Willow birthday cake pictures!

Sailyr did it again!  She made the cutest birthday cake for Willow.  (and I think its so cute considering this is only her 4th cake)   But I wont lie, this cake took forever to make.  Mostly because she made it one night, and when we tried to bake it - it wouldn't rise or even really bake.  Sailyr realized she had only put one cup of flour in, instead of 3.  We had already tried cooking it twice by the time we figured it out so we had to remake the batter the next day.  So lets just say.... between the mistake with the four, the fondant frosting, and the pink drip..... we were in a little over our heads .  To hide my true frustration with this cake and find the positive I will just say - we learned a lot.  :)

But it turned out so cute for pictures!    

And Sweet Willow was so cute!  Everyone was lined up on the couch in my studio watching her eat her cake - that is why she keeps looking over to the side.

Devin tried to dig into the cake for her so she would eat more than just the frosting.... and she did not like that one bit.  She just started crying when the cake touched her leg.  :)

I kind of think crying babies during cake smash pictures are the cutest - so I was not too sad when she started screaming.   We just took her upstairs and gave her a piece in her high chair.  Then she cheered up a little!

 

 

Willow opening birthday presents

No sleeping in at our house when there is a birthday!

I could hear the older 3 girls up and about at around 7am - and from the sounds of it, they were getting ready for Willow's birthday.    The night before Sailyr and I had worked on Willows cake from about 5pm - 9:30pm.  (these cakes are no joke - I had no idea how much work a real cake was)

Around 8 the kids came into my room begging me to bring Willow in, we could kind of hear her talking in her crib.  So Devin and I got out of bed, while the kids ran to hide in the living room.  I walked in Willows room, where she was innocently sitting in her crib with her binky - oblivious to what kind of day lay ahead of her.  :)

We walked into the living room, where the kids jumped out from behind furniture and yelled "Surprise!"  Then our alexa started playing the happy birthday song.  :)  The kids also had all their birthday gifts wrapped and waiting.  :)

Devin and I tried to hold the kids off, and tell them to wait for a little bit before we open gifts.  But they just COULD NOT wait.   So we let Willow open up Fin's gift......  Willow looks so sleepy and confused in these pictures.  And she is, she literally just woke up.

Fin made her this little "kitty"  its a box with pompoms hot glued to it, with eyes, a nose, feet and a tail.  :)  I LOVE fin's homemade gifts.

So we waited a little bit...... you know, a whole 10 minutes.  Then Sailyr dressed Willow up in a 1 year old outfit, and we put the kids out of their misery and just let Willow open up all the other gifts.  :)

I'm pretty sure little Willow's birthday will always be quite the special day with these 3 as big sisters! 

 We gave her a singing tea set.  Grandma Lois sent money for some new clothes.  Grandma and Grandpa Englestead gave her the mickey car for outside this summer.  And Grandma Farnsworth and Great grandma carter sent her birthday cards with money.  

And we opened it all before 8:15am.

:)  It felt a little like Christmas morning. :)

Ice palace for Willow's birthday

Yesterday evening we went to the ice palace again to do something fun for Willow's birthday.  Sailyr's friend Anna came with us.  I looked at this picture of us and told Devin this is what our family will look like in a few years when we have out 5th baby girl.   :)    And I must include that Willow is wearing the same snow suit that she has wore every time we are out in the cold.  And its a size 3 month - and it still fits her!  :)  She is tiny.

Needless to say - this probably wasn't much fun for Willow.  But she was pretty content in her stroller all bundled up.   But the rest of us had lots of fun.  The ice palace has changed so much since we were there in December.  They were right - the ice grows all winter long, and this time their was a 2nd story that you could walk around.  There was also a yeti (snow monster) who ran around up above everyone - and hid from us, or waved to kids.  Finley and Indie could have watched him all night.  Especially Indie - she was a little bit scared of it.  And the whole time she kept her eye on it,   one time it came right above us and it waved to her.  So after that I think she thought it was a a little more okay.   Below is the girls looking at it.... I think it was hiding behind something and peeking out at them, because I cant see it in the picture.   But it was there somewhere.

 

 

Walking the 2nd level.  You go up stares and can walk around the top of the whole ice palace.  It is actually really beautiful!

 And Sailyr and Anna.  These two ran around all evening together.  They had a lot of fun!  The kids also went sledding at their sledding hill for about 30 min.  Maybe in a few years we can do this for Willow's birthday again, and she will be able to enjoy it more than just riding in the stroller.  :)

Sugar rush and PTC for Sai and Fin

 

Indie and her soda addiction.  And one of the kids handed Willow the last piece of a pie that she was reaching for on the counter.  I walked in and she was eating it by the handfuls as quickly as she could.  She almost at the whole piece.  I was afraid she would have a tummy ache after that - but it didn't seem to phase her.    :)

Yesterday we had parent teacher conferences with Sailyr and Fin's teachers.

 

Sailyr is doing great!  In her class there is the A-list students, who are the average -right on track students.  And there are the B-list students.  They are the more advanced students, who are doing just a bit harder school work and testing with harder tests.  He said that on paper she should be with the b-list kids.  But emotionally he is not sure she is ready for it.  But he told us to think about it and talk to her about it.  Devin and I think the teacher hit it right on the head.  So I don't know if we will push her into the B- list unless she wants to be there.  But she is a smart cookie.  He said she is a doodler, and he has to remind her to quit drawing during class time.  :)  But he thinks that is because she is enough ahead of the A-list kids that she gets bored. 

 

Finley's teachers just gushed over her.  She has come so SO far this year.  I'm sure it had something to do with the schools shutting down last march, but at the beginning of the year her test scores were pretty low, and now she is above level in reading and math.  So on paper it looks like she jumped from about kindergarten level to 3rd grade level in less than one school year.   She is a really fast reader - at an average of 115 words a minute.   Devin asked how her behavior in class was and both teachers almost cut him off mid sentence and said she is perfect in class, and she has some really good friends in her class too.  :)

These little smarty pants!

In denial part 8

A couple of days ago Devin was feeding Willow some ramen noodles.  It was so cute!  I pulled out my camera to get a few pics.   He was giving her long noodles and she was slurping them.  The older girls and I were all crowded around watching her, it was so cute!

 

Her bottom little tooth has finally came in, I can feel the other one next to it trying to come in, but it hasn't broken through yet.  She has been pretty happy considering .... just lots of drool and runny nose.

In denial part 7

One week away from turning one and she stands up to furniture by herself!!!   She did it!!!  Devin went in to get her from her nap this afternoon and found her standing up to her crib.    

So this evening we lowered her crib mattress so that she won't fall out now that she can stand.  

While devin worked on it Willow just played with her baby doll and crib.  She is so cute!  

And here we are, no falling out of this crib now!   The funny thing is, I think we lowered the other girls crib when they were like 8 or 9 months old.  But willow made it to her 1st birthday with her crib set up for a newborn.  😄

 

Fin winter basketball

 Fin's basketball games at in full force.  Winter time means rigby league,  so its much easier and quicker getting to her games than it was in the fall when we had to drive into idaho falls.  

What will I do with teenagers when we have to drive to another town to play games??  😫😩😫  (sounds horrible) 

But she did great!  And they won 24 to 4.  They are so cute to watch!  Its fun watching them run plays.