How Quickly They Grow!

Wow, it was just a few days ago I was posting Jasmin's first words.  She has already added words to her vocabulary.  A few days ago she added: no no no (can you guess she has been exploring and been told no a lot lately?)  and bye bye (sounds more like b b b).   Then just yesterday she said "I'm done." (m dun).
And she has stared to shake her hand when she is saying no no.   She also uses the "more" sign correctly when she wants more food or to do something again!
Oh my goodness, she is sure taking off with this talking thing.  She is learning quickly.
Jasmin will not eat "baby food" anymore.  She will just refuse if the texture is mush and/or if I try to feed her.  She has to do it by herself and it has to be more solid food.  (She only has her two bottom teeth.)  So the last few days I have spent my meal time chopping up food into very small bites.  We had spaghetti last night.  I will have to post pictures soon. 
She has decided to mostly crawl over the last 2 days, but she still army crawls a bit.  
She is so interactive and fun!  I will try to keep you posted if I can keep up with her and Kenya!

Another communicator in the family!

Tonight Jasmin woke up from a late nap and was/is talking up a storm.   She started off with a "g" sounds and I had not idea what she was talking about.  It was very intentional and she was focused on the cat when saying it.  After quite a few minutes she moved onto other sounds.  Then she began looking around.  She was calling for Kenya who is asleep in bed.  Once we recognized that she was calling and looking for Kenya I told her that Kenya was in bed and she seemed very content.  She quieted down and then began to focus again on This.  Then Robert asked her if she was telling the kitty to "get it" and she said "yeah."  So we then went over to the cat tree and throw a hair tie for This and Jasmin was ecstatic.  There has been more than one occasion when she says "yeah" but we were not certain that she knew what it meant.  I am convinced now that she knows what she is saying.  She is really picking up on this talking thing and advancing rather quickly.  She also signs "all done" with her hands when she is finished eating.  Sometimes, she uses the "more" sign too! 
She now says or has specific sounds for these words:
Kitty, kah, or iddy
Kenya- K-yuh, or enya
Mama- ma, mom
Dada- gada
Get it-sounds just like the letter "g" I have heard get at least once
yeah- YEAH

I gotta love my girls! 

Sister too!

So in the last 2 weeks or so we have decided that Jasmin has said her first few words.  For sure she says kitty.  "iddy" or "k k"  Also last week she started identifying Kenya.  "nya nya"  Then on Sunday she was saying both mama and da da, but we are not sure if she was identifying Robert and I.   We will try to get some updated videos of the Jasmin in all that she is doing soon. 

Birthday party

So, Kenya loves baking, cooking and creating things.  So she basically got to make her own cake, with supervision of course.  I could not get out of her what she wanted for her birthday theme so it kind of became all about herself.  When I would ask her about what she wanted her birthday cake to be all she would tell me is that she wanted a blue cake.  I thought, uh okay, what do I do with that?  So after a week or so of that I probed her little brain and asked her what shape she wanted it and what she wanted on the cake.  It became a blue circle cake with a picture of her on it.  WHAT!?  How was I going to do that?  Then I asked her what she wanted it to taste like and she answered caramel.  (We think she said caramel because we tell her that Robert is chocolate and that I am vanilla and Jasmin and her are caramel.)  Who has ever made a caramel cake?  I was able to find one that was yummy, but it sure was hard to make! It was the first time in my life where I had to start over.  It was tricky because there was carmel in the cake, for the filling and in the frosting.  I had to start the caramel for the frosting over 5 times. 

 Well, the when we were decorating it the day of I just decided to let her take the reigns and create whatever she wanted.  Sure enough we ended up with a blue and pink cake with a picture of her on it.  It definitely was not the pretty cake, but she created it!

Drawing a picture of herself on the cake.

Adding more to decorations to the cake.

The final cake.  It was yummy!

