Happy 3rd Birthday, Ashley!

Our baby turned three years on Memorial Day this year.  We started the day by going to our ward pancake breakfast that morning.  It was unusually hot and we were all pretty miserable.  But we went inside after we ate and played basketball for a little while and cooled down.  After that we headed back to the house and had Ashley's party.  She has developed a love for Winnie the Pooh, lately, so we planned her special day around Pooh Bear.  We pinned the tail on Tigger, played musical Hundred Acre Woods, and had a Pooh Bear Pinata.  She was very excited to get her gifts. She received a Pooh Bear bath toy, Elefun game, a bubble machine, a leapfrog DVD, a magnetic playset, a stuffed puppy, and a Mrs. Potato head.  The girls really wanted to each make Ashley a gift so Alexis picked out some material and sewed her a super cape.  Emily picked out an unfinished wooden treasure chest at Hobby lobby and painted it and filled it with candy.  She LOVED both of their gifts and played and played with them  and all her other gifts all day.  When it was naptime she said she didn't want to go to sleep, even though she ALWAYS wants to lay down and cuddle with Mommy for naps and bedtime.  ;)  She especially had fun playing with her bubble machine.  It made so many bubbles and the carpet was soaked, but they had such fun with it.  The Elefun game was really great, as well and Alexis and Emily kept working at catching the butterflies with their nets.  Ashley decided it was much easier and you got a whole lot more if you just pick up the ones they missed on the floor.  :)  That afternoon we grilled out back and played and playd some more.  Ashley is so special to our family.  She is so sweet and cuddly to us all.  She loves to give hugs and kisses and she is so bubbly and full of energy. Her smile melts our hearts.  Whenever she is naughty she'll tilt her head to one side and smile super sweet at us so that it's hard to scold her.  Or else she'll come up and hug us and say, "It's OK, Mommy.  It's OK."  :)  She LOVES learning and picks up on things so quickly it amazing to us.  She has a very analytical mind and it's neat watching it work.  She loves playing with her family and her favorite toys at the moment are probably the Calico Critter sets.  She loves playing outside on the swing and with balls.  She's such a precious addition to our family and we love her so much.

April Showers

One of the girls' favorite thing to do outside is play in the rain.  They especially enjoy these spring showers.  They love grabbing umbrellas and walking around in the rain.  Today they were playing house and collecting leaves and various plants for their "soup".  Ashley ended up going off into the middle of the yard and sitting down in a particularly muddy spot.  She began picking grass blades all around to add to the soup and then her pants were completely covered in mud.  :)

I Love Spaghetti!

This little one LOVES spaghetti!  I think some even got into her mouth.  :)

Happy Mother's Day 2011

This year Don was out of town on Mother's Day, so we decided we would have Mother's Day when he got back.  On the actual Mother's Day we went to visit Grandma's house!  We had a great weekend with everyone.  On Mother's Day Sunday Alexis and Emily surprised me by making me little homemade cards on their own so I would have something for the "real" Mother's Day.  ;)  They also both insisted that I not do any work and they tried to help out as much as possible.  Then later in the week when Don returned, they surprised me one evening with these darling little pictures of my three little flowers.  They also got me a lovely bracelet and locket and a new laminator, which I really needed, since I have worn my old one out!  Then Alexis gave me one of the best gifts.  She surprised me by playing "I Often Go Walking" on the piano while she sang it.  It was such a wonderful surprise.  I am so grateful to get to be the mother of these 3 precious little spirits.  :)

"We Tied Her Up"

We've had about 3 summery feeling days this week, so we took advantage of it by pulling out our little pool and dressing the girls in their bathing suits.  They've had lots of fun splashing in the water and also helping daddy and I plant our family garden.  We gave the girls their own little flower bed to plant all the flowers they wanted.  Later in the afternoon Don was still busy working in the garden and I had to get dinner started so I asked Alexis to watch Ashley for a few minutes on the back deck with the wading pool while I ran inside to put a few things on.  A few minutes later Alexis came inside and told me Ashley was off the deck and in the garage trying to get swim floaties out.  I told her she shouldn't leave her alone and proceeded to head outside.  She told me it was OK, because Emily was with her and anyways, "We tied her up."  I responded, "You tied her up?"  She nonchalantly replied, "Yeah, she's safe."  So I went out there, and sure enough they had tied a jump rope to the back of her swim suit and tied the other end to an old broken elliptical machine.  The funny part was that she didn't even seem upset.  She would just walk forward every so often and kind of grunt in frustration.  So I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.  Luckily I was finished for a while after that, so I served them a light snack on the deck and they enjoyed playing some more.  :)

Childhood of Thomas Jefferson

We read The Childhood of Famous Americans series Thomas Jefferson book for bookclub this time.  It was very interesting, and as usual the kids had a blast together.  They designed their own coins, which turned out really cute.  The only picture I snapped was this one of Ashley and Daniel playing together.  I know the older children had a great game of princesses going on for a while, as well, along with some sort of bad guy chasing them.  ;)

Our Funny Little Princess

Ashley LOVES to play dress up.  All day long we are always finding her accessorizing with something.  She usually ends up looking something like a princess fairy.  These pictures are an example of one of her usual outfits.  Fairy wings, a pink skirt, a crown, a bunny purse, a teddy bear, two different shoes, and a pacifier.  She has never actually used a pacifier.  (She uses me for one instead.)  ;)  We just have a couple around we used to give her something to chew on when she was teething that girls now use for their baby dolls.  But every so often she'll pick one up and suck/chew on it for about a minute or so.