Birthday Girls!

We celebrated the girls' Birthdays last week and had tons of fun.  Lydia is 7, and my little baby Savanna is already 1!  I wish I could slow down time just a little!  Lydia wanted a Barbie theme this year and she obviously got her way because Savanna couldn't care less.

The cake ended up being a bit of a disaster, but the girls still thought it was cool...which is all that really matters, I guess.  It helps to have more than 15 minutes to decorate it, but with my oven breaking and everything else I had going on, that's just how it ended up.  Fortunately, my in-laws let me borrow their oven to bake the cake and dinner for the party. 

At the party we watched Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses and decorated cupcakes.  It was a little nuts having 13 girls over plus all of my kids, but I think everyone had a good time (yes, even me). 

Aren't they just the cutest little girls you ever saw?!

Savanna kept trying to touch the flame.  That girl is not afraid of ANYTHING!

I'm going to go ahead and say that Savanna's my messiest 1-year-old so far. I realize that she's not really THAT messy, but I don't think my other kids got it all up in their hair like she did. Or maybe it's just that they didn't HAVE any hair...

I'm telling you, this girl is CRAZY!

We also celebrated at the Stewart's on Sunday and had lots of fun. 

So, I made the girls share their party and even their blog post, but I WILL give them each their own Birthday paragraph!

Lydia is such a beautiful, sweet girl.  She's very considerate of others and is usually the one that diffuses fights, and tries to make everyone happy.  She LOVES to be my big helper, even though I forget to ask her sometimes. (Only because Carter and Meleah can do things with a little less effort on their part.)  She loves pink, purple, dolls, makeup, dresses, curls, and ANYTHING GIRLY.  She also loves to play outside, swing, climb on the top bunk, and do whatever all the other kids are doing.  She can be very stubborn and emotional but she (eventually) switches from tears and a tantrum to smiles and giggles in the blink of an eye.  Talk about mood swings!  I can't wait til she's a teenager...
Lydia loves hospitals and doctor/dentist visits.  Every time we pass American Fork hospital she asks if she can go back and visit the emergency room because she "LOVES their beds!"  That's probably a good thing considering how much time she's had to spend in doctors offices, etc.  She has to have surgery on her hips soon, and she can't wait to stay in the hospital for a whole week!  I, on the other hand, am hoping for only 4-5 days.

Favorites:
Movie: Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses
TV Show:  The Upside Down Show
Color:  Pink and Purple
Book:  Fancy Nancy or Sleeping Beauty
Candy: Candy Canes (Seriously?!)
Food:  Cheesy Quesadillas with NO BEANS!  (Yes, I try to sneak beans into their quesadillas.)
Toy:  All my new Barbies

Funny Phrases
"We kids are very sneaky."

"Live or die earwig?!" (Karate kid, anyone?)

"Too sweet?! Nothing's too sweet!" My friend BreAna will appreciate that one.

Savanna looks like such a Stewart in this one with her raised eyebrows -

Savanna's Dictionary -
whoa - someone's throwing me around like a rag doll; I just almost fell; That. Was. Awe-some!
wee - this is fun; I'm twirling around/dancing
ba-ba-y - bye-bye; ba-ba; baby
gu-tu-goo - peek-a-boo (accompanied by hands over ears)
hi-hi-hi - hi
ia - Meleah or Lydia
gogger - Carter (I don't think she's attempted to say Cameron yet.)
gicko-gicko-gicko - tickle, tickle, tickle (while tickling her own neck)
uh go - let's go; let go of it; hello
Ma-ma/mi-mi - my favorite person in the whole world
Da-da - also a pretty cool person ;)
uh-oh/oo-oo - I just dropped something on purpose so I can see all my siblings scramble to get it for me. (I used to be the schmuck that had to play that little game.)
no-no-no - Something you say while you're doing something Mommy doesn't want you to do.

Savanna has always been so busy and energetic. It was no suprise to me that she started walking early because she is CONSTANTLY moving. She reminds me a lot of Cameron, because she's full of personality and is always playing a game or being a tease. Her little smile/smirk in the picture above is pretty typical. She seems so advanced in some ways, but she STILL puts EVERYTHING in her mouth! Maybe it's just part of the teasing/game playing she likes so much. Watching me race over and attempt to pry objects out of her tightly clenched jaw probably is pretty amusing. 

She definitely keeps me on my toes. Her favorite place to be is standing on top of the kitchen table or any surface that is WAY higher than a 1-year-old should be. I even found her standing up on my computer printer one time. Apparently my desk just wasn't quite high enough! A couple of weeks ago, I picked my kids up from Randall's sister Jeni's house, and I couldn't figure out why all their kitchen chairs were turned on their side. The woman is brilliant I tell you! ;)

Even though she keeps me busy (I should seriously be skinnier with all the running around I do!), she also fills my days with joy. I love how she slowly nods her head when she wants something, with her eyes open wide. Her eyes are so beautiful anyway, but when she's happy and excited I swear they sparkle! I love that even though she's a busybody, she loves to sit on my lap and give me hugs and pats on the back. I love that I can see so many expressions flitting across her adorable face. I'm sad that it's time to wean her because I love our cuddle time when she's nursing (even though she thinks she can crawl/climb/kick and nurse all at the same time). I don't know if she'll take the time to sit with me when she doesn't need me for food! Savanna is so much fun and we all totally LOVE and ADORE her.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girls!  We love you SO much!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What do you do with an Abe Lincoln hat that you don't need anymore?

