Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

 It is a true fact that some friends just play better than others and McKenzie Lee is our favorite friend to have over!  She is like my 5 year old babysitter.  She entertains all 3 of my girls and they play just great!  Sometimes well most times I feel like I'm the one saying, "can we call Kenzie to come play?" 

A few weeks back they all dressed up and turned on Taylor Swift on the kareoke machine and went to town singing and dancing.   

I love it!  Such good times with friends!

Boy Crazy = Trouble

This girl is absolutely boy CRAZY!  I swear she was born that way because from the time she was in Sunbeams she was noticing the cute boys in her class.  I don't promote it.  In fact I tell her she can't have a boyfriend until she is in college and discourage any "friendly conversation" about boyfriends from family members. 

Last year for Christmas the only thing she wanted was boy barbies.  She got boy barbies and after watching her role play with them I made the boy barbies go on a permanent vacation to the garage sale box. 

A few weeks ago she came home from school and as we were sorting through her homework papers I noticed "I love Noell!" on the back of her paper with a heart.  I asked her about it and she made up a big fib about how she didn't write that.  Of course I knew better and she did soon confess.  I tried not to make a big deal of it though thinking if I don't make a big deal of this boy craziness then maybe the phase will die out. 

So yesterday I was having a nap after church again (I'm quickly learning that the Sunday naps are getting me in trouble) and I kept an ear open for the girls.  They were just playing in their room and getting along so I didn't stress it.  When I got up I was amazed at what I saw.  Ella had written GASTON (from Beauty and the Beast) all over her room.  She had written it on her shirt, Alissa's shirt, every drawer on her dresser, the DVD player, toy containers, the doll house, her bed, bedspread, Alissa's sheets, the rug... you name it.  It was red marker and THANK GOODNESS it was Crayola washable.  

**So I had taken pictures of this and without thinking too much deleted them from my Picasa Web Album which is what feeds my blog with pictures.  So sad!  Here is the only one I could recover.

I must admit I was really surprised that Ella would pull off a scheme like this.  Yes, she is only 6 and still a kid but she is a pretty mature minded kid.  Anyway.. if you have any advice to share for a mom of a boy crazy girl I'd love to hear it.  All I know is Dustin had better get a shotgun. :)

Molly 18 months

Molly turns 18 months this month!  The times flies and I realize I've been terrible at documenting her milestones.  She is different than my other 18 months olds!  She is super content, pretty independent, but still snuggly. 

Here are her 18 month stats:

Weight 27.75 lbs (94%)

Height 33 inches (86%)

Head Circumference: 18.5 (70%)

A few things I want to remember:

**She LOVES her daddy.  She puts her little chin into her chest and bats her eyes at him.

She runs to him with wide open arms when he comes home from work.

She will cuddle up to him on the bed and take a nap.

She comes running whenever she hears him pour a bowl of cereal, open a bag of chips.

All of the above just wrap him right around her little tiny finger and he loves it!

**She is a really terrible sleeper, at least in her own bed.  I spoiled her by letting her sleep in my bed while she was getting her molars and now she wakes up constantly if she is not in bed with me.  As long as she is next to us, she sleeps just fine.  It's so sad because she was the best of all the kids to just lay down in her crib and go to sleep.  Occasionally she'll still do it, but not too often. 

**She takes only 1 nap a day now.  Usually for 2 - 2 1/2 hours but sometimes she even tries to skip out on that.  Little stink bug.

**She LOVES her big sisters.  She wants to be with them always and do what they are doing.  They got frustrated with her because she is still learning how to play with things and not be destructive with what they are playing with, but she'll learn.   She tries to copy cat everything they do.  I love this picture.  More than once I have found Molly sitting on the floor with her head drenched just letting Alissa spray her down and comb her hair.

The girls all dressed up and forgot to help Molly so she found a skate and felt it was sufficient to fit in.

It still makes me laugh to see her in this picture.

**She is an EATER!  She loves to eat and is not very picky.  She will eat almost anything you put in front of her and then grab whatever is left over on her tray as you are getting her out of her booster to continue eating.  Multiple times in the day you will see this:

The spoon can be found on the floor or next to her in the booster seat.

**Like a typical 18 month old she is into everything.  She opens drawers and pulls all their contents out.  If it's lotion or fingernail polish she opens it and pours it out too.  She also likes to lick everything.  Drives me a little crazy, but I don't stress it so much after experiencing it with 3 kids now.

**She says quite a few words now.

CHEE (cheese), bucky (blanky), binki, dink (drink), cup, coe (popcicle), hot, cold, bite, cupcake, teet (treat), baby, Ella (she calls Ella & Alissa this), mommy, mom, bu bye, nigh nigh, puppy, ya, no, ouch, mean, eyes, nose, potty, tub, please, sorry, ge gu (thank you), me me (excuse me) - that's all I can think of right now.

