Birthday Party Day

Brooklyn's birthday is tomorrow, but since Sunday birthdays don't allow for too much fun with friends, we decided to let her have a little party the day before. Only it turns out she was invited to Madi Hawker's birthday party today as well. Wow, what a Birthday Party day!
Madi had a princess party! It was so fun as the girls all dressed up as princess' and made necklaces. Brooklyn was so sad to leave and have to come home so we didn't get a great picture of just how cute Princess Brooklyn really was! This was her first birthday party that didn't involve family so she had to learn that she couldn't open other people's presents. This was a little hard for her. It's a good thing she had her own party planned right afterward because then she had her turn.

A few months back, Brooklyn and I were walking through the party store when Brooklyn found "The Backyardigan's" section and told me that she wanted everything there! That's where the idea was started that we would have a Backyardigan's birthday party for her this year. She was told she could have 3 friends at her party and after much contemplating she chose these three: Kami, Genna, and Bryson. Such cute kids!! I'm so glad she picked these three because they were great guests for Brooklyn's first birthday party experience.

Brooklyn opening her presents. She struggled this morning giving a gift to Madi and not having the exact same gift waiting for her to open at her party. Well guess what? Genna gave her that exact gift! Wow, what are the chances!? She got some other great gifts as well. Thanks again to all her very generous friends! Maybe we should just take all her other gifts back?

The kids played pin the bow tie on Pablo. Here's B posing with Pablo and all his bow ties!

As a side note, she loves party hats so yes, this party hat stayed on her all night. Until bath time at least!

This picture captured how she was the rest of the day. If she wasn't at one of the parties, she was giving us this kind of attitude. She's been waking up so early these days which makes for one ornery kid!

The night ended as she laid down for bed with her baby sister (not really, but it made for a cute picture). Hope she sleeps well. She has another big day tomorrow!

As Requested...

Here is my free picture from 'Ghetto Mart'. Picture taken January 31st--picture arrived in my mailbox February 23rd. Along with my pictures came a coupon for 50% of a portrait package of $70 or more and it expires March 1st! Let's just say it's in the garbage can!
Thanks Olan Mills for the memories...it sure was fun!

3 months old!

Eliza is 3 months old today! It's been a fun month as we have learned more about her little personality. She is a great little baby and I've enjoyed her newborn stage more than I can say I did with Brooklyn. With Brooklyn I was always so worried about what I was doing wrong or right and reading everything that I could that I didn't just sit and enjoy her. So this time around, I've loved every day with her because I know what will happen in just a few short months. They really grow too fast!
She smiles more often now and always gives mom, dad, and Brooklyn smiles when she first sees us. She will do this for a few other people as well, but she definitely recognize her family! She also loves to coo and squeal at anyone who will listen. She’s kind of a quiet talker, but will talk and talk if she knows someone wants to talk back. Brooklyn finds it fun to talk to her sister, but struggles with the listening part.

Eliza is also a great sleeper. I’m not going to say she is perfect, but she does pretty well at night. She slept from 9:30 pm to 7:30 am on Valentine’s night. What a great present for mom and dad! That was the longest period of sleep so far so we're on the right track. She’s not a great napper, but I take what I can get. She recently stopped sleeping so well when we are out and about so I’m trying to do better about getting her on some schedule, but she keeps changing the schedule. However, I’m not stressing about this like I was with Brooklyn because I went back to work full-time when Brooklyn was this age. It’s such a blessing to not have to worry about that.

She holds her head so high now when she lies on her tummy. She doesn’t love tummy time so it doesn’t last too long, but we still make her do her workout a few times a day. She's getting stronger every day.

Eliza still adores her big sister, Brooklyn and Brooklyn adores her as well! Brooklyn has gotten a little less careful around her and sometimes purposefully does things to get attention, but mostly she’s very cute with her and talks “sing-songy” to her like adults do. It’s cute to hear!

We took Eliza swimming for the first time on Monday and she did so well! There were so many kids there since it was a holiday and she was splashed several times, but she loved it! She didn’t last long though until she wanted to go to sleep.

The Baby Float looks superimposed in this picture! She liked this OK, but preferred to be held.

