Happy Valentine's Day!!

Celebrating holidays with kids is so much fun!! It was such a fun day to do special things for the girls - not that we don't do those every other day but we love any reason to celebrate around here =)

The girls woke up to some stickers, chocolate candy hearts and handmade valentines from mom and dad. They got heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches for their lunch along with a chocolate candy of their choice!
These pictures crack me up!! Claire's big, smile, Eden hugging her goodbye and Eden drying her nails =) It's never dull around here!


They each had class parties where they passed out their crayon and candy treats to their friends, did crafts and ate a lot of junk! I helped with Claire's party and got some pictures of her and her friends! Here is Claire with her friend Nina.
Mrs. Lopez with her whole class

Dusty and Claire... apparantly Dusty blows kisses to Claire everyday =) He's a sweet little boy and his mom is Eden's music teacher!

Me and one of my Valentine's... I just LOVE this girl!! She was beyond exited and proud to have her mom there helping with the party. I wonder how long that will happen. I still remember my mom chaperoning my first dance in the 6th grade and so embarassed. I better savor it while I can!
Eden's class is so sweet - she only has 8 kids in her class and she comes home with story after story of them all! Here are some of her friends - Maverick, Sarah, Eden, Olivia and Ella (aka "not Bella")
Ella hugging Eden (they are so sweet with each other) and Olivia
They each came home with a ton of loot from their class parties!! We had a great day and enjoyed a visit from Grandpa, we went to visit Maw Maw and Mary Ellen and then dinner at Mimi and Poppa's after Claire's first gymnastics class (post coming soon!) What a wonderful day to celebrate!

Kate and Everett

We had a great night celebrating Kate and baby Everett with a girl's night out at none other than our favorite Johnny Carino's! Karla was in town which made it even more of a celebration.
Karla, Kate and me
Beth n Lucy, Crystal and Kristi
Lucy was very interested in that cold glass =)
I can't believe Kate will be bringing Everett into this world so soon! I couldn't be more excited to meet him! Kate and I've been together since we were 10 and it's been so sweet to raise our families together! We have a ton of little girls running around at our get togethers but only one little boy (and he's in Houston!) so it's time to get this little boy ball rolling. Praying that our little guy will be the same age - Abbey and Claire are only 7 weeks apart and Lydia and Eden are only 5 months apart!

December # and a New Year

Well, we haven't gotten our official email update with our number but everyone else has so we know we are number (took this at Sea World yesterday as we found a parking spot right by our number!):

Can you believe that? Wonder how long we will be #13 but you just never know... we are expecting to wait until #1 because of our parameters so it will still be awhile. We couldn't be more excited about starting the new year being so close to single digits (well I guess we could be if we were actually in single digits but don't want to get greedy or ungrateful here!).

This month we haven't done much to get baby's room together. My mom was so sweet to think of us and him for Christmas and got the CUTEST Hungry Caterpillar quilt kit and will have it made the next couple weeks. I was a blubbering mess when I saw that it was for him. Made me miss him SO much... The girls got a rock painting kit for Christmas and have created many. They were so sweet to think of painting some for baby brother all on their own. They are sitting on one of his shelves:
With the close of 2011, we anticipate this to be the year we welcome baby #3 into our lives. It's hard not to hope and have an expectation so we will wait patiently to see his face sometime this year. God has taught us so much in the year of 2011 and I can't wait to see what He does in 2012!

Speaking of 2012... we had a wild and crazy party at our house tonight to welcome the New Year. You know, one of those parties that starts at 5 p.m. and people start leaving at 7:30 p.m.? 17 kids, 2 babies and 11 adults...My how New Year's Eve has changed with having kiddos =) It was actually a lot of fun to get together with our dear friends in life group to share food, catch up, have the kids play, do a mock countdown at 7:15 p.m. with hats and party blowers. So glad we had those over who could make it and missed those who couldn't be here!

