Awesome Aunt Lisa

 My super talented Sis just sent us these. (We can't wait until Baby Sister gets here so she can wear hers too.)

We have a variety of awesome crocheted things from Aunt Lisa, hats, shoes, flip-flops,  hair clips, skirts.... If my girls are wearing something crocheted, good chance it came from Auntie Lisa.


You can see more of her talent on her Facebook page Blackhart Crochet. (And some cute pictures of some of my nieces and nephews.)

 Silly Faces

Natalie loving that it's purple AND pink. 

A week ago Millie burned her nose on the griddle. She still looks a little Rudolphish but it's getting better.

Miss Ems

 I asked her for a smile and got this....

Work it, girl. Work it!

Fairness

Once a month at Camille's school there is a Best Assembly. They have all kinds of things they talk about one is recognizing kids that have demonstrated that month's character trait. In January Camille got a certificate for being Caring. (Which we missed because we were in Dubai.) This month Camille got a certificate for demonstrating Fairness. Natalie, Emily, and I got to attend the assembly.

Camille standing up getting recognized. 

 After the assembly I was talking to a Mom of one of the boys in Camille's class. His name is Dylan and he likes Camille. (He also got a Fairness certificate--so not a bad kid :) ) His Mom told me that he proposed to Camille and that she had accepted. I talked with her about it at home. She said, "Oh yeah Dylan asked me that but I didn't say anything."

"You didn't? His Mom told me you said yes."

"Well...yeah I did. But I didn't really mean it.  I just wanted him to feel happy. Plus he's 6 1/2 and I'm 5 1/2 and it's not like kids can really get married anyway."

 

Camille and her Fiancee Dylan
 

Camille has lost tooth number 2 on April 22nd. She lost her first tooth at school during math while Brad and I were in Dubai. Tooth #2 was also lost at school during math but this time we were here to play tooth fairy for her.

At the assembly they had a chart for total teeth lost at school. For April it was 24 teeth (one being Camille's) and total for the year the school has lost 123 teeth. (2 of those are Camille's.) I really feel like she's doing her part to help the school out. They're hoping to pass the 150 mark for lost teeth this school year.

WHO ARE YOU!?

When I was a kid and had a friend over when my Dad would come home from work they would be accosted with the question, "WHO ARE YOU!?"  It didn't matter if he had met them before or not. It was my Dad's way of being friendly though it was said in a loud, accusing, demanding scary voice.  Of course, some kids would shyly whisper their names while others would boldly answer. Usually, it was followed by an "Oh" from my father and he'd be about his business.

As we get closer to little girl number four joining us on the "outside" I wish she could answer the question "WHO ARE YOU?!" Seriously, I think naming a child is the most stressful part of having one. Some of you may have heard me say I would be willing to go through labor twice in a row if the child would come out with a name tag. No joke, I would do it. I think it would be totally worth the pain.

 This time around I think it's harder than the first or second time (third time was extremely difficult). There are more factors in the mix; does it match or fit with the other girls names, is it too common (as much as I love Emily, I often kick myself  for using a name that is SO common.), does it fit with the middle name we'd like to use, do we agree on it, is it meaningful for us in some way, do our other girls like it, cousins have been added to the mix making the pool of names to pick from more slim (I know we can use the same name as a cousin or other family member but we just...can't.)

Granted, Brad and I don't name a baby until we meet them face to face but it's nice to have some ideas or a narrowed down list of possibilities. That being said we're open to real suggestions (Yes, Bertha, Gertrude, and all those have been suggested but let's face it they're not making the cut.)

The other day I came across a website where you could put in a name and it would show common sibling names for that name. Which I thought was super cool. I put in all three girls names and got these lists. It's nice to see we've done a good job so far of having our kids' names "go" together...There are a lot of the names of these lists that I love but fall in with the above mention factors.

