Who's that with the LONG hair?

Naomi always asks me to straighten her hair, "like Mommies!" So today I did.
I put her in the tub and washed and combed out all the tangles.
Then I towel dried it and brushed it out while I dried with the blow dryer. It was an awesome fluffy frizz. I should have taken a photo of that too! Naomi kind of wanted it like that, until I talked her into letting me finish.
Then I used my flat iron and smoothed it out and put a few curls in it. Naomi was kind of upset I did that last part, she wanted it "all just straight!"
I was surprised at how long her hair is! With her tight curls, it just seems so much shorter all the time. She loves it and I think it's pretty on her. But it makes her look so much older.
And that photo from the back, I wouldn't even recognize her.

Sunny Saint George

We spent the week in St. George a little while ago and it was beautiful!
Naomi flew her first kite and James discovered how awesome sand is.
We played in the pool almost every day, my kids are little fish, they love it so much!


-I've been asked how to make these collages before. I use Google Picasa photo program, it's free to download and there is an application to select photos and make a collage.

Happy Birthday James!

Happy Birthday to my little James.
He turned two a few weeks ago and is growing so fast. He talks so much and sometimes I find myself counting how many word sentences he's making. I think his largest is 6-7.
James is sweet, funny, snugly, giggly, rowdy and just a little bit stubborn. He's a joy, and I love making him laugh and listening to his serious conversations about things. He loves big trucks, anything that goes. It's fascinating to observe James naturally loving all these traditionally "boy" things. I knew preference for those kinds of things can be inherent, but it's so interesting to see first hand. He loves balls so much too. He can't quite catch one yet, but he's not afraid of getting one in the face anyway. But not to forget, he also gets his fair share of barbies, dress up dresses, complete with crown, wand and heels, headbands, tea parties and calling every color "pink" to balance it out. Having an older sister makes for some entertaining play times.
My parents came to visit James for his birthday morning and brought a seriously cool dump truck that talks, makes a back-up beeping noise, and all kinds of truck noises. He also got his new favorite movie, CARS! He's loved Lightning McQueen for some time, and now he has the movie too. Later Zach's family all came over and brought some more fun toys, the highlight being the basketball hoop and a mini golf club set.
James also got from Me and Zach a lightning McQueen matchbox size car, to match his Mater. And new markers, crayons, coloring book. And just because he's so dang cute and we spoil him, he got a Woody doll, and a awesome "automatic" screwdriver. He calls it his "scrubadriver" and it's adorable to hear him say it. He loved to raid the tool bucket and carry the real one around, so Zach went on a mission to get him one of his own.
So, overall the birthday haul was more than enough. Lucky Naomi is enjoying all these additions too. It's nice to add to the "boy" toy collection.
The birthday cake was the only disappointment of the day. I didn't even take a photo it was that bad! It was supposed to be a train cake and I couldn't get the frosting to stick to the edges of the cake where I had cut it. It slowly came together, and with the help of my mother-in-law and Zach with the decorating it turned out ok. James even identified it as a train. Whew. But at least it tasted good!
Happy 2nd Birthday James!

Naomi"s Birthday!

Naomi successfully turned 4 years old. And yes, I feel like that sounds old. She is old. Three seemed a lot more like a baby. Now she's very much a big girl. She has been for some time, I just like my children to stay as my little babies.

Naomi had quite the Birthday celebration! She celebrated early with her Champlin grandparents before they left for a vacation. The next morning she had a Valentines party as school, and got to pick a present at circle time for her birthday. Then, on her actual birthday Her Low grandparents visited and brought her presents. Later we had a fun little party with Naomi, Mommy, Daddy and James here at home. My friend Andrea let me borrow her cool cake pan to make the chocolate castle cake. It was beyond simple and looked very cool. The photo doesn't show the details very well. I didn't put tons of effort into decorating, but you can't beat frosting and m&m's! We went bowling at the fun park, Naomi, and James, they loved it. It was so funny to watch them barely get their balls rolling hard enough to make it down the lane.

The next day Naomi had her princess birthday party with her girlfriends! It was a blast. Those girls had a royal good time! They played dress-up, danced, colored, played pin-the-jewel-on-the-crown, ate cake and ice cream, decorated crowns, opened presents and just played their little hearts out.

I love how Naomi's castle cake turned out. She didn't even end up eating any of it. She's an ice cream kind of girl. I used cake cones for the pillars, and sugar cones on top. It was fun to make and a huge hit with the little princesses!

Overall it was a great week-long celebration. Lucky girl!

Naomi's already planning her party for next year, and from what it sounds like, it will be a Bat Man party!