Junior Chef

Bryndi and Bella got these little Jr. Chef hats and aprons for Christmas. This morning Rachel handed me an apron and wanted me to put it on her. So I put the hat on too and had a blast with the camera!

Easter Sunday Photo Shoot

I love this picture of Rachel. In her white Easter dress, with the sun shining behind her, it put a halo on her head and made her look just like an angel!

Bella

Bryndi

Look at that dimple!

The girls love to pick the yellow flowers for me ;)

Cupcake Wars

One of Bryndi's favorite shows is on Food Network and it's called Cupcake Wars. Earlier this week she asked me if we could play Cupcake Wars. She wanted to be a judge or a baking assistant. So I went to town! The cute judges said the cupcakes were good. So I guess that means I win?

I used a chocolate cupcake recipe out of the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. Then I made strawberry cream cheese filling and topped them with chocolate buttercream frosting. Oh yum! I'll post the recipe on my cooking blog.

Bird's Nests

Bryndi really wanted a bird's nest, so I dug out the craft supplies and we went to town.

Bryndi's nest

Bella's nest

Friend Chloe's nest

Of course the nest belongs in the tree.

Her shirt says "tweet love". Aww.

Surprise party

I need to write down what this daughter of mine did yesterday.

Bryndi has been more difficult than usual last week. More talking back, arguing, not doing what she is asked, etc. I was getting pretty frustrated, but trying to be patient and figure out what to do to get her back on track. Then Saturday morning she woke up and announced that she was going to clean the whole house and throw me a surprise party. "Okay, Bryndi, that sounds fun", I say. During the day she asked me to help her make a cake, which I declined but told her we'd come up with a different dessert. She asked for decorations and I told her I didn't have any. So she asked for paper and proceeded to color and cut the paper into strips and tape the paper strips up in the kitchen and in her bedroom to decorate. Cute! She told me she was doing all this because she loved me and she knew it would make me happy to have a party. She said she didn't have a gift for me, so she set out with the paper, crayons, and tape and made me a box with a cut out heart, a rainbow, and another heart box inside--to keep my notes in. After dinner we had ice cream sundaes for our party. With sprinkles. Then I thought the party was over. "Mom! Now its time for games!" She planned out musical chairs and a pillow race game and a game where you have to keep a balloon up in the air and not let it hit the ground. Pretty fun :) At the end of it all she told me again how much she loves me and that she did the whole party for me because she loves me. What a thoughtful tender heart she has. I feel so honored to be her mom!

Snowmen!

Last week Bryndi made this snowman. All by herself!! She came up with asking me for blueberries to use for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Pretty clever. Oh, and she's a snowwoman!

Bella and Richard made this snowman a few weeks ago. I'm loving the walnuts :)

Valentines

We painted Bryndi's cast with hearts and butterflies!

She got it off on February 15th and after a couple weeks of limping, is now walking normally again!

Rachel loves her blankies.

She wads it in as big a ball as possible and then squeezes tight!

Bella needed some camera time too :)