Because I Am Four...

Our little girl is now four. I seriously cannot believe it. She is the sweetest little girl. Although, I swear since her birthday she has developed a new sense for the word sassy. She really is the light of my life. I am constantly amazed at her forgiving nature. She is empathetic, charitable, curious, and delightful. She keeps us laughing at her frank comments. 

Eliza has really become obsessed with her age. “I can do this because I am four. Four year olds are bigger and can do this…etc.” It is pretty funny. Today she said that “These games are only for 4 year olds. I am afraid I will have to teach other kids.” A couple of other funny things she said about her birthday is “It’s ice and I can’t slip. Isn’t it funny I am bigger than I usually am.” Also, “I love candy!” She said that a couple of her recipes are her “Best recipes” - see 2 posts after this one for details! One time when we were driving to the doctor, she added the words “Speaking of which” to the beginning of a sentence. She seriously is so cute and growing WAY too fast! On her birthday she wished for a new house and ponies, and declared, “I am Cinderella, butterfly girl!” Yeah, that pretty much sums up Ellie right now.

Another funny story, yesterday my mom was up here babysitting so that John and I could go to a financial seminar. Afterwards we went shopping for my parents’ basement furniture. I climbed into the backseat between the two car seats and Ellie commented that “Grandma is the heaviest.” Talk about awkward.

One night she said, “I can’t stop eating this.” It was definitely something she didn’t even like that much, but I think she just hears us say stuff like that. Ellie is doing amazing when it comes her reading. She can really read any word that isn’t too long. Also, almost exactly two years from when she was potty trained, we have stopped putting her in diapers at night!!! The week of her birthday she slept dry 6 nights in a row and we decided to say that 4 year olds don’t wear diapers!

For her birthday we did a princess tea party which included “Don’t eat the frog” game, princess dancing, cake walk, “Princess, princess where’s your crown?” game, and a butterfly cake. I was pretty proud of that cake. They also had hot chocolate or cider with their cake. We got Ellie a big girl bike, which she likes, but doesn’t love. She more loves the princess chapstick and real make up that other people got her. Stinker. I was really happy with how the party turned out though and am sure she will like the bike more and more with time.

We really just love our sweet little girl. Ellie’s favorite things right now are: dressing up, putting on make up, play outside with her friends, reading books, eating candy, doing preschool, making crafts, coloring, writing letters, and going places. Ellie weighed about 31 lbs at her 4 year old check up.

Miriam is such a delight as well. She picks up new words all the time. She is starting to combine words. So fun! At her 18 month check up she is actually caught up developmentally, but is small for her age. She doesn’t weigh enough! Getting her to eat is really tricky though and is a fight at almost every single meal. Mostly it consists of spoon feeding her pureed food so that we can distract her and she can swallow without thinking about eating or having to chew. Yeah, pretty great. :(

She still loves her mama more than anything is the sweetest little cuddler. She is practically done with her baby milk “noi, noi” But she still likes it. Miriam loves bubble baths, making messes, reading books, going places, and playing with whatever someone else is playing with.

Ellie's birthday is shortly after Valentine's Day, so some photos from our Valentine's Day celebration are included here, as well as a few other good recent ones. It turns out that the bike we picked was a little too big for our little four year old!

From my journal on March 17, 2013: John and I have had a pretty busy last couple of weeks too. Still no real developments on the job hunt. I try really hard not to be worried that he might not get a job, but he seems pretty confident that he will. 

One thing that hasn't been very much fun recently was that we went to the dentist. Almost $900 later our teeth feel a little bit better. John did have a piece of popcorn stuck in his teeth that the dentist got out. He also replaced five of John's fillings.  I got two new ones, which stunk. Ellie had her first dentist appointment, which cost as much as ours, but didn't seem like it was worth much. Oh well. Also, the mother board on our computer broke, which cost us another $250. Needless to say I am getting a little concerned about money right now. And the car needs to be fixed. Fun.

We have been doing fun things though. For Valentine's Day my mom came down and we went to a yummy indian restaurant called Kohinoor. We got the saag paneer which was delicious and the mango lassi was delightful. That morning we did sealings which was really nice. I also made red velvet heart shaped pancakes.  John got the girls a valentine's gift of heart cups and special juice. Pretty big hit. :) After the restaurant that night we went up the canyon where John gave me a nice candle and I gave him a photo of us from our wedding.  The next night we went to a church dance, which was fun, but kind of funny. The dance was for everyone 14 and older, so there were some awkward teenagers there too. Oh I am so glad that I am married. It was a really nice Valentine's day.

The next weekend we went up my parent's house for a birthday dinner for the February birthdays. We also went up there yesterday. My mom is redoing their basement and bought a whole bunch of cabinetry and a huge plasma tv. We have been helping her get that set up and her stuff organized. It is a huge project that is still not done.

We also went to the Pearson family dinner at Norma's church where we were parents of the year and accidentally locked Miriam in the kitchen by herself. Fortunately Hema had the number of the guy with the keys so it was okay. Still, not a very good stunt by us.

We went to a financial seminar at BYU that was really interesting. It gave us a lot of info about buying a house. They have a ton of resources available at personalfinance.byu.edu. It just also made me want to live in such a way where we are not slaves to the money that we spend. I want to live a lifestyle that allows for security and saving. I hope we can save at least 20% of what we make.

Our dates we have done recently are a my choice/his choice, where we wrote mad libs for each other. John did one where we wrote poetry (haikus) for each other. It was super funny. Last week I did a St. Patrick's Day date that included a scratch off lottery ticket to come up with activities.

Ellie really is the cutest. She is still so obsessed with her make up. I put real make up on her the other day, and she is extra obsessed now. Great. Something she says all the time these days is "What do you do if you have a ___ in your eye?" Fill in the blank with glass, oatmeal, a tree, the whole world, etc. Something else that was funny was that she said, (in reference to Cafe Rio) "We are not here to get something healthy, we are here to get a treat." She also said, "There is a lot of pink in my life." So true. She still doesn't love her bike, but she is reading better and better. The other day she read "Put Me in the Zoo." Although it does have fairly simple words it was still 60 pages long. She also has the Berenstein Bears Love Their Neighbors down pat. Seriously every word memorized verbatim. So stinking cute. I need to get a video of that.

Miriam is picking up words like crazy, although you would have to be us to understand. For example, "A baba" is 'a story.' She is super cute and sweet. One of my favorite things she does is cup my cheeks and chin with her hands.