My Artists

Collin was sitting on my lap and wanted his picture taken. We were a little close to each other, but that's okay....it just showcases his beautiful eyes!

I put Anna's easel together for her and the kids really love it. We painted on it and had a great time, but they also really enjoy drawing on the dry erase board and are getting quite creative with their creations. Here's Anna's first try at painting.....

Benjamin was so excited for his turn. He drew a sun, car, and tree house........

Collin has followed his brother in forming a love of Buzz Lightyear. He points out Buzz every time he sees him. So when the kids were each picking out a little toy one day at the store, I got him his own little Buzz and he loves it. Here he is happily saying "Buh!"

He also really likes making things fly. Benjamin and he will adorably walk around the house flying their airplanes, but Buzz is who gets flown the most......

When he flies things, he purses his lips like this and makes a shh sound as you can see below. It's pretty stinkin' cute!

One of the presents I gave Anna for her birthday was this adorable little apron to wear when we cook together....

Dave had a meeting right after work on Wednesday and so the kids and I were on our own through bedtime. They aren't too fond of missing out on Daddy time for an entire day, so I thought we'd have a fun movie night and watch a new movie together. Every time they all get snuggled in their couches it makes me smile and of course reach for the camera....

You should have seen how desperate they were for their Daddy the next day when he had to be gone at work again all day. Makes us feel very blessed that he has a job where he comes home pretty much everyday at supper time!

Thursday evening was an Art Show for our kids preschool. Most of the things they make come home right away, but they save a bunch of really great ones and decorate the class rooms for the parents to come see and let the kids show off how great they are doing. Benjamin's class has been working really hard on making lots of great art for the show for months and so he was very excited for us to finally come and see all of his great work. Anna just goes one day a week and it seems like all the snow days and sick days seem to fall on Wednesdays (her day) and she has missed quite a few weeks. I figured she wouldn't have as many pieces of art then, but was so happily surprised when I saw her teachers had kept her caught up on almost every single thing! Here she is with her very hungry caterpillar.....

Upside-down girl....

This bulletin board was filled with all the kids pictures on fire trucks like they were driving them with the name of a song they learned, "Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck." Anna gets pretty bashful when I try to get her to sing me songs she learns, but she was so excited after learning this one and sang it proudly for us the whole way home. :)

At the beginning of the year, they asked us to give them a few pictures of her family to display in the class to help the kids be more comfortable. So I had to snap a picture of Anna's cute collage they made....

Benjamin and Daddy checking out Anna's fish and also a cloud she painted (top, right).

Anna with her teachers, Miss Gayle and Miss Karen.

Benjamin was so sweet patiently waiting and actually suggesting we got to Anna's class first because he was excited to see Anna's artwork. Love those sweet moments!!! (sometimes only the opposite seem to exist between these two) Anyway, he was so excited when it was finally time to go up to his class. They decorated their cubbies where they hang their coats and backpacks with elephants and Native American shields that they created....

I remember the day they made these name signs. Benjamin was so excited about putting all the letters of his name in order all by himself. The poor guy has had a hard time learning his name with how long it is!

I was so excited to see the hand print swans they had made (his is the bottom one). He had described to me how they used their hands to make the swans and then their pinkies to make orange beaks. What a neat project! He's also happily holding his award that he and Anna both received for their hard work.

His chalk drawing. They each drew whatever they wanted (I think they were all three things). His is top row, third over and he drew our house, our dog, and his Momma. :)

I was really impressed with this one he did. His teachers put out this basket of food that Benjamin is holding below and had them draw what they saw. In my very unbiased opinion, I thought he did great!

Proudly showing his Daddy a bunch of his work....

He colored the tower we climbed together (behind him) and they got to paint some pottery too. He said that was his favorite piece of artwork at the show (his is the one all the way to the right).

He was so bashful when I asked him to get pictures with his teachers. This is him and Mrs. Drake....

and with Miss Clare.....

Some snapshots of their year so far......

Benjamin playing with play dough.......

and riding a firetruck at the Touch-A-Truck field trip that they went on.

We had a great time watching them show us all their creations and of course were very proud!

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Anna had her 3 year check up this week. She measured in at 39 inches tall (95th percentile) and weighs 33 pounds (75th percentile). She's measuring taller on the growth chart than she used to (around the 70th percentile) which wasn't too much of a surprise as she's seemed to have grown a ton to us! Mostly we're just very happy that she is healthy!!

Yee haw! It's a Jessie Party! :)

At the kids' preschool, they get to bring a special treat for snack time to celebrate their birthdays. So Anna picked out M&M cookies and we brought them in on Wednesday so she could celebrate with her friends. Her teachers gave her a special crown and she was so excited to show me!

Jealous brother wanted his picture taken too. He's struggled a little bit with his sister's extra birthday attention. Check out those dimples!!

