Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year!  Due to Jon's promotion, he had to work Thanksgiving Day so Emily and the kids were able to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  We hated that they were not able to go to Longview and be with Jon's family like the usually do, but we loved having them with us to celebrate this year!

Jon was able to come to dinner the night before Thanksgiving and we were able to get a good picture of the whole family.

On Thanksgiving Day, Granna had a lot of fun things planned to keep the kids entertained.  Things like crafts, songs, games, and even a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood.

Granna's dinner was wonderful and, as usual, I ate way too much!

It was a great day but the best part was just getting to spend time with my family!  I am very blessed to have such a wonderful, loving family to go through life with!  I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Eden & Lily's Frozen Birthday Party

This post should be called "The Birthday Party that Almost Didn't Happen!".  The fact that this party is finally in the books is quite a miracle! 

 

We decided back in early fall that we were going to have a joint party for the girls this year.  Lily wasn't thrilled with sharing her party with Eden but quickly warmed up to the idea when I gave her the choice of sharing her party with Eden or having no party at all! 

 

We chose mid-November for the date of the party and decided to have it at Miss Tammy's.  They have several bounce houses for the kids to enjoy and I knew the girls would love it! 

 

Our first problem came the day after we sent out the invitations.  Lily came home from preschool with an invitation to a classmate's birthday party.  I realized as I was looking at the invitation that her friend's party was at the exact same time and place as our party. When I contacted Miss Tammy's, they realized that they had mistakenly double booked our parties. 

 

After exploring all of our options, we finally decided to move the party to a later time on the same day.  We texted everyone that we had invited, and luckily everyone could still make it at the new time.

 

Fast forward to two days before the party... Eden came home from school with the stomach bug.  After 24 hours, Eden was still not feeling well so we made the difficult decision to cancel/postpone the party.  It ended up being a good decision because Eden woke up the morning of the party feeling worse than the day before. And Lily ended up getting sick that day too!

 

Luckily, Miss Tammy's worked with us and let us move the party... again...to the following Friday night.  Not ideal because I was in charge of Grandparent's Day at school that day but at least the girls would finally get their party.  We texted their friends...again... and luckily most of them were still going to be able to come.       

 

After a lot of praying that no one else would get sick and a lot of listening to Lily ask "How many more days until my party?" and a lot of stress at work getting ready for Grandparent's Day, the girl's party day finally arrived!  I rushed home from a very successful Grandparent's Day at school, quickly finished the girl's cakes and loaded everything up for the party.

 

Eden and Lily were so excited when we got to Miss Tammy's. especially once their friends started to arrive.  They had a great time running around and jumping in the bounce houses.  Because the party was around dinner time, we decided to get pizza for the kids.  They were having such a good time jumping, we could hardly get them to stop and eat!

We decided on a Frozen theme for their party and I was so pleased at how their cake turned out.  I wanted them to each have their own cake and this one was perfect!  

When it was time to sing to the girls, Eden told me she didn't want us to sing to her.  We sang anyway so she stuck her fingers in her ears!

I had no idea that the rock candy that I used to decorate the cake would be more of a hit than the cake itself.  They all loved it!

Up next was presents!  Because they invited different friends, we separated them into two groups to open their presents.  It was funny to watch how different the attention spans were for each group.  Lily's friends (the four year olds) ran around and didn't really watch her open her presents at all.  Eden's friends (the six year olds) sat quietly in a circle around Eden and watched as she opened each and every one! 

Eden and Lily had so much fun at their party that they didn't want it to end.  After all the ups and downs of planning this party, I was just glad that we were finally able to celebrate our two special girls with a fun party!  We are so thankful to all of our family and friends who stayed flexible throughout the entire planning process and took the time to come out on a Friday night to help us celebrate! 

Happy Birthday Eden and Lily!  We love you both very much!

 

Six Years Old

My sweet Eden-
Today you turn six!  You now need two hands to show how old you are!  I remember the day you were born and it feels like it was just yesterday!  Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined what a beautiful girl you would be six years later!  You are smart, caring, loving, shy and funny and I can't imagine what I would do without you!  Here are some things I want to remember about you as you turn another year older:

-You continue to be tall and thin.  You are by far the tallest girl in your kindergarten class and you are taller than most of the boys too!  You weigh about 46 pounds and wear size 6 clothes and size 12/13 shoes.

