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Wordless Wednesday

Yes, I'm joining the Wordless Wednesday blogging tradition (thanks to this post that inspired me). I'm hoping some of you whom I follow who aren't posting so much anymore will join me. It's as easy as posting a pic. Not much of a time commitment. OK, here it is:

Keziah's third birthday party!

This past weekend we celebrated Keziah's third birthday. Her birthday was three weeks ago but we decided to postpone the party so we could all recover from Christmas first. Keziah had requested an Angelina Ballerina party with a pink princess cake. Yes, she is a girly girl! In case you don't have a preschool aged girl in your life, Angelina Ballerina is a ballet dancing mouse. The books are precious and the tv show/ dvd's based on the books are really cute too. Of course she's not popular enough that I could find any themed party stuff. But that's ok, because I'm blessed to have an artist in the family. My mom whipped this poster out to help decorate. 

It's nice to be able to make your own decorations. We pulled a pink tutu out of the dress-up box and I declared it the official birthday girl tutu. Keziah was thrilled to get to be a ballerina for the day. She did plenty of dancing for us.  We did the house up in pink crepe paper and pink balloons. I pulled out Keziah's Angelina doll and mouse house for table decorations. It all came together quite well and quite frugally.

Since Angelina is a mouse who lives in Chimminy Cheddar and attends Camembert Accademy (there's a cheese theme throughout the stories) it made the menu easy. We had several fun exotic cheeses and crackers. Add some nuts, olives, and sausage, and you have quite the party menu. And a pink cake was easy! We avoid food coloring, but pink icing is easy. Whip together some strawberries and cream cheese and voila - pink icing.

It doesn't look pink in the picture but I promise it was. I spelled her name in chocolate chips and added a crown from her princess doll. I'm still amazed at how easy it is to pull together a party when the theme is something your kid is into. Everything you need is already in the toy box!

Yay! How cute is it when kids clap for themselves!

Time for presents!

Her first CD. Oh my! This is what her daddy got her. It's the sound track to Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. She's never seen the movie as I'm pretty sure it would give her nightmares. But she loves loves loves the music. Michael Paul has it on picture disc, and she was wearing his record out, so he got it for her on cd so he could stop playing his record. Well she recognized the picture immediately and started squealing, "it's the halloween song!" She was super excited.

She also got some new Angelina Ballerina books and dvd's, a piggy bank, a tea set and matching apron, some math and nature books, and a "big-girl"swing. She had an absolute blast!

Happy third birthday sweet pea!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Third Birthday, Keziah!

Thank you for changing our lives forever. We love you so much!

 Brand New

 One Year

 Two Years

Three Years

All About Keziah

Keziah was the star of this blog for about two years. I've been posting a lot about Reuel and it's been a long time since I did a post just about her. Here is a little glimpse into who she is at two-and-a-half years old (with pictures of course).

We do not have a pet in the traditional since. But this peacock whom we named Penelope thinks she is our pet and Keziah has happily adopted her and feeds her sunflower seeds daily (shhhh! don't tell the farm next door.) Despite being bitten once, Keziah is not afraid of her and Penelope has become quite the nuisance always pooping on our front porch. I'm glad for winter because Penelope will not venture up into our yard near as much.

Keziah went on a camera strike at the end of the summer. Anytime we tried to get a picture, she would run away screaming. When that finally ended she learned the art of posing. Now we take adorable posed pictures like this:

She really mastered her tricycle at the end of the summer. Mostly because she was finally tall enough to reach the pedals. She loves riding and keeps up with the big kids on their bikes at the park. I absolutely love this picture. 

I wish I knew what she was thinking in this next picture. She was playing on the deck and Michael Paul and I were inside. We looked out the window to check on her and found she had put her giraffe tricycle on top of her sand box, climbed up on it and was staring pensively at the sky. I really wish I knew what she was thinking sometimes. Her imagination is huge. I am continually amazed at the games and pretend play that she comes up with.

She is really into Care Bears at the moment. As in we *have* to read at least three Care Bear books a day. I have all of them memorized. Michael Paul went and found his grumpy bear from his box of childhood treasures and gave it to her. To say she was giddy happy about this gift would be an understatement.

Football season started and we are missing seeing our TN Titans play. Our NC stations rarely carry the TN game so we just watch whichever one is on. Keziah knows that Sundays are football days. We come home from church and she asks me if we are going to watch "hot ball." Keziah started calling it hot ball a long time ago before she mastered the "f" sound. And for some reason she is still calling it that. I think it's cute. But not as cute as  running around playing football in mommy's high heels. 

Keziah is still really into her dolls. She's going to make an excellent mommy someday. She imitates everything I do with Reuel with her dolls. That's a sobering thought sometimes. There's nothing like watching her copy my every move that motivates me to do my best. My heart melts when I watch her nurse her babies. Or when she tells me her baby is crying and needs nummies. Or when she rocks her baby to sleep singing the same lullaby I sing to Reuel. It's sooo sweet. These are the moments I dreamed about when I always saw myself as a girls' mom. Here she is nursing 'Rosy' to sleep. All her dolls are named Rosy.

And I'll end with an action sequence. These cold days have forced us inside and Keziah has officially declared the couch her 'swimming pool'. So when she wants to go 'swimming', we jump off the arm onto the couch over and over and over. It's a great way to release energy indoors!

That'a a pretty good pike jump for a two year old!

I'll end this post with my favorite Keziah-isms. Here are some of the things she has said recently that simply make me adore her:

"I love my brudder" (She recently started saying this)

"Mommy, you forgot to pray for Daddy!" (nothing gets past her)

"tonight, to-later" (this phrase means 'tomorrow' in her language. she uses it all the time.)

"hold on. I need my coffee first." (I wonder where she picked that up!)

"chocolate goodies" (what she calls chocolate chips)

"meat cakes" (her word for sausage balls)

"I have a river" (spoken very dramatically with her hand on her forehead. Tranlation: 'I have a fever.' she hasn't been sick in a month but she's still trying to use this phrase to get everything from a hug to candy. It would be annoying if it wasn't so cute!)