Mommy's Dolly!

Emilee got this cute doll crib for her birthday.  She was so excited!  Now if only we could convince Heidi that she's not a doll, maybe Emilee would get to play with it!

But really, she is my dolly.  I'll play dolly with you any day, Heidi!

Happy 5th Birthday Emilee!

Our sweet Emilee turned 5 years old yesterday!  I can't believe she's getting so big and it's a little bittersweet to see her cross the threshold from 4 to 5.  I feel like they change into big kids sometime around 5, and it's sad and sweet all at the same time to think she'll be skipping off to Kindergarten next year.

Here we are before the party.  It was a "Camping, PJ, Pancake Breakfast Party!"  Emilee  came up with the theme all on her own and I thought it was perfect!  We set up tents and a campfire in the basement and the girls had a wonderful morning at camp!

Breakfast around the camp fire shortly after everyone arrives. . . 

  Stringing beads for necklaces and bracelets. . .

 It was raining when it was pinata time and I was VERY impressed with what Gordon came up with.  It worked perfectly!

 For her treat Emilee wanted fresh strawberry pie, everyone loved it!

 Later, after her party, we opened gifts and she played and played with them all day.

Later last night we had one last hurrah with a rice krispee cake, and of course, wearing her new princess dress she recieved from one of the girls.

Happy Birthday little Em!  We sure love having you in our family!

it's Moving Day!

If you had told me we were going to be moving furniture Monday morning and changing bedrooms around, I wouldn't have believed you.  But somehow Gordon convinced me it was time to make the girls roommates and I found myself cleaning out dressers and laying out rooms.  Emilee is so pleased to be sharing a room with her sister, and to be upgraded to a full sized twin instead of her toddler bed!  They did great the first night and so far, so good!

Here is where we put Emilee's bed:

and the crib is across the room like so: 

And so if Emilee moved out, that means Chandler has his own room.  He is pretty excited!  There's just one catch.  It's half his room, and half the play room.  The kids like to keep their favorite play things upstairs instead of the basement, so he will be responsible for keeping that fairly neat, and sharing that space with the girls.  We'll see how it goes!

Both kids have promised me to make their beds every day, and we manged to arrange the rooms so the beds are pulled away from the walls for easy making.  I am HOPING that they will get the hang of it and improve their bed making skills quickly.  I have totally FAILED to teach the big boys how to do this daily, mostly because of the bunk bed situation.  IT is SO hard to make a bunk bed, especially a bunk bed up against the wall.  They don't know it yet but their room is next on my to do list.  Stay tuned for a slight makeover in there!

Wuv, Twoo Wuv

Valentines day has come and gone but I can't let it get too far away without announcing the marriage of Toothfang Wingy Wilde, to his true love, Mrs. Wingy.  These are Chandler's creatures that he built and keeps in a cage in his room.  I was very surprised on valentines day when he announced they were getting married and exchanging rings!  He even asked me to be the "wedding photographer."  Here is a glimpse at the big wedding:

Getting ready:

exchanging rings

 Where did he come up with this?  Love his funny self.

 Here is a look at our very laid back valentines dinner this year.  Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza and. . .

 a giant plate of sugar cookies for Gordon.  He was thrilled!

Here's my favorite little cookie monster enjoying the spoils of V-day!

a new niece!

We were so excited to have a new niece join our family this month!  Gordon's youngest sister had a beautiful baby girl a few weeks ago.  I was lucky enough to get asked to come take a photo or two of the little love bug so I got to spend some good snuggle time.  Angelina's good friend helped me by doing a professional quality photoshop edit on these, and they turned out so beautifully!  Here is the little dolly:

Lucky me, when Gordon was a teenager, Angelina sold her firstborn child to him for some menial task, like doing the dishes or something.  I can't remember all the details   Anyway, they have it down on paper and everything, so it's official!  She was only 8 or so, and probably didn't realize that she wouldn't actually want to give up the little doll, but we're definitely tempted to hold her to it!  :)  She's such a little sweetie! 

Mt. Bachelor

Just about every year we pull the kids out of school for the better part of the week to educate the little people about skiing.  We have just returned from a glorious 5 days at Mt. Bachelor with Grammy and Grampy Price.  The sun shone and the snow was perfect!  We had four skiing children this year with the addition of Emilee.  I started to get my ski legs back but I think it's going to take a bit more practice before I can keep up with my 3 sons.  Hopefully from here on out I'll be able to ski every time too.

Thank you Gram and Gramp for all the fun.  The kids REALLY look forward to this trip every year!  Here is my annual ski montage so the kids will be able to remember all the fun, and how we have tried to teach them well about some of the more enjoyable parts of life.  Fun, family, and of course, food.  :)

Link to video by clicking HERE.  I am having technical difficulties today!