The Many Faces of Me

I have a terrible habit of making the weirdest faces in pictures. They're actually pretty funny. But I'm wondering ~ Am I really this animated, constantly making all kinds of goofy faces or is my sister sabotaging me with her camera?

The Princess Party

Sienna turned 5 last Tuesday and we had her party yesterday (Saturday). We invited all the little girls from her preschool class. Out of 9 invitations, 7 little girls came. They had so much fun. We all did. I was actually quite nervous. The entire party had to be planned, right down to the smallest detail. Even though I had been planning this party for about 2 months, I was still worried that I was majorly overlooking something. I had Shell and Maddie come down to give me a hand with things. And I sent Dave & Levi off to the vets to get the puppies their shots.

The party lasted from noon to 3:00. Shell had me a little concerned that it was going to be a bit too long for the girls. However, it was not. I think 3 hours was just about perfect. We played games, did a craft, ate, and they ran all over the house blowing party horns as loud as they could. Sienna was in her 7th heaven having so many friends over. She is always asking to have sleep overs but that's not very successful at this age. Sienna was an excellent hostess. I was afraid that she would pick one girl and want to play with just her. But she didn't. She played with all the girls equally. She gave each girl a hug as they left and told them thank you for coming to her party and for her gifts. Then her & Sierra continued to play 'party' for the rest of the night. They even included Levi. It was a really fun day for Sienna. And I think the party went really well. All of the girls really seemed to enjoy themselves. Here's some more pictures of the party in action!

This is the frog that I made for the 'Kiss the Prince' game. (Pin the Tail on the Donkey with a Princess twist). I'm not very crafty. I would like to be naturally crafty & creative but the truth is I struggle to make a decent stick figure! So this was quite the accomplishment for me. I don't know what I would do without the internet! This frog is still hanging on my wall and the kids are still playing Kiss the Frog.



Here's a couple of shots of the all the girls sitting together. It was actually kind of hard to get pics of all the girls together unless they were sitting down eating!








This is the girls playing Freeze Dance.












As the girls came in Sienna would take them over to the table to pick out their Princess Crown. Instead of party hats each girl got their own princess crown and earrings to wear. FYI: the earrings break very easily.

Happy Birthday Sienna Pearl!!

I cannot even believe that my baby girl is 5 years old already! Where does all the time go? I know that we say it all the time, but really, why does it all go by so fast? And why doesn't it feel fast in the moment? It's just another reminder to me to love the people in my life with all that I am.

Sienna had a wonderful day. And I did too just being able to share her day with her. I woke her up this morning by singing happy birthday to her which she absolutely loved. Then she wanted a cupcake with a candle in it for breakfast. How do you say no to a cupcake on her birthday? She was very excited to get to school and see all of her friends. She just knew they were all eager to tell her Happy Birthday, I guess. To pretty much everything I would say she would respond with, "Cause I the birthday girl." Walking into school I told to her hold my hand because I didn't want her to fall on the ice. She said, "Cause I the birthday girl." Her class made her a birthday card and sang happy birthday to her. Then she got to pass out her birthday treat as her friends were dismissed. We made cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzel rods for her pass out treat. She was so grown up saying thank you and your welcome to each friend.

Later we did a little shopping and took her to McDonald's for lunch & play. Every person we saw she told them that it was her birthday and that she was 5 years old today. She was just so pleased with herself all day. After Sierra got home from school Sienna was finally able to open her presents. Sierra & Levi gave Sienna a new pack of diapers for her baby (Baby Alive~ it actually pees). And Daddy & Mommy gave Sienna the Princess Talking Kitchen. She asked for this for Christmas but didn't get it. I didn't want to get for her birthday either because she already has a really nice kitchen in her bedroom. However, she was very adamant that this was what she wanted. The video below shows her opening the kitchen and how excited she was.