And here's her teddy bear picture! She's so cute! We love our new addition to our family!

The Return to 'Ghetto Mart'

See my previous post regarding 'Ghetto Mart' if you have no idea what I'm referring to!

I sent Marty to Ghetto Mart on Friday the 13th to pick up our "free" pictures. Our invoice said they would be ready that day after 12 pm. I did not want to go back into that store so I sent Marty. Here's what happened.

The same photographer lady was there and tells Marty they don't have our pictures because of the "water problem", which explains why the ceiling tiles are gone or entirely yellow. She said she didn't want to take the chance of them getting ruined so she had them mail us the pictures through 3rd class priority mail which will take about 21 days to receive.
***This is what I would have said in response: Here's my problem with this explanation, you apparently had the "water problem" before we came in to get pictures so why didn't you just tell us the pictures would be mailed to us instead of making us come back to this whole in the wall? GRRRR! Oh, and thanks for prioritizing us as 3rd class. It makes me feel special.

She said she would contact the office to see when they were mailed, but couldn't since they were in Tennessee which is located on the 'West Coast' and it's past 5 pm there.
***HA! Did you just say Tennessee was on the West Coast? We laughed really hard at this!

Marty then asks why no one called us and she says she was calling people today and then she looks at her list and says we were the next ones on the list for her to call!
***And my response would have been: Excuse me? What have you been doing all day? No one comes here anyway and it's now 6 pm when I was told to come anytime after 12 on this day?! It's a little hard to believe you!

The lady then apologizes and says she will contact her boss and compensate us somehow. Marty's response was "So are you going to actually pay us to get pictures from you?" She then realizes we had free pictures and says she will send us some coupons.
***And I would have said "Wow, thanks. I love this place and hope I can come again (with lots of sarcasm).

Anyone want some coupons?

Oh My!

My friend's mother-in-law is getting remarried tomorrow on Valentine's Day. She has chosen an interesting place to get married. She is getting married at her place of employment, which happens to be Dan's Grocery Store in Holiday. If you are in that area tomorrow around 1 pm, you might want to go inside and buy some groceries. While you are there you might witness a wedding inside of this beautiful paper castle!How random is that! I just can't imagine. Of all places to get married! A grocery store?

The kids were talking and wondering what they should wear to the wedding and my friend said "Jeans! And pretend you don't know them!" HAHA!

All kidding aside, I hope she has a great day!

My OCD Child

I'm not sure if my child (meaning Brooklyn) is completely normal for her age or completely OCD, but lately I have been amazed at how stubborn she can be about certain things. Here's some of the things she does:
**Everything has to be in order. We have a nightly routine before bed and it has to be followed exactly! She goes to the bathroom, brushes her teeth, flosses, puts on her pj's, reads the scriptures, says her prayers and then gets another bedtime story. Sometimes this routine takes WAY TOO LONG! :)
**She can't stand hair! If she finds a piece of hair, she has to give it to me. Little does she know that I just drop it right back on the floor where she picked it up. With three girls (one doesn't have much yet), there is lots of hair in our house!
**She has to have a clean toilet, booster seat, etc. If she can see the tiniest piece of dirt, she won't sit on it! This can be so annoying!
**This probably isn't in the "OCD" department, but it bugs me none the less. She picks her nose, then wipes it on her cheek. Then later she will pick it off her cheek and give it to me! Gross! Where does she learn this? You try to teach them to blow their nose and instead she does this! Wow!
**Her new thing is that she feels it's her obligation to clean the Earth. She has to pick up garbage everywhere she goes. Last week, we were walking out of Walmart and she stopped to pick up a wrapper right outside the door. I told her to leave it and kept walking, but she stayed behind and picked up 3 different things and almost got hit by a car in the process. I'm sure some person inside that car was thinking "where is this kid's mom?"

**She has also recently found lint in her toes and will now pull off her sock 4 times a day to clean it out! She also does this to her sister. She was at a breakfast thing with her dad on Saturday and got bored so she pulled off her socks and went to work in front of everyone! :)
**She thinks she's every one's mom. When she plays with friends, she has to tell them what and how to do things. I'm sure this is annoying to them!
**She has to answer my cell phone every time it rings. Luckily it's usually only Marty. She will just answer it say hi and then hand the phone to me.