Kenya's  birthday party was a hit.  We had a lot of fun and I think most everyone that came had fun too.  Her party didn't really have a theme, but friends, food, fun and games made it amazing!
So for her party I made up a list of games and we played them.  We even did a treasure hunt.  A few games got dropped off of the agenda because of lack of interest or interest in something else going on.  Some games went better than other, but can I say it enough, we had a great time! 

Here she is all dressed and ready for her 3rd birthday party!  Isn't she gorgeous?

Kenya and her friend waiting for the party to get started.   Kenya was so excited all day she kept asking when her party was going to start.  I loved seeing her excited and giddy about the whole thing!

We held the first half of the party outside playing games and eating snacks!  Games like London Bridges (as Kenya use to call it "Under the Bridges) and Red Rover.  Oh the memories this brought back.

I don't think Kenya is going to have many parties outside like this.  With an early march birthday it was not something we were expecting. 

Here is the treasure hunt map.  I had to draw it and so I was the only one that read it.  It definitely shows off how inartistic I am.

This is on the treasure hunt. 

More treasure hunt.  At each clue there was an activity.  This one was blowing bubbles.

Another treasure hunt activity.  Rides in a sled.

Hokey Pokey during treasure hunt.

Enjoying the balloons inside!

You cannot have a birthday post without the singing of happy birthday.     

 

Kenya lifting one of her giant presents. 

It was a wondering party for a wonderful girl.  We love Kenya so much and have been blessed for the last 3 years to have her in our lives.  Not a day goes by that I don't think how proud she makes me.  She is so smart and never ceases to amaze me by the things she learns and what a loving sister and person she is.  She cares for others and loves to help out.  She is so good 90% of the time the other 10% of the time I have to remind myself that she is just barely 3 years old.

Happy 3rd birthday Kenya!

This birthday was a hit!  She woke up like usual and came into our bedroom where she told us it was her birthday and then snuggled Daddy for a little bit.  It was so sweet!  Then we started her amazing 3rd birthday.  It started with a treasure hunt to find her birthday present.  Her treasure hunt was doing things to get her ready for the day because it was a fun way to get her ready, find her present and get out the door to breakfast.  As seen in the pictures and videos,
#1 was go potty.  That is the picture that Daddy gave her first.

#2 was get dressed and she found this picture on the toilet paper.

#3 was a cupcake.  What better way for a 3 year old to start her birthday than eat a cupcake! (Yeah, we rock!)


#4 was get your hair done.
#5 was get your shoes and socks on.
#6 was get your coat on
#7 and the present was in the garage.  (Yeah my drawing was horrible and she didn't really get that one.  We had to help her.
When she found it she was excited, but didn't really know what to do.  

After the treasure hunt we came and got Jasmin up and we all get ready and out the door to go to breakfast.  Kenya told me the night before that she wanted hash-browns and that is what she got.  On the way there she got to ride in Daddy's car an she LOVES that!  We had a good breakfast and daddy went off to work.  Kenya and I then shopped for prizes and things for her birthday party. 

Kenya's birthday breakfast at Cedric's.

Jasmin is so cute!  Look at those pointy ears!

 After nap we went outside on a wonderful day and played!  The girls and I had a great time playing outside in the sun shine. 

Kenya and her new bike!  We played outside for at least an hour!  I think she is glued to this thing.

While outside we also played with the sidewalk chalk left over from last spring.

For dinner we met Daddy at Chick-fil-a because he had to go to class that night and would not have gotten to see her otherwise.  Chick-fil-a was doing a family night and they had free ice cream and free face painting.  They also have a play place, so I saw a no loose situation.  His girl was amazing at painting faces!  (Oh yeah, the crown she got on Sunday at church and I let her wear it everywhere we went today.)  Kenya got an elaborate rainbow and unicorn painted on her face! Amazing. 

One side of the rainbow

Unicorn side.   The lady even put a pink "K" right next to her eye for Kenya.

front view.

They even pained grown ups faces too.  I got a Gerber daisy.

