Six Years Old!

Our Sweet Magsy Bear turned 6 on Thursday.  She was SO excited for the past few weeks.  But when I peeked my head in her room first thing in the morning and said "Happy Birthday!" she looked over at Bronwyn and said "I forgot!".  Too funny.  

Even though his birthday was a month ago, Ty still thinks that every day is his birthday.  Luckily for him, Magdalen let him help open up gifts.  He is now asking for the Happy Birthday sign to be hung up in his room!

We had dinner at Red Robin, and Magsy choked down a few bites of real food just so I would let her eat her ice cream that she knew was on the way.  Here she is with Todd's mom, her namesake.  I think they like eachother a little bit...

It's almost impossible to get a picture of all 3 of my kids smiling.  Looks like ice cream did the trick though!

We threw Magsy her first friend birthday party this year.  She was very excited!  The theme was spring flowers, which is perfect for Magdalen.  She LOVES flowers, and can't wait to take care of her flowers and strawberries this summer.  Looks like we'll be doing some gardening soon...

Todd surprised me with the day off, so I had alot of helping getting the party ready; and I had a hot lunch date before!  It was great.  The kids had fun climbing all over him, too!

Magdalen loves to sing and dance, and it turns out that her friends are the same.  We listened to the soundtrack of 'Tangled', and all the girls were totally belting it out.  It was so cute!  

Magdalen is such a joy to have in our family.  She plays well with both of her siblings, and is a good helper for me too.  She helps with all sorts of chores, and usually gets some chocolate in return.  :)  She is extremely excited for her baby brother to be born.  She is constantly feeling my tummy, and is keeping track of how many kicks she has felt.  She has so much love, and I am so lucky to be her mom!

Under the Sea!

It was hard to tell if Magsy was more excited to ride the bus, or visit the Boise Aquarium!  She was paired up with one of her best friends, Emmy, and we were on our way!

The best part of the aquarium is how many tanks are open, and the kids are allowed to reach in.  At first Magdalen was scared.  She would stick her hand in confidently, but as soon as anything swam by, she would pull it back with a jerk and a scream.  :)

I love how much my kids enjoy learning.  Even though the aquarium is small, and un-impressive compared to many places we have been, it didn't stop this sweetheart from having the time of her life.  That night at bed time, the girls spent who knows how long talking about all the fish she saw.  Bronwyn can't wait to go check it out!  

The final exhibit is very shallow and full of small animals.  Magsy was really in her comfort zone here, and spent along time rubbing the back of a baby stingray.  :)  Great field trip!

3 Years of JOY!

It is almost impossible for me to admit that Ty is THREE years old already!  I feel like I am still on my birth high from having him.  He has been such an incredible joy to have in our family, and has truly brought out the best in all of us.  I love seeing the girls take care of him.  It has brought out so much love in them.  

For the big day, we gave Ty a toddler bed.  He doesn't look very excited in the picture (but I had to upload the one with all his Angry birds in bed with him!), but he seems to really love his new bed.  He is sleeping better than he has for a long time!  Hopefully this trends continues.  

The girls hid his presents, and he just parked his little bum wherever he found a gift and opened it right there.  He was SO fun to watch open presents!  He couldn't have been more excited!

Our plan was to spend the afternoon bowling, but the wait was too long.  So we played at the arcade instead.  Worked out great because our first game didn't work, and we got a free bag of tokens.  :)

Then came dinner at Red Robin.  Ty liked everyone singing to him!

The next day we had an Angry Bird Party with the family.  As you can see, he was pretty thrilled to get this shirt!  

I am still glowing from how awesome the cake turned out!  (I've included a small tutorial at the bottom of this post if you're curious.)

We love you so much, Ty Guy!  

I used a special cake pan to make this rounded cake.  Any cake with white frosting will do.  I did pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.  A little out of season, but oh so yummy.

First I used a toothpick to trace where I wanted to draw the eyes.  Once I was happy, I drew over it with black frosting.

We considered trying something 3 dimensional for the beak, but couldn't think of anything.  So since Todd is craftier than I am, I had him do the beak!  This is what he came up with.  Looks awesome!

We made the feathers out of melted chocolate chips.  I drew the shape I wanted on wax paper, then filled it in with the melted chocolate out of a small ziploc bag with the corner clipped.   I put the feathers in right before we sang so they wouldn't melt.

So cute, so fun, so worth it!

Ruby Belle

I feel like I have been waiting FOREVER to hold this little angel!  My twin sister, Hilary, gave birth to her first child on our dad's birthday (January 11th), and named her Ruby Belle.  She is such a sweet little thing!  Hil's husband had to leave town last weekend, so I flew out for a girls' weekend.  We had the BEST time!  

