Libby's birthday interview

I did a birthday interview with Libby! Here are the results:

 

Note: Self portrait she drew has teeth in the mouth, which is why it looks a little creepy. She also drew her future baby sister (she really wants it to be a girl, few more weeks and we'll know for sure!!)

Libby also got to have her "SUPERSTAR" day in preschool where she got to be the center of attention for about 10 minutes and talk about all the things she loves. We made a poster that got to be hung up in the classroom and she brought in a few of her favorite things.

Best friend Lila is front & center there!

Libby's Birthday Festivities

My little girl is 4! I can hardly believe it's been that long!

Posing for the camera

Being cute in her "Anna" apron

and silly of course

 Libby requested a Frozen party and it was actually really fun to put together thanks to pinterest and my love for themes and crafts. Libby helped a lot, she helped make the invitations, several of the snacks (most of the white pretzels and stirred the jello) and really tried helping make the pinata but it was a bit messy.  she also helped decorate. The party was a big success and she loved every minute. I think there were 12 kids in our apartment plus a lot of parents so I was amazed it didn't feel more chaotic. Libby was so excited her best bud from preschool even made it! (all I hear about when I ask about preschool is her and Lila played frozen together)

Enjoying the ring pop from her goody bag

Food Table: Pretzels, Jello and a huge (store bought) CAKE!

Pin the nose on Olaf (only 3 kids wanted to stop playing to do it, but that's ok, it's cute and Libby loved it)

Found this princess version of the fishing game for $2.25 on clearance at Walgreens a week or so before the party. The kids are obsessed! It's been on almost constantly since Saturday

Pinata collage: It was funny to watch the different kids. Most the girls barely hit it, especially the littler ones. One definite difference between boys and girls, 2 yr old boys think it's awesome to hit things with a bat, girls...not really seeing the point yet. The 5 year old boy was the only one blindfolded and he had no problem getting that thing open even with Richard moving it all around. Overall a big success though.

Elliot clearly enjoying his ring pop!

She has loved every present too. We scored a free tricycle with our pampers point accumulation from the last 4 years and 2 kids (plus a little help from some awesome people who donated codes)! Elliot is pretty jealous of the bike and luckily Libby has been pretty good about taking turns. She loves her fancy Nancy book and is so excited we can have it at our house all the time! She also is having fun with her Elsa Barbie that goes with the Anna one she got for Christmas. She also got birthday money which she was way excited about, she bought a Doc McStuffins doll (that may be losing it's batteries soon as they won't stop pushing that darn stethoscope). Oh and a new dress from Grandma is another favorite thing, it's pink and ruffley, can't get much better than that! Spoiled girl!

26

Yesterday was my Birthday! It was a really fun one too! We started out the day by not sharing the bed with Elliot till 6:30am, when lately it's been more like 2 or 3 am due to some teething. I felt so rested, which was good b/c we had to get up earlyish to go running :) It was a color run and awesome. We had a babysitter for the kids and Julie and Michael came too. After the run/color festivities, we walked home and had a KFC picnic and ate ice cream cake. It was delicious! Then I got a little nap. :)  I also got to go to my favorite fabric store in town, Porters, and found some sweet deals on fabric. Gotta love finding fabric for 1.88/yd! After dinner we went swimming and since Libby wore a life jacket, I actually got to swim without holding a child which felt so good compared to just walking around. Finished the day with finishing up a huge project/etsy order! Productive and fun day!

Pre run picture

Julie and Michael. I don't know if I would've been as cool as Julie and done it 8 months pregnant! Go Julie!

After the run, but before the big color festivities

Ditto. I didn't get any final pics, but we were much more colorful

Elliot's war paint. He was so confused as to why we looked so weird when we got home. He kept doing double takes

Libby really wanted some color on her face

Brave girl ready to jump in

Elliot and his ball obsession



Yay for swimming! We go at least 2x a week I think

Libby swimming all by herself

3rd bday interview

3 years of Liberty!

 

Some rambling about 3 year old Libby: Something funny about Libby is that she often speaks in an English accent. She is getting pretty good too. (she is mimicking Angelina Ballerina). Everyday she decides she is a character from one of her shows and wants me to refer to her only using that name (top picks are Angelina and Jessie). She often gives me new names too and will only call me "Alice" or "Bullseye" or whatever goes with her character. If one of us uses the wrong name, she has to correct it. We dance around for a good portion of each day. All the pre-set songs on our piano have nicknames Libby has given them: "bumblebee song", "ballet song", "bad guy song", etc. She is VERY particular about which songs we listen to, she is a Pandora Nazi and gets super mad if she doesn't like the songs they play. She usually wears just underwear for at least 1/2 of the day. She is getting a little better about keeping clothes on, but a lot of times she'll use the bathroom and come back without her clothes.  Also, if her clothes are not pink, it is a battle getting her to wear them. (so stubborn sometimes! I have no idea where she got that from....) Her biggest accomplishment this year was being totally potty trained- night and day! She is in the making up stories and songs phase which is pretty entertaining for me. I love when she sings everything she is thinking about. She unfortunately hates it when I sing and yells at me to stop. So bossy! she doesn't appreciate me laughing at her demands or continuing to sing to Elliot!