She loved this cow.  We have eaten there a few times before and we had seen the regular cow, but this one was a girl and Kenya LOVED her!  She followed her around and kept telling the cow that she was gorgeous. What a wonderful little girl we have been blessed with!

 When we got home from see Daddy and having dinner Kenya wanted to take a bath.  So to make it special she got to have glow sticks and the lights off.  We have done this before, but it still made things a little special.  When I was taking her out of the bath she started to cry and said, "I don't want to go to bed because then my birthday will be over."  That is right and that is the way everyone should feel on their birthday.  Your day should be so good that you don't want it to end!  That is how I know I did a good job of making her birthday special.  However, I then proceeded to tell her about her party in 2 more days and she was okay with that. 

 After we were ready for bed Kenya got to talk to a bunch of family on skype and over the phone.  It was a great day and I am proud of my 3 year old!

CREATIVE DRAPERS

Here are some of the things we have done to keep busy lately. 

Kenya thought it was "nice" to give Jasmin so many toys to choose from.  Wow, what a mess it made.  But she is good at helping clean up! 

 

Playing with "goo"

One day we decided to play.  I looked up a recipe and it was just cornstarch and water.  I added the food coloring to make it a little more interesting.  We did red/pink and blue and then mixed it after a while of playing with it and made purple.  This stuff was awesome.  Kenya played with it for almost 2 straight hours and I played with it for about 1 hour of that time off and on.  It reminds me kind of like quick sand.  If you slowly push on it you it is like a liquid and your figure goes right into it.  If you hit it quickly it is like a solid.  It would slowly dip out of our hands.  Kenya played with it so much that I had to add water to it 2 different times.  It was a fun and she learned a lot about water and making things liquid and solid and also mixing colors. 

She did not mind one bit getting messy.

These next pictures are what we have done this week to get ready for Kenya's birthday party.  Her birthday is Wed and her party is on Sat.  We made a pull string pinata for her birthday.  I asked her what she wanted it to look like and she said she wanted it to look like her.  So, then I let her design the whole thing.  She told me she wanted it to be a rectangle and that she wanted to draw on it with canyons.  She did it all by herself.  She even wrote her name on it by herself.

Just getting started with the project. 

"painting her figure nails"  she loves to have her hand traced and then color in the figure nails like she is painting them.

Demonstrating how it works.  So, there are 12 stings and 11 of those strings will just come right out and 1 will open the trap door.  It is really quite cool. 

Just a picture of Jasmin army crawling around trying to find a way to "help"

Look at that cute face!  She is amazing!

This is Kenya's self portrait.  The big circle on top is her head.  She then made 2 giant eyes, the red circles.  The small red dot IN the middle of her eyes is her nose.  The pink, her lip, the other circle is her body and her green legs come out of the bottom.  And yes, those are her arms coming out of her head.  The black scribbles on the left side I think was Jasmin. 

Can you find her name?  It is vertical.  

Each week we try to be make a craft and bake/cook something.  It is away to be creative and explore new things.  We really enjoy the structured time working together too.  Hopefully we will have many more success. 

This is just a video to show how big Jasmin is getting.  She pulls up on furniture and has already learned how to fall safely. 

Daddy Daughter Day

Returning from their date!  They are so cute!

We declare March 3rd as Daddy Daughter Day in our family.
After doing some soul searching of how to handle the 1 year mark of the death of my father I found it. As I was in the temple today I had a wonderful discovery of how to honor my dad!  It will be through celebrating the relationship I had with him.
Here is how we will celebrate it:
I will attend the temple each year that it is possible to honor my relationship with both my Father in Heaven and my Father here on earth, Donal James Evans.  This is the place that I can be closest to both of them.  I know it is a place where they both want to me to be.  It is because of both of my fathers that I am the person I am today.  I want to continue to make them proud!  The temple is after all the place in which my family started and the only place where my relationship with my earthly father can and was made eternal.  If you want more information on this read this document or just ask me.
Robert and our daughter will have a special date!  That is where Kenya and Daddy are right now.  They went for ice cream. 

