trees...

This is our Josh, who loves to climb this tree. Before school, after school, before church, or anywhere we go, Josh is up in this tree. 9-7-07
Libby loves to climb the tree as well. 9-7-07
This was taken by Maylee, who so lovingly volunteered to drive up on my birthday to babysit the children. Here Penny is munching on some yummy ravioli and watermelon.
Here are some great smiles. Erin is holding the furriest hamster that I have ever seen; Hans Solo. He is a way calm, easy going hamster. 9-7-07
Jacob must have been really tickled! He has a great smile & laugh! If you look @ the picture long enough, you can almost hear him laughing.9-7-07

bath

More cake got on Penny than in her stomach, so her day ended with a bath.

I made Penny this nightgown for her present from us. It has little babies in bug costumes on it. She actually picked it out in Joann's a few months ago. It was a smidge too big, until I laundered it and now the sleeves fit her better. She likes to wear it.

the cake

A good friend, loaned us this cute cake pan for Penny's birthday. I think that the cake turned out cute. I think that the next time I did it, I would use bolder colors, so that it would pop a bit more. Raegen put the sprinkles on it and I think that it gave it a bit of whimsy. It was strawberry cake with cream cheese icing.
I don't know if you can tell or not, but Penny was not very happy when we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She was actually screaming and crying her wee little head off. For whatever reason, she wasn't a happy birthday gal. It was her party and she cried when she wanted too.
It was dark in the house when the candles were lit, so after we helped her blow her candles out, I quickly took a picture. The flash scared her a bit, as you can slightly tell in the photo.
Here is the spoiled birthday girl deciding how long she is going to pout, by refusing her birthday cake.
It was maybe a minute, before she indulged and took a bite that ended up all over her!

Penny is 2!

This is Penny opening her new Bitty baby from my parents. She, for over a year now, loves to look at the American Girl catalog. She squeals with delight, each time she saw these little Bitty Babies. There was this one in particular that Penny just loved and would point and squeal to each time the catalog was opened. So, my Mom thought that this was the year to buy her one. She bought her the Bitty Baby starter kit as well, which included the doll and a trunk full of goodies, like the disappearing milk and OJ bottle, rattle, a blanket, sock, 2 outfits, a bear, a book, and the doll came wearing a diaper...Way cute!
Here Penny is with my Mom wanting us to get the Bitty Baby out of the box as fast as we could. They are attached to the box quite well!
Here is our 2 yr. old Penny feeding her new doll. She loves her doll!! Look at her face...she'll make a great mommy one day; in 20 years!!
A very Happy Penny!!

This is a cute Dress that Aunt Raegen and Uncle John gave to Penny. She had to try it on!

Ashley's 30th Birthday

Clyde took me out for a great Carrabba's dinner, child free! He had arranged with a gal from church to come and babysit, but his sister Maylee said that she wanted to come and watch the children. So, we cancelled with the gal from church. Maylee took us out birthday shopping. I got a new pair of shoes and so did Penny. Hers are these cute, purple New Balance and mine are some snazzy black flats. Way cool, both Maylee and the shoes! Anyway, after dinner, we cruised Target to get the things that we would have needed the next day, but child free. It makes going places alot easier to go child free. I had forgotten!


The Primary President, Cheryl and her Jacob surprised me with these four beautiful cupcakes, on my birthday. They were just as yummy as they were beautiful! This served as my birthday cake this year. I was too full from dinner to order dessert, so these were nice to come home to.

I had to renew my driver's license this year. I went on Thursday to avoid the Friday crowd. Apparently, so did the rest of Greensboro. I had Jacob and Penny with me, as well as the little girl I watch everyday. Penny cried about the whole time we were there. Jacob pouted, and The little girl was acting her age...2. Needless to say, once we left, I can imagine that the joint burst with joy, and a round of applause. Thank goodness I don't have to renew my license again for another 8 years!

