Lyla's 3rd Birthday Party

 Lyla ask to watch Toy Story multiple times a day, so when I was thinking about a theme for her birthday that was at the top of the list and she got excited when I asked her if that's what she wanted. It was fun this year because she was old enough to realize what a birthday is and could help choose what she wanted.

This was her invitation that I kind of pieced together from different pictures online and using word to create the Lyla sign

As always I stole ideas from the internet and one was making a sign that looks like the Toy Story title on the movie but using the child's name. I just used butcher paper and scrapbook paper and really loved the way it turned out!

 I got lucky and the birthday banner I made for her first birthday matched the colors. I was happy to put it in good use again.

Apple Juice that became "Buzz Lightyear's Refueling Fluid" 

 The cupcakes were the aliens from the second movie. It was fun to make and Lyla loved it because the eyes were mentos mints which mint is one of her favorite flavors. The cupcakes themselves were just chocolate and vanilla though.

 Lyla and Korbin. All the kids got their own "Woody" cowboy hat to take home. Lyla got a little shy when Korbin put his arm around her. It was adorable.

 For dinner we had pizza from "Pizza Planet" which is a pizza place that they go to in the second movie. I just printed off the sign online and taped it to the boxes.

 The kids coloring Toy Story pictures

 After they colored the pictures we used them for musical chairs. When they stopped and sat down I called out a toy story character and if they were sitting on it they got out of the game but also got to choose a prize. Most of them didn't understand the concept and just wanted to sit on the picture they colored instead of the one they were walking next to. Ha, it was cute to watch though.

 We did the pinata next, which I decided to make instead of hunting around for a Toy Story one. I found a tutorial on-line and made it out of a diapers box! Then I covered it with crepe paper and printed off a Buzz and Woody picture to tape on the front.

Pin the sheriff badge on Woody.

 We sang to Lyla after the games and then ate cupcakes. 

 Presents were next. Lyla got spoiled with several new toys and a few clothes.

 After everyone went home I told Lyla to take off her clothes to get pajamas on. Well, she got her pants off, but then apparently got distracted by the yummy cupcakes that were left and hid under the table getting one last bite in.

 Lyla's sweet little friends. Don't they look so adorable on the couch all squeezed together?!

Crew, Kailee, Brookie, Lyla, Quinn, Korbin, Miles, Mac and Sadie

 I had SO much fun planning and putting together this party and I really enjoyed even more watching Lyla enjoy it with her little friends and cousins. Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

Fun with Bubbles/Food Coloring

 Sometimes we get bored just playing with toys. Then the movie watching requests start coming. Sometimes I give in, but really don't like to. So today we decided to do some "experiments" instead. The first was blowing bubbles using dish soap. We made big piles of bubbles, popped them, and did it again.

 The we tried oil, water, and then dropping in food coloring and watched it drop through the oil and then change the water color. It was fun to see it fill up the whole glass.

Lyla's Birthday Celebrations

 We are having a birthday party for Lyla this next Saturday because I just can't pass up throwing her a fun party with friends, but I still wanted her to feel special on her actual birthday and ended up spoiling her like crazy ALL day.

The night before I put up a "wall of balloons" for her to wake up to in the morning. I set my alarm and woke up early so I could sit in the hall and record her coming out. I was excited to see her reaction, but I should have known it would go the way it did. She is always slow to wake up and this morning was no different. She opened her door, eyes half closed and peeked around the balloons and saw me sitting there and says "mom??" (I'm usually in bed and I was sitting in the hall recording her today so she was a little confused). She annoyingly brushed the balloons aside and came and just sat down next to me. I laughed. She did run through them several times later that morning though and enjoyed them, just not in the way I had pictured in my mind, haha. 

She started the day off right by eating breakfast with Minnie

 

She got to watch Finding Nemo for a little while until grandma and grandpa came over and gave her her present which was a little camera. She LOVES taking pictures on my camera but I dont let her usually since it usually get thrown around by the time she is done with it. She loved it and just today has already taken 70 random pictures of us, Minnie, toys and anything else she saw.

 After breakfast and opening her camera we went to the grocery store and she got to pick out a donut and a balloon. She chose a Winnie the Pooh balloon and a chocolate donut.

 Then we met Shelly and Miles at a little indoor play place/amusement park 

(gma and gpa came with us)

 She ate her favorite: Mac n Cheese for lunch and took a nap. After nap we finished Nemo until dad got home and then we went to Costa Vida for dinner because one of Lyla's favorite things is "rice and beans" right now.

