I have a 4 year old!

Wow! I can't believe that I have a 4 year old! I mean, it's about time that Evelyn turned 4, since I have 3 kids and all....but still, wow! She's huge, she loved her birthday and her castle cake and she had so much fun!

Okay, so her birthday was actually a month ago. But I'm finally getting caught up on the blog. I hope you enjoy some pictures and funny videos.

Evelyn was so excited when I told her we could go bowling for her birthday. We ended up not being able to go until the next day because the bowling ally didn't open early enough on her birthday. It was fun to spread the celebrating over a couple of days. She loved it! She mostly used the ramp but she did try to bowl using her hands a few times.

You can see how excited she is running back to us after her turn.

Allison is saying, "yes," or " I got them all down," or something like that. She was always so proud of herself for getting pins down. She really loved bowling and I think she wants to go on her birthday too.

And yes, Natalie didn't really know what was going on. She was a good sport to be passed around a lot so that we could all take our turns.

It was so much fun and the girls had a blast. It would only have been better if you didn't have to keep track of your score the old-school way of paper and pencil. I'm a fan of Utah bowling ally's that have computers that do the scoring for you! It would especially have been helpful, since we were there with 3 kids.

Sister love.

Can you tell how much this sweet girl loved it?

Evelyn is playing with her new lacing toy from Grandma Sjoblom. The girls love them and they're great for the car and church and the Dr. office and.....

It's fun to see what interesting patterns Allison comes up with to lace around the animals.

I can't remember why they were pretending to be asleep. But at least Allison looks pretty convincing. Funny girls!

If you were one of the people that called Evelyn on the evening of her birthday and you didn't think that she sounded full of energy....well, this is what she looked like talking to you. I think she was tired. She'd had school that day, then our family party and then friends over for games and cake, then opening presents, which we all know can be exhausting. Oh and she'd gotten a paper cut while taking off wrapping paper. Bummer!

Allison is showing the game that she gave to Evelyn. It's fun for my kids to have games and toys that I had when I was little and "Breaking the Ice" is one of them. Or at least one of my cousins had it and we loved to play it. My girls LOVE, Love, love to play it, for as long as I'm willing to set it up and then set it back up less than 60 seconds later when they've knocked it all down, and then set it up again.....It really only lasts about 5-10 minutes but they get to play quite a few times in those few minutes since the games are so fast.

I believe this video was taken after they'd played a few times and gotten a little more careful at trying to only knock one ice block down each turn.

Showing part of her present from Grandma Sjoblom

Thoroughly enjoying her "Castle Cake with only Cinderella and Prince Charmey (Charming) and Snow white." Those were the only people that she wanted to be on her princess castle cake. She said that she loved the cake and that it was just what she wanted.

Allison really enjoyed the cake too. She just could not take a big enough bite of it.

Right before lighting the candles Evelyn wanted to touch the cake and see what everything was made of.

Evelyn's friends didn't think it was too funny that Scott told them that all the brown crumbs were all dirt. Then they started to doubt him and we told them the truth. Crushed up chocolate animal crackers. Did you even know they had those? They're pretty good. The mostly taste like the cookie part of an oreo, so minus the yummy fattening frosting-filling, but still pretty good.

I really can't believe that my sweet girls is really already 4 years old! She's 1/2 way to baptism, then college, then marriage, then kids, then....Wow.

Some funny things about Evelyn right now are:

>She loves to teach our family night lessons, using her "action figures" from her wonderful primary teacher Sister Crandall. She often does a good job of telling the stories. Other times she just makes things up and it's still cute and funny.

>She's such a good big sister and she always wants to help around the house. The other day after breakfast I told her that she's getting big enough to do jobs. I asked her to unload the dishwasher and she was so excited to do it. She very enthusiastically did a few more jobs I asked her to do that morning. That evening when I was gone and she was home with dad she said, "Dad, I'm getting big enough that I should get a job," He asked her, "why?" and she said, "to earn some money."

>She's a happy content girl and hardly ever asks for things like a new toy, or the new Barbie or the toys that her friends have or whatever.

>It's crazy, but she still often take naps. Since her preschool is in the afternoon, nap/quiet time is not until about 2:30. On days that she doesn't have school, naps still are not until about 1:30, since Natalie doesn't take her second nap until then. She often even takes naps on these days.

>She loves her bunk be.

>She still really loves to "smell HER blanket."

>She loves to sing.

>She loves to read stories.

>She loves to "read" Allison stories.

>She loves to play pretend. Hiding from monsters and killing them. Yes that's my dainty little girl for you. She loves to play picnic, Dr., store, house, although Allison is usually the mom she still likes to play. She loves it when I get out the tunnels or castle or tent.

>She loves to make things for other people. She is so sweet and thoughtful. Every picture she colors is for someone. I usually forget to send them and they're often for me or her daddy. But they're always for someone, never just for herself.

>I love to watch her color. She concentrates so much. She'll even color one dress like 6 different colors, not just scribbles but patches of colors.

>She loves to do "school," and have me sit down and work on colors and numbers and coloring with her.

>She loves to write a few letters together and ask what she wrote. When we tell her that it's not really words, she insists that we tell her what she wrote. It's usually 3-5 consonants. She loves to write her name on everything!

>She can't wait to get her sled from Santa and go play in the snow and go sledding.

>She can't wait to get her cash register, that she calls a "store thing so we can buy things" because she can't remember what it's actually called. She loves to play with them at friends houses and at school, she just doesn't know what it's called. She was so easy to prompt about what she might want from Santa and lucky for her, Santa (Mrs. Clause) already had those things in mind, and in the attic.

>She recently wants to play the candy-cane-land game all the time. Another favorite is Chutes and Ladders, at which she always wastes Scott and I. I don't know what it is, but the girls always kill us in that game.

>She's such a sweet, loving, caring girl. She always hugs us and tells us how much she loves us!

>She told me today that she wants me to have 5 or 6 more babies. I told her to run that by her daddy....

When she did run that by her daddy today she said that she wanted 5 or 20 or 31 brothers and sisters. Yeah, not so sure that will happen!

Scott told her that not even Grandma Sjoblom had that many kids. She asked how many she had and Scott said 11. Now she wants 11 MORE brothers and sisters!

Evelyn, thanks for joining our family 4 years ago! We're so glad that you're a part of it and that you bring so many smiles and so much fun to our little family.! We love you sweetheart!

Lovely singing by some of Evelyn's friends.

Balloon popping game. It was so funny to see the kids all trying to pop each others balloons (some were trying to pop their own) and I love when one friend says...."Evelyn's is the Best."

She wanted "fancy restaurant food" for dinner so I made a yummy sticky (like Chinese) chicken recipe from my friend Melanie. Thanks for the recipe. It was a big hit!

Scott was gone to meeting the night before her birthday, so I had fun decorating the cake. I enjoy getting a little creative with cakes and if I have no interruptions, it's pretty fun to concentrate on cake decorating for a while.