Happy Birthday Brenna!

Today we celebrated Brenna's 7th birthday. The first thing she said to me when she woke up this morning was, "Don't you have something to say to me?". Needless to say, she wasn't going to let me forget that today was her birthday.

I went up to the school and ate lunch with her. That is always fun for both of us. They get just as excited today as they did the very first time they saw me up at their school.

Tonight we went to Brenna's favorite place to eat, Rico's Grill. It's a wonderful Mexican food place just down the street from here. One thing that keeps us going back is every week they send out $10 off coupons to use. It's almost as nice as the coupons for Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Almost.

Tonight was the first night we celebrated a birthday there and had no idea what to expect as far as their traditional celebration. I expected a nice rendition of the birthday song and a sombrero. Instead, they did this to my poor, sweet, unsuspecting baby girl... At first, I think she wanted to smile, but quickly realized what had happened to her and tears rapidly ensued. Once we cleaned her up, gave her kisses and let her open her gift, all was well. For those of you wondering, the wait staff apologized for upsetting her and offered her some ice cream as a peace offering. She declined and opted to eat the rest of the whipped cream left from her "smear campaign".

If you are wondering why they are all looking on the floor, it's because they dropped Brenna's present before she was able to get a good look at it. This also meant no good reaction pictures. She was very excited when she finally got a peek at her new American Girl doll, Kit.

This look says it all. We have been getting American Girl catalogs for several years and Brenna has always admired them. If you know anything about these dolls, you know they are not meant for young children. Eight+ is the recommended age for these dolls and although Brenna is just now 7, we believe she is responsible enough to take care of it. This is the year for taking on more responsibility for our girls.

Happy birthday Brenna! We love you!!

Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over

The party marathon started on Friday night. I, along with two wonderful friends took 10 (6-9 year old) girls to the drive in to see High School Musical 3. We arrived around 5:30. Once we got inside the gate, the girls were able to run around and play. We had pizza for dinner just before the movie started.Here is Brenna with her BFF Lizzie. They have been friends for a few years now. Lizzie and Brenna are in the same Sunday School class and they love being around each other.

We added Cassandra and Julia to this picture. Julia lives next door and Cassandra's Great Grandparents live on the other side of us. They get to play with our kids more than most of the kids we know.

Avery and Alyssa enjoyed rockin' out on Avery's new iPod.

Here is the whole gang. We had an amazing night at the drive in. It was a little cold, but the girls just cuddled up together to stay warm. They were able to enjoy popcorn and M&M's while they watched the HSM gang say farewell.

We loaded up the girls after the movie, came home and got ready for bed and every single one of them were asleep in about 5 minutes. They were exhausted!

Saturday morning, Tony treated the girls to doughnuts and a little Wii time.

Then it was party time.

I made the girls these shirts to go along with their pink poodle theme. They were very excited about their shirts and they actually got several comments on them.

Here is the gang again, plus some stinky boys!!

I think this is my first appearance on my own blog! I was glad to get in a picture with my beautiful girls.
If the girls look a little embarrassed, they are. One of Avery's gifts was a pillow that says "I love Troy" (the lead male character in HSM). Avery was very embarrassed and flipped the pillow over rather quickly! It was very cute.

Poor, poor poodle. Brenna knocked it's bottom off in one swing of the bat. Most of the fun came when we allowed everyone a turn and taking a whack at the poodle's head. Poor, poor poodle.

Over all, we had a very enjoyable day and I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays in the years to come! I love you Avery and Brenna!

Costume Preview

Our Girl Scout Fall Party is always a good time to do a trial-run on costumes. I get to see what works and what doesn't and the kids get to wear their costumes more than once. This year we have an interesting cast of characters.

Avery will be going as "Spa Girl" this year. Her costume will serve dual purpose. Once as a costume and as a robe as long as it fits her. Thanks to Kohl's, I got this robe for a steal at 60% off regular price!
Brenna will be, you guessed it, Little Red Riding Hood. I think this suits her nicely. When we went to purchase Avery's robe, we browsed around the clothes and came upon this lovely red coat, with a hood! This beauty was 50% off and also will serve more than one purpose. I'm lovin' it!!

Cooper rounds out our cast as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Rafael to be exact. My hero in a half shell......turtle power!!!
Avery won "Funniest Costume" this year. She was very excited. She has actually been winning quite a few awards through Girl Scouts. When they had their last camp out at the Houston Zoo, she got a buddy award for being a good buddy, her tent won best (quietest) tent, and she was the only one to receive an award for going the extra mile to be a good "sister" scout. We are so very proud of her and her accomplishments through Girl Scouts. I have seen her become more confident over the 3 years she has been in scouts.

