Birthday Bash With The Family!

The girls' birthdays are only 3 weeks apart and I am right smack dab in the middle.  So, to make it easier on everyone, okay so I don't know exactly how easy it is on everyone else but it sure is easier on me, we have the family birthday bash on the same day.  And then they get to have their party with their friends.

This year, my mom, my dad, Wesley, Jordan, and Austin were able to be here for the party again.  Others who came were, Erik's parents, Michelle and Dustin and their kiddos, Ryan (Lizeth and Leilani had something else at her parents), and Nikki (Andy had class that night).  Also our dear friends, who might as well be family, Shonna and her kids made it over as well (Andy had a bunch of work to do). 

All in all it was a fun evening, I think.  Okay, so the girls and I had fun.  I hope everyone else did as well!

I made this really cool sunflower cake with Hershey Kisses, yummy!  Chocolate!

Thanks everyone who was able to make it and spend some special time with us.  And those of you who couldn't, wish you were here!  Love ya!

The sunflower cake. Can you say awesome?  and easy?  The petals are twinkies!

And of course you have to have a cake that says their names!  This was thrown together last minute, not my finest.

Family and friends!

Blowing out the candles!  They should get their wishes!

Love having everyone over!

Opening of presents, the girls' favorite part.  Thanks everyone!

Emma's Birthday and Baptism

Once again I am playing catch up.  Emma had her 8th birthday on August 26 and we had her baptism on her birthday! 

When she woke up she got to open her presents, she got a lot of Littlest Pet Shop stuff, her book was even a Littlest Pet Shop book. 

My parents and two youngest brothers, Wesley and Jordan, were in town visiting from PA for her baptism.  Ian, Angela, Adelia and baby Joseph were also able to make it up from San Diego where Ian is doing his internship at the Naval Medical Hospital in Balboa Park.

For their birthdays they get to pick what their "special" birthday dinner would be.  Emma chose homemade pizzas! 

Things were crazy that day running from one thing to another trying to get everything done.  We were not able to have her birthday cake before we had to leave for her baptism so we had it when we got home.

There were about 71 people there at her baptism!  Wow!  Thank you everyone who was able to make it.  You helped make Emma's special day even more special.

After the baptism we all traipsed back home for cake and ice cream.  Emma chose those Cheesecakes from a box, the Jello brand.  We love those things at our house! 

We also brought home with us friends Rachel, Crystal and Winter as their mom had to leave the baptism early.  Mom, Wendy and brother Darian got there shortly after we did so they all joined us for cake and ice cream.

It was a late night getting to bed.

Emma and Erik in their white jumpsuits ready for the baptism.

Emma and Mia making memories.

We are so proud of our accountable girls! ;)

Time for cake!  Happy Birthday Emma!

Happy Birthday, Emma--Just A Few Days Late!!!

Emma turned 7 on the 26th of August! Wow! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing this tiny little bundle of joy home.

There are so many things that I LOVE about Emma. But I will just list a few:

1. Emma is crazy! Just ask her, she'll tell you!

2. She is always making me laugh with something that she is doing. It seems as if her mission in life is to keep everyone entertained.

3. She has a great imagination, for example the Emma-hole that I talked about in an older post. I am going to assume that you all know the story about the Emma-hole so I will not bore you all again, if you want to hear all the details again let me know!

4. She is so smart. As her homeschool teacher I get to see all the new stuff she is learning everyday, and man does she impress me with the things she knows and the questions she asks. I find myself saying a lot that's a great question for your dad or I guess we better look that up online to find out the answer. Thank goodness for google, it helps mommy look smart!

5. The faces that she makes, are just so cute. And every time I think of Emma I picture her with a scrunched up nose, eyes closed, big smile posing for the camera. We have a lot of pictures with the "classic Emma" face.

6. She is so creative. She is always the first one line to do anything artsy/crafty. She loves to create many different projects and masterpieces.

The things that Erik loves about Emma, to list a few.

1. Her fun sense of humor.

2. Her love of animals.

3. Her love of art, coloring, and drawing.

4. Her love of going new places and trying new things.

The things that Mia loves about Emma are.

1. She's funny

2. She's pretty

3. She's always there when I need help

4. "I just love Emma so so much!"

We love you Emma! Thanks for being such a great girl!

Happy Birthday, Miriam!

Have a Magical Birthday, Miriam!

Today is Mriam's 7th birthday! Boy do they grow up fast! It seems like just yesterday. . .

Anyway, she has already had a few parties, one with the family, one with her friends and we did our own immediate family party on Saturday because Erik is in Kansas for work this week. This is the first time that he has missed her birthday.

For her "birthday day" she wanted waffles for breakfast and pizza for dinner. She chose angel food cake with whipped topping and strawberries!

She got makeup, a movie, a CD, and the twister pink game. Emma gave her a Polly Pocket. So, she made out pretty good, and she got her presents a few days early!

Birthday Slumber Party!

The girls had their combined birthday slumber party last weekend! They had invited eight friends but only six could make it, and believe me six was plenty!

We made homemade personal pizzas for dinner, everyone got to put whatever toppings they wanted on their pizza. A trick I learned from my mom, having nine kids that all liked different things she's got tons of little tricks like that! Thanks mom!

While they were eating they watched Cinderella III: A Twist In Time.

We rented Disney Princesses for Wii, and the girls had a blast playing that all evening. They all did a really good job of sharing and taking turns. It also helped that we let them get on the Internet and play on Disney.com.

After the girls blew out the candles they opened up their presents. They got some really cool toys and things.

The girls picked just a plain white cake in a heart shape with flowers, but it had to be decorated with yellow and pink icing. Because pink is Mia's favorite color and yellow is Emma's. Well, I cheated I had leftover icing from their cake for the family party on Monday so I used the leftover to ice this cake. We also had cookies and cream ice cream to go with the cake.