Hilary is seriously the cutest-sweetest mom EVER!  She loves her little girl so much.  I loved hearing her say "Hi pretty lady" each time she picked up her little one.  And let us not forget how hard Hil worked to get this little girl into the world!  A 27 hour labor without pain meds isn't exactly a walk in the park.  :)

We also got to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with our cousin Michelle.  :)

I seriously could not get enough snuggles!

Ruby is tiny, just like Magsy was.  She is tipping the scale at 8 pounds now.  :)

So fun to hear her discover her voice!

She just started giving smiles a week or so ago, and I was lucky to get a few every day.  

This was our final snuggle.  It broke my heart to say goodbye to her.  It is always hard to say goodbye to Hil, but it was a different kind of pain to say goodbye to Ruby.  The only thing I hate more than crying is crying in public, but I couldn't hold it in at the airport.  Cried all the way through the security line!  Don't get too big without me, Ruby!

Best Valentine's Day EVER!

We were so excited for Valentines Day this year, that we all woke up around 4 am to get the party started.   Todd and I were woken up by a very sad Magdalen, informing us that she had thrown up.  And even though she tried her hardest to get to the toilet in time, she didn't make it.

Isn't this just the best wake up call, ever?!

Todd took on the dirty work of cleaning up the chunks and starting the wash, while I consoled a broken hearted 5 year old who had just realized she would now miss her Kindergarten Valentine's Day Party.  Talk about DEVASTATION!  She is such a sensitive girl, and the tears were rolling big time.  The minutes clicked by, and I  saw how quickly morning was coming, and new that my 6:45 Zumba class would be a killer today.  I went downstairs to get Mags some sprite, and what did I find but a dozen roses and diet coke.  Man, I am so going to need those today!   But the vomit kept coming, along with some serious dry heaves coming from Todd.  Poor guy.

Somehow we still managed to have our family breakfast at 8 am, and exchange valentines.  This year was especially sweet because Bronwyn bought a small gift for Todd and me a couple weeks ago.  She enlisted Grandma for a trip to Fred Meyer, and the package has been calling my name from the top of the fridge.  She bought us each a chocolate rose.  It is the first thing she has ever bought me, and it melted my heart.  Todd also got flowers for the girls, and I made personalized M&Ms for all the kids.

But the magic didn't last long.  Magsy smelled like puke, so I knew there were remnants on her hair and or pajamas.  So into the bath she went.  I was scrambling like a mad woman to get the bath going, laundry started, teeth brushed, that for about 30 seconds I forgot that I started potty training Ty yesterday.  His silence alerted me to a BIG problem.... His first poopy pants.  UG.  Just what I needed.  Todd emerged from the shower just in time to hear my phone freakout to my sister about how his poop had fallen to the floor, been stepped in, and then somehow smeared all across my arm.  Perfect.

Todd gave me a sarcastic "Happy Valentine's Day"; and while today is certainly not going well, I couldn't be happier about my valentine and the home we have built.  Turns out parenting is about a trillion times harder than I was prepared for it to be, and I am so thankful to have a husband who has never left me feeling like I am doing it alone.  I feel like I have been running on empty since I got pregnant.  From morning sickness to this never ending flu that we all just keep passing back and forth to eachother, Todd is always there when my idle just won't start.  We live in a constant state of survival mode, but always seem to make it through together.

After the past few months, life with a newborn actually sounds like a vacation.  At least when I am up nursing I won't have to smell vomit, and can catch up on my tv watching.   Plus, when I need to potty train baby #4, all the other kids will be at school, and I won't be pregnant.  That will make it way easier, right?

Talent Show!

For those of you who know Bronwyn, it may be hard to believe that she takes the stage almost nightly in our home!  In the evenings, Todd plays piano while Bronwyn makes up dances.  (She has a real love of piano music. She loves to listen to her piano cd while she falls asleep.  But we often hear her dancing in her room while Magsy snoozes!)  So while she may not enjoy being the center of attention around anyone else, we sure enjoy her nightly routines.  Her ballet technique is rapidly improving, and it is so exciting!

Magdalen also graces us with many a dance performance, but lately has enjoyed singing even more.  She reminds me of myself.  She has SO many Christmas songs memorized.  I couldn't be prouder.  :)  She has recently learned a song from a "Scripture Bugs" DVD.  I was somewhat frustrated that she had such a hard time matching the correct pitches.  But when I heard her watching the DVD the other day, I realized that I had actually lifted the song incorrectly.  So while it sounds like I am the one on pitch.... she is!  

I find myself wondering what Ty's talents will be, and am having a hard time figuring out when to enroll him in something, and what that something should be.  He is definitely strong and athletic.  He will probably have to wait until I am out of the newborn fog to really start in on developing his talents.  So until then, he can continue  melting our hearts daily with his cuteness and quirkiness!

Ty has been sporting this lovely scab for WEEKS!  Every morning when I get him out of his crib, he has fresh blood on his cheek.  Here's hoping it doesn't scar!