Rylee's FOURTH birthday

Mar 29 - I know that Rylee's birthday was a long time ago, and I did do a short post of the highlights, but I wanted to post some of the details for her to have... and for me. It was such a fun day! I love birthdays!!!
Here is the little Princess sleeping at exactly 7:39 am - the EXACT second that she turned four!
We usually like to do presents first thing in the morning, just like Christmas. But, Daddy had to be at work at 6:30 am, so we had to wait until he came home. Rylee got a special birthday outfit to keep her a little excited and spent the morning skipping her chores and watching a special birthday episode of Dora while Mommy did some chores and got everyone ready to go.
Logan, Rylee and Avery watching Dora in our toy room. That couch is not in a place people see in our house in case you were wondering...
This is something new at our house for birthdays. I got it as a Christmas gift and it was so fun counting down to Christmas this year, that we decided to use it for birthdays, too. Since all my kids have a birthday at the end of the month, we just get it out once it is their birthday month and count down to their BIG day. They love it and Rylee was VERY excited once those numbers said zero!
At our house, on your birthday you get to choose every meal. For breakfast, Rylee wanted chocolate chip pancakes. About a week earlier, we had gone to Village Inn with some friends and 2 kids ate free with every adult meal, so I thought it would be fun to do that again. Ry loved going out and some friends were able to come along. The only problem was they stopped their kids eat free promotion, so it didn't work out as great as I thought it would, but we had a great time and some yummy food!
Rylee and her breakfast buddies - Gracie and Logan! We were so glad to have Jill, Gracie and the twins join us for breakfast! It was a bit chaotic with 6 small children (3 One year olds!) but it was a fun morning.
Mommy and the birthday girl
Avery loves drinking with a straw
Yummy chocolate chip pancakes!!!
While we were at breakfast, the birthday girl got a phone call from Dad. He hadn't seen her that morning, so he called to talk to her once he had a break at work. She loved it! She got a few phone calls during the day from family and she felt so special!
After breakfast, we had to get Logan off to school and then Rylee chose to go get her nails done. I gave her a few choices, but she really wanted to do that and she wanted it to be just me and her, so we took Avery's to a friend's so we could have some Mommy/Daughter time. She loved it!
Rylee REALLY wanted some cute flowers on her nails, but the guy didn't think he could make them work on her tiny little fingers. Luckily, he was able to and she loved them! She was all smiles there and chatted to the guy doing her nails the whole time. He was nice to just smile and nod at her, but I don't think he really was listening or understood.
After nails, we made a quick stop at Daddy's office to say hi. Rylee loved all the attention from everyone.
Next, Rylee was off to her friend Madi's birthday party. Rylee and Madi have the EXACT same birthday and are the best of friends. Isn't that fun? Madi was also having a Tangled party! Rylee had so much fun having lunch and painting and doing lots of Tangled stuff with Madi and her other friend Allie.
When Rylee got home from the birthday party, some of her friends dropped off a present for her. They got her a Tangled T-shirt. She loves these girls and thinks she is just one of them, even though they are a lot older than her. Whitney, Gracie and Brooke with Rylee.
Next, Rylee was waiting for presents. Daddy was putting the finishing touches on the last big present, so we had to stall a bit. Rylee was getting so excited! I made her do a little photo shoot in her cute new dress while we waited for Dad to finish.
Ready to open presents...
Finally time to rip into them! I think Logan was just as excited as Rylee about the present he gave her. He got her a Princess Leia Star Wars figure. She has been wanting one forever but they are really hard to find and Logan was so excited when he found one. (A Princess Leia toy was actually the bribe that Rylee used to give up her binky last year, but then we couldn't find one so she settled for a scooter instead...)
I can already tell there is going to be lots of Star Wars playing with these two! At least now Ry has some girls to play with when they play together.
I love watching Ry open presents. She gets so excited over every little thing and she LOVES new clothes! I don't think many kids do, at least at this age, but Rylee gets pretty excited over them.
New PJs for her PJ party the next day!
Rylee really wanted this Tangled book when we were at the store a few days before her birthday. I wasn't going to just buy it for her with her birthday coming up, so I said no. She really wanted it, so I told her she could buy it for Madi's birthday and then I snuck it into her presents. When she opened it, she was so funny! She had the funniest face and kept saying that I tricked her.
Yeah...The Tangled Movie! Ry was really excited about that one!
A Princess Oven - I love the facial expression!
Strawberry shortcake!
And finally.... A new BIG girl Princess bike! We left it on the porch and rang the doorbell and she was pretty excited to find her new pink bike! Unfortunately, the streamers lasted about 15 seconds...
Rylee trying out her new bike!
For dinner, Rylee could choose anything she wanted. She chose to go to Texas Road House. I think she just wanted to ride the birthday saddle! Here are mommy and Rylee at dinner.
Silly boys Daddy and Logan
And Avery hamming it up!
Taking a ride in the birthday saddle! She was LOVING this!!!
Avery thought this lime was yummy! She was pulling such funny faces.
The birthday girl eating her ice cream! Her favorite part of her dinner was the vegtables. She is such a funny girl!
Ry loved her Princess card from Mommy and Daddy that played music.
And now for the cake! Even though Rylee had a dessert at the restaurant, I always feel like there needs to be a special cake and candles on their actual birthday. It is probably really silly of me, but I do. Here is Ry with her little Tangled cake for our fam.
Rylee and Mommy before we blew out candles.
Daddy and Avery wanted to be in a picture, too.
Logan, Rylee and Avery ready for some cake!
Daddy and Ry and her PINK flowers. Daddy has started a tradition for the last couple of birthdays that he always gives the girls special flowers for their birthdays. Rylee has loved this! I'm sure Avery will too when she is a little bigger. Isn't he the cutest daddy ever?
I love how excited she is!
Happy Birthday to You....
Making a wish...
Eating some cake and PINK ice cream - just what she wanted!
Avery having some cake.
Logan
After cake and ice cream, Rylee tried out a few of her new toys. She was loving her cute Strawberry Shortcake set!
One of my favorite parts of the whole day was watching these two play together. I'm not sure how the worlds of Strawberry Shortcake and Star Wars go together, but they seemed to figure it out quite well and played together great for a long time. It was so funny to listen to!
The birthday girl right before bed with her presents and in her new PJs. She had such a special day! Just for my journaling, here is what she got: Princess Leia aciton figure, Clothes, Pjs, some books (My Little Girl, Olivia goes to Venice and Tangled), a Magna Doodle thing and some water color paint markers, (She loves art!!!) Tangled movie, Princess magic oven, Strawberry Shortcake set and a Princess bike!

