Nyah's 3rd Birthday

Our pretty princess turned 3 on Saturday... I can barely believe it.  She continues to be a fireball of energy and spunk.  When I think of Nyah I think of her sweet smiles where she cocks her head to the side and tilts it a bit - a very coy look, haha! I also think of her endless, sweet chatter and questions, questions, questions! I think of how she is so happy she will randomly let out a shriek of happiness while she plays- especially when in the shower or bath. (It is ear piercing in the bathroom though and I have to constantly remind her to use a quiet voice, to which she immediately whispers "Like this, Mama? Like this?" but within 10 seconds she is back to yelling!)  I think of how she adores her brothers and will mimic everything Gabe does right down to how he holds his sandwich while he eats. And how she lovingly mauls Ian constantly. I think of how affectionate she is and will just wiggle and squirm with joy when she climbs into bed with us to cuddle. I think of how she loves to "go" anywhere really... the park, store, for a walk, outside to wash cars, whatever.  For the past year at least, whenever she sees anyone getting their shoes/coat on, she starts loudly saying "I GO?! I GO?! Coat! SHOES! I GO!" She does not like to be left behind, ever.  I think of how she makes me pretend food and wants to sit down and pretend-eat every last bite with me.  I think of her sweet voice and all the cute little ways she says her words. I think of the soft way she says "I yuv you MaMa."  My heart just melts thinking about my beautiful daughter.  I have a lump in my throat when I think about how much I love her, what a precious little soul she is, and how much happiness and laughter she brings into our family.  

 

 

For her birthday we went and saw the fishies, as she likes to say! In other words we went to the Seattle Aquarium. It was a beautiful, sunny day to be downtown. Here we are at the tidepools:

 



 

After the tide pools the kids go their faces painted.  As soon as they were done, Nyah took off like a shot into a dark corridor where there are lots of aquariums.... I followed her to find that she had forced herself right to the front and was happily watching the fishies. See her between the lady in the red coat and the lady in the white coat?  That girl isn't afraid to go for what she wants! 

Of all the cool things to see at the aquarium, I think the kids love this old flannel board with cut out sea life to play with the most. We had to drag them away!

The sunshine felt so good, we lingered on the boardwalk for awhile before heading home. The kids love this statue of underwater treasure.

When we got home we opened presents!  Nyah got a new kitchen with lots of wooden food and pots/pans, etc to play with. She loved it! (So did Gabe... oh my, he was ecstatic!) :)

Gabe made a present for his little sis... a coconut tree! It was so cute and creative. He attached some fruit snacks to the bottom too. :)



Grammy and Papa gave Nyah a chest full of gorgeous dress ups! Here she is decked out in Cinderella gown, heels, sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets and rings!

WHOOO's turning 3?! 

 I made Nyah an owl cake this year - I think she liked it. Here is a before and after picture of her pretending to take a big bite then giving me a silly grin to let me know she was teasing me. :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!! We love you bigger than the sky!

Leprechaun mischief

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Yesterday was so fun, I couldn't wait to post about it.  We love St Patty's day around here... even those mischievous leprechauns are welcome at our house!  I woke up Sunday morning to hear Gabe and Nyah running around downstairs exclaiming in excitement over all the clues our sneaky little friends left us during the night.  It was so fun to hear their excitement, enough to even get me out of bed at 6:30am! ;)  It was seriously like Christmas morning.  I just love having little kids in our family. They make everything so exciting and fun!



Little green footprints told us that they rifled through our St. Patrick's games and jokes....

this trail led right to Denali's bed...

they tied a green ribbon around her neck!! Now Denali won't get pinched!

And most shocking...they used our potty!!!

The leprechauns always leave chocolate gold coins for the kids to find too... and they loved it as usual!  It was really cute because Gabe left everything exactly the way it was so Daddy could see it. (It was Eric's day to sleep in) Before getting in our green church clothes, we played games for awhile - hiding shamrocks for prizes and playing a St. Patty's matching game.  Over breakfast (with Irish scones of course) Gabe declared it to be the best St. Patrick's Day ever! :)

*I have to add that Gabe told me immediately that the footprints were paint and wondered why they would dip their feet in paint...? At one point he asked me "are you sure you didn't do this Mom?" which I ignored as I was talking to Nyah luckily. :) He let it go and his doubts certainly didn't diminish his excitement that morning. But geez, nothing gets by that kid!!

Potty training superstar!

Nyah in her Aurora panties... hanging out with mommy today!

 
Yesterday I was in the office going over my lesson for church when I heard Nyah yell "IT'S COMING, IT'S COMING!!" from the bathroom... I go in there to find her on the toilet seat going poop!!!!! She had taken off her pjs and diaper all by herself too.  I was incredulous!  When I potty trained Gabe, the hardest part was getting him to go #2 on the potty.  (He held it for 5 days initially then went in his underwear for weeks.)  And this little whippersnapper took matters into her own hands and taught herself!  Well she will be 3 in a few weeks and has been begging to go peepee on the potty for the past month.  Obviously I've been putting it off for a bit too long.  So this morning we made it official and broke out the princess panties Santa gave her.  She had ZERO accidents all morning, going #1 and #2 on the potty, until we had to pick up Gabe at the bus stop at noon.  I think putting on pants and shoes and all made her forget and she did have an accident. I am totally not complaining though... she has done amazing. I have to pinch myself to see if this is real! :)  I'm really hoping it lasts. She is napping now - in panties - so we will see how it goes.  By the way, I decided since she seemed so ready, to go all out and "throw away" the diapers and go cold turkey... let's see how the sleep time goes.


