{Another Bike Rider}

Miss Emma is officially riding a two wheeled bicycle. Well, she still needs a bit of help getting started but that will come quickly. She's been wanting to learn for awhile, but I told her she would have to wait until the baby was born because my belly was too big for running along beside her : ) She was patient. We worked at it in little bits here and there until I knew she had it down, all but her letting me let go. Every time tried to let go or loosen my grip she would start to cry and tell me not to let go. Finally I bribed her with a trip to Walgreens to get a dollar treat, oh the power of a dollar. Once she got going, she was so cute. She laughed and said "I'm doing it, this is so fun, I love it!"

(Yes I realize riding a bike in a dress is not the best idea, but she wouldn't change, and if you look below you might see where she gets it from : )



Although I don't ride my bike much anymore. I have wonderful memories of riding bikes growing up. My parents bought my first bike second hand. It was green and yellow and kind of ugly, but they spray painted it red and got me a cute red and white basket. It sat it the basement for awhile until I could earn it for not sucking my thumb. I learned to ride that bike the summer before I turned five. My next bike came as a Christmas gift a couple of years later. It was a pink and white "Breezin" with a banana seat. That bike took me around the neighborhood, to school, to grandma's & to Kings to buy treats.



When I was around ten I started saving up for a 10 speed. It was blue and I bought it from Coast to Coast with money I saved from babysitting. I went all kinds of places on that bike. I pulled my brothers and sisters in a bike trailer and took them with me. I loved to ride around out on the country roads, I even rode to Idaho Falls a few times. My next bike came right before I went to college. Some kids get a car, I got a bike, and that's how I got around. I rode to class and to the movies and most other places I wanted to go. A favorite spot to ride was up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. That bike also made lots of trips to my Grandparents house. That was a yucky ride up hill both ways, but the destination was worth it.

I'm grateful for the freedom riding a bike gave to me and I've loved teaching each of my children (and a few others people's children) how to ride a bike. While my children won't have the luxury of going all the places I used to go by myself on a bike, I'm grateful they enjoy riding around with their friends and getting from here to there. Who knows, maybe reflecting on these memories will get me out riding my bike again. I'm sure my kids would like that.

{Flower Headbands}

I'm sure you know by now that I like my little girlies to have a little something pretty in their hair : ) Some of these pretties I've made and others have come from my friend Stephanie. Her etsy shop, Paislee Lane is full of cute and colorful flower headbands. Lucky for me, Stephanie has asked me to photograph her headbands a couple of times and I in turn get lot fun flowers for my girls. Most recently she sent me a few headbands to photograph for a special she's running on GroupDealz. So head on over and get a few pretties for you own little girlies.

{Delightful}

{Finally Four}

And I'm finally getting around to blogging about it : )
Be prepared for LOTS of pictures, LOTS of color, and LOTS of sweet four year old personality!

All of my kids have been really into art projects the past few months so I decided to go with an art party for Emma's birthday.
♥ I made fun little polka dot aprons for all the girlies to protect their clothes
during all the fun. Hopefully they'll be used for lots more art fun at home.
♥I printed frames from the ShabbyPrincess Yours Truly collection, then we
used ink pads, thumbs and fingers to make flowers, leaves, butterfly's,
ladybugs and bumble bee's. Keep lots of baby wipes near by for inky fingers : )
♥I ordered a super cute sugar cookie decorating kit from
"Snickety Snacks." The girls thought it was so cool to draw on their
cookies and still eat them. This was one of Emma's favorite activities.
♥We painted rocks then added googlie eyes and let the girls use a sharpie to draw noses,
mouths, and hair. We used a blow dryer behind the scenes to speed the drying process.
♥We made rainbow paper chains.
♥We decorated foamie door hangers with fun and easy stick-able flowers and butterflies.
♥We played with rainbow colored homemade play dough as the all the guests were arriving.
♥I painted rainbows and flowers on the girlies' cheeks.
♥I bought extra crayons, glue, markers, scissors and stickers during
the back to school sale and included them in their take home bag.
♥Below you'll see LOTS of pictures of the rainbow cake. I first saw this
over at the Idea Room, but use can also google it for lots of other versions.

