Earrings!

At our house, we allow the girl's to get their ears pierced when they turn 8 years old. Abbie had the chance to go on her 8th birthday. Annie, however, has had to wait an extra 40 days. Annie has been playing spring soccer and one of the rules is that absolutely NO jewelry can be worn during games. Unfortunately, soccer started 2 days before Annie turned 8 years old. So, this afternoon (her last game was this morning!) we took off to Claire's to finally get Annie's ears pierced!! She was pretty set on getting purple earrings...but, once she was there checking out the different earrings available, she chose the turquoise ones instead...

Before (she was just a bit nervous):

After:

I have a pretty happy eight year old here today! And, I think it was worth the wait....her team went undefeated!!!

Blessing

Sunday brought Allie's blessing day. We knew Annie would be getting baptized this weekend, so we held off blessing Allie so we could do both in one big weekend (hopefully it made travelling/attending easier for our parents!). Here are a few pictures from after the blessing...

Allie with her Daddy & both Grandpas!

And Mommy with her "two white girls" (as the boys have been saying)...

Just the two white girls....

Another Mommy & girls...

Just Mom & Allie!...

I realized that I didn't get any snap shots with both Matt & I with Allie....I'll have to get those that our Mom's took! We had such a fantastic weekend and we are so blessed to have family & friends that came to show their love and support, along with all those that were there in spirit too (we missed you)!

Baptism

Annie had a very special day on Saturday....one that she has been looking forward to for a long time! Annie has always had a sweet & simple testimony and has always strived to follow Jesus Christ. On Saturday, she continued in Christ's footsteps by being baptized.

She chose to have her Daddy baptize & confirm her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So beautiful in the dress Gramma C made to have all the girl cousins baptized in.

After the confirmation....perfectly clean & pure.

Annie, we love you so much & are so very pleased with the decision you made! We hope you will always remember that special day & live worthy to have the Holy Ghost as your companion the rest of your life! We love you!!

It's Great to be Eight!

Annie had her birthday 2 weeks ago....she turned EIGHT years old! We ended up celebrating all weekend long (almost). We have a tradition of the birthday kid picking where we go out to dinner, as a family...since Annie's birthday was on a Monday night (when Matt was teaching at BSU) we decided to go out on Saturday night instead.

Sunday night we had her cake & ice cream, since we wanted Daddy to be there for that too! :)

Monday morning, we woke up bright & early so she could open her birthday gifts! She was given her own scriptures & marking pencils, some purple (her favorite color!) finger nail polish, a new outfit from Gramma & Grandpa C (she's worn it a lot!), a new dress & outfits for her American Girl doll from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill, and a special date with Mom to get pedicures & go shopping!!

We love this Anastasia! We are looking forward to a special day with lots of pictures & lots of family in town for her baptism!! Of course, I'll post pictures afterward! :)

Allie is 3 months old!

Things about Allie...

1) She loves to be propped up in a sitting position....she definitely likes to see what is going on around her!

2) She has *almost* lost her newborn cry....you know the one I'm talking about.

3) She usually puts up with loads of hugs & kisses from her older brothers pretty well.

4) She loves when Mom is holding her....if mom is busy, a binkie will hold her off just a tiny longer...

5) She does NOT like to lay on her tummy...."tummy time" usually lasts all of 30 seconds.

6) She typically goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps straight through until 6:30-7am!! Yes, I am in heaven!

7) She recently found her hands & loves to have them up near her face or in her mouth (see picture).

8) She will reward just about everybody with one of the cutest smiles ever!

9) She is definitely a blue-eyed baby! They aren't the newborn gray-blue anymore, but a dark, beautiful blue!10) She frequently has "raspberries" on her lips!

We are so blessed to have our little Allie-cat in our family! I love watching each of the other kids play, hold, and kiss her...each of them loves her so much! Matt loves to hold & talk to her as well....I think he misses her a lot when he has to work late or teaches class & doesn't get home before she is in bed. Heavenly Father definitely knew what he was doing when He sent Allie to us! We love her!!

Spring Break, Part 3

We made suger cookies yesterday!! Always a big hit! And, oh so yummy!!

Here the kids are getting ready to frost & decorate...

Decorating away...

All done!!

Now ENJOYING the goodness!!

Spring Break, Part 2

Another snowy day....so, we colored Easter eggs!!!

Some of the final product....
And a cute baby who slepted through it all...

I think we'll make Easter sugar cookies tomorrow! Yum! :)

Spring Break, Part 1

My kids are home this week for Spring Break (though you'd never know it since we've had rain, hail & snow today!)...so they've been doing some fun things to fill their time.

Today...it was the "Pass the Cup" game. I know this must be a Girl's Camp favorite, and last year, I was introduced to how fun it is when I attended Young Women's Camp with our ward. I came home & taught Abbie & Annie...and they love it too! Here they are in action...

If you want to see another family (not ours...on YouTube), you can click here to see a bigger group play. I really gotta remember to teach mine & Matt's family how to play this...I'm sure there would be tons of giggles once we got started.... :) Oh, the fun things that entertain us!!...

Abbie's Favorite Books

So, I've mentioned this before, but for those of you who don't know Abbie, she is a VERY avid reader. In an average week, she reads anywhere between 10-15 hours. Earlier in the school year, Abbie came across a series of books by Erin Hunter called "Warriors". Abbie has LOVED these books...and there are a TON of them. So far, Abbie has read about 25 of the books that Erin Hunter has written (there are several different series...the "Warriors" books are about different cat clans -- ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan, and StarClan -- then there are the "Seekers" about bears).

One day in church, Abbie decided to draw pictures of the cats from different clans. Each clan has a leader, deputy, medicine cat, warriors, apprentices, kits & queens. Here are some of her pictures....

Princess is a "kittypet" (owned by humans) & Tigerclaw was ThunderClans deputy.
Fireheart (was a kittypet now a ThunderClan warrior) & Graystripe was in ThunderClan but switched to RiverClan & back to ThunderClan).

BlueStar (ThunderClan's leader) and YellowFang (ThunderClan's Medicine Cat).

Anyway...if you have a 10 year old, chances are they will love these books too! :)

Go Duke!

ACC Regular Season Champions

ACC Tournament Champions

NCAA #1 Seed for the 2010 play-offs!

Bring on March Madness....this house is full of Duke fans!