 After dinner we went to the trampoline place to jump all our energy out. She loves jumping and had a great time. Even Mac enjoyed crawling around and jumping a little

 They added a climbing wall since last time, Lyla tried it out but wasnt too fun without shoes on

We finished the night off right with ice cream from cold stone and a candle. We sang to her and she loved blowing the candle out. You could tell she felt special. She got to pick out whatever topping she wanted and she chose gummy bears

It was such a fun day for her and she was definitely spoiled all day long. I loved being able to celebrate this year since she was old enough to really understand what a birthday was and have some fun.

Lyla's Turns 3

Three years ago this spirited, fun, sassy, independent little girl was brought into our lives and changed it forever. You love all of your kids, but there is just something special about that first one. You are scared, not sure how to raise them or what to do. They become your "tester" as you try new things with them because they are the first. But they also bring something new to your life and change it like never before. This little sweetie has definitely brought lots of love, patience, and laughs to our family. 

This year she has gone from hardly saying any words to full sentences, stories and knows how to do all kinds of things. She is great with all of her motor skills and can practically climb anything.

*She can get herself dressed and undressed
*She is potty trained (except at night)
*Can do her own carseat buckles
*Just learned how to write an "L" for Lyla
*Counts to 10
*Points out all and every "L" she sees and always says "Mom! its L for Lyla!"
*Its been awhile, but for about 4-6 months in there she pointed out every flag, bus and motorcycle she saw. 
*Can recognize and name about 8 letters, but we are still working on that daily
*Still takes a nap every day but I have to wake her up after 1.5-2 hours so she will still go sleep at night at a reasonable time.
*Is suddenly requiring us to lay by her to go to sleep at night, not sure if its a separation thing, attention or if she's scared. We are working on this and not sure what made her start or how to end it without large amounts of screaming and crying
*Has recently started loving movies, her favorites by far are Finding Nemo and Toy Story. Mostly because those are 2 of the 4 kids movies we own
*Role play is by far her favorite thing. She carries around stuffed animals and babies all day and diapers them, puts them to bed, feeds them, talks to them and asks them questions. Still loves her kitchen and one of her favorite stuffed animals right now is Minnie Mouse. Minnie is as real to her as Mac is her little brother.
*Speaking of Mac, its a love/hate. She loves him, hugs him, wants him to wake up to play with her, wants to help take care of him. But she also hits him, takes his toys and hugs him too tight all day long. Most of the time she goes to time out because of the previous mentioned things. Yesterday she put herself in timeout right after she took his toy because she knew she was going there anyway.
*She loves to be outside
*Dance parties are a daily occurrence, usually she has to be wearing a dress-up dress

Funny/cute things she has said, mostly in the past 6 months:

Me: Lyla, Mom is in charge
Lyla: No, Lyla is in charge. And Mac is in charge.

I put on exercise clothes for a Relief Society enrichment which was a work-out activity. She asks me "mom, are you going to dance in front of the TV again?" (I have been trying to do zumba at home in the mornings)

She sees a school bus go by.
Can I go to school Mom?
Sure, one day when you're older
Can Papa go with me?

Um, soo.....(uses this a lot to start random conversations)

You ok honey?

I sang Twinkle Little Star and she decided to just listen instead of sing with me and then tells me "Good job Mom, you sang all by yourself"

Mom! I hear the trash can! (the garbage truck)

Bye poop, see ya lata! (later)

I'm going to the bathroom and of course she has to be in there with me and after I pee she says "Wow Mom, that was a BIG one!"

MAC!!! Oh my goodness....

Talking to her baby "You done? OK, one last bite. A big one."

Ugh...dangit

I was outside and she was inside so I rang the doorbell several times. She tells me "Mom, stop ringing the ding-dong!"

Me: Lyla, what do you want Santa to bring you?
Lyla: Thinks for quite awhile.....Hm, a toy
Me: Ok, what kind of toy?
Lyla: Thinks again for awhile....A Blue one

Holy Cow!

Baby, stop crying. Do you need to go ni-night?

We sure love this little girl and all that she brings to our lives and those around her. I am so excited for her to start preschool twice a week this next year and to watch her grow even more. She can be so strong headed and independent but those small moments she just calms down and softly strokes my cheek or wants to snuggle or give her a hug or kiss her owies better are the best. I know her strong personality will take her many places and do her good in the future. She is already moving more and more out of the terrible twos and turning more into a little girl.

