Melanie Turns 3!

I just can't believe Melanie is three! This has been such a fun birthday. She was very excited for her birthday and loved it all. Melanie is such a sweet girl. I think she has the cutest little voice ever. I could just listen to her talk all day. Unless she is yelling, which she's been known to do. She is definitely a fire cracker. I am very careful with choosing my words when I know she's on edge, and I have to be extra patient and think of it as teaching moments;) I'm just trying to steer her in the right direction.

She is SUCH a good sister. I seriously can't say that enough. She loves Abby and Lacey. She loves to take care of them and play with them. They play really well together. I couldn't ask for more for my oldest child.

She continues to love Dora (even though we don't have cable, so she hardly watches it), dressing up in girly things, making up songs, make believing, and playing with friends. She also says the best prayers. I kind of want to record some of them just so I can remember. Oh my goodness, sometimes I am just overcome with how much I love my children. Melanie is such a blessing. We love her so much.

Here's the birthday girl about ready to make a wish!

Here's our new tradition! Birthday cake pancakes. It's a lot of sugar, but so worth it.

So cute. (don't mind the nasty wall paper....renting;)

She loved all her new presents.

She needed her own little suitcase for our travels. But mostly I know how much she loves dragging it around.

Her birthday wish was to stay in her jammies all day. How could I say no? She also made sure she wore her crown all day.

My friend Ashley brought her some dress up clothes. She really turns into a diva with those heals!

The party invitation!

Anxiously awaiting her friends!

Those are cookie cupcakes on the right. I highly recommend them:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The party favors. I love this theme. So easy.

The little ones were so funny. They were little scavengers with all the cookies, sprinkles, and milk that was around.

She had her three besties over. Carson, Cora, and Oliver. Here they are enjoying some milk after decorating cookies. This is what I mean about being a scavenger. Abby was just picking away.

She was so cute as we were singing Happy Birthday.

Thanksgiving In Tulsa

We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving this year. Drew's brother, wife and three little girls live there. It was about a six hour drive. Which is pretty much exactly the right amount of time to be in a car if you ask me.
It's so fun that they have three girls that are super close in age to ours. We had six girls under the age of 4! It was a blast.

Here are the before and after the trip pics. It's funny because no one slept on the way out. They definitely played their little hearts out!

We did a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. Thanks to Adam for driving all six girls around while cheering us on!

Lacey, Abby and Ellie had a lot of fun playing with each other. They enjoyed sharing food and feeding each other. Melanie loves Jane and Audrey. I heard her say, "I love you" so many times.

Adam and Laura have a nice camera, so we had them take some pics for our Christmas card. This is a little compilation to show how fun three year olds can be. One minute she is the sweetest, cutest little girl, and the next minute she is extremely stubborn and cranky. At this particular moment she was the latter. The middle picture is when I couldn't convince her to tuck her pants into her boots. She just had to do the opposite of what I was telling her and pull them over. Ahhh.... the joys. Let's just hope all this independence is a good thing right?

We headed over to a park near by.

I know this picture is very blurry, but I had to put it so we remember it. There is a church campus nearby that goes ALL out with Christmas lights, so we went and checked it out. It was pretty awesome. Tulsa did not disappoint;)

After we looked at the lights we drank Eggnog and Snickerdoodle milk, while decorating the tree.

Ok first of all I have to say either my friends and family know me really well, or I talk WAY too much about frozen yogurt, because everyone always sets aside a frozen yogurt night with us:) Second of all, I didn't make it into the picture but I was there! The picture someone else took didn't turn out. Needless to say, it was a great date night!

Grandparents Come to Visit

 We've been lucky enough to have visits from my mom and Drew's parents lately. We took them to the Magic House, the zoo, the Arch, we ate at almost ALL of the famous Saint Louis restaurants. We even drove up to Jefferson City, where the Foster's lived for about 11 years. We knocked on the door of their old house, and the sweet couple who lived there were nice enough to give us a tour.
Overall it was so nice having them here. The kids loved it! And we definitely took advantage, and went on some dates!

Grandma Maggie always brings fun crafts to do with Melanie.

She gave the girls some new tu-tus!

I just had to add this picture, since it was when Mickey and Margaret were here. Too cute:)

Drew and I even took a night away, and went to the Cheesecake Factory and then to a hotel downtown. The hotel was awesome and had a bar on top right next to the arch and over looking the baseball field.  It had some cool fire pits! We also enjoyed breakfast at a cute diner.

I also had to add this picture. Melanie builds a train for them almost daily now.

It's slightly difficult to get a good picture by the arch:)

She always had to be on Grandma Tracy's lap!

Fall Festivities

Have I said how much I LOVE fall? It just brings pure joy to my heart. I love the weather, the activities, the food, and the clothes.  Here are some fun fall pics:) 

They wore these shirts once a week during October. They were pretty festive!

Her face..... We enjoyed doing some fall crafts together.

I love fall colors!

We went to a fun pumpkin patch up in wine country. It was gorgeous up there. And it was a very well run farm.

She loved the little barrel ride.

Hay ride!

Nice crisp day at the park.

Trunk or treat! We had a hard time getting them in a picture all together. Our ward didn't have a trunk or treat this year, but luckily Jena invited us to her church's.

Enjoying their spoils.

Lacey was a mouse, Abby was a cat, and Melanie was Angelina Ballerina.

Of course we had a pumpkin carving/decorating night. Abby and Lacey just enjoyed some M&M's while we did all the work!

I thought it was funny that Melanie had to have her bear at the table with us.

Cheers to hot chocolate!

Unfortunately Halloween night was rainy so we didn't do any trick or treating. Luckily we still had a great time at our house. We had our neighbors and two other families over for some Wassail (spiced apple cider) and donuts. They still got plenty of candy and had a good time pretending to go trick or treating.

They loved their pumpkin buckets.

This is the best we could get. Oliver, Kora and Mel wore themselves out big time.