I probably go a little overboard on birthdays, but I feel like it is their ONE special day of the whole year and I always want it to be all about them. (Of course, we also have a few parties so I seem to drag that special day out into a week or so...) I love celebrating them and making them feel special and having a day just for them! Birthdays are so great! I'm so glad that my kids were born and a part of our family. We love our little Princess so much! Happy fourth birthday Rylee!!!

Heavenly

Tonight, we had Family Home Evening, a Monday night tradition at our house. However, Rylee has given it a new name. She can't quite get that big long phrase out of her mouth, or it somehow got very jumbled, so she calls it "Heavenly Fam Evening" It made me laugh! But, I guess that is an appropriate name... or at least that is what we are shooting for.

In some other recent news, Miss Avery got her first REAL hair cut. She has had some trims, but never a real cut into a little style, and I think it was about 3 inches off in some places. It is a super cute little a-line bob with bangs and she looks adorable. I would add a picture, but it is still on my camera and I'm too lazy at the moment. Just take my word for it - It is stinkin' adorable! I'm sure I will get a few pictures of it on the blog in about 3 months or so... The only problem with her cute hair cut - She looks SO grownup!

Pottermania has also started in our household. Actually, Darren and I have been fans for awhile, but the kids have now been introduced. Logan and I have been reading the first book of Harry Potter for the last few weeks and just finished it last week when school got out. I loved how into it he was! As a reward, we let the kids have a late night and watch the Harry Potter movie. They LOVED it! Each time they would go on to the next part of the book, Logan said, "Chapter 1: Privet Drive" or "Chapter 6: Quidditch" He remembered almost all of them and would get so excited for his favorite parts, which I think were when Harry and Ron battled the troll and when they played Quidditch. The next morning, the kids spent the entire morning playing Harry Potter and doing spells. My favorite was when Logan asked what the spell to wake someone up was and I didn't know, so he came up with "Rise and Sun Up!" You probably had to be there, but it was quite funny! For breakfast, they changed the name of their cereal to "Wizard Crisps" and a couple other funny wizard names. I love when they use their imaginations so well and it was so funny to listen to them and when they play together like that, it is PURE heaven! The only problem was that Rylee kept insisting she was the Queen of Hogwarts and Logan kept insisting that Hogwarts had NO Queen! If I asked them to do a chore, they immediately wanted to know how many "house points" they were going to get. It was an awesome bribe for me! And when Rylee was really naughty, Logan told her that she had lost 5 house points and that I had also lost 5 house points for getting mad at her. The things my kids teach me.

