Merry Christmas

 Christmas came quick this year. I blinked and it was over. Laneah was really into Santa this year which was cute. And Brooklyn seemed to get the fact that those brightly colored packages contained fun things to play with. I was worried that Brooklyn would get into the tree, but she didn't even try. In fact, Laneah got into more than Brooklyn did.  The girls both enjoyed opening their presents and now our house is overflowing with the extra toys. Laneah got a sleeping bag, which was her favorite gift, lots of games, a Dora play dough set, and a Barbie. Brooklyn got a spinning top, Baby Signing Time DVDs, and the Fisher Price A-Z Learning Zoo. They got lots of other little toys and things from family as well. We spent the Saturday before Christmas at with Jason's dad's side of the family and Christmas Eve with his mom's side, so Christmas Day it was just our little family and we had fun just relaxing in our pajamas and enjoying the day together. And here are some pictures from different Christmas festivities.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas:)

Laneah is 3!!!

 

 Stats:

Weight- 32 lbs, 60%

Height- 37 1/2 inches, 60%

Today my little girl turned 3. Where has the time gone? She is so big and has changed so much this year. What a difference a year makes. We had a fun day today. We made cupcakes in the morning, which Laneah loved because I let her do most everything.

 Then in the afternoon we went to Chick Fil-A with our neighbors. Ezra also turned three today. These girls have so much fun together.

 Laneah loved the birthday outfit that I got her. I had her try it on the day before and she didn't want to take it off. She looked so cute.

After lunch and some errands, we came back home and called Nana and Poppa on Skype and sang 'Happy Birthday' and Laneah opened her presents.
She got a Rapunzel doll, a princess beauty kit, princess roller skates and a princess helmet. She loved all of her gifts, but her favorite was the roller skates. And luckily she thinks the helmet and knee/elbow pads are cool:) She couldn't wait to put them on and practice.
 Then Grandma came over to watch Brooklyn so Jason and I could take Laneah to see 'Tangled'. And we ended the night playing with our new toys and eating cupcakes.

 Now on to the usual documentation:)

 Laneah-isms


*"I'm crackin' my bum". I will explain later how she won't keep pants on. Usually she will keep her panties on, but not always. When she first saw this picture, she started laughing and said "look mom, I'm crackin' my bum!" So funny.

*"Sink, sink, sink". Sometimes she will say this when she is trying to think of something. She is really saying think, but pronounces it sink.


*"It's gone, it's lost". This is actually annoying. When I ask her where something is or where she put something she just shrugs her shoulders and says "It's gone, it's lost". No looking, no caring, just "it's gone".


*"make me laugh" When she laughs so hard she clutches her belly, she will say "that make me laugh" or "Brooklyn make me laugh"


*"I got circle eyes". One time I told her that she looked tired because she had circles under her eyes, so now when she is tired she will say "mommy, I got circle eyes"


*"I go run earrinds". This is what she tells me when she is pretending to run errands.
New and Current Things:

*She is trying to speak correctly so corrects herself or you if you hear her wrong.

*Laneah will says no to kisses sometimes now. When she first started telling me no, I jokingly told her, "oh, that makes mommy so sad, please give me a kiss" etc. She thought that was really funny for me to grovel for a kiss so now it is a game. She will say "no kiss mom, you be sad" and then I grovel and she rewards me with a kiss.


*She likes to empty out the toy box and sit in it.
*She is in awe of Christmas lights. Even little string lights get gasps and exclamations from her.

*Laneah wants to stay home most of the time now. She is having more fun playing pretend and doesn't get as bored at home so most of the time it is a chore to get her dressed and out the door, even for fun things.

*Her stuffed animals are her best friends. She has so many and she takes them all over the house playing games. She pretends to take them to the store, to the potty, feed them and even go on roller coasters with them. And at bedtime she has to have her bed full of her animals.

*Back to the no pants. She will not wear pants. She will wear shirts, but pants, forget about it. If we are home, Laneah is not wearing pants. Getting pants on her to go out is awful. She is a little better with leggings or tights, but it is still hard. She also won't keep her hair up. She pulls out her bows and hair ties almost as soon as I put them in.

* This isn't new, but seems to be a big issue right now. Laneah is so sensitive. A wrong look can send her into hysterics. If she thinks people are laughing at her or talking about her; hysterics. And I mean hysterics. Wailing, crying, screaming: hysterics.

*She likes to pretend there are giants, crocodiles, and dragons. We hide from them under blankets. When there are crocodiles, I tell her she has to give me a magic kiss and they will turn to rainbows. She also likes to pretend that she is a giant and she tries to say the fee, fi, fo fum, but says something completely different that cracks me up.

*Laneah is really proud of her long hair. She will say, "I have long hair like Rapunzel does" or "My hair is beautiful". It is so cute. 


*She likes to try on hats. If we go anywhere where there are hats, she has to try them on.
My little princess is a beautiful, fun drama queen. I love her so much and am so happy that she is my little girl. I am looking forward to this next year and being able to watch her grow and learn and enjoy her childhood. 

Brooklyn is 11 months old!

Favorites:
Food: fresh bananas
Snack: arrowroot cookies
Book: Baby's First Peek-a-boo
Toy: Kai-Lan Super friend doll


I just think this picture is so cute. I looked over and saw she had one of Laneah's purses strung over her shoulder.

