A little glimps into what we do all day

Did I mention how much Grace loves to dress up? Most of the time it's in her Cinderella or Belle dresses, but sometimes she gets really creative... the fashion statement this time was a simple black leotard, with a "glamorous" pink tutu as a hat/wig...Do you think she might make it on the "what not to wear" show? Oh how I love this girl!

The other night we had family and friends over and grace comes out in a tutu and a super woman cape, no shirt.

I really had this picture turned the right way, and heaven forbid I take the time to do it twice... Make sure to notice "Little Man" in his hand. Max loves his little men, and it's the end of the world if he misplaces one of them. Basically we have many little breakdowns daily, I've truly contemplated finding someway to attach them to clothing, kind of like the pacifier thing.

Grace got this little microphone from her aunt Nicole for her birthday, Max loves it, and he is dang funny, he put on quite the little show-

Ready for the gorilla close up.

Well, I wasn't going to post these, but some of them are so cute, so here we are...this was the zoo on Grace's birthday-

Notice rainbow dash in Grace's hand, Yes! She likes My Little Pony!

I never realized how ugly orangutans were before....

The kids loved that they were right up by the window-

Grace told the giant gorilla to sit, and then he did,she loved it!

This was the first time I didn't take a stroller...and I loved it! Grace carried her back pack and I didn't worry about a stroller, a purse, or a diaper bag...and.... I loved it! It was so nice! Not good news for all of you who are hoping for a Tyler #3 any time soon... ;)

Grace's B-Day!

Grace had a birthday packed weekend, that's what happens when so many people love you!

Saturday we had a party at Mike's parents house, Grace's aunt Beth came up with a puppy party theme and it fit Grace perfectly. Grace LOVES puppies, dogs, pretending to be a puppy, brushing dogs, feeding dogs-pretty much everything!

Grandma Ruth made this puppy bowl cake, complete with puppy chow (whoppers), and Aunt Caitlin added the paw prints, it really turned out cute!

Before the puppy transformation...

Beth decorated all the kids faces-

Grace even has a dog whistle in her hand-Grace was Puppy Pongo!

Daisy- or Puppy Lucy :)

Max or Puppy Nono.

Grace decorating her dog house

After the puppy transformation the puppies went downstairs to look for bones, they were suppose to crawl like puppies, but they were too excited!

Grace opening her presents-

Max trying to blow the candles out on her cake...yep he's the little brother, and the tease!

Sunday we went up to my moms house and had a combined Mike, Bracken and Grace birthday dinner. Taco bar, one of my favorites! We had cake and pie and hung out as a family.

Then for her actual birthday yesterday we were planning on taking the kids to Boondocks, but Grace wanted to go to the zoo. At first I said no, I had about 15 loads of laundry and it was my cleaning day, but then I thought, how many 50 degree, dry days do we get in January, and it happened to be her birthday- so away we went!

The animals were all really active and we got to see a brand new baby monkey, the gorillas were sitting right by the glass and Grace said "Sit!" and Max sat down and then the gorilla sat down, she was very proud.

When Mike got home from work we still took the kids to Boondocks, they always have fun there.

So, Grace is 4, every January 17th at about 6 pm I think about the day before Grace was born, starting to feel back pain, my water breaking at home and then being in labor for 26 hours. I remember thinking on the way to the hospital about how far I was dilated and thinking that because my water had broke maybe I was at like a 4 or a 5, and then how silly I felt when they told me I wasn't quite to a 1. That was a long, hard day!

But now, 4 years later it doesn't seem so bad. I love to see how smart Grace is. She remembers so many things, she's really good with directions (giving them, not so much taking them), she uses big words and most of the time they are in the correct context.

Grace likes to sing and dance play dress up. She has a tote full of dress up clothes, shoes and play necklaces, every single day she changes into it. I love it!

Grace loves Barbies and ponies, this past year her Aunt Mary gave her a Barbie doll house and

lots of Barbies, she plays with them every day!

Grace's favorite movie right now is Despicable Me- which she bought with her birthday money from Grandma Kate, she also likes Scobby Doo and Harry and the Hendersons. Her favorite TV shows are Martha Speaks (imagine a talking dog is her favorite?) and Spongebob (which I HATE!)

She will not wear clothes with tags in them, she doesn't like jeans because they are itchy and drives me crazy because she likes to run around naked. My mom says she's just like me when I was a kid.

Her favorite thing to eat is spaghetti and candy!

I can't believe that she will be in Kindergarten in 1 1/2 years...panic..panic...

Love you Grace!

Our Island of Sodor

Could Max be any cuter? He is in heaven with all of his new trains! He calls the all "Omas" (Thomas) and he can play for hours!