Here was the kid crew for the evening! Look at all those boys (14 to be exact)!! We were missing a lot fo families but glad we had the Gibbins, Craftons, Millers, Lamars and Zimmers to help us bring in the new year!
Celebrating with Channing
Party hats, blowers, glow stick bracelets and sparkling cider
Linden, Ethan and Reef
Hadley
My sweetheart
Crystal and Henry
The Millers stayed for a little longer and the kids were so cute playing together!
May God bless you this year and show you how He wants to use you to further HIS kingdom!

Parties here, Parties there!

Along with everything else we have had Eden's school program, Claire's class party and our 15th annual Christmas party!

Eden's class were the stars and they sang "Behold That Star" and boy were we proud! She was such a good girl doing the movements and singing as best as she could! I love this picture of her - it's a glimpse to me of what she will look like when she's older.


Here is the video of our little star!

http://vimeo.com/33759033

Eden LOVES her teachers and can't wait to go to her red class! Here she is with Ms. Megan

And here she is with Ms. Myra. They are such a blessing to our family!
Eden and Mateo


Claire's class party was on the last day of school and I was able to go up and help out! They had a craft bell wreath, pin the nose on the snowman, a book exchange and a huge spread of yummy food!

We love Mrs. Lopez =)
Claire with some of her friends - Valeria, Maddie, Nina and Jasmine
Claire and her friend Connor ready for their book exchange
Most of her class!! Some were absent and some had already left
Then it was our 15th annual Christmas party that we host for our friends we grew up with and sang together in middle and high school. Can you believe it's been 15 years? The party has certainly evolved. We used to start late and go till the wee hours of the morning but now we start early and bring the kids (some of us still stay up way too late!!) Didn't get a picture of everyone but here are the ones I got!

Eric, Erin and Cora celebrating their first Christmas as a family of 3
Crystal and Julia
Kate, Jenny, Me, Beth n Lucy and Marie
The girls (Eden, Abbey, Lily and Claire) would come in every 15 minutes with a new fashion show! Lyla was there too but we didn't get a picture of her
Danny with Ali and Erin with Cora
Andy and Aubrey with Ali
Didn't get a picture of Tracy, James, Neil or J.J. but they were all there too! We missed those who couldn't be with us. It's so awesome to see that we are all still good friends even if we don't see each other all the time. We've started a playgroup this year which has helped some of us see each other more often and the kids to grow up knowing each other! We are so blessed with our long lasting friendships!

Cora

Look who gets to spend Wednesday afternoons with Eden and me?!! Cora!! After BSF we hurry home to watch Cora for about 3 hours which is such a joy. She is such a great baby and Eden just LOVES having her around. Her favorite part is helping change diapers... she asked Cora this week "Elmo? or Big Bird?" She even came in from playing in the sandbox to help me with a dirty one! Just getting her ready to have another baby in the house =) These were taken on three different Wednesdays and you can really see how much she's grown in such a short time!

On the eve of Cora's Aunt Mikey's 32nd birthday I can't help but think of how much Mikey would've loved on her sweet niece. It's so weird that they will never meet on this side of heaven but I know Mikey is watching over Eric, Erin and Cora. This time of year I always wonder where Mikey would be in life. Married? Children? Where would she be living? Working? She will always be that 19 year old in our minds eye and after almost 13 years, I remember her just as beautiful as the last day I saw her.

A Princess Surprise

Back in July, Kate called and asked if Claire and I wanted to go to a Disney Princess show at one of the large theaters downtown. I knew it would be something really special for Claire and I to do together so we got tickets. The best part is I kept it a secret until I picked Claire up two Fridays ago (Sept. 9th) and got to surprise her!! Her expression was priceless and she was SO excited! Of course the girls had to dress up for the occasion as most of the other little girls at the show had. Claire wore her "queen" dress that she got from Heather Adams last year(thanks Heather - it's our Halloween costume this year too!)
We sat on the first row on the first balcony which was a great spot because the girls could stand the whole time. They had the Mickey mouse characters introduce the princess stories - Snow White, Beauty n the Beast and Cinderella.

What a fun evening to share with our best friends!! I love this girl!
Had to take a pic with the chandelier =)