Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Miss Amelia Turns One!

Little Cindy Who. She loves to eat cucumbers, sweet potatoes, frozen peas, raisins, homemade bread, and pretzels.
Amelia loves to steal hats! You might not be able to tell, but she's also in her favorite place in the world--Daddy's arms! She would rather be clinging to him like a monkey than be anywhere in the world!
Mia is super sweet. She isn't a fussy kid (unless she's hungry, tired, or has a stinky diaper) and is usually very, very happy. A friend at church told me 2 weeks ago that he heard her crying for the first time (it was because she saw Daddy but couldn't get him to come and hold her). We've never had such a happy kid, and we're so grateful for her attitude since she's already been through some pretty challenging stuff (i.e., body cast for 3 months). Amelia even likes strangers and will let them hold her if they have good jewelry on. She smiles at almost everyone and really makes people feel special!
Amelia's birthday started out pretty typically for our family--presents!
She loved her new bead thingy (until her bigger brother tried to steal it from her!)
She had to seriously consider the clothes she got. "Future Prima Ballerina"? Winner!
Our little bird got a little bird cake! It was very yummy.
And yes, she and Sheridan did have to share a family party! The Birds and Blasers joined us for the celebration.
If you're wondering how she felt about cake...I can't believe she ate the whole thing! She got right down to business (even though she'd had at least 2 pieces of homemade pizza!) and devoured the cake.
Other random facts about Amelia:

She adores her siblings. If she hears them, she wants to go play with them!
She has a few words: Dada, Mama, and kitty cat (kee-ca). She loves to babble in a mix of Chinese and German (at least, I think those are the mixed-up languages she's speaking. Maybe I should verify that...).
Amelia can sign quite a few other words: food/eat, finished, more, bath...she was using the signs a lot a few months ago but is giving us the hand silent treatment these days.
Daddy is her FAVORITE. She would rather be clinging to him like a little monkey than doing just about anything.
Amelia is crawling and cruising around but not walking yet. The other day she stood for a few seconds, which was cause for great cheering. She is pretty fast and generally leaves a trail of chaos behind her...you can follow her from the cleaned out pantry (all over the floor now, thanks) to the cleaned out tupperware (again, all over the floor) to the cleaned out bookshelf (and now...you guessed it! books are all over the floor). Keeping up with her is great exercise!
We are so grateful that our little sweet Amelia is part of this family! If all babies were as nice as she is, I think I'd have a dozen more...

Friday, March 16, 2012

Super Mermaid Sheridan Turns 5

You are cordially invited to enjoy Sheridan's birthday!
Message in a bottle invitations for the Saturday party.
As usual, on Sheridan's birthday morning, she woke up to a pile of fantastic fun! Spoiled ROTTEN :)
Friday night, we had my brother's family and UncleCoreyAuntJenni over for dinner (the usual birthday fare--pizza) and cake. Sheridan loved being the center-of-attention while everyone sang to her!
Our own Little Mermaid, ready to PAR-TAY! My friend works for the company http://blog.playfullyeverafter.com/, and this party is featured in their blog...so it's a little more involved usual.
We made bracelets and crowns while the girls were arriving. It was a great craft to keep everyone involved before the group games started.
"You look gorgeous!" "No, Darling, you look divine! I love your hand-beaded bracelet!"
A rousing game of "Don't Eat Flounder"! (you can download the board at http://blog.playfullyeverafter.com/)
Because mermaids often find themselves without a voice, we practiced Charades.
I was impressed by some of the girls' acting abilities--and equally impressed with how quickly the other girls guessed the right answer. These kiddos knew their Little Mermaid stuff!
Playing "Pin the Kiss on Prince Eric". A must-do to wrap-up any Ariel party!
I had so much fun making this! All you need is a big ol' piece of cardboard, craft paints, an overhead projector, and a picture to trace. Beam that picture onto your cardboard via the projector and trace it. Then get your paint on! It was great to pull out my craft paints and get to work.
Look! Sebastian even made it into the picture!The tablescape. I don't normally DO tablescapes, but sometimes....
Snacks were goldfish, starfish cookie-pops, "sea" vegetables, blue jello fish cups, sushi sandwiches, gummi fish skewers, and sea foam punch. Oh, and cake, of course!
This cake was a LOT of fun to make! Combo of fondant and buttercream. I did get my inspiration from pintrest and my figures from the disney store.
Just so you know, I don't normally do over-the-top parties. For me, this was over-the-top---WAY over! Tablescapes? Lots of snacks? Dude, the kids usually get a cake and something to drink. But...= success! It took a LOT of prep but it was so much fun!
Fav color: Pink
Fav food: Pizza
Fav animal: kittens and puppies
Fav place to go: restaurants (especially with Daddy) and the beach!
BFF: Yellow Bear
Fav things to do: Play at Clair's, Dance, Play Computer, Put on "Shows", Go to School, Have Family Home Evening, Play House, Go to Church Parties, and Open Presents (this is the list, straight from her mouth).

