The party is done!

The party went off without a hitch! We had lots of friends and family to celebrate Gracie turning 6 and Hoper turning 4! Here's a picture of their princess cake, the girls loved it!


I thought it was so cute that some of the kids lined up on the wall to eat their yummy cake! :)


Here is Gracie with one of her presents, a new "i-pod", an mp3 player with pink cheeta print & rhinestones.


I love this picture of Hope's face! I think she just opened the High School musical sound track :)

Here is the candy frenzy after the pinata opened up. I didn't know there was different types of pinatas and I bought the one that you don't hit open, you pull a string and all the candy pours out. The kids didn't seem to mind that the candy came pouring out after only a few kids had guessed which string it was though!





I'm glad the party is done, but now comes the fun of finding homes for all the new toys :)We are very thankful for everyones generosity in their giving of gifts.


I cannot believe where the years have gone. My baby girl is 6 and Hoper is 4; I can't believe how fast the years have gone by. These two precious little girls have brought me to my knees more than once, but God knew I needed my kids to keep me in check. I have never smiled more when I've wanted to cry, I've never screamed more when I should have spoken softly, I've never hugged more when I was at my whits end, I've never gone to bed a night not thankful for them. Being a parent does something to your heart in ways that are simply unexplainable. As each day passes, I am beginning to see the depth at which Christ's love extends to me, He is my father, as He is my girls father too and he loves me as only a parent can! For that we are greatful! Happy Birthday girlies, Momma loves you!

More Apple Pie, different bakers :)

This time around Gracie and Zach wanted in on the fun. Gracie was in charge of making the crust. It was a little hard without a rolling pin , though-I'm not sure where ours disappeared to, but a plastic cupo worked just fine :) Zach took the job of "shaving" the apples. He became very creative after a few apples and started making faces on the apples with the peeler...hehe!























Here the 2 proud bakes show off their masterpiece of an apple pie. Zach peeled about 10 apples, so it was filled to the brim ,so much so that our crust cracked, but it sure tasted yummy. We topped it off by making homemade vanilla/cinnamon whipped cream and covered our tastey pie in the "frosting", as Hope called it :)

We've enjoyed baking so much I think I'll have to buy apples to bake more often and get out the cookbook for some other yummy treats. I think we'll be baking pumpin pies next, Mmmm!

The tongue says it all!

Grady has become fasinated with his tongue and all he do with it:) Lately he's been blowing raspberries and sqeeling with his tongue kind of curld up. I though these pics were too funny!

Hoper's Thanksgiving Feast

After taking cupcakes to Gracie's school I got to go to Hope's school and share in the Thanksgiving festivities! :)

They had all made necklaces and indian hats with feathers. Her class sang some fun pilgrim and indian songs and Pastor Dan joined them, dressed as the indian, haha! Grady chowed down on some spice bread, while sitting in the stroller and Hoper and her class mates enjoyed some of the first foods the indians enjoyed, like jello, turkey rolls, cheese, crackers, pop corn, fruit and potato bread, topped off by big harvest cupcakes! :)

Let the festivities begin. Happy Thanksgiving a week early :)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie turned 6 today! My baby girl is 6, I can not believe it! She got to wake up this am to the rest of us singing to her at the top of our lungs "Happy Birthday!" I took cupcakes to her class for recess and Gracie was so excited because they were High School Musical cupcakes, her favorite :) She got to pass them out to all the kids in her class and they snag ot her also.

Gracie's with her teacher, Mrs. Beall and then with her3 best friends, (left to right) Eden, Aiden, Gracie & Sarah!

Apples Anyone?

So every year this time Snowline gets rid of all their excess apples to close for the season and gives them to the camp (Oak Glen Christian Conference Center). I think this year they donated 10 cases in all! So, all these apples are thanks to Snow-Line :)

We love fall and apples make it really feel like fall! We missed actually picking apples this year, but now we have plenty! :) My parents brought us 2 cases filled to the brim with apples. There is no way we can possibly eat, bake or share all of the apples, so tomorrow James will take a case to Joseph's store house and I'm sure they'll enjoy them. But, today we decided we should bake! :)

Hoper was my helper and started by picking out the "pretty" apples to peal and core and cover in cinnamon and sugar! :) I think she ended up eating about 2 whole apples that were pealed and cored and covered in sugar. I sure hope she doesn't get a tummy ache!

We went a little crazy with the baking. We started as soon as we got home from church at 10 am and finished up about 1 or 1:30. We baked apple-cream cheese cresents, mini-apple pies, apple dumplings, apple-cream cheese crumb cake and apple pie. Here is Hope holding her dumplings ready to go in the oven.

Hope was waiting to lick the apple bowl that was covered in cinnamon and sugar and once everything was in the oven, I let her have at it. Mmmm!

I am in hopes that everything will taste as good as it smells baking in the oven. We have enough to share, so feel free to stop in for a baked apple treat!

Cadet Camp-out

Zach and James went on their first cadet campout this weekend! Zach was very excited and James a little nervous I think :) I put James in charge of taking pictures, but I now know we take pictures of different things. Me, I would have taken pictures James & Zach, pictures of the boys with their dad's/g-pa's/counselors, pictures of the boys holding their own rocket, etc... Not James though, he took action pictures. I think there are a few pictures of Zach, but not one up close or one with James and none of just Zach & his rocket before the launch. I had to laugh though, they both thought the pictures of the lauches were sooo cool and talked about how much fun they had! I'm gald they had fun! Here's a few pics of the weekend!










This is the sky line as they got in to the lake basin to set up camp.









Zach is the one in the orange hat & black sweatshirt on the far right and then he is the little black spot in the bigger picture, where he is retrieving his rocket :)




This one, you can hardly tell, but Zach's is rocket number 3. The last pic is of their campsite :)

I'll have to remind James next time to take some good pics :) hehe!