Snowman

Blake and I made a snowman, his first snowman ever. Though I did most of the heavy work, he still had fun!

Now however our snowman is headless and slumped over. Blake saw it this morning out the window when I mentioned it was headless and he said "Mom, that's not funny, we better go fix it."

He took my picture too. I'm wearing one of Jalyssa's "stylin'" winter hats!

Cakes Galore!

I always make custom birthday cakes for my kids, niece, nephew and cousins when they request.

This year my niece Aleya (9yrs) asked for a Hawiian Beach Cake, my nephew Mason (6yrs) asked for a Batman cake and my daughter (13yrs) asked for a simple heart cake.

They loved them at the party on Saturday. Always makes me happy to do them.

More and more snow!

Boy I'm ready for Spring, but the kids are just loving the snow.

Here are some pics from today, the kids still having fun even though it's 19 degrees.

My niece Lauren and nephew Caleb were here today, so when Blake got home from school they played in the backyard, sledding down our little hill and playing in the igloo we made a couple weeks ago. Lauren ate snow the majority of the time, the boys sledded and crashed intentionally, laughing every time. Good thing it's a small hill! Not sure why, but Caleb stuck his tongue out most of the time too! Not sure if it was too eat snow or to concentrate. Either way it was amusing.

Blake pics

Blake and I built this little snow fort with all the snow that Brian had shoveled into a pile.

He had a lot of fun in it until he got too cold.

Lookin' Cool!

Birthday Cake with Friends

The 4 J's - Jella, Jelly, Jello and Jell

"Sweet" Smiles

All these crazy Girls...what to do, what to do!

Whew, what a weekend!

The weekend is almost over. J's birthday slumber party on Friday night went well. 

The 4 girls were all sleeping by 1:30am. A lot sooner than I expected. There were the moments in the evening that they were all running around screaming, mostly when Blake was chasing them.

(He's a boy, he knows when to hang around with a bunch of cute girls.)

They danced, they dressed up, they played Wii, they had fun.

They all woke about 10 am and I made them pancakes and scrambled eggs.  The 4 girls had no trouble scarfing down almost 2 dozen pancakes. Amazing. I remember when I could eat like that. Not anymore though!

Blake went to his friends 5th birthday party Saturday afternoon. It was at a McDonald's with a Playland.

They had lots of fun. So much that the birthday boy, Colton, didn't want to sit down long enough to open his gifts, he just wanted to play!

Resting today, but we have a busy week ahead!

The BIG 1-3!

Today was our daughter's 13th birthday! She had an extra special day since school was closed due to the snow! She was super excited about that.

We went to dinner at Chuck E Cheese's (her choice).

We all had fun. 

Now on to the birthday slumber party tomorrow, when I'll need earplugs. There will be 4 teen/pre-teen girls giggling and squealing into the wee hours of the night. Yikes!

Should be fun though.

Countdown

I should have started this countdown a few days ago, but now is better than never. In 2 days our daughter is going to turn 13, an official teenager. Yikes! The years have flown right by us and she's growing up fast. Here is a look back from her birth to 12.5 years old.

a few minutes old

1 year old

2 years - with 1st bike

2.5 years 

3 years - sweet angel

3.5 years - Big blue eyes

4 years - got into mommy's mascara and lipstick

5 years - PBJ mustache

5.5 years - cutie pie

6 years - Fishing

6.5 years "go wings"

7 years - new big sis with new baby brother

7.5 years - with new glasses

8 years

8.5 years - Fall '03

9 years - Dance outfit

9.5 years - Fall '04

10 years - Easter

10.5 years - Fall '05 - got contacts!

11 years -Summer

11.5  years - Fall '06

12 years - 2nd piercing in ears

12.5 years -  Fall '07 -7th grade 

I wish I hadn't said it.

Low and behold, I tell someone that "we've been healthy so far this winter" and all of us end up with colds over the weekend, yuk. 

Not too bad, but still. I jinxed us.

Blake's first Ballet show (and Brian's)

Tonight we went to see Peter Pan at the Ballet. Good seats, 2nd row, center. Blake was interested in seeing it when we got a postcard in the mail. I had explained to him that there was no talking just dancing. He wanted to see it anyway. I think he really wanted to see Captain Hook and Peter Pan do the sword fight the most. 

It's an hour and a half show and we weren't sure he'd sit through it. He did so good, sat with his hands on his lap like a perfect little boy the whole time, never talking, just watching intently. 

At intermission, we thought he'd say "is it done yet." But instead he couldn't wait for the second half to begin. We had asked him how he liked it so far he said "good." We asked what his favorite part was so far he said "I don't know yet, I have to watch it until the end."

So at the end we asked again about his favorite part and he said "the end." Then later said "all of it."

And before bed, he said "when can we go there again?"

So he got to experience something new.

p.s. Brian enjoyed it too. : )