J+V = A Wedding to Remember!

Oh, happy day!  J and V got married!

It was a whirlwind of a weekend though.  Lots of late nights and lots of hard work for the bride.  I didn't know that being a Matron of Honor would require so much work! I was definitely glad to provide it though!

Here were my favorite moments:

1. Evie practicing to be the flower girl at the rehearsal--I talked to Evie ahead of time about tossing the flower petals as the flower girl.  At Uncle J's wedding last year, she rushed the whole thing...she grabbed big handfuls of petals and just chucked them onto the ground as she raced down the aisle.  I told her she should slow it down a bit and toss the petals slowly.  So, this was the result of my talk with her...SO funny!

 2. Getting ready with all the bridesmaids--We went to a salon at 9am and everyone took turns getting their hair and makeup done.  It was a fun girly time!  

Here are our before and after pictures.
BEFORE (scary stuff...sans makeup, first thing in the morning):

AFTER (fabulous!):

Then we continued our fun at the wedding site...getting dressed, dancing and having a blast!

Look at us being so classy here...

Then look at us getting down here...

3. Eulee's voice at the ceremony.--The wedding was beautiful...it's definitely a place where every little girl would dream of getting married.  

But during the ENTIRE ceremony, Eulee was in the front row saying loudly, "Mama?...Mommy?...Mama?...Mommy?"  And when I turned around to acknowledge her, she'd just give me this amazing smile.  Then the minute I looked away, she'd start again, "Mama?...Mommy?...Mama?...Mommy?"  Repeat this scenario several times over the course of 30 minutes.  You get the picture.  She's lucky she's cute.

4. Dancing the night away--After all my jobs were done for the night...helping with relatives, helping the newlyweds, making a toast...I actually got to join my kids on the dance floor.  Eli and Evie just LOVE to dance, so they were out there doing their things. Eli was bustin' so many moves that he was all sweaty!

5. The car ride home after the reception--We left around 11:30pm or so and all the kids were asleep within a few minutes.  Yes, you read that correctly...ALL the kids were asleep....even ELINA!  (Although she will deny it until the day she dies.)

6. Family time--After we had a huge family lunch on Sunday, we drove back home.  BUT it wasn't over just yet.  B's parents were still visiting until Monday.  Then after they left, my parents and family from Seattle visited. The kids had so much fun with my family from Seattle.  The last time we saw them, we only had TWO kids!  And my cousins are so good with kids, so the kids really enjoyed their visit.

My only regret was that I barely got any pictures with anyone.  I didn't even get a picture with Eli as a handsome dog walker in his bow tie and suspenders!  Or with Evie as the flower girl.  Or with Elina who was all dressed up.  Or with my parents, who were both looking mighty nice that night.  I basically just left B and the 4 kids to fend for themselves. I felt so badly about abandoning him, but luckily, a lot of my extended family were more than happy to help entertain the kids.  So we got very few pictures and very few videos that day.  I mean, look at my cousin who got fun pictures of the kids!

Honestly, I don't have a clue what my kids were up to the entire night until I danced with them towards the end!  It was madness, I tell ya.  BUT really fun madness!  It all turned out well and I know I'll see awesome pics from the wedding photographer.  I'll probably have to put up another post to let you see them...

Here was our one family picture with the bride that night...wow.

And here was my one good pic with B before the ceremony started--

It took us a week to recover from this fun, crazy wedding!  But we're so glad V is in the family now!  Yay!!!  Congrats, J and V!!

Evie at 4

Evie is 4!

Here are her stats--

Weight: 34lbs 4oz (45th percentile)

Height: 39.75" (52nd percentile)

Here are some facts about Evie--

1. She says the funniest things.  Lately, she's been saying things like, "Oh boy, I sure do!" and "I sure did!" and "That smells terrific!"  She always says things that catch us off-guard.  

2. She is pretty smart.  She actually knew her left side from her right side a while back.  I was amazed.  She also knows all of her ABCs and all of their sounds.  She's actually starting to sound words out and we started reading BOB books together, too.  

3. She loves to draw and color.  She's had many phases this year...a people phase, a flower phase, a rainbow phase, a cursive phase.  She saw Elina writing so much cursive that she started to write pretend cursive all over sheets of paper.  She would literally cover the whole sheet of paper in connected squiggly lines...and then she would "read" it to me.  Awesome.

4. She is passive-aggressive...in a funny way.  If I give Eulee a snack and not her, she will say, "That cracker is only for babies, right?  Not for me."  And there was a day when we were trying to decide what to do as a family and you chimed in, "We can't go to the Kiddie Park, right?  It's kind of a nice day though."  You're just so funny when you say these things!

5. She is an excellent older sister to Eulee.  Evie probably pays attention to Eulee more than the other kids, so she is always on top of things when it comes to dangerous items or situations.  Honestly I don't know what I'd do without Evie.  She's so good at playing with Eulee and creating diversions for Eulee so that I can accomplish something during the day.  When Evie's gone on a playdate, I definitely have to work harder.  