Happy Birthday Avery!

This week Avery celebrated her 9th birthday. I really cannot believe that I have been a mom for 9 years. Wow, it's amazing how fast time flies! It's the old cliche that you always hear, but how true it is. The years are fleeting and the time that we have with our children while they are still children are so few. It will take me a little while to realize that Avery is not a little girl anymore, but is becoming a young lady. We had such a great time celebrating the day that she came into our lives.

This year I have really tried to take the time and use all of the crafting supplies that I own to make more hand-made cards and treats for gift giving. I really enjoy doing what I can to add a personal touch. I found this gift bag and I thought it suited Avery's personality well. I also chose this bag because I thought making a card to go with it would be simple and fun. After punching a few circles and stamping the gifts in coordinating colors, I had a matching card that I was very pleased with.
Since the girls have a joint birthday party, we started a tradition of taking them out to dinner on their actual birthday. This allows both of the girls some individual attention on their special day. Avery chose to have her dinner at Olive Garden. We went to Olive Garden last year and it was pouring down rain...it poured down rain this time too! I hope we're not starting a pattern here! Avery loved having the staff sing their version of "Happy Birthday" to her. I do have to say Avery graciously handed over her ice cream to Cooper in exchange for a slice of the Black Tie Moose Cheesecake, which she shared with Brenna. I call that a win, win, win situation!
When we asked Avery for some gift ideas, she was very specific. It was either and iPod or a Nintendo DS. Avery is not one to ask for very extravagant gifts, but this year was different. At first I was like, no way, I don't even own one! But then, she really enjoys listening to music and I know that she would get a lot of use out of it. After Tony found an amazing deal for a brand new one on Craigslist, I couldn't hold out anymore. When she opened it, she said "my very own iPod!?" very loudly. It was really fun to see her so excited about her gift.
Tony had to give her a short tutorial on how to operate the little gadget, but she got the hang of it rather quickly. Youngin's catch on so much quicker that us old folks do.
The girls rockin' out to Johnny Cash and High School Musical music.

Peace Out!

Pink Poodles in Paris

The month of October kicks off a very busy time in our house. We begin by celebrating Avery and Brenna's Birthday. It has been a huge blessing that the girls enjoy sharing their party with each other. Since they are only two years apart (almost exactly), they tend to have the same group of friends. This allows for quite a celebration!


The other miracle of it all is that we've never had any problems agreeing on the party theme. As I'm sure you have determined from the title, this year's theme will be Pink Poodles in Paris. When I Googled ideas for their birthday, this was a common theme. And to make my life much easier than it really is, I was able to find everything at Oriental Trading. It was so nice to be able to shop online and not have to travel from store to store to find what I need.


This year we are doing something that we have never done before. After we chose the date (which is usually the weekend between their actual birthdays), we realized it was the same night as the premier of High School Musical 3. For those of you who do not have elementary school-aged children, it's like the best thing since the color pink! We had originally planned for a sleep-over. Now we are taking 12 girls to the drive-in to see this movie!


I am so excited and I can't wait to see how everything turns out. For the 10 girls that are invited along with Avery and Brenna, I hand-made invitations to go along with the theme.

I am so happy with how they turned out. This is the first one I made and ended up moving the poodle over a little to the right to balance it out a bit more. While browsing the paper isle at the local Hobby Lobby, I found this incredibly cute pink glitter paper. The photo does not show all of it's shimmer and shine, but I assure you, it's so way cute! I used this paper to punch the scalloped circle. You can see a little hint of glitter next to the poodle's nose.

As the days grow closer to the party, I will keep everyone up to date on it's progress and ultimately, the results...

Regrets...

There is something to be said about all of the things that we do that we eventually look back on and say..."what was I thinking?"

Like this picture of Avery when she rubbed blue sidewalk chalk all over her face and did a short rendition of the Blue Man Group.......or Farmer Brenna with her self applied face paint at the Children's Museum....

...or Cooper after he had taken a bite of a cookie I allowed him to decorate by himself with unlimited icing and sprinkles. Although it appears he is missing a few teeth, I assure you he was not. Now, if I had not made sure he scoured his teeth with his toothbrush afterward, he might have actually lost several teeth from all of those "sugar bugs".

I realize that there are no questionable pictures of me posted on here. There are questionable pictures of me, but none that I will be posting on here. I would rather use my quite adorable children. They are quite adorable in spite of chalk, face paint, and sprinkles!

