Valentine's Day Card 2011

Love Is Sweet Valentine's Day Card

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Family birthday party

Happy birthday! It kind of looks like Christmas.
Minnie doll she got from aunt Staci, Tyler and Brooke.
Kay opeing balloon puzzle from Nana and Grandpa.
Cute shirts from Suzy!

Scrabble Junior from Nana and Grandpa.

Cute Landon just chillin with something in his mouth.

Fun car for her dollhouse Suzy and Grandpa gave her.

Blowing out the candles.

Eating the ice cream cone towers.

Once again ( I feel like I've typed these words a lot today), it was such a fun party! Thanks to all our family who came. Grandparents, great grand parents, cousins, aunt and uncles, we love you! Kayleigh enjoys spending time with each of you. We are grateful that most of you live close and we can spend these special times with you.

The little girls really liked eating the cake! I'll admit, it was a tiny bit painful seeing all my hard work cut up! :-) Kayleigh loved all of her presents, she was super spoiled! That night we let her stay up playing with all of her new things. It's been nice the past couple of days the t.v. has gotten a rest! She's been just hanging out in her room playing.

I think back to the day Kayleigh was born and it doesn't seem that long ago, but then I remember she's already 4! I can't believe how time has flown. Since she was born, we've moved, bought our first house, added another baby to the fam, got a new car, gone on some really fun vacations and had some pretty great times as a family. Can't wait for the next 4!

The cake

I have a book that has really cute cake ideas in it for kids. I like to let Kayleigh pick her cake out. This year, she has been telling me for awhile that she wanted the castle cake out of that book. Of course it's like, I swear, the hardest cake in there. Anyway, honoring her wishes I decided I'd make it.

The night before her b-day I made the 3 8X8 cakes it needed. Then after church on her birthday I began cutting up all the cakes and icing them. It took 2 1/2 hours, and some of that time Michael was helping me. It was super hard and stressful! The cake was so soft, it really just wanted to crumble as I tried to stack it 3 layers high and ice it. It was tricky, but after some adjustments to the instructions on how to make it, it finally turned out alright.

I might have to make a rule that no one can pick the castle cake again. Although, I've done it once and I'm sure the second time would go much faster. My mom also gave me a good hint that if you freeze the cake, then cut and ice, it won't crumble as easily...makes perfect sense.

What matters most though is that Kayleigh liked it. I think her favorite part of it was the towers made out of ice cream cones. Decorating it with candy was probably my favorite part of doing it. Well, eating it was pretty good, too!

Presents from Mom and Dad

She had to have a "funny" picture

All ready to open.

Cutie!

Her most favorite gift.

More for her doll house, lucky girl!

Kayleigh has been wanting a Barbie for quite a few months now. She loves playing with them at Nana's and at some of her friend's houses. I've been on the fence for awhile about if I wanted to do the whole Barbie thing. Every time she would ask about them I just kept telling her maybe for Christmas or her birthday she would get one. Well, after her friend party she told me in a really sad voice, "I hope you or Daddy give me a Barbie."

Being the push-over mom that I am, I told Michael I needed to run to Wal-Mart for one last gift. I am so glad that I got it though, she LOVES it! It is her most favorite gift, at least that's what she says. She really has loved playing with all of her new toys and gifts.

On Sunday before church she saw her presents all wrapped sitting on the table. She told Michael that she hoped one of them was a Barbie. We didn't open her presents till after church. With each gift she opened, she was very excited and happy. Of course that made us parents happy, too! And I guess I've decided which side of the fence I'm on now...

Birthday party #1

All ready for the party.
So excited!

The first present to arrive, she couldn't wait to open it.

Kayleigh with all the gift bags before the party.

Getting ready to pin the crown on the poster.

Playing Bingo.

Kayleigh coloring her princess picture frame.

All morning on the 15th, Kayleigh kept asking how much longer till her friends would arrive. She was so excited! It was fun to watch her be super excited and be caught up in it with her. A few weeks previous, I asked her who she wanted to invite to her party and she named everyone that I was thinking of in my head. I thought to myself, "Perfect!" So we sent out invites and began planning. I decided to do a few games, do presents, and then have cupcakes and ice cream.

As we were out shopping for party stuff I came across these cute little wooded frames at Michael's craft store that I thought would be fun for the kids to decorate. So, we added that to the list of things to do for the party.

The day before the party I made the cupcakes and Kayleigh helped me stuff the goody bags for her friends to take home. All I can say is, thank goodness for Dollar Tree! I thought they turned out really cute. We did gender specific bags since there were boys at the party.

