Birthday Breakfast at Tiana's Place!

My stubborn, sassy, bubble-gum loving, swimsuit-wearing, obsessed with lipgloss little girl turned 4 today! She has brought me so much joy, lots of exasperation, and makes me laugh every single day.

For 2 years now she has loved EVERYTHING Princess and the Frog. Anytime there is any choice of princesses, you know she is going to choose Tiana. Since I love to do something special for breakfast on the kids' birthdays I thought it would be perfect to create our own version of "Tiana's Place"!

When Kendall came down this morning I had the soundtrack to Princess and the Frog playing and the table all set up and ready to go. Again...please ignore the crappy pictures...it really was cute! :)

This was the sign I made, just punched holes all the way around and threaded sparkly green tulle and finished it off with a big bow.

If you have never made pom-poms before you must! These were so simple...all you need is some string and tissue paper. These are just too cute and add so much to the table.

I always try to do these breakfasts on a budget...to add a little something special I punched holes in a regular paper plate and tied tulle through them. I thought it added some flair :)

These little containers I filled with Hershey Kisses....you know...frog kisses ;) The kids LOVED having a little chocolate with their breakfast :)

Here is the birthday girl herself, 4 years old!!

And it wouldn't truly be breakfast at "Tiana's Place" if you didn't have some of her famous man-catching beignets!! :) I would LOVE to lie and say I made beignets from scratch....didn't happen. I had to be up at 4:30 this morning and just didn't think I could get them ready in time for breakfast. SO....I simply thawed some frozen rolls, fried them in hot oil, and then once they drained off a little sprinkled a generous amount of powdered sugar on top. Guess what? They looked just like the beignets in the movie and tasted delicious!!

We all loved them!! :)

Happy happy birthday to my precious Kendall! I hope your day is as special as you are and I hope you loved every minute of your breakfast at Tiana's Place!!

My favorite girls

I don't know what it is, but every time I get close to having another baby I feel a strong desire to spend as much quality time with my children as possible. I know their ( and my!) lives are about to drastically change...for the better I believe...but still a change. Its always an adjustment bringing a new baby home and I need my kids to KNOW how important they are to me, even once a new baby is taking up all my attention. Actually I am working on a family home evening for next week that deals with just that, so stay tuned! But I digress! :) This is a post about my cute girls :)

Friday night we went out for the most perfect, cliche girls night out ever! :) Dinner at Zupa's, shoe shopping, and topping off the night with frozen yogurt. It was just as much fun as it looks and I want to do it again soon. My girls LOVE to take pictures so you get to see one of me with each of them.




The best part about our night was being reminded of what incredibly amazing, different little girls I have! I learned alot about them, which seems crazy since I am with almost 24 hours a day, but for some reason they showed such personality when it was just the 3 of us. Kendall has a gift for telling stories...LONG stories :) But they are incredibly detailed and funny too :) I have always thought of her as my shy one, but she is proving me wrong. At Zupas she was in the center of the restaurant dancing and then proceeding to teach me how to get her moves "just right". I love her spunk...she is by far my most stubborn child but she has such a tender heart as well.

Skylar is the life of the party! She is a wonderful big sister that is growing up faster than I can believe. I depend on her so much, mostly for the example that she sets. She has the innate desire and ability to be obedient even when I am not telling her what to do. She knows the difference between right and wrong and strives constantly to make the best choices. Her siblings couldn't have a better example in our home. She says really funny things and is the most affectionate child I know...every few minutes she would kiss my arm and tell me how much she loves me.

I am so grateful for my girls, the two that I have, and the one that will soon be joining our family. Raising daughters sometimes feels overwhelming and scary to me, I so badly want to do a good job and help mold them into the women they are meant to be. I want to teach them self-confidence and to stand up for whats right...no matter what. Its not an easy job, and I KNOW it is going to get so much tougher as they get older. I also know what beautiful daughters my Heavenly Father has blessed me with and that makes me think everything is going to turn out just fine.

A Dora Birthday Breakfast Adventure!!

This post is also a little late, but hey, you do the best you can :) Several weeks ago was my daughter Kendall's 3rd birthday, and I knew I was going to have to get a little creative to make it special. We are still staying with Paul's parents so I knew a big party was out of the question. I finally came up with something a little bit similar to our Princess Breakfast Birthday Bash we did a few months ago, and I am please to say this one was just as fun!!