We ended the wonderful day with a very small celebration with Grami, Mamaw, Aunt Shell & the kids. Sienna is having her birthday party this Saturday. She has invited all the girls from her preschool class. There's only 8 girls so even if they all come it shouldn't be too bad. Sienna is EXTREMELY excited for the party (and so am I). As Sienna was giving a treat to one of her friends this afternoon she said to her, "And thank you for talking to me about my party and kissing the frog." And they both giggled. Is that not so grown up of her? I almost cried, but I didn't. (Hey, there was alot of people at the preschool). And as for kissing the frog~ We're going to play Kiss the Frog Prince at her party. Think Pin the Tail on the Donkey but with a princess twist. She can't stop talking about that game.

She had a great day. I am so blessed and fortunate to have such wonderful and amazing kids. They make me every good thing that I am. Even when they're driving me crazy and I'm ready to jump out the window, it's because of them that I don't. Those smiles. Those giggles. It makes everything in life so worth it. So, to my amazing 5 yr. old Love Nugget I say~ I love you and I am soooo proud of you everyday. Happy Birthday Baby!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

Mommy's Day Out

Wow!! Is it cold enough for ya?! Did you get enough snow?! What is going on here? I can't take much more of this. Seriously. This is not working for me. The kids got a couple of snow days a couple of weeks ago. We found ourselves on a 5 day stretch of no school. I did not leave the house from Tuesday morning (Sienna's last day of school) until the following Monday when I took Mom to the eye doctor. Isn't that terrible? It's just too cold for me. This is the first day that I've had internet for about 3 or 4 days.

Back to my topic, I drove Mom to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago because she was getting her eyes dilated. So I left the kids home with Dave. After Mom's appointment we stopped at the Olive Garden and had some lunch. It was a nice afternoon. Except for Mom's eye looking like it was going to jump out and attack me from across the table. By the time I got home the kids were acting like I had been gone for a week. Everyone was alive and safe, including Dave. It was a good day. After the kids had gone to bed I sat down and looked through my camera, for no real reason. It was a nice surprise to see that the kids had been using the camera while I was gone. They often do this and sometimes that get some really good ones (and alot of not so great ones). This particular day it was full of lots of good pictures for me. The girls had spent the day with the puppies, doing lots of things that Mommy won't let them do.

Notice how these poor puppies have their back legs through the seat belts. I asked the girls about this to which Sierra replied, "Sienna told me to." Sienna didn't hesitate with her response of, "So they could be safe." As I continued to look through the pictures I asked Sienna if all the puppies had their own car. She said, "Two of them had to share."

4 Weeks Already!

Can you believe the pups are 4 weeks old already? They are soooo cute. They are extremely mobile now. They run all over the floor and are very playful. I'm actually very surprised at how very playful they are already, not only with each other but also with us. Two of them were all over Sienna this afternoon. Biting at her pants and her hair. I started giving them solid food yesterday. It was gruel (ground up dog food & water) but they loved it. And Lola loved the fact that she got to skip a feeding finally. Sienna & I lost one of the pups for about 20 minutes yesterday. He had climbed out of the box and then went in between the couch and the wall but couldn't figure out how to get back out, so he just went to sleep. Here's some cute pictures of the kids and our rapidly growing puppies.





This is Sierra supervising the exploration of the doll house.












And here is Levi shooting the puppies.















And this is just Sienna loving loving the puppies.

















Breakfast Time!

New Glasses

Sierra was in serious need of a new pair of glasses. I finally made her an appointment and she was so excited. She said that she wasn't excited to see the doctor just to get the new glasses. She tried on every pair of glasses in the kid section. They were all too small for her face. They all made it look as if she was wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses. We finally found this pair in the Hillary Duff collection. Since when did celebs start making eye glasses?! There was a Hannah Montana collection and a JLo (Jennifer Lopez) also. Is this really necessary? But, thankfully, we finally found a pair that we were both happy with.

