some pictures of Mia

Mia's last month in pictures....she has been feeling a little left out since that last couple of posts were all about her sisters...

hanging out in her bouncy is one of her favorite things
trying out the supersaucer....she looks so big!

tummy time

chewing on her hands (they are always in her mouth)

bundle of love

Valentine's day 2010

Lily's 4th Birthday Part 2

Last weekend (I'm a little late in posting this) was Lily's big birthday weekend, so this is a post full of pictures. On Friday we had the Staal family over for dinner and of course, presents and cake. Lily loves spending time with her cousins and as usual, she didn't really sit still the whole time they were here....so we have a couple pictures from this party.

Lily opening her gifts
and her 2nd Sleeping Beauty Valentine's Princess cake.

On Saturday we went out for Lily's birthday dinner....we always let the birthday person pick where they want to go and Lily picked McDonalds. And it had to be the one with the playland :)

Here is the birthday girl waiting for her dinner

Finally, Sunday, her actual birthday, we let her open some gifts from us. She loved everything and then we told her the last gift was a trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop with mommy. Once we explained what that meant, she was very excited. Lily and I had a great time creating her new friend and because it was a birthday gift, we let her get an outfit for her new friend too. She can't wait to go back. Ok, here are more pictures from her day.

Lily with her gifts
(she posed for this & thought it looked great)
loving her new shirt from Mia

jumping for joy in her new rain boots

posing with her new friend, Ranna

4 years old

4 years ago today we recieved the best Valentine's Day gift, our daughter, Lily. Lily has brought so much love and joy into our lives. Here is a look back at her previous birthdays...

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

We love you Lily and are so thankful for you every day!

Happy Birthday little Valentine!

a Valentine's Day party

Today was the Valentine's Day party at Lily's preschool. We made little valentine's for all her friends, Lily helped a lot but it was more work for mommy :) Lily was so excited to give them to all her friends. The party today started out with a story read by her teacher and then we separated into groups to do different things. First we decorated boxes to put valentine's in. Lily did such a great job gluing her bear together.

We then moved on to a color matching activity. The kids had to glue candy hearts onto the paper, matching the color of the candy to the color written in the hearts on the paper.

the last thing we did was make little hats/headbands,
Lily like putting the little heart stickers on but she didn't like wearing it
she said it was "itchy"

It was a great party and the kids had a lot of fun.
Lily's favorite part was passing out her valentine's to her friends

a big day for Sadie

We have been talking with Sadie for about a month now about giving up her pacifiers. The "Paci Fairy" came to our house when Lily gave up her pacifiers and last night she made another visit to take Sadie's pacifiers. Sadie helped me put her pacifiers in an envelope that she addressed herself to the Paci Fairy, then it was time for bed. She cried off and on for about 45 minutes and then Matt "slept" on the floor next to her bed for awhile until she settled down. She did great! When she woke up she said, "can I have my paci now?" Instead she found a gift from the Paci Fairy. Here she is with her new pony. We are so proud of her....she went to bed without any tears tonight.
This afternoon Sadie got her hair cut for the first time. Our friend, Melissa, has a nice little set up at her house so I took Sadie there. Lily was talking to Sadie the whole way there about how getting your hair cut was not scary at all, so when we got there, Sadie was ready to go. Here she is before.

She sat so still and was so quiet the whole time. It was a proud mom moment :)

Here she is after.....we didn't take a lot off but it made such a big difference. She has more curl in her hair and it doesn't look as stringy. She was very proud to show off her new hair to daddy when we got home.

Thanks Melissa!

Lily's 4th Birthday, Part 1

Thie past Sunday we celebrated Lily's 4th birthday with the Visker side of the family. Lily had asked for a princess cake, then a sleeping beauty cake, and then she really wanted a cake that had pink frosting with valentine's sprinkles on it. Keeping these requests in mind, I made her a Sleeping Beauty Valentine's Princess cake....it sounds complicated but it wasn't that hard to make. Here is a picture of the cake.

Sadie, Mia, & Grandma waiting for the party to start
Lily & Grandpa being silly, as always
they have a special little bond and are always goofing around

Lily got a new book from Uncle Kyle & Aunt Corey,

Grandpa was kind enough to read it to her and Sadie

Uncle Kurt entertained Mia for quite awhile

She was laughing at him blowing at her face =)

Lily opening her Nala.....one of her favorite gifts,

she loves the Lion King movie and we have a Simba

Sadie was having a hard time watching Lily open presents so she decided to dress up

she has been dressing this way since the party, the dress may change but she has to wear the crown and shoes and she calls herself different princess names, in this picture she is

"Snow White Princess Sadie"

Lily loved her cake and couldn't wait to eat it

Owls, Birds, & Babies

On Saturday my mom, my me and my sister-in-law, Laura, hosted a baby shower for my other sister-in-law, Corey. Kyle & Corey are expecting twin girls, due at the end of March, but they are expected to come earlier than that. It was a small gathering but we had a lot of fun. Corey chose an owl and bird theme for the nursery, so we based our decorations and food off of that. This is how the table looked.

the owls & birds were made by my mom to be used in the nursery,

so we used them as decorations for the shower
we served cupcakes decorated as owls, birds in nests, & eggs in nests,
once again, it was my mom who did the decorating...she did a great job!

a closer look at the delicious cupcakes

we served mini-shakes and coffee with the cupcakes

of course there were games as well...

we played a trivia game about Kyle & Corey,

then we played Baby Scattergories which was very fun.

We also had a little guessing game and Corey won :)

Corey with her hosts, my mom, me, Laura, & Lily

Lily was so excited to be at the shower, she picked out her own clothes and did her own hair.

She was a big help during the shower and I think her favorite part was eating the cupcakes.

Overall, the shower was a big success. Corey is 33 weeks along and the girls are looking good. We are so excited to meet them!