A Little Songbird

Scarlet is a little singer. She loves to sing and will turn anything into a song, especially everyday sayings. "I'm so hungry" or "my shorts are in the dryer" always get a melodic treatment.
Here are a couple of videos of her singing her favorite tunes.

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The Parenting Trade

Okay, so we can all agree it's pretty hilarious that I post how I promise to be more diligent about posting...and then three months later... Oh well.

Instead of explaining and excuses, I thought I would just share with you what has been eating up so much of my free time over the last three months (in addition to mothering).

www.theparentingtrade.com

If you love it, please remember to tell your friends!

Kiddo Milestones

Time seems so thin and fleeting these days...I keep losing track of what happened when and who is doing what. So, I'm going to try my very best to update the blog more frequently so that I have some account of the milestones in the kiddos' little lives.

We've had some very exciting ones happen recently.

WILL
As you know, Will turned 1 in January, and about two weeks before his birthday, he started walking. He seems old hat at it now. He runs across the room and really tries to keep up with sister (who thinks that's pretty funny as she leaves him in the dust). Will has also begun sign language and is doing pretty well at it. It always surprises me that he can pull out some signs just at the right time and use them correctly. Kids and their learning capacities simply amaze me.

Will also has about 8-9 words now: daddy, momma, sissy, juice, go, doggie, Kadie (our doggie), hi and bye. He also just mastered the art of blowing a kiss. It is the funniest, cutest thing ever.

SCARLET
Our little girl is growing up and I would say her very favorite thing is just being taught new things that have to do with her and just learning in general. So, our milestones right now include the following:

• Knowing her address and city
• Counting to 10 in Spanish
• Understanding colors and all their names
• Memorization of entire song lyrics
• "Reading" books to us
• Showing us she understands complex, multi-step instructions

We are heading to Elmo and Sesame Street Live this afternoon, so I'll try to post an update from that ASAP!

A Party on Sesame Street

Will's First Birthday Party was last weekend. We chose a Sesame Street theme, mainly because I had seen so many cute ideas that would allow me to create and design and just be creative with it. I had a bit too much fun.

The birthday boy loved it and I think his sister loved it even more. It was an awesome time.

Front door sign.

I used my trusty Cricut and scrapbook paper to decorate the bags like the characters to use for favors.

The favors for big kids.

And favors for little kids. I loved finding activity books that just had the character face on the front - matched the favor bags perfectly.

This is the main food table. I saw this wonderful idea for labeling the foods with street signs from Sesame Street. So, there was "Rosita's Queso," "Cookie's Cookies," and "Dorothy's Goldfish."

Centerpiece (I just printed these on card stock and stuck them on straws in a sand pail with tissue paper.

Sweets table.

The Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes I made. I had a little too much fun with these.

I love balloons, so I used them for the majority of the color in the room.

Sesame Street name sign over the food table.

Big sister, Scarlet and her aunt, Julie.

We played Ernie's Rubber Ducky Dunk. There were 20 ducks in the pool. Five had black marks on their bellies. So, if a child got one with a mark, they got a prize.

What I didn't count on was for them to be going back over and over again to make sure they got one with a black dot! I was very glad I got enough prizes!

I think they had the most fun riding this little truck. There was a line for most of the party.

Part of the Cook-out crew, making the hamburgers and hot dogs.

After dinner, Elmo stopped by for a surprise visit. The kids were shocked and happy

Jonathan may have just been shocked...

Will was just not having any of it. He couldn't get away from Elmo fast enough.

Sweet Imaginations did this Smash Cake for him and I just loved it!

It took a taste test from daddy to get things started...

But that was all!!

Happy birthday our sweet little baby boy. We love you so much.

Christmas Morning

I know you all have moved on into 2012, and I'm still getting caught up on what happened last year. So this will be my very last outdated post about Christmas...I promise.

I loved the holidays this year. I think I noted in a previous post that I really didn't expect Scarlet would be old enough to understand things this year or appreciate all the stories and hoopla that go into the Santa/Christmas experience. I was SO wrong.

She was very much into every bit of it and wanted us to tell her stories over and over, and sing Christmas caroles all day long.

So, getting ready the night before Christmas was so magical for Waylen and I. We didn't go too overboard, but we did have a few great presents that we were really excited for the kids to discover.

Every time we had asked Scarlet what she wanted for Christmas, she had told us "lots of baby dolls and a trike (tricycle)." She was adimate about these things and never changed her answer. So, we got her exactly what she asked for. We diverted just a bit, however, and also bought her and Will a 12V ride-on utility vehicle (Ford F-150) for the back yard.

Here are some photos of us getting everything ready on Christmas Eve as well as the big unveil of all the presents on Christmas Day. I'll have to also post a video of them in the Ford. It is hillarious and, yes, they both ride very well together in it. Will just hoots and hollers!

A Crafty Christmas

Every year my mom's side of the family has a Kris Kringle - where we exchange names for gift giving. The babies each have each other, so Scarlet and Will had their second-cousins, Landon and Elijah.
We decided this year that the rules were to make our gifts. I was really excited to get this news and started making our gifts in mid-November. Here are the gifts that were given to each of the boys as well as Jonathan and Ben.

These are mittens made into dinosaurs.

These are no-wood, no-sew growth charts made from mod podge. I used fabric backing, scrapbooking paper and little sayings/quotes on vellum. The numbers marking the ruler are scrapbooking stickers.

I then made the boys tool belts from Dallas Cowboys fabric. They were lots of fun to make and seemed to be a big hit with all these little men!

My last project was for Julie. I took many of the tshirts and cotton tees that were my mom and dad's that remind us most of trips, events, or of them in general. I cut them in squares and made a quilt with a sweatshirt backing. I loved it so much I made one for me, too!

Our First Christmas Pageant

I know - I'm a bit late with getting these Christmas posts out, but I couldn't resist still posting them so you could know what we were up to during the holidays - especially when it comes to the Christmas pageant at Scarlet's school. It was our first experience of this kind and it was so precious. She did really well. They sang three songs with the older classes including Old Saint Nick. She loves it so much, she still sings it at least 5 or 6 times a day.

Inside the auditorium/chapel at her school.

Her little class is right there in front.

This video is so funny. You can tell about half way through that she realizes we are in the audience, including her grandmother. It was all she could do not to run down the aisle toward us (which she did promptly as the song ended).

 

Can't wait for next year!