6. She is a good counterpart for Eli.  Evie is definitely our tough one because she will actually get on the ground and wrestle with Eli.  She also just loves to get extra super silly with her brother.  It's awesome!  

7. She loves to give hugs.  She will never leave Eli at school unless she gives him a big goodbye hug.  In the picture below, she loves hugging him so much she's grinding her teeth!

8. She likes to repeat lectures....to everyone's dismay.  After I talk to Eli or Elina about something that made me unhappy, Evie will start off with, "Jie Jie, you should have..."  I usually catch her before she can say anymore, but sometimes I will hear her repeating what I just said.  I'm hoping this is just a phase.

9. She loves going to swim class and dance class during the week.  Evie has become such an awesome swimmer.  The older kids are always blown away by how brave she is.  Evie also started dance class in January and she really loves it.  

10. She is a performer.  Evie loves to dress up, dance, and sing for everyone.  She loves singing Frozen songs and Doc Mcstuffins songs at the top of her lungs in the car.  

11. She can unbuckle herself in the 5-point car seat.  This has been such a blessing!  Evie sits on the opposite side of the car, so whenever I got out of the car, I would have to walk over to the other side just to unbuckle her.  It sounds petty, but after doing it multiple times a day, it gets pretty old.  

12.  She can pump her legs on the swing!  This is HUGE!  This is a little bit of freedom on a playground.  I LOVE when this milestone occurs!

13.  She loves to play board games, especially Pretty Pretty Princess.

14. She's just plain tough.  This girl will fall flat on her face and say, "I'm ok!"  She just went to get her 4 year old shots (2 of them) and she didn't even make a peep!  Not even a peep!  The nurse said, "The doctor won't even believe that I gave you shots!"  Then after the nurse left, Evie admitted, "Actually, that hurted a lot."  See what I mean?  Tough cookie!

15. She loves to dress up.  Her favorite things are accessories.  Out of all the kids so far, she's the one who has used the dress-up things the most.  She will show up dressed in the wackiest things.  I love it!

Evie is just so much fun to have around.  She's always acting silly, saying funny things...but then she also goes with the flow, which makes things easier in this crazy life with 4 kids.  Who wouldn't love having this kid around?

Easter 2014 Plus a Birthday

Easter actually landed on B's birthday this year!  Needless to say, it was tough trying to create fun for both his birthday and for Easter.  Honestly, I think B got ripped off a little.  =(  We took him to eat a yummy brunch at one of his favorite places, Z'Tejas.  And on his birthday, we let him sleep in and then we served him breakfast in bed--yummy bunny pancakes!

I didn't get him too much this year...just a nerdy math mug and some delicious chocolate.  Like I said, I think he got ripped off this year.  I just didn't have enough in me to do his birthday up and do Easter up, too.

We had a fun Easter party with Eli's class.

We've always had empty plastic eggs in the house and that's how Eulee thought they came.  At the party, she opened her first filled plastic egg...picked up a jellybean...put it in her mouth...and she was in heaven!  She couldn't believe the goodness that just came out of that egg!  So she continued finding more eggs and opening them and eating the goodies inside.  She loved it!  Now she knows the secret...and now she's always looking for eggs.

Of course cascarones were also popular items!

On Good Friday we headed up to Austin for the day to celebrate J's birthday.  We got sno cones (of course!), went bowling, and then had a nice dinner together.  Eulee loved bowling...she loved pushing the ball down the little ramp thing.  So cute!

We spent the rest of the weekend decorating eggs.  I tried 2 new ways to decorate the eggs.  For one technique you use a crayon on the egg while it's still warm after being boiled.  This makes the crayon melt and the colors look awesome!  It's best to move the crayon slowly...Eli quickly lost interest in this technique!

Then we tried using watercolor.  The colors were amazing...bright and beautiful!  The only downside is that if you refrigerate them and then take them out to peel them, the paints get on your fingers.  But it's all washable and non-toxic, so it wasn't a big deal to me.  We also used just thin,  permanent markers, too.  

On Easter, the kids searched for their baskets.

For Eulee's basket we just filled Easter eggs with her favorite treat--mini-marshmallows.  She loved it!

Then the kids were supposed to look for the Chocolate Bunny around the house.  We hide a big chocolate bunny and the kids get NO clues about where it's hidden.  So they could find it the same day, or a week later.  BUT this year we hid the bunny too low and Eulee got to it first...without anyone knowing.  By the time we noticed, she had already torn off all the pretty gold wrapping!  The older kids were so disappointed.  So I had to re-hide it somewhere higher.  And Elina found it!

We also did an egg hunt and Easter dinner with AJ and her family.  

We all had fun playing and eating.  We also celebrated B's birthday there.  I made a chocolate raspberry cake and it was really beautiful and really yummy!  

Definitely a fun, but busy Easter this year!