Creating

 Sewing and crafting of any sort has taken a serious back seat to the rest of the craziness that is my life. These are the two things that I have made since Easter, but I like the result so I thought I would document them for posterity.

 Apron using fabric from Hobby Lobby and an Amy Butler pattern out of her book In Stitches. 

The apron was a gift for my cousin-in-law's family bridal shower. I was also in charge of an activity so I put together these little note cards for each guest to write her advice on a happy marriage. The idea came from a similar activity that Shelley Smith did at her sister's baby shower.

So, there you have it. The extent of my craftiness in the last 6 months. Be proud, be very proud.

Girl's Night Out

When Brandon and William took off on a Father/Son campout in July I knew exactly how Marie, Anne, and I were going to fill the evening. First we took care of some business by getting Anne's 1 year pictures taken at JCPenney (Yes, I'm old school like that. What can I say, it's easy, cheap, and convenient.) Then we went over to the girl's department to let Marie model some "princess dresses". It's something that I've been anxious to have an excuse to do ever since our good friend and neighbor posted about doing it with her daughter. I knew Marie would love doing it and I right. 

We could have stayed there all night and tried on dress after dress, if Anne had been more cooperative. I even found some cute matching dresses that I wanted the girls to model, but that just wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately, there was an opening underneath the door tall enough for Anne to crawl through and then try out her new found skill of walking .... all over the store, if I had let her. Time between each of these pictures was spent going out of the dressing room, rounding up Anne and getting her back in the dressing room where she could start her escapade all over again. 

The lighting was bad in the dressing room (of course) and the colors were horrid. Orange, mustard yellow, and eggplant purple? Really? Who did they pay to design that? But we still managed to get some decent pictures. Marie. was. in. heaven.

She loved looking at herself in this fun house mirror as much as she loved looking in the regular mirror. Again, a strange piece of decor for a dressing room, but it gave some added entertainment to the night.

And after all the beautiful princess dresses that she tried on can you believe that this silly t-shirt dress was her favorite? She liked the jeweled hearts on the front.

We finished off the night with dinner at "Texas Rollhouse", as Marie called it. Can you guess what her favorite part of the dinner was? It was interesting going to such a popular date restaurant on a Friday night with just my two little girls. I think they should have taken 5% off my bill every time they said, "Are you waiting for someone to arrive?" What can I say, we wanted to make it special and it was! 

It was the first of many girl's nights out with my two princesses. I can't wait for all of them!

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Marie still loves to dress up in her pink princess dress from her second Halloween (when she was 12 1/2 months old). It dawned on me one day when Marie was wearing it that Anne was the age Marie was when she first wore it; and yet, Anne seems so much smaller and younger than that to Brandon and me. Trying on the dress, however, is proof that she really is the same size Marie was, basically. She's slightly taller than Marie was and just a little less chubby, if you can believe it. Oh, and she's a lot more bald. 

 Anne -- end of July 2011 -- 12 1/2 months old

Marie -- end of October 2008 -- 12 1/2 months old

"Anne"ecdotes

Haha! Do you love that title? Brandon is the mastermind behind it. We're proud of our cheesiness.

So .... our first one with Anne.

She just recently, like yesterday and today, figured out that the funny things I do with my hands (signs) are actually a means of communication.

This morning she was kind of whining at me and I said, "What do you want?" (Knowing perfectly well that she was hungry for breakfast.)

She got a huge smile on her face and started signing "more" and "milk" all jumbled together. The best part was her "this-is-what-I-need-to-do-to-get-food-right-mom?" look on her face.

Classic.

At the end of July, after 8 ear infections in nearly as many months, Anne had tubes put in her ears. On the day of the surgery the process was about an hour and a half. Anne was in surgery for 15 minutes of that. The rest of the time was paperwork, waiting time, and recovery.

Brandon's lovely boss scheduled a training for him in Logan that week so I had to brave the day solo. This was our first child to have any kind of surgery or really any kind of medical work done at all besides routine well and sick child visits.She's (his boss) lucky that he actually found the training to be relevant, otherwise I might have gone postal on her. OK, probably not, but I did have a good cry at some point leading up to the big day. I kind of like my right hand man a bit and like his support.  I'm a proud to say that I only shed a handful of tears when they took Anne back for the surgery, but other than that I stayed strong.

Anyway, William and Marie got to hang out at home with Stephen and Alisha. The happy couple came up from Provo the night before so that they could be here when I had to leave at 6:45am. Stephen brought Star Wars, which William has been begging to watch for months now. We watched the first (third?) installment and have never had to answer so many question through a movie. It was funny, but at least now William knows what a light saber really is. I guess.

Now, a month later, I am happy to report that Anne has been ear infection free. Since the surgery she started walking much more steadily and has been "talking" up a storm. She had her post op today, including a hearing test and she passed everything with flying colors.

Here's to a healthier second year for our Anne-girl ...

A Moment

This summer {this moment} kind of took a backseat to whatever else life had in store for me on Fridays besides downloading (uploading?) a great picture. It certainly wasn't due to lack of great pictures though; pictures such as this one of the kids enjoying some of Anne's new presents, or the boxes they came in. Notice our present to Anne still sitting in the box in the background. Brandon finally had a chance to put it together about a week ago, which was about one month after her birthday. Geez.

OK, back to the fact that my oldest two are silly and adorable, and always good for a laugh. Enjoy!

