CUTEST. CAKES. EVER!

Brielle wanted a pink princess castle cake... and our friend Heather did the most amazing job! (The princesses themselves didn't last very long on the cake-- since Brielle was so eager to play with them.)

Here are all 3 cakes:

Jolene made the frog cake for Lincoln. Heather made the castle cake for Brielle and the princess crown cake for Karley. It was a "princess & the frog" theme.

Mmmmm.... and they were delicious too!

John & :) stickers

Patience

It's Brielle's birthday today. She turns 3. We are having a family birthday party tonight and also recognizing 2 of her cousins' birthdays: Karley (2 on Feb 19) and Lincoln (2 on March 6). They are each going to have their own cute cake.

She keeps asking "When are my friends coming over?"

Good question

This past weekend I was in San Francisco with Jenny & Mom. We were shopping for Jenny's wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses:). We had a lot of fun, but the one thing missing was Alexia :( who couldn't take time off school.

While I was gone, Brielle asked at dinnertime if she could listen to some Disney music. We use Tim's iPod Touch & hook it up to our kitchen radio- to listen to Disney songs on Pandora. (As heard in that video of John dancing.) Well, I had the iPod Touch with me in San Fran. Tim told Brielle they wouldn't be able to listen to Disney music since "Mom has the iPod Touch."

Brielle then said, "Oh.... is Mommy listening to Disney Music right now?"

Lincoln & John

Look at these 2--- they have so much fun together! They are only 3 months apart in age, with Lincoln being older.

They have been having fun running around in these cowboy boots:

All of these photos came from Aunt Becky. Not only does she take great care of our kids during the work day, but she takes great photos too! :)

Binoculars

It's almost prime Eagle-Watching time at the cottage.

Looks like John is ready :)

Shake it again, Johnny

What's shakin'?

John has been learning some dance moves from his cousins :)

When your only tool is a hammer...

Tonight I heard Tim say to John & Brielle, "No thank you. That's not how you play the guitar. You do not use a hammer."

(Tim said the guitar is fine, might just need a tune-up.)

"tech-y" Brielle

Brielle just said this, "I need to email you someday, Mom."

Here's the story that precedes that statement:

I was working on my computer and had a piece of paper next to me. She picked up the paper and said "This is my email. I need to email you someday, Mom." Then she tucked it away into a box of toys that she was playing with. :)

Winter Fun at the Lake

John loves riding on the ATV with Grandpa Ted! He laughs and laughs as they cruise around:)

It was fun trying to explain to Brielle that under the snow is the frozen lake.

Here is what Brielle says about the above photo:

"There's me with Grandpa. I'm walking on the snow beach because there's no water."

When John hears the garage door open...

this is what he says:

This is how WE go sledding

Brielle in back, John in front- facing backwards :).

This arrangement has been working great for sledding. Brielle is too little to hold John up in her lap. We tried it that way, but John leans back too much and it causes Brielle to fall back. Then you've got 2 kids falling off the back of the sled! So Tim came up with this arrangement, which works for pulling them around the farm and for sending them down the hill at our house.

Speaking of hills, they have already run into their first tree. Had to get a tree collision out the way, right? Thankfully it was a very young tree, the trunk is only a few inches in diameter. And neither the kids nor the tree were hurt.

100%

Doesn't he look tall in this photo? :)

John had his 18 month check-up. He is 100% for height. Tim & I like to guess how tall he might be some day... 6'3"? 6'4"?

John & his spaghetti

There's something cute about a 19 month old slurping up his spaghetti noodles- it makes me smile :)

Shoot it!

Make sure you look at his cheeks in the middle two photos, as he is concentrating on his shot :)

John has fun with his mini-basketball hoop from Jenny. Thanks Jenny!

HELP!

A couple of days ago Brielle came rushing into the kitchen with her puppy "Pebbles". The running footsteps and the concern in her voice told me-- this was an emergency.

"MOM! MOM! HELLP! CAN YOU HELP ME?

PUT THE BATTERIES BACK IN PEBBLE'S BUTT!!"

Pebbles had stopped breathing.

Just a little bit of static

This video is kind of dark, but if you hang in there you'll see it.

"Tim, take a picture of Willa, our friend Willa"

John & Brielle were SO excited that their cousin Willa came over to play for a little while. They made sure she was surrounded by toys :).

And for those who we haven't seen in awhile, yes, Brielle calls her dad by his first name-- she's been doing this for a few months now. My parents said I went through a similar phase, calling them Ted & Carol. Brielle calls me Kristen probably only once a week.

Grandpa Ted's birthday

We celebrated Grandpa Ted's birthday last weekend. Brielle & John worked together to put the candles in the cake... and then they helped blow them out. The clusters of candles created some big flames!