Lilly is 3!!

The busiest and most important time of the year in this house are the two weeks before Christmas. This includes John and Lilly's birthday, their birthday party, Lilly's dance recital and this year Mi Mi and Dzia Dzia were here which was really nice since we wont be with them in South Bend for Christmas. In these weeks I make at least 3 cakes, a couple dozen cupcakes and at least 3 big meals. This year we treated the night of Lilly's dance recital as a Christmas meal and her birthday dinner in one. We used my Christmas dishes and china, we ate prime rib and all the great sides, and had wonderful wine and family. It was a great weekend!

Lilly's Birthday cake got away from me. By the time I started working on it I was a little too tired and a little crabby. It was suppose to turn out like one of those cakes that the cake part is the dress of the barbie, instead it looked like a stripper jumping out of cake! oops.

We tried to show Lilly how to show how old she was on her fingers, but it just looks like she has gang symbols haha.

Like I said before go big or go home. She keeps us laughing!

And always ready for a party and ready to support his big sister is party boy john:).

Sunday was Lilly's actual birthday and we were all so tired from the couple of weeks of presents and parties we barley made it to dinner! haha But when the cupcake came over with a candle in it, Lilly knew she should wear...

And John was very upset that he didn't have a candle in his cupcake...

not to worry, we gave him one and blew it out about 15 times haha.

Christmas Recital 2011

This year Dzia Dzia, Mi Mi, and Gi Gi joined us for Lilly's Christmas recital. The girls danced to the song We are Santa's elves. And once again Lilly did not disappoint!

John kept himself busy while waiting for the show to start by playing with Dzia Dzia's camera and Daddy's phone.

Then the curtains opened and we were all entertained! I think at some point Lilly decided that when on stage you should go big or go home. And when the music started she was on!

I think she is doing the Robot here?!

Here's the big finish...

The best part of the dance was at the end when it was time for all the girls to march (I am guessing they were suppose to march by Lilly's moves) off stage and nobody moved except Lilly. And she danced all the way to the exit all by herself! haha

We were running a little late for the recital and we were all in the same car so at the last minute we decided it would be best to get Lilly some flowers when it was over. But when we went to pick her up from the stage the first thing she asked was "where's my flowers?!" how she even knew to ask that is beyond me! haha

Birthday Party

This is my new favorite photo of the kids together!!

This year we were so sad to hear that the Tree Farm was not allowing any groups. So we decided to try out the Jump Zone for the kids birthday party. We had a great time and the kids were totally worn out by the end of the party.

At the Jump Zone there are several blow up slides, and things to climb and jumping pits. Everything a kids could want! And maybe a few slides that Pick and I had fun on too:).

The kids were so surprised when a special guest showed up at the party! Each child sat on his lap and said what they wanted for Christmas. Lilly told Santa she wanted a puppy, John didn't really want to get near him haha.

We tried to get a family photo. :) John was so tired by this point he was having a hard time keeping it together. (it didn't help that right before we left for the party he fell and hit his face on the coffee table again, and this time put his tooth through him lip. It was a rough day for him over all.

We made cupcakes that looked like Santa Claus, they were really cute if I do say so myself ;)

And we have discovered John's favorite thing to do is blow out candles! So this was probably his favorite part of the party!

Heeeeerrrrrreee's Rally

Last week Santa left a surprise at the door. A little boy puppy! The kids named him Rally.

When the kids saw it was a puppy they went nuts. Lilly started running around the house yelling follow me rally, come see my room. Sweet sniffed him and seemed ok. Bigs on the other hand quickly decided he didn't want the puppy running around. He kept running over to the kennel and pointing saying "here dog, go dog." He is finally warming up to him, and will ask me to put him on the ground with him or Bigs will go to the gate where Rally stays and talk to him. I think he thinks he is safe if the dog is stuck. HA!

I had forgotten how much a puppy is like having a newborn. But how can you resist this face?! And like my dad said, it would not be christmas in our house without a baby :).

Here is the rat pack. :)

He is even sweeter when he is quite and still HA!