Sheridan is starting to read pretty well. It's so fun to watch the progress as she went 4 months ago from recognizing the word "Big" on her sister's PJ's to reading from the scriptures with liberal help! I honestly can't believe my little girl has turned 5!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Because Christmas was only 2.75 months ago...

What? Was I supposed to get this up earlier, like say, in December or perhaps January?
Wasn't gonna happen. But you should probably be familiar with that by now. Most of the picts are fairly self-explanatory...
Decorating the tree! One of our favorite activities each December!
"Hmmm, which purple ornament do I want to put up next?"
Amelia got into the spirit of the season by eating whichever ornaments she could get her little hands on! We de-hooked them first, don't worry : / Any time an ornament fell, she was more than willing to take care of it in her own special way!
We had our friends, the Pedersons, over for dinner right before Christmas. The kids put on a play.
Uh, obviously NOT a Christmas play! But they were so darned CUTE!!! You could tell they'd made up the play themselves, due to a lack of a plot. But there were princesses and a Nemo, so everyone wins!
And then Santa came over! We were totally shocked but SO HAPPY!! The kids love a good visit from Santa, and this Santa was GOOD. He even had twinkly eyes and rosy cheeks...and reindeer bells. It was awesome!
"Why yes, I would like a candy cane. This old dude ROCKS!"
"What do you mean, I have to be good? I think I'll take the cookie and run!"
This is the first year Sheridan sat on Santa's lap without freaking out. Nary a tear!
He was a VERY VERY good Santa!
Sheridan's preschool program. Pretty cute and fun!
We also did the usual Nativity play as a family. Sheridan declared that she would always be Mary. When asked it Amelia might like a turn someday, she blew it off by stating, "She can just be an angel or something." Sheridan was not happy when we wouldn't let her grimy Yellow Bear stand in as Baby Jesus. We are so mean.
The tree is ready. Just add kids. (Christmas morning)
The three oldest opening gifts. I love how excited they were about each other!
Amelia slept in until it was almost time for church...which was probably a good thing! She was a little unsure of what to make of all the gifts and wrapping debris.
Can I tell you, I loved having church on Christmas? I wish we did it every year! Such a great way to feel the Spirit and really drive home the reason for the holiday.
We enjoyed dinner up at the Martins' with their extended family. No pictures, but it was delicious (dinner) and entertaining (family). We hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas. If you're wondering why you never got a Christmas card, I submit this blog to you as evidence. Evidence? Yes, evidence that I may never be on top of things to get cards out. :)
Happy March!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Cast off




In celebration of a follow-up appointment with Amelia's pediatric orthopedist which may not have been the best but certainly wasn't the worst, here are pictures of Mia in November, fresh out of the cast!
Look at those skinny little legs! This is the day she got it OFF and look how happy she is (and how her tongue sticks out when she's focused!)
And here's about 2 weeks later, when she'd stopped flipping herself over while trying to hard to reach for something (reaching stuff was SO MUCH EASIER when she didn't have to pull a cast that weighed 1/3 her body weight with her!) and could get up on all 4!
Here she is about a month post-cast sitting up! Fairly wobbly, but sitting up!

Now Amelia can cruise all around the living room, pull up on anything higher than herself.
And despite the nearly break-free care I gave her, her favorite person in the world?
Daddy.
Can't say that I blame her, though. He's my favorite person, too!
In all reality, I was very concerned that Amelia would have a hard time adjusting to having the cast off. I read horror stories about a long adjustment period, but she did great. She slept better, ate better, and took to naked legs like a fish to water. She might be the exception, though, since she's a pretty easy-going kid. The transition into the cast wasn't nearly as rough for her as I worried it would be (so maybe that's a good measure of how well a kid will do coming out of the cast...)
She's been a in an abduction brace at night but the doctor cleared us of that on Tuesday. Unfortunately, her right hip isn't looking quite right and the angle on her left hip is steep. What does that mean? Maybe nothing. Apparently, walking really helps the hip sockets form, so Dr. Marcy is really anxious for her to start walking. It may mean hip surgery when she's between 2 and 4 years (with another lovely Spica Cast). The reality is, there's nothing we can do and no way we can know what's in store. So, like most things, we'll take is as things come and pray for the best.