Turn it into a Leprechaun trap, of course!

This is her "sneaky smile" -

The next day it appeared that the leprechaun DID fall through the tissue paper like we planned, but the little guy must have found a way out somehow.  Fortunately he didn't escape with our "gold" and jewels!  Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!

And So It Begins

Listening to music in the car...
Meleah:  Who's singing this song, Mom?

Mom:  Taylor Swift

Meleah:  Ooooh, I knew it!  She's a rockstar, and she's SO pretty.  I wish I had HER face!

So, self-consciousness starts at age FOUR these days?  Really?!

p.s.  Meleah's SO much prettier than Taylor Swift! ;)

When I grow up...

I want to be -
Carter:  "A secret agent"
Lydia:  "An art teacher"
Meleah:  "Like Mommy"
Cameron:  "A dad"

Spirit Week

The kids had Spirit Week at school a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately, Carter was sick for half the week, but we still got some pretty good pics.  Whoever planned the themes apparently wanted to include EVERYTHING, so they were pretty unspecified (which is fine by me). 

CRAZY ACCESSORY DAY 

(Crazy ties, socks, hats...)

 FLASHBACK DAY

(We obviously chose 80's...and yes I still use that scrunchie ALL THE TIME!  It holds my hair better than anything else when I'm working out.  Scrunchies rule!)

 PAJAMA/CRAZY HAIR DAY

I realize that they were probably going for more of the crazy bed-head look when they put it with pajama day, but I'm sorry...ratting teasing hair is like nails on a chalkboard to me (and ya'll know how I feel about chalkboards).  Which is why my hair is always flat and lifeless.  Her "crazy" hair actually turned out pretty cute.  I might have to do it on a non-crazy day sometime. ;)

MISMATCHED DAY

 FAVORITE CHARACTER FROM A BOOK DAY

(Carter is Anakin, and Lydia is Fancy Nancy)

Sorry for the blurry pics.  Apparently 3D pictures from the 3DS don't turn out so good.  Lydia LOVED her Fancy Nancy hairdo and has now placed it up there with the "Sleeping Beauty"on her favorite hairstyle list.  Of course, because they both take 3 times as long as anything else I do...

HONEST ABE

Carter's doing an oral report on Abraham Lincoln today at school. He didn't want to wear his suit to school (and I didn't really want him to, either) so this is what we came up with.  Sadly, this pathetic little hat took me an hour to make.  Why can't I be one of those amazing crafty moms that I see all over the place?

I really need to find my camera!

Nine!

Car2D2 turned 9!  We had a GREAT time celebrating with him.  He wanted to have  a "friend party" this year, and since it's one of my rare un-pregnant years, I decided to go for it.  I tried to talk him into a different theme since we've done Star Wars before, but he wasn't interested.  He LOVES Star Wars. So, we made a lightsaber cake and played pin the saber on the Jedi. 

 Carter blew out all 9 candles on the first try!  I was pretty impressed.

The cake was a little tricky because Carter doesn't really like frosting or fondant.  Tara made a whipped cream frosting that was DELICIOUS and we frosted cake rolls to make the lightsaber.  Not as perfect-looking as fondant, but he was happy with it.  Carter also requested cursive handwriting since he just received his "cursive license" at school a few weeks ago.  Apparently my license should have been revoked years ago. 

The kids made their own light sabers to pin on the poster, and it was fun to see them being creative.  We also watched an episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars and had a few pretty intense lightsaber battles. 

Grandpa Stewart made Carter his favorite chicken fettuccini the next day and we had MORE cake and ice cream. 

Funny Phrases:
"Pretzels are my worstest enemy." (Also tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, Meleah...)

"That's so old school!"

"Al-low me." (Such a gentleman...sometimes.)

"I just took initiative!"

"If you were a headless woman then I'd be the same size as you."

"Please bless that love will be spread throughout the whole world."

"I lost my dream friend!" (Apparently he used to have recurring dreams with a little furry green "friend" and he doesn't anymore.  So sad!)

Favorites -
Food: Chicken Fettuccini, chili casserole, cheese quesadillas, pizza, and ravioli
Color: blue
TV Show:  Star Wars Clone Wars
Movie:  Star Wars the Padawan Menace
Toy:  Legos, 3DS, and General Grievous lightsaber
Book: Captain Underpants (*sigh*)

We love Carter SO much and are so happy that he's in our family.  I can't believe it's been 9 YEARS since I was 3 days past my due date, waiting for my first little baby to be born.  He is such a GOOD boy, and I really appreciate his calm, matter-of-fact nature in this house full of craziness.  Happy Birthday Carter!!!

Love Day

So, I'm a obviously a little behind...but I took a bunch of Valentine's pictures, and I'm going to post them dang it!  We dressed in pink and red and did our usual "heart hairdos."

We actually began the festivities with heart shaped grilled cheese and tomato soup the day before. Isn't everything more fun when it's heart shaped? ;)

In order to avoid the crowded restaurants, I made a nice dinner for the whole family at home. We ate by candle light and the kids LOVED it! I made heart-shaped meatballs over mashed potatoes, with vegetables.  We had a great day, and I still have an un-crowded date night to look forward to.  Happy late Valentine's Day everybody!