Kayleigh invited Marci (ward friend/preschool friend), Maura and Grayden (backyard neighbors and great friends), Cooper and Taylee (across the street neighbors and great friends), Mason (ward friend and up the street and around the corner friend), and Grace and Phoebe (cousins). Everyone came and I think everyone had a pretty fun time.

All the parties and birthdays in our family around the same time made for a long weekend. So next year if I do a friend party for Kayleigh I think it won't be the day before her actual birthday. Who knows though, I say that now and in the end that might be the most convenient day to do it next year. I'm just glad she had fun and enjoyed the anticipation as much as the actual party.

Happy Birthday Kayleigh!

I can't believe our little girl is 4! Kayleigh celebrated her big day yesterday. She was so excited for her birthday this year. The day before her birthday she had a friend party, her first one. She was hugely into the present factor of birthdays but she did enjoy the balloons and cake stuff too. Once I get my pictures all uploaded I'll write about the parties.

Today we took her to the doctor for her 4 yr. checkup. She passed with flying colors! She identified all the colors he wanted her to. He needed her to count to 4 (really, that's it?) and so at 21 he stopped her. It was funny! He told us everything she needs to be able to do at her 5 yr. check-up so we can work on those things, most she can already do now. She weighed in at 46.2 lbs (96th%tile) and is 44 inches tall (99th%tile). He said everyone will think she's in first grade, yeah Dr. Doug, we've been getting that for months now!

She did have to get one shot today. I didn't think she would need to so I hadn't prepared her for it. When he said she had to get one, she started to cry and did not want to get it. She of course survived though and loved her 2 suckers and stickers she got after.

For the past month or so, Kayleigh has been complaining every morning that her stomach hurts. Sometimes she even says she is going to throw up. We've kind of attributed it to being hungry because once she eats she usually feels better. We asked the doctor about that today and he said that she probably has some extra acid in her stomach and then if she has any anxiety at all (about pre-school or primary, etc.) that it could add to it because anxiety creates acid. Interesting. So, he said she could take a few Tums each morning to help her. I guess we'll try it and see if it works!

A reason to celebrate

Kayleigh is done with sleeping in a pull-up at night!! Hooray!! Finally, after being potty trained for a year and a half in the day, she is finally wearing panties to sleep in, too. I am so proud of her. She is definitely growing up! Another reason I'm not complaining, it's gonna save me $20 a month!

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New Year's celebrations

All the kids giving Nathan, my little bro, a hard time

Landon found a fun little play place under the kitchen table

The girls playing Memory

Cheers!

No, she didn't really stay up til midnight.

This year we celebrated New Years a little different. We had a mini “vacation” at my parent’s house for the three days leading up to January 1st. I got the idea when Marie told me she would be coming up to stay for a few days. I thought it would be fun for the cousins to play and I knew if I wasn’t home, I’d force myself to play and relax. It was very fun! The girls played really well together with all their new toys, coloring books, crafts, and swimming etc. Us adults had a great time playing games at night and a late night run to Wal-Mart where we almost got hit by a dumb kid driving through the parking lot in reverse. For the record, he hit our cart and was pretty clueless about it all.

On the actual night of New Years Eve we had Sukyaki and Gyoza, delicious! We watched Despicable Me with the kids, did some fireworks and after they were in bed, we watched Iron Man 2. Both movies were good and it was fun to check a couple off my list I’d been wanting to see for a while.

New Years Day we slept in till about 9:45 which is when Kayleigh got up. That afternoon we played a mean game of monopoly. Michael had only been waiting to play that game for like 2 years. It just takes so long that we don’t get around to it too often.

I really enjoyed the relaxing week with family. It was a fun way to end the busy holiday season. We are excited for a new year and all that it will bring with it. Welcome 2011.

Temple Square

Per tradition, we traveled downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. This year we didn’t make it till after Christmas, on the 26th, but hey, at least we made it, right? Kayleigh was really excited to see the nativity they do because when she had gone with Michael to the Jazz game earlier in December, they’d walked through Temple Square just as the nativity was shutting down for the night. She is always happy to see anything to do with baby Jesus, the Baby Jesus we have is her favorite Christmas decoration and she doesn’t want to take it down.

I thought it was pretty cold the night we went, so I put Kayleigh in her snow pants, hat, etc. and Landon had a huge blanket wrapped around him in his coat in the stroller. I think they both stayed very warm!

The lights are very impressive and beautiful every year. They must use millions of lights! The temple looked gorgeous amongst the lights. We went down with Mom, Dad and Nathan so it was fun to be with them, too.