Happy Birthday to Our Little Princess

Brielle turned three this year.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.

Brielle spent a lot of time dreaming up her birthday party.  We went through quite a few themes:  Cinderella, Belle, Rapunzel, Aurora, Dora, Mermaid, etc.  Since the majority of themes had to do with princesses, we decided on a princess party.  Luckily Ermie came early so Mommy could feel up to doing a party!  It was small, since Emrie was so little, but we had a great time.  We invited her friends to dress up as their favorite princesses.  Luckily, Tati gave her Snow White and Cinderella princess dresses for her birthday that she could choose from.    We had Snow White apples and dip, Cheese and Crackers for Cinderella's mice, candy necklaces, pink punch, and a Cinderella Doll Cake. We are in full-blown princess mania at our house, so it was the perfect party for her.  Here are some pictures from Brielle's special day:

 A Cinderella doll cake.  It was Mom's first attempt.

She was so excited about her Princess Candy Land game from Grandpa and Grandma Herbst!

Dressed up as Cinderella

Eating snacks with her Princess friends.

Brielle is such a big girl now!  She loves to eat apples, cheese, mangoes, spaghetti, macaroni, and shrimp.  She has gained quite the vocabulary and uses big words like gigantic, scepter (thanks Tinkerbell!), and fragile.  She is a big help with her baby sister and loves to give her hugs and kisses.  Her favorite princess is Cinderella.  She brings so much spice to our life, and we love our little firecracker!  Happy Birthday B!

Introducing...

Emrie Jayne Herbst

 

 

 

Emrie was scheduled to arrive on September 21 by c-section, but she decided to take matters into her own hands on Monday, September 17.  I started having contractions around 4 a.m.  By 9:30, we were on our way to the hospital.  My mom was scheduled to fly in on Monday night, so we had a family friend take Brielle for the day.  We got in the operating room for my c-section at 1:30, and at 1:59, Emrie Jayne was born.  She weighed 6 lbs. 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

 

This c-section was much less scary than the one I had with Brielle.  I knew more what to expect, and the pain of recovery hasn't been as bad.  Yay!  Brielle LOVES her new baby sister.  Her favorite activity is holding the baby.  Whenever Emrie cries, Brielle is right there, wanting to know "What's wrong wif her?"  She loves to try and get Emrie to take her binky, which Emrie hates (the binky, I mean).

Brielle with her new baby sister in the hospital

First Family Photo

Brielle loves her baby!

 

Hot Cha

When my brother came to town for a weekend, we took him to our favorite "take guests out to dinner" restaurant - Boudins.  SO yummy - seriously.  While we were there, Brielle insisted that she wanted to try the ketchup on the table, which was really Tobasco sauce.  No amount of talking would convince her that it wasn't ketchup.  So we gave up and let her have a taste.  Her reaction was priceless:

Salsa Time

When we got home from our Utah trip, we went directly to the garden to see how our tomatoes had fared in our absence.  They had exploded!  We had buckets and buckets of tomatoes.  Ok, we were using little buckets.  But they did fill our whole kitchen sink:

 

Time to make salsa!  We don't have canning equipment and we tend to go through salsa pretty quickly, so we make freezer salsa.  Our batch from last year was pretty good, but I wanted something better.  So we used this recipe that I found online, added corn and black beans, and we LOVE it.  I highly recommend.  We now have a freezer full of salsa, so if you are ever in need, stop on by!

On the Road Again

At the end of July, we took a trip to Utah and Idaho for my brother's college graduation.  This was our last big trip before the baby, and it coincided with our 5 year anniversary, so we decided to make it good.  We flew to Utah, drove up to Idaho for the graduation, drove back to Utah, left Brielle with my parents for a couple of days while we drove to Cedar City to enjoy the Shakespearean Festival, and then flew home.  Whew!  We were pooped by the end of that trip!  But it was great to see all the family.  We even got a visit in with Mark's grandparents.  Mark's grandma Herbst was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago, and it's been a rough go for her.  She has a great attitude, and seemed to be doing well when we saw her.  She is such a trooper.

We also got to visit with all of my mom's side of the family.  We haven't been able to do that for quite some time, and I loved visiting with everyone.  We pulled out old home movies from when my mom was growing up, and it was awesome.  I had never seen some of them before.  I loved seeing my mom as a little girl, running around, being crazy.  It's a side that you don't get to see of your parents very often.

The Shakespearean Festival was awesome!  I had been in the fall, of course, as a student, but never in the summer.  We saw a production of Les Miserables, which neither of us had ever seen before.  It was a great production, and the cast was wonderful.  The best part about going to a play at the Utah Shakespear Festival is that the theaters are small, so you never have a bad seat.  It makes the experience so much better.  I'm so glad that I have a husband that will go on adventures with me and take in the arts.  Thanks for 5 great years, Mark!   Looking forward to many more.

Brielle loved spending time with Pop and Tati while we were gone.  And they SPOILED her something feirce!  Its what grandparents do, right?  They took her to see a production of Sleeping Beauty, which she LOVED.  She had her picture taked with all of the cast - except for Prince Philip.  For some reason, she wanted nothing to do with him.  She was intrigued by Malificent.  She told me later, "Mom, Malificent was mean inside, but nice outside."  She also got to stay up late, go swimming, and play to her little heart's content.  I think she wants to move in...

Reading the safety information before take-off

Playing with her Belle - an early birthday present from Aunt Merri.

Showing Papa how the Netflix app works on Daddy's phone.

Making silly faces with Uncle Cade.

Happy 4th of July!

We kept our 4th of July celebrations pretty low key this year.  Mark took us to buy some home fireworks, which we lit off the night before and the night after.  The day of the 4th, we invited our friends, the Hickmans over for BBQ and then headed to the state capitol to watch the fireworks on the river.

Brielle with her friends at the capitol building

Enjoying her water and the fireworks

Happy Independence Day!

A Horse Named Sassy

Mark has a co-worker that trains cutting horses.  He's been inviting us to bring Brielle out forever, and we finally got the opportunity to take her out to see the horses.  She loved them - and the dogs.  The dogs were well-trained, and she spent forever playing fetch with them.  She would throw the ball and squeal with delight when they would chase after it.  She finally wandered over to the horses, where she got to sit on a horse named Sassy.  She liked that name.  I think because it matches her personality...  :)