Double Digits - the Big 10

Happy Birthday to Bubba!

Today marks another momentous occasion... Double Digits!

Seriously can't believe it.

We love you so dearly. 

You are an incredibly amazing young man. 

 Full of life, full of compassion, 

and full of love.

You are a leader and I have no doubt you will change the world.

You have made such an impact in your 10 years, your 

Dad and I can't wait to see what your future holds. 

Happy 10th birthday little man! 

five.

Happy. 

There is not a more perfect word 

to describe this girl. 

Today she turns 5. 

How this happened, I'm not sure. 

{ 1 week old }

 { 6 months old}

 { 1 year old }

 My little thumb sucker. 

 { 2 years old }

{3 years old }

{ 4 years old }

{ the big 5 }

Twinkle, Twinkle 

little star

Brave & Beautiful 

is what you are!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Skidamarink

I love you in the morning

& in the afternoon

I love you in the evening

and underneath the moon.  

Skidamarink a dink a dink

Skidamarink a doo.

I love you.

 Apologies for the preschool sing along, 

but we do have a singing 4 year old in the house. 

This tune so adequately describes my love for this little girl. 

My Gigi. 

I cannot believe she turns 8 tomorrow. 

 This girl made me a mom. 

I know moms usually reserve this for the oldest of their children. 

The child who they gave birth to first. 

Well, obviously my situation is a little different in that my oldest three children 

came into my life all on the same day. 

This girl though. 

This girl was placed in my lap 5 1/2 years ago. 

She was the first of her siblings that I met, and lets say that smile melted my heart. 

 As a mother I have experienced love in a few different ways. 

Some love is gradual, like how a book transforms into something you can't put down by chapter 3.

Gradual love is strong because it is something that blossoms and when you finally accept 

each other you know it is forever. 

Then there is the love that is instant.  

Love at first sight.  

Gigi had me at "hello."

Seriously, look at those cheeks. 

You think her mouth would hurt from as much smiling as this girl does. 

 Gigi has always had her own sense of style. 

She is all girl. 

She prefers skirts over pants, 

sparkle over anything "blah,

and she believes you can never have enough accessories. 

 Happy Birthday baby girl. 

Keep smiling and being who you are. 

It's a Wonderful Life

So yesterday was my son's birthday.

He turned 9.  I am in denial, because every time I look at him I see this boy... 

my three year old, full of energy, happiest laugh ever boy.

But my mommy vision makes me blind to how much he has grown up. 

That smile hasn't changed though! 

 Since we have three birthdays in the family between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holidays 

seem to be extra chaotic.  Bubba thinks his birthday is the BEST because St. Nick arrives with presents

in the morning and he opens birthday gifts in the afternoon.  

Pretty special. 

When I asked Bubba what he wanted to do for his birthday his response was "play Xbox all day."

Oh how this made me cringe.  I even apologized to the boy's mothers who came over for the sleepover 

that their child may be playing a lot of video games. 

I did have to add my touches though, a basketball court on the floor and a chalkboard scoreboard.

My boy is not a cake lover.  I can't tell you how many birthday parties where he has declined cake.  

I learned early on that getting him a cake is not a treat for him. 

We've done ice cream, cookie cakes, and even sugar cookies.

This year I had my friend make basketball cookies and check out these Air Jordans.  

Coolest cookies ever!  

Bubba played his last basketball game for the month yesterday and birthday boy had a great game.  

 I whipped my phone out of my pocket really quick to snap this photo of his breakaway layup.  

And yes he made the shot. 

Birthday boy is sleeping now catching up on not much sleep last night.  

As I look at him all cuddled with the puppy on the couch I still see a little boy and can't believe he is 9. 

Bubba's birthday also means that my birthday is next, a harsh reality that mommy is getting older too. 

All in all, It's a Wonderful Life! 

2 Digit Birthday

She's 10 today. 

I cannot believe it.  

This little girl has matured into a beautiful young lady before my very eyes.  

She is sweet and loving. 

She is full of smiles or full of frowns... there is no in between. 

The smile is infectious though. 

She is a innocent girl who had to grow up really fast to take care of her brothers and sisters. 

Her protection over them is fierce.  

It took a long time for her to accept me as her mom. 

We both had to learn how to be mom and daughter. 

  

It was a tough road, but when the words "mommy" came out of her little mouth it was 

not taken lightly.  I cried tears of joy. 

You are my Miss Independent, my "I can do it myself" child, but you can count on your mommy 

always having your back and being there if you ever need me. 

  Sometimes I may scold you, some days I may get mad.  

But no matter how I may act, I will NEVER stop loving you. 

You are my princess.

 Happy 10th Birthday Rosie Posie!! 

I love you to the moon and back. 

Love, 

Mommy

Let's Go Glamping

Last weekend we celebrated Rosie's birthday with her friends.  

This party was thrown together in 4 days because bad mommy, me, didn't look 

at the calender and see we had no free weekend nights for a while.  

Our daily calender is not for the faint of heart.  

A free night with no place to be is something to be celebrated.

Our girl wanted a camping party. 

I was happy to oblige.  I love party planning. 

With little time and wanting to keep this low budget we pulled our tent out, some 

christmas lights, and a few glitter stars turning our living room into a camping dream.

 I found another use for my gigantic chalk board.

I seriously love this thing.

We also put up a "No Boys Allowed" sign.  

 We hung the stars from the ceiling fan and waited for her friends to come. 

Oh the excitement. 

The squealing could be heard blocks away when the girls walked in the door.

 The night was filled with games, crafts, and eating. 

Instead of a cake, Rosie wanted smores.  