Honestly, one of the best parts of this party was the afternoon Emma and I spent
together making play dough and the rainbow cake. She LOVES helping in the
kitchen and had such a great time cracking eggs, licking beaters, stirring, pouring
and mixing the colors. She even helped a bit with washing the dishes : )

Emma's birthday party was nearly a week after her actual birthday so she
got to celebrate twice with a family party on her special day. She was just a little
bit excited about her Pet Shop clubhouse : ) She loved her new twirly dress
from Gma Ginny and Gpa Doug. The swing from Gma and Gpa Reynolds was a
huge hit (with all the kids : ) There were much needed new slippers, and a fun
cash register. We topped it all off with a doughnut cake!

Whew!! If you made it this far, I'm impressed. As a reward, I'm giving away two polka dot aprons
we had left over. Leave a comment and I'll choose a random winner on Saturday.

{Preschooler}

Emma started preschool this week and while my heart breaks a little, it's hard to be sad when she is SO EXCITED. Last week I told her I didn't think she was going to be able to go to preschool. The most devastated look came over her sweet face as she asked why. I told her I would miss her too much and I thought she should stay home with me. Her face instantly became brighter as she said "I will miss you too, but I love my teacher and I will have so much fun. I of course agreed and she gave me the best best loves and squeezes.

Her first day went beautifully. She was so excited to tell about getting her hand painted red and that it was okay because her teacher did it. She was anxious to get home because she had to do her homework : ) She made a new friend, Brady Anne. I asked her why she liked Brady Anne and she she quickly replied "because she has beautiful hair." I reminded her that we want to have friends that are kind and happy, not just beautiful, to which she replied "Oh, she is very kind. She helped me when I was sad because I couldn't be the line leader." I'm grateful she has a kind friend. Incidentally, on Thursday Brady Anne had short hair and I found out from her mom she had cut it herself : ( I asked Emma about Brady Anne's cute short hair and she said "Her mom did it up today, I don't know how she did it so short." Hopefully Emma will still want to be her friend when she realizes her hair is "up" permanently and hopefully Emma doesn't get any crazy ideas. Scissors are only for paper!!!

Twirly Girl

Willette Designs is posting a weekly photography challenge and I thought I would participate and maybe win a
free spot in a workshop. This week's challenge was to focus on the eyes, not too much of a challenge for me
with all my beautiful blue eyed subjects ; ) but it made me get my camera out and play for awhile anyway.

What little girl doesn't love to twirl?

{Flower Girls}

You've probably been wondering if I would ever post again. I've wondered myself at times. It's not that I haven't taken lots of pictures this spring, it's just been a stressful couple of months. It seems the longer I put off posting, the harder it's been to start again. So I decided tonight to finally get blogging off of my to-do list. Hopefully when I put it on my list again in a few days I'll actually do it : )

Anyway . . . I have a soft spot for lovely fields of flowers and I'm glad this one lasted through my procrastinating so I could get some pictures of my girlies. Sarah was by far the easiest. She is such a little smiler.

Summer Faves

When we moved, I needed something for the walls in our office, so I found three pretty cute subjects and a lovely field and now I have these three portraits hanging were I can see them all the time. I probably should have shared these earlier, but they were taken during the summer when I was on a break from the blog. Anyway, we've had a lot of dark and dreary days lately (we haven't even gotten into winter and I'm already complaining about the weather : ) and looking at these pictures reminds me of summer. My only regret is that I don't have a matching one of Sarah. Hopefully I can get something similar of her in the spring when things are green again and she's sitting.

