Keifer with 2 of the main men in her life: Daddy & Papa Dale!
Do you know what month it is? It's Keifer Lynn's birthday month! It was her birthday this past Sunday, and we celebrated with family and friends for 4 straight days! Hence, Mama's lack of blogging and sharing ALL THE PICTURES and video clips of our Princess Rock Star birthday girl that we collected.Last Friday, Papa Dale and Nana Dian swapped cars/van with Mama and picked the girls up at daycare. Keifer had been counting down the days until their arrival / pick up day ("Is today tomorrow yet, Daddy?" she asked last Thursday, the day prior to their arrival. Having them pick her up at Elaine's is one of THE BEST things that could ever happen to this young child. Sorry, Nana, but to say she is in LOVE with her Papa Dale is hardly stressing enough just HOW MUCH THIS GIRL LOVES HER PAPA! She literally hangs all over him, as well as jumps all over him, when he is at our house. Cuddles galore, these 2 do.
So Friday night, we celebrated by going to Teresa's for our annual birthday dinner! It was just the 6 of us that night....more pictures to come soon of that! We had so much fun, and Keifer not only was serenade by the staff (no birthday sombrero hat this year, sadly), but she also got free ice cream and THEN on top of that, shared our traditional dessert, the Fried Ice Cream, which she calls "Friday" Ice Cream. We all gobble that up.
Then we went home and Keifer opened a bunch of gifts from Nana and Papa for her birthday.
Here is our girl, upon arrival of her birthday ice cream treat!
Saturday was quite the day. We had a "Rock Star" party for Keifer (another post to come with the details, pictures, cake, and music lists) at our church. We had her Mickey Mouse themed birthday party (ballroom dancing party!) there last year, and we were lucky enough to be able to use our Fellowship Hall once again , for all 15 or so (yes, I said 15 or so) young children to "rock out!". Keifer was as hyped as could be, but she had the best time. Mama did, too, leading all the festivities, and I was exhausted. Saturday night was spent lazing around and visiting with Aunties and cousin Aubrie.
Sunday was K1's actual BIRTH DAY - so after breakfast, we shopped at the Mall with Papa and Nana for new "play" sandals for both girls, and Nana also purchased them dresses for their yearly pictures (which Mama has to schedule). We had lunch at the food court-which is just SO MUCH FUN for K1 - and then drove home, after a sad farewell to Papa & Nana. K1 then had her dance pictures (dress up for 10 minutes for a pictures in the middle of a Sunday afternoon!), then we hit Cub, and then attempted to eat at The Cracker Barrel- Birthday Girl's choice, as she wanted their mac & cheese for dinner.Well, that didn't happen. After waiting for at least 20 minutes to be seated, upon being seated, NOT ONE person greeted us. No waters, no hellos, nada. Nothing. I complained after about 10 minutes to the host. Nothing happened. CJ got heated and complained, and as he was gone complaining, the waitress came rushing up, flustered and apologizing that she didn't know we were "her" table. Didn't matter. At that point, Keifer was under our table, crying she wanted to go eat at Teresa's and Kyla had just pooped her pants, and was crying as well. Lovely time.
So we got in the car, headed back to Teresa's AGAIN, and indulged our birthday girl (it WAS the big day for her), and enjoyed Teresa's. More on pictures of ANOTHER birthday girl soon.
Monday at Elaine's (daycare), Keifer brought the M&M cookies she had picked out at Cub the previous afternoon to share with her friends. Silly Mama forgot the Yogurt sticks she also wanted to bring (geesh, Mama!). She was "Child of the Day", which meant it was HER day to be showered with attention, and get to make all the first choices in each activity. Things that she loves. So of course, she had an amazing day. Elaine gifted her with her traditional book and toy, and the kids celebrated with cookies and ice cream. The pictures of Keifer above are of her wearing the crown Elaine made for her.
Whew. We are a wiped out family. Yes, its' Friday and I'm finally getting to the birthday post. Daddy left town Tuesday for his hometown of Grand Forks, to help with the yearly flood that always seems to occur. He is coming home tomorrow, so in the meantime, not only has Keifer been "coming down" from the 4 day birthday attention, but her routine has been altered by only having one parent be able to shower attention on her and her sibling and 2 fur kids, so times are a little rough at home right now. Let's just say we're working on things. Turning 4 is a BIG DEAL, because now she is a BIG GIRL. A big girl, who SOMETIMES likes to remind me that although she is a big girl, she's also a LITTLE GIRL when it is convenient for her to claim so.
More to come soon: I promise. Great pictures, great friends, great family, and great gifts!
Well, not really. But K2 is trying so darn hard to put her own socks on! The girl pretty much insists upon always having something on her little tootsies- be it shoes or socks (or feet PJ's). 
Here comes that Chef Hat again. It looks good with her new puppy PJ's that Mama scored at a consignment sale. Add in the Buddha belly, and listening to sissy's Ipod, and we've got a character of a girl on our hands! Love this child so!
Meet Kyla's latest obsession: wearing the M&M Backpack. She adores filling it with toys -books, mostly, and some food from the pretend kitchen.
Then, she grabs her Chef Hat and she's off! Sometimes she teeters a bit, as the bag has the potential to get really heavy! But she manages. She's a strong Soupy girl - just like sissy! And yes, she was being a silly girl in the picture below!
I personally love her Buddha belly!
The above girl is not a birthday girl (yet). She was trying to copy the three girls you see below- in posing at our favorite restaurant, Teresa's, on Keifer's actual birthday a few weeks ago. 
