Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

This One Takes the Cake

What do you do when you want to be a knight and your meanie mom won't buy you a suit of armor?

You get creative...

Keys: the big motivator...

Cuteness, if I do say so myself...

FOUR!

Roxie turned four last week!

What a happy day. She got to have TWO parties. Yes, my children are spoiled rotten, why do you ask? The first party was for her friends. We made jewelry, painted nails, ate cake (chocolate beet cake), and opened presents. Wowie wow wow. What a fun time. The best part was that all her little friends brought their moms, all of whom I adore. So, when the party was over, everybody stayed and played and all the moms got to visit and have fun. I love that kind of party. Plus, my sister, who is darling inside and out, cleaned up after the party for me. She's a keeper.

The second party was for grandparents and aunts and uncles. It was lovely, too. Well, except for the cake fiasco which is still too painful to talk about...

So, in honor of the big FOUR,  I would like to list four things I love about Miss Roxie.


1. She is hilarious. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. You may have gathered this from some of my posts.


2. She is sunshine. Everyone who meets her is drawn to her by her bright spirit and happy nature.


3. Everything is the most exciting thing ever. Really. She is so enthusiastic and loving and grateful.


4. She loves everyone. She is, I am pretty sure, who Jesus was talking about when he told us to be like little children.


Happy birthday and I LOVE YOU, Roxie!

Catching up!

I have been so busy, it has been hard to keep up with my blogging. So, here I sit on a Sunday afternoon, with happy and occupied kids - the perfect time to do a little catching up! There is so much to cover, that it may just end up being lots of pictures!


The beginning of August, my sister Panda and her husband Choo Choo came to visit. Those aren't their real names. They are really Adrienne and James, but we never call them that. Isn't that a wonderful beginning?... Never mind. Anyway, one of the first things we did, was visit the gardens. I will mention that Stacy (my other sister) and her lovely girlies came too.

Christian got all things Star Wars for his birthday!

We also went to the dinosaur museum with my sisters and nieces.

Panda got feeling a little feisty with this guy:

Christian followed her example.

Hopefully, they will both be a little smarter if they ever meet a real one. What? They're extinct? Oh, good.

Roxie and Lily were feeling brave.

OK. Maybe Roxie was feeling brave. Lily was feeling dramatic.

Sophie was feeling a little bored.

The next day, Doug was home from Haiti with his broken arm he got there. We made him go bowling anyway. Aren't we nice? OK, so he didn't bowl so much as cheer. It was a grand time. Panda and I rocked out to all the 80's music. We partied like it was 1999. Or something. Anyway, we had a blast!

Then, we went home for cupcakes. Panda and Choo Choo are the queen and king of cupcakes, respectively. Choo Choo had already returned to Illinois by then, so the queen, herself, made the cupcakes. 

They were made with whole wheat flour and unrefined sugar and they were divine. You may not believe it, but it's true.

I told you his birthday lasted a week! I will have to finish catching up later. One of those happy and occupied children decided she was hungry. Too bad for her she's too little for chocolate cupcakes... I'm feeling hungry now, too!

EIGHT!

Christian turned eight last week. Can you believe it? It was quite the birthday. Celebrations lasted a week. Really. The highlight was his baptism on Saturday. I will blog about that soon. For now, I will tell you eight things I love about my favorite eight year old.

1. He has old man eyebrows. I can't stand it, I love it so much.

2. He has the best laugh I have ever heard.

3. He loves his family.

4. He's a Mama's boy.

5. He has such a good heart.

6. He is affectionate. He gives fantastic hugs and loves to snuggle.

7. He is hilarious.

8. He is so very thoughtful.

I'm so grateful he's my boy! I love you, Christian!

National Self Appreciation Day?

So, I'm behind on my blogging. Way behind. I've been busy. I'll catch up at some point. I promise. I think.

But, I read my friend Annalia's blog and she posted some self-appreciation. She got the idea from her friend's blog who got it from her friend's blog. (I followed the links because I was curious.) Anyway, I started thinking, what would I write? I could make a list a mile long of the things I don't like, but the things I like? That's hard! And then, I thought of a few things and then thought, I can't put that! What if someone reads this and they disagree? But, that's not OK, is it? That made me decide that I should do this. No matter how uncomfortable it makes me. So here goes. Here is what I like about me:

I'm nice. At least I try to be.

I'm strong. Not physically (though I'm working on it!). I can do hard things.

I am a daughter of God. I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am willing to do what I believe is right for my family. Even if it makes me weird.

I'm LOVE being a mom. I think I'm a pretty good one, though I want to be even better. I doubt I'll ever be completely satisfied on this one, but I like how hard I try.

I LOVE my babies.

I'm pretty smart. Sometimes.

I am generous. I love to give money or gifts whenever I can to friends and charities.

There you have it. Girls are too hard on themselves. I know I am. We should love ourselves for the wonderful people we are. When did it become so unacceptable to be confident and secure? It's a shame.

So, now all of you should make your own list. What do you like about you?