20 Questions (Age 3)

I got this idea from a blog and I decided to do it. I loved doing it this year and I hope I can remember to do it every year.

It's 20 Questions. You ask your child these questions starting at age 3 (if you can) and ask her every year on her birthday. It should be so much fun to see how the answers change!

I asked Brianna these questions a few days ago. I then found a cute template on Microsoft Publisher and typed it up, with the date at the top of the page. I framed it and set it out at her birthday party for everyone to read.
















Brianna Mae Talbert
April 18, 2012

1. What is your favorite color?  Pink
2. What is your favorite toy?  Books
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite TV show?  Berenstein Bears
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Noodles
6. What is your favorite outfit?  Any dress
7. What is your favorite game?  Go Fish
8. What is your favorite snack?  Apple slices and grapes
9. What is your favorite animal?  Sheep
10. What is your favorite song?  "Jumping in the Pond" (this is a song she made up)
11. What is your favorite book?  Highlights magazine
12. Who is your best friend?  Lucas
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Swing
15. What is your favorite drink?  Apple juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Easter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you?  Slippers
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Waffles
19. What do you want for your birthday dinner?  Cake
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Mailman

Party Favors

I have to get this post up FAST so that I can blog about Brianna's birthday extravaganza!!  I made these party favors a couple of weeks ago for her party. We really didn't need party favors, but what the heck!? The only kids coming were Brianna, Hunter, and Claire and Evan. (Actually, my nephew Kaleb came too but I am not counting him for this because he's not old enough to have candy!!) So when I saw this craft in one of my craft books I just had to try it.

Go ahead and get out some tissue paper. Go point your finger in your husband's face and tell him he should be glad you bought that Hanukkah tissue paper 75% off after holidays. He had no right to make fun of you for buying that.

Cut out a 12x12 square of tissue paper. Take a toilet paper roll and lay it in the center of the tissue paper.

Roll the toilet paper roll up tightly in the tissue paper, taping it.

Twist one end up and tape it to keep it closed. It the other end, fill the toilet paper roll with candy or small treats. Twist the other end closed and tape it. Wrap some curling ribbon around it to make it look cute and cover up that ugly tape.

Finished product!

It doesn't get any easier than that. Cheap and still so cute! It was very easy for the kids to do (from kids who are 1 1/2 years old to 3 years old) to just pull off one of the taped ends, and the candy fell out. I just put in things like chocolate kisses, gummy snacks, one toy, egg candy, etc. It was something so simple to do but I had a lot of fun watching the kids break open their treats and then have fun chowing down on the candy!!

Local Business: Book Store

I like to talk about local businesses if I am really impressed with them (some I have spoken about in the past are The Little Toy Store, Classy Paci Boutique, Spirit in the Sky Massage, and local farmers).

One business I have frequented for quite some time is Tucker Jo's  Used Books. I remember when they first opened and now they've moved to a bigger location. This is a great place to take your used books to. They will give you store credit for a percentage of the cover price on your books. Then when you buy books from there, you can use your credit to pay for half of the book.

For example, the last time I was in there I found a book I wanted for Brianna's birthday. Who am I kidding - I found about a dozen books I ended up getting! Anyway, this particular book was tagged as $2.00. I have store credit there, so I used $1.00 of my store credit and $1.00 of my own money to pay for the book.

You will find a huge selection of books at Tucker Jo's. Not only that, but she has homeschooling kits, coloring books, flash cards, song books... the works! The owner is super nice and very friendly. You will love chatting with her while you're browsing the enormous variety of books!

I highly recommend that you check this store out!

Tucker Jo's Used Books
974B Bennett St (near Bill Smith Ford)
Southern Pines, NC 28315
(910) 246-0500

Here's Lily! Review

I have several friends with "tween" daughters, which is why I wanted to review the book "Here's Lily!" by Nancy Rue. But it turned out that I really enjoyed this book! Lily is quirky and cute, and her family is real and honest. They show their faith without being cheesy. The entire book was such a fun read.

Lily obviously has some self-esteem issues, thanks to her older brothers teasing her and her wild, red hair and ivory white skin. So when she gets the opportunity to do some modeling work, she jumps at the chance. Her parents encourage her to find God in modeling. It takes a somewhat tragic event for her to do that, but she eventually does.

This book was an easy read but it was so much fun! I am definitely passing it on to friends, and honestly I can't wait to read this series myself. It was written for young girls but I loved Lily's spunky personality and the way this book was written. Two thumbs up!

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Three Years Ago

This just might be the longest post ever but I seriously can't get over the fact that my daughter is three years old today, so I am dedicating this way-too-long blog post to her.

April 18, 2009. Born at 9:18pm after my water broke while we were shopping at Best Buy. 6 lbs, 14 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. What a tiny little baby!

Birth story here.

Just a few days old.

One month old!

Two months old!

Three months old!

Four months old!

At five months, I decided it was high time for her to learn the art of couponing!

At six months old, I took my first weekend trip away. She tried to invite herself along, but I wasn't having it!

Seven months old and play dates with cousin Claire are becoming more of the norm!

Eight months old and it's her first Christmas! "You mean this happens every year!?!?"

Nine months old!

Ten months old and announcing that she's going to be a big sister!

Eleven months old!

ONE YEAR OLD!

Thirteen months old and loving the pool!

Fourteen months old and ready for a day at the marina!

Fifteen months old!

Sixteen months old and definitely developing her own personality!

Seventeen months old and the proud owner of a new baby brother!

Eighteen months old!

Nineteen months old and this is the norm! (And still is!)

Twenty months old and taking care of her brother! (This is still a frequent occurrence as well!)