The 4 girls became instant best friends, the only kind you can become when you are this age, and all that you know is that moment and that person. The 2 birthday girls loved having a shared birthday, and the younger girls enjoyed finding someone other than their older sister to devote some time to! In fact, the other younger sister, she confidently took Kyla by the hand and led her to the front of the restaurant to watch the fish in the fish tank.
The girls all enjoyed a few minutes watching the beloved fishies in the tank, and we chatted with their mama for a bit about our deliveries 5 and 4 years prior. *sigh*. Ahh, memories! What a fun birthday night for my 4 year old!
What is Papa Dale doing, on this Sunday of Keifer's birthday, with Keifer's assistance? Why, he's working very hard on constructing her new birthday gift! A new Doll house!
By far, Keifer's very favorite Birthday gift this year has been this new dollhouse - MANSION! She has just been getting interested in Barbies, and a few months ago, she commented to me that poor Barbie had grass in her hair, because she didn't fit in the other house we have, and so she had to sleep in the grass! Along the way, there have other small comments about Barbie not fitting in the house and sleeping in her car, etc. etc. so I finally told my mom that Barbie NEEDED a new home, to put Keifer's mind at ease. And I must tell you, her comments were not done out of WANTING a new home- she had no idea a bigger house even existed! If you could've heard the squeals when she opened this house up!! Oye! JOY! Both Keifer and Kyla have had many hours of fun walking their Barbies (and her new Ken from Auntie Barbara) around the house, and Kyla has even let a few Little People join their festivities! 
The completed product- and I have to say, putting up with Papa Dale's swearing and grunting and irritability was worth it all for the 2 hours Sunday AM he put it together, with Keifer's "help" *giggle* 
*HURMPF*
To us, Kyla is still "a baby". She is using lots of one word utterances and gestures and PLENTY of dramatics to communicate with us. It's sometimes hard for people to understand her "Kyla talk", so I typically will translate for her. Lately, she's been combining 2 words here and there, usually to say, "No, ___" or "clean mess". The girl cannot stand a mess- if we spill some drops of milk or she over looks the living room from upstairs (from behind the gate), she'll get agitated about the mess. Takes after her mama in that aspect! LOL
I've noticed that although she's still in 18-24 month, or 24 month, or some 2T clothing, she appears a wee bit taller to me these days. She's a full season or almost a year behind K1 in the clothing department; I was digging out things that K1 wore at 15 months for her to wear this summer! Her shoe is about a 6 1/2 or 7, and depending on the sales person, it may or may not be wide like older sis.
She adores wearing zip up sweatshirts, and insists upon wearing socks if she's barefoot at home, and has a hard time taking her shoes off. The girl loves her shoes. Shoes, shoes, shoes. I admit, her obsession and difficulty taking shoes OFF makes me a tich nervous. Like, what does that mean?
K1 has some crazy-good fine motor skills. She requests to "color, color" often, and will climb right up into her chair at the table. She does a VERY good job of holding the tools- she has a better grasp of markers and crayons that her sister! Here, she is showing me that she stuck the Mickey Mouse stickers each onto a glass of water. This is called 1:1 correspondence, and it's a higher level skill! Blew me away!
Last night, we were counting something (Barbies, dolls, cars?) and after CJ said "13" , Kyla said "14!" but never said it again. I think there is a lot of knowledge bumping around inside that gorgeous head of hers, and it's coming out in bits and pieces, like her sister! She understands everything we tell her, and thrives on her routine. Oh yeah, and she LOVE LOVE LOVES her sister! *sigh*
Do you know what month it is? It's Keifer Lynn's birthday month! It was her birthday this past Sunday, and we celebrated with family and friends for 4 straight days! Hence, Mama's lack of blogging and sharing ALL THE PICTURES and video clips of our Princess Rock Star birthday girl that we collected.
Saturday was quite the day. We had a "Rock Star" party for Keifer (another post to come with the details, pictures, cake, and music lists) at our church. We had her Mickey Mouse themed birthday party (ballroom dancing party!) there last year, and we were lucky enough to be able to use our Fellowship Hall once again , for all 15 or so (yes, I said 15 or so) young children to "rock out!". Keifer was as hyped as could be, but she had the best time. Mama did, too, leading all the festivities, and I was exhausted. Saturday night was spent lazing around and visiting with Aunties and cousin Aubrie.
Sunday was K1's actual BIRTH DAY - so after breakfast, we shopped at the Mall with Papa and Nana for new "play" sandals for both girls, and Nana also purchased them dresses for their yearly pictures (which Mama has to schedule). We had lunch at the food court-which is just SO MUCH FUN for K1 - and then drove home, after a sad farewell to Papa & Nana. K1 then had her dance pictures (dress up for 10 minutes for a pictures in the middle of a Sunday afternoon!), then we hit Cub, and then attempted to eat at The Cracker Barrel- Birthday Girl's choice, as she wanted their mac & cheese for dinner.
Ahh, what a night. Makes me feel old, when I realize we never get to go out and whoop it up anymore, like we did that night. Do I miss it? Not really. I had a super fun time, and it was fun to get dolled up and have date night with my hubby, and get to dance the night away! But MAN! The next day I always pay for it - and wearing heels really does a number to my body! Makes me feel doubly old! Ha! I'm happy and content to stay home with my girls, dogs and CJ, and cuddle and play and try to catch up on DVR's shows together. That's my bliss, now! :)
