Taylor's Birthday - She's 3!

So I have to back up a little and post something about Taylor's birthday. I was so excited about Valentine's Day that I skipped right over it. Taylor's birthday was pretty low key but Ethan kept trying to stir the pot by suggesting lots of ideas for parties and fun things to do after plans had been made. We had a playdate at the house on the Friday before her birthday where some friends came over to play and eat cupcakes. Then on Sunday we had some more friends come over to celebrate on her actual birthday. She was so excited that she had to tell everyone we ran into that it was her birthday. Now that she is 3 she is hoping that 4 will come quickly. She has already started telling people that she is 4. I will have to admit that the party was a selfish excuse to get together with some of our good friends and eat good food. I love making Cafe Rio salads with sweet pork. Oh it was so good! Taylor and Ethan had fun playing with their friends and eating cake.

Taylor was so funny about eating her cake. She can be a slow eater but she was not going to give up. All the kids were done but she sat at the table working on her cake while resting.

It was fun to see how excited her friends were to give her their present. Ethan's enthusiasm for each of the presents was over the top. It was so cute. She was thrilled with her lip gloss, strawberry shortcake house, my little pony, and scooter.

I was thinking about the things I just love about this little girl right now. She is full of phrases she has picked up from books and TV shows and she loves to tell them to Ethan at really annoying times. For example the other day Ethan was frustrated with trying to tie his shoe in the car and Taylor sweetly says "Ethan, you know practice makes perfect". Not what he wanted to hear at the time. Her other favorite is "When things go wrong, teamwork is the answer." She also told Abe today while wrestling with him that "winning one battle doesn't win the war".

She will also "read" books that she memorizes and will help Ethan when he is actually trying to read the book. She has a great memory and is usually right. I love the way she pretends to sound the words out as she reads she will drag out the words just like she is reading. She loves her brother more than anything and would be happiest if he would give her hugs and kisses all day long (but she will settle for lots of snuggles from mom and dad). Of course with Ethan's personality she will just have to settle for hugs on Valentine's day. She also loves trying to slow dance with Ethan. She has watched enough princess movies to know how it should be done and let's Ethan know when he isn't doing it right. They are so cute!

So last night we were going to have Family Home Evening and Ethan wanted to be in charge. I told him that he would have to come up with a lesson (and not just play a game and eat treats) and he was very willing. He started going around the house and figuring out what his lesson would be about. He asked me to help him find some church music and then he asked for a book with some pictures he could use. I pulled out the gospel art book and gave it to him. Within a few minutes he was calling us to the table for his lesson. He was quite formal with asking me to play the opening song and having dad say a prayer and then he started in on his lesson. The picture he had chosen had a picture of a girl laying in a bed and Jesus was leaning over her. So Ethan says "This lesson is about this girl that was really sick." Then he pulls out this piece of metal and a rubber band and shows it to us. He says "you see this girl got hit with a sling shot." Then his eyes get really big and he leans in and says "The lesson is... you don't give a kid a sling shot. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I loved it. Taylor could not be out done so she took the book and started telling us about some other "lessons" from some of the pictures. After about 3 pages of this Abe says thanks and tried to move the book away from her. She put her hand on the book and gave Abe a look of death and said "I am NOT done yet." And then sweetly proceeded to tell us that Jesus doesn't want us to be naked (which related to the fact that the child loves to run naked and I mentioned that it wasn't very modest). It was the lighthearted lesson that we needed on a stressful day.