Happy Birthday Grandma Phillips!

I am WAY behind on my posts, Grandma's b-day was 3 weeks ago. Here we are celebrating at our house. Grandma and all of her Spokane Grandkids... we missed you Hunter and Noah!

This is how we roll....

First off, when Brayden got home from school on Monday we headed straight to Toys-R-Us to get the girls' birthday balloons and crowns. All of them also got to spend their gift cards from Uncle Ryan from Christmas! They were ecstatic, and on VERY good behavior. I have to say, I think it was the first time it was successful with all three of them in that store. (successful means no crying, screaming, running away, throwing or shrieking!). Yes, it was a good day!

Here they are getting their balloons, apparently it's fascinating to watch them get blown up!

This was one of their purchases: Barbie, Ariel and Spiderman kites. We weren't all that successful in flying them that day, but hopefully soon we'll get it figured out. More wind maybe? More patience Mommy? hhhmmm?

This is my favorite! We pulled home yesterday and there was a package on our porch! A box from Uncle Ryan! I have to say my brother gives the BEST gifts. I really don't know how he does it, or how he knows, (he doesn't have kids, or really even like kids. hehehe) but his gifts are definitely the BEST! Yet again, he did not fail......

Princess and Dora roller skates! I don't know who was more excited, them or Brayden.

Our friend, Madison, was over at our house when the skates were delivered. Madison and Brayden got a little more use out of the skates than the girls did....they were a little more brave!

How cute is she? Sassy Miss Madison!

Party on Party People!

First off, this is a follow up of the tooth fairy coming to our house. Brayden is holding up his pillow, but you can't see the shiny half dollar on top of it. Yes, he did get more than a dime! YAY, for a fun party weekend! My college room mate, Julie, and her son, Carter came for the weekend! It was so great to have them here. Brayden and Carter got along amazingly well, until somebody touched someone the wrong way, then they had to be angry for a few minutes....then friends again! Talk about emotional roller coasters. They did a great job overall! :) And as always, it's always so fun to see Julie. We were telling our kids how we used to live together, and it seemed crazy that we only lived to together for two years! (Julie transferred to UW our junior year). It seems like we have known each other forever and have always been connected, funny to think we were only together for two years....but they were an inseparable two years! She is also an SLP so it's always fun to talk about our clients, and she always has good ideas for my little ones.

This is Carter, zooming by on his bike.

Carter, Dani and Ellie. Saturday night we got a baby-sitter and Kent, Julie and I went to the White House Grill for dinner (love it)! It was so nice to be able to sit and chat and catch up for a couple of hours without interruptions.....after dinner and a few party errands we were back home by 7:30 to put the kids to bed. Once they all were in bed it was on to cake decorating. WHOA! This was a much bigger task than I was planning for. I baked the cakes during the day, and I decided to make TWO cakes, since Ellie wanted pink and Dani wanted yellow. I had four layers total, then decided the cakes would be too flat so I added one more layer to each of them. Three layers for my three year olds....

This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. It was a disaster from the beginning, the layers kind of plopped out of the pans and broke and crumbled to pieces. No worries, that's what frosting is for..

This is Julie's project, it turned out way better than mine...

4 cans of frosting later, between both of us, + I had to MAKE my own, to help piece some final holes together, this is the masterpiece:

You can't tell from this pic. (Julie has much better ones) but it is so lumpy, and bumpy it was amazing that it stayed together until the party. At one point I finally said, "Ok, it's going in the fridge before I destroy it anymore!" Julie and I almost peed our pants laughing so hard at the masterpiece, but the next day no one even cared, I am sad to say that Kent's family is used to my disasters! But it was so good, it didn't matter how awful it looked!

A girl's best friend! Julie and Carter got the girls new shoes! They were thrilled and immediately put them on with their party dresses!

Hair brushed and ready for their birthday breakfast.

Julie and Carter ready to party.

Cousin Owen ready to party.

Carter and Brayden partying!

Dani and Ellie in their new princess chairs from Grandma Phillips. They didn't get out of them for the rest of the day AND she got them chap stick! They had no interest in any other presents.

Yes, they are holding soap. That is one of the gifts we got them, it turned into a big joke. Sandy asked Kent what she should get for them, and Kent said, "Get them some soap, they don't need anything and they can always use soap!" Sandy was disgusted by this, but Ellie said, "I want pink soap!" From that day on, whenever anyone asked what she wanted for her B-day she said, "Pink soap!" By the time her B-day came, I had to get her pink soap, and Dani wanted yellow soap.

Jax beach shirts from Uncle Pete, nice clashing tights and their new shoes! Lookin' good ladies!

The masterpieces!

Tastes good though!

AND they got new jammies/nightgown from Auntie Shelby. They have worn them every night since, and I have to pry them off of them in the mornings. They don't understand why you can't just wear them everywhere we go....I really wish we could, but people frown upon it.

Happy Happy Birthday girls!

I apologize sincerely to all of my neighbors!