 

Party Pictures! video coming soon :)

Libby requested an Angelina Ballerina Birthday Party this year. Since we haven't done anything fancy for either of her other bday's I decided we would make it pretty awesome. I made a bunch of decorations which she thought were fantastic and made a special pink cake and yummy pink sherbet punch (best part of the party). Unfortunately the flu was going around the week of her party and a couple kids couldn't come because of that and then a couple kids couldn't come because there was a big snow storm that morning (like crazy sideways snow). Luckily Libby's 2nd cousin Paisley and little Zach were able to still make it and that was plenty of fun for Libby (and less work for me). I have a bday interview video of Libby, but it'll be it's own post b/c it still has an hour to finish uploading and I am too impatient.
 

The food table/Decorations for Libby's party

Awesome cake I made

Libby practicing her dance moves before the party in the new tutu I made her. It's reversible and extremely awesome :)

One of Libby's bday presents was a Jessie costume I made for her. She LOVES it. She's worn it the last 2 days

More dance moves

Zach showing off his dance moves at the party

Blowing out candles

Libs and Paisley dancing

And doing stickers

Can't forget this handsome guy hanging out with me at the party

Opening some presents on her actual bday

wearing some of her bday clothes

Playing with the new toys from the grandparents before bed

Birthday Boy

I love all his facial expressions, so there are a lot of pictures to capture them all.

What is this stuff?

still no too sure

what a ham!

Definitly not camera shy

 

his hair was caked in cake

Victory!

I still can't believe it's been a year since this guy was born! Elliot still seems pretty babyish to me, which I love. He is so cute and happy and silly all the time. He brings such joy to our family.  We went to Utah for the weekend to meet our newest niece Cassidy who got blessed on Sunday. She is such a sweet heart, I love babies. We also had a fun little party for Elliot since we were there on his birthday and were surrounded by family. I had the opportunity to go see my best friend Carrie's little baby Samuel that morning. He was born 14 weeks early at 2 lbs 1 oz, but is now up to about Elliot's birth weight. The day I saw him he was 3 lbs 8 oz, which is only an ounce smaller than the smallest Elliot got. It was really cool to me to really see how much Elliot has grown and how amazing his life has been. We are so blessed that he really has had no problems from his early arrival. He is on track developmentally and the happiest kid I know.

Elliot's tricks:
-"fives"
-claps
-touch down
-waves
-crawls like a pro
-walks around furniture like it's no big deal
-amazing dance moves
-jabbers away and squeals/screams like a girl....a lot
-stands for a couple seconds
-repeats "cracker" and says "mama"
-throws a ball pretty well

Elliot Loves
-mac n cheese
-baths
-pears
-bottles
-yogurt bites
-music (especially taylor swift)
-balls
-playing with Libby
-touch/feel books
-cell phones
-toys that make noise
-Daddy's hair
-being thrown in the air

Well, he loves a lot of things. I am also pretty certain that Elliot is the cutest little boy on earth! i love that these pictures capture his adorableness.

Bumbo chair and Early birthday present

Elliot trying out the Bumbo Chair

He likes it...most of the time

Libby decided that "baby" needed a turn too, her animals and dolls spend more time in the chair than Elliot does

And she needed one too

Elliot loves attention, especially from his cool big sister

Libby hasn't seen this yet, but it's her present from Gma & gpa Hill and it fits perfectly into her present from me...

Liberty's amazing birthday present. Who made that awesome table fort? yes, it was me! I feel like a cool mom now. Window, door and mail box on front, pockets and a fire place inside. Since Libby has 2 closets in her room and we have a handy bar that we sit at to eat, we didn't need our table anymore so I made it into this for Libby and someday Elliot

I couldn't wait till her birthday. Julie babysat yesterday so I could finish it up. It better last forever cuz it was a lot more work than i'd aniticipated and I didn't even put in a second window like planned. Libby really likes it, which makes me very happy.

Liberty requested Elliot come in and visit. You can see the fireplace in the background.

She made sure I laid him on the "bed" with the dolls and animals