Happy Birthday Savannah!

Savannah turned 3 on January 2nd. She usually will correct me when I call her Savannah, saying, "I not Savannah - I a princess!" So, of course she had a princess party. Her favorite princess right now is Cinderella. With her Birthday just a week after Christmas, it can get kind of hectic planning it. So this year Mike planned it all and had everything bought and planned out way before Christmas! Thanks Mike for being so prepared, and for making it so much fun for her.

Our families came over on Sunday and we had cake and ice cream.

Mike made the cake, and it turned out so amazing! We asked Savannah what kind of cake she wanted, and she said "lemon!" I was kinda surprised, I didn't think she even knew lemon cake existed. The cake was a made from scratch, lemon cake with lemon cream cheese -so yummy!

Savannah loves to dress up, so of course she wanted to be Cinderella for her party. Isn't she a beautiful princess?

The cake turned out so cute, definitely fit for a princess! The Cinderella is made out of cake. Savannah was so excited to eat part of her dress.
I love this picture, I think it is so cute she is holding the present with her feet!
She got a lot of Cinderella stuff, a book, coloring book, and 2 Cinderella dolls! One from us and one from my sister. She calls them twins. One has a blue dress and the other is pink.
When she opened up this present with a baby in it, she was so excited that it came in a little bed. The cardboard box is in her room and the baby sleeps in it every night. I love her little imagination.
Happy Birthday Savannah! We are so lucky to have you in our family. You make me laugh every day, and although your stubbornness sometimes drives me crazy you really are my little princess. I love you so much.

Christmas Day

Sorry for the abundance of pics! On Christmas morning the kids woke up and found their pillow pets on their bed. They were so excited, this was the main thing they had asked Santa for.
About to come down the stairs. Showing off the Zhu Zhu pets that were in their stocking.
Isn't my little guy just so adorable?!? He had fun watching the chaos and was more impressed with the wrapping paper than the actual presents.

Such a handsome guy.

Both of them so excited to have the "How to train your Dragon DVD"

Savannah was thrilled to get a phone from Santa. She loves to pretend to talk on the phone, just like mommy.

Emily with a leapster game.

Such a great book and a happy baby.

Planning ahead for the future Mike and I gave Liam this truck. It was one of Brett's favorite things when he was younger, and I am sure Liam will love it too.

We gave Brett a leapster. He was so excited to have one of his own, he loves to play Emily's.

We went to my parents that afternoon for lunch and opened more presents. It was so much fun to be all together. Savannah is such a girly girl - she would get so excited about the clothes she got.

Brett and Emily each got a pack on underwear from my parents. I love this picture of Emily, she looks so mortified! When it was her turn to open the present, she did it quickly and discretely. She didn't want anyone to see. It was pretty funny.

My mom made some doll clothes for Emily and Savannah's dolls. They are so pretty!

Savannah wanted a baby doll from Santa and she was so excited when she got twin baby dolls! She decided right away to name them Liam and Savannah. I have loved watching her play with them for the past week. Every time I nurse my Liam she nurses her babies, changes their diapers, feeds them baby food, burps them and puts them to bed. They pretty much follow Liam's routine. It is so cute to watch her, she won't let me call her Savannah. She tells me, "I am not Savannah! I am mommy!". My little sister Mandi made the cute blankets for the dolls and my mom made their PJ's.

That night we went to Mike's parents house for dinner. We must have been so exhausted from the day because we didn't take very many pictures. Here is Em and Brett with Ashley.

A tradition I had when I was young was my mom would give us a last gift of Christmas. It was always something that she made. It has been really fun doing this with my kids every year. This year I made them super hero capes.

Liam was a little Utah man.

I made Brett a pirate king cape. Don't you love his super hero pose?

I made Emily a Wizard cape since she really likes Harry Potter stuff.

And Savannah of course got a princess cape.

Here they are in their Micky Mouse Santa hats that they got for last Christmas. It was such a great day, we loved it. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We had it with just our little family. Liam was excited to see all the food, just disappointed that he couldn't eat any. He wasn't very impressed with the pureed carrots that I gave him. I think this picture of him and Mike is adorable. He loves his Daddy!

Our Christmas Eve feast! I don't know why I hadn't removed the foil for the pictures. We had prime rib, funeral potatoes, carrots, homemade rolls, sparkling apple cider and egg nog - delicious!

The kids in their cute Christmas Eve PJ's!

We had the kids do the nativity, and then we read Polar Express and the Night Before Christmas. It is a book that I got when I was a year old, and it has been fun reading it every year with the kids.

Then we left some homemade goodies for Santa, along with a carrot and apple for the reindeer. Emily added a dollar, a snowflake and some artwork she had made at school for him.

Anxiously looking out the window to see if they could see Santa. Such a magical night!

Gingerbread Houses

A few weeks ago we make gingerbread houses at my moms. It was so much fun letting the kids each decorate their own tiny house. We came home and I put them on the counter, planning to put them on display later. The next day I looked at the houses and there was no candy left on them! I guess they were too delicious of a temptation!

Spaghetti Factory

Last night we went to the Spaghetti Factory with my parents, sisters and their husbands. When I was young my parents would take my sisters and I there every year before Christmas. It is such a fun tradition and one that we have loved doing every year. We get babysitters for the kids, and it is fun to have a night with just the adults

My sister Stef and her husband Aaron.

My parents.

Jenny and Sam.

Mike and I. Mandi just moved from Kansas to Texas and could not be there with us. We missed her!

The beautiful outdoor fireplace at Trolley Square. It was such a fun night!

Decorating the tree

We had fun decorating the tree, I love seeing all the ornaments year after year. Some are Mike's that he had when he was young, some are mine from my Christmas trees as a child. Then we have the ornaments I made the first year we were married, and all the cute ones the kids have either made or been given over the years. I love our Christmas tree full of memories.

I will post a final picture of the 2 trees once I rearrange some of the ornaments, the kids ( especially Savannah) clumped them together on one branch :)

Christmas Tree

Yesterday we went on the hunt for a perfect Christmas tree. Emily was so happy when we picked the tree that she had her eye on.

Savannah was a bit disappointed, because when I told her we were going to get a "Christmas Tree", she thought I said a "Christmas Treat!" So she just wanted to go home.

We have been getting two trees for the past few years. One upstairs and a little one downstairs. Hopefully I will be able to get the lights on them sometime this week and I will post pictures of the final result.

My mom offered to watch Liam while we went out into the bitter cold, so I gladly let her. He is getting so big, he is 5 months old today. His favorite place to be (other than being held by mom or dad) is his swing. Such a cutie!