Common Sibling Names for Camille (Meaning Virginal, unblemished character)

Chloe,  Olivia,  Caroline,  Claire,  Sophia,  Audrey,  Natalie,  Lauren,  Charlotte, Emily, Kaitlyn, Abigail,

Common Sibling Names for Natalie (Meaning: Good birthday or Christ’s birthday)

Emily,  Olivia,  Hannah,  Nicole,  Lauren,  Abigail,  Samantha,  Madison,  Sophia,  Allison Claire, Kaitlyn, Abigail

Common Sibling Names for Emily (Meaning: industrious)

Sarah,  Abigail,  Hannah,  Elizabeth,  Ashley,  Olivia,  Megan,  Allison,  Natalie,  Lauren, Claire, Kaitlyn, Madeline

Anyhow, this is what has been occupying my thoughts lately.  (Well this and what is the maximum amount of ice cream I can eat a day without having it added to places I don't want it.)

Birthdays are FUN!

This kid has been excited for her birthday since the beginning of the year. Hopefully, it was everything she was dreaming it would be.

She kept inviting people to her birthday. (Usually we just do cake, ice cream, and presents as a family)  So she and I talked and decided we could invite some friends over to play in the morning and have some cupcakes. I think the play date was a success. I let the kids play with cushions from the couches and blew up some balloons for them. Everyone seemed to have fun and Natalie felt like she got to include people in her birthday.

She requested to go bowling with the family for her birthday (Which we did sans camera)

She also wanted a Rapunzel cake.

This is what we came up with:

 She was super happy with it. And excited that she was going to get to keep the little Rapunzel Doll that was on it.

 (Yes, you're seeing snow in the yard. It rained/ ice pelleted/snowed on her birthday

This is classic Nattie. Super excited and finger in the belly button :) 

 She's a great big sister to Emily. She is ALWAYS willing to help her and often I'll her her say, "Come on Emmie, I'll help you, let's go." as she takes her hand or puts her arm around her.
She loves went Camille has a "day off from school." The two of them will often disappear upstairs and I won't see them for hours because they're having so much fun*. (*Read making a mess) But she makes sure Emily gets to have fun too.
Yesterday at church she said to me. "When we bring new baby sister to church can I hold her?"  I told her she'd get to hold her sometimes. True to her nature she already had constructed a plan.(She always has a plan)  "I'll have a turn, then you have a turn, then me, then you, then me, then you...."

At Christmas time she put a Merida Barbie on her birthday list. "I also want a Merida Barbie but not for Christmas for my birfday!"

 Flynn Rider was a pleasant surprise. (She loves Flynn)

Our friend "Caffy" sent some wonderful gifts. 

Including, but not limited too, a second Hello Kitty outfit. She currently wears the one she has as often as possible!

 "Now when one is in the wash, I can just wear my other one!" (See she's always coming up with a plan.)

A super cute tutu.

 and lots of other fun games, toys, and socks.

Finally, it was time to have cake and ice cream.

 We love these silly girls!

 We did a birthday interview with Natalie which can be watched by clicking here.

Easter Weekend

Easter is an important time for us. We spend a lot of time talking to the girls about why it's important and the wonderful blessings we have because of our Savior.  We've pounded  into their brains that the most important thing about Easter is Jesus, the Atonement, and the Resurrection. That being said we also like to have fun with Easter too.

These two decorated our Egg Tree this year.

Some very serious thought went into where to place each egg.

They were please with the final product.

 A little video click here.

 Fast-forward to Easter weekend. Saturday the girls enjoyed an activity at the church which included egged themed games, an Easter lesson, an Easter craft, and an Egg hunt. Being the Primary President meant I was in charge and hence I didn't take any pictures. :)

Easter Breakfast

Natalie kept wanting a mouth on hers. I'm sure she just really wanted more chocolate chips.

The girls were thrilled with their "bunny" puppies (Thanks Caffy)

Nothing like getting stickers that you LOVE.

(This kid --I love her!)

Easter Dinner wouldn't be complete without theme shaped food.

Rabbit Rolls or Bunny Buns (Either way they're fun.)

Hatching Chicks

Of course, carrot cake  cupcakes for dessert

All in all a great weekend until about midnight when Camille started puking. 

"I think I had too many sweets, Mom." 

Hopefully, we've learned a lesson for the future. (i.e. Mom should eat most of the candy instead of the kids)

In the sun he melted...