Santa brought Max one new set and we got him the rest off of KSL, those sets are expensive!
So now my living room has been turned into the Island of Sodor, I even had to clean up Christmas around it, the tree and all. It almost broke his heart when I told him I was going to put it away. Hopefully you don't mind train smoke!

Several months ago Aunt Nicole gave us a really terrible Thomas the Train movie, Max watches it daily, maybe it's just a boy thing but he is really serious about his "Omas!"

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!

I absolutely loved Christmas this year, it was so fun having kids who are old enough for it to be magical. Grace was the best this year, she loved asking Santa for a guitar, she loved to drive around and see the lights. We have an advent calendar, it's Little People and tells the story of Jesus birth and each day she reminded me who's turn it was and eagerly moved the next piece. She was so excited whenever we saw Christmas tree's in stores. She was concerned Max didn't ask Santa for something and made sure we had something for all her aunts and cousins.

Max only opened one present early and it happened to be the present with socks in it, and he was a little pill with the tree for the first week. He loved seeing trees in the store and actually sat on Santa's lap without crying this year, a major plus! Grace kept saying she wanted a guitar so about mid December that's what he said he wanted too... but Christmas Eve he finally said he wanted a gun! (About 8pm Christmas Eve...) He still didn't get the idea behind most of Christmas, but he was pretty adorable ripping into his presents Christmas morning.

Santa did bring Grace the one thing she wanted, and she loved it! Her Grandpa Todd showed her how it worked and later in the day I asked her if I could show her something and she told me "Grandpa read me the constructions, I know how to do it." She is pretty good I must say! And she already has the rocker "Christmas morning" hair do going on. Grace also got a camera, a Belle dress, a giant chalk board, an outfit and some new pink boots. She got a Barbie and horse from Grandma Kate & Grandpa Guy and a puppy Pillow Pet & blanket from Grandpa Todd & Grandma Ruth, not to mention lots of fun presents from her aunts, uncles and cousins! Spoiled!

Max got his gun he asked for late Christmas Eve, good thing Santa plans ahead! He carries it everywhere, sleeps with it and begged to bring it to church on Sunday. He needs a little help holding it right, but I don't correct him, I think its cute when he holds it upside down and is so serious about shooting the TV... He reminds me of Ralphie Christmas night sleeping with his precious gun, it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Max also got a remote control Lighting McQueen, a Thomas the train set, a tool box and a bucket of soldiers, or as Max calls them "little mans", which he totes around constantly also...and if you ever find them lurking in your house after we've visited, you can bet they followed Max because I find them everywhere! Max got a giant talking dinosaur from Grandpa and Grandpa McBride and a Panda Pillow Pet and blanket from Grandpa and Grandma Tyler, and of course he got spoiled by his aunts and uncles too!

There are a few things I'm going to miss... and they aren't very Christmas spirited, but I'll admit I've loved getting Grace to mind, be kind and pick up her room by telling her Santa and his elves are watching and she might not get her guitar if she isn't good... And, I went and bought all new decorations for my tree last night and I can't wait to put them up next year! Hows that for wishing away a whole year? My ornaments were given to me when I was first married, and we've had them for 6 years now, so I'm ready for something different, but I wouldn't pay full price for them - but I got $50 bucks of ornaments for $17! They won't match any of my other decorations now, but I'm ready for a change!

Christmas Dance Show

Grace's dance class preformed the Nutcracker for their in Class Christmas Show. It was for parents only and it was the girl's first dance performance.

Grace says she likes dance class, but every week when I pick her up her teacher Miss Jenna says she doesn't pay attention, she talks non stop and has a hard time following directions...So, I wasn't sure what to be prepared for. BUT- Grace did really well! She wasn't the best in the class, but she pretty much did what the other girls did and there were a couple girls who couldn't stop crying and didn't dance at all.

I'm not exactly sure what this pose is, but I laugh so hard every time I see it!

There are 8 or 9 girls in her age group.

I was surprised how many costume changes they had for a 3 year old, but they were really cute.

After the girls were finished they exchanged a small gift, it was funny because they all wanted to open the gift they brought, they had no idea what exchange a gift with someone meant. The dance last about 8 minutes and Grace was smiling and dancing the whole time, success!

Zoo Lights

We took the kids to Zoo lights this year at Hogle Zoo. The lights were really cool, but you couldn't see hardly any animals. I thought we'd at least be able to see 1/2 of them- so I was disappointed. My two cents worth says it was a lot of money to see lights that we could have seen for free other places. The kids had fun, but they kept asking to see more animals. We even got a member discount and I still think we got robbed.The peacock and the alligator were our favorite.The kids chased this cat in the reptile house back and forth for a long time, they giggled and screamed- it was really cute. The reindeer brought Santa too, however the wait to see the big guy was 45 minutes, and the line started outside, I said lets just look at the reindeer...

It wasn't too cold and the lights were cool to look at, once ;)