She had a great day, with lots of presents, cake and family surrounding us. One of her favorite things is nursery rhymes and she especially likes Humpty Dumpty so James and I made a Humpty Dumpty cake (or HuM DUMPY as Anika says!) It turned out pretty good for two amateurs (maybe not Cake Boss good, but at least you could tell it was an egg! And most importantly, she loved it!).

The three girls at her party.

Jack was the youngest guest

We didn’t do a whole lot at her birthday party – just played and visited, but we did head out skating earlier in the day. Anika is too small but it was Brianna’s first time on skates. She did pretty well, but was frustrated as she didn’t just stand up and skate on her own right away!

And today we celebrated her actual birthday by going to Mommy’s group and having cake, then after nap we went for a long walk and played outside for quite a while enjoying the beautiful warm spring-like weather!

Happy birthday again Anika! Hope you enjoyed your day!

We celebrated the beginning of a new year with some great friends out at their cabin. It was really nice and the kids had a great time playing and hanging out! It was beautiful down by the lake and seemed so peaceful. We celebrated with a pinata (the girls both absolutely loved it!), some dancing, and of course, food. And once the kids were settled down, it gave the adults some time for fun too! My idea of a perfect New Year’s eve (less the late night and very early morning the next day!).

Brianna dancing to “Good Night” (Black Eyed Peas) – one of her favorites!

And of course, whatever Brianna does, Anika follows!

The kids and their pinata!

Anika thought it was great to wave a stick around – only at the cabin we would remind them all.

Watching the pinata action

All of the kids (less Sierra – she was taking a quick nap)

And Sierra

My family headed to Moose Jaw for an evening to celebrate Christmas. We went to the waterslides, hung out in the pool and generally wore the kids out (oh yeah, and Uncle Dave and James!). It was fun and all three girls absolutely loved the water! Quite the little water baby we have with Sierra – she would be tired or grumpy and would see the water and perk right up!

This year we also hosted Boxing Day with mom’s side of the family. In a fairly rare occurence, all of her brothers were able to make it so we got an updated picture of the siblings (Howard, Guy, Mom, Darryl and Bruce).

And this picture pretty much sums up Anika perfectly! She always has this little mischevious smile like she is going to do something she shouldn’t any minute!

And another picture of Sierra!

This year was very different than many for us…It’s hard to believe that our house could ever seem quiet, but it did! We spent most of Christmas with just the five of us as there were many around us that were sick and we just didn’t want Anika to catch it. We did manage to squeeze in a couple of visits with family and then had plenty of new toys and activites to keep everyone busy.

On Christmas eve we left Anika with a babysitter and snuck away to Grandma’s in Indian Head for a short visit in the morning. It was really hard to leave Anika, but nice to see everyone else. We had a quick breakfast with Michelle, David and the kids, Douglas and Grandma and then were back to see Anika – she was so excited, and loved opening her presents! It was so cute!

We had a short visit with grandma and grandpa in the early afternoon and then enjoyed a great supper with just the five of us. Brianna was so excited that Santa was going to come and even slept in a bit (I think she was freaked out that Santa was still going to be in the house!). When the girls saw their presents they were vibrating with excitement! We had breakfast and then opened our presents together. Just before lunch grandma and grandpa and Eliza and Dave came for a visit and the girls were happy to open more presents and have some visitors. In the afternoon Brianna took to scrapbooking…and she was quite good at it! After some more playing, it was supper, a quick jump in the hot tub, more playing and then off to bed. Definately a different Christmas for us all.

Sierra was absolutely enthralled with the paper and was actually really good at opening the presents too! It was a lot of fun to see her rip into the paper!

Finally got ahold of what she wanted!

Opening presents…

At grandma’s…

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a great holiday!

Also, in exciting news, Sierra is now crawling! She was getting really close and then with the excitement and all of the paper that was always just out of her reach, it was enough to push her to actually do it! Now we really have to watch out!

It’s really hard to believe Brianna is already 4 years old! She has changed so much in the last four years and has really turned into a wonderful child, who is caring, polite, and an all-around great girl!

We had a celebration for her yesterday…a Princess Party for her friends in the morning…complete with a treasure hunt, pin the heart on the princess, and they even made castles out of sugar cubes! And a family party in the evening with supper and cake!