This was not staged at all..... somehow the kids managed to launch an attack on both their parents in the same evening!

We've gotten the bikes out a few times and it became quite obvious that Anna's little toddler tricycle was too small for her. So we used some of her Christmas and birthday money and got her a big girl bike. It was crazy hard to put together (of course she had to have the one that was in pieces in a box) but it was all worth it to see her joy!

Jessie even has a place to sit!

On Saturday we FINALLY got to have our Jessie party (Anna decided about 6 months ago that she wanted a Jessie party and has already informed me that she wants a unicorn party for her next birthday). Let me start by saying there are basically no Jessie party stuff out there. I have spent hours on the internet looking for ideas, decorations, balloons, etc. and the absolute only thing I found was an idea to make Jessie's hat cookies (which are on the end of the table). So I had to improvise a lot. But we made it happen and Anna loved it!

I kind of just played it by ear for Anna's Jessie cake and ended up with this.

Anna loved everything, so that's all I needed. It is such a blessing to bring joy to these little ones! :) Here she is checking everything out after she came down from her nap.....

The birthday girl posing with her ever-growing stack of presents. She would ask each person as they came in the door, "Did you bring me a present?" She was so very excited!! (it was a long wait watching both brothers have birthdays before her) Isn't she beautiful?!?!

To come up with more ways to have Jessie things at the party, I decided to print off some coloring pages for the kids. Anna excitedly helped me set up the tables.....

Pleased little girl!

I spent hours looking for a balloon that has Jessie on it but found none. So I edited a movie poster of Jessie holding a three from Toy Story 3 and made prints to put all over the house.

Eating with some of her friends!

Anna also really loves Bullseye (the horse from the Toy Story movies). In my internet searching, I found a pin the tail on Bullseye. I wasn't sure if the kids would like it or not and it ended up being a big hit! Here's Anna getting ready to go first....

It's hard to see Anna with her excited audience.....

She got pretty close!

Collin took a late nap that day and so he was still eating while the kids played and definitely enjoyed his supper entertainment!

Benjamin got really close too!

After all the kids had a turn, they insisted their beloved Mike (who came early and gave us a big helping hand getting ready for the party, thanks Mike!) try it too!

Anna getting ready to open presents.....

The first one she opened was a skirt our friend Michelle got her so she could dance her ballet in. She's really getting into trying to do ballet, so I think we're going to sign her up for a class soon. Needless to say she loved the skirt and wore it the very next day!

She was so sweet running up and happily thanking everyone. Here she's thanking our friend Ryan for all her Hello Kitty presents.....

It was so fun watching her tear into her presents with so much excitement!

Opening a fun easel from Grandma and Grandpa......

I think this is by far their favorite gift. My sister put Anna's face on princess pictures and then made a memory game for her. Benjamin and Anna are really, really into playing memory right now and so my sister really had such a great idea! It's only been about 24 hours since the party and we've played easily 30 games by now!

Thank you Aunt Katie!!!!

Checking out a fun Dora guitar from cousin Jack.....

We had already given her our big present, but I had some fun little things for her to unwrap. Unfortunately, our basement flooded the night before her party. Dave and I were up until about 3:30 frantically trying to get the water up. Thankfully, we have a pretty nice home owner's insurance coverage and are having some people take care of the major cleanup of it. Dave and I were handling the whole thing pretty well. However, I lost it and started crying when I remembered at about 2 am that her bag of presents were on the floor in the storage room that had been covered in water. Everything was soaked and at the time I was thinking there was no way I'd be able to find the time to clean the present for her. After we got the ball rolling on getting outside help to fix the basement and I had sucked up most of the standing water, I cleaned off the plastic toys and threw the cloth ones in the wash and was thankfully able to get everything ready for her. It was a silly thing to get emotional about, but I was just really wanting a special day for my special girl and was afraid that wasn't going to happen. We are so blessed though and ended up having a fantastic party for our cupcake and she loved the things I had picked out for her.....

Benjamin and Anna enjoying all the new gifts....

Collin giving his tough guy expression (one that's often on his face) while toddling around with Cousin Katrina......

Anna happily waiting for the Happy Birthday to Yous to begin. :)

Happy Birthday!!!!!

We had some very happy kids on our hands with all the sweet treats!!!

The kids were getting a little wild after all that sugar, so I thought they needed something fun to focus on. Benjamin's Aunt Kelly got him a dancing Wii game for his birthday. The kids just have to hold the Wii remote and do the same dance moves on the screen and it tracks how well they are doing. It is a really fun game and Benjamin just loves it! All the kids had so much fun dancing (especially our little hip shaker, Collin) which meant all the adults had a great time watching!

It was a great party and we are so thankful to have so many wonderful family and friends who are excited to love on our little girl and celebrate her with us!