If you have ever seen Dora, you know every time they go on an adventure they have to go to different places before they reach the end...I tried to use this theme for our breakfast :)

First up the kids had to make it through the Fields of Fruit! I just printed out pictures of Dora and all her friends and then cut them out and taped them all around the table.

Our next stop was the Juicy River!!

Then finally we made it to Cereal Mountain....but oh no!! Is that Swiper I see?? Swiper no swipee!! (That was my kids favorite part :)

After we finished our breakfast Kendall got her Dora paper doll book, and we all sang, "We did, we did it, we did it, YAY!" SO cheesy, I know. But the kids had a ball, and afterwards Kendall said, "Who did this for me mommy?" I said that I had, and she gave me a huge hug :) Thats about as affectionate as you are going to get for that sassy little one.

I hope this sparked some ideas of things you can do that don't break the bank to make your little ones bday a little bit special!

And don't forget about our giveaway going on HERE. You still have two more days to enter!!

One thing that made me smile today...

She is my quirky little girl! :)

Happy Birthday Kendall!!

I can't believe it, 2 years old already!! Kendall is such a fun part of our family, she is the quirkiest little girl I know. The littlest things can make her SO happy, like having a lipgloss or taking a nap with her shoes on, but man, if you make her angry WATCH OUT! It has been so fun to see her personality really start to come out this year. I have always hoped she wouldn't be in Skylar's shadow, since Skylar loves attention and is quite the little performer :) I am not worried about that anymore :) Even though its in a very different way, Kendall makes sure she gets the love and attention she needs, and every day is better because we have her! And of course, gotta love squeezing those chubby cheeks :)



For her birthday this year we decided to have a little Elmo party and our friends came over to join us! I had so much fun doing all this, sometimes I think I enjoy it more than the kids :)

We had fun Elmo cupcakes and little treat bags for the kids.





All in all it was a pretty laidback party, but still such a fun way to celebrate our precious Kendall. Love you sweetie!!

Happy Birthday Kendall!

I cannot believe it, my baby is ONE!!! We had a fun little polka dot party for Kendall on Saturday to celebrate. Thanks to all our family and friends that made it so much fun, we are so blessed to have you! I had a great time throwing a last minute party together, polka dots everywhere! Of course, the highlight of the night was Kendall tearing into her cupcake, what a cutie :) Happy birthday angel, we love you so much!!

Kendall and her Bear

A few weeks ago we were all in Skylar's room, getting ready to put the girls to bed. All of a sudden Kendall starts squealing and bouncing up and down, reaching her arms out. She had found a bear we had given to Skylar several years ago. It was love at first sight!! Skylar has been such a sweetheart to let Kendall play with it, and it is now a permanent fixture in Kendall's bed :) I just love to see her squeeze that bear and kiss it, it is almost as big as her!

My silly girl!

Twice in one day I found Kendall looking like this when she woke up from her naps! She had the cutest little smile on her face, like she was so proud of herself :) What a little sweetheart!

7 Months Old!

Seriously, 7 months ALREADY!! I cannot believe how time is flying by! I just had to post about my precious little angel Kendall. It is hard to describe how much joy she has brought to my life, and to our family. Every night Skylar thanks Heavenly Father for sending her a little sister with "cute chubby cheeks" (her words :) She is always ready with a smile, and my favorite thing about her is the way she looks at me. She has the most adoring look that makes you feel like maybe, just maybe, you are actually doing something right. Paul and I are so crazy about Skylar it was hard to imagine feeling that way about another, but your heart truly does grow with each child. I love my Peanut!!

MMmmmm....Food!!

Kendall LOVES baby food! Seriously, she can't get enough. She is the kid screaming because I can't get the spoon in her mouth fast enough. It is so fun to see how different her and Skylar are, Skylar didn't eat this well until she was 1 1/2:) Look at the chubby little thing, don't you just want to squeeze her?

Too Fast!!

This whole baby thing is going by way too fast the second time around. I cannot believe in 2 weeks I will have a 4 month old! With Skylar I was always so excited for her to do the next thing and grow up, but with Kendall I just want her to stay my sweet little baby girl. When I look at her newborn pictures I am blown away with how much she has changed. She is starting to sleep almost 12 hours at night, and tries to sit up all by herself! And if you don't think she is getting much bigger, just take a look at those cheeks! Oh, I just squeeze her and kiss her all day! Some days I really miss my little 5 pounder, but I know I am SO blessed with my "preemies", because they are so well developed and catch up so quickly. Geez, if two is this wonderful, wouldn't three be even better? ;)