However, she sleeps well, has many happy moments, cuddles with us and is easy to make smile!

Advent Activities 2012

We have had a blast with our advent activities this year.  The girls are at such fun ages and just love spending time together.  We will enjoy it as long as it lasts!

Here Natalie is helping me roll and cut out gingerbread men so we can decorate them for preschool and for ourselves!  This girl is always eager to join me in the kitchen.  As soon as she sees beaters or a mixer she runs for her apron and step stool.

After the gingerbread men were done baking we met up with the Spencer's at Bass Pro Shop to play and visit with Santa! They have a ton of fun things for the kids to do-like the carousel above.

Rifle practice

And a talking reindeer!  They also have an indoor snowball pit, remote control trucks and a crossbow range-super fun!

This Santa was so nice-even with being so overworked!  That beard is real! He was so sweet and talked to each of our girls.  He told Anna to keep being 'precious'

 Another night we headed to our local outdoor mall for some festive activities

 They have these machines that simulate snowfall--it was so fun, the girls loved it!  It was quite the storm.

 "snow" in our hair

 These girls were pretending the ladybug was a reindeer that they were flying through the storm.  I love to see their imagination in action

 We listened to storytime with Mrs. Claus, here they are waiting for it to begin.  She told the story of 'The Gingerbread Man' and it was adorable!  She also told us her husband's favorite cookie was chocolate chip!

Natalie was in awe of Mrs. Claus.  She just kept staring at her. The magic of Christmas has definitely enveloped Natalie this season-it is fun to witness

Nutcracker Ballet

The first weekend in December we had cousin Claire come to a sleepover!  The girls stayed up SO late talking and playing.  The next day we went to Cyrena's soccer game, played at the park then all the girls (except Anna) went to the Nutcracker Ballet! 

At the ballet--waiting and waiting for it to start!

Here are the 2 younger girls with our favorite ballerina and friend, Robyn.  We had a great time.