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!!!

Emily singing "I Love to See the Temple"

October and November

We got a piano!
Someone at church was trying to get rid of one and we quickly jumped on it!

I have wanted a piano since I left home and now we have one!

Emily loves it!
She plays it almost everyday

We celebrated J.R.'s birthday on the 26th!
He ended up with 2 cakes because the first one wasn't completely done in the middle. We hollowed out the middle of the first one and filled it with candy bars.

This is what I had in mind with the first one.
This one did get done all the way and J.R. really liked it.

J.R. with his candy bar cake

One of the girls in the ward decided it would be fun to have a Halloween cookie decorating party for the kids. She made most of the cookies and everyone else contributed the frosting, sprinkles and other decorating items.

Emily trying to get some sprinkles to come out of the container.
The holes were too small for the sprinkles that were in there so nothing came out.
(Is it bad that I was kinda happy about that?)

"Hmm, maybe if I shake the container the sprinkles will come out"

Emily put her little stuffed bear on the back of her tricycle one morning and gave it a ride.
She is so cute!

Emily was a princess for Halloween again, however, this year she went with all the accessories.


November!

J.R. and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on November 6th and that morning we woke up to snow! We went sledding in our backyard but that didn't last very long since the snow was melting fast.

We used the snow from the trampoline to make a snowbunny

Here is the finished product!

It died after about 2 hours

My birthday was on the 13th and my wonderful sister, Becky, made me this adorable panda bear cake. It took her 7 1/2 hours to do.

Laura, Emily and Becky with my awesome birthday cake!

Laura, J.R. and Emily

Emily in her "princess coat"

One day Emily told her Daddy that she wanted to read him a book and she wanted him to sit on her lap. This is how they ended up. I wish I had stepped back a little more so we could see Emily's feet sticking out from under J.R.'s legs. It was pretty cute.

Becky and Emily cuddling on the couch.

Emily in her pretty Christmas dress

So pretty