Abigail Alyse

Thirteen years ago today, our sweet Abby was born.  I know this sounds cliche, but time has gone by SO fast.  It's like I just blinked and now I have this beautiful young lady right in front of me.  Sometimes I wish I could make her a baby again and hold her in my arms and smell that sweet baby smell.  She had the chubbiest cheeks!  I used to tell her she had walnuts in her cheeks!

She was so sweet!  When she was born and I saw and held her for the first time, it was love at first sight.  I was so overwhelmed with this new love that I had never experienced before.  There really is no way way to put words to this.  There is nothing I wouldn't do for her!

I will never forget her sweet smile.  Her eyes would squint almost closed.  Her hands and feet were so chubby that I used to nibble on them and she would laugh so hard!

She grew and grew until she was a toddler!  She had the curliest hair! 

She grew and grew until she was 3 years old.  Her curls disappeared!  Where is my baby?

She grew and grew until she was in kindergarten!  Her first day of school.

She grew and grew until she was in middle school. Seventh grade!  Really, when did this happen?

She grew one more year older.  13 years old!  If you look really close you can still see that squinty eye smile.

She is such a blessing!  She is a dream come true!

  Happy 13th Birthday Sweet Abby
We are so proud of you!

Gigglin Girls!!

We had five 7 and 8 year old girls at our house last night, and we had a wonderful celebration!!  We decided to let Emma celebrate her 8th birthday a little early this year.  She really wanted to have a slumber party.  Our schedule has been so busy and we thought this would be a perfect weekend to do it.

She was so excited , to say the least!  She only wanted to have four friends and let me just tell you, four is the perfect number!  Abbie had a slumber party when she was ten and I promised myself that we would not have 15 of any aged kids over to our house again.  It was CRAZY!!!!!! 

We decorated our house with balloons and streamers and waited for our guest to arrive.

We let the girls eat dinner in the dinning room.  Emma felt so special!

Our guests started to arrive and they all danced to Kids Bop 18.  It was so much fun watching them!

The whole gang!!  Kelsey, Emily, Emma, Caitlin, and Reagan

We planned some crafts while our dinner was cooking.

We had hot dogs and hamburgers and french fries for dinner. Yummy!!

The girls were full after dinner and wanted to wait for cake so Emma opened her gifts.

Emma got this really cool mood changing nail polish that the girls just had to try out.

Then it was cupcake time!!  One of Emma's friends has a severe allergy to milk and nuts so I found this really yummy "Crazy Cake" recipe that she could enjoy and not feel left out.  I let the girls frost and decorate the cupcakes.

"Happy Birthday to You"

When the girls were done I had planned a scavenger hunt in the back yard with flashlights and glow sticks.

They headed out to the back yard to find candy James had hidden . 

When they got done outside it was movie time.  They thought it was funny that every time they did something I took a picture. They wanted a crazy face picture.

They got their pj's on and got out their sleeping bags to settle in for the movie.

Notice that even all their dolls had beds or sleeping bags.  They watched their movie and giggled and laughed.  Then it was lights out time.  We layed in bed and listened to them whisper and giggle.  Emma had so much fun!  She kept thanking us for letting her have friends over.  They were so good and played and got along really well.  Happy early birthday Emma!!!

Hail to the Cheif!!!!!

A few weeks ago Noah decided he wanted to write President Obama a letter.  I really didn't think much of it and said OK.  He was at the dinning room table for awhile and then came out to get an envelope.  The next thing I knew he had addressed the envelope to Pennsylvania Ave.  He asked for a stamp and then put his letter in the mailbox.  I didn't read the letter he had written but can only imagine what it said!  I knew he would get something back because Abbie had written a letter a few years ago to President Bush and was sent a nice letter back.  Everyday he asked if the President had written him back and everyday I had to say no.  I don't necessarily agree with a lot of  President Obama's ideas and views.  I was disappointed again.  Then, on Friday it came.  A handwritten envelope and a nice letter from President Obama.  The letter was kind of generic and I knew that same letter went out to all of the kids who had written the President. But, Noah didn't know that and was thrilled with the letter!  I do think that it is really nice that they(whoever they may be) take the time to get back to all the children that write the President.  Noah felt so special as he should!  He took the letter to school to share with his class!