Three of the girls had to leave early the next morning because they had soccer games so they actually went to bed at a decent time. We took the TV/VCR into their room and let them vote on a movie to watch while they were "falling asleep." They chose Pochantas.

They were actually all asleep by the time I went to bed. I had to stay up making the rest of the bread into cinnamon rolls for the next morning.

I had to get up early to cook the cinnamon rolls, most of the girls were already awake whispering and playing in the girls' bedroom.

After breakfast they played more Wii and Computer games. Until it was late enough that we could go outside and break open the pinata.

Then it was more playing until moms came to get them. All in all I think everyone had a good time!

Mia and Emma getting ready to blow out the candles!

All the girls that were at the party outside before hitting the pinata.

Mia and Emma chose a Unicorn pinata!

And of course the silly picture! It cracks me up every time I look at it!

Girls And Their Clothes

What is up with girls having soooo many clothes? I definitely include myself in this! I have clothes that I hope to fit back into some day, clothes I wear now, and clothes that I'm keeping just because. Why do we do this? I know that I when I get down to the size I want to be I will then go shopping and get really cute clothes, so why am I still hanging on to the other clothes?

I have decided that I need to simplify my life, I know I make this decision every couple months! Anyway, I am going to go through my closet and get rid of anything that doesn't fit, I don't wear, or is just plain ugly!

I finally was able to go through all the baby clothes that I was keeping from when the girls were babies. What's the point in keeping a ton of baby clothes when you can't have anymore kids? It was hard, all the memories, remembering when the girls were little. And then all the depressing thoughts about not being able to have anymore kids. But I got through it. I kept a small tub of a few special pieces of clothing, but I got rid of the rest!

And you know what, now that it's done I'm ready to attack all of the other things that need to be done. Here's the bad part though, both Erik and I are both pack rats! Yikes! But at least now I'm in purging mode.

Speaking of clothes, my mom got Mia and Emma 2 dresses each for their birthdays. They each wore one of their new dresses to "Mammy's church" for Leilani's baby blessing. The girls looked so cute and Leilani is just a gorgeous little baby!

Christian's Birthday Party!

Michelle and Dustin had Christian's birthday party at Jumping Jacks. It is a big place that has tons of jumping things inside! And I mean tons. There are mazes, slides, obstacle courses, and of course the big bounce houses. The adults, I mean big boys, liked the one that was set up like a big boxing ring complete with humongous boxing gloves! They had fun beating each other up.

The kids had a good time as well!

Mia having fun coming out of one of the obstacle courses!

Emma coming down the pinball slide!

Chase on the slide!

Christian on the slide!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Happy Birthday To Our Little Princess, Emma!

Today is our youngest daughter, Emma's 6th birthday! Where does the time go? They grow up so quickly.

I will save the getting sad part of this experience for another day because now is a the day to celebrate! Emma got to pick her birthday breakfast--cinnamon rolls; and her birthday dinner--Baked Chicken Parmesan with corn. She picked chocolate cupcakes for her cake.

Well, I better go finish dinner. I just wanted to say a Happy Birthday to our little princess, Emma!

Happy Birthday, Erik!

Happy Birthday, Erik! We love you and hope that you had a great birthday.

Erik's boss generously gave Erik the day off. So what did we do with this special time together? Well, we started off with good intentions of doing something fun but ended up not really doing anything.

We did get Erik in to the eye doctor for an eye exam, it had been two years. He got a pair of prescription sunglasses as well as a new pair of eyeglasses with transition lenses! We already picked up the sunglasses, they were done today but we have to wait for the glasses. They did have to change his prescription, he says that he can really tell a difference. Makes me want to make my eye appointment!

I made Jambalaya for dinner, one of Erik's favorite meals! I put sausage, shrimp and chicken in it this time. Like pretty much everything I make I start off with a recipe or two or sometimes three, combine what I like best about each add my own stuff and somehow come out with something that they tell me tastes good. Only problem is I never know exactly what I did to be able to duplicate the exact same recipe again!

I then made a yellow cake and frosted it with homemade chocolate frosting. Topped that with some pecans and chocolate chips! Yummy! Sweets are always my downfall, and you thought I gained the weight by eating healthy, right? But I am proud of myself I had only 1 piece and it wasn't even a gigantic piece! Both Erik and I have lost weight these last 2 1/2 weeks and we don't want to screw that up!

The girls and Erik getting ready to open the presents!

The shirt the girls made for Erik.

They really wanted to make something for Daddy for his birthday!

Erik modeling the shirt!

The new Wii games--

Zelda Twilight Princess and Super Smash Brothers Brawl!

History of Superman DVD--if you don't know already Erik LOVES Superheros!

Playing the new Wii games!

Did we mention that my brother Isaac is visiting for a couple of weeks?

Brandy's Birthday Party!

For those of you who don't know we have a cat! Yes, a cat. Yes, Erik is allergic to cats. But he lets us bring in a stray cat that sort of adopted our family when her owners abandoned her when they moved. She has been with us for more than a year, and inside for a year.

Isn't Erik a great dad and husband? He let us move her inside even though he is so allergic and now has to take an allergy pill every day. What a sweetie! We can't possibly thank him enough.

The girls wanted to have a birthday party for Brandy, the cat. So we told them to pick a day in June, since that was the month that she moved in with us!

So join us on a picture journey of the birthday party!

The girls with the birthday cat!

Emma wanted Brandy to wear a party hat but we were able to convince her that it wouldn't be fun for the cat!

The opening of the presents!
Mia held Brandy while Emma opened the presents! Brandy got two new cat toys and homemade kitty "cookies"

The girls set the table with party ware!

The presents all wrapped up!

The cards/pictures that the girls made for Brandy!