Really?!? My weekend is starting off like this....the girls are trying to "give up" their nap times and I am really TRYING to deal with this nicely. Today they didn't seem tired and they all were playing nicely, so I didn't even bring up a "rest time," instead we headed to the park. Am I not such a fun mom? I thought this would keep them busy, they could burn off some energy and then Kent would be home. :) What a great plan in theory.... we were at the park for maybe 10 minutes when the melt-downs began. First Brayden hit his face on his bike, IDK how, but he managed to scrape his cheek, I did the necessary hugging and soothing, but before B was finished screaming and shrieking Ellie starts in. Apparently she wants to go home, but she wants to go home a DIFFERENT WAY!!! Ok, I don't care, that's fine, we can go the other way, but then Dani starts screaming because that's the WRONG WAY! Seriously? Why would we be able to have a nice, relaxing time at the park, we need to scream and fight about which way we're going to leave in 40 minutes? Who cares? Well, apparently B did not get enough soothing from me so he is SCREAMING at me, (which is really nice) "You are so mean, I got hurt and you didn't even help me! I AM HURT!"

me: "Yes, I know, that is very clear, what do you need me to do?" Meanwhile, the girls are STILL screaming about which way to go home.

B: "YOU ARE SO MEAN! I AM NEVER GOING TO TALK TO YOU AGAIN!"

Me: "Ok, well I guess I can't help you." (I was quite proud, I didn't raise my voice once, and I just gave him a super sweet plastered on smile).

B: "Well I NEED a kiss to make it better."

Me: (Is it horrible that I am thinking that, that is the last thing I want to do right now, while my children are shaking the earth from their ear piercing screams?) I buck up and plant one right on him, then I stalk up the hill with one screaming child in front of me and two screaming children behind me. :)

Low and behold I look up to see my friend, Julie, coming out onto her deck. (The back of her house is right on the edge of the park. Not so good in situations like this, I know I wouldn't want to listen to these kinds of trips to the park).

I'm pretty sure she was coming out to check and make sure I wasn't seriously hurting my kids. Oh no, I was just walking along with a crazy, pasted smile on my face....we chatted for a minute in between the blood curdling whimpers.......

Needless to say, we are home, EVERYONE is in their room for a time-out or rest, or whatever you want to call it.....for a long, long time......

Have a good weekend! :)

Clarification

I was NOT the one to suggest a dime from the tooth fairy. I am cheap, but not that cheap. I was thinking more along the lines of a dollar per tooth. When Brayden's tooth came out he screamed, "I will get a DIME from the tooth fairy!" It should be noted that we have not taught him the value of various coins....when we do, I think we'll be in trouble.

The tooth fairy was generous and he received more than just a dime. In fact, he got a full half-dollar coin! Originally he was going to get two half dollars, but Kent made a good point in saying that it may be difficult to come across more half-dollars when he loses the next ones, so the tooth fairy scaled it back to just one, but still, that's better than a dime right?

Yay me!

All right, I am feeling pretty good...I have been such a "Debbie Downer" lately, I apologize! The flu bug passed through the kids and I over the past few days, and now we're back on track and as healthy as ever. Which leads me to my list of productiveness: (I know it's really sad that I have to take note of this, but these are huge accomplishments that make me feel better about my day)

1. All kids up, showered, dressed and fed by 8:30. (no this does not happen every morning, the showering part at least).
2. Brayden finished his homework.
3. I scrubbed the downstairs toilet/bathroom and cleaned the basement so it would be presentable for my clients today.
4. Dusted the entryway.
5. Cleaned the kitchen (washed all the dishes, unloaded dishwasher and cleaned off ALL the counters, (this is huge, the mail is organized and all the randoms got put away).
6. Cleaned out the girls closet and filled up 2 bags of hand-me-downs.
7. Ironed B's shirt for pictures today.
8. Got the oil changed in the van.
9. While the oil was being changed, walked to the coffee stand and dropped off a latte to my MIL. I love that she works so close and I can do that. (I don't know that her boss really appreciates it, but WE do)!
10. Sped home, fed the girls lunch, put their party dresses on, picked up B and headed to pictures at Sears.
11. Spent an hour and a half getting pictures taken and picking them out! This was the first time in 3 years where I wasn't sweating profusely through the whole process. All the kids did such a great job listening and posing and smiling! I was quite impressed, we got some good pics.!
12. Now I just have 4 clients to see, then on to dinner and bed time! YAY for a wonderful productive day!

Which is more annoying "Debbie Downer" or "Happy Heidi?"

Hopefully you can view their pics. at: www.searsphotos.com
id: 41038A11123768
password: 3JFPF3KYM

I will post them when I pick them up!

He lost it......

His first baby tooth is missing! It was loose for a while, and this morning it fell out while he was wiggling it. Brayden wasn't quite sure what to think, I think he was a little bit scared. The other one is already on its way up.

He is so excited to get a DIME from the tooth fairy.

Calling Dad, and all the grandparents to tell them the news!

Of course these little ragamuffins needed their pics. taken too!