Leaves Are Falling

Emma and I spent a beautiful fall morning just walking and playing in the leaves last week. I'm so glad we didn't miss this opportunity because we then had rain for 3 days straight and it really brought the leaves down. A funny little story . . . We were in the car the other day and Emma kept talking about broken trees. I looked around for trees that had fallen and couldn't understand what she was talking about. She continued to ask why the trees were broken and I finally realized she thought the trees without leaves were broken. So, we talked about fall and why the leaves come off the trees and how they'll be back in the spring. I understand how Emma feels. I have a serious love for the trees in the East and I'm not looking forward to a winter of "broken" trees.

Sorry about the overload of photos, but I just couldn't resist : )

Three

It's hard to believe my former littlest is three : ( Seeing Sarah in some of Emma's tiny newborn clothes reminds me how big and grown up she's become (although I keep reminding her she's still a little girl, not a big girl yet.) Daily she tells me we are sweethearts and oh how I love my little sweetheart!

A few favorites...
Purple
Barbie princess movies
Playing kitchen
Strawberry Shortcake
Baby dolls & real babies too
Playing dress-ups
Swinging at the park
Swimming
Riding her trike
Shopping with mommy : )
Riding in the truck with Daddy

Several weeks ago, someone got Emma talking about her birthday and we told her it was October 10th. She started telling everyone "my birthday's coming up on October 10th." Well then someone asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She thought for a minute and said "candy." So then she started to say "my birthday's coming up on October 10th, I'm going to get candy." Well of course at some point someone had to ask her what kind of candy she wanted, and after a moments thought, she responded "chocolate candy." So for a few weeks now she has loved telling everyone "my birthday's coming up on October 10th, I'm going to get chocolate candy." The photos above are proof that she got her chocolate candy and lots of other candy too!

You've got to love the joy and delight of a three year old opening her presents!

Triple Pink

. . . and a little bit of blue. That's what we'll have in our family in a few short weeks! Three girls and one boy. I think we were all a little blue that Ben wouldn't be getting a brother, but we're tickled pink to be adding another baby to our family.

PS-- The title of the book is actually Double Pink (photoshop does wonders) and I got the idea from Sherri

Miss Independent

"Okay, Okay!!" That's what I hear from Emma when she wants to do something herself. No polite little "I can do it," just frustrated yelling "Okay, Okay!!" If I've already started to help it usually means she's going to start all over again. For example, if I've lifted her into her carseat and get the "okay, okay!!" then I have to wait while she gets out of the car and climbs back in all by herself. Unfortunately, the "okay, okay!!" is a little unpredictable. Sometimes it's alright for me to help her get in the car, of course usually when I'm in a hurry it's not : )

Then there are the times when she needs help, but doesn't want to ask for it. I'll hear her in the other room having a little fit, I'll go check on her, and she's trying to get her shirt off or her shoes on and she's having problems. Will she politely say "mommy, I need help?" Nope, I guess she thinks having a little fit is more effective.

Another favorite example is when I've asked her to do something, like take something out to the recycling, and she doddles or doesn't want to do it so one of the other kids or I will start to do the job. Again comes the "okay, okay!!" or the little fit.

Don't get me wrong, I know she needs to learn independence and I'm grateful that she doesn't want to be babied all the time. It's all in the joy of having a two year old : ) I guess I'm also grateful for the opportunity to practice patience and not be in such a hurry to get things done. If I'm honest, there are plenty of things that I want to do things myself, and if it's been started incorrectly I'll start the process over so it's done my way. There have also been times when I've needed help and rather than asking, I just get frustrated. I guess I still have some two year old tendencies I'm trying to outgrow ; )

Thankfully, the frustration is a small thing compared to the sweet and joyful moments I enjoy with my Emma. I'm grateful to be her mommy.

Little Miss February

I actually took these images back in December so I could use them for my calendar. I forgot I hadn't ever shared, so here's a little extra Valentine fun.

And of course, the classic Emma smile!