A shopping day with my princess

So I must admit that I have been taking Olivia's "skinny jean days" to a whole new level lately.....purely on accident.  We have been squeezing her tiny tush into size 6 jeans for the past who knows how long and they CLEARLY don't fit her anymore.  I guess it's a good thing she always wears boots over them too because they somehow turned into carpi's?  Really???  I turned into "one of those people?"   =/

My sincere apologies, Olivia!

So G-ma Susie and G-pa Bruce watched Nevaeh & Jackson so you & I could have a little mother-daughter bonding time while doing what girls do best....shopping! 

We made it to Old Navy {who can beat their $10 jean sale?}, Gordman's, the UP mall and Ben's Soft Pretzel's.  Ben was all out of jeans but he did have some amazing pretzels!!!  =) 

Our shopping trip was filled with a flashback to the 80's with all these neon colors that have made a come back:

I have to admit.......headache & all, I kinda like it!  =)  So I'm not even lying when I say Olivia bought a sweatsuit jacket & pants the color of that shirt above.  It's electrifying! =)

All in all it was a successful shopping trip and better yet a lovely day spent with my princess!  Love you baby girl!

An early V-day gifting.

So you know how it is with G-ma's going goo goo ga ga over special days like Valentine's Day, right?

Well, since G-ma Debi & G-pa Joel are leaving for Florida next week and forgot to invite us, G-ma Debi came over this afternoon to share some Valentine's love to you kiddos. 

First things first though.  She asked you guys why we celebrate Valentine's Day and Livi went into a full 10 minute long detail of the EXACT reason why we celebrate V-day.  She's such a smart cookie.  But I think Nevaeh was bored with all the details & just wanted to get to the bottom of what was on the inside of the package G-ma brought over.  I think G-ma was talking about cupid here......  =)

Man I can't wait to spoil my grand kids like these G-ma's do.  They got some gooood stuff manerd. 

Thank you G-ma Debi & G-pa Joel for loving on our kids sooo much!

Superbowl Sunday!

So once again, I am completely oblivious to who is playing in the Super Bowl because quite frankly I'm too giddy over what food I will prepare for my man......and me.......and the girls.  =)

I think any American would say they are excited for when Super Bowl time rolls around whether that be for the food {yeeeah!}, the adult beverages, the half time show, family/friend gatherings.....or...oh ya, for the actual game of football!   

Daddy made it home just in time to help cook our chicken on the grill & spend some time with his family before he's off on his next mission.  G-pa Bruce and G-ma Susie were already over here to help watch you kids while I did a photo shoot so we begged them to stay for din-din. 

We had buffalo style chicken, fried chicken, chips with buffalo dipping sauce & fresh guacamole dip, fresh veggies, cheese, summer sausage and potato salad.  I LOVE me a smorgasbord of food.  It makes me happy!!!

I guess it was kinda cool the Superbowl was in our home state of Indianapolis and Steve & I had 2 goods friends working down there with some fun stories.  Steve's boss got to work right on the actual field and was in arms length of Katy Perry and my BFF Raina worked outside and saw Jimmy Falon.

......I know, were total celebrities now!  GOOOOOOOOOOOO football! =)

A tea party with a princess!

Nevaeh LOVES to have tea parties, sing to her babies, dress up in heels, and wear make up.  She is such a girly girl which has taken me by surprise.  I totally thought Livi would be the girly girl and Nevaeh would be the tomboy (as was I) but this has not been true.  It's the total opposite.

So today Nevaeh called up G-ma Debi on the phone and cordially invited her to our tea party that started promptly at Noon.  Of course G-ma stopped everything she was doing to stop over for some crumpets and tea (aka trix cereal, yogurt and orange juice) ......all of my mom's favorites!  =)

Nevaeh made sure to teach both of us how to drink out of our tea cups appropriately.  "You drink it up with your pinky out!" 

Okay G-ma now show me what you've learned!.........

After our "informal" tea party we made it a must to get out our "formal" tea cups out from Great G-ma Connie.  She bought these for Nevaeh {& Livi} a few months ago because the line is called  "Nevaeh White"  Love it!

Our special tea party was followed by a dance party given by the one & only, Nevaeh Adkins dancing to HER one & only, Justin Beiber.  How did ALL 3 kids get blessed with Steve's dancing gene?  I will never know but will forever be jealous.  =)

You know you're a mom when.......

April and I had plans to surprise crash Christi's birthday party tonight at Hacienda to enjoy some girl time and maybe some margarita's. Yes, definitely some margarita's because I'm certain that's what the Doctor ordered for this stressed out momma. 

But when it came down to crunch time, April & I both agreed we would miss out on this:

for our night to look like this (plus 2 adorable one year old's not pictured):

Aron had originally planned to watch all 7 kids......yes, all 7 kids by himself while we went out?!?! That would be a 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and (2) 1 year old's to feed, entertain, calm down and break up fights. What a great guy is he for offerring this but we both knew he was obviously out of his mind. 

The night went down like it always does, FULL TIME catering to all these adorable kids.....

By 11:30pm at night we were finally able to sit down to have some adult converstation.....with of course a couple more interupptions.....followed by a game of Life at midnight.

Let me tell you, these are the days of our lives!!!! And we wouldn't trade it for nothin'! =)

Girls night at G-ma Susie's

Olivia has been begging G-ma Susie for some one on one time with just her.  No brother or sister allowed!  Just G-ma & Livi for the night and a sleepover to boot. 

Well, G-ma Susie knew Livi hasn't seen her cousin Makayla in awhile so she surprised Livi with a coordinated sleepover including Makayla.  G-ma took off work just so she could have you stay the night and spend some time with you.......and maybe spoil you juuuuust a little.  =) 

A monkey par-tay for a monkey boy! =)

Jackson's 1 year Birthday party was sock monkey themed and was a total hit!!!   Here was the invitation I made:

and here is SOME of the sock monkey themed decor I made.  I made sock monkey birthday hats, sock monkey water bottles, and sock monkey place cards.  Then we had monkey plates & napkins and TONS of sock monkey stuffed animals laying all around the house thanks to Shayne & Dar from church for letting me borrow them!

Lunch was amazing but I can't take any credit for that, that would be the fine hands of Rulli's.  We had Monkey cheese bread, Monkey lasagna, Monkey mostaccioli, Monkey salad, Monkey veggies and Monkey banana's.  We were all monkey'd out!  =)

Oh, and the amazing tasting,  wonderfully made cake was done by the one and only, Adam's Cake Shop.  You should check them out NOW, there is NO better cake than this!  Steve & I had this cake at our wedding {with raspberry filling!} when it was called Allen's Cake Shop. YUMMY!!!

Here's some of Mr. Jackson's guests:

 After lunch Jackson opened up all his gifts.  He was  a little spoiled for sure and him loved everything!   

After presents we tried for a picture with all the kids but it just didn't happen......here's what I'm talking about:

Here's a good one....minus the Birthday boy & quite a few of the other kids:

Next up, was cake time!!!!

I whipped up a mini sock monkey cake before the party so he could do what every 1 year old does on his birthday.  Dig IN!  =)

We couldn't wait to watch budder brown's reaction to this stuff and it took us a bit by surprise.  He wanted nothing to do with it and in fact cried a bit.  But I of course forced it on him and he eventually started getting into it:

 I thought this picture was just priceless with the 2 youngest grand-babies:

Thank you to everyone for swinging on by to celebrate Jackson's 1 year BIRTHDAY!  We all appreciate it!  =)