 

Noah does and will continue to do great things!  I can't wait to see what God has planned for him!!

Alien Invasion!!

Emma had a project due for school this week.  She had to create her own alien!  This was the first of what I know will be a lot of projects this year.  I have spent a lot of money in the past and I decided this year we were going to use what we had at home!  I have restocked our craft box with the essentials..pipe cleaners, pom poms, google eyes,..you get the picture.  So , Emma decided to use a water bottle, a foam ball , pipe cleaners and paint.

She LOVES to paint and has very creative ideas.  We had fun brainstorming at the kitchen table.  She also had to answer a few questions about her alien.

1-  Where is your alien from?  She answered..Alien City.

2- What does your alien eat?....She answered.....Snails.

3-What does your alien do on his/her home planet?....She answered.. She is the president of Alien City.

4-What does your alien like to do for fun?.....She answered...play banana toss.

5-What do want to learn from your alien?....She answered... learn how to play banana toss.

6-What do you want to teach your alien?..She answered...math.

7-And our favorite...What is your aliens name?...She answered..Clukclukcluklou!

We were trying to think of names and she wanted a silly made up name.  Noah and I kept giving her suggestions.  We laughed until we cried!  Finally we came up with that silly name.

She was very excited to share her alien with her teacher and class!

Extreme Makeover..... Room Edition!!

It all started with Emma's room.  She has been very sad that she has the smallest bedroom.  I told her awhile back that we would look to see if we could find a loft bed.  The kind that have desks and bookshelves.  She was very excited about the thought of that.  We had a garage sale and sold some stuff so I told her we could use the money to look for a new bed.  We shopped and shopped until we found the perfect one.  She had made some money selling some of her things as well.  She told me that she wanted to buy her own bedding. Wow, I thought.  I would have thought she would want a new toy or something from the American Girl Doll store.  Nope she said, I want a new bedspread.!  What a big girl!  So, we went from fairies to polka dots.  I so wish I would have taken more pictures before we started moving things.  

We painted cork boards to hang up.  I saw this really cute project in a magazine.  I also made curtains out of ribbons.

She was so excited that her bed has a desk.  Can you see it?

It hides under one end of the bed.  The space where the desk slides is also a super cool place to hide!  It goes the full length of the bed.  She and Abbie traded bookshelves.  Now she has one that is a little taller and Abbie has a smaller one that matches her other one.

Our house doesn't have lights on the ceiling so lighting has always been a problem.  We found this really cute lamp.  You can adjust any way you like.  All five lights can be on or you can switch to two or three.  Let me just say that I love Target!

Well, Noah and Abbie were feeling a little left out so...we fixed that!  We weren't sure what we were going to do with the white bunk beds that were in Emma's room.  Noah spoke up and said he  wanted them in his room.  There was only one problem.  One very big problem.....they're white.  So after about 5 spray cans of primer and about 9 cans of brown paint they were finally brown!  We also had to do some touch up with some brown paint that we had.  What a headache!  Literally, after all that paint I thought my head was going to explode!  The bed turned out great!  Noah didn't want to change his Harry Potter theme so there was not a lot of decorating to do.  I found some new bedspreads at Target super inexpensive!  Did I tell you how much I love Target!!!  We moved his old daybed down to our library room. 

Noah likes to read after we put him to bed with his night light.  We moved his red beanbag chair up for him to enjoy in his room.

There was a chair we had in the library that didn't fit with Noah's daybed now in there.  So, we moved it into Noah's room.  He can also sit there and read too.

He can still use his same bookshelves and dresser.

My little pack rat doesn't like to throw anything away!

Abbie's room was next.  She got a new bed and bedspread awhile back.  We didn't have to change the base color of her room.  She decided to add polka dots and hand prints to her room.  It turned out really neat! 

We also painted cork boards to use as a head board.

She added some finishing touches!

We still have a few more things to finish up with.  I think their rooms turned out really cute.  We had fun family time moving and trading and painting and moving!!

Emma told me when we were done that she LOVED her room and she didn't want to change a thing!

Hmmm....What room to do next?