I love both of my Fathers and I am so greatful for all that they have and will continue to do for me.  It was a great day!  There are many more to come too!

Happy Valentines Day!

We started our Valentines yesterday by having friends over and making treats.  We did not get around to making Christmas goodie plates for our friends and so we decided to do it for Valentines Day instead.   Then for Family Home Evening we delivered them to our friends.  Kenya LOVES to give presents to others.  When I asked her yesterday what we should get Daddy for Valentines she told me she was going to wrap me up and that I could be Daddy's present. 

She is holding a heart shaped PB&J and can you see the heart in her hair?

 So today I tried to make it a little special for the girls.  Kenya got some jewelry for her Valentines gift first thing in the morning.  When she opened her gift she told me, "When I grow up and am a caramel mommy I want to get you a Valentine."  She is so sweet.  I fixed Kenya's hair with a heart in it.  Then after nap we had heart shaped PB & J sandwich.  We then went to a kids Valentines party and decorated a cookie.  Then we headed to get Daddy a Valentine and then delivered it to him at work.  Then more fun at a friends house making cookies.  I got a heart shaped pizza for dinner and we ate that and watched Charlie Brown Valentine.   It was a nice Valentines.  Kenya really enjoyed the heart theme through out the day.  When I asked her if she knew why we celebrated Valentines she told me because of Jesus.  I told her yeah, that is right because Jesus is love and that is what we are celebrating today, LOVE!  She told me, "Yeah, and Jesus is real."  Yep, he sure is!  Later she told Robert that we were Valentines is celebrating Jesus because he loves us and he IS love!  Children truly do know Jesus and understand so much more than I ever will!

These other pictures are from the other day when Kenya and Daddy were playing with the bubbles in the bath.  Thanks, aunt Christine for the giant thing of bubbles at Christmas time.  Kenya truly loves them. 

Weekend in Utah

So on the last weekend in January we went to Utah and visited family and some friends. We really had a great time!  We are bummed because we didn't get a picture of us with the Loera's.  Next time we will. 

My wonderful Aunt Chih!

I love you!

Part of Josh spoiling us was going to the circus.  Kenya and Aly loved it!  They had so much fun! I am sure Kenya would have done much better if we would have gotten in a nap before the show.  During the intermission Kenya almost fell asleep on Daddy while they were down walking around and looking at all of the animals.  Jasmin however could not stay awake.  She fell asleep shortly after it began and took over an hour nap.  She did wake up to see most of the second half. 
Here are some of the acts. 

Tight rope walkers.  One of the guys fell a couple of times, but still amazing!

People had their picture taken with this bear and there was a plastic wall between the people and the bear.  Oh the things people will spend their money on. 

Balancing a sword on  a knife his is holding with is mouth.  Oh yeah and the fire on top.

We loved it!  Thanks again Josh! 

January Pictures

 I took the pictures off of my new camera and there they are.

This is at the beginning of the year.  Kenya put these scraps of fabric on everyone and said they were hats. 

 This is a project that Kenya made for her room.  I hot glued the crayons to the canvas and then she melted them.  We hung it up in her room.

 These are the quilts my mom made the girls for Christmas.  I love the colors that she chose!  Both of the girls love the quilts.   Kenya uses hers almost every night and I set Jasmin on her to play.  Jasmin loves all the colors and patterns to look at.  Great job, Mom!

Kenya's

Jasmin's

 Last weekend we went to visit family and friends in Utah.  We had a blast.  We got to visit so much family  and my brother Josh spoiled us while we were down there!

Kenya, Alyxana, and Jasmin

 Josh took us to Golden Coral and the girls played with the chocolate from the chocolate fountain.  They were "painting' with it.

Kenya and her painted face.

More to come on our weekend.