Heidi's birthday

Heidi turned three years old. We thought it was pretty funny that Grandma T and Aunt Tiffany both sent Heidi the same card and even used the same exact stamp on the envelope.

I realized on the afternoon of her birthday that we didn't have any cake mixes, so I found a recipe in the cookbook and made one from scratch. This was the first time I had made a cake from scratch, which is kind of surprising since we usually eat homemade whole wheat bread and we make biscuits, waffles, pancakes, cookies, and muffins from scratch all the time. I wasn't really intimidated by it, but we just tend to pick up the cake mixes when they're on manager's special, so I've never bothered to make a cake from scratch before. It was pretty easy and the cupcakes tasted good. I tried to get Heidi to choose what she wanted for dinner, but she just wanted to eat cupcakes for dinner. She was really upset at me when I told her she had to eat dinner first. We went with spaghetti sauce and bow tie pasta because that's what Kevin wanted.

She got a Minnie Mouse coloring book, a book with the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and the movie Frozen for her presents. We ended up staying up late and watching Frozen together that evening, which was fun. We all really enjoyed it. (None of us had seen it before.)

I was concerned because we had a lot of cupcakes left and I was afraid I would end up eating a lot of them, but the kids took care of that problem for me. I came out the next morning to find that together they had eaten the frosted tops off of all of the cupcakes except one.

photos by Kevin

Kevin got a hold of the camera. I guess this gives us a taste of what he thinks is important.

Kevin's first selfie

He wrapped this cord around the handlebars of his bike so that he could have a bell (by tapping the metal plug part on his bike).

Heidi was pretending that this duplo train was a camera, so they were taking pictures of each other.

More Ann Marie

"Look, I'm Grandma!"

Heidi has been doing this thing where she puts a shirt on like pants and another shirt on her head and giggles, "Look, I'm Grandma!" I don't know where she got it from since neither of her grandmas would do such a thing, nor would Grandma Great, but it's still fun.

Kevin and Ann Marie

Kevin loves Ann Marie, and she really loves him too. I got this picture of Kevin snuggling her on the day she was born. This was just after she had given him her very first smile. She smiles for him a lot.

When we are getting out of the van, Kevin always wants to unbuckle Ann Marie from her car seat, and while he does it he says, "All right, come on, Kiddie!" I'm not sure where he picked the nickname up from, but I love it.

Kevin and Heidi meet Ann Marie

Ryan wanted to go pick up the kids and bring them to the birth center so they could meet her there and help bring her home. I was a little apprehensive because I didn't know if I felt up to dealing with three kids yet, but he reassured me that he was wide awake and would take care of them, so I agreed that it would be fine to go get them. I am so glad I did, because it was really special when Kevin trotted in and said, "Hi, Ann Marie!" Heidi was a little shy, but she got more comfortable after I gave her a hug and showed her the baby. It was very strange to see Heidi and realize how much she has grown and that she really isn't a baby anymore.

photos from the birth center

I am finally going through all of the photos I've been meaning to share, so I have several posts scheduled to come out in the next few days. Here are some pictures Ryan took at the birth center when Ann Marie had just been born.

When Heidi was born, I remember several times the midwife who delivered her said, "Wow, she is so cheesy," because she was covered in so much vernix. But Ann Marie had even more. There was TONS of vernix all over her body and head, and it wouldn't really come off when we tried to wash it off because it was so gooey. I think it had dried and rubbed off by the time she was two days old, but wow, she was really gooey at first.