**She really hates nursery so far.  I think she likes the idea of going because she acts excited to go but just doesn't like the fact that we leave her there.  She has had a hard time the last few times with babysitters too.  Something about turning 18 months just makes them attached.

**She likes to dance, especially if her sisters are dancing too.  Generally she dances by bending her knees - bouncing up and down or shaking her bum back and forth.  She loves it when we sing Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam so she can jump on the "beam" part.  She thinks she has to be standing on the coffee table in order to do it though because that's where her sisters taught it to her.

**I dare say she is our baldest baby.  I have buzzed her head trying to make it look a little thicker, but not much is going on up there.  I recently bought some Nioxin conditioner (for hair growth) and we're going to try that.  I remember doing the same with Ella.  Until then we make her wear this wig in public.  he he just kidding!

**Some of her nicknames include:

Molls, Mollzie, Mu Du (from Ella), Moll

Alissa is 3!!

It really seems unreal to me that Alissa turned 3 this week.  It seems like she has been with us forever, yet I feel like she was just a baby.  She has grown up so much! 

Here are her 3 year old stats:

Weight:  27.25  (15%)

Height: 36 (27%)

Here are a few things that I want to remember about Alissa being 3:

(questions I asked with her answer)

How old are you:  Tree

What is your favorite song?  ABC

Her favorite food:  Big loodles   (noodles)

Favorite Movie:  Sleeping Beauty & Minnie Mouse

Favorite Clothes to wear:  Minnie Jammies

Favorite Person:  my Kailey and Kaitlynn

Favorite thing to do:  play stuff with my stuff and Ella's stuff

Favorite place to go:  Leo's

Favorite Color:  Mine and Ella's is pink

**Ella is her bestest friend ever and Molly drives her nuts.  She and Molly constantly fight and hit and bite and kick and push.  I am told they will be the best of friends so I hope this true one day.. and soon.

**She loves watching the TV or computer and just about any kids movie but has a special love for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She can sing the theme song and it's super cute.  She gets emberassed if I catch her singing though.

**She seems to win the heart of a lot of people pretty easily.  She is so tiny yet has such a HUGE personality.   I love these pictures of her with her Aunt Heidi.

**She has a tiny voice, but says some really grown up things.  She cracks us up often.  She is really smart!  She knows many of letters of the alphabet and sounds, many shapes and all colors.

 

**She is really independant and really smart on real life stuff like going bathroom, buckling her seatbelt, getting herself a drink of water or getting dressed.  Even though she still likes help with it, she can do it herself.   She is very coordinated which helps a lot!

**She likes taking showers and does almost every morning as I'm in the bathroom getting ready for the day.

 

**She LOVES strawberry milk and asks for it usually twice a day.

**Most of her shirts are tagless because we bought them that way or we have cut the tag out because it makes her absolutely crazy.

**She likes to "read" us a story.  She makes up the story as she is looking at the pictures on the page.  I love the cute things she comes up with.

**She LOVES puzzles & play dough, dress up & babies. 

**She requires less sleep than any of my kids.  She is generally last asleep and first awake.  She goes and goes all day long which I'm sure is the reason she is so tiny! 

**Some of her nicknames have been:

Lissy Liss (Mostly Dad), Lissa, Alissy, Lissa Lou (Mostly Mom), Kolipokie 

I just love this girl so much and feel so blessed that she is my daughter and a part of our family.  She is just a tiny bundle of happiness and energy and we LOVE her just the way she is!

She had a super fun birthday. 

She got to open a gift before dad left from work and was tortured by Ella's gift that she didn't get to open until Ella got home from school.

She had a sprinkle pancake with a candle in it.  She thought that was pretty neat. 

At 11:00 we went and picked Ella up from school so she could go to the McDonalds play place with us.  I'm glad we did.  Alissa loves having Ella there to play with.  We tried to go do the build-a-bear thing at Hobby Town, but they were selling the machine and now making any more bears so that didn't work out.

After taking Ella back to school we went to see Heidi working at Jamba Juice. 

She let Alissa help her make our Jambas.

And a quick trip to Toys R Us where grandma Debbie spoiled her with a few new toys.

When Ella got home from school our little neighbor friend, McKenzie Lee (who Alissa calls "MY KENZIE" because she loves her so much) came to have a little party with the girls.   

Kenzie brought Alissa those awesome clip on earrings that she is sporting above her real earrings.

Minus Molly - they all got their own candle to blow out.

They ate Princess cupcakes. I turned a cupcake upside down and stuffed a clean Polly Pocket in and then frosted it.  They turned out pretty cute I thought.

Ella and Alissa decided which girl they were as I was frosting them and when I turned around Ella's girl had Prince Charming next to it. :)  She is so stinking boy crazy!

Then they did each other's make up until they felt so "gorgeous" as they kept saying.  At this exact time Kenzie was doing Alissa's make up, she told Kenzie her daddy was her Prince.  I wish he could have been there to hear it. 