Anne's First Birthday: Take Two

Anne's California party was such a success we decided to follow the same outline for her party here in Utah. Why not, huh? We had some repeat guests, Rachel, Cory, Jocelyn, Stephen, and Alisha got to attend both fiestas, lucky them, huh? The rest of the party consisted of Brandon's parents and siblings. What didn't repeat was all the help Brandon and I got from my mom and dad to put the whole thing together. I think I need to fly them out this way whenever I want to throw a party. We can afford that right, honey? Seriously, they just know how to get it done. 

So back to the events of the day....

 

After hanging out for a bit waiting for family to arrive,

We made our way out back to let the kids splash around. I should have taken a picture of all the adults standing around with their cameras while the five kids swam. So funny.

 Cake and presents. Anne was certainly spoiled!

 The spread. The main dish was this pulled chicken sandwiches. We kept the sides simple, a veggie tray and strawberries with my favorite fruit dip ever (softened cream cheese whipped with a container of marshmallow creme ...easy peasy), and some chips. If you feel so inclined, enlarge this picture and check out the owl theme on the plates. So darling! When I saw them I had to go with that, the owls reminded me of Anne's beautiful, big, round eyes.) 

 Cousins. Aw, so cute and matchy-matchy.

 Yep, like I said, we followed the exact same plan. Next up was the pinata. This one was extra super cute, but much harder to break apart. We all had to take several attempts before we broke it open.

And, let's be honest, some of the attempts didn't really make much of a dent.

Marie lasted about 2 minutes before she was in her princess attire. Recognize the dress? Yep, it's her Halloween costume from when she was 1 year old. She certainly knows how to earn the center of attention, even at her sister's birthday party.

Brandon ready to save the day and break that darn pinata.

But William would prefer if we gave him the credit for it's demise.

 Anne was only interested in one type of destruction, cake destruction.

She knew exactly what needed to be done and gladly did it.

  The cake for the guests using the booties from her blessing cake. It certainly doesn't match Misty's talent, but it was yummy! (black forest cake)

It was so much fun and exhausting to celebrate Anne twice. I definitely don't want to make a habit out of it. Happy birthday, again, to my sweet baby girl.

P.S. Thank you SO much to Cory and Rachel for coming early and helping get things set up and to Stephen and Alisha for staying late to help clean things up. So, so, so grateful for your help!
P.P.S. Thanks to Mike (brother-in-law) for the awesome photography. Pictures of the pinata breaking, the cake destruction, the last picture of Anne and me, and that gorgeous picture of Anne in her pink hat were courtesy of his amazing skills.

Splish, Splash!

We didn't plan do do anything extraordinary on Anne's actual birthday because her birthday party: take two (stay tuned for that post) was planned for the next day. However, I couldn't help but make it a special day. We had been home from California for a week (where we went swimming in a pool or in the ocean every single day except Sunday) and I was having serious withdrawals from the water. I decided I felt extra brave and perhaps a bit desperate and took the kids to the Roy Aquatic Center. 

So. Much. Fun. Intense for me with three non-swimmers, but the kids couldn't have had more fun. Other than the fact that I backed the Sienna into the Alero as I was leaving (still kicking myself about that one), the day was perfect!

William was awesome at checking in with me every couple of minutes between going down the slides and playing on the water features. Marie made it a bit easier because she was really just content to play in the water next to me and Anne. She ventured off to the water feature every few minutes and then would come back to my side. 

And Anne, well, I am not, not, not a water wing/life jacket/ floaties type mother but if I were to go to a pool more regularly I think I would become one just for this age with Anne. She crawled through the water, stuck her face in the water, tried to jump in the water and thought she wanted me to just let her go. Whenever I stood up with her to get a better view of William or when Marie had to go potty (4 times!), Anne just screamed because she wanted to be in. the. water. We obviously picked a good activity for her to celebrate her birthday, I don't think anything could have been more appropriate for our water baby.

And due to the fact that my attentions were very  much taken by three very busy kiddos, these were the only three pictures I took to document our adventure. Nice, huh?

Happy birthday to my sweet Anne-girl!

Anne's First Birthday: Take One

It started with a little fun in the water.

Then we moved on to filling our stomachs. Grandpa "manned" the grill.

The cousins just being themselves.

Anne adores hot dogs so we made some pigs in a blanket for the her and the kids. The adults enjoyed cheeseburgers and everyone devoured the grilled corn on the cob. 

After dinner we moved onto the best part ... birthday cake!

Look at that cute adorable face and those happy eyes! This little girl sure does brighten our lives.

She was a rockstar when it came to digging into the cake and she was willing to share.

What a good sport. 

"I like this first birthday stuff!"

She got lots of much needed summer clothes and they are all so darling!

The grand finale of the party was the pinata. She was excited about it until I actually started hitting the pinata with the stick she was holding, then she'd had enough. So all the cousins took over.

Everybody took a whack at it, but it was Christian that finally sealed the deal ... in one monstrous swing. You'd think he plays baseball or something.

Our family feels so much more complete with Anne that it really isn't hard to believe that a year has passed since she came into our lives. I can hardly remember what it was like without her. I'm so glad we could celebrate her with (almost) all of the Pulsipher clan. 

Just a Little Flashback

 Ethan, July 2007

William, July 2007

Ethan and William (and Tanya and Audrey), July 2011