Thanksgiving 2010

Last year we had a fun Thanksgiving (although I was feeling a bit nauseated with the pregnancy) with family and our good friends the Browns.  Mr. Brown was in Afghanistan for the year so we had Jessica and her four boys over...a change from all the girls we usually have around!  Angelica and Emma had a blast helping me make everyone turkey place cards, a tradition that we like to keep going of creating a place card every year.  Although I do think they ate as much candy corn as they glued on the paper.  Another Thanksgiving Day tradition is trying to take an automatic family picture by putting the camera up on a shelf in my parents family room.  To our surprise, we usually always get a good one each year, which is a miracle with kids in general!  My mom always has a beautiful table, we ate delicious food and had so many blessings to be thankful for!  Looking forward to another one next week!

Last Thanksgiving with just the girls (didn't know I was having a boy yet)

The Sullivans (my sister Caitlin & family)

With Cousin Taylor

The Traditional Automatic Picture - NOT BAD!

The Adult Table

The Kids Table

Always time for Dress UP with Aunt Alli

Emma's Third Birthday

Since Emma will turn FOUR on Sunday, thought I would post quickly about her third birthday.  She was begging me to make a hummingbird cake as that was her favorite bird all year.  She loves watching them eat from the feeder at my parents house and outside our kitchen window.  I was trying my hardest to figure out how I would make this request happen....and then decided to make a hummingbird feeder and somehow birds to go with it.  The feeder was fairly easy and I was able to include the blue sprinkles she wanted...and for the birds I just bought some at JoAnns and then put toothpicks in to make them into hummingbirds and stuck wire in to put around the cake.  SHE LOVED IT, whew!  This was the first year that she was really excited and anticipating her birthday so it made it a lot of fun to celebrate.  I think she was excited and in love with every single one of her presents.  And I have to say (since I am posting this a year late) that what I thought was going to be an annoying present and I would get rid of quickly, the Dora microphone has been a huge favorite or hers and a year later she still plays and sings with it.  She is our funny little girl that keeps us laughing!

Michaela's First Birthday

Since I am posting about Michaela's birthday I thought I would post-post (?) a few things about her big ONE. She was excited about all the family coming over, not so much with the little hat I got her to wear. We had just found out that we were expecting (Brendan) so when we sat down to eat the tradtional first birthday dinner of spaghetti, I told everyone Michaela had a present to open first. I had wrapped a bib I had made when Angelica announced we were expecting Emma that said "I'm A BIG sister". My mom recognized it as soon as Michaela started opening and started screaming. It was a great and fun way to make the announcement, although Michaela was puzzled as to why this bib was such a big deal. She wasnt sure what to do with all the presents but loved cake time! I started making a DELICIOUS Chocolate Carrot Cake for our traditional first birthday cakes...it is so yummy and very moist, has a lot of shredded carrots though! That first year goes by so fast!

New Coat from Marmee

Yes I lick when I kiss

I need a break from all this present opening

Party Time

We had Michaela's birthday party on Sunday.  I don't think she completely understands the option of choosing your favorite meal for dinner, so we went with one of her favorites, Chicken Marsala.  I had been asking her for weeks what kind of cake she wanted.  All she kept telling me was blue.  But that is just the one color word she likes to repeat and since her sisters kept giving her too many ideas, could never figure it out.  She really doesn't like cake or cupcakes that much, just enjoys licking all the icing off of them.  But she is a HUGE ice cream fan so I decided on a recipe my mother-in-law had given me a couple years ago for a Hot Fuge Ice Cream Bar Dessert.  DELICIOUS and absolutely NO calories.  :)  We had my parents and the Sullivans over for dinner and then her godmama got to come with the twins for presents and cake.  She was so funny to watch open the gifts, with every one she acted like it was the best gift ever.  Her sisters loved "helping" her open them and have been enjoying some of the new toys as well.  I have to say though, the Aquadoodle is a HIT!!!  Beats messes and lots of paper being used and thrown away.  She had a great party and even enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to herself!  Love you my big TWO YEAR OLD doodle-bops!

I am Ready to Party

Hey guys can I please open it?

Very excited to have a blanket made by Marmee, just like her sisters!

This is hard work

Michaela's Birthday 2011

I do not really think Michaela quite understands what a birthday means.  She seemed very confused why we kept telling her happy birthday and asking how old she was.  But she was totally fine with all the special attention and treats.  And there is totally a thing as "too much birthday" syndrome.  After her date with Papa we had one of her favorite dinners, chicken teriyaki and then ice cream sundaes.  I think the sisters enjoyed her birthday as much as she did!  And still have the party to come....

This is GOOD stuff

Happy Birthday Michaela!!

Daddy Daughter Time

When I was growing up my dad always had a special date with us on our birthdays.  We would usually go out to our favorite pick for breakfast or lunch and then dad would take us shopping.  He would "usually" let us get whatever we wanted, such as a new toy, an outfit or something we had been wanting.  It was a special time though with just dad and memories I always cherished.  So when we started having kids we started thinking about some of the same traditions we wanted to continue...and this was definitely one of them.  Dads don't very often get that one on one time with the children, so this is a perfect and special time to do that.  Since Michaela is still a little young for too big of an outing, Jason took her out the other night before dinner to one of her favorite places to play in:  Toys R Us.  He said she wandered up and down the aisles (probably completely overwhelmed) and left a good trail behind her!  In the end, she picked out a baby brother doll...our first baby BOY doll in the house.  She has slept with it every night and his name is Matthew.  Too sweet.

Isn't he cute?