**She is terrified of things going down the drain. She talks about this all the time and thinks washcloths, dishes, cups, and herself will go down the drain. I've tried to teach her what will go down and what won't, but she's still terrified. She learned this from Finding Nemo and The Bee Movie where things are in the toilet. I hope she grows out of this!

There's more, but these are all I could remember tonight. Pretty much if anything is out of "Brooklyn's order" than she will have a royal fit! I've tried to teach her flexibility, but I also know some of this is my fault because I like things a certain way too and I do like routine. But who doesn't?
Anyone else have an OCD child? If so, any suggestions?

"Ghetto Mart"

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Let me tell you how much I will go through sometimes for such a great deal. When Eliza was born, I received a coupon from Olan Mills for a free portrait session which included a free 8x10, 2 5x7's, 4 wallets, and 6 photo cards. It was all completely free! The only catch was that I had to use it before she was 3 months old so I decided to take some pictures of her in her blessing dress.
I scheduled an appointment online for this past Saturday at 4 pm. Marty and Brooklyn had attended a convert baptism that day at 3 and were running late on their way home. I was home getting Eliza fed and ready to go, but I wanted to be there early so I could change her into her dress and find the place. I hate being late, but it seems like we are always running late! I once had pictures taken at Target and we were late because of traffic and the lady who was scheduled after us was already there and was throwing a fit that she would have to wait for us to be finished so I was having reoccurring nightmares of that incident.
I was uptight on the drive down 5600 West, which is where I thought I scheduled an appointment. Olan Mills' are inside most Kmart's and I know the old Kmart down on 5600 W & 3500 S is now a Sears Grand, but they had merged companies so I assumed it was inside there. Well, I was wrong! I walked that whole store before I found an employee to ask who said, "what? I've never heard of Olan Mills". I explained the Internet said it was inside this store and she just said sorry. I left that store so frustrated! Not only was I late, but I was at the wrong store and now had to find out where I was supposed to be!
Marty tried calling the Olan Mills number, but no one answered so we just assumed it was the Kmart down on 5400 S. & Bangerter. I was ready to just go home and forget the whole thing, but Marty was determined. It was now about 4:30 and here we walk into "Ghetto Mart". Has anyone been inside this store? Holy Cow! It needs some work! It was seriously scary! Ceiling tiles are either a) gone or b) completely yellow! I see the sign for Olan Mills so we walk back there and it brought new meaning to "whole in the wall". The whole studio was the size of my bathroom, I kid you not! I had no idea where they were going to fit the camera let along take a picture of my child.
Luckily, the photographer was bored out of her mind and didn't have another appointment until 5:30 (no wonder!) so she was willing to take us back. But not before she called us "chicken" for not taking family pictures. I wanted to yell "look, we're here for the free pictures, that's all!". I still needed to change Eliza and there was no where to put her down so I was trying to juggle her while I changed her. Luckily I didn't drop her, but my boiling point was getting closer and closer.
We put Eliza down for the pictures and the photographer (aka: Nicotine lady as we so affectionaly call her) was trying to get her dress to lay down away from her face so she picks Eliza up and kisses her! My first thought "you did not just kiss my baby!". It's one thing if I know you, but not some random lady inside Ghetto Mart. From there, I had to just let Marty take over and I needed to step away.
We got a few good pictures, but over all it was easy to pick the one pose option I had to get my free pictures and then get out of there. We put Eliza's blessing day on the photo cards and the poor lady had to ask us at least 3 times how to spell February.
Oh, the things we do for free! I think next time I'll just pay and save myself from such encounters.

Eliza's Blessing

Eliza was blessed by her daddy yesterday! Marty did a great job and Eliza behaved herself. It was a wonderful day including a great testimony meeting and a full day of visiting with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who came. We appreciated your support! Proud daddy and mommy

Not the best family shot, but it's about as good as we could get with a house full of people. It's days like this when we wish we had a bigger house!