I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite!

Okay, I am just sitting down to finally post last week's fun and excitement. 

Lil Miss had her very first school Christmas program. 

To say she was excited, is an understatement.  

She had asked us a million times, if everyone was going to be there.... because, well 

she was going to sing on STAGE. 

We might have a little performer on our hands.

Lil Miss walked right on stage giving her best Miss America wave.

Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist. 

As soon as she saw Daddy, she was blowing kisses and smiling from ear to ear.  

There is nothing cuter than preschoolers singing. 

What entertainment.  There's always at least one child who beats to his own drum. 

And that kid happened to be the one standing right in front 

She also had her winter program for dance last week. 

She just hates to be in the spotlight.... NOT.

They danced their hearts away to "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Every little girl's favorite song. 

The best part of the night was when the dance teacher handed out flowers to the little girls. 

So sweet. 

She has grown up so much in the last few months.  

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

Mommy and Me Date

Saturday was a special day.

Gigi cashed in her "mommy time" coupon.

For parent/teacher conferences a week ago, we told the

kids if we got good reports that they are trying their best and

working hard on their grades then they would

get a date with either mommy or daddy.  

Gigi automatically picked me. 

The other two picked daddy because he is more fun.  :-( 

I was bummed, but they don't know how much Mommy can be. 

We took off on Saturday afternoon. 

First stop on our date was lunch.

Gigi picked Chili's, so we had a good girl talk while we waited for our food.

After lunch, we headed to a shoe store. 

During her basketball game that morning I noticed she was slipping and sliding down the court with no traction on her school tennis shoes, so we went shopping for shoes for basketball. 

What girl doesn't like shoe shopping?

Our last stop was JCPenny's.

I was trying to think of things to do on the dates that didn't cost a bundle. 

The important thing was the time together not the money we spent.

So we went to the Sephora counter to get an Express Makeover. 

We both had our eyes done and Gigi was in HEAVEN!!

The lady had her at purple glitter! 

Gigi came home with a lip gloss we purchased and I also got a few small things for Rosie's

birthday coming up.  Daddy is not so happy.  

I loved having the time with her to talk about school, friends, and

any else that she wanted to without being interrupted by her siblings. 

What a special day!!   

Yesterday ended up being a perfect Fall day!!

We worked on some things around the house and were outside

as much as possible. 

We have one corner of the backyard where the neighbor's birch tree drops the perfect

leaves on our side of the fence.  The kids spent hours raking them into a huge pile and then jumping in it, only to do it over and over again.   

I found traces of the leaf pile strewn all over the house today!  

 Then Daddy came home with more brown bags and our fun was done.

 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!!!

Sunday Best

I've been slowly going through closets doing spring cleaning. 

A little bit here and there, not a complete overhaul. (I get easily sidetracked into different projects)

I was sorting out the girl's closet and came across the sunflower dresses

hanging in the back.  Looking at the tags I was shocked to discover that

Lil Miss and Gigi are at the same size Rosie and Gigi were 3 years ago.

Crazy!!!

So I put the dresses in the front among all their other clothes to be worn soon.

Well of course Gigi, my little dress wearer, saw the new (not new just recently placed in a spot she

could see) dress on the hangar and had to wear it right away.

On Sunday for church we put on the pretty sunflower dresses Kathy and I bought years ago and

they looked so adorable.  The girls were twirling around in the living room dancing to

no music.  It's funny how a girl can just put on a dress

and feel like a princess!

We didn't want Rosie to feel left out, so I pulled a coordinating dress out of the closet for her and we

had the girls all beautiful in yellow. 

I didn't think about Bubba feeling left out. 

So he rushed upstairs and had to be properly dressed to, of course.....  in a tie. 

Off to church we went as a family, very well dressed.    

{3 years ago }

To me it is surreal to have Lil Miss in the same size my baby Gigi was when she first walked

into my life.  I can hardly fathom how they are growing up so fast!!!

Way too fast!!

Rosie in three years has grown into such a little lady and Gigi has lost all the babyness to her. 

Lots of tears.  Can they just stay this small forever?

Spread the Love

I love Valentine's Day.  I know so many people don't like this holiday and

say it is a Hallmark holiday (pinting at you Nate), but I like the idea of showing your love.  I don't like the fact that all the

prices on flowers and chocolates are jacked up in the month of February, but I tell my husband not to get me a large bouquet now... I will take one any other day of the year though.  *wink wink*

He did get me a pot of tulips which I love. 

He surprised me last weekend and had the kids make mommy Valentine's cards. 

So Sweet. 

He even took pictures of them doing the cards and the determination on Lily's face as she colors

her card is priceless. 

I celebrate Valentine's the entire year. 

Little things here and there.  Love notes in kid's lunchboxes, special kid dates, and

telling them "I Love You" daily. 

But around Valentine's Day I usually step up my game. 

This weekend I got to go on two special dates with two of my kiddos.

On Sunday after church I had planned to take Bubba to a local greenhouse to get some plants.

He missed a boy scout outing where they did leaf rubbings and before he gets his Tiger Cub badge he had to cross off that elective.  So Daddy sent Bubba and me to the greenhouse.  Big Mistake. 

I couldn't just go in and steal some leafs off plants, even if that is what Nate said to do, so I let Bubba look at all the house plants and pick one he wanted to take home and pot up. 

