Making memories.... of any kind!!

Last night, some friends and I were discussing how who ever made up the phrase, "the terrible two's", must of not made it to the 3's and 4's. From what I've been told, and experienced thus far, the closer the girls get to 4, the more dramatic they become. They are sooooo right. Case in point, our lovely trip to the Enchanted Forest today.

                                                                 The Happy Girl
At first, Amelia was super excited and ran around in awe of the animals, fake snow, and lights. Yeah, that lasted about 5 minutes!!! She quickly became very frustrated and mad because I would not allow her to climb over the white fence to join the animals in the snow. Now, I kind of understand this. Who wouldn't want to go play in the beautiful snow with all the fun animals??!!! Then, my excited little angel turned into a foot stomping, crying, trying to scale the fence almost-4 yr old - girl!!! So fun, right!

                                                          Stomping my foot
                                                      Pouting face - look at that lip!!!
                                                            Trying to scale the fence

                                                                      Full-on meltdown!!

Gigi and I should have wasted no time getting Amelia out of there. But, the blogger that I am now (hahaha), had to get pictures of her, before I could carry her out of there! That's another thing - my "blogging friends" and I were talking about... How, if we catch our children doing something funny, precious, or naughty, we quickly go get our cameras. We all think to ourselves, "this would make a great post on the blog'!!! Today was no different, which I think just infuriated Amelia even more. I think we like to capture all moments... the good, the bad, and the ugly!! Because they all do make great memories!!!

The day has finally arrived

Finally, I was able to watch Amelia during her ballet class. Her teacher, Ms Mary, invited the mommies in for the last 15 minutes of class. I have been waiting "patiently" for this moment. All the girls in Amelia's class are just precious and she has loved going to see all her "ballet friends", as she refers to them!! We are definitely going to sign up for the Spring!!!  I think I took over 150 pictures. It was just too cute!!

Happy Birthday???

The finished product
Happy Birthday!!
Hard at work
Another Happy Birthday
So careful
Ahhh, Christmas time!!! It is the best, isn't it?? Decorating the house, ornaments on the tree, buying gifts, making cookies. Amelia LOVES all of it!! Every morning when she wakes up and every night before she goes to sleep, she greets all the decorations. "Goodnight tree", "Goodnight reindeer", "Good morning Baby Jesus". "Good morning Nutcracker"!! She has really enjoyed listening to Christmas music and dancing to it. Amelia and GiGi were busy making cookies tonight. Amelia continues to impress me with her baking skills. She might already be better than me :) She made me laugh so hard tonight as she would throw flour into the air and shout out "Happy Birthday"!!!!!!!! I tried, unsuccessfully, to tell her to shout "Merry Christmas", but no, she insisted (man, I use that word a lot!) it was "Happy Birthday"! In my head, she is saying Happy Birthday to Jesus.... that would be so sweet! And, I am including a picture of our Extreme Makeover Gingerbread House. After I read the directions, I was able to put it back together. Thanks for the helpful hint Amelia!

The Nutcracker

We had such a wonderful time at The Nutcracker!! Amelia loved it as much as I hoped she would. She has been pretty obsessed with Clara and her "Cracky Nut" for a while now. She loves to watch the movie, hum the music, read the stories, and play with them :) My sister, Sara, and I grew up going to The Orpheum to see The Nutcracker. Sara was actually Clara in the same ballet 15 years ago! Its hard to see anyone else in that role now. Amelia watched with her mouth open. She even waved to the mouse king when he came out!! I am so excited to start this tradition with her!!

Next time we will listen to Amelia

The roof caving in
Bring on the sugar
This is all for me
Working hard
what it was supposed to look like
Gigi and I were so excited to make a gingerbread house with Amelia... So excited, that we, and by "we", I mean GiGi, started squeezing frosting everywhere in attempt to get the house put together as fast as possible. The candy was already open, and Amelia was digging in. After a few minutes, the roof started to cave in, then the walls, and then it collapsed. Amelia could have cared less, because she was still stuffing candy in her mouth. She just looked up at us and said, "You should've read the directions..."