Our March 19th Snowman

Snow day! We woke up to a lot of snow and it's still coming. The girls wanted to go out and play in it. I got them all bundled and was sending them out when they said, "We should build a snowman." I'm a bad Mom we have yet to built any snowmen this winter so what choice did I have.
 "Okay, I'll get on my snow clothes and come help." After I rubber banded my snow pants on. (I'm pass the point of getting even close to zipping them up.) I headed out to help. After a few frustrating minutes it was clear that this is not snowman building snow. It was kinda like trying to build a snowman out of sand. I'm hoping that this is the last snow of the season so I wasn't going to give up yet. Beside you can build things with sand if you construct them the right way.  We started just piling snow into one spot and patting it down. After what felt like a lot of piling and patting we decided we had a large enough mound to decorate.

Here's our cute little snowman:

Catching snow flakes on our tongues

Once we declared him finished Camille asked if she could use the camera to take some pictures.

Here are her masterpieces

Well I think I'm going to go enjoy some hot chocolate.

Rainbow Dinner

Since the Leprechauns turned our breakfast green in the morning, and left a trail of gold for us after church, (which lead to a box of Lucky Charms --Hello lunch!) We decided to have a rainbow themed dinner in honor of St. Patrick's day. Of course, the main course was corn beef and cabbage but the rest of it was as rainbowy as we could make it.

Rainbow fruit platter

Washed and cut by me arranged by Camille and Natalie

Rainbow ice cubes 

(Fail --Seriously I failed at making ice cubes.....embarrassing......I added WAY to much food coloring to the ice cubes so when water was pour is it leeched the excess color and resulted in black water. Lesson learned, I'll try it again with some adjustments. Like don't add food color drops into each individual cube. Mix up some colored water then pour into the trays.)

Rainbow Jello

Pain in the butt--it took me all day Saturday to put this together but tasted good. We will be having jell-o today for lunch and dinner and possibly tomorrow too. Everyone thought it was fun so I might do it again next year.

and of course some

Rainbow Bread

A special thanks goes out to pinterest from which I steal all my good ideas.I'm not creative enough to come up with ideas like this on my own but I like to try out others great ideas. 

(Well, the jell-o shamrocks were an original Karen idea but don't get use to those!)

On Friday Camille sported shamrock hair to school. 

 No shamrock hair happened on Sunday because I had a early meeting before church and had to speak in Sacrament meeting.

Here's a little video of St. Patrick's day breakfast.Click me.

Prepping for St. Patty's Day

We're gearing up for St. Patrick's day around here. Natalie thought we needed some green Jell-O roll-ups. They're so easy to make I couldn't say no. Then when I put some on her plate I realized I could easily turn them into a shamrock. (Sometimes I'm so smart.)

On the Kraft website http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-marshmallow-pinwheels-51697.aspx

Jell-O roll-ups
1 (3 oz.) pkg. jello
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
Lightly spray an 8 or 9 inch pan square pan with non-stick cooking spray and make sure it is spread well.
Stir together water and jello powder in a glass bowl and microwave for 1 minute.   Remove bowl and stir well making sure jello is dissolved.  If necessary, return to microwave for 20 seconds or so to make sure jello is dissolved and stir again.
Add marshmallows and return to microwave for 20-40 seconds or until marshmallows have just begun to puff.  This is the key to a successful marshmallow layer!  If you over cook the marshmallows, they just dissolve and your roll-up will not have two distinct layers.
Whisk quickly until marshmallows are dissolved.
Pour quickly into prepared pan and chill in fridge for 45 minutes or until well set.  Creamy layer will float to the top.
Remove the pan from fridge.  At this point,  the jello should be very firm and easy to handle.  Gently pull one side away from pan and lift entire sheet onto counter.  Starting at one end, roll up tightly.  With seam side down, cut into 10-12 (1/2) inch slices.  I use a piece of dental floss and cut them like I would cinnamon rolls. 

Winter Break Fun

One fun thing we did during winter break was make rainbow bread. I found the recipe here. It turned out so pretty.

Just a few more weeks and we can come up with fun things to during spring break. I think the girls have make more rainbow bread on the list.