Love you Lyla! Happy 3rd Birthday

Butter

Josh and I were in the kitchen preparing dinner when we realized we didn't know where Lyla was and she was being very quiet. I looked around for a minute and called her then saw her under the counter behind the stool eating a stick of butter. She had eaten several bites and probably would have continued if I let her. I guess I used to eat butter right out of the tub when I was little too. Ew

Valentine's Day

 

We (Lyla and I) woke up to a Valentine's surprise by Dad. On the counter was tulips and 2 cards for me. One card was a Vday card and the other was a coupon for someone to come clean the house for THREE hours! Excited about this because there is nothing I love more than a clean house, but I hate doing it and either taking time away from the kids to get it done or staying up late to finish. I'm sure even after 3 hours it will take 3 minutes to get messed up again, but hopefully the deep clean will get done at least. Lyla got a card with Tinkerbell on it and a little candy holder with conversation hearts inside. She loved it.

Later that evening we decided to just go out all as a family and went to a local restaurant close by called Hoppers. Its been a busy week for Josh with his boss in town from Belgium so we decided to celebrate just me and him on another day. After dinner we went to the mall and spoiled Lyla and let her pick out a Build-a-Bear. It was something Josh wanted to give her for Vday but let her pick out which one she wanted (she chose a rabbit) and we put a little heart in it that when you press it it sounds like a heartbeat.

Josh also gave me just before dinner a coupon for a couples massage to redeem on our future Vday date.

I gave him a card and a certificate for a cooking class that I signed us up for in March (that's whats in the little mailbox). Its a cheese and fondue class, one of his favorite things to eat. I also asked Lyla some questions about Josh and typed out the answers with a picture of them behind it.

The girls definitely got spoiled this year as usual! I am so lucky to have so many people who I love and love me. Especially Josh and the children. I feel so blessed to have all that I do and there is nothing better than a loving family.

Cabin Fun

 We have heard about "the cabin" for so long and finally got it worked out for everyone to get together and go! Marissa's family owns the cabin up in park city so we took off and met the Gwilliams and the Days up there this past Friday.

Right when we got there the kids were already settled in with the toys and Maia and Mac went to town digging everything out of the toy closet

 Nothing like a Toy Story couch! Just the perfect size for these two cuties

 After settling in we put the kids to bed and stayed up talking and playing cards. It was a lot of fun getting to goof around and actually have a conversation without the kids needing something. We stayed up until 1AM (we never do that anymore!) and finally called it quits knowing the kids would be up early.

 The next morning we hurried and ate our breakfast so we could get all our gear on to go outside

 It was a beautiful sunny day and hardly cold at all. There was a TON of snow out there and we couldn't wait to get sledding and snowmobiling!

 Lyla saw Cade and Connor with their goggles on and quickly requested her own also. They took over her face and looked so cute. Surprisingly she kept them on for a really long time.

 Getting ready to sled together behind the snomobile

 After sledding for an hour or so the kids went in for awhile to rest up for more fun later. Josh and I went out with Aaron on the snowmobiles and went up a really fun trail to the top of one part of the mountain. It was so beautiful and peaceful up there. Since it was Josh's first time driving a snowmobile we may have got stuck and/or tipped it over several times which called for Aaron to have to come dig us out, ha. I forgot my camera on our little trip but we sure had fun just riding around together.

When we got back we told the boys to get all the kids suited up to come back outside and while they got ready Marissa, Jen and I snuck out to go sledding together. Cade and Conner joined us at first but then the girls just went by ourselves after and got to fast and tried to push each other off our sleds. Jen fell a million times and we laughed and laughed. It was awesome

When we got back the kids were ready and got in the gear toboggan so we could ride over to the sledding hill. 

 Sledding with dad

 The sledding hill was perfect. It was about a half mile away from the cabin. Wasn't too steep, not to short. It was great for both the kids and adults. The BEST part of all though: no climbing the hill. You just jumped in the toboggan and Aaron pulled us back up the hill with the snowmobile. IT.WAS.AWESOME. The best way to sled for sure. We were definitely spoiled.

Here's Cade and Jen. Cade and Connor went snowboarding and showed off their skills.

 Brookie and Lyla went down by themselves together a few times. It was so cute to see their little bodies just racing down the hill together.

After sledding we went back and had a delicious dinner together and then packed up to go. All of the kids were pooped and ready for naps by the time we got out of there! Lyla fell asleep in the car in about .2 seconds after having no nap and playing hard all day.

We had a blast last weekend and hope we get to go back again soon!