Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Doodle!

In February, Sariah turned 9. Yes, 9. I've been a mom for 9 amazing, crazy, wonderful years. Who knew it would be this good? We had an "early bird" party. Her cute little friends came first thing in the morning and we had breakfast all together. We invited them to come in their jammies and they loved it. We served waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, juice and chocolate milk. They were too excited to eat much so we had a lot of breakfast left over. We sent them home with a goodie bag of gummy worms (because the early bird catches the worm) and lip gloss. I think Brooklyn was the most excited. She kept talking about her "glip gloss" from the party.


Later that evening the family came over for presents, cake and ice cream. The kids were excited to give her the gifts they bought. When Sariah opened Brook's gift, Brook said, "Is it the best present ever?" Too cute. She lots of fun presents including a princess poster and an mp3 player. She looks too grown up sprawled on the couch plugged in to her music.

The best part for me was that she requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, sprinkles and a number 9 candle. (The kids have been easy on me so far this year.) We love you, Pumpkin Doodle. Thanks for being such a sweet peacemaker in our family.

Sweet Treats

At the end of January we got a short visit from Grandma Walker. She came to help her mom recover from some surgery on her shoulder. We loved each moment we got with her. Sariah was thrilled that they got to make cookies together (even if we "cheated" and got the tub of dough). Two of her favorite things: chocolate chip cookies and grandma. Could life be better? Thanks, Mom, for making her day.


Zac had fun helping, too, and we all enjoyed eating the cookies. Ally and Brook loved telling Grandma about every toy they had. We live for time with family.

While Mom was here, Emily and I were talking and thought it would be fun to treat our sweethearts to a Valentine dinner. And we actually did it. The kids played at home with Smith cousins and we had a romantic dinner at Emily's. The planning was almost as fun as the actual dinner. We made chicken fried steak, twice baked potatoes, cranberry spinach salad, rolls, and fruit salad. Dessert was ice cream sundaes on brownies. We used my china that I got for our wedding. I think this was the first time we used the full place settings. What a fun excuse to get it all out. The boys were impressed and ate everything we served. After dinner we watched Star Trek. It was a great evening with the best company. I love you, Joseph and look forward to many more Valentine dates.

More January Fun

Over a long weekend in January, we went to visit the cousins. We went to the Treehouse Museum and loved it just as much as we did the first time. Sariah couldn't wait to get to the school house. Zac and I were her students. We had to do math facts on our chalkboards. She was a great teacher.

Brook the fireman. She had fun playing in a little pink house that she claimed as her own. I wish we had grabbed a picture of that. She actually got a little defensive when other kids wandered in.

Fun in the teepee. Ally did go with us. She was too busy having fun to pose for a picture.


Zac lost his second tooth, finally. You can see it better in this picture, but I couldn't resist the first one. He is such a fun kid. Anyway, after a week or so of having his front tooth poking out (we affectionately called it his Mater tooth), it fell out. Since then he has lost his other front tooth. He looks adorable.


Ally and Brook are my great helpers. We spent a fun morning making banana bread. The girls loved making their own loaves. They actually did a great job. I need to remember to let them help more.

I am not quite sure what inspired the posing in pajamas on Mom's bed, but it is classic. You just never know what they will do next.

We got a wii for Christmas and my favorite part is watching Brooklyn play. She likes to play baseball. She just pitches; she could care less about batting. It is hilarious. Each time she pitches, she jumps up and down saying, "Yeah, I did it!"

After a light snow storm, Zac insisted on shoveling the sidewalk. I think he secretly hoped we would pay him for his work. He actually stayed with it longer than I thought he would. This is a glimpse of the the future. He'll be a great sidewalk shoveler.



This is Zac's drum solo from our trip to the Children's Museum. I just didn't manage to get it in the right order. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Pal!

Can you believe Ally is 5? I am still getting used to it myself. We even registered for Kindergarten last week. She is so ready. But, back to her birthday. She had her first friend party. We had a great pony party. First, we made wands. That really doesn't fit with the pony theme, but the girls loved it and I already had all the stuff we needed, so it was perfect.

Then we played pin-the-tail-on-the-pony. Thanks to Dad's document cam at school and his mad tracing skills, we had a huge My Little Pony to put up on the door. (And notice that the pony is holding a wand, so the wand idea did fit the theme after all.)

Joseph delighted them all by completely missing the pony all together. Thanks for being a good sport, Joseph. I made him play because the highlight of my birthday parties as a young girl was always when Dad played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with us. Somehow his tail always ended up across the room or on the ceiling. Great memories; thanks, Dad.

We had a party the following day with the family. Ally scored lots of fun new presents, mostly ponies, pockets and pollies. The pony cake was easy and she loved it. Notice the toys that accompanied her to blow out the candles. Grandma Walker sent her some My Loving Family figures and Zac gave her stormtroopers. That is Ally for you. She loves "girl things," like ponies and dollhouses and she loves "boy things," like Star Wars and Nerf guns. She is a delightful mix that we think is just perfect. There is no one like our Pal. We love you!