-You are a very picky eater.  You hate trying new foods and would rather go to bed hungry than take a bite of something new.  You can be very stubborn when it comes to eating and it often drives me crazy!  I was hoping by this point you would be a little better about trying new foods but it seems like you are actually getting worse.  Some things that you will always eat are chicken nuggets, manicotti, any type of beans (especially pinto beans and refried beans), cheese quesadillas, bean burritos, black olives, cashews and applesauce.  There are no vegetables that you will eat and applesauce (and an occasional banana) is pretty much the only fruit you will eat.  Maybe this year will be the year you break out of your shell and start trying new things!

-You are doing so well in kindergarten!  Your reading continues to improve and get better every day!  I think you are reading on a level 12 (mid-first grade level) right now. Your speech continues to improve too.  You go to speech therapy only one day a week and I think you will probably be dismissed from speech this year!  You have transitioned into school better than daddy and I ever thought you would and have made so many new friends.  Some of the friends you talk about are Tai and Lorelei.  You love Mrs. Pritchard and love going to school every day!

-You still love to play with the bucket of hot wheel cars.  You pick it over almost everything else in the playroom.  You also love to play pretend with Parker and Eden.  Family and Ninja Turtles are your favorite things to pretend.  You occasionally play with your dolls and have started playing with Barbies a little bit.  You have also shown an interest in Legos recently.

-Although you have made a lot of progress, you are still painfully shy and do not like to have any attention brought upon you.  If there is any chance that someone will look at you, there is no way that you will participate.  You also get very anxious about things when you don't know what to expect.  We have found that role playing and acting out unfamiliar situations with you before they happen can lessen your anxiety, but you still get very nervous and sometimes will not participate even with the role playing.

-Your beautiful, curly hair continues to be the bane of your existence!  You want straight hair more than anything in the world and you ask me every.single.day when you are going to start growing straight hair.  Aunt MerMer recently straightened your hair for you and you spent two days in absolute heaven.  You even cried when I made you take a bath because you knew your curly hair would come back.  I hope you learn to embrace your hair soon.  If you don't, I have a feeling you might be spending all of your allowance on straightening products when you get older.

-You are so loving!  You tell me several times a day how much you love me and often shower me with hugs and kisses!  I never get tired of hearing "I love you Mommy"! You are also very sensitive and get your feelings hurt very easily.

-Your favorite things to watch on TV right now are Ninja Turtles and Rabbids. 

-When asked what you want to be when you grow up, your current response is an eye doctor during the day and a singer girl at night, which makes us laugh because you can't carry a tune in a bucket!

It has been so much fun to watch you grow and change over the past six months!  You have really matured in so many areas, especially since starting kindergarten.  You are a delight to parent and I love being your mommy!  I pray that the upcoming year has wonderful things ahead for you!

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Lily's Thanksgiving Feast

Lily had her Thanksgiving feast at preschool today.  I am so thankful for a flexible work schedule that allows me to enjoy these special moments with my kids.  This was my 5th Thanksgiving feast at Sunshine Preschool... only one more to go.  I know it won't be long before our preschool days will be over and I'm so glad I will have these wonderful memories to look back on.

Happy 6th Birthday Eden!

We had a great day celebrating our sweet SIX year old! 

We started the morning with presents because Eden didn't think she could wait until after school to open them! She loved her new Legos!

Her big gift from us was a Ninja Turtle car.  Cory and I knew when we found it that she would love it because it combines the two things she loves right now... playing with cars and watching Ninja Turtles. 

 Next she enjoyed her traditional "6" pancakes at Granna's for breakfast.

 She had a good day at school and enjoyed wearing her birthday hat from Mrs. Pritchard. 

We told Eden that she could choose any restaurant in town for her birthday dinner and of course she chose Taco Bueno.  Cory and I both suggested several other options that she might like but she insisted that we go to Taco Bueno. 

We ended the day by treating our birthday girl to some birthday ice cream at Sweet Frog! 

Eden is such a blessing to our family and we enjoyed making her feel special today! 

Happy Birthday Eden! We love you so much and hope the upcoming year has wonderful things in store for you!