Bethany's Birthday Party

Well I finally did it.  I got all caught up. Make sure you catch all 5 of my updates.

So I finally have a 3 year old.  Bethany was very excited about her birthday and she wanted a Cinderella themed birthday party.  It was almost Mickey Mouse Clubhouse again, but Cinderella won out.  For Bethany a party must have three things to really be a birthday party.

#1-Balloons

Bethany's cake.  She told me that she wanted a cake with a castle, Cinderella, and Prince Charming.  So that's what she got.

 

A close up.  She loved these two figurines.  They are for a cake and cost $8.50 and it's one of the things she's played with the most since Christmas/birthday.  She reenacts the scene where Cinderella runs away from the ball with direct quotes from the movie. "Wait!  I don't even know your name."  And then the duke says, "Senorita!"  But Bethany says, "Cinder-essa"  And I couldn't figure out why she was playing with them around some of my candle holders, but Shane did.  In the movie there's pillars, and she's using the stems of the candle holders as pillars.  She's got some imagination.

 

 

#2-Party Hats

#3-Candles

 

Grammy and Papa's dog, Bo, even got in on the action.

 

She was getting faster at the unwrapping.

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas

We spent Christmas eve up with Shane's family before heading home for the Christmas eve service at our church.

Jeremy, Cherie, Elijah, and Leah.  Believe it or not this was the best pic we got of them.  Elijah wasn't too fond of sitting still.

Our family.  At least Shane and I look good.

Leah had a cute hat, but she was having some issues.

 

We wanted a picture with all four kids.  Here are all the attempts.  #1

 

#2

 

#3

 

#4

 

#5

 

Christmas morning.  Bethany got some lip balm in her stocking.  Now she can stop stealing Mommy's and Daddy's.

 

The tree with all the loot.

 

Bethany was opening William's big gift from Santa: a barn door similar to the door we had when Bethany was little.

 

William was thrilled.  He was chillin with one of his gifts.  Mortimer Moose.

 

Bethany had to open her presents and William's.  She was a little slow.  We're not to the ripping off the paper as fast as you can stage.  When Grandma got there, she still wasn't finished, so Bethany recruited some help.

 

We start gambling early in this family.  I raise my children up right. ;-)

 

Bethany's doll house from Santa.  Apparently, this family lives next to some radioactive waste because they grew some pretty big vegetables in their garden.

 

It's Almost Christmas

The Sunday before Christmas we celebrated with my dad's side of the family.

William's first Christmas.

Bethany and Carly. They had a blast playing together.  It was more like a concert than actually playing.

Logan tried a new look.  I don't think she stuck with it.

 

Before we went to see Santa, I thought I would take some pictures of the kids.

William's not too sure about it at this point.

 

Then he warmed up.

 

So cute.

 

Santa came to Shane's office, so that's where we went to see him.  This picture might have lead to the confusion in Bethany's mind.  As we were leaving, she wanted to know where her microphone was.  I guess she thought she'd ask Santa for something and get it right away.  We hadn't really explained the whole Santa process yet.

 

William meeting Santa Claus.

 

 

 We made gingerbread cookies, and Bethany loved it.  It was a lot like playing with play-doh.  She really liked the decorating, mostly because she ate the frosting.  She liberally applied the extras.  Notice the huge pile of chocolate jimmies on this cookie.

 

Countdown to Christmas

Bethany loved to help put up the Christmas tree.

Testing the lights before we put them on.

 

William around mid-December.

 

We're undergoing a renovation to our church sanctuary and Shane did his part by helping with the painting.

 

We found these when cleaning out a closet.  Bethany thought they were great.  They were a wedding present.  Don't ask.

 

William had a lot of smiles for Mommy that day.

 

Our nephew Elijah with his favorite toy, a sword.

 

We took a trip up the Shane's parents and Bethany got to go sledding for the first time.

Jeremy and Elijah.

 

 

This is how the princess had to go up the hill.  Shane said she walked up a whole three times by herself.

 

Aunt Jessica was visiting and we all had a great time with her.

 

One of Bethany's favorite toys during December.  She loved to rearrange all the ornaments.  Can you find the ornament she made a Bible study? ;-)

We took Bethany to her first movie in the theater: The Princess and the Frog.  She loved it.  And she loved eating popcorn.  Now whenever we see anything about a movie theater she wants to know if they people are eating popcorn.

 

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving.  We introduced William to a lot of people who hadn't seen him before.

William in the middle of November.  Shane called this his "Jaxon outfit" because it looks like something our friends little boy would wear.  He always looks cute, so that's fine by me.

One of the many looks of William.

William's been able to roll to his side for quite some time now.  Of course, Bethany had to be in the picture too.

 

Bethany had her hair cut and did great.  Before.

 

After

 

My cousin, Kelly, getting acquainted with William at Thanksgiving.

 

My uncle Dan helping out in the kitchen.  I love the apron.

 

My Grandma and Grandpa K with most of their great-grandchildren.  Three kids were missing.