Mariah's Princess Birthday Party

Since Mariah's birthday is the day after Independence day we usually have her party either late or early. This year most of her friends were gone all summer visiting family. We waited for all of them to get back and had her party the beginning of September. She is crazy about princesses right now. One day she asked me if she really was a real princess. I told her that she is a daughter of Heavenly Father and that He is the king, so she really is a real princess. She loved that. Anyway we had a lot of fun putting together her princess party.

We used our dryer box to try to make a pink castle for them to play in. They had a blast with it.

Mariah wanted a castle cake. I am so glad that I had a friend who knew what she was doing and helped me with it! Thank you Cami!

I don't have pictures of all of the games we played right now, hopefully I can gather some up. We played Pretty Pretty Princess/Handsome Prince. Mariah helped me make crowns, necklaces/medals, bracelets/capes, rings/shields, and wands/swords. I printed pictures and taped them to the floor and they danced around to princess music then when the music stopped they got whatever they landed on until they had everything. This was probably their favorite game.

I had drawn a picture of a frog prince/princess, the kids took turns "kissing" the frog by putting paper lips on the frog while blindfolded. The first girl who did it put the lips right on the frog's mouth. Good job Dana!

Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the pumpkin patch the end of September with Steven's brother Dan and his family. We had such a good time!

We told Mariah she could pick her own pumpkin to carve!

Lylah had a little bit of a hard time balancing on this pumpkin, but she sure is cute!

Sweet pumpkin girls.

Mariah thinks she can pull Lylah around and Lylah isn't very fond of it.

Steven is in his OB/GYN rotation and has had some crazy schedules. We were glad to have the time to go as a family.

Thank you Grandparents! (from Lylah)

Lylah made a haul this year, thanks to extended family!

She was excited about her presents, can you tell?

She loved the wrapping paper so much we had a hard time getting her to actually get to the presents.

My mom made her a quillow (fleece blanket that folds into a pillow). She loves it, this is what she does every time she sees it. Thank you Blue Grandma!

My brother and his family gave her a Mr. Potato Head. I think Mariah has rather dominated this toy, but Lylah is very intrigued by it and tries to get it back. She always laughs when Mariah puts things in the wrong place. They have an amazing ability to make each other laugh, they are so cute. Thank you for Mr. Potato Head Jared, Christine, and Lucas!!!

She was really good at grabbing the paper to open her presents.

I don't think she liked this one very much! ;) Grandma Tandberg gave her this little kitty, she loves it. Thank you Grandma! She gives the kitty a hug by putting it between her chin and her chest and walks around with it there.

Thank you for all of the presents, she loves all of them!!!

Happy First Birthday Lylah Marie (September 16, 2009)

So, as usual I am way behind, but here it is!
Lylah turned one year old this fall! I can't believe it! She took her first step on her birthday and is just starting to take off on her own.

I made her a butterfly cake (out of round cakes and cupcakes). It was my first time really trying to decorate a cake, it ended up being a huge cake!

There's our birthday girl!

I'm not sure who actually blew the candles out. Lylah tried to get it with her fingers.

So... this is how she started out, nice and dainty...

... how did we get to this?
She really enjoyed her cake! She just kept eating, handful after handful. Eventually we had to just take it away so she wouldn't have to have too bad of a stomachache.

Sweet birthday girl.

Mariah made Lylah a birthday present. She was so excited for Lylah to open it.

Mariah painted a piggy bank for her, it turned out really cute!

Mariah's Ladybug Birthday Party

This summer Mariah turned 3 years old and had a ladybug party! I have had some requests for some pictures of it, so here they are.
When the kids first arrived they made a ladybug crown.

We were so excited that my mom and little sister Afton, my aunt Denise, and Aunt Hazel could be here with us for the party. My Aunt Denise made Mariah a ladybug cake.

We had ladybugs everywhere!!! Even Lylah was a ladybug!

The kids loved playing in Mariah's ladybug tent, looking at ladybug books, playing with ladybug toys and balloons!

We went through a series of clues to help the ladybug queen who would visit at the end of the party!

#1 Ladybugs are lucky and so are you, today it's important to follow each clue! If you can do this with the help of the crew, I'll send the ladybug queen to visit you

#2 If you're a ladybug it's important to fly, so I want you to give it a try, find a leaf and place it on the ground, turn on the music and fly around
We flitted around from leaf to leaf like ladybugs listening to a ladybug song until the music stopped.
#3 Ladybugs love to climb around on green leaves, see if you can land a ladybug on a leaf with a big heave!
I didn't get a picture of them playing with the ladybug bean bags I made, they tried to get them to land on the leaves.

#4 All good ladybugs have spots that are black, help my friend put hers back!
We had to help the ladybug get her spots back on (the spots were inside red ladybug balloons, some of the kids were a little afraid of popping the balloons to get the spots out).

#5 You've solved all the clues - you're a really great bunch! But before the queen visits, let's have some lunch!
We even ate ladybug strawberries and bug crackers, along with a lot of other yummy food that my mom and aunts who were visiting helped make.

At the end of the party, the ladybug queen visited us in the form of a pinata that Mariah worked hard to help me make!

Mothers Day craft

For Mothers Day this year I made aprons for our mothers and had the girls put their handprints on them. We had quite the adventure doing handprints in fabric paint. Mariah did ok, but Lylah was a challenge. I would not recommend trying to have a seven-month-old do handprints with paint. She was just too wigly and puts her hands everywhere, as you can see! (Though we did have a lot of fun doing it!)

Quick update on our girls

Here is our sweet Lylah. She is such a happy baby. At 8 months she's not much of a mover. She is content to sit and play. She is just starting to scoot backwards on her belly.
This picture was taken on the UVA campus after a beautiful hike near Charlottesville on Steven's one day off after his last test and before beginning to study for the boards.
She really loves to eat! (As evidenced by her rolls and chubby cheeks) She loves her rice cereal and is starting to love green beans and carrots.

This was the first time I gave her applesauce. She made all sorts of funny faces. Now I mix it with her rice cereal and she likes it better.

Mariah has decided that she wants to be a Doctor like her Daddy. Almost every day she puts on her little backpack and gets on her tricycle and tells me that she is going to class with Daddy to be a Doctor. In this picture she was "being" a Doctor. Look what Steven has to look forward to as a Doctor, I must say that Mariah's idea of a Doctor is very attractive. :)

Mariah and Lylah got matching ladybug rainjackets for Easter. Mariah loves to wear hers and use her ladybuf umbrella. She had a blast this spring when we had a ton of rain, splashing in puddles and playing outside.