The Wonderful Adventures of Lili Bean and Sofa Pia

December 26, 2014

Merry Christmas 2014!

From Halloween straight to Christmas! I was hoping to be a little better at keeping up with the blog - but it's always a busy time of year.

Catching up a little: We had a good time celebrating Thanksgiving with the Shupe family at our house. Leslie and Jared's family came and stayed overnight at our place and Camille's kids too - a big sleepover! It was fun memories with cousins.

We've had fun celebrating the holiday season - even if at least one person was sick for all of December. I was in charge of the ward party. It was a lot of work and stressful but came together rather nicely. We also celebrated Christmas with many family parties, driving around to see a lot of lights, a Thanksgiving weekend outing to see Polar Express with the girl cousins, and Lili and I went to see "The Nutcracker." Plus a lot of Christmas movies and treats to ring in the Christmas season.

Christmas Eve Eve we spent with the Shupes. Dinner, games (family feud, talent show, and gift exchange), and fun with cousins. I was feeling sick and got even worse that night and the next day. It put a damper on all Christmas activities but I survived. Christmas Eve we relaxed, read the nativity that night and put baby Jesus in the creche, and opened up Christmas pjs.

Christmas morning was great - lots of fun and the kids got some great things. After Christmas is even better - playing with toys, staying in our pjs all day, and eating yummy foods. It's nice to spend time with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Also: My incredibly talented friend Carly made these dolls for the kids in exchange for me taking her wedding pictures. They were my favorite part of Christmas and the kids are so excited about them. They've been named: Liliac, Pearl, and Ruby. And Super Jack. :)

A quick video I threw together of our morning:

November 2, 2014

Halloween 2014

Our Halloween costumes this year were...I'm sad to say....pathetic.

I had so many grand ideas!! But this time of year is so busy and I just didn't pull it together. The kids' costumes changed with every party that we went to. We were late to school on Halloween day because Lili didn't have anything she wanted to wear. Sophie didn't want to be a pink monster...Jack changed his mind 100 times. And then the actual Halloween night he only wanted to wear his Spiderman hoodie.

Oh well!! They still had fun and got a ton of candy. That's all that matters.

Rich was out of town for the whole week of Halloween - leaving me to go solo to Halloween ward parties, class parties, and trick or treating Halloween night. We sure missed him - but even sadder is him missing out on seeing the kids enjoy all the fun and excitement of Halloween.

October 19, 2014

Hazel's 5th Birthday

My little sweet Hazel turned 5 years old on October 15th. We love Hazel so much in our family! She is a sweet, giggly, smart, funny, squishy, loving, patient, creative, and energetic little girl. She is a wonderful big sister to Jack, a fun little sister to the big girls, and a great helper to me. She is a tiny little person but so full of personality. She sings Disney's "Frozen" song perfectly, and is the loudest singer in primary (and she knows every word to the songs). I just love my Hazel. I am sad my baby girl is growing up so fast! Here's how her day went:

Doughnuts. Surprised?

Jack's still waking up

She was so excited to get an American Girl doll. It looks just like her and she named her "Margo"

She also got a mega art set - she loves to color!

That morning we also had a birthday party with friends. She wanted a dress up Halloween party.

The invite and the doughnuts ready to be eaten.

Cute cake made by the same girl who made Jacks cake.

Ghost Bowling

Halloween Bingo

Decorating Pumpkins - with stickers for less mess.

The favors - some Halloween essentials in a homemade owl bag

Some mummified juice

Opening presents

We also played a little freeze dance game where they had to dance like mummies, skeletons, and ghosts. Here's a video I made from the party.

It was a great party and day for sweet little Hazel!

October 7, 2014

Jack's Birthday: Part III

After Jack's friend party Camille and her family came over to swim, ate dinner with us, then we were joined by my parents and John and Pat to celebrate Jack's birthday yet again!

He opened his presents

A homemade blanket from Lilia. Fabric bought with her own money and made by her.

He loved it!!

Hazel made him a "Happy Birthday Book" which he also loved. This boy loves his sisters and has the best reactions to opening presents.

Good looking crew!

Showing Grandpa and Grandma some love for his superhero board books they gave him. First thing he saw when he opened them up was Wonder Woman and he said, "Why is there a gwul (girl) in this book?" We explained to him that superheros can be girls too!

More cake! More Happy Birthday song! This boy had a very full and very fun day. He never once broke down or whined - he stayed happy and positive to the end. Needless to say, he went straight to sleep tonight! Happy third birthday to the sweetest, most handsome, funnest, smartest boy in the world!