Penelepe's Prayers

Lately her prayers have been pretty cute. Everyday for the past week she has been praying that Oliver doesn't have to go to school ALL day. She also has been praying that her neighbor friends can have sweet dreams (she usually prays for the sweet dreams during her blessing on her lunch).

Candice took this picture of Penelepe when we first moved here to Buffalo (it will be 2 years in April - isn't that crazy!)

Family pictures again??? I have the worst timing for pictures! Why can't we be like everyone else (who is smart) and take them in the fall with the vibrant leaves or in the summer when its warm? I guess that would be too easy. For our Christmas photo it was a spur of the moment -look how gorgeous and huge the snowflakes are - but by the time we were ready it stopped snowing, was dark, and freezing cold. So we had "retakes". Grandma DeEtte sent the kids adorable outfits for Christmas and since the weather was suppose to be in the 40s - HEATWAVE - I thought it would be a great day for a quick picture after church, but it ended up pouring rain. But we were all dressed and ready to go - and honestly when would we have another day with temps above freezing.

Rozannah took our pictures and did great, considering it was cold and rainy and all the locations we planned on were rained out. Thanks Rozannah for the great pictures! And thanks for being willing to take pictures without any notice.

Mouse in the House

Evidence. All over the house boxes have been eaten, anything with cardboard, paper, or plastic have been ruined.

But she is such a cute mouse - we'll keep her.

A Birthday Party for a Princess

She already has the princess wave down (who knows where she learned that - she's just a natural princess - like most four year old girls!)

Since there were only four candles - we tried to make it as hard as we could for her to blow them out.

While I was making the cake - I thought for sure it would be the next post on the cake wrecks blog, but it ended up ok - (who knows it still could make it)

The girls had fun making their princess wands.

We played musical pillows last year for her party, since then she constantly wants to play it. Its hard to play with only two players though.

"Prince Derick" has poisonous spit arrows - Beware! Isn't his outfit darling - Rozannah made it of course! She also made Oliver's cape.

All the princesses in the kingdom with Prince Derick and Prince Charming (or Prince Obnoxious). Oliver was out of control at the party and the more the girls laughed the crazier he got.

Princess love.

She did have a "family party" on the "real birthday".

She must have the perfect bag, purse, or basket to complete her outfit. She also received a pink princess purse which she immediately put her princess underwear in. She loves the underwear so much she had on TWO pairs the other day! Thanks Grandma DeEtte!!!

We also took a visit to the zoo. I'm sure someday Penelepe will ask me why I made her wear antlers on her head. (Sorry honey it was so much cuter in my mind!)

Of course most of our time was spent in the rain forest. We could have stayed there all day it was so nice and warm!

Violette wasn't sure if this bridge was safe enough for a one year old.

Black Eyed Peas Duet

I'm sure this post won't last long. I figured I would ask Ryan's forgiveness instead of permission on this video. It's so adorable I had to put it on. It is so amazing how smart little babies are. Violette loves this song and always hums along at the appropriate parts. Love it! In Ryan's defense - who honestly likes to hear their own voice in videos - excluding Rock Stars! (Which he is!)

I Gotta Felling.....

Christmas Break Recap

Well our Christmas vacation started off with Oliver puking during Christmas Eve dinner, yes DURING dinner. He was nice enough to step away from the table and puke on the kitchen floor. Luckily it wasn't a meal that I had slaved over for hours, because who can finish eating after that. The rest of the break didn't improve too much, Ryan and Penelepe lucked out and didn't get sick. We were a little bummed in the beginning because we were not going to be visiting family and we didn't have any visitors. Now I am so glad we didn't!