Emily's 3rd Birthday!

Emily turned 3 on December 5th!
She told me back in October that she wanted a princess Aurora cake and that she wanted Daddy to make it. As time got closer though she decided that she wanted Mommy to make it, so I did.
I used 2 cake mixes and our Kitchen Aid mixer bowl to cook it in. It took 2 1/2 hours to cook so partway through I had to cover the top with foil so it wouldn't burn. I bought an Aurora barbie and wrapped her in ceran wrap from her legs to her waist and cut a hole in the cake for the barbie, then I used the barbie to push the cake out of the hole. It worked a lot better than I thought it would.

Emily absolutely loved it! She kept saying "Ooo, it's so pretty! We have to eat the cake, but we can't eat the Princess." She was watching me decorate it and the entire time she kept telling me to be careful not to get frosting on Aurora.

Emily and Daddy playing with her Cinderella and Aurora barbies. Emily, of course, has the Aurora one.

Sitting amongst all her presents!
Can you guess which one is her favorite?

Another birthday present came for Emily a few days later. It was a pretty green dress from Grandma and Grandpa Cutler!

Playing with her Princess Aurora and her Swan. Aurora's hair has a couple strands that change from pink to blue in cold water. Her bodice also changes from pink to purple in warm water. Emily was having lots of fun changing the colors back and forth.

We didn't have a Christmas tree this year because we were not going to be here for Christmas and since we don't have a fake tree we didn't want to buy a real one for just a couple of weeks.
We did put up some lights though

J.R. hanging lights over the curtains

Becky trying to figure out the best way to make the banister look good.
This is not how it ended up, but I guess I didn't take a picture of the finished product.

Emily's hair having major static problems!

So much static!!!