Moving

Admit it,

you are worried,

or excited

or just plain curious.

I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

It isn't us. The Husband's sushi loving cousin M and wife are moving to our neck of the woods at the beginning of September. (Actually only about 3 blocks away from us.) We are very excited! Cousin M came and stayed with us last week so he could find just the right place to live. It was fun having him. The girls loved Cousin M and Smiley enjoyed being held by someone, when I couldn't hold him.

Now the Husband won't have to drive forever away to get his sushi fix with his sushi buddy. We will also have another couple to do game night with. (We recently had a game night with our newish next door neighbors and realized that we have really missed having game nights.) It will be so nice having a bit of family so close. I just hope we don't terrify them with our kidlets, they don't have kids themselves yet. We'll have to let them see the kids in small doses until we are sure they won't decide never to have children. Because I am pretty sure my three kidlets, for an extended period of time, is a great form of birth control.

Growing Up

My Smiley is no longer a newborn :( 

He is a full grown baby now.

Smiley 3 months old
Look what he can do

He is finding his hands a lot now

He also rolled from his back to his stomach last week. He was arching his back and trying to push his face into the floor, because he was upset. He hasn't done it again thank goodness. My baby is already growing up. Sigh.

Lulu's 4th Birthday!

Lulu made it to her 4th birthday on the 10th. I know it has taken me a few weeks to get it posted, but we have been doing stuff. I actually remembered to take a picture of her with her haul. I like to be able to look back and remember when she got stuff and who it came from. We got her 2 pair of shorts, a t-shirt, a zip up hoodie, a dress and a fishing pole. Her grandma K got her the letter, number toy. She was so excited about the "fishing cole" so she can go fishing with daddy. Unfortunately it was already broken, so we gave it to her and then promptly took it away, so we can return it and get her a different one. She was less than impressed, but able to distract herself with her letters and numbers toy.

I tried something new for her cake.

I found a really fun rainbow cupcake recipe and instead of doing 24 cupcakes, i did 12 cupcakes and a double layer cake the size of a loaf of bread. The colors were so vibrant and it was pretty darn tasty. I even made real frosting which was extremely yummy too.

My attempt at photography

I have a new found respect for food bloggers

and their awesome food photography skills.

(I am also hungry for these cupcakes again)

Since their birthdays are only 10 days apart I got them both

in their birthday outfits and tired to get them to smile at me.

Sticky 2      Lulu 4

Chopsticks

During the family reunion the Husband gave me a much needed break by taking the girls for a few hours so I could hang out with the family and just Smiley. He and cousin M took the girls into town to check it out and of course go to a sushi restaurant.
Isn't that the thing to do when you go camping? If you know the Husband and cousin M, then this is actually extremely normal. The Husband once drove 8 hours round trip, just so he could go out to sushi with cousin M at a particular restaurant.
I do not like sushi, so the Husband has to get his fix when he can.
At the restaurant, Lulu grabbed a set of chopsticks, picked up a roll of sushi with them, and popped it in her mouth. (I think it came right back out as she wasn't impressed with it.) What was impressive was that fact that it was the first time she had ever held a pair of chopsticks. The Husband and cousin M were both shocked and told me about it the minute they came back. I was impressed, but figured it was a fluke.
Well, we went out for thai food recently, (by the way we have found a thai food buffet that is totally nifty) and I gave her some chopsticks to see if she could do it again. To my amazement, she did, multiple times. She uses them a bit odd. She uses both hands on the chopsticks to pick the item up and then transfers them into one hand and pops it in her mouth. She did it way fast, so I had a hard time getting pictures. The kid just barely turned 4!

Just for posterity I will mention that we went to this restaurant a second time and she would only use the chopsticks as drumsticks and hitting implements and they were promptly taken away from her. She is talented, but still four.