The Birkeland Family Blog

I am back in the blogging world. I am going to take extra effort to take more pictures and to take more time for my mommy journal this year. CHEERS 2011

I'm not sure when it all happened, but one day I awakend and realized I was in love. Yep, in love with the little Jack in the Box. Jack, with his variety of expressions, his quickness to capture anything that is going on, and his insistence to climb and explore, has inspired me to capture as much of him on film as I can. Grammy's little love in the sink for a quick clean up The most awesome pictures of Jack is usually when he is wearing diaper. [ Doodles by Grammy Jill

Through thick and thin, sun or storm, ups and downs, Emmi is Grammy’s girl. From out of the hatch, I bonded with my little Rooni Toons like birds of a feather. One day, Emmi and I were checking out groceries and a girl in line looked at her and said, "Hmmm, she has chocolate eyes and caramel hair. If you ask Emmi what color are her eyes, she will say, "Brown". But if you ask me....I will not hesitate to proclaim her beautiful chocolate eyes. And, I never will stop at that. I will continue to comment (never to proud to gloat) over her curly silken caramel hair. Doodles by Grammy Jill

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!