They ended up making smores over sterno flame in the kitchen. 

(supervised of course!)

There were a lot of burnt marshmallows because no one had the patience to 

carefully cook their smore correctly, but they were shoved in their mouths with joy anyways. 

To the end the night, they watched the best camping movie ever... Parent Trap. 

There were lots of naps the next day. 

But one little almost ten year old was full of smiles. 

Friends, sugar, and laughter will do that. 

Fantastic Four

It seems just like yesterday this girl was coming home from the hospital with us. 

{4 days old}

Then *poof* we are four years down the round and this baby girl is a 

walking, talking, happiness-making machine. 

Our life has been blessed with Lil Miss in our lives.  

Sure, we were a little shocked when I found out that we were pregnant. 

I had barely gotten used to being a mother of three and then wham... here comes baby! 

We are lucky she has been such an angel. 

She has been the happiest smiliest little thing since she has been born. 

I turned the table on my almost four year old this week and instead of her asking 

a million questions, I asked her a few. 

Here are her answers:

What is your favorite thing to do?  Draw pictures

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Elsa

What is your favorite food?  Mac and Cheese 

Who do you like to spend time with?  Daddy (since I went to Europe they have been attached at the hip) 

  What makes you laugh?  When my brother laughs... he is silly

What are you afraid of?  Monsters and Tigers

What is your favorite color?  Purple and Pink

Who is your best friend?   Daddy

What do you like to do with your family?  Play games... the game with chips (aka sequence)

  Where do you like to go?  Chik-Fil-A

What is your favorite book?  Princess stories

If you had one wish, what would it be?  To have a pony, I would name her Bella

Happy Birthday to our little Princess! 

35 Reasons

Happy Birthday Daddy!! 

The 35 reasons we love Daddy:

1. He give me zerberts -- L
2. He lets me play Madden -- X
3. He lets me have ice cream all the time -- G
4. I love dad because he gives me hugs and kisses -- R
5. Dad brings me to basketball -- X
6. He cuts up my apples just the way I like it.  -- G
7. Daddy works at John Deere -- L
8. He is nice and puts games on my ipad -- R
9. He plays chess with me and I almost beat him -- X
10. He kisses me goodnight -- L
11. He lets us stay up longer than mom -- G
12. He gives us lots of Buckeye stuff when he goes on trips there -- R
13. Daddy lets us have candy and ice cream -- L
14. I like Daddy because because he plays basketball with me -- X
15. Daddy comes to my basketball games -- G
16. Daddy makes us hot chocolate when we go play in the snow -- R
17. He helps me make my pinewood derby car -- X
18. My daddy places hide and seek with us and it is tough to find him -- G
19. My daddy lets me watch movies all day -- L 
20. He lets us have pixie sticks, pop rocks, and lots of candy -- R
21. Daddy loves me -- L
22. I love Dad because he gets me stuff.  --X
23. Daddy is the only one who knows how to start fires -- X
24. Dad plays Mario kart with us -- G
25. He is just AWESOME!! -- R
26. Daddy tickles --L
27. When I was little dad taught me how to ride a bike. -- X
28. Daddy helps me read my books -- G
29. He helps me with my homework and really knows multiplication -- R
30. He leaves me notes and I am special. -- X
31. He does puzzles with me. -- G
32. Dad sends messages to me and not anyone else -- R
33. My dad is silly -- L
34. Our dad does lots of nice things -- R
35. Our dad is the BEST!

Honey it has been the best years of my life being with you. 

You keep us smiling and laughing.  

I couldn't imagine doing this all with anyone else.  

Happy 35th!!! 

God Bless this Child

The past week has gone by in a blur.

Just a week ago, we were surrounding by huge snowflakes and everything covered in white!

Yes, I am not making it up. 

We had quite the little snow flurry last week.  Who knew?

Oct. 22nd and over an inch of snow!!

The kids ran outside like it was Christmas.

We pulled out the winter coats, the hats, the scarves, the snow pants, and boots. 

We dug out the sleds from under the swimming pool and water guns, which it feels we just used yesterday and prepared for winter.

After the tea party on Sunday, the whole week felt like a celebration for Lil Miss.

She wore her crown every where. 

The YMCA

Grocery Store

Target 

and to Bed.

On Thursday night, we did the whole cake and ice cream thing,

and opened a few more gifts.

Baby girl had the whole "Happy Birthday to Me" song down and

sang it nonstop.

 

Over the Weekend we headed to Ohio, for my nephew Reed's baptism. 

Lil Miss tried to capture some shots of the baptism.... little photographer!

Nate was chosen as Reed's godfather, so we wouldn't have missed it. 

We love Father Mark.  He baptized all my little ones. 

He had the kids help with a few of the steps.  Rosie helped him

with the Frankincense and Bubba helped drape the baptismal cloth on little Reed. 



One happy family.

 

Going back to Beth and Scott's house, the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. 

The house was filled with kids giggling and lots of pretend car noises. 

We did triple duty with the cupcakes, celebrating Reed's baptism, Lil Miss's third birthday and Mason's third birthday at the same time.

Birthday Kids 

 Nate got in his Reed time.... awwww. 

Gigi was in baby heaven too. 

She's a natural.

 Sadly, the trip was too short and we found ourselves Sunday morning

packing up and saying goodbye.  It was so

hard to leave this little booger... but Thanksgiving will be here soon.  

 

 We are back at home now having archery practice and

trying not to break anything too important. 

 I have to be content with getting pictures of my littlest nephew

every other day and hearing his little noises through the phone.  

So blessed to be a part of his life.