First day of school

Josh was so ready to give us a back to school smile!
Libby had to make sure that her hair looked great, in her back to school photo.
This was our 4th attempt for a photo with Erin. Either her glasses had a funky glare or she was giving us a fake smile. Once she sat down and calmed down, we got this gem.
Traditionally, I pack Jacob a lunch on the first day of school. Instead of eating the muffins for breakfast, like everyone else, he dug into his lunch. He usually takes it in a backpack to school. It makes him feel like a big kid. This year it was eaten, before we left for school, except for the yogurt. Silly boy!
Was Penny excited for the first day of school or what??!! :)

I don't know if I had mentioned to many of you that we had an AWOL hamster recently. A few days ago, our black hamster, Skunk, escaped. We have been looking and looking for that stinky Skunk!! Yesterday, the first day of school, she gave up her location. I was sitting at the computer desk and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Skunk peeking out from behind the dresser in our office area. So, I got the older children to barracade the other end of the dresser, while I moved the dresser out enough to reaach behind it & get Skunk. Skunk ran out from behind the dresser, right to me. Once I grabbed her, she wiggled and wiggled, and then probably said, "Crap, I'm caught!" and stopped wiggling, so that I could place her back into the crate, toy free. We gave her food and fresh water. She ran over to the water cup, gulped and gulped! Catching Skunk gave the children a buzz, before heading off to school! A back to school memory for the books!

At school

Off to School!! We got to school a bit early, so that we could find a parking spot. Since we were a smidge early, we had to wait in the cafeteria for the bell to ring. I enjoyed looking at all the children's faces. Some of the little faces were happy, others were sad, and some were even crying. Erin saw the girl that she was a reading buddy to last year and she was crying. Erin went over said hi and gave her a hug. It was cute. The little girl began to smile. Sweet!

Then the bell rang. We were dismissed by cafeteria rows and we were in the first row. We all got up and the excitement began. We voted that Josh would be taken to class first, since he is closest to the cafeteria and gym. So, we were off to take him to his class. He was the 4th or 5th child in his class to show up. He took the stuff out of his back pack, organized his stuff, gave me hugs, sat down and started with his morning worksheet. Josh is a sweet boy! His teacher seems to be super nice too. I think that he'll have a good year! One down, 2 to go...

Next we decided to take Erin, since her classroom is next. I could see the butterflies in Erin's stomach. We got closer to her class. Once we all got to the classroom door, Erin began to smile. Her teacher greeted her and pointed her to the table in which she could choose her seat. Erin chose one, came back gave me a hug and began to unpack her backpack. She was happy when we left. Two down, 1 to go...

Finally, it was Libby's turn. She was fidgety. We walked down the sea of children and parents hallway & got to her class. There were more children in her class then the other two classrooms. She found her desk and number. She unpacked her backpack and went over to find her cubby and someone's stuff was already there. She looked a bit confused, so she had some figuring out to do. She has several of the girls that she has had in previous years, so she has instant buddies. She too gave us a big grin, as we were leaving. Three down...time to go home.

Jacob asked once we left Libby's class if we could "go home now." Then Blaklee said that she needed to go potty and Jacob said that he needed to go as well. It gave me an opportunity to hang out @ school a bit longer. Once they were finished, we walked back to the van, put children in, buckled them up, packed the stroller, backed out, and drove home. Before I had finished backing out, there was a car waiting for our spot. We made it home. The babies all looked confused without the older children here.

Penny was exhausted from needing to wake up 2-3 hours before she normally does and by 8:45 am, she was down for a nap. She was asleep in about 5 minutes and slept until noon. Jacob fell asleep in the recliner around 11am. Blaklee put a couch pillow on the floor, grabbed our red blanket and the yellow carebear and was curled up on the floor by 12ish. She stayed awake until about 12:15-12:30. So I picked her up and put her down for her nap. The house was quiet! I finished another shirt for Erin and a pair of gauchos for her as well. I also got to clean-up a bit. Of course once the children came home from school, the house was destroyed again. Ah...back to normal.