A Frozen Event

Since about June of last year, Makayla has told me she wants an "Elsa and Anna party" for her birthday. In fact, Makayla has her birthday parties planned out for the next five years. I told her before we get too ahead of ourselves, we need to focus on one party at a time, so we started planning her Frozen 4th birthday. 

Do you know the great thing about Tyler? I tell him what theme we have in mind, and he comes up with all the great details to make it perfect. To get us in the Frozen spirit, Tyler came up with (aka looked on the internet) for all these ideas. We had the drink and cupcake table set up with Frozen icy blue drink, and a pitcher of water with a sign of Olaf that said, "Some people are worth melting for." Get it? The snowman melted into a pitcher of water.

 On the main table we had a picture of Makayla when we were in Disneyland and she met Elsa and Anna, plus some marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate chips, and orange tic-tacks with a sign that said, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

 On the tables we had M and M's with a sign that said, "I want to stuff some chocolate in my face"

 and this one with Hershey Kisses that said, "A kiss to melt a Frozen heart."

 If you've seen the movie a million times like we have, you totally get all of these, but if you haven't seen the movie, just smile like you think it's cute.

The rest of the basement was decorated as such:

 After dinner we opened presents. Makayla got spoiled again with a lot of Frozen gifts, Tinkerbell toy, Cabbage Patch Kid (named Makayla), and clothes.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for supporting our sweet birthday girl!

 We were about to have cake and ice cream when a special visitor knocked on the door... And you wouldn't believe it, but it was Elsa herself!

 She crowned Makayla as a special princess, then talked to all the kids about her special powers

 Then she sang "Let it go"

 After that she took time to take pictures with all the kids.

 Makayla was really shy of Elsa through the whole thing, but since then she has been telling me and every person, "I can't believe Elsa came to my birthday party!"

 Hannah and Brynnli posed with Elsa

 And Caden looks just thrilled. He really was, but he was just scared of her.

 To end our fun Frozen party, we sang Happy Birthday to Makayla and she got to blow out the candle on her Elsa cupcake.

Happy Birthday Makayla! Hope you loved your Frozen party. Now it's time to start planning your 5th birthday. 

Brynnli's Blessing Day

January 31 was a very special day for our little Brynnli because it was her blessing day! She looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing dress, which was also Makayla's blessing dress. 

We decided to bless Brynnli at our house and we had so many family and friends come support us on her special day. 

My dad gave her a very beautiful and humbling blessing that brought me to tears. We all feel so lucky that Brynnli decided to be part of our family, and we love her so much!

Our Big 4 Year Old!

Today our little girl turned FOUR years old! 

Happy birthday to our sweet and sassy 4 year old! Our lives have never been the same since she joined our family, and life just keeps getting better everyday with her. She is our best friend and the best big sister around. We love you Kay Bugs!

Makayla got to go to dance class on her birthday, then we went to Arctic Circle with her dance friends. When Daddy got home from work we let her open her presents. She got an Elsa doll, an Elsa towel, an outfit, and jewelry. 

We let her choose where we went to dinner that night and she chose Chick-fil-a. Before we went to bed we asked her the Birthday interview questions, and here's her answers... I think she was feeling an Elsa theme. 

 1. What is your favorite color? "Pink and purple."

2. What is your favorite toy? "Elsa"

3. What is your favorite food? "Umm... applesauce"

4. What is your favorite show? "Umm... Elsa and Anna" 

5. What do you like to eat for lunch? "Ham, and Macaroni and Cheese."

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? "Costumes, like Elsa and Anna"

7. What is your favorite game? "Elsa game and Tag, you're it."

8. What is your favorite song? "Let it Go"

9. What is your favorite book? "Chica, Chica, Boom, Boom"

10. Who is your best friend? "Ummm...Brynnli... not Caden."

11. Where is your favorite place to go? "Chick-Fil-A"

12. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A Sunbeam and a Mommy."

13. What is your favorite thing about Caden? "Playing with him."

14. What is your favorite thing about Brynnli? "Holding her when you got shots."

15. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? "Play Tag, you're it."

16. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? "Hug her and kiss her."

Happy Birthday Sweet girl! We love you so much!

Makayla's First Dance Recital

On January 24th we got to go to Makayla's first dance recital. She looked so stinkin' cute in her costume, and she certainly knows how to sass it up, so we took a lot of pictures of her just being adorable. 

 I could tell when Makayla got onstage she was nervous, but she did so well!

 This is Makayla's dance friends, Kaylen and Brielle. After dance class each Wednesday, we all go to Arctic Circle for lunch.

 We were all so proud of our little dancer

Big Boy Undies

I never thought this day would come, but after months of kinda, sorta trying, Caden is officially potty trained! We have been trying on and off since he turned 2, but never seriously. We decided Caden's New Year's resolution was to be potty trained, so we started getting serious. We would have him sit on the potty for 20 minutes and nothing would happen. He would even be in tears, but he just couldn't figure out how to go. 

Then one night he was insisting on doing every thing himself and Tyler got frustrated with him. Tyler told Caden to figure it out himself and left him sitting on the toilet. Well, Caden took that to heart and did just that. Caden came in screaming with excitement that he went potty. We all went in to look, and sure enough, he did!  

 Since then he has had very few accidents. He has even gone out of the house and through the night and stayed dry! I can't believe how fast he caught on to it once he finally did it.

And really, how cute is he in his big boy undies?

We are so excited to be a one diaper family again!

Welcome 2015!

Happy New Year! 

This year's celebration was pretty low key. Thanks to King Julian and Netflix, we streamed the countdown at 8:00 and our kids got to countdown to the New Year. I don't think they really understood what was going on, and I think they were expecting more than just me and Tyler yelling "Happy New Year," so we counted down twice.

 Then we went outside and screamed Happy New Year for all of our neighbors to think we were crazy.

By 9:00 our kids were asleep and Tyler and I got to watch a movie and go to bed early. Such is the life when you're older. :) Low key or not, we had a great New Years Eve. Goodbye 2014 and welcome 2015.

Just a little hint to 2015: 

2014 was really great to us, and it will be pretty hard to top such a great year, but I have high hopes for you 2015! Bring it on.