Horsing Around

We went to visit Mrs. Christy's beautiful horse the other day. Everyone got to love on him and we even watched him eat an apple. It was really fun learning about horses and taking a tour of the barn. Thank you for inviting us, Mrs. Christy!!!

Perfect Cookie Pops

I have tried making cookie pops several times over the past few years and they have never been right. Usually, the cookie falls off the stick and that is very frustrating. This was a new sugar cookie recipe for me and even though the cookies were a tad bit thicker than I like- it worked! Can you tell that we were really excited to make and eat these cookies? J liked them so much that he gave one to his sweetie, Miss M. Aww.

Valentine's Day

I am a little behind and am just now posting Valentine's day. We like to celebrate every holiday and you can never have too much chocolate, right? Obviously, Miss E is overwhelmed with her Reese's hearts... what a face!!! J got the Mario toy that he has been wanting.

Princess Party

Princess E celebrated her third birthday with royal flair, naturally. She told me that she wanted a "pink Sleeping Beauty party" and that she specifically wanted a pink party hat. She even picked out the plates that we ate off of. She had her ball gown, pink sequined party hat, Princess Aurora heals and pink birthday sash picked out days before the event. I think that she would have staged a wardrobe change during the party if she would have thought that was allowed.

I decided to make her cake myself and that was quite an undertaking. I did my best to disguise that it is the leaning tower of cake. I have much respect for cake decorating (I am talking to you- April and Kelly!) The bottom layer was chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and the top two were butter cake with strawberries. They tasted pretty good and that is what matters, right?

I captured the moment that she realized that the huge art desk in the middle of the room was actually meant for her! The look on her face is so precious.

All in all, it was a fun party and we are so thankful to all of our friends and family who came out to help us celebrate three years with our princess. I truly thank God for the blessing that she has been.

Birthday Princess

Miss E took some princess pictures today and even sang a birthday song to herself. She is very excited about turning 3 and having a PINK Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) party. For the most part, she has been a very mild two-year-old, but it seems that the terrible three's are upon us as her inner diva emerges.

2011 E-isms

Princess E and I were in her room this morning playing with her new Sleeping Beauty Castle set. Once she had everything the way that she wanted it, our cats decided to make an appearance. We were pretending that they were fire-breathing dragons coming to attack the castle. She is so cute, she said, "Most dragons go 'roar,' my dragons go 'meow.'"

There was a funny conversation between E and Daddy this afternoon; they were discussing the spanking that he gave her in church this past Sunday. Back story: during the service, she was pulling the ribbon strings from the hymnal of the girl in the pew behind us. Daddy told her "no," and swatted her tush. She was not hurt, other than her ego, and began crying hysterically. She caused quite a scene. It was funny to see her go from zero to DIVA in 2 seconds flat!

Today's conversation...

E: You spanked me.

Daddy: You were bad.

E: You're mean- Jesus does not like that. He is big and strong; he will take care of you. He will spank you!

Daddy was laughing too hard to reply.

Christmas Eve

Here are a random assortment of pictures from our Christmas Eve. My mom and dad came over for dinner and brought the kids' presents. We also sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, ate His cake and went to church. Miss E barely made it to church and ended up sleeping through the entire service. Mr J fought the good fight and stayed awake. Once we got home he put out a cookie and some milk for Santa and 13 carrots on the front porch for his reindeer. When asked why 9 (the original 8 plus Rudolph) reindeer needed 13 carrots, he replied that some might like more than one. Because... obviously!! He was right- by morning, every last one of the carrots were gone! ;)

Gingerbread House

After we finished our Christmas cookies, we made our annual gingerbread house. I really love doing this, even though we never bother to eat it. The icing bag exploded pretty early on and I had to use my fingers to smear the icing. It was messy, but very sweet. Did you notice Santa and the present at the front door?

Cookie Time

We had so much fun decorating our Christmas cookies! I was surprised just how artistic Daddy was; he took the task quite seriously. We all were anxious to taste the fruits of our labors. Of course we thought the the "Tool" cookie was hilarious since we are the Silly Willies. ;)

Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Christmas shoot this morning. Miss E was not at all into the session and I have very few good ones of her. J was an awesome model and I have lots of great pics of him. Hopefully E will be in a better mood tomorrow...