Merry Christmas!

Elly Quotes

Mom, from the other room: Elly, what are you doing?

Elly: Just playing with the activity, Mom.

I come around the corner to see...oh...

The NATIVITY.

BOY

He doesn't talk yet, but we wanted to document some of the awesome things that Boy does. So this series of posts will be similar to Elly Quotes, but for Boy. So, here's some catching up:

Boy got a runny nose a few months ago and detested having his nose wiped. He would go to great lengths to get away from any tissue looking item heading for his face at all, including hitting my hands, shaking his head from side to side, etc. Then, one morning I walked into the bathroom to wipe his nose. He again protested but I won the wrestle. After wiping his nose, I threw the tissue in the toilet and flushed. He was mezmorized. He squirmed out of my arms to get closer to this amazing discovery. Every time I tried to wipe his nose after that- as long as I did so in the bathroom by the toilet- he would gladly let me do it without putting up a fight so that he could watch that tissue swirl down the toilet drain.


This is me with Boy heading to the Live Nativity at my parents' Stake Center last week. We LOVE this new scrunchie nosed smile that Boy does all the time now:

Elly Quotes

(Eating dinner)

Elly:  Dad, isn't that chicken delicious?

Brandon:  Yeah, it sure is.

Elly:  I can't even get my head out of that chicken.  It's so good!

Our Grateful Tree

I got this fantastic Thanksgiving idea from my friend, Anna (Thanks, Anna!). We did this for Family Home Evening on Monday. We had a lesson about being grateful (thanks to the Prophet) then, we each put several leaves on the Grateful Tree. I just took a big branch off of one of the trees in my back yard, cut the leaves out of felt and we put them on the tree using safety pins.

Here are some of our leaves (the pen didn't write super well on the felt):

Family -Elly

Holy Ghost -Daddy

Music -Mommy

Elly offered to write one for Miles -Bed

4 Years Old!

This girl is 4 years old today. I don't know how that happened. It went by so fast. We love almost every minute of her, though.

Today, she requested these waffles for birthday breakfast and healthy chocolate milk. She also requested the birthday present she accidentally found when I gave her a time out in the room I was hiding it in yesterday (whoops). Then, she went to dance class where she shared donut holes from Provo Bakery with everyone. Right now, she is playing with two of her favorite friends. And later, a friend of ours is coming to watch Miles (Thanks, Elisa!) while Mommy and Daddy take Elly out for a special birthday dinner and ice cream all by herself. She has requested Panda Bear Food for dinner. It's going to be a good birthday.  We love you, Elly bear!

A Tea Party Birthday

Elly is turning 4 tomorrow, so we celebrated on Saturday and had 7 of her friends over for a little Tea Party. It was super fun and several parents have told me that their girls have wanted to have tea parties non-stop since then.

The Email Invitation

I bought tea cups at D.I. and let each girl take hers home.  I painted their names on little wooden hearts for place cards. 

I bought the roses at Costco and put them in this cute white pitcher.

As each girl arrived, I took a picture of her with Elly.  This is Elly's cousin, Lily.

Elly's playmate from the neighborhood and our ward, Addy.

The table

We had so much fun serving them hot chocolate and I pulled out some herbal tea, too. We let them put their own marshmallows or sugar cubes in their drinks. I think one girl put 10 sugar cubes in her tea. It was hilarious. My favorite was the little girl who asked to switch her tea and have hot chocolate instead "this tea just tastes like water"...indeed.

Elly and Ayda...isn't her hat adorable?

The stirring with the tea bags was a little tricky.

Ahhh, the presents!

It's cupcakes for our parties from now on...sooo much easier and no one has to eat a piece of cake that the birthday girl/boy has spit on!