Celebrating 12 with Soren

Soren and her friend Riley have birthdays 10 days apart and decided to plan a combined birthday celebration this year. They planned the entire thing; all we had to do is drive and pay. Not too bad! They called it a double decker birthday and it began at Riley's house with a day of lunch, movie, back to her house for games and a movie marathon throughout the night. The next day I picked them up and we were off to the mall for ice skating, eating and shopping. After we exhausted our funds we headed home for crafts and movies which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Whew! That was a long birthday party! The girls did a great job planning and had a blast. They are such a great group and I am so excited that Soren has made such sweet friends. Happy Birthday Soren!

Tradition never dies. The bras in the freezer trick lives on.

Closing out another Christmas

Each year as I sit and contemplate what to write about our Christmas I am humbled by how extreme the Lord’s blessing is on me and my extended family. We are so protected and cared for. We have so much love and peace. On top of it all we are able to enjoy material things as well.

This year was no different. We have enjoyed a season of great love and new memories that we will cherish forever. Celebrating the birth of Christ is something we do on a daily basis, but it is a fun tradition to have a special time to focus on it.

Christmas morning we woke up to many surprises and wasted no time tearing into them.

Soren was pleased to find that she can join the rest of her text crazed friends with her new cell phone. Reese’s main gift was a semester of art classes.

She wasted no time getting started...

Pre was especially interested in this strange change to the morning routine. He was right in the middle of all of it.

Papaw and Mamaw gave the girls a trip to Great Wolf Lod*ge! We have been once before and are very excited to go back. Thank you, Papaw and Mamaw!

Soren and Reese surprised Pete and I with these sweet posters.

After we exhausted all the gifts in this house we loaded up and headed to Pops and Nana’s house for our 4^th Christmas celebration. Whew!



This year we were blessed to have Grandma Freda as well as Granny and Granddad for our Christmas celebration! Granny and Freda played lots of cards under these ornaments made by Nana with pictures of her 8 grandkids.

Another new Christmas decoration was a collage of family pictures arranged over

Pops' village.

Zach's jogger alarm :)

Soren's new camera! Thanks Pops and Nana!

Reese's Americ*an Girl Doll had the best Christmas of all! She is decked out!

Still texting...

From Pops to Pete

They are a perfect fit!

Grandma Freda with 9 day old sweet baby Anna

How many guys does it take to cook a steak?

Soren turns 12!

As we continue to reel in the post Christmas craziness, Soren has a birthday. As always, I had to work, so we did a quick breakfast happy birthday and will have a real party this week. Happy Birthday Soren!