Happy Birthday Extravaganza!

Today my baby turned 3 years old!  I just can't believe that she is not a baby anymore.  All weekend, I have been reflecting on how our lives changed when this little girl came into our home.  We have learned so much from watching this little girl grow and trying to help her be the best that she can be. Mirian is such a joy in our lives.

Mirian is such a big girl, literally!  She is as tall or taller than some of her friends that are 4 years old.  She is in 4T clothes and she is just growing like a weed!  She has a silly sense of humor and she always knows how to make her Mommy and Daddy laugh.  She is very sweet and compassionate.  We watch a little boy, Carter, frequently and she can be so kind and gentle to him.  She is also very rambunctious and I have found her pinning Carter to the floor as he is kicking and screaming to get away.  Mirian loves the gospel.  She loves going to church, she loves to say prayers, she loves reading scriptures, she loves seeing pictures of Jesus.  We watched General Conference this weekend and every time the Holy Ghost was mentioned, Mirian would perk up and say "Holy Ghost!"

Mirian talks so much now (finally), and she has an opinion about everything.  She absolutely loves Disney Princesses and Dora the Explorer.  When we put her to bed at night, she asks us to tell her a Cinderella story or a Belle story, where Mirian is actually the character.  If I ever say "Cinderella" instead of  "Mirian," she quickly corrects me.  Mirian goes to preschool two days a week and she loves it!  She loves spending time with her friends and she loves to learn.  She is just an awesome kid and I love her so much!

On Saturday, we had a party with all of her friends over.  Mirian wanted a Princess/Dora party, so I made a map and told the kids that Swiper had taken all of the presents and hid them in his cave.  The kids had to follow the map to get the presents.  To start out, they had to walk across the "stones" to the kitchen.  Some of the stones were missing and so they had to find the missing stones.  When they got to the kitchen, all the kids had to make a pizza (we just did the English muffin pizzas).  From there, they had to go into the basement and crawl through the spiderweb and then they found the cave (tent) filled with her presents.  The kids had fun following the map,and when we were all done "rescuing" the presents, they asked if they could follow the map again.  Afterwards, we had a Cinderella cake and ice cream.

Crossing the stones to the kitchen

Climbing through the spiderweb

They found the presents!

 




 

Russ was there briefly

The Princess with her Cake

Sunday was my birthday (yippee), so we had another little shin dig Sunday evening after conference.  Russ' family came over for sloppy joes, veggies and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream (my favorite cake).  It was fun to have everyone over and Mirian loved getting to play with her cousins.

Snuggling with Daddy during Conference

Trying to burn down the house!

I almost caught my hair on fire!

Russ got me 7 pairs of toe socks!?!?!?

Even though we already celebrated her birthday, I wanted today to be a special day for Mirian too.  This morning, we played games together (at her request), then we went to Kids Castle (a giant indoor play place) with her buddy Carter.  She had so much fun climbing around, going down slides and playing in the ball pits.  She was so worn out by the end of it that she took a nice long nap when we got home.  It has been a fun few days, but I think we are now ready for life to get back to normal.

The Queen of Kids Castle!

Mirian and Carter on the swing in the backyard

Happy Birthday Mirian!  We love you!

Snow Princess

 We finally got snow, and we were so excited to take advantage of it.  At Mirian's preschool, they had a Princess Party, so Mirian wore her beautiful white coat to be the Snow Princess.  She loved it!  Mirian doesn't have a lot of dress up clothes, so she had to wear her pink tutu.

 She made the crown at preschool.  She wore it until it fell apart.  She thought she was so beautiful in it.

 Over the weekend, we had our awesome friends the Divis' come from Spokane.  They braved the weather, just to spend a few days with us.  Since we had so much snow, we had to let the kids go sledding in the back yard.  Mirian loved playing in the snow, but not so much the sledding.

 Kitty Boots got to enjoy the snow too, but he didn't get to go sledding.  I wish I had a picture of it, but I made Maced got on the sled with me.  I don't think she liked it, but I thought it was pretty hysterical.

And here is the Panty Princess.  Lately, she has been getting out of bed when she is supposed to be asleep, stripping off her pj's and pull-up and putting on panties and a hat.  She thought she looked so cute the other night, that I had to take a picture of it.  I sure do love that girl!  She always makes me laugh! I'm going to have to show this picture to her future husband one day to truly embarrass her.

Christmas Holidays

We had such a wonderful Christmas season this year filled with fun and family.  Mirian was old enough to make Christmas really fun.  She got to meet Santa at our ward Christmas breakfast and she has been obsessed with him ever since.  Mirian still talks about Santa a month later.

 Mirian got to make a snowflake ornament at the Christmas party.  She had so much fun!

On Christmas Eve, we went to Russ' parents house for dinner and a live nativity presented by the grand-kids.  Mirian started out as a shepherd, but then when the program started, she came out as this:

Either way, she was adorable.  The kids then performed the nativity and sang songs and we all thought that we had the cutest kids ever.

 Just look at that little face!  How can you not think she is the cutest!

 That night, Mirian got to open her Christmas jammies from Santa.  She was sooooo excited because they were Dora jammies.

 Just as we were getting ready to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house for the night, we had a special visitor come to the house.  It was Santa Claus!  Mirian was so excited!  She ran right up to him and hugged him.  She didn't leave his side until left.  It was so fun to see her eyes light up.  We told Mirian that she had to go to bed because Santa was going to come back while she was asleep and bring presents.  That made her even more excited.  We had to be back at Russ' parents house at 5:45am, so we went into Mirian's room to wake her up.  Usually, it takes her awhile to wake up, but she immediately jumped out of bed and her first words were "Christmas, Santa come!"  She ran out of the room to see if Santa had indeed come.  Mirian was not disappointed.

 She ran to the fireplace to open her stalkings.  Again, her eyes just lit up with the magic of Christmas

 Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house, everyone had to line up in order of age to go open presents.  Mirian was obviously the youngest there that morning, but that made for a more magical Christmas.  She loved opening presents and would help everyone with theirs if she didn't have one to open.

 She thought all the presents were for her!

 After presents we went to Russ' parents ward, and enjoyed a lovely Christmas service with lots of Christmas singing and wonderful talks about our Savior's birth.  We then all went home for naps.

Later that evening we went back to Russ' parents and Mirian of course, had to be decked out in her new Christmas clothes, playing with her new Christmas toys.  She is at such the perfect age for enjoying the holidays.  I think this was one of my favorite Christmas' because it truly felt magical. I will never forget that sparkle in my little girl's eyes.

 The next day, we went bowling with the family.  Mirian thought it was pretty cool, she even had a better score than her mom (okay, she might of had a little help from others).

Yummy bowling alley nachos!