He picked up a ZZ plant.  Very Cool.

This plant thrives on neglect, so if you are needing a exceptionally easy houseplant, pick up a ZZ plant.  Then as we are just doing a little browsing (always dangerous for this girl) we came across all of their fairy garden supplies.  Bubba was amazed at all the tiny chairs, benches, wheel barrows, and little toadstools. 

I caved and we came home with a few materials to make our own indoor fairy garden. 

More on this in a later post.

 

When we got home and unloaded our garden purchases, I had planned to go to the mall and go shopping for a cocktail party dress.  I was going to go alone but decided at the last minute to take Rosie because she needed some jeans and it would be easier if she tried them on. 

We walked into the mall with our purses over our shoulders (yep Rosie had to bring her purse just in case she found something she had to have!) and on a mission to find a dress and some jeans. 

I knew she tired of shopping quick so I decided to do my dress shopping first then surprise her with a stop at Justice to get her energy back. 

She was not impressed when I picked up more than one dress to try on.  With six dresses flung over my arm and still looking through the racks for anything else that might look flattering on, Rosie finally had enough and said I needed to stop and just try them on. 

The fitting room was interesting. 

Rosie is a really good critic.  A few of the dresses I picked out got vetoed right away with the comments she used to describe them.  One floral dress I didn't even try on after Rosie commented "Mom, if you don't like this one we should wrap it up for Grandma Pam because she likes flowers." 

Uh... that one was not for me. 

When I tried one dress on twice, I got the "you already tried that one on mom, don't you remember what it looks like?" 

It sped up my decision process. 

We ended up picking out new accessories for a dress I already had in the closet instead of buying a new dress.  A much cheaper option. 

Next stop was Justice.  My girl had a permanent smile on her face as soon as she walked into the door.  She saw one of her friends from school and they discussed what tape and hair ties to buy as I looked for a few items for her to try on.  This was our first fitting room experience for her. 

The usual routine is that I buy clothes bring it home, then she tries it on and I return what doesn't fit. 

I know what my girl likes so I picked out a few items that mommy approved and had enough bling for her to like.  Success!!  

 After trying on clothes wore us both out we headed to the food court for a lemonade and salted pretzel before going home.  It was good.  I don't think there was a lull in the conversation all afternoon.  She has so much to say.

When we got home we had a pretty relaxing family night watching Peter Pan, which is daddy's favorite Disney movie.  Daddy also treated us to a fun drink, grasshoppers sans alcohol.  The perfect touch was a thin mint as garnish.  I love that man.  Served in margarita glasses, the kids were on cloud nine.  It paired perfectly with our popcorn for supper.

 

The rest of the week we have had love and hearts galore on our mind. 

Rosie made this for a school project and it was so heart warming to see the wonderful adjectives she used to describe me.  Also she knows her mommy likes chocolate.

 The kids have worked diligently on their valentine's for their classmates. 

They each picked out their own Valentine's cards. 

Bubba picked Star Wars of course.

Gigi picked Lalaloopsy themed cards and even with mommy trying to

persuade her to pick ANYTHING else Rosie picked Justin Beiber Valentine's.  Ugh.

Rosie made her valentine box at school, Gigi had to make a valentine's bag and Bubba had to make his own Valentine's box.  We had fun creating his Darth Vader box. 

He spent alot of time making Darth's chest plate just perfect. 

It is complete with its own light saber.   

He was mad I didn't give it a head, but making a cape and arm out of an empty toiliet paper roll was enough I said.

 As the kids were doing their crafts, mommy was busy at work taking her role as room parent seriously.  We have Gigi's Valentine's party this afternoon and mommy created heart bingo cards as color coded instead of numbers and cut out crowns for the kings and queens of Kindergarten. 

I learned after the Christmas party that it takes Kindergartners twice as long to do anything so we are simplifying today's party.  I hope they have fun. 

 

We are ending our Valentine's week with a night out for mommy and daddy. 

Can you believe we found a babysitter on Valentine's Day? 

We are doing something a little unusual but it will be fun. 

No dinner and a movie for us. 

I am a bit nervous and slightly excited... will tell you about it soon. 

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. 

I hope you all know how much you mean to me.

 

Hugs and Kisses

 

My Beautiful Girl



Last week I mentioned that I had a little time, while Lil Miss

was napping and the other two were resting (which equates to watching Mulan in mommy and daddy's bed), to shoot a few quick pictures of our oldest daughter

to create her 8th birthday party invites. 

We picked out two cute outfits and headed outside to use the natural light. 

She was a dream to take pictures of.

She was so happy to be spending some alone

time with me that she was giddy from excitement. 

I was a proud mommy and a few shots she even set up herself!

So Proud!!! 

 I am a bit bias but she is absolutely beautiful. 

 

This shot she said "wouldn't it look good if I laid my head down like this?"

Yes, Yes it would! 

With her "country" style outfit picked out I grabbed Daddy's guitar as

we headed outside to use as a prop.

I think it created some great shots!!

 

 

Seriously I love her smile and her EYES.

My beautiful daughter. 

I just had to share these pictures of her.  I don't want to brag, but I get to be this girl's mommy and I couldn't be happier.  She brings sunshine into my day.

 

A daughter is one of the most beautiful

gifts this world has to offer.

Laurel Atherton