Brianna was so excited about the decorations on the table and thought it looked so good. She was thrilled with the cake (it looked so good!) and just had a great time! It was so cute because every present she opened was `just what she always wanted!“

Everyone came dressed as a princess or prince…they were so adorable!

Waiting for cupcakes

Opening presents

Making the castles

Anika wanted to make one (actually, let me correct that – she really just wanted to eat the sugarcubes!)

Brianna fashioning some of her presents – what a little diva!

Our two other little princesses

It`s also Coleton`s second birthday today so a very happy birthday to him! We had a little cupcake and present to help him celebrate too which he was excited with!

Other than that, we have been so busy with Christmas activities and parties and celebrations lately! The kids have been in their glory and loving all of the fun activities, candy, and special treats!

We went to a Santa Claus parade in Regina with Laura, leaving Jack and Sierra at home with grandma and grandpa. It was really cool and the girls loved it!

A couple of weeks ago we went to a flower conservatory for a Little Gardeners program. The kids had a lot of fun looking at the plants, playing in the sand box, and planting their own flowers. It was a neat program and a cool place to visit with them when it`s cold out!

(Sierra was sleeping so she missed out on it!)

We`ve also decorated cookies (again, I decorated, Brianna sort of helped and Anika ate the icing and sprinkles!)

This time Sierra was too young, but still had fun playing!

We have decorated our tree – both the girls really enjoyed helping (and Sierra slept!)

Here`s Anika eating the decorations (notice a trend here!)

Once we were done the tree, we all settled down and read `twas the night before Christmas`

We had a Christmas party for my work at the Science Centre. The girls loved exploring the Centre and playing. Brianna was thrilled with Santa and sat on his lap to talk to him and tell him what she wanted. Anika would just cry and shout `no, no, no, no` if he looked in her direction or she got near him! Sierra screamed!

The two younger girls safe in dad`s arms where Santa couldn`t get to them!

And last but not least, a parade in McLean with all kinds of floats, more candy than you could imagine and a winter carnival complete with Santa, a fish pond, lots of crafts and arts tables, and baking!

The girls waiting for the parade.

What a great couple of weeks and only more fun to come! Merry Christmas!

Sierra is growing like crazy and doesn’t seem like a little baby anymore. She loves to play with toys, can roll like crazy (actually will make her way across a room now)…it looks like it might not be that long and she will be starting to crawl (who knows though).

She loves her jolly jumper – here is James’ version (so safe, I know!)

And she has even started to eat some food – she loves it!

Brianna loves to dance…

(even more fun if you are dressed like a princess)!

Has finished her swimming and loves her dance class and playschool!

She was thrilled with her poppy and had to be sure to wear it to “remember” – she forgot what she was supposed to remember though : )

And Anika, well, she is Anika, constantly getting into things, copying her older sister, and making us laugh every day!

James with the girls…

Those cheeks are so kissable!

And Sierra hanging out with her dad!

We took the kids out to a few houses – now Sierra and I are handing out candy while James, Anika and Brianna continue on their way!

And here is a picture of Popeye and Olive Oyl from our party on Saturday night!

A couple of weekends ago we went to Pumpkin Hallow with Laura, Dave and Jack. It was a lot of fun – they have pumpkins for taking pictures with, a corn maze, some animals, a motorized ride for the kids, swings, a playhouse, a corn “box” (like a sandbox), and a jumping pillow. It was a beautiful day and we all had a lot of fun!

Pictures with the pumpkins…

The girls:

All the cousins

Brianna loved posing with the pumpkins so we got lots of shots of her…

Jack

Running through the maze – Brianna thought it was great to try to answer the clues and figure out which way to go – she just had to be first!

Sierra just kicked back and enjoyed the ride

And when it was time to get her shot with the hay bale, she wouldn’t look up because she was so mesmerized by the way the hay felt!

Jumping on the pillow

And just a couple of Jack and Anika with grandma and grandpa

Bye for now…

(it’s impossible to get a good picture of her – always has the “cheese” face on!)

Anika had a minor incident the other day – a small tumble on a kitchen chair left her with a bump – that instantly turned into a huge goose-egg! I was a little freaked out…but she was fine within about 30 seconds and we watched her carefully and it didn’t seem to be affecting her. Here’s a picture about 1/2 hour after it had happened – the swelling is already going down!

And here it is the next day – looking much much better (but still caused a lot of questions from friends and strangers we see!)