After the little friend party we headed to Leo's Place for pizza and another play place.  A bunch of family and friends met up with us there.  It was really nice and Alissa loved every minute of it.  We had to pry her out of the play place to sing Happy Birthday to her and again to open her presents and again to leave.  She just loved running around with all her friends and cousins.

Best Friends Forever

I'm so happy these two can be best friends.  They still fight frequently, but they get over it pretty quickly.  I will send them to their room together until they can "figure it out" and they come out with their arms around each other to tell me what the solution is.  It makes my heart happy.

So today the girls wanted to walk home from church so because we are only about 2 blocks from the church I drove beside them while they ran home.  Once we were home I walked past their bedroom to see Ella helping Alissa unbutton the back of her dress.  Ella asks, "Alissa, do you drink alcohol?"  Alissa says, "no."  Ella confirms, "Well, that's why you can run so fast."  I'm happy that she is learning the Word of Wisdom and in turn teaching it to Alissa.  Even though I'm pretty sure neither of them know what alcohol is.  At least they know to avoid it right?

Later on today I was taking a nap with Molly and Dustin had just left for a meeting when I hear Alissa pounding on her bedroom door with a toy.  Ella came running and started yelling so loud for her to quit pounding on the door.  I got upset because they were waking Molly up and I was SO tired too!  I told them they needed to go in their room and be quiet.  About 15-20 minutes later Dustin gets home from his meeting and says the girls are outside.  I have never had to worry about them going outside without asking before and hadn't heard them go out.  They had their boots and coats on and Ella was packing a backpack.  When they got inside we talked to them about making sure mom or dad knew before they go outside.  Then I sat and talked to Ella as she unpacked her backpack.  She had a baggie of fruit loops, peanuts, pretzels that she made herself and 2 bananas.  She packed a bag of crayons, a coloring book and a bunch of puppets.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, "We were doing what my friend did."

So a few months back her little friend "ran away" to our house.  She packed her school backpack and put some pajamas and a stuffed animal in it.  Apparently that made quite an impression on Ella.  After getting upset with her she thought that would be a better choice I guess.  It made me laugh only a little because it was pretty cute what she packed, but made me more sad than anything else.  Later in the evening I asked, "Did you really want to run away?"  She said, "I can't quit thinking about that.  We are a family forever.  I don't want to run away."  I was happy to hear it.

Ella came upstairs the other day after playing downstairs with Alissa and announces, "Alissa knows the 2nd Article of Faith!"  Ella had been saying it to her and having her repeat it as she said it and was so proud they finally made it through the whole thing with Alissa repeating.

Tooth Fairy

Ella lost her 6th tooth last night.  It still is no small feat to get her to pull that hanging tooth out of her mouth.  I told her she could do it or I would hold her down and do it for her.  So she asked if we could say a prayer to help her be brave.  To no suprise her faith in the Lord's help gave her all the bravery she needed to yank that thing out of there. 

Then her mind went crazy thinking of all these things she needed to do since the Tooth Fairy would be coming tonight.  She quickly got a cup filled with water to put the tooth in as she has done in the past so the Tooth Fairy could color the water the same color as her dress.  She put the cup in her Barbie house so she could say Hello to all the little figurines standing around in there right now.  And then she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking her to leave her a gift.

Here is what we found in the morning:

Ella's tooth was gone and the traditional 4 quarters were left in colored water.  If you ask me it's blue water, but Ella insists it's Indigo.  I think it makes the whole thing a little more magical.  Next to the cup of colored water was a small scroll looking thing and a leaf, pearly bead and pixie dust.  She was not disappointed.

The letter said:

Dear Ella, 

Thank you for your pearly white tooth.  It looks like you took great care of it and now I will be able to use it to help build our castle in my hometown.

I hope you will keep taking good care of all of your teeth and I will keep coming to collect them.

The gift I wanted to leave you tonight is some coins and a few things I was carrying in my pack. 

Next time I will bring you more things from Fairy Land.

Love,

The Tooth Fairy

Here is our toothless child before school this morning.

And just for fun, here is the note I wrote to my Tooth Fairy many years ago.

Journal Junction - What do you like to do outside?

This month, write about things you like to do outside. Do you like hiking in the woods or collecting shells on the beach? Do you enjoy reading under a tree or drawing chalk pictures on the sidewalk? Write about a new outdoor activity you would like to learn.

Recently I found I like to have a garden outside.  I like to plant a seed and watch it grow.  It makes me feel like I accomplished something great, especially when we get to enjoy the fruits.

I like going for bike rides or walks with the kids or as a family. 

I like going camping as a family and love the calm quietness that you can find in the mountains.

I love summer time when we can set up a swimming pool and let the kids play in the water or blow bubbles or draw with chalk.

I love going sledding, especially now that we have a four wheeler to pull us up the hill. :)

I tend to stay inside more than go outside.  I actually have to make a concious effort to go outside or encourage my kids to go outside and play.