*Brooklyn is very musical. She can already keep a beat and loves to dance and sing. Laneah has a toy microphone and Brooklyn picks it up all the time and "sings". At church whenever we sing hymns, she stands on my lap and copies the conductor and sings along too. It is the sweetest thing.

Her newest dance move is bouncing on her knees.

She still just has her two bottom teeth, but her upper gums are very swollen, so I think she will have more by her birthday.

Brooklyn is such a sweet little thing. She is still very small for her age, although she is still growing and healthy. She is still in 6-9 month clothes, but can fit into a few 9-12 month things. Even though she is small, she loves to eat. She prefers to feed herself, but that is a messy business. I give her lots of finger foods to eat in addition to her normal feedings which she likes. She loves eating puffs, fresh bananas and arrow root cookies. She has started pulling off  her bib. I put it on, and she takes it off. Little stinker:) She also holds her own bottles and sippy cups most of the time.

Brooklyn loves to make people laugh. When she does something that makes someone happy or laugh, she is so pleased. The other day I was giving her a bath and she leaned all the way forward. I am not sure if it was to look at her reflection or a toy in the water, but she leaned over enough that she put her face in. She sat up really fast and looked at me with the funniest expression. I laughed and then she started laughing and she did it again and sat up and laughed. She did it over and over until we were done with bath time.


 She is such and easy going, happy baby. She just oozes sweetness and I literally can't get enough of her.
She likes to play, but wants to be close to mommy as well. If I leave the room, she is crawling right after me, and she wants me to pick her up a lot. Sometimes she is torn on which she wants more, and goes back and forth between playing and wanting to be held. That is usually when I read to her.


Brooklyn is into everything. I am contemplating putting a gate up in the living room like we had with Laneah. She doesn't stay in one room very long. She wants to explore and explore some more. Pots and pans, bathrooms, anything and everything. She is really into unrolling the toilet paper.
She is crawling so fast now! She is faster than any speed walker. She pulls herself up all the time, but still isn't cruising at all. And I am completely ok with that, I am not ready for her to walk yet.


Brooklyn likes making different facial expressions. She winks with both of her eyes and then I will do the same. We do that back and forth and she just cracks up. This is another one of her favorite expressions to make.
 Brooklyn loves to look at books. Like I mentioned above, her favorite is Baby's First Peek-a-boo, which is funny because it was also Laneah's favorite book when she was little. Brooklyn also likes her touch and feel books, especially the one with kittens and puppies.

I can't believe that this her last month of official baby hood! She is going to be a toddler and it happened too fast. We are so lucky to have this little angel in our family.

Scentsy

Hi everyone, I am so excited to tell you that I have signed up as an independent consultant for Scentsy. If you don't know anything about Scentsy, they sell wickless candles.They have super cute warmers that melt the wax using light bulbs. I love that there is no flames, no soot and the wax doesn't get hot enough to burn, which is good when you have kids. And the best part is that they have 80 amazing scents. Laneah and I smell the testers all the time because they smell so good. Anyway, I wanted to give you my scentsy website: https://rcarter.scentsy.us/ and if you have any questions let me know. I have all the testers in regular and miniature size so if you live far away I can send you the mini testers to smell. I have already sold over $800 in a week because this product really sells itself, it is great and I wouldn't sell it if I didn't think so. Hope you come to love Scentsy as much as I do:)

Laneah's 3rd Birthday Party

Prepare for picture overload:)
For Laneah 3rd birthday we had a princess and knight party. The party was on the 4th, even though her birthday isn't until the 20th, we did it early because Christmas time is so hectic.
I made castle invitations, blue ones for the boys
 
and pink for the girls

The day before the party I started working on the castle cake. I had never worked with fondant before or done any kind of stacked cakes other than your basic double-layer cake, so this was a project for me. But I like trying new things. I had to make 300 flowers and 250 leaves out of fondant.

It took a long time, but I finished the cake around 2 a.m.

The next day was the party and Laneah got dressed up and had her hair done by her Aunt Jen while Jason and I decorated the church. We had her party at our church gym because we invited 10 kids and we don't have room for 10 kids in our little town home:) 

The Princess arriving at the party

She looked so beautiful!!!! Here is her fake smile

I got her real smile in this profile picture, so much better
 One of the centerpieces. It was the only picture I got of the decor before people started arriving.

 

The first thing that the kids did was a craft. I bought foam tiaras for the girls to decorate, and made foam shields for the boys to decorate.

Then we had the pony races


Then pass the "poison apple"- like hot potato

The kids favorite game was Cinderella's Ball. It was a freeze dance, but instead of yelling freeze, I yelled midnight. The dance floor was bubble wrap, and the kids had a blast dancing on it.

Our last game was pin the kiss on the frog. I had a lip stamp that I used to make the markers. The kids really enjoyed this game too.

My talented friend Jess drew this for me.

 We had a pull-string pinata, which was fun and a little calmer than one you hit. The kids were so funny because they scooped up the candy and little gifts inside like it was gold. 
 Then it was time for presents. It was a little crazy because all the kids wanted Laneah to open theirs first. She got a good haul too.

 Cake time! Laneah loves blowing out candles and she was so happy with her cake. She started singing Happy Birthday before everyone else because she was ready to blow out those candles, lol.

After she blew out the candles, she was so excited. She jumped up and down yelling "I did it! I did it1" and when everyone clapped, she bowed! So funny.

 The cake actually was really yummy, which was a bonus. The kids ate cake and ice cream at a special table
The party was lots of fun. The kids had a great time, and Laneah still goes on and on about how much fun she had at her party.