The "Babies" are Three!

Can it really be?

The "babies" are three.

This year we had a small birthday party for Stella and Isaac in Wichita. The Samway family came over to help us celebrate the big day. The party was fun and Stella and Isaac seemed to really enjoy their birthday.

They are every bit of three. Funny how one (or two in my case) can go from being a baby one day to a small child the next. I swear they act older, understand more, and were able to develop funny personalities overnight.

Here's a glimpse of our day.

Stella's happy dance.

Mmm, cupcakes!

Birthday Love.

A fun day was not without a few birthday woes.

Things that didn't go according to (my) plan:

Left Birthday Tablecloths in Nebraska (from last year.)

Lost power for more than an hour while baking the cupcakes just hours before the party.

When backing out of the garage I cracked the van mirror. Ran into the side of the garage while I was telling Carson something.

The store was out of helium when I went to buy the balloons. I found this out after I had already picked out all 12 balloons and personally written down each number for the balloon I wanted. *Stella didn't get the "Over the Hill" balloon, but did get one that said "Happy Birthday from All of Us." And that was the good one.

Go to the grocery store to pick up the cakes that Stella and Isaac personally picked out (Isaac got his third choice due to the store not having the cakes he chose from their book) just to discover while checking out they spelled Isaac's name wrong. And later to find out they gave him white cake, not chocolate like he ordered (and was so excited to eat.) Good thing he's only three with a less than perfect memory, and good thing he can't spell his own name yet.

It's Isaac, not Issac.

Couldn't find birthday party hats anywhere!

My mixer broke while whipping up frosting.

Forgot to serve the ice cream bars to the kids.

Piñata malfunctioned. It didn't open like tag directed. Thank goodness an 11 year old was at the party and was able to punch the heck out of it to get it open.

I learned that at the end of the day none of this really mattered. The kids had a fun birthday and didn't realize anything went wrong.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Babies!

Christmases in Nebraska

December 23

Christmas at the Wright house

Decorating sugar cookies. All the cousins and a few moms participate in the decorating.

Ending the night in the "round-n-round."

December 24

Family portrait. (Yep. This was the best one we got.)

The cousins.

Spreading out reindeer food.

December 25

Santa came!

Christmas Day at Great Grandma Porter's house.

Carson called this the "man's table."

Great Uncle Kent and Isaac

Grandma Porter and her grandkids

December 26

Christmas at the Pattersons

Stella finally gave uncle Klay a hug.

Stella kisses cousin Will

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Activities

The days leading up to Christmas the kids went to see Santa a few times. Notice Stella isn't in a single picture with Santa. She's terrified. I took the kids to the mall to ride the train and we went to look at Christmas lights in various neighborhoods.

We celebrated "our" family Christmas the morning of December 23. Daddy had been gone for a week. He arrived home late on the 22nd so the kids were excited to see him when they woke, and they finally got to open their Christmas presents Thursday morning. We left for Nebraska by 1 pm that day so we could have Christmas with extended families throughout the weekend. We drove right into an ice storm in Nebraska and witnessed several vehicles and large trucks in the ditches. We were going only 30 mph on the Interstate in Nebraska (usually drive 80 mph.) We were one of the lucky ones to have made it to our destination safely.

Here's a peek of "our" family Christmas.