Baby shower time!

I helped throw a baby shower for this lovely friend of mine Becki!

 My neighbor Rachel helped me or should I say taught me how to make these cookies and they were so good!!!!

I love hosting and going to baby showers!! There is something so fun about celebrating a mother who has worked hard and sacrificed so much to carry a child for 9 months and then top it all off with cute little clothes and soft little blankets....awww I am a sucker for these things!!

Random Happenings

Here are a few other things we have been up to this month:

Watching the Planes movie way too many times, but they love it, mostly Mark loves it....but he really, really LOVES it and it's really cute to hear him memorize some of the lines and then go play with his planes. This one day both him and Annie fell asleep watching it!!

 We go to Island Time a lot. It's a play area, arcade, laser tag, frozen yogurt food place that is pretty awesome and close to us. I usually go by myself and never want to try and do the arcade games with the kids. But this past Friday night we went on family date night and Daddy was able to help! They love this game where they spray water at this guys feet:

 And we had a couple social firsts! First of all, this girl came up to Elizabeth and said "my name is___and I'm 6, how old are you? Come and play with me!" and Elizabeth actually went and played with her!! Normally she just ignores other kids because she is happy to play with Mark and Annie. She followed this girl around for a good 10 minutes (before some older kids showed up and the 6 year old ditched Elizabeth:) 

 The second thing that happened was Annie 'playfully' BIT another boy, and by another boy I mean a 9 or 10 year old boy whose birthday party just happened to be going on that night!! We think she meant to 'wrestle' with him and bite his shirt, but it ended up his stomach. The boy didn't cry but did go tell his Mom who came to talk to Mark (I didn't know this was all happening until it was over) and show him that Annie had 'broken skin' on the boys stomach...Mark said it was barely red! Oh the crazy things that happen in play areas! Later while snuggling and rocking my little 2 year old I couldn't help but laugh that this little thing had bitten a 9 year old boy! 

 Yesterday we went to a neighbors birthday party at Pump It Up. Kyler was turning 5 and it was so much fun!!! Mark spent the ENTIRE time on the slides and the girls ran to other things a little bit, but spent most of their time on the slides too. Of course I forgot my real camera and only have 1 blurry shot of Mark going down the slide (head first, crazy rule breaker!)

 

 The kids went crazy over the cupcakes and all the yummy snacks. They also had a good time dancing to Yo Gabba Gabba!

 Elizabeth discovered this past week that Aubrey has dress up princess stuff at her house and wants to go there EVERY day!!! She loves her friends. She asked me to take pictures of her with her best friends Aubrey and Emma and then put them up in her room!

 I have been spending lots of time prepping for the twins birthday party in 3 weeks!! Here's a sneak peek of  what I've been up to and how handy my new Silhouette machine is!

Learning time

The twins have been writing letters for a long time now. But when I ask them to spell a word they refuse (occasionally they will try and write their names) and just want to practice their letters. Earlier this month I took pictures of them writing letters like this:

 Then just 12 short days later....they were ready to write words!!!!

 and this is Elizabeth's

 It was one of those wonderful parenting moments when you see the light go on and things start to make sense. And they were so excited. And so super proud of themselves. Obviously I was too! 

This month I also introduced them to resistance painting. They were so annoyed at first that I was making them draw on white paper with a white crayon! They did not get it at all....until we started painting over it! Then Elizabeth thought it was very cool and Mark and Annie seemed mostly happy to just be painting! 

 Mark's:

 Elizabeth's:

 Annie's:

One Sunday after church we were eating crackers and Elizabeth lined them up like this and said "Look Mom, it's just like the bridge to Jesus!"...earlier that day in Primary there was a lesson about how a bridge is like getting back to Jesus and how sometimes the bridge breaks but that we can repent and Jesus can help us fix the bridge and get back on. I was so impressed that this new little Sunbeam could learn and remember so much!

Playdate Cafe Time!

One of the perks of starting my own local blog is that the kids and I get to try out new fun places! This month we went to Playdate Cafe and they had lots of fun!!

 Annie spent 95% of her time playing in the play kitchen with the food! She is obsessed with making and serving 'meals' to people!!

 Mark spent 95% of this time jumping in this little ball pit:

 And he had to do it in the Lightning McQueen costume!

 Elizabeth is currently obsessed with dress up! Especially princess dress up. She hasn't even watched or read most of the princess movies or books (the villians are too scary for her), but is in love with them all (especially Cinderella). She no longer allows me to put her in just a regular dress...it has to be princessy (or poofy)! Basically I can no longer pick out her clothes or go shopping without her anymore, sigh, they grow up so fast.

Haircut time!

I finally decided to cut Mark's hair! It has been months..and I secretly kind of love his hair long...but sometimes I do miss seeing more of his cute face! 

Here is BEFORE:

 And here is the AFTER:

He looks handsome either way!! For a long time he didn't want me to cut his hair but when he finally came impartial to the idea I went for it!

Elizabeth didn't get a haircut....but she LOVES getting her picture taken!!!