Twenty-one months old taking family pictures before Daddy deploys!

Twenty-two months old!

Twenty-three months old doing what we do best!

TWO YEARS OLD!

Twenty-five months old and obsessed with jewelry!

Twenty-six months old!

Twenty-seven months old and loving farmers markets!

 Twenty-eight months old and going to preschool for the first time!

Twenty-nine months old and working on her smiley faces! (Now she's on to stick figures)

Thirty months old and trick-or-treating for the first time!

 Thirty-one months old and doing her first Thanksgiving program at school!

 Thirty-two months old and it's Christmas time again!

 Thirty-three months old and we get a rare family picture!

Thirty-four months old and our new favorite hobby is card games!

 Thirty-five months old and wearing her Snow White dress to church every chance she gets!

Thirty-six months old and going on her first Easter egg hunt at school!

  

Today, April 18, 2012, saying, "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!"

We love you, Brianna Mae! We couldn't imagine life without a little girl who makes up songs on the spot and randomly spins in circles. A little girl who loves to cook, read, and do crafts. Who picks flowers for Daddy after preschool and other people whenever she passes a flower bush. Who finally loves her hair in headbands, pigtails and braids. Who takes care of any crying child within 100 miles of her hearing. Who suddenly decided to transition to a toddler bed and did it with no problems. And then you decided you wanted to wear panties to bed all night long and although Daddy cringed at the thought, we allowed it, and you've had no accidents! A little girl who loves stickers, stamps, frills and sparkles.

I have learned more patience because of you then in any other situation in my life. You don't want me to carry you, you want to walk "by mySELF!" unless I have Hunter in one arm and groceries in the other. Then you tell me you need me to hold you because "my legs are tired, Mom!" You love to go to Harris Teeter but you eat all your cheese by the time we get to aisle two and then you remind me for the rest of the trip that your hands are empty of cheese. You love pizza and you always want it cut up, unless I cut it up without asking you, and then a major tantrum ensues. A new piece of pizza is usually given to you, which you then ask to be cut up.

You love to swing, slide, and you're trying to learn how to skip. Your chosen wardrobe consists of skirts, dresses and nightgowns, and God forbid if I don't keep up on the laundry to make sure you have an ample supply of all those things.

Ever since you got a toddler bed we lay together in bed at naptime and bedtime and read books, sing songs, pray, and talk. Your favorite books right now are Berenstein Bears, and your favorite song medley is "Perfect 10", "Amazing Grace", and "You Are My Sunshine". You have an incredible memory for who you want to pray for. And then sometimes you just pat my cheek and say, "You're the best mommy EVER." Sometimes while I'm singing you will see how many times in a row you can kiss my cheeks. Usually you have to stop because we are both laughing so hard. Sometimes Daddy has to warn us to be quiet so we don't wake up Hunter, who is sleeping down the hall. Sometimes we just giggle until we're out of breath and then you abruptly say, "Okay, good night dear."

One night I asked you what songs we were going to sing at bedtime and you rolled over, patted my head and said, "I'm tired. Let's just go to sleep, dear."

You are your own person and I hope that never changes. I love the person you have become and I am so excited for your future. We love you!

Waiting For Morning Review

I absolutely love Karen Kingsbury, so when I got the opportunity to review a book of hers, Waiting for Morning, I jumped at the chance! As usual, Kingsbury absolutely did not disappoint.

This is the story of Hannah Ryan, a wife and mother whose life takes a sudden, tragic turn when her family is involved in an accident thanks to a drunk driver. Hannah is incredibly angry at God for allowing the accident to happen, and that anger blinds her to the point that she completely walks away from her faith. She puts all her available time and energy into hating the driver of the car that hit her family, and feels as though the only peace she'll ever have will come after he is dead or in prison.

I couldn't personally relate to the characters because I've never had anything like this happen to me, but it is so easy to become attached to these characters. Kingsbury has a way with words - she isn't afraid to have her characters be real and go through bumps in their faith like many people do. This is an easy read and it will definitely suck you in.

Now that I see it's a series I can't wait to read the other two books!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Life According to Pictures

This is from several weeks ago (I can tell because PRAISE GOD Brianna has been out of pull-ups 100% for weeks now, wahoo!!!!) and she was obviously worn completely out!! This never happens!

Brianna loves to pick flowers for Daddy if it's nice outside at preschool. I wanted to take a picture for him since I knew they would be dead before he got home from work. I said, "Bri, hold them up so I can take a picture for Daddy." This is all she could muster up for me.

Remember the video from this night? Here are some pictures from that night.

Viva revolution??

When Brianna wants to wear her Snow White dress to church, we don't argue. We did pay $20 for that dress for Halloween, after all, we may as well use it as much as possible!!

We like to play outside after Kindermusik if it's nice. And if it's 78 degrees you can bet Brianna will want to wear her winter boots that light up.

Major activity around here - stickers! Hunter is really getting into them lately.

Brianna is lucky if Hunter will slow down long enough to listen to a story. She'd read to him all day if he would let her!

This afternoon in particular, Brianna was snacking on yogurt raisins when she called me in to see the "Christmas Tree" she had formed to show Daddy. I told her I would just snap a picture so that we could clean up the raisins...

Found this old phone that doesn't work, so I donated it to Brianna. She talks on it all the time and has very lively conversations on it. There are now two phones like this upstairs which Hunter and her use very frequently to chat to each other!

"Oh, Bri, you look like a princess! Can we take a picture?"

"Okay, let's try to take a serious pose."

Third time's the charm!

Oma's Easter Bunny brought bunny slippers!!

Brianna got this bubble machine for Easter and she LOVES it!