My point is, I really have not been able to stop thinking about my last post. I'm not very happy that I posted it and really thought about deleting it all together. I felt like I wrote it with a poor attitude. I know I am just like every other mother out there who feels overwhelmed at times and I know that was one of those moments weakness. I just felt that all of my focus was on Brenna and I didn't mean for it to be that way. Today I will meet with her teacher to discuss ways that we can help her stay on track. This is a season in our lives that will require prayer and patience. I keep leaning on God's word for comfort here.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6

Crazy Busy!

I've never really been one of those "need more hours in the day kind of person". Most of the time I seem to fit in the chores, errands, tasks and jobs that need to be done in a 24 hour period. But not now and not in the last week.

The contributing factors:

The usual wife, mother daily routine.
MOPS- This takes up about a day and a half every week.
Bible Study- Daily Homework and Meeting once a week.
Driving-Mostly too and from school for the girls and 3-4 times a week for various church activities.
Housework-This happens when I'm not doing other stuff.
Girl Scouts- Two Thursdays a month with some extras here and there, along with working on patches.
Phone Calls-Lots of phone calls.
Grocery Shopping- Once a week works best for us, but it takes about 3 hours from start to putting the last item in the pantry.

School- Right now, this is taking way too long! The girls got home today at 3:30. It is now 5:05 and Brenna is still working on assignments. Now, mind you, these are not homework assignments, but incomplete classroom assignments, and the prompt for this blog. For today, my list ends here, cause I don't know how much memory storage they allow here!?

Please pray for Brenna and that she will be able to complete her work at school. It is a huge struggle for her (and me) right now. Brenna is a very bright and dare I say, smart, child. I love her curiosity and I'm amazed to hear the things she thinks out loud. Brenna is also a daydreamer. The one who just can't seem to stay on task. This is wrecking havoc on her school work.

I have to get dinner going and will ponder this topic later. Please know that I'm not complaining about being busy. This week we just don't have a free night and I'm saddened by it. Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse before it gets better. I just want to keep my focus and run the good race...

Cooper Finally Agrees to Photos

When Cooper started school he refused to have his picture taken. If you remember from my previous post, all he would do is hide behind his nap mat or between the tables.

After the first week of school, I realized that I was the problem. I gave up on getting a picture of him as his desk and with his teacher and all of the usual pictures you would want in a scrapbook. I would just have to wait and see what I could get another day.

Then the hurricane came. (I'm really tired of having to refer to that storm over and over) Anyway, we missed one week due to no power at the church, and then another week due to water damage. But then things got back to normal and Cooper was able to go back to school.

I had a lovely friend call last week and ask how Avery was doing in 3rd grade. Avery had some struggles throughout the year last year and my friend was kind enough to give us some advice (she's a teacher) and some helpful information to help Avery succeed. At some point in our conversation we talked about Cooper and how she knew he was doing fine since she was able to see him at school. I mentioned to her that I was never able to get pictures of him for his scrapbook. She immediately offered to take some pictures for me and look what I got...Here he is with his teacher.And happily working in his journal.

I didn't crop this one because I wanted to be able to see everything he was wearing.

Okay, this was not taken at school, but I had to include it in with these pictures. He had asked for a piece of bread, which happens to be a staple food for him right now. I just thought it was so funny how he stuck his finger in the bread and ate it like it was on a stick. I was really surprised that he did not bite his own finger!

Back to Blogging

The power has been back on, all of the kids are back to school, and I have been so busy, my poor blog has been blank for several days. I know there are only a few of you who actually noticed my absence, but this blog is kind of like a tender, young plant that I have planted and watered, then left to dry out. One of the few things that has kept me busy, but makes me feel a little better about it is that we have finally started our new Bible Study Wednesday night.

Our church is blessed to be able to provide several Bible Studies throughout the year. Hurricane Ike hit the Friday before all of our Fall studies were to begin. This last Wednesday began the first night of this study that will last 10 weeks. That means this study will end the week before Christmas! Talk about being busy....but the blessings are so great!

I always find Beth Moore's studies a challenge due to the daily homework and have made a commitment to myself to stay on top of my assignments and not get behind. Right from the start this study has lead me to some rather convicting scripture. When you ask God to break you of old habits and give you direction, you better be ready to hear what He has to say!

Needless to say, as I continue to struggle with all of my responsibilities as a wife and mother, with MOPS, church, the kids school, cakes, and all the little things that come along, it will be interesting to see how this blog plays a part in what I do.

Praising His faithfulness!