Overheard

Anne: "Why is Doctor Chilton [from "Pollyanna"] called Doctor Chilton?"
Me: "Because he's a doctor.  What do you think Dad is called at work?"
Anne: "Doctor Daddy!"

Overheard

Anne: “I can't believe that I'm a doctor. And I'm a good doctor!”

Overheard

Anne (while watching "7 Brides for 7 Brothers"): “Mom, the only fun part about being married is kissing on the lips.”

Overheard

Andy: “I remember everything. ... Except what it's like to be in Mama's tummy.”

Bonus:

Anne: “Hale-you-la!!”

Orc

Anne is going around saying she's an Orc. Everybody feigns fear and runs away, so she tells us she is a good Orc. From "Singin' in the Rain." When asked where there is an Orc in the movie she responded: "The man says, 'Black is best when you're an Orc.'"

And she's right. 

Clothed

Anne loves Beak. Her pink bear. Yesterday (I didn't get a picture, unfortunately), she kept asking me to tie and re-tie some baby washcloths on Beak for clothes. She had a shirt and a skirt. Anne loved it. She was so sad when she lost the original washcloth at the grocery store yesterday. I, however, was not as we have so many of those things that end up scattered all over the house. I assured her we would find a replacement, which we did before lunch. 

This morning Anne was asking for a re-tie and I thought I could do something a little more permanent. 

Anne loves it and she has informed me that Beaky loves her new dress, too. 

And I love felt for quick projects!

It has been so fun to see Anne and how happy she is about Beaky and her dress. 

First day of school

We now have three kids in school! I can hardly believe it. Benny, Andy, and Lilia have all been so excited to start school for pretty much the whole summer. 

I remembered to make signs as we were ready to head to the bus stop. It took four different markers to get them done since apparently all of ours are about out of ink. 

Janie gets to join us at the bus stop, now!

The day before school started, Spencer texted to suggest I take the little girls to the children's museum or the zoo on the first day of school. I knew I would need to do something, but, quite frankly, I did not want to set the bar too high!  We settled on a bike ride to the park. 

Janie's first ride on the merry-go-round. Despite what it looks like, she did love it. 

She also insisted on a solo ride on the "big girl swing."  This little girl thinks she is a big girl and ready to keep up with her big brothers and sisters! She's just about there, too. 

And this beautiful girl loves any chance to swing in the little kid swings. I don't ever put her in them, but she has a friend we met there to thank for this ride!

After getting home we had lunch followed by nap time for the three of us at home. Even Anne slept (I am hoping for more of that this year)!! I must say, it was a great first day of school for everyone!

Princesses

This little girl:

loves princesses more than anything. Her favorite game is "Princess the princess." Her own invention. Here she is watching "Tangled." I love watching Anne watch her princesses. She gets the cutest looks on her face. 

Zombie bride?

Anne started walking around saying, “I'm a zombie!”

February birthdays: Anne

I think these first two are a repeat, but this was the morning of Anne's birthday. She came in initially complaining that Andy kept saying she was three. I said she was three. “No, I not. I two,” she replied. We finally convinced her she is three and she loved all the happy birthday singing all day. 

This was one of our snow days for the kids and Spencer was home, too! We were all able to take it easy. 

I wish this picture were better, but we were watching Sleeping Beauty as a family (Anne's favorite) and Anne just loved it. 

The other spectators:

After the movie we made party hats! The kids love these. It has been a fun, if sporadic, tradition. 

The roads were clear enough that we went to Chicago's Pizza for their lunch buffet. The kids love it! We had a great time. 

Most of us had our party hats on still, and at one point the manager came up and wished the birthday kids a happy birthday. Then he told us we could go to the adjoining frozen yogurt place and request free frozen yogurt! He came back a little later and said he already talked to the owner/manager over there so we could just head over. It turns out we all got a free frozen yogurt! It was very generous and we all. Enjoyed it.

Anne's birthday dinner: quinoa with beans, peppers, cilantro lime dressing, and I think we even had avocado. Delicious!

And here she is wearing Lilia's Snow White dress – Lilia's birthday present to Anne. 

The group. 

Still don't have the camera pictures yet, so the cake pictures will come later. Here is Anne with her favorite! A Sleeping Beauty dress with some necklaces. She has worn that dress most days since her birthday. Luckily grandma and grandpa's present that came a little late had a duplicate dress! She has been able to trade and occasionally even share with Lilia!

Our February birthday kids!

Happy third birthday, Anne! We love your many faces, your smile, your laugh, and all your different mannerisms. One of my favorites is your love of a dancing dress and all things princess. We love you, Annie Banannie!

Injuries

I don't remember exactly what happened, but Anne banged her lip pretty hard ad ended up with a bit of a fat lip. Poor girl. 

The next day. 

A day or two after Anne, Lilia wanted to join the club! You can't see it very well, but Lilia banged her lip. Thankfully they both got over it pretty fast. 

Sunday hair

With 9a church this year (!!!), we do our best to have the kids bathed Saturday night. Makes things much easier the next morning. A couple of times Anne has gotten braids after bath so she can have curly hair for church. Her braids are looking better and better since her hair is growing, but what I really needed a picture of is the Sunday hair. It gets frizzy curly and it's so cute. And Anne loves it. I'll have to try for a picture next time. 

And, just because:

Janie, post-bath. 

Finding Chapstick

Dress-ups

I had wanted to make some princess crowns and superhero masks for a while and I had gotten a whole lot of felt to do just that.  Unfortunately the felt sat it bags for a while until I decided to make some beards!  I was doing sharing time in primary and wanted to have some kids dress up as some prophets.  And they would be perfect to add to the dress-up box and to use for the nativity!

Then I decided to go ahead with the crowns and masks.  They were pretty fun and the kids really like them.

Already growing up so fast!

Such beautiful princesses!

Such tough superheroes!

Here Anne is modeling the Rapunzel crown I made for Dominic and Jen's kids.  We had them for Christmas and I thought they would love some dress-up stuff for their collection.

Jen sent me these pictures of their kids.  I am so glad they are enjoying them!

Not pictured: The Incredible Hulk and Batman

Alright, alright.  Here is Hulk.

Lots of random happenings

I don't know where they got the idea, but Benny and Andy wanted to fly and made some suits for it.

Needed: haircut

Our timer shot to get a picture for Grandma's and Grandpa's Christmas card.

This turned out pretty well, but we ended up getting a nice one later.

Our Thanksgiving "Thankful Tree."

Our flax...

I had left our open 50 pound bag of flax up on my chair.  I think I knew this would happen.

A school worksheet of Andy's.

Our scavenger.

A growing Thankful Tree.

Andy's turkey from art class.

We finally got to visit with our good friends the Clarks who live in Ohio!  We are so grateful they were able to come and spend a long afternoon and evening with us.  It had been years since we had seen each other in Provo and it is fun to be close enough for visits like this.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids, but they played so well together.  Just like old times!  This is a picture of Chris and Laura pointing to a note Laura had written on our white board in Provo after a dinner we had with friends.  We kept it this long, I think we have to keep it forever now.

Disguises:

Lilia disguised as Benny.

I am not sure who this is!

Anne disguised as Andy.