I have been having a hard time with my Rylee lately. She just seems to be causing a lot of trouble and she is really testing my patience. Last night, I read a fabulous talk from the conference Ensign. It got me thinking a lot and rethinking how I parent and discipline. I tried much harder today and got much better results. It will be a process but I am so thankful for that answer! Heavenly Father knows what we (and our kids) need! Here is the link if you want a good talk on parenting -
http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/what-manner-of-men-and-women-ought-ye-to-be?lang=eng

And...Summer is here! This week is crazy running from Logan's soccer camp and Rylee's little day camp, but it should be fun. Logan ended school last Wednesday and on Thursday we had some errands and things to do and on the way home he said, "Mom, You really need to plan some fun things for summer. This is so boring!" Yes...ONE day into it and he was already complaining! Hopefully, it will get more exciting for him. If you have any fabulous summer ideas, I would love to hear them!

March

Here are a few random happenings from the month of March...
Mar 2 - Miss Avery discovered a new favorite food - RAVIOLI!!! She is loving it!!!
March 4 - Logan had his Special Me day at school! He was so excited for this day and looked forward to it all year and couldn't wait for his turn. It was a fun day for our whole family...even if it did stress Mom out a little bit!
Logan and his cute Kindergarten teacher. We love her!!!
Mar 6 - Avery had the first set of stitches of any of our kids. Actually it was just one stitch in the corner of her mouth. She had a little encounter with Logan on a scooter at some friend's house. She survived her stitches much better than mom! All it took was a sucker and she was fine!
Mar 12 - The stitch is out! Daddy took it out at home. It looked pretty good, but I think it will leave a little scar. She was always tugging at the stitch, so it was nice to get it out!
Mar 12 - We went to my Grandma's to celebrate her 78th birthday! She loved having all the family there so I was glad that we made the trip down. My dad thought it would be fun to introduce Logan to his old tree house! A little scary for Mom!!!
Logan was loving climbing the trees with Uncle Kyle.
The kids with Great-Grandma Mary! Another fun birthday - We love her!!!
Mar 17 - Yeah for March Madness!!! We love it at our house - especially when we get to watch the Aggies play. Unfortunately, it didn't go well for them again this year. They lost to Kansas State in the first round. Logan was so bummed! We had him fill out his VERY first bracket for our bracket pool and he picked the Aggies to win it all - which meant he finished in last place. Rylee begged to fill one out, too and she picked Butler and Georgia in the championship game, so she ended up finishing in 2nd place out of about 30 people! It is a pretty big deal at our house to fill out the brackets so she was So excited to do so well and Logan was not very happy to be beat by his little sister. And Mom beat Dad again in the brackets so it was a good year!
Mar 21 - Rylee in one of her funny dressup ensembles - I think she has on 3 different princess dresses and some of them are backwards. She is always coming up with some crazy combinations! I love it!
The view from behind...
Mar 23 - Some friends invited us to go ice skating with them. I have always been afraid to try this with all the kids, but since Darren had the morning off and could go and she said we could take the stroller right out on the ice, we decided to brave it and the kids had a blast!

The kids really liked using these walker things and could do pretty well all on their own. I don't think Rylee fell more than 2 or 3 times. She loved it!
Logan probably should have been wearing a helmet! He was a little crazy! He was going really fast and then he would have the worst falls! He wouldn't just fall on his bum - he would flip around and crash so hard and hit his head a few times. It didn't seem to stop him though - He would always get right back out there.
Rylee cruising on her own
Avery was in heaven! She loved being pushed around on the ice in her stroller. Especially when Daddy would push her really fast! Her little legs were bouncing up and down to the music so cute. I love how chill she looks just sitting back in her stroller.
By the end of our time skating, Logan could make it all the way around with no falls! He was really getting the hang of it and had so much fun!
Mar 23 - Rylee's little friend Gracie was coming to play and she ran upstairs to change into her Queen Amadala costume before she came over. When she came down, I couldn't stop laughing! I have no idea how this is Queen Amadala, but I love it! Rylee's fashion ensembles are frequently the highlight of my day!
Mar 24 - Ry drew this picture of herself for her Joy School book about herself and I love it! She loves to draw and color and is a good little artist and always puts a lot of funny details - like the eyelashes on herself and the flower in her hair.
Mar 25 - One day we drove by the Fun Park by our house and Logan saw that the Star Wars characters were coming there for a fundraiser. He kept asking every day if it was THE day that they were coming and when we could go and see them. He was SO excited when he could finally go and even more excited when his friend, Morgan came along. We got there before the event started and he and Morgan were going crazy each time someone new came out in costume! And then they actually got to hold a REAL lightsaber!!! To a five year old boy obsessed with Star Wars, that is about as good as it gets!
Mar 27 - Our little baby turned 18 months old and started going to nursery! Of course, she didn't really STAY in nursery, but we are trying and hopefully she will someday!
Mar 29 - Our little Princess Rylee turned FOUR!!!
Mar 30 - And SOCCER season started! This is Logan all dressed and ready for his first special training session that we registered him for. Notice all the layers - We spent most of soccer season FREEZING!!! There is lots more soccer to come in April and May...