Hailey's Hair

Hailey has never really let me do anything with her hair. (I blame it on the fact that she didn't even get hair until she was 3 so I never really had to do her hair.)  She just likes having it straight and down. No ponies. No bows. No headbands. No curls. And absolutely no braids.


Last night after her shower, though, I asked her if I could French braid her hair and she said yes! Actually, I did 4 French braids since it was really the after-braid effect that she wanted. This morning before school we took the braids out and she was in love. She couldn't stop smiling and was so excited to get to school to show off her "Taylor Swift" 'do."

Who knows, maybe she'll let me do it again...in another 7 years.

Out With the Old

Out with the...

In with the...

Some time at the end of January we won these appliances in one of Heidi's work auctions. They are wonderful! We figure if we had bought them at a store we would have paid 6 or 7 times what we paid through the auction (either that or we'd have only been able to buy the dishwasher).

Nathan finally has his water and ice dispenser in the fridge and I finally have a dishwasher and stove that work. The microwave is a bonus. Ours was a wedding gift and I'm not sure it was going to last much longer (the microwave, not the marriage). 


Our old oven didn't have a window on the door and the first time I made cookies Matt and Ray sat in front of the oven and watched them cook. They were fascinated. It was pretty funny.

Rachel

Matt Turned 3!

Matthew's birthday finally came. He has been so excited to have his birthday since about Hailey's birthday in August. We had to keep telling him that his birthday wasn't until after Christmas. Then, he told everyone he saw that his birthday was after Christmas. Well, Christmas came and went and finally it was time for Matt's birthday. I kept asking him what he wanted for his birthday dinner. He named just about everything. Once he told me he wanted strawberry shortcake (because it is food and it is crunchy). He decided on Hawaiian Haystacks--one of his favorites. He also decided on a funfetti cake that he wanted decorated like a race track and strawberry ice cream.

The morning of his birthday he woke up and immediately wanted to play with the car Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins gave him. That all changed, though, when he went down stairs and saw the streamers and balloons and  a present sitting on the table.

Somehow I managed to not get a picture once the present was actually opened. He got a scooter. He had been wanting one ever since he saw Rachel open hers and was thrilled when he saw it.

During naptime I frosted his cake. It did not go as planned. I made a white chocolate butter cream frosting that I had made for Rachel's cake, but my white chocolate hardened up when I put it in my mixer bowl. I ended up with chunks of white chocolate in the frosting which made it impossible to pipe. Oh well. He liked it (except for the fact that I made the grass green--apparently he wanted it yellow) and it tasted good.

When it was time for cake and ice cream Matt was so excited to blow out the candles. After we sang to him he blew them out one at a time. I guess we have yet to teach our kids the whole make-a-wish-and-blow-the-candles-out-in-one-breath thing.

We are so glad to have Matt in our family. He is such a sweet little boy. And now he is finally three (though, for the longest time he would tell people he was turning eight on his birthday).

Trampoline Fun

The kids have really enjoyed the trampoline Santa brought them--until they threw dirt all over it and I took it away for a week. But before that they were on it for hours. Especially Matt and Ray. They love it.

Sheer joy!

 

Kade copying Uncle Patrick.

Matt copying Kade copying Uncle Patrick.

Ray copying Matt copying Kade copying Uncle Patrick.

 

Resting after a long day on the trampoline.

Ray copying Matt and resting.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Frosting cookies on Christmas Eve.

 This year Santa gave the kids a trampoline. He wrapped our sliding glass door like a present to hide it from the kids. At about midnight Hailey woke up because she needed some cough medicine. She saw the wrapped window and was curious. I told her to go to bed and we'd find out in the morning. She went upstairs and peeked out her window (sneaky little girl) and saw something in the shadows. She came out of her room wide-eyed and found her dad who was also upstairs. She said, "Dad, I think Santa brought us a trampoline." She told him to go look out the window.

Fast forward 3 hours.

Hailey came down stairs and started peeking at the presents. I got out of bed to see what she was doing and she told me she hadn't been to sleep since midnight. I told her to go to bed and that she was not to come down stairs until at least 6am or I'd take all of her presents. She didn't come back down stairs.

At 7:30am the kids woke up. They came downstairs and saw all the presents. 

 Nathan and I gave each kid a Pillow Pet.

Hailey got a horse necklace from Grandma Erickson.

My parents came over to see the kids and Matt was able to convince Grandma to get on the trampoline. Kade is laying on the trampoline crying because he thought Grandma would put a hole in it. Earlier he cried when I got on for the same reason. No need to worry, though. Now the kids want grownups on the trampoline because we stretch it out and make them go higher.

Grandpa enjoying watching the kids play (or maybe he was watching Grandma getting off the trampoline).

One other gift that the kids were given this year came from a wonderful friend of the family. She decided that the kids would get better use of her wii that she did so she gave us her wii! We are so excited about it. When Hailey and Kade opened it, Kade jumped up and yelled "Our very own wii?!?" The kids love playing the games and it has been a lot of fun to have these past couple of days. Thank you!

(I don't have any pictures of them opening it because I only took video. I'd post the video but for some reason Blogger doesn't like the videos my new camera takes. Maybe I'll figure it out one day.)

Rachel Turned TWO!

Rachel is now a two year old.

We celebrated her birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's house because we were there anxiously awaiting the arrival of Uncle Loren, Aunt Tracy and their kids.

We ate lasagna and homemade French bread for dinner and then had cake and ice cream. I made a 6-layer rainbow cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. It was good and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Nevermind that she has bread in her mouth...she didn't actually blow on the candles.

The 6-layer rainbow cake I made.

All She Wants For Christmas...

Hailey lost her top right front tooth on the 18th. Actually, it was so loose her dad begged her to let him pull it. The tooth fairy came and brought her a pack of gum and $1.00.

Then, today while eating her chips at lunch her top left front tooth came out.

***Side note: Earlier today I was talking to Tiffin and she suggested a contest between Hailey and Amberly to get their top left teeth out. The girls have been very excited since Preston's birthday when they discovered that they had the same loose teeth. Amberly lost the right one first. This morning I told Hailey about the contest and after her tooth came out she started dancing and singing, "I won the contest! Oh yeah, I won the contest!"

Wilkins Family Christmas Party

Last night we all went to Scott and Katie's house for the Wilkins Family Christmas Party. We watched a movie about the birth of Christ and the cousins exchanged gifts. We ate and played and visited. It was a lot of fun.

Seth got a ball bath set from Coleton.

Joss got a tiara and some hot wheels from Rachel.

Rachel got a baby stroller (which she LOVES) from Gage.

Emmalin got an Elmo phone from Grace.

Matt got a remote control dump truck from Amberly.

Coleton got Memory and Chutes and Ladders from Raef.

Kade got a Hero Factory from Carrigan (when he was finally able to get to the gift--she wrapped it in 90 ft of wrapping paper!).

Preston got UNO and some cars from Kade.

Carrigan got a modeling clay jewelry kit from Joshua.

Ashlynn got a Belle CD and something else that I can't remember from Seth.

Raef got a Transformer from Matt.

Hailey got a Zhu Zhu pet and car from Preston. She wasn't sure if she'd like it at first, but now that she has played with it she loves it.

Amberly was too fast for me to get a picture, but she got Littlest Pet Shops from Hailey.

Caleb got a Bionicle from Adam.

Gage got a Hero Factory Villain from Caleb.

The kids also opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa.