Fancy Nancy Birthday Party

The Girls had so much fun at their "Fancy Nancy" party on Saturday! All of the little girls dressed up in fancy clothes and then they recieved a tutu, boa, necklace and headbank when they got here to wear as well. If you haven't read the "Fancy Nancy" books by Jane O'Conner, you should! They are some of the cutest books ever! Thank you Aunt Angela for introducing us to Nancy. Brady found a lady on craigslist who rents her ponies, so we did and it was so much fun for everyone! She decorated the pony and minature horse to match "Fancy Nancy". It was a blast and the HOA didn't spot us. The ponies were very well behaved and did not go potty in my back yard...thank you! We had a pinata, coloring, made tiaras, pinned a tiara on Nancy and decorated cupcakes. The girls were so tired after everything was done! I was tired before it started. I spent the week prior cleaning and cooking and decorating. We had a pork chili, a regular red, bean chili and a vegetarian wheat berry chili and of course all of the fixings. I am still working on cleaning up. Brady has banned me from throwing any more big parties for a while, so I hope everyone had a good time. I sure did! To find out all about Fancy Nancy visit http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/kids/gamesandcontests/features/fancynancy/enter.aspx

The Pinata Sarah eating her cupcake

Olivia on the pony Cat on the pony

Isabel on Sparkle, the pony with Cat and Sarah leading

Grace on the minature horse




Sarah on Charm the minature horse

Sarah using her blower and Alexa spinning to the music

Olivia blew her blower so hard, it ripped and became a noise maker instead!

Cat and her blower looking so fancy!

The girls getting dressed and getting their blowers.

Our Sea World Adventure in Pictures

Our Sea World Adventure in Words

Sea World was an absolute blast!!! We had so much fun the two days that we were there! We drove over Thursday afternoon and got in after dinner. Friday morning we drove 20 minutes over to Sea World and got to work. We saw the dolphin show and had lunch first. Then, Jon and Megan joined us and we went to the Shamu show. It was really fun! At the dolphin show one of the trainers pretends to be a helper and falls in. I totally bought it at first, sap that I am. At the orca show on Friday the male trainer did a 20 ft. dive off of Shamu and also did a huge double flip off of him. It was incredible! We saw more dolphins and got to feed them and touch them, then did the same for the stingrays, which was kind of anticlimactic because we have them at our zoo and can touch and feed them. We went on a roller coaster and got a little wet, but not bad with our ponchos. We saw the penguins and the arctic exhibit. By this point we were super exhausted and went home. That night we went out for Valentine dinner with Jon and Megan. I had some of the most delicious food! For the fish course I had monk fish on an eggplant parm and it was soooo good! I am going to have to try and duplicate it. The next day we went back to Sea World and met Kelly and Chris. We saw the dolphin and orca show again and then went up and saw the Sea Otter and Lion show, which was pretty cute. We also went in the huge tower that raises up and overlooks San Diego and Misson Bay and the Atlantic. I was scared poo-less, but it was pretty. We called it an early night and said goodbye which was sad. Sunday morning we got up and drove home. It was nice to get home, but we are excited to go back! We love Sea World!

So-Cal here we come

The girls and I are so excited to go to Sea World this weekend! We leave Thursday and the count down is on. Cat was convinced that she would get to ride the dolphins and was quite dissapointed when we told her she only gets to see the animals, not ride them. I think she is resigned to her fate though, she is still pretty pumped. I am glad that we are able to stay with Brady's brother Jon and his wife Megan. They have a nice, clean house and are fun to be around, so it will feel like a vacation. We get such precious few days with our Daddy that anytime that we have we want to be fun! Auntie Kelly is also coming down for the weekend, so we will get to play at Sea World with her and Chris too. I am very excited to finally meet him. I am such a mother hen, but can turn into a sniper if need be. Wish him luck...Then, we get to go to dinner for Valentine's Day and I am looking forward to a meal that I get to eat from start to finish without having to stop to help anyone. I love my children, but between the two of them, someone is constantly going potty or spilling or needing something. It is almost easier to cook...almost!

The Passing of an Age

It is official, we are no longer in the terrible two's but the obstinent three's. Hooray!!! Sarah turned three on the third of February. It was her golden birthday, but she didn't get anything gold...I might need to rethink that one. She had her little family party on the 5th and Grandma Thomason came out to spend the night, which was really special for Sarah, since Grandma's time is precious. We had pizza and pasta for dinner and root beer floats for her treat. She opened presents and oohed and ahhed the whole time. It is so easy to remember when she was born and the first time that I saw her. Brady put her up by my head so that I could see her and she looked straight at me and stopped crying when I said her name. Anytime Brady would try to walk away, she would start to cry again, but when I would talk to her and he would put her back by my head, she would stop. This happened several times and I didn't want her to go, but the nurses said she had to go up to the nursery. She was such an opinionated little thing from the start, that it really shouldn't have surprised us how much she values her agency! She is sweet and loves to sing to her MP3 player. She is constantly busy in both good and bad ways! She has so much energy, that I could make so much money if I could harness it into a drink. While she is very stubborn and set in her ways, she is very good at sharing when she wants to and playing with Cat. She looks up to Cat and gets her heart broken when Cat won't play the exact way she wants to. She loves the kitties and plays with them most often. Sarah loves to go to ballet and dances for hours! She is starting to ask me to do school with her and I think that she will learn quickly. She loves to snuggle with blankie and thinks her Daddy is the best thing since sliced bread! She is impossible and also so kind and sweet; what a dichotomy! We love her and she is ours!