Reading books on a convenient "boat" mommy made for obvious reasons!

She wants to do everything herself, of course.

Ouch!

Gabe and Nyah were both sporting shiners last week!  Gabe bonked his face and split his eyelid while playing at a friends house.  Nyah fell at the park and scraped her face and hands up.  Both of them looked pretty beat up for a few days... but I have to add that it's amazing how fast kids bounce back and heal.  Wow!

Happy Birthday Daddy

We always get to kick off the year with Daddy's birthday.  I think I can safely say that the highlight of Eric's birthday this year was going mountain biking!  I actually got a babysitter so I could go with him... my first time getting to share with him one of his greatest passions.  And he is really good at it!  It was fun to see the terrain he loves and watching first hand, even experiencing, the thrill of it all.  Can I just say that mountain biking is not for the faint of heart? And I would never consider myself in that group... but goodness, it is definitely what I'd call an adrenaline sport.  I have never been so scared in my life as when I was careening down the mountain on a 6 inch wide trail full of rocks and roots as it twisted, turned, shot up, and literally dropped straight down. I would have been screaming if I had been able to catch my breath. And I wasn't even doing the hard stuff! I would pull off to the side of any jumps or drops or crazy-looking, elevated, wooden-bridge things... but Eric was doing it all.  Geez.  The reason it's so scary is because you are in control (as opposed to being strapped into a rollercoaster). Perhaps I should say "in control" since it really is hypothetical, at least for me.  At one point we were on a trail that was draping up and down across a narrow ravine - so you were blasting down one minute then immediately charging straight up again. And if you went too slow going down, you would get stuck going up and literally fall backward down the mountain.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I panicked at a fork and hit the brakes... let's just say I'm glad I was wearing a helmet.  Poor Eric thought I had broken my neck and I still remember him barreling through the trees to get to me in a panic.  It's actually kinda a sweet memory, just for that. :) So I didn't look too pretty on our date that night, with a swollen nose and scraped up face... but we still had a wonderful time.  We went to The Metropolitan, a famous steak house in Seattle, then out to a movie.  I'm pretty sure my sweet hubby had a great birthday.

On Sunday (Eric's actual birthday) our friends had us over for dinner and I brought his birthday cheesecake and took some pictures. I love this first one... it captures how much those 2 love their Daddy. 

love family

Papa and Ian sure love each other!

One of the fun crafts Gabe did with Grammy

Amy holding sick little Gage - poor baby

New Years Day dinner at Mom and Dad's

Colt and Gabe giggling together

Ian utterly enthralled with the candle flame... uh oh!

The best snow on earth

 

Utah really does have the best snow on earth.  Love it!  We went snowboarding one day with Mindy and Griff and Matt and Amy over Christmas break. What a perfect day. Soft, powdery snow, clear visibility, great temperatures, awesome company, my favorite resort... conditions couldn't have been better! It was astonishingly beautiful too. The trees were adorned with several inches of fresh snow, even the tiniest branches were stacked with it.  When the sun broke out of the clouds after lunch, it was magical.  It transformed the mountain into a glittering wonderland. The slopes sparkled like they were dusted in crushed diamonds, even the air was full of drifting fragments of ice crystals that reflected the sun like tiny pieces of glitter. All framed by stark white mountain slopes and a bright blue sky. It was breathtaking. I was so distracted at this point in the day that I may have had more enjoyment just staring around me than snowboarding! I knew my iphone pictures wouldn't do it justice but I couldn't help snapping away anyway! It was so fun for me to spend the day with a few of favorite people in the world. My siblings and their spouses are genuinely so fun to be with. I miss them!

sledding with the 4wheelers

Matt and Amy took us all out on their 4 wheelers one day.  It was soooo fun!! Everyone had a blast!  We all took turns on the quads and in the sled while the babies slept warm and toasty in the house... perfect!  After playing in the snow, we headed in to enjoy hot cocoa. Yummy.  What a fun day!

Nyah, Eric, and Gabe

Dad and Wesley

Gabe, me, Eric

Matt and Amy pulling all the kids on the sled.

Cute Logan and Nyah enjoying their hot cocoa.

Gabe and Wesley being as silly as can be!

Christmas 2012

It's only Valentine's Day and I'm finally finishing Christmas! Better late than never, I say. Especially with journals and blogs. Besides Christmas was so special, as always, that there is no way I could skip it.  So here it goes....

Lined up ready to see what Santa brought!!

Gabe and Wesley - what handsome boys!

Mom gave us a priceless gift of dozens of FHE lessons... laminated story figures, fish pole games, stories,even a flannel and white-erase board - everything you can imagine to make an absolutely fun, creative family night. It's amazing! It represents 100's of hours of work and I am so excited to use it!! Mom you're the BEST!!

 We spent the second half of the day at the Richardson's where we all got spoiled with more gifts and fun times!

Eric's cute sisters Cailtynn and Crystal

I think Nyah enjoyed the baby's exer-saucer even more than Ian! Silly girl!