The Birkeland Family Blog

HaPpY BiRtHdAy EmMi 3 years old Emmi's rainbow birthday invitation Emmi turned 3. Deciding the theme of her party seemed to change at any given moment. At first she wanted a pink party, then it went to a purple party, then to an orange party. When I mentioned a rainbow party she thought it was the best idea ever. Isn't it fun when your kid actually thinks you're the hero? She couldn't stop telling everyone that she was going to have a rainbow party. She invited 4 neighbor friends. They all wore their favorite color and we had a little "rainbow" lunch, and all the food had something to do with colors or rainbows. I ordered rainbow bread from a local bakery and made peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and egg salad sandwiches on the request of Emmi. A fruit platter in the shape of a rainbow and just some rainbow snacks. After lunch they took some time to make some bead necklaces with all the colors of the rainbow. For a bunch of 3 year olds I think it went pretty...

This Easter we went to my mom's house and dyed eggs. Ric gets these earthy colored eggs from Castle Valley. The colors end up being awesome. Emmi got her creative hat on and had fun. Of course she kept double dipping her eggs from one color to another, so some of the eggs looked like throw up. I think she may have cracked half of them getting them down into the mug. And a couple of them did roll off the floor onto Grammy's rug. Yes.....the number one reason why we LOVE going to Grammy's to dye eggs. Easter morning we made an awesome pancake, eggs, canadian bacon breakfast. I am just admiring in the picture Emmi's food art. Whipped cream eyes and mouth, and strawberry ears. It's all about the cream for her. She would eat anything if there was cream on it. In fact she did ask for more cream so every bite of her pancake had some cream on it. My kind of girl! Oh....the easter basket. I tell you Easter as a kid for me was by far the funnest holiday. I loved everything a...

These two are absolutely hilarious. Their favorite time of day are mornings playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed. They literally wrestle each other. Sometimes Emmi gets Jack by the neck which ends the game rather quickly, but all in all Jack stays tough and keeps his ground. Jack is getting at such a fun age where he is so interactive and loves to play games. Taking wagon rides is a favorite. Jack all of a sudden just became a big kid and now just gets seatbelted in and gets to share snacks with Emmi. Look at these smiles. They love each other. Sometimes there are competitive moments. You know the tug of war with toys. Jack looks at me crying like, "Mom, save me". Somehow I always side with Jack, and Emmi has to find a new toy. Ahhh.....what big sisters have to go through!

Do you find yourself having to tell yourself "just take a deep breath" I walk out just 8 minutes to be exact to nurse Jack and I come back to find this...... Yes, I did leave out the permanent Sharpie pen, but I wasn't smart enough to really think Emmi would draw all over my walls and windows. I guess I wasn't giving her much credit. When I saw the damage I didn't even know what to do. I just sat there and said, "Emmi, is this for real, really you didn't just do this? "I am going to have to re paint the walls to erase all of this". So innocently Emmi says back, "You have to erase everything? But, it is so cute". I do have to say it was kinda cute because these pictures actually resembled something. On the wall are "E's and M's. And the windows were covered with "happy faces". I am pretty impressed with Emmi's art!!!!!! I think every day since this happened Emmi asks either Brian or me, "Dad, Mom...

I wake up at the butt crack of dawn. Creep quietly through the house not to wake a soul to get ready for my 12 hour shift. The house is spotless. The floors are swept, dishes done, toys put away, left overs in the fridge for quick meals, clothing layed out. PERFECT!!! I call home and everything is going PERFECT!!! Jack is down for a nap. Emmi and Brian are baking cookies. Emmi is super helper and her main concern is when she can put the sprinkles on. I get off the phone and cannot help but to have a bit of jealously over come me. My mornings never go this smoothly. I ask myself over and over what in the crap is wrong with me? So, cookies are baked, Emmi is lounging watching a good ol' Dora or something to that matter. I call home again and here is the conversation. "Oh, we baked cookies......went outside and swang on the swing for sometime. Jack got up. He ate great for me. Oatmeal and pears and about 5 oz of milk. We are going to head up to my mom's for a while and play...

Jack is 8 months old now, and he has been eating solids for a good 2 months now. I always dread the day of solids just because it is just so much work, mess, and time. When Emmi started to eat I didn't have the slightest clue of how to introduce solids. A friend of mine recommended a book "Super Baby Foods" and it has been the best resource for knowing what to feed your baby and when. So, here we are again cooking yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans and blending them up and storing it all in ice cube trays. It really ends up being fast, healthy, and cost effective. Jack won't even touch a store bought can of baby food. He spits it right out. Brian was getting ticked one day at Costco when Jack spit out his bottled squash, and refused to open his mouth for a second bite. He decided to try a spoonful to see what his problem was. Brian got the full body chills. DISGUSTING!!! Never again will we torture him with that stuff again. Jacks favorite meals.....yams and ...

For family night.....we ditched Jack. Lame I know, but it's always harder doing any type of activity with a baby. So, he got to stay back with Grammy Jill and give her a hard time. Which he did. Details to follow. We planned a Temple Square evening with the Wilson Family. It was by far Emmi's highlight of the entire year. We first went and ate dinner at Eat-a-Burger, then we drove to the TRAX station to catch the train. You should have seen the excitement on little Emmi's face. Holy cow priceless. Riding a true live train. It didn't get any better. She listened and watched everything. Her favorite was hearing the lady's voice over loud speaker announce the stops. She made everyone stop talking so we could hear the "conductor". Brian and I didn't have the heart to tell her it was a recording and not the conductor. When it was time to get off the train it was a pure meltdown. She wasn't ready!!! The only way to get her off was to tell her we could ge...