Birthday Weekend Recap

Addie turned 7 so it gave us a great excuse for a fun filled weekend all about Addie!

She woke up and had her #7 pancake!

 

After her happy day at school, we had a sleepover with her cousin and another one of her good friends. It was a sweet sleepover...with an emphasis on the "sweet" thing...

 

The kids built their very own cupcake ice cream sundaes...

 which was a lot of messy, yummy fun until Addie's decided to topple over during the Happy Birthday song with 7 lit candles on top. Thank goodness the firefighter was home!

Did I mention messy fun?

I came back to clean up the mess and I spotted this really cute 3 year old playing in the sprinkles...

 And then it was present time...

We took her on a scavenger hunt around the house to find her present from us.

A Taylor Swift Picture...at least that is what she thought (and she was perfectly happy!) until she read the note...TWO TICKETS TO SEE TAYLOR'S CONCERT, RED, in September. Then, she was speechless.

I found something new that is on my list of favorites...LED light up balloons. They were a hit at bedtime...oh wait...they really just gave them something else to play with. Bedtime was not until 1am.

And the birthday weekend just continued with a family party to celebrate these 2 pretty cousins...Claire and Addie...born 1 year and 5 days apart.

 

I would say it was a successful birthday weekend! Thank you, God, for our sweet and sassy 7 year old Addie and 6 year old Claire!

Something about Sam

Sam Cooper is such a fun burst of energy. He makes me laugh every single day of the year. I wish I could remember all of the funny things that he says. (Again, why did I take a blogging hiatus?) Even though I can't remember all of the funny things he has said over the year to make us laugh, I can remember the many things that I love about him...

• He is a super hero in disguise.
• He loves to do gymnastics, even if he lands with a hard thud.
• When he tells a story, he puts his hand on his hip and nods his head back and forth to be sure you know just how serious he is about the story he is telling you. Recently, he is telling everyone he is not going to Kindergarten but he IS playing baseball. (Since baseball is way more important than Kindergarten.)
• He gives big hugs and kisses at the most unexpected times, when I am cooking dinner, working on the computer, painting my nails, I could go on and on. You really just never know when you are going to get some love from the little man. I LOVE that!
• Speaking of little, we absolutely cannot call him little. He will correct you in a loud voice..."I NOT WITTLE, I AM BIG...HUGE...I AM!"
• When I tell him I love him, he responds (in a loud voice again), "I love you MORE!" (with the very loud accent on MORE)
• Did I mention he is LOUD?

Do you see why I am so happy that I get to spend my days with my little (I mean big) man? I love my Sam man!

Lots of Change...

I visited my old profile and noticed some details have changed over the past year of my blogging hiatus. In case you care...

• We are no longer just a family of 6. We still have the 2 adults and the 3 kids. We added a dog, Sadie's new best friend. Her name is Holly. (She is pictured above with Logan.) She found us one rainy morning and when I heard she was just staying with a foster family and up for adoption, I knew we just had to have her. Life was crazy...life is crazier now. Oh well! The kids are happy and Sadie is wildly happy. Long story short: we are a family of 7. (We do have 2 fish and a turtle but that would be weird if I counted them in the family count. We also had 2 hamsters but they didn't make it to 2013. That is another story for another post.)
• David is still a firefighter but he is now a paramedic also.
• J-Rae does not teach 2nd grade anymore (I do miss it a lot, especially my LES peeps!). Now, I am working for our church as the Director of Children's Ministries. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new job! I work part time, from home a lot but also go into the office when needed, and I get to keep Sam home with me. Honestly, I am a better person in all ways because of this opportunity God blessed our family with. I was praying for a change for a while. God heard my prayer and had a plan. I could not be happier! Maybe I could be if I could just bring all my LES peeps to church to work with me. Now that would be fun!
• The kids are still the lights of our lives...without a doubt! Logan and Addie changed schools this year, due to the fact I was no longer teaching at LES. They LOVE their new school. I do too! It is a nice country school with great teachers, kids, and families. Of course, they miss their LES peeps too! We just need to have a big LES play day!
• I have A LOT of GRAY HAIRS! It is just crazy...and they are just popping up everywhere.
• I am blogging again! I like it!

Well, I think that covers the big changes. Things change all the time. God is good in ALL things...change is good. 

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a LOVEly Valentine's Day! The kids started the day off with a piece of candy...so lovely! :)

 

 

Then Sam and I went to school for the kids' Valentine's parties. I did miss my teaching days but was so happy to be a part of the kids' fun day.

 

This is Addie's class.

They "mustache" you a question...Will you be their Valentine??

 

Logan is a 4th grader and apparently it just isn't too cool to walk around taking pictures at the party. So, I will leave you with this picture taken BEFORE he headed off for a LOVEly day at school.

 

I would like to mention that a sweet girl in Logan's class asked if I would take her picture with him. He refused but I would like to take note.

Daddy/Daughter Dance



2012---Lipscomb Elementary School, Daddy/Daughter Dance

(Addie was a Kindergartner)

 

2013---Bethesda Elementary School, A Night with a Princess

(Addie is in 1st Grade)

I just love these sweet memories and Addie Rae just loves the reason to get dressed up and sparkle. She did come home and inform me (this year) that Daddy cannot do the Gangnam Style. I was just thrilled to hear he tried. :)

2012 Birthdays

We now have a 9 year old, handsome boy...

 

     

6 year old, girly girl...(turning 7 in 10 days!)                                                                                      

 3 year old, funny boy...(turning 4 next month)

 

Days and nights can seem so very long sometimes but THE YEARS ARE FLYING BY!

It has been a while...

Well, it has been more than one year since my last post. Why did I stop blogging? No specific reason but it all boils down to being a busy mom. Once I was a little behind, I gave up because I saw no hope in catching up. Now, I have had a change of heart!

I just spent some time looking through the many pictures and memories. It just makes me so happy to see the past 5 years of our life. Click on our very first post...First Timer...to see where this all began. I can't believe how little Logan and Addie were. It is just hard to imagine that we did not even have Sam when I started this blog. Now, as happy as it makes me to look through the blog, it makes me so sad to think I let the last year go by with nothing on our blog. It is unacceptable and I AM BACK TO BLOGGING! I want to remember it all. I see now just how great the blog is at letting me remember it all! So, readers who probably do not exist anymore, please visit often for your reading enjoyment...

2012 posts will be coming soon as I play catch up. They might be all out of order and mixed in with current posts. This drives me crazy and it is part of the reason I just quit. I like order. However, I am allowing myself to blog out of order...like it or not. Ready, set, go...