The Royal Pups

I can't hardly believe that the puppies are 2 weeks old already. They're getting so fat! They're just these little squealing balls of fat. They're so cute! We have 4 boys and 2 girls. When I was changing their bedding yesterday the girls decided to 'help' me. Which consisted of them playing with the puppies. Sienna refused to hold a boy puppy. She insisted that she hold one of the girls. And she found it hysterical that one of them was trying to get up on her lap. All of the puppies have their eyes open now. And they're starting to really get around. One of the boys is really a go getter. He's always scratching on their box and was all around the room when I took them out of their box. He seems to be much more active than the rest. Sierra has already started giving them names. Well, the girls that is. My girls seem to neglect the boy pups a bit. But the girls are royalty already. It makes perfect sense really. We've always said that Lola is a princess. She acts very regal. But Max, he's more like the jester. So I suppose it makes sense the girl pups would be princess like and the boy pups ~ well let's just say that they're not show any signs of regalness or royalty.

Singing and a Santa Visit Too

Sienna had her Christmas program at the preschool. I know I'm a little behind getting these posted but hey~ better late than never. Right? She was so cute as always. Santa made a surprise visit for the kids. Sienna would not sit on his lap. He called her name and she went straight to Mrs. Clause. She said Santa was just too scary.

Merry Christmas to all...

Merry Christmas everyone! As you all know by now, Christmas is my favorite holiday. And we had an excellent Christmas this year! (like always) The girls were spoiled rotten with to many gifts. (like always) They got everything they wanted from Santa except for a princess talking kitchen and a laptop. I tried to tell Sienna that Santa knew that she already had a very nice kitchen in her room so he probably wouldn't bring her a new kitchen. She still held out hope and was a little disappointed to not find a princess talking kitchen under the tree. And as for the laptop~ Sierra is very aware that Santa doesn't bring those kind of gifts until you have a NEED for it. This is the 3rd or 4th year that she's asked for the laptop. Sierra got busy immediately playing her new pink guitar. As for Sienna, she got over the lack of the new kitchen as soon as Daddy got her new doll house set up. She exclaimed, "Santa Clause is the best!!"

I don't even know where to start with Levi. He was so awesome. The morning of Christmas Eve I was telling the kids that Santa was coming tonight and they were getting really excited. I was wondering exactly how much Levi understood about what was going to happen. So I asked him if Santa was going to bring him presents and he responded with a very aggressive head nod. Then I asked him where Santa was going to put the presents. He ran straight to the Christmas tree and pointed at the floor. He knew exactly what was going on. He was so cute on Christmas morning. Some of his boxes were bigger than him and he was dragging them out from under the tree. He tuckered out and wasn't able to finish opeing the last few packages. But don't worry, Sienna made quick work of those for him.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Here's some cute pictures of the kids opening their gifts.

Lola is a Mommy!!

Lola had six puppies last night! AND SHE'S STILL ALIVE! She was so amazing. Momma and all the pups are doing so incredibly well. Lola is a really good momma. She looks sooo skinny now. The kids are so excited and doing really well about understanding that they can't touch the pups yet. Levi is trying to understand but he really wants to give them kisses.

Thank you so much to everyone who was thinking of and praying for us. I was terribly worried about Lola. I knew as soon as Lola got up yesterday that those babies were coming. She just wasn't herself and her belly had dropped. But even with that knowledge I still felt quite calm and peaceful. I had spent much time praying about Lola. I wasn't really sure if I could pray for a dog. Does God take those calls? God created all things (including dogs) and He is Lord of all things (including dogs). So, if He wanted to save and protect my dog, He could. So I asked God if it was ok for me to pray for my dog and He showed me (again) that I was praying for the wrong thing. I needed to pray (and mean it) that His will be done. I knew there was some sort of a lesson in the situation that God was trying to teach me. It was the first time in my life that I was actually able to resign myself to His will, no matter what the outcome. I was able to make peace with whatever was going to happen, before it happened. So through the delivery I just continued to pray that the Lord give Lola the strength she needed and to give me the strength that I needed, too. Through it all not only did I feel peaceful but Lola seemed to, too. Not once did she wine, yell out or even pant. It was actually a very amazing and peaceful event (and gross too). So here's some pictures of our amazing new additions.